# II: The Hellhounds explained — The Moon Maid

> Chapter companion for The Moon Maid by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

## What happens

Julian 9th, hearing a woman's screams, rushes to defend a stranger from hellhounds. In the fight, he discovers his own immense physical strength and loses his lifelong fear. He kills several beasts, rescues the girl, and learns she is a stranger who invokes the forbidden Deity. His father and Jim witness the feat. The girl is taken in by Mollie Sheehan, and Julian feels an unfamiliar thrill of connection.

## Themes in this chapter

### Survival and Resilience

Julian's sudden discovery of his strength and his victory over the hellhounds exemplify survival against a brutal environment.

### Love and Sacrifice

Julian risks his life to save a stranger, and the encounter sparks a deep emotional connection.

## Character check-ins

### Julian 5th

Narrator and protagonist; discovers his great strength and loses his fear during the fight with the hellhounds.

### Jim Thompson

Runs to help Julian after hearing the commotion; witnesses Julian's battle.

### Father

Julian's father; arrives at the scene and questions the rescued girl.

### Mollie Sheehan

Takes the rescued girl into her home and comforts her.

### The Stranger

The young woman rescued from the hellhounds; she invokes God and moves with grace.

## Key lines

> I, who had been brought out of a womb of fear into a world of terror, who had been suckled and nurtured upon apprehension and timidity⁠—I, Julian 9th, at the age of twenty years, became in the fraction of a second utterly fearless of man or beast.

Julian reflects that he was raised in constant fear, but in an instant he becomes completely fearless.

_Key moment of transformation for Julian._

> I am an American, not a Kalkar⁠—those swine would throw a woman to the hellhounds to save their own skins⁠—and I had been brought up to revere woman in a world that considered her on a par with the cow, the nanny and the sow, only less valuable since the latter were not the common property of the state.

Julian contrasts his American values with the Kalkars' dehumanization of women, stating he was raised to honor women.

_Highlights the moral divide between Julian and the ruling Kalkars._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_moon_maid_se/chapters/ii-the-hellhounds
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_moon_maid_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_moon_maid_se/chapters