XVII: Birdalone Layeth to Earth the Body of the Witch, and Findeth the Sending Boat Broken Up explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Female Agency and Autonomy

  Birdalone independently manages the household, buries the witch, and contemplates her freedom.

• Nature and the Wild

  Birdalone interacts with the natural surroundings: the lake, meadow, kine, goats, and the serpent from the alder-wood.

Characters to notice

• Birdalone

  Birdalone buries the witch, tends to the house and livestock, discovers the broken Sending Boat, sees a serpent, and mends her gown.

• The Witch Wife

  The witch is buried by Birdalone in a grave she dug.

• Habundia

  Birdalone decides not to go to the Oak of Tryst to meet the wood-mother that day.

Key passages

• “When morning was, Birdalone awoke, and felt a weight upon her heart, and called to mind the task which lay before her.”

  In the morning, Birdalone woke with a heavy heart, remembering what she had to do.

  Birdalone recalls her duty to bury the witch.

• “There then she saw what she deemed was the very boat itself lying as she had known it; but when she looked again she saw that it lay from stem to stern all loose staves with the water betwixt, and the thwarts and ribs all sundered and undone, so that never again might it float upon the waves.”

  She saw the Sending Boat, but it was completely broken apart, its planks and ribs separated, never to sail again.

  Birdalone discovers the Sending Boat is destroyed.

• “Now am I getting soft again, and who knows but my softness may tempt the ghosts to come in to me. I will give my hands somewhat to do.”

  Birdalone worries that her emotional state might attract ghosts, so she decides to keep busy with mending.

  Birdalone distracts herself from fear by working.