The Water of the Wondrous Isles · Chapter
I: Catch at Utterhay explained
In the walled town of Utterhay, a mysterious woman with a grey ass observes a poor widow and her baby in the marketplace.
What happens
In the walled town of Utterhay, a mysterious woman with a grey ass observes a poor widow and her baby in the marketplace. She offers the widow gold for lodging, then sends her to buy provisions. While the mother is away, the stranger takes the child and flees into the dreaded wood of Evilshaw, which is believed to be haunted by devils and evil spirits.
Themes in this chapter
Female Agency and Autonomy
The witch wife acts independently and deceptively to achieve her ends, while the poor mother is powerless and desperate, highlighting contrasting forms of female agency.
Class and Servitude
The poor widow's poverty and hunger contrast with the witch wife's wealth and power, illustrating class disparities and the vulnerability of the poor.
Characters to notice
- The Witch Wife
Introduced as a tall, black-haired, hook-nosed woman who lures a poor mother with gold and steals her child, fleeing into Evilshaw.
- Birdalone
Appears as a baby of about two winters, crawling in the marketplace; she is taken by the witch wife and carried into Evilshaw.
Key passages
“Whilom, as tells the tale, was a walled cheaping-town hight Utterhay, which was builded in a bight of the land a little off the great highway which went from over the mountains to the sea.”
Once upon a time, there was a walled market town called Utterhay, built in a curve of land just off the main road that ran from the mountains to the sea.
Introduces the setting of Utterhay.
“For all men deemed it more than perilous; and some said that there walked the worst of the dead; othersome that the Goddesses of the Gentiles haunted there; others again that it was the faery rather, but they full of malice and guile.”
Everyone considered the wood extremely dangerous; some said the worst ghosts walked there, others that pagan goddesses haunted it, and still others that it was faery but full of malice and trickery.
Describes the fearsome reputation of Evilshaw.
“She took the child and strained it to her bosom, and kissed it, face and hands, and made it great cheer, but ever woefully.”
She hugged the child tightly to her chest, kissing its face and hands and playing with it happily, but always with a sad expression.
Shows the poor mother's love and sorrow.
“Then arose the guest and took up the child from the floor, who kicked and screamed, and craved her mother as her broken speech might; but the alien spake softly to her, and said: Hush, dear one, and be good, and we will go and find her; and she gave her therewith a sugarplum from out of her scrip.”
The guest then picked up the child, who kicked and cried for her mother in her baby talk; but the stranger spoke gently, saying 'Hush, dear one, be good, and we'll go find her,' and gave her a sugarplum from her bag.
The witch wife deceives the child to kidnap her.
“And whatsoever might be told concerning the creatures that other folk had met in Evilshaw, of her it must needs be said that therein she happened on nought worser than herself.”
And whatever stories people told about the monsters they met in Evilshaw, it must be said that she encountered nothing worse than herself.
Implies the witch wife is as evil as any creature in the wood.