# Strangers Come to Wethermel explained — The Sundering Flood > Chapter companion for The Sundering Flood by William Morris. ## What happens Five years to the day after Osberne's departure, the folk of Wethermel gather outside on the evening after Midsummer. Three hooded strangers arrive—a tall man, a young woman, and an old carline—and are welcomed by Stephen the Eater. After a feast, Stephen asks the guests to share a tale or lay, and the tall man requests that his mother, the carline, begin a story that she promises will be unlike any heard before. ## Themes in this chapter ### Community and Kinship The folk of Wethermel gather together and warmly welcome the strangers, showing hospitality and unity. ### Fate and Destiny Stephen's thoughtful demeanor and the carline's promise of a unique tale hint at an impending fateful event. ## Character check-ins ### Stephen the Eater Rises to welcome the strangers and later asks them to share a tale. ### The Carline One of the three strangers; she is asked by the tall man to begin the storytelling. ### Goodman Present at Wethermel, described as more chieftain-like than before. ### Bridget Present and still believing Osberne will return. ## Key lines > Now turns the tale to Wethermel, and tells how that on the morrow of Midsummer, five years to the day since Osberne had bidden them farewell, the folk once more sat without-doors about the porch in the cool of the evening; neither was there any missing of the settled folk of those to whom he had said farewell. The story returns to Wethermel, where on the day after Midsummer, exactly five years after Osberne said goodbye, the household again sits outside by the porch in the cool evening, with none of the original members absent. _Sets the scene and time, marking the anniversary of Osberne's departure._ > But at last rose up Stephen the Eater and spake: 'Meat and drink and lodging is free without price to every comer to Wethermel, and most oft, as here it is, our good will goes with it; yet meseemeth that since these friends of ours come belike from the outlands and countries where is more tidings than mostly befalleth here, it might please them to make us their debtors by saying us some lay, or telling us some tale; for we be not bustled to drink the voidee cup now, these nights of Midsummer, when night and day hold each other’s hands throughout the twenty-four hours.' Stephen rises and says that while Wethermel offers free food and lodging to all, he hopes the strangers, coming from far-off lands with more news, will repay them with a story or poem, since the Midsummer nights are long and unhurried. _Stephen's polite request for entertainment highlights the hospitality and the special Midsummer atmosphere._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_sundering_flood_se/chapters/liii-strangers-come-to-wethermel - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_sundering_flood_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_sundering_flood_se/chapters