Ewijn

Ewijn is a knight of King Unauwen, a former soldier in Edwinem’s company, and an envoy who brings a message of friendship to Dagonaut. His significance lies both in the service he has rendered and in the history he can explain: through his testimony, Tiuri learns that the danger facing Unauwen is rooted not simply in conflict with a neighboring country, but in a struggle within the royal family itself.

Identity and Service

Before he was knighted, Ewijn served under Edwinem and accompanied him on the expedition to secure Vorgóta Forest. Ristridin was there too, and Ewijn recalls that their company succeeded in driving out the hostile band. His account places him among the soldiers who took part in the campaign, rather than among its leaders: he was present in Edwinem’s retinue, but the evidence does not identify him as Edwinem’s squire. Indeed, when Tiuri asks whether he held that position, Ristridin explains that Edwinem’s squire was instead an old, weathered, thin man.

Ewijn’s service continued in a different capacity when King Unauwen sent him to carry a message of friendship to Dagonaut’s king. In speaking with Tiuri, Ristridin, and the castle lord, he describes the people of Dagonaut as friends who share the same enemy. The mission makes him more than a witness to Unauwen’s troubles: he is also a representative of a kingdom seeking understanding and friendship beyond its borders.

The Kingdom He Describes

At Ristridin’s suggestion, the company settles in after the meal with wine to hear Ewijn tell the history of his homeland. He presents Unauwen as a country long regarded as exceptionally beautiful, governed for a very long time by a wise and just king. For centuries, he says, peace endured there; war and discord are recent, and their source lies at the heart of the realm. This contrast gives the political crisis its particular weight: it is not an old, settled hostility, but a rupture in a kingdom whose remembered condition was peace.

The rupture centers on King Unauwen’s two sons. Born on the same day and separated in age by only a few minutes, they nevertheless occupy different positions in the succession: the elder is crown prince and, from the age of eighteen, serves as viceroy and steward of the realm. Ewijn explains why the younger brother finds this distinction intolerable. The princes resemble one another in appearance and intelligence, making the small difference in their ages seem to him an inadequate reason for their unequal standing. Yet their characters are not alike. The crown prince resembles his father and thinks about the welfare of the realm and its future subjects; his younger brother is ambitious and hungry for power. The likeness that might have made their positions seem interchangeable instead sharpens the younger prince’s resentment, while their opposed priorities make the rivalry consequential for the whole country.

From Family Discord to Open Conflict

Ewijn traces the brothers’ growing estrangement into hatred and hostility. King Unauwen has tried in every way to reconcile them and persuade his younger son to accept his place, but he is unwavering on one point: he will not divide his kingdom. The realm must remain whole under the rule of the person designated to inherit it. The king’s refusal makes the succession dispute a question not only of who will rule, but of whether Unauwen will remain a single realm.

The crisis has already extended beyond the royal family. The Crown Prince has tried several times to make peace, Ewijn reports, and is said still to love his brother; the Lord of Eviellan, however, has rejected every approach. Unauwen’s knights have therefore taken up their white shields and belted on their swords, preparing for further fighting with sorrow. Ewijn’s account links the external conflict to the broken relationship between the princes: the king’s refusal to divide the country and the younger son’s refusal to accept reconciliation leave peace increasingly difficult to secure.

Ewijn as Witness and Storyteller

Ewijn’s authority comes from two kinds of proximity. He served in Edwinem’s company during the operation in Vorgóta Forest, and he speaks as a native of Unauwen about the kingdom’s history and present divisions. He distinguishes what he personally saw from what is reported: he remembers the successful expulsion of the hostile band, while describing the Crown Prince’s continuing love and the hopes for peace as things said to be true. His account thus carries both the weight of a participant’s experience and the limits of a report shaped by rumor and diplomacy.

The latest rumors he recounts had briefly offered hope. The Lord of Eviellan was said to want peace, to be willing to give up Eviellan, and to travel to Unauwen’s capital to reconcile with his father and brother. Ewijn confirms that envoys were sent in both directions to negotiate: the king dispatched a delegation to Eviellan, and its members set out accompanied by good wishes. Edwinem, Lord of Forèstèrra, was among them. Ewijn stops at that point in the account; when Tiuri asks what happened next, the answer has not yet been given. The pause leaves the reported peace mission suspended between hopeful rumor and an outcome still to be revealed.