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Horace is Sir Gawain’s faithful war horse. Horace obediently follows Gawain’s orders and seems to sense when things are not right—as when Sir Gawain and he stumble on a group of widows who want to hold Gawain to account for something he did in the past. Sir Gawain often speaks to Horace because usually Horace is the only company Gawain has. When Axl, Beatrice, and Sir Gawain prepare to go up the mountain where Querig lives for the final time, Horace carries Beatrice, and stays behind to watch over Edwin when the group meets Wistan and Edwin on the mountain. Before Sir Gawain is slain by Wistan, he gives Horace to Axl and Beatrice, who promise to find him a nice field in which he can live out the rest of his days. At the end of the book, Axl and Beatrice bring Horace with them and then let him wander off when they prepare to cross over to the island.
Horace Quotes in The Buried Giant
The The Buried Giant quotes below are all either spoken by Horace or refer to Horace. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 7 Quotes
“We need not quarrel, Master Axl. Here are the skulls of men, I won’t deny it. There an arm, there a leg, but just bones now. An old burial ground. And so it may be. I dare say, sir, our whole country is this way. A fine green valley. A pleasant copse in the springtime. Dig its soil, and not far beneath the daisies and buttercups come the dead. And I don’t talk, sir, only of those who received Christian burial. Beneath our soil lie the remains of old slaughter. Horace and I, we’ve grown weary of it. Weary and we no longer young.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Horace Character Timeline in The Buried Giant
The timeline below shows where the character Horace appears in The Buried Giant. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5
...old and that his armor is rusted and creaky. The knight says that his horse, Horace, tricked him into stopping to rest and eat. He invites Axl and the others to...
(full context)
Chapter 7
...of slaughter lying just beneath the surface of the earth. Sir Gawain says he and Horace have “grown weary of it.”
(full context)
...“comrades once long ago.” Again, Sir Gawain doesn’t answer, but says he must go to Horace. Axl tells him the talk of King Arthur “stirs long-faded thoughts,” but Sir Gawain simply...
(full context)
Gawain’s First Reverie
...the old couple and boy. Even though the widows insulted him and threw dirt at Horace, Sir Gawain talked to them “courteously.” Sir Gawain told Horace that they must “bear all...
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...having had a good dream about a beautiful woman he had seen once years before. Horace woke Sir Gawain up, knowing it was time for them to leave. Despite being unhappy...
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...not busy enough?” The widows are gathered in a “barren spot” and Sir Gawain urges Horace to “remember them as ladies” because they had once been young and beautiful. One of...
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Sir Gawain urges Horace forward, and the widows let them pass, but they chant “coward” at Sir Gawain as...
(full context)
...good knight who performed his duty to the end.” For now, however, Sir Gawain and Horace must go to Querig because their “work is unfinished.”
(full context)
Gawain’s Second Reverie
Sir Gawain curses the wind. He knows Horace won’t mind a storm but does mind that a stranger is sitting on him. Sir...
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Sir Gawain “put a little spur on Horace” and looks around at the trees, which grow oddly and remind Gawain of Merlin, who...
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Sir Gawain presses on with Beatrice astride Horace and Axl tugging the goat. Sir Gawain knows the others are coming. When Sir Gawain...
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Chapter 15
...asks if, in the event that he is slain, they would be willing to take Horace and find him “a fine green meadow where he may eat to his heart’s content...
(full context)
