The Buried Giant

Edwin arrives to the hut where Wistan hides while he heals. Wistan explains that the wounds aren’t bad, but brought with them a fever, which has weakened him.

Edwin apologizes for sleepingwhile Wistan did battle. Wistan describes how it was a monk who brought the cart with hay beneath the window for him to jump in. Wistan says that Edwin can atone for abandoning him by helping him with a task. He claims that Edwin also has the “hunter’s gift” of being able track down his prey (217). Wistan wants Edwin to help him find Querig.

Edwin, however, hearing his mother calling out to him, plans to deceive Wistan by leading him to where he believes his mother is being held captive by a band of men.

Edwin questions Wistan about the feud between him and Lord Brennus. Wistan explains thatwhen he was training with the Britons, he submitted to Lord Brennus in each duel because Brennus was the son of the then-Lord. This humiliated Wistan. Brennus also turned the Britons against Wistan, based on his being a Saxon. Wistan explains, “It was a great lesson Brennus taught me then, and when I understood how I shamed myself loving Britons as my brothers, I made up my mind to leave that fort” (220). Before he left, he confronted Brennus, who was wandering along. Brennus was terrified, but Wistan did not act. Wistan explains that it is this terror that Brennus still harbors toward him that causes him to hunt Saxons in the area.

Edwin, secretly wanting to go free his mother, tries to hurry Wistan to action against Querig, but Wistan, still too weak, says that he needs to heal more first.

Axl and Beatrice continue their journey to see their son. They are exhausted and cold, and long for a spot to warm up. They spot a house near the river, and the man who lives there, “a broad, bearded man of middle years,” has a boat that they want to use to travel quickly down river (223). The man explains that he cannot give them the boat, but will put them in sturdy baskets, tie them together, and send them down the river in those, until they reach his lower dock.

Beatrice does not like the idea and is fearful of separating from Axl, even though the baskets will be tied up together. “Don’t leave me here alone,” Beatrice keeps saying throughout the section (225).

Beatrice and Axl begin to go down the river in the baskets. Eventually, the baskets are caught in the reeds and mud, and will go no further. Axl tries unsuccessfully to use a long pole to push them out. Axl spots another boat stuck and stands up to peek inside: “The bow end was bathed in orange light and it took him a moment to see that the pile of rags heaped there on the boards was in fact an elderly woman” (228-229). Beatrice again urges Axlnot to leave her. However, Axl tries to help the woman, who, while able to speak, appears lifeless and sunken. He opens a basket she has on the boat. Inside the basket are skinned rabbits that seem to be moving.

Suddenly, there are sprites coming out of the basket, the woods and the water. They surround the old woman. Axl tries to knock them away with an oar, but there are too many.

The old woman speaks, saying, “Leave her, stranger. Leave her to us” (232). Axl realizes she means Beatrice. The sprites are surrounding Beatrice’s basket. Axl jumps into the water to save Beatrice, knocking away the sprites. The voices of the sprites continue to torment him, asking him why he wishes to cause his wife suffering. They also suggest that there’s some bad fate in store for her, and that they can ease the pain of that fate. Axl does not relent.

Eventually, he carries his wife away from the river and onto dry land. Axl explains to Beatrice that they must get as far away as they can.

Edwin and Wistan are climbing a mountain, and Edwin keeps moving too quickly ahead of Wistan. Edwin struggles to remember what it was he was keeping from Wistan and what exactly their destination is. He only knows that something compels him forward.

They reach a level portion of ground, where an odd forest seems to have been “set down in [the] inhospitable terrain” (236). Edwin runs quickly toward to the forest. Wistan, however, knocks him over and ties him up with a rope. Wistan begins to let Edwin lead him, without getting too far away. Edwin continues to be impatient.

Once they enter the forest, Wistan lets Edwin go. Edwin runs into a clearing where there is a frozen lake. Edwin sees a few ogres, bent over, with their heads frozen in the lake. Edwin feels pity for them.

Edwin continues to deny that this is the dragon’s lair, and warns Wistan not linger, for fear that they may suffer a similar fate as the ogres. Wistan is unable to see the ogres. He ties up Edwin to a tree and tells him to try to relax.

Edwin finally admits to Wistan that he has been leading him on the wrong path and guiding Wistan to Edwin’s mother, who bandits tookwhenEdwin was young. Wistan questions Edwin about the men who took her. Edwin says they were Britons. Wistan says that his mother was taken, too, as a child.

He tells Edwin to make him a promise: “Should I fall and you survive, promise me this. That you’ll carry in your heart a hatred of Britons” (242). Wistan claims that Britons were responsible for slaughter, and for their both of their mothers’ disappearances. Edwin agrees to the promise, then adds that they now must hurry to his mother.

Axl and Beatrice struggle with a goat on a climb up a steep hill. They keep complaining that a girl made the journey seem much shorter than it really was. After a respite, they spot two large rocks that will protect them from the area’s harsh winds. They huddle close together under two large rocks, “as if in imitation of the stones above them” (246). They discuss the possibility of slaying Querig with the goat.

Axl recounts how they first came upon the goat that morning. While they were walking, they spotted a little stone cottage with three children and the goat. The children, who had been throwing rocks at something in a ditch, claimed to have prayed for their arrival. They seemed to be without elders and entirely on their own. The children invite Axl and Beatrice to rest and eat inside, which they do.

Before they go sleep, Beatrice has a memory return to her of Axl leaving herfor “another younger and fairer” (250). She suggests that Axl should not walk so close to her now because of this memory. She awakens, however, with no memory of this and appears cheerful. Axl tells her to forget about why he seems down.

The children are gatheredagain near the ditch. The oldest of them, a girl, says that an ogre came and ate a goat of theirs. After, he fell down and was now in a plague-like state. Axl confirms that it is a dying ogre in the ditch. The young girl claims that an old woman, Bronwen, gave them the plan to feed both of their goats poison to kill the she-dragon, Querig.

The children need Axl and Beatrice to take the other goat up the mountain and leave it by a cairn, where Querig often feasts. “Please do as we ask,” they beg, “or we won’t ever see our mother and father again” (256). They claim that the mist of the dragon caused their parents to forget them. Axl refuses to help them initially, but Beatrice sees this as an opportunity to have their memories return to them, even if they fear the contents of those memories.

Still under the two rocks, Axl asks Beatrice to promise him that she won’t forget how she loves him in that moment. She agrees.

Gawain aids Axl and Beatrice on their journey with the goat. However, when he first sees them, he mistakes them for Wistan and Edwin. He fears that he might have to face Wistan in battle butis sure that he spotted a weakness on his left side when he saw Wistan fight last time.

Gawain recalls how Merlin fought at his side when they first faced the dragon. On that day, when he came upon the lake, he spotted trees, not ogres, with their heads in the frozen lake. He found his comrade, Master Buel, severely wounded. Buel kept talking about water and urged Gawain to let him die near water. Gawain wonders if water isn’t “some great secret known only to dying men” (262). Gawain tells Buel that “all but one of the spears rest in [the dragon’s] flank,” and that the dragon currently sleeps (262-263).

Gawain again thinks that Beatrice has judged him for the slaughter his army committed in the past, when they were in the caverns; nonetheless, Gawain helps her now. Gawain tries to have Axl and Beatrice let him take the goat to the cairn, but they refuse. He thinks Beatrice and Axl are suspicious of him. The three decide to rest a moment before continuing up the hill.