BOOK REPORT: THE BURIED GIANT by KAZURO ISHIGURO

 IT IS THE YEARS AFTER the Romans have left Britain and the island’s Dark Age has begun. Germanic tribes, notably the Saxons, migrate in waves from across the continent, settling the eastern portion of the isle, and moving inexorably inland as their populations expand. In the west, in Wales, the land’s original inhabitants, the Britons, are dominant still. Their great king, Arthur, is some years dead and the peoples of the past and those of the future live together amid a strange, yet pervasive truce They live in a land cloaked in myth and legend. And mystery. 

 

THE NOVEL'S TWO MAIN CHARACTERS, Axl and Beatrice, an elderly couple living in a small Briton community, decide one day to visit their son who lives in a village, several days journey away. They plan their trip to avoid forests and marshes, and they are careful to arrive at settlements along the way before nighttime, when dangerous creatures and mystical entities are abroad. 

IN ISHIGURO’S BRITISH ISLES, there are wood fairies and water sprites, ogres, giants, “demon dogs”, even a dragon called “Queig”.* Axl and Beatrice are mindful not to trespass upon their lands or otherwise draw their attention. BUT the reader is given few encounters with the supernatural, by which I take it we are to assume that the power of the magical realm is waning, and along with the Britons, its time is drawing to a close. For example, when we finally meet Queig, the dragon is old and near death. The Saxon warrior Wistan easily dispatches it—performing more of an execution than anything else—with the creature too sickly even to defend itself. This is one aspect of Ishiguro’s story where science fiction and fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin takes exception. IN A 2015 BLOG POST, she argues that Ishiguro uses surface elements of fantasy, such as ogres and water sprites, but he does not commit himself to fleshing out a coherent fantasy world. His attempt to place his story somewhere between fantasy and historical fiction is less convincing because it does not allow his characters to grow and develop within either genre. She says: “Literary fantasy is the result of a vivid, powerful, coherent imagination drawing plausible impossibilities together into a vivid, powerful, and coherent story….”. In addition, she, like author and critic James Wood, feels that the theme of ‘collective amnesia’ is unevenly used. 

 

FOR EXAMPLE, Axl never fails to remember the term of endearment he has for his wife, “princess”, as he calls her throughout the novel. It would be more compelling in terms of character development and world-building, Le Guin suggests, if Axl would forget her pet-name from time to time. Also, characters seem to go from a state of amnesia to suddenly remembering something without any transition. I think this is intentional on the part of Ishiguro to illustrate how the cloak of collective amnesia that people live under is fraying. Still, it's jarring when they go from one state to another almost instantly.

EARLY IN THE NOVEL, Beatrice tells Axl there is a "mist" enveloping everyone. She does not mean vapours rising from the nearby marsh, but a fog that clouds peoples’ minds, that robs them of their past, making them lethargic and content to merely live in the moment, doing what work needs to be done, with little thought about what came before or what will happens next. [Eloi, anyone? Ed.] 

The effects of this miasma are widespread, but not universal. For example, Wistan, the Saxon warrior, was chosen for his mission to the land of the Britons because “spells” and such had less effect on him.

 

AND WHILE Axl and Beatrice have only vague memories of a son they once had, Wistan can recall his past—his own and his peoples’. And after several adventures, we learn that his mission is to destroy the dragon Queig, who breathes—not fire—but a breath of forgetfulness, magically imbued in the creature by the wizard, Merlin.  The great magician performed this sorcery as a remedy for the consequences stemming from Arthur’s breaking the “Law of the Innocents” treaty he had made with the encroaching Saxon populations. The law originally had been negotiated by Axl, or “Axelum” as he was called, when he was a knight of Arthur's Round Table. Decades on, Arthur is dead, the treaty broken, and the ensuing violence forgotten. Now, an elderly Axl, with no memories of his past, lives with Beatrix in  a land ensorcelled by Merlin's magic to forget what came before, and where everyone lives in a kind of forever present. 

ANOTHER CHARACTER we meet throughout the novel, Sir Gwaine, is an elderly, seemingly hapless knight-in-armour, who rides a steed that has long left its best days as a charger behind. The old knight reminds the reader of another hapless knight, Don Quixote and his much put upon horse, Rocinante. But Gwaine's comic persona hides a darker purpose.

      

IN THE CLIMATIC SCENE near the novel’s end, we learn that Wistan has been tasked with ending Queig’s spell so that everyone's memories can return, thus ensuring there will be, as the Saxon warrior reluctantly concedes, wars of revenge against the Britons. All those years ago, Arthur, the great king of British myth and legend, broke the treaty Axl had forged with the incoming Saxon tribes. The treaty, called the "Law of the Innocents", granted both sides—Britons and Saxons—permission to fight when necessary to settle their disputes. BUT, each side must not use scorched earth tactics and, importantly, non-combatants—women, children, farmers, and villagers of both peoples—would be left in peace; only their armies would go to war. HOWEVER, King Arthur feared  the waves of Saxons tribes from the continent would, in time, overwhelm the native Briton population. Therefore, he unleashed a campaign of rape and pillage that left Saxon innocents dead and their lands destroyed.

 

NOT SURPRISINGLY, the Saxons retaliated and the rising level of violence threatened the existence of Arthur's kingdom. Desperate, he tasked several of his knights, including Sir Gwaine, to capture Queig (then a powerful and merely fire-breathing sort of dragon) so that Merlin could cast a spell upon it causing the creature’s breath to exude a state of forgetfulness across the land. The ‘truce’ that was pervasive yet “strange”, that I mentioned earlier, was the result. As both Briton’s and Saxons forgot their past, they lived with only short-term memories, while the long-held blood-feuds faded from their minds. For many years, both peoples intermingled and lived side by side, with only the occasional surfacing of old memories, in dreams or reveries, to disturb the peace. For good or ill, Merlin's spell held across the land. But it could not last.

 

IN ONE OF HIS REVERIES, Sir Gwaine, who often speaks aloud to no one in particular, a clown figure on a sway-backed horse, he remembers the ‘truce' that Merlin’s magic created, and the role he played in it, and why ensorcellment of the land was necessary. At the summit of the dragon Queig’s lair he speaks with Wistan, arguing the spell was necessary.

 

“It was the only way. Even before that battle was properly won, I rode out with four good comrades to tame this same creature, in those days both mighty and angry, so Merlin could place this great spell on her breath. A dark man he may have been, but in this he did God’s will, not only Arthur’s. Without this she-dragon’s breath, would peace ever have come? Look how we live now, sir! Old foes as cousins. Village by village. Master Wistan, you fall silent before this sight. I ask again. Will you not leave this poor creature to live out her life? Her breath isn’t what it was, yet it holds the magic even now. Think, sir, once that breath should cease, what might be awoken across this land even after these years…. Yet it’s long past and the bones lie sheltered beneath a pleasant green carpet. The young know nothing of them. I beg you leave this place and let Queig do her work a while longer….” (Giant, 311)

 

GWAINE, in his lucid moments, recalls memories of cruelty and butchery he and his fellow knights committed when they destroyed Saxon villages and farms, indiscriminately killing men, women and children. ON THE OTHER HAND, Axl, who’d earlier brokered the peace between Britons and Saxons that Arthur broke, left his court, disgusted by the king's genocidal plans. 

MEMORIES, both painful and tender ones, surface at odd times throughout the novel because, the reader learns, the dragon’s vitality is draining away. It is dying, and the past increasingly comes to light. On a personal level, characters like Axl and Beatrix have their own buried grievances between them that threaten to upset the otherwise peaceful and loving relationship they’ve enjoyed for so long under Queig’s “mist” of forgetfulness. For Sir Gwaine, he recalls, lately, how he was once a “slaughterer of babes” (233), in his words, and these memories both bemused and troubled him, as if they were the memories of someone else. 

 

AT THE DRAGON'S MOUNTAIN LAIR, when Gwaine’s terrible past surfaces unbidden, we see him rationalize his actions to Wistan in the passage above. WE LEARN the elderly knight is, in fact, the protector of Queig, and the task given him by the long-dead Arthur is to preserve the “mist” that keeps the collective memories of both Britons and Saxons safely buried. LIKE THE NOVEL'S TITLE SUGGESTS, Gwaine must keep the past and its gigantic secrets buried for as long as possible. On the other hand, Wistan is tasked by his lord to bring those memories to the surface.⁺ When the much younger Saxon warrior quickly defeats Sir Gwaine, he then kills Queig, restarting history and restoring (again, for good or ill) the collective memories of Britons and Saxons. 

THE NOVEL’S CONCLUSION has Wistan and Edwin (a boy rescued by Wistan from ogres who he adopts as his squire) going on their way, while Axl and Beatrice continue their journey to their son’s village. By this time, the old couple remembers their son is dead, and on this final leg of their journey memories of past slights and transgressions between them surface, making their remaining time together difficult. Along the way they encounter a boatman. In the novel, boatmen are notorious for their trickery and for getting people to reveal their true thoughts and feelings about their loved ones. They also convey people across the water to the isle of the dead.

IN ISHIGURO'S TALE OF ANCIENT BRITAIN, these boatmen are the Charons of the British Isles. As the novel concludes, the boatman takes a sick and dying Beatrix across in his boat, leaving Axl angry and bereft on the shore to await his turn to cross. It’s a puzzling ending, where we’d expect the mostly loving and happy couple to remain together in death as they had in life, even though there were hurts and disappointments they had inflicted on each other over the course of their long marriage. A helpful Reddit thread comment adds some clarity:

 

“[Here] Kazuo is trying to say that history is bound to repeat itself because some grudges can't be forgotten, and that it would only take a fog of forgetfulness to cleanse the past and start afresh, exactly what King Arthur and Merlin were trying to achieve. The same conclusion is mirrored in the relationship of Axl and Beatrice, and subsequently the ending.” (u/Chroniclo)

 

IT SEEMS we must live with the consequences of our actions, of the deeds we do, the hurts we give even unto death. For Ishiguro, memories are never still, never silent. They weave their spells from our first breath to our last. Forgetting can be a blessing but also a curse....

 

WOW! I didn’t mean to write any sort of book report here, but occasionally I like to go on a walkabout through various stories and texts, getting whatever I can out of them and putting it down in black and white.

That fog of forgetfulness...Didn’t they teach that at Hogwarts? I forget. But it sure seems like a good idea right about now, what with our politicians and mucky-mucks unable to stop swinging their d*cks all over the place! AND WHILE THINGS slip and slide in our world and everyone barks more instead of talking with each other, a little forgiving forgetfulness might be something we all should put on our agendas. (As long as you remember where you put the remote!)

 

THREE CHEERS FOR BLUE SKIES! 

THREE CHEERS FOR ZIPPED FLIES!

ZIP-ZIP! HOO-RAY!

 

Cheers, Jake.

______________________________________________________

 

* Names of characters or mentioned in text:

   Queig—from Old Irish cóic‎, meaning “five”. There were five knights assigned by Arthur to capture Queig. An odd mixing? blending? of sides. Another of the novel’s themes is ‘inter-connectedness’, whereby names, incidents, individuals are seen to ‘pop-up’ or repeat or meet again and again. Perhaps resonating with each other might be a way to express it? I think it’s Ishiguro suggesting there is a hidden matrix that binds us all together. A common ground we all share. There are numerous instances of coincidence in the novel that suggest such an interconnectedness.

   Beatrice—from Latin: Beatrix, which meaning "blessed one".

   Axl—variants “Axel”—from Old German: "father of peace” The Briton served as a diplomat and peacemaker between his people and the Saxons during Arthur’s reign. He left Camelot because Arthur broke the "Law of the Innocents" treaty Axl had brokered between the two peoples.)  

   Wistan—from Old English Wigstan: wig "battle" and stan "stone". (A Saxon warrior who lived as a youth with Britons.) He will kill Queig and end the fog of forgetfulness, ushering in generations of  blood-feuds and conflict. Having himself lived a happy childhood among the Britons, he is conflicted with his mission to kill Queig, with all the terrible consequences that must follow. He also feels a sense of shame because he knows there are many good, kind people among the Britons, including Axl and Beatrix.

   Edwin—"The name Edwin means ‘rich friend’. It comes from the Old English elements ‘ead’ (rich, blessed) and ‘ƿine’ (friend). The original Anglo-Saxon form is ‘Eadƿine’, which is also found for Anglo-Saxon figures.” (Wikipedia) The boy's optimistic namesake contrasts with his probable future. He is a young Saxon lad rescued by Wistan from ogres who had taken him from his village. IN RETURN, the boy pledges to learn from warrior the martial arts of fighting. He also pledges to forever “hate all Britons”. The READER is given to understand that Wistan demands this from the boy with some unease, for he knows killing Queig will expose the past, thus changing the peaceful present, and irrevocably altering the future. Edwin, who will keep his word to Wistan, will someday enact changes to the present (war, retribution, death, and destruction), carrying forward the unending cycle of violence and revenge that had been held in abeyance through Merlin's magic.

   Brennus—Latinized form of a Celtic name (or title) "king, prince" or "raven". (Current king of the Britons, mentioned in the story.)

   Gwaine—a character in Arthurian legend, he was King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table. Possibly the name derives from Gwalchmai or a misreading of it. From Welsh gwalch "hawk", possibly combined with Mai "May (the month)" or mai "field, plain". (Wikipedia) So: “field hawk/May hawk.” Like the bird, Gwaine guards his territory. But he must confront the ‘stoney’ resolve of Wistan set to end the reign of forgetfulness that hold the future hostage. It is often said without the past there can be no future, for where do we go when we don’t know where we’ve been? The Buried Giant examines the tension between what British author and journalist Alex Preston says is “the duty to remember and the urge to forget.” Ishiguro explores this theme in the private realm (Axl and Beatrice) and public sphere (Britons vs. Saxons).  

   Arthur—Its Scots/Celtic root is "artos," meaning "bear," "strong as a bear". In Welsh, the name specifically means "bear hero." (he was king of the Britons when Gwaine and Axl were young knights.)

 

+ Tit for tat, of course. Before Merlin cast his spell of forgetfulness, both sides committed atrocities, killing combatants and innocents alike, in a never-ending cycle of outrage and retribution. So it goes. 

 

 

 

Ishiguro, Kazuo. The Buried Giant. Alfred A. Knopf Canada. Toronto, 2015. Print.

 

 

 

 

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