50 pages • 1 hour read
Bernard CornwellThe Winter King
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1995A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 5 Summary: “The Shield-Wall”
Igraine is stunned to learn that it was Ceinwyn who “turned your blood to smoke” (421). Under strong pressure, Derfel declines to say any more for now about Ceinwyn, or about the Cauldron, or many other aspects of the story. To himself, Derfel hopes that the tale of war will sustain her interest despite her many disappointments.
Galahad and Derfel leave Gorfyddyd’s hall as he issues a series of vicious taunts regarding Arthur and Guinevere, suggesting that he has slept with her on multiple occasions. They wonder what to tell Arthur about Mordred since Gorfyddyd did not threaten him directly, and Merlin insisted that Gorfyddyd was lying. As they debate, they receive word that Arthur will attack even though Tewdric plans to settle for peace. In Derfel’s estimation, Arthur made his “bravest decision” at his weakest moment, a sign of his greatness. In front of Gwent’s royalty, Arthur admits his fault in the present war and insists that he is fighting Gorfyddyd on his own in defense of Mordred. Arthur’s men immediately reaffirm their allegiance, and Arthur begins to plan a trap in which a small contingent will provoke Gorfyddyd’s main army into a vulnerable position where their own main force can attack on favorable ground, including a surprise cavalry attack to the rear. This plan requires Tewdric to reconsider his position and rescue Arthur’s enemy from exposing their flanks and rear, but Arthur reasons that they will lose in any case if Gwent does not come. Derfel will play a leading role in the attack, fighting under his own banners.
Derfel’s men all agree to their dangerous mission, and they travel over difficult territory in inclement weather. Nimue is with them and inspires them to press on with the expectation that “tomorrow we shall warm ourselves on our enemies’ fires” (435). Before dawn breaks, they fall upon a Powysian garrison, killing many and sending the others into flight. They form a shield-wall and march into a narrowing valley, eventually seeing a much larger enemy shield-wall across from them. The enemy marches, and according to plan, Derfel’s men break into retreat. As the Powysians chase them down, Arthur’s forces appear on horseback and devastate the enemy, with few escaping. Rather than kill the prisoners, as Nimue wishes, Derfel has their fingers broken, so that they “might even wield a spear again, but not on this day” (444). Before heading to his next ambush spot, Arthur asks Derfel to wear his helmet, so that when the enemy counterattack, they will think they have found his main force.
Derfel struggles to adjust to Arthur’s armor while his men build defenses. Men of both religions say their prayers, and Nimue remains confident that Merlin has secured a purpose for them—restoring Britain to the gods in the long term and killing Gundleus in the short term. Derfel makes amends with Owain’s soldier who threatened him before, and Nimue removes the curse she had placed on them. Soon, Powys’s main force assembles on the far side of a river. Their Druids and Nimue offer competing charms, and then Valerin, the captain whom Derfel and Arthur just defeated in battle before escaping, emerges to issue a lurid denunciation of Guinevere’s alleged sexual history. In Arthur’s armor, Derfel responds to the challenge and kills him after a quick battle.
The main battle then ensues, Derfel remaining in the front rank despite the dangers, so that he both inspires his men and draws the attention of the main enemy force. After fending off several waves of enemy spearmen, Powys’s army discovers another ford in the river, and so they must retreat to avoid being outflanked. The enemy swells with fresh ranks, and Gorfyddyd himself emerges to challenge Arthur to single combat, which Derfel refuses, as Arthur has already taken his arm and “would never fight in single battle against a crippled man” (462). In response, Gorfyddyd tries to demoralize the army by hurling insults at Guinevere and Arthur, thinking them timid as they continue their retreat to a more favorable position. They gain the protection of a barricade on their flanks, but their thin ranks grow thinner under a massive assault, gaining rest only when the pile of bodies forces a separation between the armies. Derfel learns that Tewdric will indeed stay out of the fight, but Tristan, the minor king on whose behalf Arthur fought Owain, shows up with a small retinue, and they take the place of honor at the center of the line. Once again, Derfel hears Arthur’s horn blare, but as they attack the enemy turns their back ranks into a shield-wall and hangs on, just as Gundleus’s forces eventually manage to outflank Derfel’s position. He acknowledges that “we lost the battle and all that remained for us now was to die like heroes” (470). Prince Cuneglas comes to offer generous surrender terms, and much to Derfel’s delight, extends the greetings of his sister, Ceinwyn.
At that moment, raiders from Ireland appear in the other gap in Derfel’s flank. All seems lost, but then Merlin appears in the company of the Irish, interrupting the battle with a speech about his quest for the Knowledge of Britain, and asking for the help of both armies. Gorfyddyd tries to rally his men once more, but Merlin confides to Derfel that the Irish are there as allies, and when they join the clash with their terrible screams, “Gorfyddyd’s men collapsed like a pricked waterskin” (478). Arthur is demoralized because his plan failed, but he is still the victor and has secured his political position. As Gorfyddyd bleeds to death, Arthur dares his army to fight him, stripping off his armor. When they refuse, Arthur appoints Cuneglas king of Powys and calls for peace. As messengers travel the land to spread the news, the only remaining matter is Gundleus, the murderer of the king’s mother. Derfel, his men, and Nimue track him down to a Roman temple. Upon seeing Derfel, Tanaburs shrieks again about Derfel’s mother being alive, that he possesses her soul, and suddenly Derfel has a vision of himself as a baby, thrown into the death-pit as Gundleus’s men torment his mother. He then cuts down Tanaburs with a single stroke, and Gundleus screams as Nimue approaches him with a dagger, her eye socket empty. Mordred’s claim to the throne remains safe, for now.
Part 5 Analysis
The climactic sections of the book feature Cornwell’s hallmark battle scenes, exciting and immersive accounts of endurance, pain, brutality, despair, and exultation. The modern world has largely dispelled the notion of war as something noble—images of Verdun, Auschwitz, and Hiroshima having definitively put them to rest—but Cornwell is writing in the voice of a 5th-century warrior, for whom battle is the ultimate fulfillment of one’s life purpose. For the soldier, prowess in battle determines one’s social station—impressing a lord potentially puts one on a virtuous cycle where more wealth earns more followers, which leads to greater success, which then generates more wealth. While Derfel doesn’t look away from the horror of combat, his tone is utterly unlike the antiwar works of the modern era, most notably All Quiet on the Western Front (1928) or The Things They Carried (1990). Through Derfel’s eyes, war is the ultimate Interweaving of Beauty and Brutality, where something great is accomplished through the hacking of swords through flesh and sinew.
Derfel’s adventures may be thrilling, but the novel refuses to reinforce the central myth of the Arthurian age, which is that victory in battle represents not only one’s capabilities but one’s morality. It is this idea that allows Arthur to kill Owain without consequence, as the victor is by definition the truthteller. By that logic, the climactic battle is indeed a defeat for Arthur, and he recognizes it as such, “for his vaunted horsemen had been held and all he had been able to do was watch as we were cut down” (479). Arthur’s bold planning and brave execution are not enough to overcome the defection of Gwain and Powys’s overwhelming numerical superiority. However, the myth typically outpaces the reality, and Derfel says that “the bards still sing of that battle” and ignore the murkier details (458).
He also says that the battle marks the transition from the pure logic of the warrior code to a more nuanced and political view of Holding Power to Secure Peace. With Gorfyddyd dead and his army routed, it does not matter that Arthur required the timely intervention of Merlin who, for reasons that are never explained, managed to recruit the fearsome Irish Blackshields to Arthur’s side. What matters is that Arthur’s army is the one left standing, that (at least to appearances) he spent the whole battle in the front rank, and that “he was now, though he could scarcely comprehend it, the effective ruler of southern Britain, for there were no other men who would dare stand against his army, battered though it was” (485).
The rush of victory is quickly followed by an onrush of requests for favors, but the key difference from before is that Arthur has established himself as the sole person capable of granting such favors, and therefore keeping the various nobles in a state of relative satisfaction. By eliminating his main rival, he has achieved a degree of peace within Britain, albeit a precarious one that is unlikely to hold for long.
