Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-12

Chapters 13-18

Chapters 19-25

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapters 13-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 13 Summary: “6th October”

Emily feeds Wendell Poe’s scones, which only temporarily relieve his symptoms. She notices the tree faun foot growing agitated and shifting constantly. While venturing outside to avoid panic over Wendell’s condition, Emily hears Professor Eichorn in the distance. She chases the voice into the forest despite it being past nightfall and finds a stray ribbon of Eichorn’s. She also spots a female figure in the distance with the tell-tale green hair of Danielle de Grey, who swiftly vanishes.

Emily becomes lost and must pick her path back to the cottage carefully, or else she might end up in the Otherlands with Eichorn and Dani. Just as Emily is about to give up on returning, she hears Wendell calling her name, which lures her back to safety. They reunite, but Wendell tells her she’s strayed a long way from the cottage and they decide to camp for the night. Wendell turns her cloak into a warm tent, and Emily becomes brave enough to kiss Wendell. They have sex for the first time.

Chapter 14 Summary: “6th October — Late”

Early the next morning, Emily asks Wendell about a previous topic they’ve discussed; he’s mentioned before that according to the rules of the Folk in his realm, his mother must leave one path to her defeat open. Wendell admits his stepmother is likely trying to kill him now because of his proposal to Emily; she sees Emily as a lesser adversary compared to Wendell and believes that she’ll more likely stay in power if Wendell is gone and only Emily remains to take the throne. Emily asks Wendell if he can track Eichorn using the ribbon she found. Wendell’s attempt leads them to Eichorn, whom Wendell pulls out of the Otherlands at last. The trio returns to the cottage where Rose, Ariadne, and Shadow remain. Wendell promptly collapses from the poison—its symptoms exacerbated by the magic spent pulling Eichorn out of Faerie—and the bird shadows on his chest become worse.

Emily, Rose, Ariadne, and Eichorn discuss how to find de Grey, but Rose objects to how erratic Emily has become; he believes she’s dangerously rushing into things that must be approached methodically and strategically. Eichorn brings Emily, Shadow, and Rose to a valley at the base of the Grünesauge where he believes she disappeared. Emily places the collar she stole from Cambridge’s dryadology museum on Shadow to strengthen him for the journey. Emily encourages them to stay out after dark with her while she inspects the area for faerie doors. A local named Agnes shouts at them to go inside, but her warnings are brushed aside by Emily. They’re soon after attacked by tree fauns and fortunately rescued by a group of brave locals gathered by Agnes. Shadow’s grim nature is heightened by the collar, and he mistakes a local named Eberhard for a tree faun in the chaos, shaking him violently before throwing him aside. The locals take Eberhard back to town before anyone can address what happened. Emily’s group returns to the cottage, where Emily blames herself for the disaster.

Chapter 15 Summary: “7th October”

Shadow tiptoes around Emily the next day, ashamed of his actions. She’s since removed the magic collar, and while she blames herself for Shadow’s violent outburst, she is also terrified to have witnessed that side of him. Rose believes the townspeople will soon evict them from town for insulting their Folk and injuring a local. Emily returns to her rooms to sulk but is followed by Rose, who encourages her to work with them as a team to fix her mistake. He tells her a humorous life story in an attempt to cheer her up and afterward offers to be her academic mentor when they return to Cambridge. He even offers to write the foreword for her latest Folk map book project. They’re interrupted by a powerful pounding on the cottage door, which they assume are the nocturnal fae. When Ariadne theorizes the tree faun foot in Emily’s possession might be agitating the Folk, Emily has a sudden realization and opens the cottage door to find Danielle de Grey on the doorstep. Dani possesses a tree faun’s horn, Eichorn possesses its teeth, and Emily possesses its foot—all of which have been desperately attempting to reunite.

Wendell pulls Dani from the Otherlands, which further weakens him to the poison and he falls unconscious. Emily later leans down to the sleeping Wendell and accepts his marriage proposal. He wakes and tucks her hair behind her ear, his magic sending her back in time to the moment he’d last done so. Emily remembers the conversation about his cat, Orga, who Wendell claimed to trust with his life. Emily becomes certain that Orga is the key to curing Wendell of the poison.

Chapter 16 Summary: “8th October”

After 50 years in the Otherlands, Dani and Eichorn are content to abandon their search for the nexus. Desperate to save Wendell, Emily forces them to show her the nexus so she may enter Wendell’s realm, steal his cat from the castle, and return to cure Wendell. Though Emily wishes to go alone, Ariadne refuses to stay behind with the others. On the journey to the nexus with Dani, Eichorn, and Ariadne, Emily is visited by Poe, who can travel through her key like a faerie door. He reveals that Wendell’s realm is in turmoil since his stepmother has continued conquering neighboring kingdoms. He also delivers a compass from Lilja with a letter that claims she doesn’t know its capabilities, only that it was gifted to Margret’s ancestors by the Tall Ones and might help Emily on her mission.

Dani leads Emily to the nexus, which happens to be the Winter Folk’s door with its crystalline doorknob. Dani claims that the nexus is another door within the faerie’s home and gifts Emily with the tree faun horn, which contains poison in its tip that is harmful to faeries. Ariadne and Emily enter the faerie’s home undetected and search for the door. Emily soon realizes the door they originally passed through has transformed into the nexus and contains six different doorknobs. Emily opens a few, which show Greece and Russia. Emily and Ariadne open the bottom knob made of wet moss and white flowers and pass into Wendell’s kingdom.

Chapter 17 Summary: “9th October”

Lilja’s compass is not helpful in navigating toward Wendell’s castle, but Emily leads them west after remembering a past conversation with Wendell about his kingdom’s geography. They travel lesser-used roads to avoid notice.

Chapter 18 Summary: “10th October”

Emily and Ariadne sleep in shifts to keep safe at night. Emily carves off the poisonous tip of the faun horn and grinds it to a powder, which she stores on her person. She believes it’s the poison his stepmother used against him.

Chapters 13-18 Analysis

As Wendell’s magic is continuously used, Emily must come to terms with the fact that “[she] did not know the limits of Wendell’s magic, and perhaps [she] never would” (209). Her acceptance, however hesitant, illustrates that she’s slowly yet surely coming around to the idea of accepting his marriage proposal. As she tells Wendell before sleeping with him for the first time, “I’ve had enough of things being complicated between us […] I will never stop being terrified of the prospect of marrying you. How could I? It would make me queen of a land of nightmares. But I would like to settle this side of things, at least” (181). Emily begins to come to terms with the fact that like the Folk, Wendell himself will never be predictable nor his realm entirely safe. However, given what he’s proven through his faith in her intelligence and his enchantments on her wardrobe items, she can always rely on him to protect and support her to the best of his abilities. This revelation highlights a major shift in Emily’s character development. Emily has always favored the predictable, rational side of things. She desperately clung to the possibility that she may be able to understand Wendell and his kingdom on a fundamental level before agreeing to marriage, needing predictability and the comfort of familiarity in her life. Here, however, she forgoes all of her instincts and welcomes unpredictability and the irrational for the sake of love.

Balancing Objectivity and Subjectivity becomes nearly impossible when Wendell illness brings him perilously close to death. As his condition worsens, Emily’s academic projects fall to the wayside. She soon notices that she “[has] not worked seriously on [her] map book in several days—indeed, there are times that [she] almost [forgot] about it. Not once did this happen with [her] encyclopaedia; the project was at the back of [her] mind constantly” (172). Similarly, for the first time ever, Emily wonders whether to abandon the expedition so as to prioritize Wendell’s health over her research. Emily’s increasing subjectivity is most apparent in sections of dire consequence or immense discovery. In moments of peril or ground-breaking discovery in the first installment, Emily would marvel over her gained knowledge rather than the fate of her or her companions. In stark contrast, when Emily becomes lost in the forest and hears Wendell’s voice, instead of acting rationally and pausing to determine whether it is a faerie trick, she runs toward his voice without hesitation, despite her inner voice advising against this. Additionally, when Eichorn and de Grey are both pulled from the Otherlands by Wendell, who promptly collapses from magical strain, rather than focus on the long-lost scholars, Emily is focused on ensuring Wendell is comfortable—even going so far as to make him tea.

In this section, the themes of The Dangers of Arrogance and The Benefits of Accepting Help From Others are intertwined. When Emily recklessly becomes lost in the fog, she at first believes she’ll easily find her way out, but “tried not to wonder how many times Eichorn and de Grey had told themselves the same thing” (177). While she is beginning to see the faults of her arrogance, she doesn’t truly see them until the night tree faun assault Emily, Rose, and Eichorn, who must be defended by the locals. Emily is at first amused by the resulting chaos. However, when a local is grievously harmed by her actions, Emily sobers up and realizes there’s nothing ridiculous about the Folk, whose danger must be noted with the utmost seriousness. Emily soon accepts that everything that has happened is her fault and worries “how long [they] will be permitted to shelter here, after what [she] has done” (202). When Emily faces dire consequences after underestimating the local Folk, she finally admits she’ll continue to fail in her mission to find Wendell’s nexus until she relies on the support and expertise of others. Prior to this moment, any time Rose or others would offer contradictory advice, Emily would frustratedly think, “This is why I work alone” (192). Yet now, she fully admits “[her] arrogance has made [her] too unafraid of the Folk, too dismissive of the danger they represent” (206). She’s more aware of her shortsightedness than ever before and not only accepts help from Ariadne and Rose, but also agrees to a mentor-mentee partnership with Rose, who offers to write the foreword for her map book. When Emily loses her confidence after the tree faun incident and retreats to the solitude of her room, Rose follows to comfort her and suggest embracing the inevitable: moving forward. Time and time again, Rose advocates for teamwork and reliance on others until Emily finally accepts it as beneficial rather than a hindrance. This eventual understanding shows when Emily allows Ariadne to accompany her into Wendell’s realm and when she leans on de Grey’s expertise to find the nexus.