The Buried Giant

Before they begin their journey, Axl and Beatrice must take care of things in their village. They collect supplies and get consent from the community to travel.

Eventually, they do set off on their journey with “walking sticks and bundles” (27). Beatrice claims to remember the way to their first stop, a small Saxon village not far from the village. They cross the treacherous and barren terrain mostly in silence, with Beatrice occasionally calling back to her husband to make sure that he hasn't been snatched away behind her.

They reach the edge of the Great Plain, and Beatrice says that they should wait until noon to continue. Again, they lament the fact that they cannot recall their son’s face. “‘I don’t recall his face at all,’ Axl said. ‘It must be all the work of this mist’” (30). She hands him some pebbles that are meant to protect them on their journey, and they discuss setting out carefully. She explains that they must go around a buried giant, which will look like any ordinary hill.

They set out once more on their journey, walking close to one another. Axl keeps an eye out for the mist but doesn’t see it. It does, however, appear as if a storm is coming, and Beatrice convinces Axl to not stop until they reach an abandoned villa not far from where they are.

The villa is a crumbling Roman ruin, which contains two dark figures inside. One figure is an old woman who holds a rabbit. The other is a tall man in a thick coat. Axl and Beatrice regard them, say hello, and eventually the tall man invites them in. They remain in silence for a time, and then the old woman holds a knife to the rabbit’s throat. Axl tries to convince her to kill the rabbit outside, but she doesn’t answer. Instead, the tall man, who claims to be a ferryman, says that the old woman does this to torture him in his old family home. The old woman claims, however, that the boatman ferried only her husband to a mysterious island, leaving her behind forever. The boatman retorts that only couples who pass a test can go to the island together, and that the old woman and her husband did not pass the test.

After this, the old woman gets up, and leaves them: “[s]he lifted the hem of her cloak and stepped slowly down into the grass like one easing herself into a pool” (41). The boatman is thankful that she’s gone, and thanks Axl and Beatrice. Beatrice asks the boatman a final question: what is asked of a couple wishing to go to the island. The boatman explains that they must recall their most precious memories together.

Axl and Beatrice leave the villa and continue their journey. Beatrice reveals that the boatman’s answer frightens her because she can hardly recall any memories. Beatrice also reveals that the mysterious cloaked woman from the first chapter told her that she must journey to see her son before she has lost all her memory. Axl reassures her: “There, princess, there’s nothing to fear. Our memories aren’t gone forever, just mislaid somewhere on account of this wretched mist” (46). The couple continue on.  

Axl and Beatrice arrive at the Saxon village that they intend to lodge in for the evening but notice that it is heavily guarded. Beatrice approaches the guards cautiously and convinces them to open the gate for her and Axl. Beatrice confides to Axl that she has had a pain in her side for a while and that there’s a medicine woman in the village that may be of some help. They set off through the oddly-desolate village, with putrid meat laying all around, in search of the medicine woman’s house.

The couple come upon a large bonfire built in the town square and a crowd of people silently gathered around it. Beatrice finds the medicine woman here, and leaves Axl to watch the events unfold around the Bonfire. To Axl, it appears they’re “waiting, in a state of some anxiety, for someone or something to emerge from the timber hall to the left of the fire” (52). Eventually, a man does emerge from the hall. He appears, to Axl, like a great warrior, given his long hair, his steady bearing and his sword.

Beatrice emerges from the medicine woman’s hut, and explains some things to Axl, as it seems she speaks the Saxon’s language. She explains that earlier, two ogre-like creatures kidnapped a boy near the lake and killed three men when they set out to find the boy. She goes on to explain that the longhaired man is a warrior from another village, who just happens to be here at this time. The warrior is going to set out with two other men to try to rescue the boy and kill the creatures. Before long, the crowd follows the warrior and his companions to the edge of the village.

Beatrice and Axl make for their lodgings in the longhouse but are surrounded by angry and disgruntled villagers. A short man with a staff emerges, however; he yells, and sends away the attackers. Beatrice knows the man as Ivor, a fellow Briton who lives amongst the Saxons. Ivor apologizes to the elderly couple and invites them to stay with him in his home.

While in his home, Ivor expresses the same concerns with the forgetfulness that seems to plague his village. Before Ivor can explain his theory, some disturbance outside forces him to leave. Beatrice and Axl remain inside and discuss the importance of understanding what causes the mist. When Axl has other things on his mind, Beatrice says, “How can you be thinking of other things, and we only today heard what we did from that boatman?” (61). Beatrice also reveals that the medicine woman said it was age that causes her pain, but that there was a wise monk who lived up the mountain road, who might be able to tell them more.

Ivor returns telling of how great the paranoia of the village has become about the monsters. They ask Ivor about the monk, whose name is Jonus. Ivor warns them of a “she-dragon” called Querig, who dwells somewhere along the path to the monk. Ivor blames the dragon for many of the evils in their village. 

They return to the conversation regarding the mist and the forgetfulness. Ivor says that a stranger told him that “it might be God himself had forgotten much from our past” (64). They all retire to sleep.

A combination of Beatrice and further commotion out in the square wakens Axl. They all rush out to the square to find the warrior holding what Axl discovers to be the shoulder of one of the great monsters. Behind the warrior is the kidnapped boy. However,instead of joy at his return and the death of the monsters, the villagers appear to be even more anxious and afraid. Neither Beatrice nor Axl know the reason why. Beatrice and Axl flee the increasingly-violent gathering and return to Ivor’s house to sleep again.

In the morning, Axl and Beatrice go outside, where things seem to have calmed down. They see Ivor and the warrior talking, and they approach the men. Ivor introduces the warrior as Master Wistan, who speaks English quite well and seems to recognize Axl. He keeps giving Axl an odd, knowing look. Wistan explains that the Britons raised him.

Ivor takes Axl and Beatrice to breakfast at the longhouse. There he explains that the creatures killed were not ogres. He adds that the commotion the previous night was due to a wound the boy had on his chest, which the Saxons took as a bad omen that the boy was to grow up to be a fiend. The villagers intend to kill the boy, whose name is Edwin. Ivor leaves Beatrice and Axel to continue discussing a solution to the matter withWistan, who may take Edwin with him. Axl and Beatrice continue eating their breakfast. Axl is able to recall a memory from a long time ago, which excites him and Beatrice greatly.

As they leave the longhouse, Axl and Beatrice notice Wistan on the wall. He explains to Axl that he can’t take Edwin for fear that some other Saxon village will kill him. He suggests that Axl and Beatrice take the boy with them to their son’s Briton village. Wistan says that he will also accompany them along the treacherous mountain path to the monk.

Edwin is on the mountain path with Wistan, Axl and Beatrice. They are waiting before crossing a bridge because there are soldiers guarding the bridge and a rider conversing with the soldiers. Edwin takes a vantage point high in an elm, a tree that reminds him of Steffa, an aged warrior who lost his legs. Steffa believed that Edwin was destined to be a great warrior, too.

While in the tree, Edwin, who we learn is twelve years old, has a series of recollections. He recalls the way his Aunt “had been shrieking a curse at him,” and the way in which Ivor brought him away from her, and into a barn (85). Inside the darkness of the barn, he hears his mother voice, urging him to leada wagon around like a mule. He does this, even though he’s isn’t sure why. He asks his mother questions, but she keeps telling him to walk around in a circle. Finally, she says that he must be strong to rescue her. While still in the barn, Edwin recalls Steffa telling him a story about three wolves that had entered the village. Steffa recounts that the men of the village were scared of the wolves and hid in the barn. Edwin had wanted to summon Wistan but to do so, “he knew, would require immense effort” (88). Almost as if by will alone, Wistan arrived at the entrance to the barn. Wistan looked at the wound on Edwin and told him not to tell anyone.

Edwin, still thinking back, recalls how ogres kept him in a cage and the small creature that kept attacking him while he was trapped in the cage:“[the creature] looked like a plucked chicken, though with the head of a serpent” (91). He reveals how it was that creature that actually bit him, and not the ogres, as the villagers believed. Edwin believes he faced his ordeal admirably, and that Steffa would be proud of his courage.

As he gazes down at Wistan, Axl and Beatrice, Edwin expresses his hope that the warrior will teach him some skills on their journey. He begrudges Axl and Beatrice the frequent breaks they must take. There’s also some trepidation on the part of the group that they must face the soldiers on the bridge and enter the main road. Mostly, however, Edwin feels excitement to be a warrior, and believes that his mother would be proud of him.

Axl, Beatrice and Wistan wait in the foliage, deciding the best approach to cross the bridge. They realize they must cross soon because, as Axl notes, “the she-dragon Querig roams that country, and only fools be abroad there in the dark” (95). Wistan decides that he will pretend to be deaf-mute and that Edwin is his brother. They will be property of the older couple in repayment of a debt.

Playing their parts, the group approaches the soldiers. After some slight scuffling with the two younger soldiers, Beatrice manages to connect with the one older, gray-haired soldier. He is sympathetic to their mission, as he himself misses his own mother and father. Before letting them pass, he asks them if they’ve met any strangers along the way. It seems they were stationed on the bridge to look for someone. The group claims to have seen nothing strange, and the soldier allows them pass.

Wistan convinces the group it will be safer to take an overgrown path through the woods, in order to avoid bandits and thieves. Along the way, Beatrice tells Axl that she thinks the darkness and her lack of a candle are the cause of her pain, because the lack of light allowed a sprite into their chamber: “I’m thinking it might sometimes have been with us without our knowing, in our very chamber, and brought me this trouble” (102).

After a brief amount of time, the path ends “in a large circular area, open to the sky except for one huge spreading oak at its centre” (103). Sitting beneath the giant oak is an older knight in armor. When the group explains who they are, with Wistan and Edwin again resuming their earlier roles, the old knight invites them to sit. After a time of talking and eating some bread, Wistan feels comfortable enough to drop the ruse. He introduces himself as a Saxon knight on a mission from his king and says that he recognizes the old knight as a former knight of King Arthur, Sir Gawain.

Wistan, still believing that he’s met Axl somewhere previously, asks Gawain to look at Axl and see if he recognizes him. While Gawain is taken aback by Axl’s face, he claims to never have seen him before. Gawain demands to know what Wistan’s charge in the country is, and Wistan explains that he’s supposed to see if there are any tensions between the Britons and the Saxons in the lands. He also discusses with Gawain how Arthur managed to unite the lands in peace, even while conquering them. Just then, the gray-haired soldier from the bridge approaches on horseback with his sword drawn. Everyone resumes their playacting roles.

Axl admires the way the soldier handles the situation, keeping his horse away from Wistan, of whom he appears suspicious. The soldier claims that it was a “strange spell” that fell on him and the other guards on the bridge that caused them to forget their “very purpose for being there” (114). He says they were looking were a Saxon warrior and a wounded lad. The soldier dismounts the horse and demands to see the boy’s chest, to see if he has a wound. Edwin reveals the wound, and the ruse dissolves. Wistan retrieves his sword from their horse.

Gawain, watching all of this, demands to know why Lord Brennus sent his soldiers to arrest Wistan. The soldier claims that Wistan’s real mission is to hunt the she-dragon Querig. Wistan admits that this is true, and Gawain, taken aback, claims to be on that mission himself.

Wistan and the solider fight briefly. Wistan kills the soldier, making sure to guide young Edwin in the ways of being a warrior in battles like this.

With the soldier dead, Wistan explains more about why he’s been tasked with killing the dragon. He says that a personpossessing the capability of taming dragons is residing with Lord Brennus. He goes on to say, “It’s my king’s fear Lord Brennus means to capture Querig to fight in the ranks of his army” (123). This, he fears, will bring about new wars in the country. Gawain wishes that Wistan would leave the dragon to him and his horse, Horace.