The Roots of the Mountains · Chapter
How the Host Came Home Again explained
The Host returns to Burgdale after a journey of fourteen days, passing through Rosedale where they are welcomed by Dallach.
What happens
The Host returns to Burgdale after a journey of fourteen days, passing through Rosedale where they are welcomed by Dallach. Dallach requests a score of men to stay and help him govern the newly freed folk, and forty young warriors remain. Some Rosedale folk join the Host to settle in Burgdale. The Host reaches the edge of the wilderness, meets messengers, and finally arrives home to a joyous reunion with families and lovers. The chapter ends with the evening feasts and the parting of Face-of-god and Sun-beam at their respective houses.
Themes in this chapter
Community and Kinship
The Host is welcomed home with joy, and the bonds of family and friendship are celebrated through feasting, storytelling, and reunions.
Love and Sacrifice
The chapter emphasizes the joy of lovers reuniting, the sweetness of renewed delight, and the promise of happy life after the fear of death and sundering.
New Beginning in Silverdale
The settlement of Inglebourne and the integration of freed folk from Rosedale and Silverdale into Burgdale symbolize a fresh start and the building of new communities.
Characters to notice
- Face-of-god
Speaks with Dallach, grants his request for men to stay in Rosedale, and later parts with Sun-beam at the door of the House of the Face.
- Dallach
Welcomes the Host in Rosedale, asks for a score of men to help govern the newly freed folk, and gives gifts to the departing Host.
- Sun-beam
Returns with the Host and parts with Face-of-god at the door of the House of the Face, going to the House of the Steer.
- Stone-face
Mentioned as Face-of-god's father, beside whom Face-of-god sits under the image of the God.
Key passages
“It was fourteen days before they came to Rosedale; for they had much baggage with them, and they had no mind to weary themselves, and the wood was nothing loathsome to them, whereas the weather was fair and bright for the more part.”
The journey to Rosedale took fourteen days because they carried heavy baggage and chose not to hurry, enjoying the fair weather and pleasant woods.
Describes the leisurely pace of the Host's return.
“But a score and three of runaways joined themselves to the Host, having watched their goings and wotting that they were not foemen.”
Twenty-three runaways, having observed the Host and recognized them as friends, joined the group.
Runaways attach themselves to the Host.
“Dallach spake with Face-of-god and the chiefs of the Dalesmen, and said: 'Ye have given me much from the time when ye found me in the wood a naked wastrel; yet now I would ask you a gift to lay on the top of all that ye have given me.'”
Dallach reminded Face-of-god and the chiefs how they had rescued him as a naked outcast, and then asked for an additional favor.
Dallach requests a gift from the Host.
“So two score and ten of the Burgdale men abode in Rosedale, no one of whom was of more than twenty and five winters.”
Fifty young Burgdale men, all under twenty-five years old, stayed behind in Rosedale.
Young warriors remain in Rosedale to help Dallach.
“For a half score were wedded in Rosedale before the year’s ending; and seven more, who had also taken to them wives of the goodliest of the Rosedale women, betook them the next spring to the Burg of the Runaways, and there built them a stead, and drew a garth about it, and dug and sowed the banks of the river, which they called Inglebourne.”
Ten of the men married Rosedale women within the year, and seven more, also married to Rosedale women, moved the following spring to the Burg of the Runaways, where they built a homestead and farmed along the river they named Inglebourne.
Describes the founding of Inglebourne.
“So now with good hearts the Host of Burgdale turned their faces toward their well-beloved Dale; and they made good diligence, so that in three days’ time they were come anigh the edge of the woodland wilderness.”
The Host eagerly headed home, traveling quickly to reach the edge of the woodland wilderness in three days.
The Host hastens homeward.
