# XXIX: Walter Strays in the Pass and Is Sundered from the Maid explained — The Wood Beyond the World > Chapter companion for The Wood Beyond the World by William Morris. ## What happens Walter and the Maid journey into the mountain pass, where the Maid blesses the Bear-folk and sends them home, then vanishes ahead. Walter follows but is overtaken by a violent storm, loses his way, and becomes separated from the Maid. After two days of struggle, he reaches a grassy valley, where he laments his loss and resolves to seek her. ## Themes in this chapter ### Journey and Transformation Walter's physical journey through the pass mirrors his emotional and spiritual trial of separation and loss. ### Fate and Free Will Walter curses the 'evil fate' that sundered him from the Maid, while the Maid commands a change in the Bear-folk's customs. ## Character check-ins ### Golden Walter Walter is sundered from the Maid, battles the storm, and laments her loss. ### The Maid The Maid blesses the Bear-folk and departs up the pass, vanishing from Walter's sight. ### The Bears The Bear-folk accompany Walter and the Maid, receive her blessing, and return home. ## Key lines > the anguish of his loss fell upon him the keener, and he might not refrain him from lamenting his dear Maiden aloud, as one who deemed himself in the empty wilderness The pain of losing her intensified, and he could not stop himself from crying out for his beloved Maiden, feeling utterly alone in the wilderness. _Walter's grief and sense of isolation after being separated from the Maid._ > If so be aliens come amongst you, I will not that ye send them to me by the flint and the fire; rather, unless they be baleful unto you, and worthy of an evil death, ye shall suffer them to abide with you If strangers arrive among you, do not sacrifice them to me by fire; instead, let them live with you unless they are harmful and deserve death. _The Maid commands the Bear-folk to change their sacrificial customs toward outsiders._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_wood_beyond_the_world_se/chapters/xxix-walter-strays-in-the-pass-and-is-sundered-from-the-maid - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_wood_beyond_the_world_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_wood_beyond_the_world_se/chapters