THE HAWTHORN TREE

“I shall ask the North Wind and the Dawn to bring us immediately into the presence of the one person in England whose existence is the greatest threat to me!”

As the novel reaches its conclusion we are privy to a strange and opaque scene that takes place upon the wild moors of Yorkshire, beneath the shadow of a hawthorn tree. At this point in the book The Gentleman with the Thistle-down Hair has asked his magical allies to take him to the person who is the greatest threat to him. In reply to this he and Stephen Black are transported to that spot upon the barren moor. There is nothing there but the Yorkshire landscape beneath a winter sky, and the leafless February tree. Vinculus arrives soon after they, but in his ragged coat The Gentleman doubts that this unknown man can be any threat to him and indeed, it seems little enough that Vinculus does. He arrives and he dies an apparently purposeless death and it is difficult to see how, if at all, he poses a threat to the Fairy. There has been some discussion therefore as to who or what constituted the greatest threat to The Gentleman, the personage to whom The Gentleman and Stephen Black were taken, whether it was Yorkshire itself, the stones and river of which were soon to kill him; or whether it was Stephen Black, the agent of this destruction. Perhaps, indeed, it was John Uskglass himself, waiting in the shadows, a dark puppet master directing the action.

The book has been described as a 'love poem to Northern England' and in its pages it is clearly stated that to faeries such as The Gentleman everything lives, everything possesses life. It would therefore not be beyond the realms of possibility for the North Wind and the Dawn to identify the landscape itself as the the greatest threat to The Gentleman. The hawthorn tree itself is a curious component in the scene, the only thing that could set this one area of moor apart from any other, and its inclusion may hint at the significance of the landscape, for the hawthorn is a tree with a long and mystical history. Traditionally it is the tree of healing, the Whitethorn, the equal and opposite to the Blackthorn or Sloe, the tree of harm. The blossom of the hawthorn that blooms in May is the harbinger of summer, and at Beltane it is traditional to take a branch of may, the blossom of the hawthorn, and place it above the door, a prophylactic against harm. Yet for all this, and for all that the novel itself declares that 'The hawthorn will answer any question', the tree in this scene remains stubbornly silent, serving only as a makeshift gallows upon which Vinculus can be swung.

The idea that it is Stephen Black who poses the greatest threat to The Gentleman with the Thistle-down Hair seems at first glance to be obvious. However, on further reflection it is seen that this solution is perhaps the most problematic and the most difficult to support, although Black is the agent of The Gentleman's destruction the relocation to the hawthorn tree seems without reason. If Stephen Black is the greatest threat then The Gentleman is already in his presence and the magical transportation to the hawthorn tree seems to be a nonsense that is without either explanation or purpose. If a solution is to be found to this puzzle it must, of necessity, be both logical and explainable through the context of the book. That the solution is Stephen Black is neither of these things, it leaves too many questions unanswered and asks more than it resolves.

To posit the presence of John Uskglass at this place and time is both lazy and unhelpful. Although the events of the book are 'the spell that John Uskglass is doing' it is too easy to use him as a type of 'Deus ex machina' where his name and his magic function as a catch all explanation for anything that seems at all mysterious. Simply say the magic words 'It was part of the Raven King's spell' and all is suddenly solved, there is no need for further explanation. The difficult question has been swept beneath the carpet, yet it remains nevertheless. Furthermore there is no indication that that John Uskglass is present at the hawthorn tree at that time. The Gentleman and Stephen Black do not perceive him there and there is nothing in the book that implies his presence and we must therefore assume that he was not physically in attendance and cannot be the threat to whom the faerie was taken.

It seems then, that apart from a few vague suppositions about the landscape we are left with Vinculus himself. As has already been mentioned it is difficult to see why Vinculus would have been considered The Gentleman's greatest threat and it is still not enough to simply say it must be Vinculus because it is no one else. A reason must be found and a reason must be given. If Vinculus is indeed the greatest threat to The Gentleman it must somehow be explainable within the context of the book. As the scene beneath the hawthorn tree is the only time they ever meet it is more than likely that the necessary evidence must lie there, in something Vinculus does or says during that time. It seems at first glance that he does nothing, indeed his behaviour is strange throughout the entire scene, as though his presence alone is enough. He neither fights nor struggles as he is killed and as the scene ends he is left hanging dead upon the hawthorn tree, unread, unknown, ignored as The Gentleman goes on his way unharmed to take revenge upon all his imagined enemies. We know of course that The Gentleman is walking to his death, that the spell performed by Strange and Norrell will devolve upon Black and give him the power he needs to destroy his enchanter and free both himself, Lady Pole and Arabella Strange from the whiles of the fairy. Yet is seems little that Vinculus does to promote this happy resolution, his arrival and death seem to be oddly disconnected from the events that follow. However, a close reading will show that this is not the case and Vinculus's contribution to the events that end the book are very real and most certainly vital.

In one sense it may be said that it was the death of Vinculus that enabled this, that this was the last horror that pushed Stephen Black over the edge and allowed him to break the training of a lifetime and put an end to all his enslavements. However, Vinculus played a more subtle but even more important part in these events; a part without which none of these things could have taken place, without which Stephen Black would have been unable to kill The Gentleman. The fairy would have then been at liberty to make good his threat to kill Lady Pole, set up Stephen Black as the puppet King of England and take his revenge upon the whole of the English race.

The thing that Vinculus does to prevent this chain of events, the very reason he arrived at the hawthorn tree at dawn on that snowy day to keep his deadly appointment is so subtle, so strange and ultimately so simple that it is easily overlooked. In a word Vinculus interrupts. As Vinculus is approaching the hawthorn tree The Gentleman begins to tell Stephen Black the story of the ashes, the pearls, the counterpane and the kiss, declaring that the 15^th of February will, in future, be known as the day of the 'naming of Stephen Black'. It is exactly at the point where the name is to be pronounced that Vinculus finally reaches his destination, his mere presence interrupting the flow of both The Gentleman's words and thoughts. Determined now upon killing Vinculus it is as though the excitement of the murder pushes the intention of naming Stephen Black from his mind.

This simple interruption, bought at the cost of Vinculus's life, has enormous significance for it is upon this single thread that the whole of Stephen Black's future depends, as well as the lives and freedoms of Arabella and Lady Pole, and the final resolution of the Raven King's prophesy. In order for everything to work out as it should it is necessary that Stephen Black remain 'The Nameless Slave' so that the spell done by Strange and Norrell can devolve upon him rather than upon it's intended recipient. Should Stephen Black have been named this could not have happened. No longer 'The Nameless ' the power of the Yorkshire landscape would have passed him by rendering him unable to prevent The Gentleman from destroying Lady Pole. In consequence Arabella would have remained a prisoner in Faerie and it is more than possible that Black would have been set up as the king of England, a puppet to perform The Gentleman's whims. It is only because Vinculus interrupted, only because he sacrificed his life upon the hawthorn tree to maintain that interruption, that Stephen Black was able to destroy The Gentleman and allow the final resolution of the novel.

This gives the interesting effect of making The Gentleman the architect of his own destruction. Had he not chosen, in his arrogance, to seek out the greatest threat to himself and destroy that person, had he quietly named Stephen black in the kitchen of Sir Walter Pole's house then nothing could have stopped him in his ambition. Instead his consistent longing for death and revenge against all his imagined enemies proved, at last, to be his undoing.