The Water of the Wondrous Isles · Chapter
VI: Herein Is Told of Birdalone’s Raiment explained
Birdalone, scantily clad in a grey coat and smock, timidly asks the witch-wife for more womanly attire.
What happens
Birdalone, scantily clad in a grey coat and smock, timidly asks the witch-wife for more womanly attire. The dame gruffly gives her a deerskin to make shoes, which Birdalone embroiders with oak-leaves, flowers, and animals. Impressed by her skill, the witch provides fine green cloth and linen for a gown and smock, along with silken threads and gold. Birdalone works happily in the woods through spring, while the witch grows gloomy and suspicious, accusing her of planning to flee. Birdalone denies it, but fear lingers. By mid-June, her garments are nearly finished.
Themes in this chapter
Female Agency and Autonomy
Birdalone takes initiative by requesting better clothing and creatively embroiders her garments, asserting her own desires and skill despite the witch's control.
Class and Servitude
Birdalone's scant raiment and fear of punishment highlight her servitude to the witch, who controls her labor and even her appearance.
Identity and Transformation
Birdalone's crafting of new, beautiful garments symbolizes her emerging identity and desire for self-expression, moving from a bare, neglected child toward womanhood.
Characters to notice
- Birdalone
Birdalone, lank and long, wears scant grey raiment and goatskin cloak in winter. She timidly asks for better attire, then embroiders deerskin shoes and later a green gown with roses, lilies, and harts. She works happily in the woods but is frightened when the witch accuses her of planning to flee.
- The Witch Wife
The witch-wife initially scolds Birdalone for her request but provides materials for shoes and a gown after seeing her embroidery. She grows gloomy and suspicious, accusing Birdalone of wanting to flee, and warns her that escape is impossible and would be punished lifelong.
Key passages
“Lank and long is Birdalone the sweet, with legs that come forth bare and browned from under her scant grey coat and scantier smock beneath, which was all her raiment save when the time was bitter, and then, forsooth, it was a cloak of goatskin that eked her attire”
Birdalone is tall and slender, with bare, sun-browned legs showing beneath her meager grey coat and even shorter smock—her only clothing except for a goatskin cloak in harsh weather.
Describes Birdalone's impoverished and scant attire at the chapter's opening.
“But on a day of this same spring, when the witch-wife was of sweeter temper than her wont was, and the day was very warm and kindly, though it was but one of the last of February days, Birdalone, blushing and shamefaced, craved timidly some more womanly attire.”
One warm late February day, when the witch was in an unusually good mood, Birdalone blushed and shyly asked for more proper clothing.
Birdalone's first request for better garments, motivated by modesty and a desire for womanly dress.
“The dame turned gruffly on her and said: Tush, child! what needeth it? here be no men to behold thee. I shall see to it, that when due time comes thou shalt be whitened and sleeked to the very utmost.”
The witch dismissed her, saying there were no men to see her, but promised that when the time was right, she would be made beautiful.
The witch's gruff response reveals her pragmatic and controlling attitude toward Birdalone's appearance.
“Well, belike thou art a fool to waste thy time and mine in such toys; and to give thee thy due would be to give thee stripes. But thou doest herein after the nature of earthly women, to adorn thy body, whatsoever else is toward. And well is that, since I would have thee a woman so soon as may be; and I will help thy mind for finery, since thou art so deft with thy needle.”
The witch calls Birdalone a fool for wasting time on embroidery but acknowledges that adorning the body is natural for women, and since she wants Birdalone to become a woman quickly, she provides fine cloth and thread.
The witch both criticizes and rewards Birdalone's needlework, revealing her complex motives.
“Is it in thine heart to flee away from me and leave me? ... If thou try it and fail, thou shalt rue it once only, to wit, lifelong; and thou canst but fail.”
The witch suddenly asks Birdalone if she plans to run away, and warns that any attempt would be punished for life and would inevitably fail.
The witch's suspicion and threat foreshadow Birdalone's later escape attempt.
