For previous chapters in this review, click here or go there by clicking on the The Graveyard Book tag in the tagcloud in the bottom right hand column.

If you have not already done so, watch Neil read chapter four here.

Chapter 4 The Witch’s Headstone

After foreshadowing being the central subject of the last chapter’s read-through, it becomes clear soon enough that the time has come for Bod to undertake the classical hero’s quest.

At the start of the chapter, Bod, as the central hero of the story, is warned not to go looking beyond the edge of the graveyard. Bod has heard this warning often in the past and since Bod is an obedient boy, he satisfies himself by only asking questions of Silas.

‘[I]n your land, they blessed the churches and the ground they set aside to bury people in, to make it holy. But they left ground unconsecrated beside the sacred ground, potter’s fields to bury the criminals and the suicides, or those who were not of the faith.’

In his favourite thinking spot, the apple tree that he eats the fruit of readily, Bod oversees the potter’s field. While trying to get at a particular nice-looking red ripe apple, Bod breaks the branch that he is on and lands himself right where he wasn’t supposed to go.

It’s great to see the apple as the of symbol of knowledge return in so many forms in as many stories. Here it particularly strikes me that Bod, in his search and reach for knowledge, he finds himself to have ended up in exactly that one place he wasn’t suppose to go. It shows us clearly enough, that while absorbing knowledge, we will never know where we travel until we are there and there is no turning back.

And there indeed seems no turning back for Bod either, when he meets the young girl witch in the potter’s field and hears the tale of her trial. When the attempted drowning didn’t suffice, she surfaced to curse the onlookers to unrest in their lives beyond, which gained her a spot atop a pyre and the unmarked grave at which she still lives. Elizabeth Hemstock with a big E, for Elizabeth, like the old queen that died when she was born, and a big Haitch, for Hempstock.

As befitting a hero, Bod decides that he will have to get Liza a headstone. Since his savings only go as far as the coins that were left in the graveyard by its frequenters, he goes back to the Celt’s tomb and the guardian Sleer to retrieve a treasure large enough to buy a headstone in town. The jewel Bod picks is the red snakestone inlaid in a silver snake with too many heads. But the Sleer warn him that the jewel always comes back.

This passage reminds me of the concept of the false quest object. Although in this case, the jewel that Bod retrieves from the tomb is indeed valuable, it was never his to take and the stolen treasure will never serve Bod’s intended purpose. Hinting at this fact are several things. One is the Sleer’s assertion that ‘It comes back. Always comes back’. Also, the jewel itself. The red snakestone is mounted on a silver body of a snake with too many heads. The trickster serpent symbolism is abound here and the many snake heads leads me to think of another trickster, Medusa. The jewel is a false object in the quest. In truth, it is not, like Bod hoped, the treasure that will bring the quest to a good end, it’s the hero’s cunning and wit that will help him to complete his task and this not without effort and sacrifice on the hero’s part.

Bod goes into town, into the pawn shop of Abanazar Bolger. The name is cleverly chosen. Abanazar is the name of the evil sorcerer that disguises himself as a lamp trader in the tale of Aladdin and who locks the unsuspecting youth in the treasure vault. As soon as Bod shows Abanazar the treasure, Bod is locked in the back room and the snakestone is taken from him. Abanazar remembers the man Jack, who was looking for a boy fitting Bod’s description and weighs the pros and cons of keeping Bod to find more treasure or contacting Jack to gain a reward. As Bod tries unsuccessfully to recall Mr. Pennyworth’s directions for Fading, Liza, who is buried in unconsecrated grounds and therefore not bound to them, shows up to pitch in her tuppence. She overhears enough conversation between Abanazar and his business partner, Tom, to know that they mean Bod harm.

Bod arms himself with a paperweight and paint to chuck at his captors in case of emergency and with help of Liza manages to Fade. Abanazar and Tom believe Bod to have escaped and a fight over the ownership of the snakestone breaks out. Abanazar and Tom manage to take each other down into unconsciousness, which gives Bod the chance to use a piece of paper, a paintbrush, his wit and cunning to get himself safely out of the store room. On the way out, Bod and Liza snatch the snakestone and Jack’s contact card with them.

Off back to safety, Bod runs into Silas, who unfortunately for Bod plays up the ‘I am disappointed in you’ tactic. Bod gives Silas Jack’s card to dispose of and returns the snakestone to the Sleer. Bod realises that he was unable to get Liza the headstone that he had in mind, but gives her an even more precious token. With the paint and paintbrush from the pawn shop, Bod makes a headstone out of the paperweight, swirling with colour. On it he writes, E.H. we don’t forget.

Two hundred miles away, Jack wakes up knowing something has happened.

There are a few more remarkable things hidden in the story that complement the theme of the hero’s journey of this chapter. The snakestone is an item that will corrupt the minds of the greedy and can only be retrieved and wielded by the fearless and pure at heart. A similar item was the One Ring in the epic hero tales of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The One Ring was also an object that exuded power over the weak and greedy and could only be handled and withstood by the strong and brave.

Also, the hero in a quest will often have to bring a sacrifice of their own to win one of the trials of the task. In this tale, Bod quite literally gives himself up to escape the store room. With help of his friend Liza, he all but fades away completely. If dissolution of one’s self is not the ultimate sacrifice, I do not know what is !