Hyldyr: Always Human
No AI-generated material can be found in Hyldyr publications. Hyldyr always has and always will be made by humans.
At Hyldyr, our focus is on folklore and its many genres and expressions. There is little more human than folklore, the ‘lore of the people’. In it one finds the very essence of humanity. All people have folklore. They no doubt always have.
As AI-generated content continues to flood the literary landscape, and as companies continue to further embrace enshittification combined with what can be described as a general hostility to the human, it is important to us that our readers are crystal clear that Hyldyr is an entirely human effort, an operation where quality expertise and innovation can always be found.
To help further communicate this to readers, starting spring 2026, all new Hyldyr publications will feature a special emblem on the back of each book.
Historical photograph of U 1125 by Erik Brate. Public domain.
100% Human Emblem
Our 100% human emblem consists of two components. First is the following statement:
100% made by & for humans
Alongside this statement is an ancient and simplistic depiction of a human being as reproduced by artist Jacqui Alberts Lund for Hyldyr. It is from an object in Sweden known as the Krogsta runestone (U 1125). You can read about it at the object’s entry at the University of Göttingen’s RuneS database here: https://www.runesdb.de/find/96
Located in Tuna, Uppland, Sweden, the stone bears two inscriptions in Elder Futhark, the alphabet native to speakers of ancient Germanic languages (including the linguistic predecessors to English). Flanking the depiction of the Krogsta human on side A is a message that is as of yet undeciphered, but an inscription the stone’s other side, side B, appears to simply read ‘stone’ (s[t]ainaz). No shortage of mystery surrounds this depiction and inscription. It is often dated to as early as the late Migration Period (500s).
Exactly what the stone’s image depicts is unclear. While it is obviously a person, it may represent a skeleton. What is quite certain about it is that it was designed and hand-carved by at least one human being long before mega-corporations could invent machines that attempt to replace human art and writing.
If you make something that features absolutely no material generated by AI, either text or art, you may use the “always human” emblem on it. We do not require you to provide information about where it came from but we appreciate it if you do. Please note that use of this symbol does not indicate affiliation with Hyldyr and we ultimately encourage you to make your own.
The image with text may be downloaded here:
Other examples can be found all over the internet, as reported by for example the BBC.
Using the “Always Human” Emblem
AGAINST THE TIDE
AI-generated content is notoriously unreliable, scraped from who-knows-where with material authored by who-knows-who, leading to not only misinformation but also health risks. Nonetheless, motivated by get-rich-quick schemes, AI-generated content continues to flood the publishing world.
This has caused significant distrust from readers especially for independent entities like small publishers, which can pop up overnight to generate content on services like Amazon. Major publishing houses have also come under scrutiny for publishing machine-generated content (such as Hachette's publication of Shy Girl "by" Mia Ballard).
At this time, it is not difficult to find AI- and LLM-generated content on digital marketplaces and, as we have witnessed, even in physical stores, including at museums. However, when you pick up a Hyldyr publication, you can be sure that it was carefully crafted by your fellow human beings.