# IX: Walter Happeneth on the First of Those Three Creatures explained — The Wood Beyond the World

> Chapter companion for The Wood Beyond the World by William Morris.

## What happens

Walter, after three days crossing a stony waste, runs out of food and rests under an ash-tree. He awakens and continues into a fair, park-like land, where he encounters the dwarf he had previously seen in a vision. The dwarf, speaking in a harsh voice, offers him bread and speaks cryptically of a Lady and a 'Wretch' or 'Thing,' expressing hatred and fear. Walter is horrified by the encounter and dreads what other creatures he may meet.

## Themes in this chapter

### Journey and Transformation

Walter's physical journey through the waste and into the fair land mirrors his inner transformation as he faces strange and terrifying beings.

### The Other and Aliens

The dwarf is depicted as a grotesque, alien creature, and Walter's horror underscores the theme of encountering the 'other.'

## Character check-ins

### Golden Walter

Walter is weary and hungry after crossing the waste; he encounters the dwarf and is terrified by the meeting.

### The Dwarf

The dwarf appears before Walter, speaking in a harsh voice, offering bread, and ranting about a Lady and a 'Wretch' or 'Thing.'

## Key lines

> What with one thing, what with another, as his having to turn out of his way for sheer rocks, or for slopes so steep that he might not try the peril of them, and again for bogs impassable, he was fully three days more before he had quite come out of the stony waste, and by that time, though he had never lacked water, his scanty victual was quite done, for all his careful husbandry thereof.

After three more days of navigating difficult terrain, Walter finally left the rocky wasteland, but his food had run out despite his careful rationing.

_Describes Walter's arduous journey and the depletion of his supplies._

> But whiles he was amidst of this, he heard suddenly, close anigh him, a strange noise of roaring and braying, not very great, but exceeding fierce and terrible, and not like to the voice of any beast that he knew.

While he was eating, he heard a strange, fierce roaring nearby that he did not recognize as any animal he knew.

_The sound heralds the dwarf's appearance._

> The creature let out another wordless roar as of furious anger; and then the words came: 'It hath a face white and red, like to thine; and hands white as thine, yea, but whiter; and the like it is underneath its raiment, only whiter still: for I have seen It—yes, I have seen It; ah yes and yes and yes.'

The dwarf roared in anger and then spoke of a creature with a white and red face and hands whiter than Walter's, which he had seen and which he hates.

_The dwarf's rant reveals his hatred for a mysterious 'Thing' or 'Wretch.'_

## Links

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