Xan Character Analysis in The Girl Who Drank the Moon

A kindly witch who lives in a swamp in the middle of the forest. Xan is about 500 years old and was experimentally enmagicked as a preteen. A wizard named Zosimos mentored her. Zosimos was well aware of Xan’s distaste for remembering difficult things. Because of this, when the volcano erupted 500 years ago, Zosimos hid the castle and all his knowledge in such a way that Xan would be able to rediscover it when she needed it. Xan forgets all of this within a year of the eruption, and instead of keeping Zosimos’s memory alive, she dedicates herself to raising the dragonling Fyrian, arguing with the swamp monster Glerk, and saving abandoned babies from outside of the Protectorate every year and taking them to the Free Cities. While the abandoned babies are by no means easy to deal with, Xan still dislikes most difficult things. If she senses that something might be difficult, she denies that the difficult element will ever come to pass. This is the case with Luna, a sacrificed baby whom Xan chooses to adopt after accidentally feeding Luna moonlight and enmagicking her. Xan loves the parts of childrearing that would arise for any baby, enmagicked or not—she adores Luna and showers her with toys and books. However, Luna’s magic presents several problems for Xan, since she doesn’t remember how she’s supposed to handle an enmagicked child. She is, however, able to return to the castle, rediscover Zosimos’s writings, and come up with a spell to protect Luna. Through this spell, Xan—who is very old and is beginning to feel her age—also sets the time of her own death, since Luna’s magic erupting will cause Xan to die. Yet this doesn’t scare Xan at all—her only desire is to be able to help teach Luna about magic before she dies. While she fails at this in an important way (Xan’s spell means that Luna can’t absorb anything to do with magic), Xan is able to give Luna enough tools to manage her abilities when Luna’s magic erupts and kills Xan. After Xan’s death, Glerk takes her to the Bog.

Xan Quotes in The Girl Who Drank the Moon

The The Girl Who Drank the Moon quotes below are all either spoken by Xan or refer to Xan. 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:

“Luna,” she said. “Your name will be Luna. And I will be your grandmother. And we will be a family.”

And just by saying so, Xan knew it was true. The words hummed in the air between them, stronger than any magic.

Related Characters: Xan (speaker), Luna

Page Number and Citation: Chapter 3. In Which a Witch Accidentally Enmagics an Infant27

Explanation and Analysis:

Xan visited the Free Cities twice a year, once with Luna and once without. She did not explain to the child the purpose for her solo visit—nor did she tell her about the sad town on the other side of the forest, or of the babies left in that small clearing, presumably to die. She’d have to tell the girl eventually, of course. One day, Xan told herself. Not now. It was too sad. And Luna was too little to understand.

Related Characters: Xan, Luna

Page Number and Citation: Chapter 7. In Which a Magical Child is More Trouble By Half52

Explanation and Analysis:

“I remember. All at once.” He shook his head. “Why had I forgotten?”

Xan pushed her wrinkled lips to one side. “Sorrow is dangerous. Or, at least, it was. I can’t remember why, now. I think we both became accustomed to not remembering things. We just let things get...foggy.”

Related Characters: Glerk (speaker), Xan (speaker), Luna, Zosimos

Page Number and Citation: Chapter 9. In Which Several Things Go Wrong68

Explanation and Analysis:

The child was never magic, Xan started telling herself. And indeed, the more Xan told herself that it might be true, the more she was able to convince herself that it was true. And if Luna ever was magic, all that power was now neatly stoppered up and wouldn’t be a problem.

Related Characters: Xan, Luna

Page Number and Citation: Chapter 14. In Which There Are Consequences109

Explanation and Analysis:

Fyrian seemed younger and younger every day. Sometimes, it seemed to Luna that he was going backward in time while she stood still, but other times it seemed that the opposite was true: it was Fyrian who was standing still while Luna raced forward. She wondered why this was.

Dragons! Glerk would explain.

Dragons! Xan would agree. They both shrugged. Dragons, it was decided. What can one do?

Which never actually answered anything.

Related Characters: Fyrian, Luna, Xan, Glerk

Page Number and Citation: Chapter 17. In Which There Is a Crack in the Nut136-37

Explanation and Analysis:

Luna didn’t have very many memories that were as tenacious as this one—her memory, typically, was a slippery thing, and difficult to pin down—and so she hung on to it. This image meant something. She was sure of it.

Her grandmother, now that she thought about it, never spoke of memories. Not ever.

Related Characters: Antain, The Madwoman/Adara, Grand Elder Gherland, Luna, Xan

Page Number and Citation: Chapter 19. In Which There Is a Journey to the Town of Agony161

Explanation and Analysis:

And the things that they did not speak of began to outweigh the things that they did. Each secret, each unspoken thing was round and hard and heavy and cold, like a stone hung around the necks of both grandmother and girl.

Their backs bent under the weight of secrets.

Related Characters: Luna, Xan

Page Number and Citation: Chapter 19. In Which There Is a Journey to the Town of Agony164

Explanation and Analysis:

Antain kneeled down. “I’m sorry,” he breathed. “I’m so, so sorry.” He scooped up the bird in his hands. It didn’t look healthy. How could it, in these cursed woods? Half the water was poisoned. The Witch. It all came back to the Witch. Curse her name forever.

Related Characters: Antain (speaker), Xan

Related Symbols: The Witch

Page Number and Citation: Chapter 33. In Which the Witch Encounters an Old Acquaintance265

Explanation and Analysis:

How many feelings can one heart hold? She looked at her grandmother. At her mother. At the man protecting his family. Infinite, Luna thought. The way the universe is infinite. It is light and dark and endless motion; it is space and time, and space within space, and time within time. And she knew: there is no limit to what the heart can carry.

Related Characters: Sister Ignatia/The Sorrow Eater, Xan, The Madwoman/Adara, Antain, Luna

Page Number and Citation: Chapter 45. In Which a Simply Enormous Dragon Makes a Simply Enormous Decision364

Explanation and Analysis:

“I was taken from my mother,” Luna explained. “Like you, I was brought to a family who loved me and whom I love. I cannot stop loving that family, and I don’t want to. I can only allow my love to increase.” She smiled. “I love the grandmother who raised me. I love the mother I lost. My love is boundless. My heart is infinite. And my joy expands and expands. You’ll see.”

Related Characters: Luna (speaker), The Madwoman/Adara, Xan

Page Number and Citation: Chapter 46. In Which Several Families Are Reunited377

Explanation and Analysis:

Xan Character Timeline in The Girl Who Drank the Moon

The timeline below shows where the character Xan appears in The Girl Who Drank the Moon. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Storytelling, Censorship, and Control Theme Icon

...Day of Sacrifice, which is known as Star Child Day elsewhere, an old witch named Xan leans on a staff and bellows at the swamp monster, Glerk, to resurface and apologize.... (full context)

Glerk points out that Fyrian is also older than Xan and starts to say that it’s time for something, but Xan cuts him off. Glerk... (full context)

Xan sprints into the forest. While the forest is dangerous due to the sleeping volcano under... (full context)

As Xan approaches the Protectorate and feels the sadness settling on her, she reminds herself to grab... (full context)

At the grove, Xan turns herself into a tree to sleep. She sleeps through the Elders leaving the baby... (full context)

After 10 days, Xan is about a quarter of the way to the Free Cities. She reaches up that... (full context)

Xan knows the baby has been enmagicked and sits down. She can feel the baby’s magic... (full context)

...or frighten Luna. By the end of the third week, Glerk is done. He forbids Xan from loving Luna and asks if she’s aware of what the Poet says about Witches... (full context)

This delights Xan, but Glerk says that she’s missing the point. Xan insists that Glerk is missing Luna’s... (full context)

...Fyrian is the size of a dove, but he believes that he’s huge and that Xan and Glerk are giants. This is because Fyrian’s mother told him that he would be... (full context)

Soon, Fyrian is tired of all the noise that Luna makes and begs Xan to “magic her quiet.” Xan refuses on the grounds that it’s unethical to influence another... (full context)

...has doubled five times. Glerk worries that she’s going to burst at some point, but Xan suggests that maybe things will never be difficult. The narrator notes that while Xan loves... (full context)

Memory, Forgetting, and the Future Theme Icon

Xan visits the Free Cities two times per year. She takes Luna once per year, but... (full context)

Xan works quickly for the next few days as Luna wreaks havoc. She climbs to impossible... (full context)

...the Free Cities is disastrous. Luna turns stumps into birds and a stream into cake. Xan is exhausted from having to clean up after her. Xan dreams that night of Zosimos... (full context)

Xan attempts to teach Luna to control her magic. When Xan was enmagicked at age 10,... (full context)

As Xan follows Luna and undoes her magic, she grows increasingly weaker. Finally, Glerk reaches the end... (full context)

Glerk sits heavily and says that he remembers now. He asks why he forgot. Xan points out that sorrow is dangerous, though she can’t remember why, and she believes that... (full context)

Xan follows the rock path up to the volcano’s crater. There used to be a big... (full context)

Xan remembers how everyone in the castle ran into the forest when the volcano exploded. She... (full context)

Xan grabs armloads of books, maps, recipes, and artwork and takes it all to her workshop.... (full context)

At the end of nine days, Xan bursts out of her workshop and begins to map out a 13-pointed star on the... (full context)

Glerk asks Xan if this will stop the fact that her magic is transferring to Luna and weakening... (full context)

...which isn’t allowed but is normal, and wonders why Fyrian isn’t allowed on her bed. Xan is in her own bed and Glerk is asleep on the floor, which is strange—Glerk... (full context)

Xan finds Luna sitting outside. This is odd, but Xan thinks that Luna will now be... (full context)

Luna asks why they’re in the workshop. Worried, Xan says that she was giving Luna a lesson, but Luna drops off into a trance... (full context)

Xan says that when Luna was tiny, they looked at the stars and Xan fed Luna... (full context)

Glerk begins to push back on this, but Xan snaps that sorrow is dangerous. They discuss this several times but soon, Xan convinces herself... (full context)

...hates that she only gets to go on some journeys to the Free Cities with Xan. While Xan is gone, Luna amuses herself in the workshop with books and inventions. Her... (full context)

Feeling prickly, Luna asks where Xan is. Glerk says that she’ll be back in a week, but Luna whines that she... (full context)

...math. Now, Fyrian seems younger all the time. Whenever Luna asks about this, Glerk and Xan shrug and say that it’s just how dragons are. Luna reaches the top of the... (full context)

...mama. Fyrian asks Luna why she’s crying. Luna insists she’s not, but she does miss Xan. Luna feels as though she’s seen the house and the woman from her vision before.... (full context)

Xan can’t deny that her magic is dwindling. She’s traveling slowly and everything hurts. She’s not... (full context)

Xan is late to fetch the baby. She uses her magic to sprint to the baby’s... (full context)

Later that year, Luna and Xan go to the Free Cities to check in on the pregnant women. Luna feels prickly... (full context)

...the oldest an elderly man. They discuss their earliest memories, trying to remember life before Xan brought them to their families. Luna thinks of things and wonders if they’re memories or... (full context)

The next day, Luna accompanies Xan as she checks on pregnant women. The first woman is very pregnant and doesn’t even... (full context)

At the next house, Luna arranges herbs and furniture. The woman praises Luna, and Xan says that Luna is so smart because she’s Xan’s. Luna feels a cold rush and... (full context)

...over and over as he dances and lands in her palm. Luna smiles. She and Xan have been home for two weeks, and Xan has been sick since they got home.... (full context)

...no idea where he is, and his body feels strange and puffy. He shouts for Xan and Glerk, and reasons that he sleep-flew here, though that’s never happened before. Fyrian finds... (full context)

...volcano, and a girl with starlight for hair. He remembers Fyrian’s mother introducing him to Xan, who would care for Fyrian someday. Then, Xan had freckles and braided hair. Fyrian thinks... (full context)

...that he’s fierce and begs for the creature to not hurt him. Suddenly, he remembers Xan telling him that they’re family, and that if he ever wanders away and gets scared,... (full context)

Luna leaves Xan a note, saying that she’s going to collect berries and sketch. Xan will likely be... (full context)

...what it is. It says that it’s an excellent crow and agrees with Luna that Xan and Glerk won’t be happy to see it. Luna knows that there’s a word to... (full context)

...of the Free Cities. Luna reasons that the forest must end somewhere, and thinks that Xan has never explained why she can’t go in that direction. She pulls out her drawing... (full context)

...races down to him and sees that he’s anxious and alone. Back at the house, Xan is still asleep and sleeps for another hour. Xan assures Luna that this is normal... (full context)

...Luna shouts that nobody tells her anything. However, she knows this isn’t true: Glerk and Xan tell her things, but the things they say fly away. Luna’s headache intensifies as another... (full context)

...what to do. Luna asks who the girl is. The papers say that she’s named Xan. (full context)

Xan sits by the fireplace. There’s something odd in the air and underground, and she’s in... (full context)

Luna holds a note from Xan and angrily tears it up before reading all of it. The crow caws at her... (full context)

...mess in the house as Fyrian sobs. Glerk insists that he’s worried about Luna, not Xan, but this is a lie. He sits down and reads Xan’s note to Luna. It... (full context)

Xan tells Luna the reason for this—magic—but the word is missing from the note. Xan writes... (full context)

...knows that both she and the volcano should be sleeping, but she also knows that Xan needs help. She knows that everyone must die someday and remembers asking Glerk what happens... (full context)

Meanwhile, Xan, as a swallow, stumbles from tree to tree. She can’t remember what she’s supposed to... (full context)

Xan remembers living with her parents in a forest village when she was small. She remembers... (full context)

...reasoning that if she can draw a correct map when she’s dreaming, she can find Xan too. She focuses on Xan’s face and angrily sees that she drew a bird in... (full context)

...Glerk—but Glerk points out that people can be more than one thing. He sniffs for Xan’s spells. (full context)

...He says that he recognizes the smell, and with a growl, says that it’s not Xan’s. (full context)

...paper birds. Finally, Luna stops and says that she doesn’t want that woman anywhere near Xan. Suddenly, Luna’s brain unlocks. She remembers being little and standing blankly. Xan told Fyrian to... (full context)

...but if she searches her memories, she finds it often. She says out loud that Xan is a witch, and she is too. The crow is unimpressed and says that this... (full context)

Xan tells herself that Luna is safe at home until it feels true, and grudgingly accepts... (full context)

Antain talks about how beautiful Ethyne is and Xan looks into his heart. She sees that it’s not his scars that broke him; it’s... (full context)

...her hood. Luna isn’t tired and can’t wait for the moon to rise. She remembers Xan teaching her about compasses and wonders if she’s drawn to the moon like a compass... (full context)

...Fyrian’s mother. Dragonlings normally don’t stay dragonlings for 500 years, but Fyrian did—maybe because of Xan’s spells or his own grief. Glerk admits that he, Xan, and Luna aren’t giants. (full context)

...tail and points down the hill. He can see Luna’s magic emerging and says that Xan tried unsuccessfully to hold onto Luna’s childhood. Fyrian asks if Luna is turning into a... (full context)

Xan feels horrible and doubtful. She tells herself that she loved and protected the babies, but... (full context)

...rising moon. She falls, and the pebbles under her hands turn into bugs. Luna remembers Xan teaching her about how caterpillars transform into butterflies in their chrysalises. Xan told her that... (full context)

...the branches. Sister Ignatia pursues her. The madwoman pauses and looks wide. She sees Luna, Xan, Antain, Glerk, and Fyrian. The mountain rumbles and the madwoman says that she needs her... (full context)

...more alive than ever. As she drinks, she realizes that the green glow ahead is Xan, who is somehow a bird. She sees Antain and sees that he’s kind, but he... (full context)

...The madwoman says that Luna is the baby as the swallow squawks. Luna shouts for Xan and meets the bird’s eye. Suddenly, she remembers the madwoman, Gherland, and Xan feeding her... (full context)

Luna pulls Xan’s frail body into her lap. Xan asks if Luna’s magic has started and says that... (full context)

Luna gathers moonlight and feeds it to Xan. They both feel better, and Xan says that her magic is flowing into Luna. It’s... (full context)

Xan pulls herself to her feet, and Luna sees that she looks older every second. She... (full context)

...misses the Bog so much that he almost falls. He thinks that his love for Xan has kept him complacent and happy, but he should be in the world and is... (full context)

...whom Fyrian despises. Glerk point out that Fyrian can’t despise anyone, but Fyrian continues that Xan is there and sick. He also sees a man, paper birds that seem to love... (full context)

Antain is confused to see Sister Ignatia. Xan tells Antain that Sister Ignatia is the Witch. The Sorrow Eater—whom, Luna realizes, is Sister... (full context)

Luna focuses on the Sorrow Eater’s sealed memories. Xan says that the babies didn’t die—the Sorrow Eater never knew that Xan was taking the... (full context)

...began to cultivate it. Fyrian threatens to throw the Sorrow Eater into the volcano, but Xan calls to Fyrian. Fyrian drops the Sorrow Eater and puts his head in Xan’s arms.... (full context)

...skids to a stop on the wall. Antain runs into the Protectorate while Luna helps Xan down. Luna looks into her mother’s eyes and watches them skitter through many emotions. Luna... (full context)

The volcano spews smoke and Luna asks if they can stop it. Xan says they can’t—stopping it last time was a mistake. She suggests that together, they can... (full context)

Xan and the Sorrow Eater stay in the hospital wing of the Tower. Xan knows that... (full context)

...and bigger. On his back, Luna flies to the Free Cities. Everyone there grieves for Xan when they learn she’s going to die. Luna tells them the story of a town... (full context)

Glerk stays by Xan’s side and looks longingly at the Bog. Eventually, Xan tells him to take daily bog... (full context)

...but Luna takes her hand instead. When they open the door, crying Sisters greet them. Xan is gone. Luna realizes that to love is to lose. She sits down and finds... (full context)

The Girl Who Drank the Moon

Xan Character Analysis

Xan Quotes in The Girl Who Drank the Moon

Chapter 3 Quotes

Chapter 7 Quotes

Chapter 9 Quotes

Chapter 14 Quotes

Chapter 17 Quotes

Chapter 19 Quotes

Chapter 33 Quotes

Chapter 45 Quotes

Chapter 46 Quotes

Xan Character Timeline in The Girl Who Drank the Moon