83 pages • 2 hours read
Gary PaulsenThe Transall Saga
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1998A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Part 3, Chapters 46-56 and EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3, Chapter 46 Summary
Mark and his mount stop to drink at a river. He is accosted by a man with a scar on his face, who recognizes that Mark has a bounty on his head. The man wonders why Mark is heading toward Listra, the Merkon’s base, when the Merkon was the one to offer a reward for Mark’s capture, dead or alive. Mark explains that he needs answers. The man, Roan, decides to help Mark cross the river in a raft, and brings him to a hideout with other outlaws. Mark learns that the mark on Roan’s face marks him as a traitor, as he once tried to run away with the Merkon’s daughter.
Part 3, Chapter 47 Summary
Roan suggests that Mark join him and the other outlaws in a raid on the Merkon’s stronghold; they hope to steal the tribute kept there. Mark insists the stronghold is too heavily guarded, and that they should instead turn him in to gain entry.
Part 3, Chapter 48 Summary
Mark is taken to the Merkon’s lavish home. The Merkon greets him, pleased that he’s been brought alive. The Merkon takes off his mask, and Mark recognizes his appearance as being from his own time. The former explains that he was transported by the blue light in the 1980s, after he escaped from prison. The Merkon explains that they are on Earth, thousands of years in the future. A virus, and then nuclear war, wiped out the majority of Earth’s population. The Merkon also explains that the blue light appears at random, and that Mark will never be able to find it again.
The Merkon feels threatened by Mark’s power, as he is more knowledgeable than the rest of the population. He tries to kill him in armed combat with a sword. Mark produces his own sword and injures the Merkon, but leaves him alive. Mark takes the Merkon’s helmet. Roan and the other outlaws arrive, and Mark escapes with them.
Part 3, Chapter 49 Summary
Mark feels confused and overwhelmed. Roan is confused as to why he didn’t kill the Merkon; Mark thinks he felt a connection to the man because he came from the same time. Mark insists that he doesn’t need his share of the outlaws’ plunder, and decides to return to the Tsook town and Megaan. A group of the Merkon’s armed soldiers, led by the Merkon’s son Mordo, ride past but do not see the outlaws’ camp.
Part 3, Chapter 50 Summary
Part 3, Chapter 51 Summary
The town excitedly discusses Mark and Megaan’s upcoming wedding. Mark tries to get Megaan to accompany him on a hunt, but she insists it’s improper.
Part 3, Chapter 52 Summary
Mark rests by a fire he built. He is accosted by men, but they turn out to be Roan and Roan’s friend Francle. Roan tells Mark that due to the Merkon’s injury, he now stays in his room. The Merkon’s son, Mordo, swears to avenge his father, and is burning down the jungle looking for Mark. Roan and Francle offer to join Mark, who decides that he needs to leave the Tsook town in order to keep his friends safe. Mark insists that this is a fight he needs to face alone.
Part 3, Chapter 53 Summary
Megaan is upset that Mark is leaving, but he convinces her that it’s the right thing to do to keep her and his friends safe. Mark ensures that Mordo and his army of 40 men see him in the distance, and then leads them away from the town.
Mordo pursues Mark until nightfall. When Mordo’s camp is asleep, Mark disposes of the men’s mounts’ bridles, causing them to wander off.
Part 3, Chapter 54 Summary
The chase continues the next morning, with most of Mordo’s men now on foot. Mark dismounts once they near the jungle he was transported to years ago, and hopes his mount will find its way back to the Tsook town.
Mark feels nostalgic revisiting the arrow people’s village. He finds his old tree house and is greeted by Willie, his monkey-bear friend. Mark is surprised that the army hasn’t followed him into the jungle. He sneaks back to investigate, and sees Mordo has sent a few scouts into the jungle, but has camped with the majority of his men outside.
Part 3, Chapter 55 Summary
Mark leads Mordo’s men into the jungle the next morning, toward the buffalo-like creature (which gores a few men), the stinging insects, and then the quicksand. Finally, he sets off an improvised bomb. The remaining men run from the jungle.
Part 3, Chapter 56 Summary
Mark retrieves Willie and decides to return to the arrow people’s village. He is accosted by a scouting party of Mordo’s men, and struck by an arrow. He tries to escape the men, hiding behind a boulder and readying his crossbow. Suddenly, lightning strikes the boulder and the tube of blue light appears, pulling Mark into it.
Mark is transported to a mall in his own time. A boy asks if he needs a doctor.
Epilogue Summary: “Twenty Years Later”
Mark, now Dr. Harrison, is determinedly researching Ebola. He is trying to receive grant money and convince the government that the virus is an issue of global importance. His lab assistant observes that there is something “savage” about Dr. Harrison. She suggests that the team take a hike across the Magruder Missile Range.
Part 3, Chapters 46-56 and Epilogue Analysis
Adhering to a classic heroic quest, Mark manages to achieve his goal of returning to his own time through the tube of blue light. However, in an unusual turn of events, Mark achieves his goal once he decides it is futile. Upon learning more about the light from the Merkon, Mark gives up on finding it: “[I]f it was true that the blue light struck randomly, then there was very little hope of his ever returning to his family and his own time” (220). He resigns himself to his new reality, focusing on the friends he’s made during his four years on Transall.
Furthermore, Mark genuinely wants to marry Megaan and finds solace in the Tsook town. Mark’s sudden return to his own time is an unexpected twist; fittingly, he finds the tube in the jungle, the place that marked the beginning of his story. This ties the beginning and end of the novel together in a satisfying, circular manner: Mark’s time on Transall ends where it began. However, the Mark who returns is a far cry from the confused, lost boy he was. Having survived against impossible odds and gained the love and respect of many on Transall, Mark’s return is somewhat bittersweet; while not necessarily a safe place, Transall had become home. It also leaves the fate of loved ones like Leeta, Sarbo, and Megaan ambiguous—considering the Merkon and Mordo are still very much threats.
There seems to be something preordained in Mark being transported to Transall. He learns about a devastating virus from the Merkon and Pet, one that will wipe out most of the world’s population: “[T]here was a massive plague from a strain of virus much like the Ebola […] Scientists tried everything but they couldn’t find a cure. It swept over the world, killing at least seventy percent of the population” (213). Armed with this knowledge, Mark returns to his time determined to find a cure for Ebola and alter the course of human history. His lab assistant articulates that he is “obsessed with finding a cure. He’s already come up with several possible vaccines for the virus” (248). Mark struggles to convey the importance of his work, as no one else is aware of the impact that the virus will have on the future. It is clear that he is inspired by his time on Transall, as his lab assistant hears him whisper, “Megaan, this is for you” (248).
During his time on Transall, Mark proved heroic in his courage and selflessness, facing dangerous environments and foes without hesitation (especially for the sake of others). As an adult in his own time, Mark continues to exhibit heroism in his determination to save the human race from devastation. This decision is particularly poignant considering the ephemeral nature of Transall: Mark will never live to see Leeta, Sarbo, or Megaan, and in an ideal scenario, his loved ones probably won’t exist to begin with (as Transall may never come to be with Mark’s diligent research). Mark’s heroism is contrasted with the Merkon’s callous, ruthless nature. The Merkon is revealed to have been a criminal on Earth, and uses his knowledge and strength to demand tribute from the Tsook tribes rather than better their lives (and likely prefers this life to his time on Earth, as he doesn’t actively seek the blue light). The blue light claiming Mark to “save” him from Mordo’s men reinforces the idea of his journey being preordained—as the protective man is in many ways the perfect candidate to save Earth from its own destruction.
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