The Sundering Flood · Chapter
LV: The Blue Knight Buys the Maiden of the Chapman explained
The Carline and the Maiden are brought to the chapman's tent, where the Maiden is weary and sorrowful.
What happens
The Carline and the Maiden are brought to the chapman's tent, where the Maiden is weary and sorrowful. The Carline uses her influence to keep them safe. A Blue Knight arrives, buys trinkets, and then sees the Maiden presented by the Carline. The Knight learns she was stolen, offers to buy her, and she agrees to go with him on condition that she may seek her true love and keep the Carline with her. The Knight pays a high price, and they depart, escaping the chapman's attempted arrow.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Sacrifice
Elfhild's steadfast love for Osberne and her willingness to go with the Blue Knight only under the condition that she may seek her true love.
Community and Kinship
The Carline's protective role as foster-mother and the bond between her and Elfhild.
Social Justice and Rebellion
The Blue Knight's intervention to rescue a free woman from unlawful captivity, challenging the chapman's claim.
Characters to notice
- The Carline
Uses her cunning and perhaps wizardry to protect the Maiden, arranges her presentation to the Blue Knight, and escapes the chapman's arrow.
- Elfhild
The Maiden, stolen and weary, is presented to the Blue Knight, declares her love for another, and agrees to go with the Knight under honorable terms.
- The Blue Knight
A noble knight who buys the Maiden from the chapman, treats her with honor, and swears to protect her and the Carline.
- Hardcastle
The chapman who stole the Maiden; he sells her under duress and later tries to shoot the Carline but fails.
Key passages
“Then came forward two serving-men, who bore short-swords by their sides, and led the Carline and the Maiden through the big tent into the lesser one, and there brought water for their hands, and then victual and drink, and waited on them with honour; and the Carline laughed and said: 'Lo my dear, here am I an honoured guest instead of a stinking corpse.'”
Servants escorted the Carline and the Maiden to an inner tent, provided food and drink, and treated them respectfully. The Carline remarked that she was now treated as a guest rather than being killed.
The Carline's influence turns the chapman's hostility into cautious hospitality.
“Said the Knight: 'Now, chapman, wilt thou sell me thy thrall as thou hast sold me those pretty things?' The other answered him not a while, and the Knight said: 'Nay, it avails nought to draw faces at me; one way or the other the thing can soon be settled.'”
The Blue Knight demanded to buy the Maiden, and when the chapman hesitated, he made it clear that the matter would be resolved one way or another, implying force if necessary.
The Knight's firmness and willingness to fight for the Maiden's freedom.
“But, whether it were the caitiff's evil shooting or the Carline's wizardry, ye must choose between the two, the arrow flew wide of the mark, and the Carline laughed merrily as she rode along.”
The chapman shot an arrow at the Carline, but it missed, either due to his poor aim or her magic, and she laughed as she rode away.
The Carline's escape from the chapman's revenge, hinting at supernatural protection.