37 pages • 1 hour read
Michael CrichtonEaters Of The Dead
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1976A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaChapters 15-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 15 Summary: “The Counsel of the Dwarf”
Back in the kingdom of Rothgar, Buliwyf leads his men away from Hurot Hall to a series of nearby caves where people with dwarfism live. Herger explains that these people are believed to possess magic powers and are kept apart from the rest of the community from an early age. They also make weapons “that are highly prized” (77) by the Norsemen. They find an old person with dwarfism named Tengol who is considered a soothsayer. Tengol knows that their recent attack on the wendol failed and advises Buliwyf to choose a more honorable path. Tengol says Buliwyf must kill the mother of the wendol who dwells deep inside the thunder caves. Tengol gives Buliwyf ropes and daggers. Once the mother of the wendol is dead, Tengol explains, the wendol will “be mortally wounded” (79), but they will lash out one last time. Buliwyf accepts the mission.
Chapter 16 Summary: “The Events of the Night Before The Attack”
No mist means that the kingdom of Rothgar is safe from the wendol for one night. At the feast that night, Ahmad joins in the revelry and feels that he was “born a Northman” (80). Herger, drunk, finally describes the mother of the wendol to Ahmad. She is old and lives in the thunder caves, which only have two entrances. One faces land, the other faces the sea. The wendol guard the land entrance so the Norsemen plan to attack from the sea. That night, as everyone sleeps, Buliwyf comes to find Ahmad. Ahmad has learned enough of the Norsemen’s language that he can understand Buliwyf if he talks slowly. Buliwyf says Tengol’s prediction includes Buliwyf’s inevitable death. Buliwyf and Ahmad discuss Ahmad’s literacy again; Buliwyf tells Ahmad to be careful in the caves, while Ahmad assures Buliwyf that he is not afraid.
Chapter 17 Summary: “The Thunder Caves”
Buliwyf, Ahmed, and the remaining warriors ride to the cliffs overlooking the sea. Ahmad is hung over from the previous night’s feast. The warriors plan to use the ropes from Tengol to lower themselves over the cliffs and enter the thunder caves via the sea-facing entrance. Ahmad is afraid of heights, so Herger tells him to emulate Buliwyf, who rides forward despite Tengol’s prediction that he will die.
Buliwyf lowers himself to the caves first; Ahmad follows nervously, muttering prayers. When all arrive, they swim into a small lake inside a cave. The warriors quickly kill a few wendol gathered around a fire. For the first time, Ahmad sees the wendol up close. They are squat and hairy with large faces and prominent jaws. Their large heads feature sunken eyes, heavy brows, and sharp teeth. Ahmad’s description suggests that the wendol are Neanderthals.
Buliwyf leads his warriors deeper into the caves. They find three wendol men praying to a shadowy figure, the mother of the wendol. Buliwyf kills the three wendol then chases after their mother, who is surrounded by snakes. Buliwyf stabs her many times and she dies. Afterward, the warriors notice that the mother stabbed Buliwyf in the stomach with a silver pin. He bleeds heavily but shows no sign of pain. Under Buliwyf’s guidance, the warriors escape the caves through the land entrance. The wendol guards have fled at the death cries of their mother. Once out of the caves, Buliwyf collapses. The men carry him back to Hurot Hall. Though Buliwyf is mortally wounded, he jokes and then calls for a feast on their return.
Chapter 18 Summary: “The Death Throes of the Wendol”
Ahmad is awoken by Herger after the feast. The pre-dawn air is thick with mist; in the distance, the wendol amass to avenge the death of their mother. The warriors are joined by Buliwyf, who is “pale as the mist itself” (89). A raven sits on each of his shoulders and the Norsemen raise their weapons in the air at the auspicious sign. Buliwyf says nothing but readies himself for the wendol.
Ahmad struggles to describe the last battle. Many people die and much blood is spilled. Ahmad kills three wendol and is stabbed in the shoulder with a spear. Dawn arrives and the wendol begin to disappear. This time, they do not take their dead with them. Ahmad takes this as a sign that they are in “disarray” after the death of their mother and will not attack again. The celebrations are interrupted when Buliwyf’s body is carried into Hurot Hall. Rothgar makes a short speech then leaves, ashamed that he was too old to fight alongside Buliwyf. Wiglif makes a derisive comment about Buliwyf. Ahmad almost attacks Wiglif, but Herger knocks him aside for his own protection. Herger kills Wiglif and declares the matter settled.
Only four of Buliwyf’s warriors are still alive. A woman volunteers to sacrifice herself during Buliwyf’s funeral ceremony. The ceremony takes place and Buliwyf’s body is burned on a ship. Ahmad promises to write down Buliwyf’s story to make him a legendary hero. He watches as the burning boat is pushed out into the sea.
Chapter 19 Summary: “The Return from the North Country”
Ahmad spends several weeks in the kingdom of Rothgar until he desires to return home. Though he is reluctant to allow Ahmad to leave, Rothgar tells him that he will always be welcome to return. A ship is prepared to bring Rothgar’s last living son, Wulfgar, home and Ahmad joins the crew. Herger chooses to remain in the kingdom of Rothgar. As say their goodbyes, Herger asks Ahmad about Islam. Herger cannot understand any religion with just one God because “a man cannot place too much faith in any one thing” (94). Ahmad is sad to leave his friend, as well as the remaining warriors. Ahmad’s manuscript ends abruptly as the ship sets sail.
Several short appendices explore some details of Ahmad’s story in greater depth. The Editor suggests that the wendol are Neanderthals who survived the extinction of their species and endured as a community in a remote part of Scandinavia. The final appendix details the connection between Eaters of the Dead and the Norse epic poem Beowulf. Many parts of Buliwyf’s story are echoes of events in Beowulf.
Chapters 15-19 Analysis
The final chapters of Eaters of the Dead explore the complex Norse idea of honor and reveal how fully Ahmad has become integrated into Norse culture. In the climactic scene at the thunder caves, Buliwyf must regain his honor after his failed attempt to take on the wendol in their home. As he is told by Tengol, trying to do so was an underhanded and dishonorable plan. Because the plan lacked honor, it was doomed to fail. Buliwyf accepts this judgment silently, suggesting that Tengol is telling him something that he already suspected; he was driven by desperation not befitting a great warrior. Buliwyf accepts that he will die in the process of defeating the mother of the wendol and regaining his honor, but he is not afraid. He does not search for alternatives nor challenge Tengol’s advice, indicating that he is fully invested in the Norse belief system. Buliwyf knows that he will go to the afterlife if he dies an honorable death, so his death is not the end of his journey.
Crichton uses Ahmad’s outsider status to highlight the dramatic stakes of Buliwyf’s decision. Ahmad is surprised that a man would so willingly embrace the inevitability of his death. However, just like the woman who volunteers to die in Buliwyf’s funeral pyre, Buliwyf embraces his death because he believes that dying in an honorable fashion is preferable to living in a way that lacks honor. Once Ahmad begins to understand this, he understands the nature of the Norse culture and its ability to create great heroes. A heroic death is the greatest achievement a Norse warrior can attain, so the willing pursuit of a heroic death leads to more heroic deeds and more heroes. This predilection for heroic behavior impresses Ahmad and, for the first time, he begins to envy elements of Norse culture in comparison to his own. Crichton repeats the funeral rite first seen in Chapter 7, allowing both Ahmad and the reader to mark how much they have learned and changed over the course of the novel.
Ahmad’s now profound appreciation of Norse culture is best expressed by the change in his behavior. While his narration indicates that he respects Buliwyf and the other warriors, his actions demonstrate the extent to which he has come to share their beliefs. In the aftermath of Buliwyf’s death, Ahmad attacks Wiglif for his derisive comment about the hero. At any previous stage of the novel, Ahmad would have ignored Wiglif or made a comment of his own. However, Ahmad has become so invested in Norse culture, and so convinced of Buliwyf’s heroism, that he believes that any insult to Buliwyf’s honor must be violently avenged. Ahmad’s sudden move toward violent retribution, particularly in a fight which he is heavily outmatched, shows that he has changed as a person. Herger saves Ahmad, killing Wiglif for the same reason, and demonstrates how deeply he has come to value Ahmad’s friendship in return. Herger’s growing interest in Ahmad’s culture mirror’s Ahmad’s earlier scholarly approach to the Norsemen and indicates a reciprocation of cultural appreciation. By the end of the novel, Ahmad does not just understand Norse culture, he has internalized their ideas and changed his behavior as a result.
This last portion of the novel most closely mirrors Beowulf, in which the hero is mortally wounded while killing the mother of a monster he defeated earlier in the text. Once again, Crichton blends myth with historical anthropology, transforming the supernatural elements of the epic poem into a pre-historic humanoid species via the speculation of the editor. This final transformative act in the appendices reverses the conventional understanding of myths and oral traditions as early forms of science.
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