King Unauwen and Menaures: Brothers Despite Menaures’s Exile

King Unauwen and Menaures are brothers whose shared birth and resemblance make their different lives all the more striking: one rules, while the other has given up royal status and become a hermit. Their relationship is revealed through an account of renunciation and a quiet confirmation in the mountains, where Menaures acknowledges his brother without surrendering the identity he chose.

Brothers on Different Paths

The relationship first comes into view during a conversation between Piak, Tiuri, and the toll lord. As the toll lord tells them about King Unauwen, his knights, and his two princes, Piak remarks on the strangeness of brothers being enemies and suggests that twins ought to love one another more. The comment turns the conversation toward a different pair of brothers: the toll lord says that King Unauwen himself had a brother born on the same day, one who looked like him.

The resemblance and shared birthday set the brothers close in origin, but their choices separate them sharply. The king’s brother never claimed the throne. Instead, he renounced his princely status, went wandering through the world, and later withdrew into the mountains to live as a hermit. The account presents this departure as a deliberate relinquishing of royal position, not as a failed attempt to gain it. His life has been shaped by leaving the claims and visibility attached to his birth.

The Hermit Behind the Story

The toll lord says that the former prince is still alive, lives beyond the Great Mountain Range of Dagonaut and Unauwen, and has been away from the toll lord’s country for many years. Pilgrims and knights have nevertheless crossed the mountains several times to visit him. Because Piak comes from the mountains, the toll lord wonders whether he may have met the hermit. Piak’s uncertain response leaves the possibility open without establishing that he recognizes the man at this point.

For Tiuri, the story immediately recalls Menaures, the hermit by the source of the Blue River. Later, when Piak wonders aloud whether Menaures could be King Unauwen’s brother, Tiuri also considers the resemblance between the hermit and the king, but hesitates to ask directly. The connection therefore emerges first as an inference prompted by place, appearance, and the toll lord’s account. Its confirmation is delayed until the friends meet Menaures again.

Recognition and Confirmation

At that meeting, Piak tells Menaures that he has greetings from King Unauwen. Menaures accepts the greeting, and the exchange pauses before Piak asks whether he knows the king. Menaures answers with a smile that Piak already knows he does. When Piak asks why he did not send greetings back, Menaures says that his brother knows he thinks of him. He then identifies King Unauwen as his brother, making explicit the relationship that Tiuri and Piak had suspected.

The confirmation is direct, but its manner is restrained. Menaures does not offer a history of the brothers’ separation or explain why he renounced his status; the account establishes the choice and the present bond, while leaving those other matters unstated. Piak blushes when Menaures observes that he could have asked without circling around the question. The brief embarrassment underscores how carefully the friends approach a truth Menaures has not concealed, even though they have been reluctant to name it aloud.

Kinship Without Royal Identity

Menaures’s final request defines the terms on which he wants the relationship understood. Piak observes that he looks very much like the king. Menaures does not dispute the likeness, but asks Piak to see him as he has always seen him: as the hermit in the mountains, not as a prince or ruler. His royal birth remains a fact, and his likeness to King Unauwen makes it visible, but neither is to replace the identity formed through his chosen life.

That distinction keeps kinship and rank from becoming the same thing. Menaures speaks of King Unauwen as a brother who knows he is remembered; the brothers’ different stations have not erased that private attachment. At the same time, Menaures does not present his withdrawal as a return to court or an invitation to treat him as a prince. The scene brings the family connection into the open while preserving the boundary he has set around his present identity. Their bond is thus shown not through a reunion or reconciliation, but through acknowledgement: Menaures accepts his brother’s greeting, confirms his affection at a distance, and remains, above all, the hermit Piak has known.