Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Buried Giant, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Memory, Truth and Justice
War, Peace, Vengeance, and Forgiveness
Love and Hatred
Denial and Rewriting History
Summary
Analysis
The goat chews on grass near Edwin’s head, which annoys him, but he’s too tired to chase it away. Edwin is surprised by “the sudden conviction that his mother [is] gone” and he no longer hears her voice. He feels someone untying him and he opens his eyes to find Beatrice with him. When he stands up, he remembers what the warrior had said about it being “early enough for revenge” and decides to make whoever killed his mother pay. Edwin doesn’t see Wistan, just the old Britons. Beatrice tells him to go to Wistan, so Edwin runs forward. Suddenly he stops and looks back at the couple. Beatrice calls out to him and tells him to remember them and their friendship in the coming days. This reminds Edwin of the promise he made to Wistan to hate Britons, but he decides Wistan didn’t mean for him to hate these Britons, and runs off to find him.
Edwin, who had been propelled by love towards Querig believing her to be his mother, is now driven by hatred. However, that hatred is not directed towards Britons as Wistan had advised, but towards whoever killed his “mother,” meaning Wistan. Edwin is determined to kill whoever killed his mother, calling into question whether Wistan is going to be safe now that Edwin has been let loose by Axl and Beatrice.
Themes
