The Girl Who Drank the Moon

The leader of the Council of Elders in the Protectorate and one of the novel’s antagonists. He’s an old man, is very grand, and loves the prestige that comes along with his position. While there are some good qualities to Gherland—he does love Antain and wants to protect him, even though he recognizes that Antain is a threat to the Council of Elders—Gherland has, over the years, turned himself into an unlikeable figure in the Protectorate. As the Grand Elder, Gherland is responsible for taking and carrying the annual “doomed child” through the town and into the woods to be sacrificed. While he loves that this makes him look powerful, he also detests babies and thinks that they’re too loud, selfish, and smelly—and often, they spit up or urinate on him, which makes him feel even less kindly toward them. The very fact that he’s willing to carry the babies, however, is something that Gherland sees as a reflection of his selflessness. He sees himself as a caretaker for the community, if a strict one. He’s happy to take any opportunity to “teach lessons” to individuals who don’t fall into line, and he also loves showing off his wealth and prestige. Gherland is very disturbed when Antain and Ethyne begin stirring up hope, as he’s well aware of how the story of the Witch (which he knows is untrue) functions to keep the Council of Elders in power, and he understands that hope is going to eventually destroy his power. Though Gherland attempts to work with Sister Ignatia to put a stop to Antain’s quest to kill the Witch, Sister Ignatia’s failure means that the townsfolk put Gherland and his cronies in prison. “Gherland” briefly becomes an insult following Gherland’s imprisonment, but when Gherland refuses to apologize for his actions, he eventually dies alone and is forgotten.