WW: Books - Ware Hawk

The Sorcerer's Conspectus:

A comprehensive view of Andre Norton's Witch World

by Lotsawatts

`Ware Hawk

6th Novel in the [Witch World: Estcarp Series] by Andre Norton

ware hawk

[Expanded Reading Order] [Bibliography Page] [Read it Here] [Return to Contents]

Edition Used for Analysis:

(1984) Published by Ballantine Del Rey, PB, 0-345-31685-1, $2.75, 258pg ~ cover by Laurence Schwinger

Synopsis:

Tirtha is the last legitimate descendant of the Lord and Lady of Hawkholme just across the border into Karsten. After working since adulthood at menial labor, she has finally saved enough money to hire a guard-escort to return to Hawkholme to recover a treasure she has seen only in dreams--the Lady of the manor putting a casket into a concealed room. The guard/guide she finds at the hiring fair is a Falconer, who has lost both his falcon and his left hand. With some trepidation, she does hire him, knowing the Falconers' attitude towards women. While crossing the new-Turned mountains into Karsten, they are attacked by a foul creature of the Dark, but together vanquish it. Later, they come across the remains of the Falconers' Eyrie, and a "wild" falcon joins them, attaching himself to the Falconer. The bird leads the Falconer to a place where Karsten's forces had been caught by the avalanche of the Turning, and points the man to a sword/knife retaining some Power. Once they reach Karsten, Tirtha needs to enter a trance so she can far-see the path to the ruins of Hawkholme, but what she sees is not her path, but a vision of a brutal raid upon a newly established garth of a Karsten citizen. Together she and the Falconer ride to a possible rescue and find Alon, a young child, so terrified by the raid that he has managed to hide himself by becoming invisible. The falcon aids them in bringing the child back to himself, and the three of them continue the journey to Hawkholme, where they encounter the forces of the Dark who had raided Alon's home, and who also are trying to gain possession of Tirtha's "treasure." While regaining the treasure, Tirtha is badly wounded, Alon is captured and the Falconer is badly wounded and left for dead. Alon's newly-awakened powers enable him to escape, taking Tirtha with him into the open, where they are joined by Crytha, Yolan and Urik. Nirel (the Falconer) makes his way to them, and all of them join forces to defeat the Dark One. ~ SL

Timeline Points:
The 3 page prologue lists the history of events from the Kolder invasion leading up to the opening up of Estcarp and the return of Simon Tregarth and Jaelithe. (see: Witch World to Sorceress of the Witch World)

p1. Chapter 1:
p1. 'Once Romsgarth had been a major town where far-traveling merchants met—the last Estcarpian hold before the overmountain way to Karsten.' 'The days of those merchants, with their busy going and coming, were nearly two generations ago, banished now into the past. Karsten—who went to Karsten by mountain roads now? There were no roads since the turnings for the mountains themselves had set up new barriers unknown to any save outlawed men, skulkers and raiders, drawn from afar to seek refuge in holes and dens.' 'Three years of severe winters would have reduced even the most lawless to a small threat.'
p2. 'Such life as had returned to Estcarp now lay in the north—in those rich lands once more to be set under plow in a week or two, and the ports where Sulcar ships nosed in, those hardy traders already seeking their old sea tracks.'
p3. 'Since the Witches of Estcarp had wrought their magic in the Turning, upheaving the mountains and making the land walk and so destroying the invading forces of the Pagar, who had risen to rule in the southern duchy of Karsten, no one knew what lay overmountain in these days.' 'The bits and pieces of knowledge Tirtha had gathered so avidly from any wayfarer… …made clear that the duchy had been split into many small holdings often at war with one another. No lord since Pagar had gained power enough to make the broken duchy whole again.'
p7. 'There were at least three, who, she decided, were bound for the same place as drew her—the hiring fair held here in the early spring. They were better dressed, fuller of face than she was, as if they did not know the gauntness of late winter.'
p9. 'A Falconer!' (Falconers)
p10. 'Now Tirtha instinctively looked for that bird—black with the white vee on its breast, its dangling red tresses—which should be riding on it's master's wrist.' 'This thing he wore was not a hook, rather something it split at the end into five narrow prongs, resembling a bird's tearing talons.'
p10-11. 'They were a clannish lot, and, though they hired out their services, it was always as a troop or a squad—their commander making the bargain for them.'
p12. 'There was something about him that reassured her instinct, which she had come to rely upon through the past four years.' Tirtha: "I shall pay two weights of gold for a service of twenty days—half in advance."
p15. Chapter 2:
p16. Falconer: "There was a hosting hereabouts two months ago. The Marshall's men swept out a nest of raiders and their lookouts." 'Thus they struck farther west, and the way went rough, and the way was fought, leading up slopes where it was necessary to dismount, urge their snorting ponies to tread delicately over chancy footing, winding around drifts of seasons-old avalanches, halting at regular periods to rest their mounts and themselves.'
p17. '…grain out of Esland which she had found in Romsgarth market.'
p18. 'Having finished, her new shield man slid off his helm for the first time, so she could see the full face of the man she had taken on trust. He was neither young nor old—she could not have set any age on him. Thought there was a gaunt youthfulness about his chin and thin-lipped mouth, there were also lines between his eyes and a great weariness in those eyes themselves. His hair was dark as her own, clipped tight to his skull like one of those woven caps the Hold Ladies wore abroad. For the rest, she thought he looked much as any man of the Old Race might—save that his eyes were not the dark, storm-grey of her people, but rather held in their depths a spark of gold—as might those of a bird of prey.' Falconer: "I was a scout two years ago when there was some thought of return…" "There was nothing left."
p19. Falconer: "It (Karsten) is a land of battles—or rather petty skirmishes, one lordling against another. Since Pagar, their last overlord, fell, there have arisen none who can impose their wills—or the weight of their swords—enough to bring a binding peace. The Sulcar come, under arms, to deal with some merchants. The iron out of the Yost mines, the sliver of Yar—those can pay any captain." "Thus it is, along the western coast and below the mountains. What lies farther east.." He shrugged.
p20. Tirtha: "As you see, I am of the blood Yvain strove to erase from a land where he and his were, to begin with, intruders and invaders."
p21. Tirtha: "Rouse me at the time the red star shines."
p22. 'He who ruled in Estcarp now—Koris of Gorm ¹—was only remotely of the kin…Simon Tregarth was an Outlander, not of the kin at all. His Lady was a forsworn Witch…' 'These three ruled Estcarp, and their influence was felt. So there was no longer any recruiting of Witches, save of such manifest talent that they withdrew from life by their own desire.' There is also mentioned to be more mingling of bloodlines, more children, and more trade with the east. War still in Escore.
p23-26. Tirtha dreams of Hawkholme.
p28. 'No snow cat, none of the rare verbears rumored to have come into these mountains since the Turning, would so befoul the night air. This was something different.'
p29. Chapter 3:
p29. 'There was a dull yellowish glow—two such on a line. Eyes!'
p30. 'She was well aware that what strove to reach them was wholly of the Dark—a thing such as the Songsmiths averred dwelt in the halls of Ever-Night.'
p32. 'The barrier had been broken in Estcarp with the passing of men into Escore. Might it have been cracked here as well when the Witches of Estcarp had summoned all their Power to rive this country? Perhaps in that act they had also destroyed defences they had not known existed.' Tirtha wonders if the Kolder still exist in Witch World.
p33-34. The thing of the Dark is described as having 'a hairy limb' 'a distended paunch' 'In colour those were near the same grey-white of the stones about them. The skin was matted over by a coarse grown of thick-fibered hair or fur. From one of the large eyes protruded the end of a dart. The other had wept tears of mucous [from Tirtha's blinding powder], oozing down to a mouth that formed the lower part of the face…' '…Tirtha believed the creature would stand equal in hight to her, and she surmised that it had gone erect, two-footed, for the upper appendages ended, not in paws, but in handlike extensions possessing talons as thin and as cruel as the Falconers claw.' 'The muzzle gaped open, but even closed, the fringe of teeth within must have interlocked outside, and those fangs were as long as her middle finger, sharp-pointed, able to tear any body those along hands could drag down.²
p36. 'She [Tirtha] herself wore the soft-soled, calf-high. travel gear known in the border land—supple, with many layers of sole, the bottom one which was made of sac-lizard hide…'
p39. 'This was no mountain pony, but instead a Torgian—one of those reprised mounts that might cost a hold keeper near a year's crop in price. They were not large or imposing as to looks, but their staunchness, their speed and endurance, mad them the choice of any who could raise such payment.' 'Some of its breed, Tirtha had heard, were battle-trained, specially shod on forefeet to cut down a dismounted enemy.' They discover the body of a stranger who might be of Tirtha's kin.
p43. Chapter 4:
p44. 'the Long Road' How the Old Race refers to death.
p45. The Falconer speaks in old Falconer language over the grave.
p46. Among the stranger's belongings she discovers an ancient record holder.
p48-49. Tirtha describes her parents escaping the Horning.
p50. Tirtha discovers the rockslide had revealed a symbol on the cliff face. . 'What she read was a sign she had seen only once before, when she had wintered in Lormt, that greatly revered and nearly deserted repository of truly forgotten knowledge.'
p51. 'That thing they had slain in the night—it was certainly not of Estcarp, nor Karsten either. There was that war which still raged to the eastward between the Shadow and the Light. Had such conflict once touched this land?' Tirtha: "This is an old land, very old. It hides years upon years of secrets. Perhaps the mountains, when they leaped at the Call of the Council, merely moved into a pattern once known before."
p52-53. Tirtha uses the symbol to open the record tube.
p58. Chapter 5:
p58. 'However, the Falconer ventured down stream to return, swinging from a reed thong, a brace of plump water hens.' [more Witch World wildlife. Possibly a wading bird of some kind like a marsh hen/moorhen?]
p59. 'There were certainly no holds this deepen the highlands—only the Eyrie which the Falconers had built and which had been destroyed.'
p61. 'There was a thin sliver of new moon showing, as well as stars.'
p62-63. The grave of the stranger with the Hawkholme cloak clasp strengthens the geas on Tirtha.
p65. 'Also there was greenery to be sighted in pockets ahead, as if they had now passed through the sharp rock desert which had been the outer forbidding part of the mountain ways. They hunt a pronghorn [a type of deer] and spot 'a lazy scattering of well-fed quarewings out of a patch of fresh standing law-leaves—the crops of the birds so stuffed that they seemed too weighted to take to the air…' [more Witch World wildlife]. 'They were two days crossing this gentle land…'
p66. 'On the afternoon of the fourth day after they had ridden out of the protected valley, the vegetation grew sparser, their path once more led into a barren country as it climbed. Just before nightfall they sighted a fall of stone.' The Falconers "The Eyrie…"
p67. 'There was certainly little to show that this had been the site of the centuries' old dwelling place of his race—at least nothing she could distinguish. She had heard that the Eyrie had been so well designed that it had the appearance of a hollowed-out mountain, and that very few, if any outsiders (and those only of the Borderers and males) had ever crossed it's one-time drawbridge. Here was nothing but river stone resembling any other slide they had skirted or crossed during their travels. Her companion held his head well back on his shoulders, gazing up the line of that heap of rocks, as if he hunted desperately for something that should still exist. In turn, she imagined a mist out of the past come to cloak that slide, to show for a heartbeat or two the fortress that had been. Yet she could truly not trace anything at all.' 'He called, the words she did not know spiralling up, then running into a single sound that might be the scream of a hawk. Three time he uttered that cry. Then he was answered!'
p67-68. 'The Falconers had been well warned; surely they had taken refuge down in Estcarp before the churning of the height. Certainly also her companion could not be old enough in years to have been sword-oathed to one who had lived here before the end of the Eyrie.³
p68. 'Black of feather, with the white V marking on the breast, a falcon of the Eyrie—or else the descendant of such a one—wildliving, for it did not wear the scarlet jesses that marked the partnership between man and bird.' the Falconer speaks with the falcon by making similar cries.
p69. 'It was only when it winged to the west…' Falconer: "This is no road, not now. We must go back and take a northward turning, and that before the dark closes in."
p70. Falconer: "Such are not outlaws—nor those from Karsten. They are others from the east." 'From the east! That snout-nosed monster out of the dark! Things on the move from Escore over-mountain!'
p73. Chapter 6:
p75. 'As far as Tirtha could determine they now headed southward. She had no way by which she could calculate how much longer this mountain travel would take. All roads and known trails had been destroyed with the army that had marched along them, on the day the mountains had been moved.' 'They had been on their twisting trail, having to backtrack sometimes to seek another route (for hereabouts the ravages of the overthrow were far worse and more apparent to the eye), for a period of time well into the morning when they came across the first signs of that drastic wiping out of invaders a generation ago.⁴
p76. 'What he (the Falconer) drew into the open was a hilted blade—not the length of a full sword—nor yet that of a long dagger, but somewhere between the two.' 'Once more the bird took to the air, this time descending to the pony which the Falconer had ridden.'
p77. Falconer: "A thing of Power…" 'The blade was not smooth, as it had seemed from a distance. Rather it was deeply engraved with a pattern. She saw thereon such symbols as she knew were of the long forgotten elder knowledge, and where the blade widened near the hilt there was also an image of a beast inserted in another metal—blue like the symbol on the valley wall. This was a creature such as she had never seen, though it might not be even a living entity, but rather a dream vision of some adept, used as a chosen mark for his blood and house. The hilt, which was revealed through the loose clasp of her companion's fingers, was of the same blue metal as that inlay, ending in a bulbous globe of murky substance like a huge dull gem, smoothed but unfaceted.' 'This was indeed a thing of Power, perhaps never meant to be a slaying weapon at all, rather a focus used by someone who would command forces.'
p79. 'Then he swung upon the pony and pulled at the reins, bringing the mount around so that once again they retraced a way, out of that rubble- and death-choked valley into the second passage.' 'That night they advanced into a more open section of a valley that sloped upwards at the far end in the direction of what Tirtha believed must be a pass. The jagged peaks guarding either side looked as if sections of the earth had been slashed out by sword strokes, turned edge upward against the sky. There was a brutal savagery about this entrance to the land ahead that posted a warning against further advance.'
p80. 'Twice more during the day they passed evidences of the slaughter that had ended the army of Pagar and pushed the southern land back into barbarism. There was rusted metal, once a the pole of a standard, planted upright among stones, the width of its banner now only a few threads windwhipped and knotted about the pole. There were bleached bones. They were well content to skirt such traces of the carnage that must have filled these ways.' 'However they could not attempt the pass until morning, so they made a dry camp beneath heights where the wind howled and whistled until one could almost believe it echoed the cries of the dead.' 'The falcon had taken to the air as they had come to camp and perhaps found some forage in the heights above. It did not return until dusk neared night…' '…the Falconer spoke. "We are within perhaps a day's journey of the foothills. I have served more than a quarter of my served time. What would you have of me when we are down from the heights?" It was a fair question. She had set is service as twenty days simply because she had wanted to make sure of his guidance and company through the mountains."
p82. Tirtha: "I have thought to travel east through the foothills and then strike overland." [to reach Hawkholm]
p83. 'In the morning they climbed to the pass. The way upward was longer than it had looked from below, for the footing was rough, and they dismounted several times to lead their beasts.' 'It was past midday when they stood in the notch of the pass itself to look down upon the outward sweep of the over-mountain country, which was no longer one land but a number of quarrelling fiefs in which war and pillage had ruled for years. The foothills were tree-crowned—it would seem that the fury of the Power had not reached here to uproot and crush. Tirtha, looking upon them, was pleased, for it seemed to her that this was the type of country that would best serve those who needed cover. She turned a little to gaze eastward and saw that there were the dark lines of what could only be woodland in that direction.'
p83-84. 'In the old days, the plains of Karsten had been most fertile and open to the west. There had been the garths of the farmers and the landowners among those younger, newer people who had spread inward from the sea. The cities and holds of some pretence of importance had all lain there. The Old Race, her own people, had withdrawn gradually from those settlers who had come overseas in days now shadowed into legend. They had established their own holdings to the eastward. In some places the advancing newcomers had proved hostile, and there had been no intercourse at all between the old blood and the settlers. In other sections there had been friendliness and sometimes a trading of skills, neighbor aiding neighbor. So it had come about that some of those neighbors had suffered death and worse in the day of Yvain's Horning because of aiding the escape of her own kind.' 'It would be mainly in the plains, where the land was rich and there were cities, that any struggle centered now. Farther south lay other provinces (from one of which Pagar himself had come) where the new people were even more firmly established and occupied the whole of the area. However, these foothills, just like those on the other side of the border, might give refuge to outlaws and masterless men who had become pillagers and raiders. It was the kind of country to attract such.'
p84-85. 'She saw it now—a column of smoke rising from between two of those hills. It was far too thick a pillar to be born from a campfire. Something of greater consequence, perhaps even the buildings of a farm, burned there. Though what farmer would choose such settling for his holding? Or did that mark an outlaw power raided by whoever stood for law and order here—even as the Marshal's men strove to clean out such vultures' nests to the north?'
p85. 'An afternoon of descent brought them into wooded land.' 'It was plain that the animals scented water. They found it in a stream that ran fast and clear at an angling path from the north, where it must have been born among the mountains, toward the west and south, perhaps to join the river on which Kars stood. There was cover in plenty—a copse of trees growing closely—composed of that mountain pine which flourished in these upward lands.' 'It was still light enough to see…' [evening, they make camp]
p86. 'Tirtha leaned forward and on impulse dropped into the very small flame before her a pinch of one of her herb packets. There was a puff of whitish smoke and then scent. She inhaled as deeply as she could, striving to draw it into the full expansion of her lungs. Tonight she must dream!' 'This lore she had had as a child from a Wise Woman, though she had never dared to use it before…'⁵
p88. Chapter 7:
p88-90. Tirtha enters a trance and astral travels, seeking Hawkholme. Instead she finds 'the garth of a small landholder' recently attacked and all but one of it's residents slain. She is drawn to the terrified child.
p91. 'She opened her eyes upon the night, their handicap of fire, the Falconer seated cross-legged beside it.' 'A full moon above provided brilliance stronger than she had ever seen, the better for the task that must be done.
p92. 'For all their somber reclusiveness and their well-tested fighting ability, those of his race did not kill wantonly, nor ever amuse themselves with such nastiness as she knew had blasted the garth. Falconers dealt clean death when and if that were necessary, risking always their own lives in the doing. But for the rest, no man could ever declare that they were merciless barbarians, no matter how much the Witches of Estcarp disliked their private customs.'
p93-94. Tirtha locates the invisible child.
p95. 'There was a sound from the falcon. The man's head whipped around, his helm tilted as he looked up at the bird and listened to the sounds uttered by the feathered scout. Then he turned to Tirtha, where she knelt, cradling the child. "The Brother can see it," he said quietly. "What witchery holds for us does not curtain his eyes. He says that it is not wounded, but in deep hiding within itself, that there is great fear in it."
p96. 'Falconers knew nothing of children. They did not even own those they fathered. In their villages of women, men impregnated selected females, perhaps several of them, within a stated time, but they were never true fathers. When they were six, the male children went into the Eyrie, or they had in the old days—to be housed apart, trained by selected fighters who were old or maimed and unable to serve in the field. They had no true childhood, and it would seem that the custom served their way of life adequately. To be saddled not only with a child, but one invisible and perhaps catatonic, would be an experience none of his kind had faced before.'
p97. 'Back they rode into the forested hills; again the Falconer led.' 'The falcon made periodic flights, reporting back at intervals. Though the man did not translate for her any messages it brought, Tirtha guessed that they were in no immediate danger from any other travellers in this land.'
P98-99. 'Those now of Karsten have no witchery," he pointed out. "And the Old Race…" "…were long since damned and doomed here, yes. But that is not to say that some of the old stock could not have remained in hiding. Also, we can wed with others and prove fruitful. Some of us have mated with the Sulcars who have no witchery in them, their power lying in their sea knowledge only. There is also Simon Tregarth, the outlander. He bedded with one of the Wise Council. They outlawed her for it, saying she was none of them but a traitor to their beliefs. Yet it is true that he had something of the talent, and neither did she lose hers for being wedded as they had sworn she would. Three children she had at one birthing, which was never known before. And all three have the Power—still have—for it is they who, they say, now lead the war in Escore and have opened that land again to the Old Race. Thus it could be that one of my blood bred half kin here, who had talent. If that lies within one, then it can be summoned when the need is great."
p99-100. "Even Lormt held no such secret as this. No, I am of the Old Race, but I have very little talent. I am a healer of sorts, and I can use the vision-seeing. That is the best of my learning. As you know, I can sense life essence and communicate with animals after a limited fashion. But all that I know or have heard of illusion is that it must be summoned by ritual, and that is not done swiftly or with ease. I do not see how one pursued, as those tracks showed, could have so wrought to hide this child in that way." "Then how else—?" "The child itself. In Estcarp, girl children were tested early—sometimes when they were no more than five or six. The power can be recognized even at so small a score of years. Here in Karsten there would be no such recognition. Suppose a child of the full old blood—even of mixed blood—was born with full power. Such a one might see the world differently from the way we view it, and that early enough so that it would learn to hide what it was and what power was in it or be taught to so hide it by one close to it. There would be no formal training, but if danger—fear—were great enough, that fear in itself might open a door to the full talent, such as comes usually only after a long training." "Uncontrolled, frightened by great terror, then a child's instinct for survival might react as a protection, overriding the need for ritual that a trained Witch or Wise One would have as a barrier to betrayal through their own emotions."
p100-101. "I wonder…" He rubbed on of the prongs of his claw along the side of his thin cheek as he might draw finger. "The Brother in Feathers can see where we cannot; can he reacher farther than we may hope to?" "The Brothers in Feathers are more than birds. There is much they know that we do not. Some of their senses are far clearer and keener than ours. Remember, he saw the child, the illusion did not hold for him. Therefore, if the outward illusion does not blind him, perhaps the inner one might not either. Would it be harmful to try?"
p102. Chapter 8
p102-103. The falcon, drawing energy from the Falconer and the gem in the short sword brings the child out from his coma with Tirtha's assistance.
p103. 'In her arms she held a child that she could see.'
p104. 'Those eyes, which had been screwed so tightly shut slowly opened. Dark gray they were, and with that in them which she recognized. This was the blood of her people—the child was one of the Old Race.'
p105-106. "Gerik!" Fear flamed with that name as a fire might rise when fresh wood is laid onto it's blaze. "There is no Gerik here." She summoned words. To answer mind to mind was no skill of hers. "I am Tirtha and this…" "I am Nirel, little brother," he [the Falconer] answered for himself.' 'Little brother? Yes, it was a boy she held, which surprised her. For so legendary was it that such power of illusion could only be summoned by a woman, Tirtha had been certain she had carried out of that carnage a small girl. He was young, but perhaps older than his size would suggest, and his body, hardly covered by a short, tattered shiftlike garment, was brown and wiry. The dark hair of the Old Race had a slight wave where one longer lock fell across his forehead, near touching his level brows.'
p106. "I am Alon"
p112. Alon is at least 12, possibly older.
p116. Chapter 9
p131. Chapter 10
p145. Chapter 11
p159. Chapter 12
p173. Chapter 13
p187. Chapter 14
p201. Chapter 15
p215. Chapter 16
p229. Chapter 17
p241. Crytha, Yonan & Uruk appear.²
p243. Chapter 18

Sorcerer's Notes:
1. Based on what is given in Songsmith & The Magestone this novel is set in 1057 Years After The Betrayal.
2. This must take place after Trey of Swords which takes place alongside the events leading up to chapter 6 of Warlock of the Witch World, placing their appearance here shortly after Sorceress of the Witch World.

Footnotes:
1. Mistype of Gorm
2. This is very close to the description of a Thas except that it's taller and has proper eyes instead of dark holes.
3. How long after The Turning did Andre intended this story to take place? How young is this Falconer?
4. Is Andre saying this story is meant to take place nearly 20 years after the Turning?
5. Besides the Witches, it appears the Old Race in Estcarp also has herbalist Wise Women, possibly those with not enough Power to become Witches.

The Sorcerer’s recommend that you read next: Voice of Memory

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Formatted and Edited by Jay Watts ~ May, 2022

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