The Zamglai nature reserve is one of the largest swamp systems in Ukraine. Its name probably derives from the Old Kurdish word ‘zong’ meaning ‘swamp’. We look at the phenomenon of the swamp from different perspectives: as a locus of fears in the folklore of agricultural societies; as an exploited landscape in the industrial age; as a complex system of ties between species within the posthumanist paradigm; and as a natural carbon sink reducing the greenhouse effect and countering climate change.