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The Well at the World's End Volume II
by Williams Morris



More information on the radar plot criteria

This radar plot is meant to give a graphical representation of the book in question. For a better idea of what each spoke means, see the table below. Also, keep in mind that higher numbers are not necessarily better. Depending on your taste, a 0 may be just as appealing as a 10 (or a 5, etc) in a particular category. (Click to close)


Category 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
Maturity 18+ 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8
Violence Excessive Violence Violent acts (no blood-gore) No Violence
Action Constant Action Even mix of action-drama No Action
Epic Lord of the Rings Epic Large scope, less detailed Limited scope
World Completely unique Half real/half unique Set in our world
Realism Focus outside the realm of accepted science Focus evenly split between explainable-unexplainable Nothing unexplainable - not the focus
Modernity Present Day (or beyond) 1980-1999 1960-1979 1930-1959 1870-1929 1800-1869 1700-1799 1400-1699 200-1399 (1000)-199 Ancient
Humor Laugh out loud throughout Funny (but not primary focus) Intentionally not funny

Book Three. The Road to the Well at the World’s End. Redhead is waiting for Ralph with horses just as they had agreed. However, Redhead confesses that he was put up to this by Agatha. He takes her to Agatha, who was originally planning on brining Ralph to the Queen of Utterbol. Upon seeing Ralph, though, she falls in love and decides to free him. Soon after, he runs into Ursula (who in Volume I he dreamed was named Dorothea). She had escaped from Utterbol, but would not tell Ralph of her time there because it was so unpleasant.


They ride together towards the mountains, and soon come across the Sage of Swevenham. The Sage spends several days telling teaching them what they need to know on the way to the well. Ralph has great love for Ursula, but she is slightly aloof. Riders from Utterbol find them in the night, but the Sage makes the riders see a skeleton and a rock. They flee in horror. Next, they come across the Sea of Molten Rocks – the remnants of once active lava flows. They clear these and come to the Gate of the Mountains, where the Sage leaves them until they are able to return from the Well.


Shortly after they arrive at the Vale of Sweet Chestnuts where they will spend the winter months. While there, Ursula is attacked by a bear while bathing. Ralph saves her, but then vows to marry her before anything else bad can happen to her. She agrees, but says they must wait until there are others to witness the union. That day, the Messengers of the Innocent Folk arrive, and the next day they are married. They leave with the Messengers and soon arrive at the Land of the Innocent Folk. They then guide them to the house of the Sorceress where the Lady of Abundance first lived, prior to drinking from the Well.


They leave from the house of the Sorceress by themselves, and make their way to the Thirsty Desert. Along the way they see many dead bodies, up until they come to the Dry Tree. Here, the tree is surrounded by countless bodies. Ralph is about to drink, but Ursula stops him, and they see a crow drink, and then immediately die. They continue on and soon escape the desert entirely. Finally, the arrive at the Ocean Sea (which surrounds the entire world) and the next day, during low-tide, they descend to the ocean floor and drink of the Well at the World’s End. Joyously, they begin making their way back from the Well.


Book Four. The Road Home. Their trip from the Well all the way back through the Mountain pass is uneventful. Once through the Mountains, they meet up with the Sage again, who tells them how Utterbol’s Lord has been killed and replaced. Things are much happier in Utterbol now with the new Lord. They spend the winter with the Sage and then head to Vale Turris, where they learn that the new Lord of Utterbol is Bull Nosey. He had become a travelling minstrel, and when he came before the former Lord, he killed him. Everyone was so happy the tyrant was dead they installed him as the new Lord.


They meet up with Readhead who leads them from Vale Turris. He helped Agatha escape and was hoping to marry her. They fight a small skirmish in the Waste just before Goldburg. When they return to Goldburg, they learn that the Queen fled after Ralph had left for love of him. In Cheaping Knowe, Ralph confronts the King to get help and passage to the mountains. The king lets him pass, but Michael of Swevenham tells them that the King plans to kill him outside the city. Michael leads them around the attack, but just before the mountains the King has set up an ambush. They fight, and with the help of Bull Nosey’s kinsman (who had been told of their coming) they are victorious.


They return next to Whitwall, where they part ways with Michael and meet up with Richard – who helped Ralph’s brother find fortune in Whitwall. Next, they come to the cave where the Lady of Abundance was killed. They are suddenly attacked by a wild-man, but Ralph fends him off. He comes to his senses, and they discover it is the tall man Ralph first met outside the church, who served the Lady. He dies from his wounds. Next, they pass the castle of Abundance, where Ralph promises to return as Lord with Ursula.


In the surrounding woods they come across Roger, who hates Ursula for her taking the place of the Lady. Roger reveals that the Wheat-weavers have taken over the Burg, and driven out all its men. The group joins up with the Champions of the Dry Tree, for Ralph now fears something is amiss in Upmeads. The journey continues, and they begin to learn that the escaped Burgers are headed to Upmeads. Ralph and Ursula are made Lord and Lady of Scaur and of those of the Dry Tree. They join up with a group of shepherds as well.


In Wulstead Ralph sees his father and mother again (they have fled Upmeads for fear of attack), and they are introduced to Ursula. Ralph speaks with Katherine, his gossip, who reveals that she was tasked with giving a young man the beads by the same woman who taught the Lady of Abundance the way to the Well.


They go down to Upmeads and battle the Burgers. They succeed – for the Burgers fled in terror at the very sight of Ralph, Friend of the Well. Ralph brings his mother and father back, then Ursula. Ralph and Ursula are installed as King and Queen of Upmeads


Ralph and Ursula have a long, happy life together. They clear out the thieves from the woods nearby and see Bully Nosey and others many times over their lives, as well as all their other friends. They remained youthful and lovely until they died, both on the same day together.




First of all, it’s worth getting out of the way that I absolutely loved reading the rest of Ralph’s adventures in this, volume II. It’s unfortunate that this edition had to be broken up into 2 parts, but ultimately it didn’t subtract anything from my enjoyment of it. For the most part, though, everything I discussed in the critique of the first volume is still applicable, so I’m not going to retread any of that. Instead, I will go over some of my favorite parts and various thoughts of volume II.


One thing that did strike me as odd was how, in Volume I, Ralph dreams that that young woman he is tracking down is named Dorothea. In Volume II, though, her name is Ursula, and there’s no explanation for why the discrepancy. It’s not super important, but it seems odd.


In general, the best parts of Volume II were all centered on Ralph’s return journey. From when he learns that the Queen of Goldburg has fled the city so that she might attempt to recover from her love for him (see page 118), to the numerous reunions with family and friends, Ralph and Ursula’s return journey is wonderful. I love how, because of how nobly and honestly he treated everyone he met on his way out to the Well, he suddenly had an army of followers by the time he made it back to Upmeads. It was so fun to see his group of companions slowly build larger and larger until success against their Burgers was guaranteed (even if they were still outnumbered in the end). It even felt nostalgic as the reader to meet the old characters, such as Bull Nosey and Redhead again.


The scene when Ralph confronts the King of Cheaping Knowe (page 120) is great as well. It is the first time you really get a clear sense of how powerful Ralph has become in the eyes of those around him now that he is a Friend of the Well.


Another great moment is when Ursula expresses some doubts about her lineage, in respect to Ralph, now that they have entered lands where he is known, and he responds:


\"What! is it all so soon forgotten, our deeds beyond the Mountains? Belike because we had no minstrel to rhyme it for us. Or is it all but a dream? and has the last pass of the mountains changed all that for us? What then! hast thou never become my beloved, nor lain in one bed with me? Thou whom I looked to deliver from the shame and the torment of Utterbol, never didst thou free thyself without my helping, and meet me in the dark wood, and lead me to the Sage who rideth yonder behind us! No, nor didst thou ride fearless with me, leaving the world behind; nor didst thou comfort me when my heart went nigh to breaking in the wilderness! Nor thee did I deliver as I saw thee running naked from the jaws of death. Nor were we wedded in the wilderness far from our own folk. Nor didst thou deliver me from the venom of the Dry Tree. Yea verily, nor did we drink together of the Water of the Well! It is all but tales of Swevenham, a blue vapour hanging on the mountains yonder! So be it then! And here we ride together, deedless, a man and a maid of whom no tale may be told. What next then, and who shall sunder us?\"


I think I enjoyed this part so much because it is one of the few examples of humor and sarcasm, as well as showing just how amazing the feats are that the two have been able to accomplish thus far. Clearly she is as worthy of his love as he is of hers.


The last moment I want to mention is a far sadder moment. On page 147, when Ralph has killed the madman outside the cave where the Lady was killed, we learn that he was in fact the great Champion who Ralph followed from their first meeting outside the church where he called out “The First Time”. Here, we read his dying words as “The Last Time!” I loved their meeting at the beginning, and it was one of the things that kept me reading when I was having such a hard time with the language, so this was a really sad moment for me.


Something I mentioned in the critique of the first volume was how this was a “quest” story, and that the thing Ralph would learn would be more important than the object of the quest itself. While this was true in the sense that he found Ursula, and knew that he must return home to be truly happy, it also wasn’t as big of a deal as I imagined. Instead, it was more of a fact which, as it was revealed over time, became obvious rather than insightful. This does not make it any less worth observing, but it wasn’t a secret that you had to delve deeply into the text to discover. Ralph, like any young man, learned that while there is a time for adventuring, and seeking out great things in the world, and that when that time ends one must return home. There, life is precious and must be protected.


I absolutely loved this book, and I can’t wait to read more by Morris, as well as read some of the work that discusses the influence this novel had on the writings of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Some of the connections (such as the journey home after the completion of the quest) are obvious, but I look forward to discovering some of the more subtle connections.




"Alas!" she said, "and had I lain in thine arms an hundred times, or an hundred times an hundred, should not the world be barren to me, wert thou gone from it, and that could never more be?" (53)



16 - archaic language, slow pace



Yes


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