The Water of the Wondrous Isles · Chapter
VIII: In What Wise Birdalone Was Clad, and How She Went Her Ways from the Isle of Increase Unsought explained
The three damsels—Atra, Aurea, and Viridis—clothe Birdalone with their own garments and jewels, each giving her a token to deliver to their respective lovers: Baudoin the Golden Knight, Hugh the Green Knight, and Arthur the Black Squire.
What happens
The three damsels—Atra, Aurea, and Viridis—clothe Birdalone with their own garments and jewels, each giving her a token to deliver to their respective lovers: Baudoin the Golden Knight, Hugh the Green Knight, and Arthur the Black Squire. They instruct her on how to identify the knights and what questions to ask. Birdalone then boards the Sending Boat, uses her blood to activate it, and departs southward, leaving the damsels behind with mixed emotions.
Themes in this chapter
Female Agency and Autonomy
The three damsels take decisive action to clothe Birdalone and send her on a quest, demonstrating their agency and solidarity.
Love and Desire
The tokens and messages given to Birdalone are imbued with the damsels' love for their absent knights, highlighting romantic devotion.
Journey and Quest
Birdalone embarks on a voyage to find the three champions, marking the beginning of her quest.
Characters to notice
- Birdalone
Clothed by the three damsels, given tokens and a mission, and departs in the Sending Boat.
- Atra
Gives Birdalone her shoon and a ring, instructs her on the errand, and later weeps with emotion.
- Aurea
Gives Birdalone her golden gown and a golden collar, and kisses her farewell.
- Viridis
Gives Birdalone her smock and a silver girdle, provides provisions, and weeps at parting.
Key passages
“Viridis came forward blushing, as her wont was, and took off her green gown and laid it on the grass; then she set her hand to her smock, and did it off, and stood naked, knee set to knee, and swaying like the willow branch; and then was seen all the dainty fashion of her body, and how lovely of hue and sweet of flesh she was.”
Viridis blushed as she undressed, removing her gown and smock to stand naked, her body delicate and lovely.
Viridis gives her smock to Birdalone as a token of love.
“Then Aurea did off her golden gown, and stood in smock alone, so that her naked arms shone more precious than the golden sleeves that had covered them.”
Aurea removed her golden gown, revealing her arms that gleamed even more beautifully than the fabric.
Aurea gifts her gown to Birdalone.
“Thereafter Atra knit up her skirts into her girdle, and then did off her shoon, so that her slim feet shone like pearls on the green grass; and she said: Birdalone, sweet friend! wilt thou be my messenger to bear these shoon to my Black Squire, and meanwhile put my love for thee under thy feet, to speed thee and to bear thee up?”
Atra hitched up her skirts and removed her shoes, her feet gleaming like pearls, and asked Birdalone to carry the shoes to her Black Squire as a token of love.
Atra gives her shoes to Birdalone for the quest.
“But Birdalone sat down on the thwart, and turned her face south, and spake: The red raven-wine now Hast thou drunk, stern and bow; Awake then, awake! And the southward way take: The way of the Wender forth over the flood, For the will of the Sender is blent with the blood.”
Birdalone sat facing south and spoke a charm, saying the boat had drunk the blood and must awaken and take the southward path.
Birdalone activates the Sending Boat with her blood and a spell.
