The Beatryce Prophecy

These chapters make up the first book within the story and introduce the main characters and the fantasy world of the book. The novel takes place in a fairy-tale-style kingdom, where it is forbidden for women to read and where prophecies are relied upon, even though they are typically vague and uncertain. Reading and prophecies are the driving forces behind much of the novel’s conflict, and together, they intertwine to establish how Beatryce came to be snuggled up beside Answelica. Despite the law against women reading, Beatryce’s mother insisted that Beatryce be educated but always emphasized the importance of keeping this fact a secret. The king’s wicked counselor is later revealed to be the first tutor who taught Beatryce and her brothers and who was fired when he professed his unrequited love for Beatryce’s mother. To get back at her, the counselor twisted two vague prophecies to his ends, showing how prophecy is not a definitive marker of what is to come. The first prophecy allowed the counselor to install a king on the throne whom he could influence. The second prophecy (and the one around which the novel’s events revolve) speaks of a girl child who will unseat a king, and the counselor uses the king’s own fear to manipulate him into attacking Beatryce’s family, the event that jumpstarts the main plot arc.

Beatryce’s character arc revolves around her struggle to deal with what happened to her, which spotlights the book’s major theme of Coping with Trauma. Prior to the book’s opening, the king’s soldier who appears in Part 2 attacks Beatryce’s home, killing her siblings and taking her mother prisoner. Beatryce survives by playing dead, and from then until she wakes in the monastery, her memories are a mess of blurry and painful recollections that her body responds to by spiking a fever to keep her asleep and unaware of what happened. Beatryce’s giving the memories to the fever in Chapter 7 is repression, the act of unconsciously blocking memories from the consciousness, a process defined by psychologist Sigmund Freud and used to minimize anxiety or guilt. Beatryce experiences survivor’s guilt because she lived while her brothers died. In addition, the memories cause her great anxiety because the events terrified her in the moment. Beatryce does not yet have the tools or strength to face what happened, but she also realizes that she cannot let the experience claim her completely. Repressing the memories is a defense mechanism that keeps the experience intact so she can come back to it when she is ready, and it allows her to move forward to gather strength, which she initially does through Answelica and later through all her friends in support of the book’s main theme Being True to Oneself.

Brother Edik also illuminates the theme of Being True to Oneself. He cannot set aside his compassion and concern for Beatryce, even if it means his fellow brothers scold him. Even the goat Answelica demonstrates her true attributes—constancy and protection—when Beatryce presents her with the opportunity instead of fearing her and assuming her evil intent.

With Brother Edik as an exception, the monks of The Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing represent the dangers of being closed-minded. Where Edik is open to new ideas, such as disguising Beatryce as a boy to keep her safe, the other monks have fixed views that they refuse to deviate from. To them, Answelica is a demon-goat, a girl reading is illegal and a bad omen, and the prophecies in the Chronicles of Sorrowing are the holy word meant to be written down and interpreted by those in power. Their closed-minded natures keep them from seeing how caring Answelica can be, how Beatryce’s ability to read could bring much-needed change, and how the prophecies are abused by those with the power to do so. The king’s counselor takes advantage of the monks prior to the beginning of the novel. As a learned man, he has been afforded the privilege of reading the Chronicles of Sorrowing. The monks believe that anyone who reads the prophecies does so with the utmost respect for the brotherhood’s work, yet another way their closed-minded natures keep them from seeing the truth. Rather than caring about the prophecies or the monks, the counselor seeks prophecies that will serve his purposes and allow him to gain the power he believes he’s been denied by not being of noble blood.

The short sections that take place in the king’s castle are there to show Beatryce’s plight from the other side. Fairy tales often contain the quest of a peasant on their way to becoming royalty, detailing the trials and tribulations this person must undertake to achieve royal status. Rarely do such tales consider those harmed during the would-be monarch’s quest. Beatryce is one such person. She breaks the law by knowing how to read, but other than this, she has done nothing specifically to the king that should see him bring down retribution upon her and her family. Rather, he does so out of the fear she will undo all the hard work he’s done to obtain the crown and his new position of power. The king’s fear for his fate keeps him from understanding that his order to kill a girl does so much more than remove a threat and secure a throne. The order tears apart a family and causes unnecessary strife for those left behind, which reflects the petty politics of real life. Political groups and individuals often make choices based on the benefit to themselves or their allies, not considering or realizing how those decisions trickle down to affect people who have nothing to do with the decisions themselves.