The Water of the Wondrous IslesPlot: "Stolen as a child and raised in the wood of Evilshaw as servant to a witch, Birdalone ultimately escapes in her captress's magical boat, in which she travels to a succession of strange and wonderful islands. Among these is the Isle of Increase Unsought, an island cursed with boundless production, which Morris intended as a parallel of contemporary Britain and a vehicle for his socialistic beliefs. Equally radical, during much of the first quarter of the novel, Birdalone is naked, a highly unusual detail in Victorian fiction. She is occasionally assisted out of jams by Habundia, her lookalike fairy godmother. She encounters three maidens who are held prisoner by another witch. They await deliverance by their lovers, the three paladins of the Castle of the Quest. Birdalone is clad by the maidens and seeks out their heroes, and the story goes into high gear as they set out to rescue the women. Ultimately, one lady is reunited with her knight, another finds a new love when her knight is killed, and the last is left to mourn as her champion throws her over for Birdalone."--Wikipedia |
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Common terms and phrases
abide amidst art thou Arthur Atra aught Aurea bade Baudoin belike betwixt Birdalone Birdalone's Black Squire castellan castle clad dale dear deemed drew errand erst evil Evilshaw eyes Eyot face fair fair lady fear fell forsooth Golden Knight gone goodly gown green Green Knight Greenford Habundia hand hath hauberk head heard hearken heart hither horse Hugh Isle kissed knew lady laughed looked maiden meadow meseemeth mistress morrow nought pray thee Quest Quoth raiment Red Hold Red Knight sallet scarce Sending Boat Sir Aymeris smiled spake stood sweet sword tale tell thee thereafter therein thereof therewith thine things thou art thou hast thou mayst thou shalt thou wilt told took turned unto Utterhay venison Viridis voice weary wend whereas wherefore wilt thou wise witch witch-wife withal woman wood wood-mother wood-wife word
Popular passages
Page 26 - Delicate and clean-made is the little trench that goeth from thy mouth to thy lips, and sweet it is, and there is more might in it than in sweet words spoken. Thy lips they are of the finest fashion, yet rather thin than full; and some would not have it so; but I would, whereas I see therein a sign of thy valiancy and friendliness. Surely he who did thy carven chin had a mind to a master work and did no less. Great was the deftness of thine imaginer, and he would have all folk who see thee wonder...
Page 22 - ... was opening its blossom; and March wore and April, and still she was at work happily when now it was later May, and the harebells were in full bloom down the bent before her and still she wrought on at her gown and her smock, and it was well-nigh done. She had broidered the said gown with roses and lilies, and a tall tree springing up from amidmost the hem of the skirt, and a hart on either side thereof, face to face of each other. And the smock she had sewn daintily at the hems and the bosom...
Page 2 - WHILOM, as tells the tale, was a walled cheaping-town hight Utterhay, which was builded in a bight of the land a little off the great highway which went from over the mountains to the sea.
Page 26 - Great was the deftness of thine imaginer, and he would have all folk who see thee wonder at thy deep thinking and thy carefulness and thy kindness. Ah, maiden! is it so that thy thoughts are ever deep and solemn? Yet at least I know it of thee that they be hale and true and sweet.
Page 204 - And look you, kind lady, it is most like that by now he hath heard how in my poor castle is kept a jewel, a pearl of great price, that hath not its like in the world, and will encompass the stealing of it if he may.
Page 392 - Birdalone was hearkening and weeping for tenderness' sake, while the witch was unto her neither fearful nor irksome, and forsooth nought save a mouthpiece for words that both grieved Birdalone and yet were an eager pleasure unto her. But in the midst thereof, and ere the dream had time to change, Birdalone awoke, and it was an early morning of later spring, and the sky was clear blue and the sun shining bright, and the birds singing in the garden of the house, and in the street was the sound of the...
Page 2 - Utterhay was so poor or so bold that he durst raise the hunt therein; no outlaw durst flee thereto; no man of God had such trust in the saints that he durst build him a cell in that wood. For all men deemed it more than perilous ; and some said that there walked the worst of the dead; othersome that the Goddesses of the Gentiles haunted there; others again that it was the Faery rather, but they full of malice and guile. But most commonly it was deemed that the devils swarmed amidst of its thickets,...
Page 465 - Birdalone's outstretched arms, "and it was as if the sunbeam had thrust through the close leafage of the oak, and made its shadow nought a space about Birdalone, so gleamed and glowed in shifty brightness the broidery of the gown; and Birdalone let it fall to earth, and passed over her hands and arms the fine smock sewed in yellow and white silk, so that the web thereof seemed of mingled cream and curd; and she looked on the shoon that lay beside the gown, that were done so nicely and finely that...
Page 3 - ... Gate of Hell whereto he came. And the said wood was called Evilshaw. Nevertheless the cheaping-town throve not ill ; for whatso evil things haunted Evilshaw, never came they into Utterhay in such guise that men knew them, neither wotted they of any hurt that they had of the Devils of Evilshaw. Now in the said cheaping-town, on a day, it was market and high noon, and in the market-place was much people thronging ; and amidst of them went a woman, tall, and strong of aspect, of some thirty winters...