Bandits Take Ardanwen but Fail to Get the Ring

The bandit attack on Tiuri is a sharp reversal in his journey: he keeps the ring that is essential to reaching Menaures, but loses Ardanwen and is left alone in the dark forest. The encounter tests what he is willing to sacrifice for the mission and turns the ring from a private keepsake into a necessity he will defend at almost any cost.

The Ambush on the Forest Road

As darkness gathers, the ring on Tiuri’s finger begins to glow again. Its light is too faint to guide his way, but enough to encourage him as Ardanwen carries him forward. Tiuri has grown accustomed to the ordinary sounds of the forest night, and after a while he finds himself on a winding path that seems to lead west.

The attack comes without warning. He hears whispers unlike wind in the trees and branches cracking without the sound of animal footsteps. Men spring out on both sides of the road, including one from a tree, and surround the horse. There are about ten of them, rough and bearded, armed with clubs, swords, and daggers. One raises a lantern, exposing the attackers as they demand Tiuri’s money or his life.

Tiuri is badly frightened and trembles, but tries not to show his fear. He tells the robbers that he has no money. Their attention shifts first to Ardanwen, which their leader recognizes as a fine horse, and then to the ring on Tiuri’s hand. A robber seizes that hand; the leader insists that he wants the ring. The attack has narrowed to two things Tiuri cannot afford to lose, but for different reasons: the horse carrying him onward and the ring required for the journey ahead.

The Ring and the Threat

Tiuri remembers why the ring matters. He must show it to Menaures, the hermit at the spring, so that Menaures will take him across the mountains. Losing it could endanger the route on which Tiuri depends. When the leader orders him off the horse, Tiuri refuses to surrender the ring, even as the robbers crowd around him.

He admits that he is alone and unarmed, and that he is powerless against them, but says that he would rather die than give up the ring. He explains that it belonged to someone who has died and is very dear to him. The appeal does not immediately soften the leader: instead, the man threatens to take a finger in place of the ring. Another robber crudely urges him to cut it off, and a second offers to do so with his drawn sword.

Tiuri accepts the proposed exchange. He will lose a finger, he says, and still have four left. He hears himself say it as though someone else were speaking and is astonished by his own words. The choice makes the stakes unmistakable: preserving the ring for the mission matters to him more, in that moment, than preserving his whole hand. His courage does not erase his fear; it is a decision made while he is trembling and believes he has no power to stop the robbers.

The Leader’s Reversal

The threatened mutilation does not happen. The leader wrests the sword from the robber who wanted to use it and strikes him across the ears. He then rebukes the group, declaring that Tiuri has more courage in one finger than all of them have in their bodies. The leader tells Tiuri to keep the ring and put it away carefully, warning that there are more robbers in the forest.

This unexpected intervention changes the immediate outcome without ending the robbery. The leader recognizes and praises Tiuri’s courage, but still takes Ardanwen, insisting that he must have something. Tiuri begins to protest, then sees the leader raise his dagger and hears the others muttering threateningly. He understands that he has to obey and walks away on unsteady knees. Behind him, the robbers argue; their leader orders them to be quiet and obey. Ardanwen neighs as they take him away among them, and the lantern’s light soon disappears.

Aftermath and Significance

Once the robbers have gone, Tiuri staggers farther along the path, collapses, and cries from the fear he has endured and the loss of Ardanwen. The episode therefore ends not in triumph but in an uneven escape: Tiuri retains the ring and survives, while the horse that had carried him is gone. His distress registers the cost of the leader’s decision as clearly as the earlier confrontation registered his resolve.

After he has recovered somewhat, Tiuri removes the ring from his finger and hangs it around his neck. He then continues through the dark, feeling his way through hilly ground strewn with rocks and stones after wandering off the path. At last he can go no farther and sinks down to sleep. The robbery leaves him without his horse and without the road, but with the ring still in his possession—and thus with the object he needs to continue toward Menaures.