Edwinem

Edwinem is the celebrated paladin of Unauwen whose death gives Tiuri a mission to carry west across the mountains. Known as the Lord of Forèstèrra and the bearer of the White Shield, he is remembered for great deeds and opposition to evil; his final journey, however, ends not in an honorable duel but in murder. The secret letter he was carrying is left unmentioned in Ristridin’s account, yet it explains the flight and death that turn Edwinem’s unfinished task into Tiuri’s charge.

Identity and Reputation

Edwinem held several names and titles: he was Edwinem of Forèstèrra, lord of an estate by the sea, a paladin of King Unauwen, and a wandering knight. The titles join two sides of his life. He belonged to Unauwen and possessed a fine estate there, but he also travelled beyond the settled security of home, like Ristridin, in pursuit of knightly adventures. His reputation was not simply inherited from rank: Ristridin describes a man who performed great deeds and consistently fought evil.

The contrast between that reputation and his end is deliberate. Ristridin remembers Edwinem as noble, good, and nearly impossible to surpass, yet the account of his last days shows that courage and prowess cannot protect a knight from betrayal. The epithet of the unconquerable paladin survives, but the story insists that he was defeated without a fair contest. His death therefore darkens the ideal his name represents rather than disproving it.

Friendship with Ristridin

Edwinem and Ristridin were close friends as well as knights serving different kings: Edwinem was a paladin of Unauwen, while Ristridin served King Dagonaut. Their friendship crossed that political distinction. Ristridin recalls that the two had fought side by side, and speaks of Edwinem not as a distant celebrity but as a companion whose loss remains painful. His account is an act of remembrance, offered to Tiuri during their watch.

Their relationship also reaches back to a planned journey with Bendoe. In the spring, Edwinem and Bendoe had promised to visit Ristridin at his brother’s castle near the Gray River, from where the three intended to explore the Wilderness Wood, a place none of them had visited before. The plan gives a glimpse of an ordinary future shared among friends—one soon displaced by Edwinem’s duties and the danger following him. Ristridin’s later search for him is driven by that personal bond as well as by the threat posed by the Red Riders.

The Mission and the Pursuit

When a party of Unauwen knights arrived as envoys on their way to Eviellan, Edwinem rode at its head on a black horse. The knights wore white armor and carried white shields, while rainbow-colored cloaks distinguished the splendid procession. The account introduces him in public and ceremonial company, but the mission he carried was more dangerous than Ristridin’s story initially discloses. That story is expressly incomplete: it says nothing of the letter for King Unauwen, although the letter was the cause of Edwinem’s flight and death.

Ristridin later recognizes that Tiuri has a secret and suspects that the knight with the White Shield had entrusted him with something. He infers that Tiuri is heading west, beyond the mountains, perhaps into Unauwen itself, and that the Red Riders mean to prevent him from reaching his destination, just as they had tried to stop Edwinem. Tiuri confirms that he has been sent by Edwinem and presents Edwinem’s ring as proof of the connection. The surviving mission thus links the dead knight to the young courier without disclosing the letter’s contents.

The Last Encounter and Death

In Ristridin’s account, news of Edwinem’s last encounter reaches him indirectly, through reports heard in a village by the Green River. Two black knights had fought: one bore a red shield, the other a white one. Edwinem had removed the black from his shield. He defeated his opponent but did not kill him. The Red Riders then arrived and drove the victor into the forest; afterward, the riders disappeared. An old man who had been with the winning knight returned and rode at speed toward the capital.

Ristridin and Bendoe divided their search. Bendoe went to the capital, while Ristridin entered the forest, but he found no trace of Edwinem or of the knight with the White Shield. He eventually reached the capital too, arriving just after the ceremony for the newly knighted. News there concerned a young man who had run away, but Ristridin was focused on Edwinem and the Red Riders. After he and Bendoe failed to find the old squire, the king authorized an immediate investigation; Ewijn and Arwaut joined them. The search ended when they learned that Edwinem had been found murdered in the forest near the Inn at Yikarvara, where he had stayed briefly.

Death and Narrative Legacy

Edwinem’s death completes the grim reversal in Ristridin’s story. One of Unauwen’s bravest and most loyal paladins, celebrated as unconquerable, has been overcome not in fair combat but by treachery. His foreboding that he would never see his country or his beloved Forèstèrra by the sea again has come true. The estate and homeland that give his titles meaning are now places he cannot return to.

Yet his task continues. Tiuri carries Edwinem’s ring and identifies him as the knight who sent him over the mountains to the west. The letter itself remains outside Ristridin’s account, preserving a gap between the story of the dead paladin and the full purpose of Tiuri’s journey. That gap gives Edwinem’s brief presence lasting force: he is absent from the road, but the danger that killed him pursues the mission he entrusted to another.