Flight of the Heron read-along: Part III chapter 5

[regshoe]

:D

That Night in the Hut.

Next week we'll read the first two chapters of Part IV.

Comments

[luzula]

I don't know if I can extol the virtues of this hurt-comfort scene anymore than other commenters have already done! But it is truly glorious. And I think what makes it so is the complications on both sides: for Ewen, the knowledge that it's his enemy, whom he got the better of the last time they met, who is doing it for him, and Keith...well, for all the complicated reasons already stated.

I think the cold and inadequacy of the shelter is very vivid, to the point where I wonder that Ewen even survives it!

Changing the subject a bit, I have some historical notes for you. I just wrote up a new book about Jacobites that I read, you can read about it here. The most interesting bit is about how the exiled Stuarts' political agenda (going by their political proclamations) actually grew more and more radical over the years, and was soon very far from "absolutist monarchy".

Also I recently learned that George I cheated on his wife (this is par for the course and not the remarkable bit) but that when his wife also took a lover, he and/or his Hanoverian relatives had the lover murdered and then he kept his wife locked up for 30 years. That's some serious double standards...though the locking up was apparently also to prevent her joining his enemies (i e the Jacobites).

Also also, I learned that a Sir William Wyndham was a Tory minister of Queen Anne who, after the Hanoverian succession, did some Jacobite plotting around the '15. A relative of Keith's, or not??

[sanguinity]

it's his enemy, whom he got the better of the last time they met, who is doing it for him...

Yngre ba, Rjra jvyy ersre gb guvf avtug nf 'ubyl', and I think Keith being his enemy is exactly why: Keith caring for him in this moment is an act with Biblical weight, a modern-day Good Samaritan. And "enemy" has far more meaning to it now than it did in the halcyon days when they first met: he and the MacLarens have been running from redcoats for days, they know what battlefield atrocities had been committed, they almost certainly know better than Keith that women and children are being turned out to freeze and starve, and only hours before Neil was murdered and Ewen had been put against the wall to be executed... Consider Ewen's first reaction to Keith's return: here obviously is yet another redcoat come to torture him! (Because why else would he have been spared but more torture??) Just kill him and be done with it.

And against that context, to be cared for by a man wearing one of those same red coats...? Ubyl, indeed.

Thank you for the continuing historical write-ups! They've been super helpful. *scurries off to read*

[luzula]

Oooh. I think you're exactly right about the Biblical weight of it, I didn't catch that bit. Because Ewen, much more than Keith, takes his faith seriously.

Naq gura gurer'f gur cnenyyry jvgu Tyrnz va gur Abegu, jurer Rjra (gubhtu irel eryhpgnagyl) urycf uvf jbhaqrq rarzl Thguevr, naq vg'f guvf jubyr erqrzcgvba guvat sbe uvz. Nyfb Nepuvr nybat jvgu nyy gur rkrphgrq Wnpbovgrf jub nyy bs gurz ynl fgerff ba cebcre Puevfgvna sbetvirarff gbjneqf gurve rarzvrf va gurve ynfg fcrrpurf (juvyr nyfb hcubyqvat gung gurl qba'g erterg gurve npgvbaf, ybat yvir Xvat Wnzrf, rgp).

[regshoe]

Impressive feats of physical endurance by characters who suffer injury under terrible conditions are definitely one of Broster's Things. Ewen's ordeal here reminds me of La Vireville's in Sir Isumbras at the Ford and Raoul's in "Mr Rowl", and I wonder if that's something else that was inspired by Broster's war experiences.

Hooray for more Jacobite politics—thanks very much for that write-up!

Huh, I knew about George I's wife's affair from its description in the Jacobite song 'Cam Ye O'er Frae France' (Doon there cam a blade linkin' like my lordie/He wad drive a trade at the loom o' Geordie), which also makes fun of George's own cheating—but I didn't know about the background to it! Wow.

I learned that a Sir William Wyndham was a Tory minister of Queen Anne who, after the Hanoverian succession, did some Jacobite plotting around the '15. A relative of Keith's, or not??

Oh, nice find. From a bit of looking around it does seem like he's a member of the same W[y/i]ndham family who pop up elsewhere in eighteenth-century politics—and the fetterlock and lion's head symbol that we see in relation to Keith later on is the emblem of that family, so yes, I suppose they must be related. Between this guy and the Keith family, our Keith has surprisingly many Jacobite antecedents!...

[luzula]

Yes, that's true, it's in 'Cam Ye O'er Frae France'...but it doesn't mention her imprisonment.

Nice digging, finding the family crest! So it's definitely the same family, then. Some sort of cousin of Philip Windham, perhaps? Must be embarrassing for Keith...

[hyarrowen]

In heraldic terms, the lion means bravery, and the fetterlock stands for someone who redeems (ransoms or rescues) a prisoner. She didn't miss a trick.

[tgarnsl]

Honestly, Broster’s attention to detail astounds me, and the symbolism of the ring is not surprising even as it amazes me. Even the names would seem to be significant, with Ewen’s name meaning ‘from the mountains’ and Keith’s having something to do with woods or a battlefield, depending on what source.

[hyarrowen]

Hm, I got "yew-tree" for Ewen and "lord of the woods" for Keith - I hadn't picked up the other two meanings. I was happy enough with an arboreal connection for the two of them (possibly significant in a later chapter..?) but those meanings you've found are also quite fascinating and satisfying!

But. She was working at Oxford at the same time as Tolkien. I daresay some of that linguistic stuff osmosed across!

[tgarnsl]

Apologies for the late reply — that's also a fascinating meaning for Ewen, and would fit well with the cultural connotations of yews as associated with death, rebirth, and spiritual immortality.

[hyarrowen]

Ooh, I hadn't thought of the spiritual meanings! I didn't see the wood for the trees, as it were.

/tree fan