Borka’s band occupies the north side of Matt’s Fort

Borka’s band occupies the north side of Matt’s Fort after lightning has split the ancient fortress in two, turning its physical fracture into a boundary between rival robber clans. Borka’s people arrive as a displaced family and band, climb into the northern half, and claim it as Borka’s Keep. Their presence challenges Matt’s authority without immediately producing a battle: the two chiefs recognize that violence at Hell’s Gap would harm both sides, while the divided fortress becomes the setting for a prolonged contest over home, power, and the meaning of their inherited feud.

A Ruin Divided into Territory

The division begins with a catastrophe that is also the defining feature of Matt’s Fort. Lightning cleaves the fortress from its highest battlements to the deepest dungeon vaults, leaving a chasm between two halves. The damage is not merely a break in the stonework: it makes the old stronghold a place that can be occupied on separate sides, and gives the later confrontation between Matt and Borka a literal boundary.

Borka’s band moves into the northern half while Matt and his people occupy the other side. On meeting Ronia, Birk explains that Borka, Undis, himself, and their twelve robbers have moved in. Ronia initially struggles to take in the news, then reacts with anger at what she sees as an invasion by her father’s enemies. Birk insists that the north side is no longer simply the north fort: it is Borka’s Keep. The act of naming makes the claim unmistakable. The northern half is not a temporary hiding place in Birk’s account, but a home and a stronghold with its own identity.

The Occupation and Its Means

Borka later gives Matt the reason for bringing his household and band to the fortress: soldiers are swarming through Borka’s Wood, leaving him no safe place to stay with his wife, child, and robbers. Matt objects that Borka has taken a place to live without asking. Borka answers by pointing out the hypocrisy in that complaint: Matt is himself a robber who has often taken what he wanted without permission. Their argument makes the occupation a dispute not only over property but also over who gets to claim the authority to judge another robber’s conduct.

The takeover depends on Birk’s climbing and the fortress’s overlooked architecture. Borka says that his son climbed the steep walls with a long, strong rope trailing behind him, then tied it securely so the others could follow and organize a robbers’ den inside. Matt initially believes there is no northern entrance. Borka recalls the old small door used by maids to feed the pigs, and the former pigsty where he and Matt once caught rats as boys. The memory punctures Matt’s confidence in his knowledge of the fortress and brings the present quarrel into contact with their shared childhood. Borka also recalls that Matt’s father taught him to regard every member of Matt’s clan as an enemy; before that lesson, Borka says, he and Matt had scarcely understood themselves as belonging to different clans.

A Standoff, Not a Conquest

Matt and his men do not accept Borka’s claim, but neither chief rushes into a fight at Hell’s Gap. Matt’s robbers growl and want to draw their bows; Borka’s men are armed as well. Both leaders understand that a battle at the narrow crossing could end badly for everyone. They part after exchanging insults, leaving the occupation unresolved. Matt returns to the stone hall without looking like a conqueror, and the immediate outcome is a tense division rather than a victory for either side.

The deadlock changes the activity of both bands. While Matt works out how to get at the occupants of Borka’s Keep, little robbery takes place. Borka’s robbers have other concerns, and people travelling along Robbers’ Walk are surprised to find the route unusually peaceful. The sheriff’s men, who have pursued Borka through Borka’s Wood, find his former cave den deserted and empty of loot; unable to find him, they can leave the wood. The occupation thus displaces Borka’s group from one hiding place and redirects the conflict to the fortress, while temporarily reducing the danger to travellers on the road.

Matt continues to scout the northern wood with one or two men, but usually sees no sign of the occupants. The silence conceals a practical advantage: Borka’s band has made a long rope ladder for moving up and down the rock face. Matt sees it lowered only once and charges toward it with his men, but arrows rain from the loopholes of Borka’s Keep. Little-Snip is struck in the thigh and must stay in bed for two days. The failed rush confirms that the occupation is defended, and that access to the northern side is controlled rather than freely available.

From Occupation to a New Arrangement

The divided fortress remains important even as the conflict changes. When Ronia discovers that she has opened a way into Borka’s Keep, she realizes that Matt could use it to reach Borka. Instead, she wants Birk to remain there and protects the secret passage from becoming an entry route. Her choice gives the occupation a personal stake beyond the feud between the chiefs: the northern stronghold is Birk’s home, and Ronia’s attachment to him changes what she wishes her father to do about it.

The meaning of a home on the north side contrasts with the life Ronia later chooses with Birk in Bear’s Cave. The cave is high above the river between rocky cliffs, approached by a narrow ledge that widens into a stone platform outside its entrance. Matt had shown it to Ronia, and he had lived there as a boy in summer; it was named for the bears that slept there in winter. When Ronia leaves Matt’s Fort, the cave offers a separate refuge rather than another claim to the divided stronghold. In its first night there, she tries to sing the Wolf Song that Lovis had once sung for her and Matt, but yearning for the way things used to be stops her. The recollection shows how closely home, family, and the fractured fortress remain bound together, even after she has chosen a life apart from it.

The feud eventually moves toward settlement rather than expulsion. In the later Wild Beasts’ Match, the contest follows rules that permit biting, scratching, kicking, and other rough tactics, but forbid a kick between the legs, which would forfeit the fight. Matt wins and emerges as chief, bloodied and wearing the remains of his shirt in rags. He tells Borka that they are brothers from then on, lets him keep the title and reputation of a chief, and allows him to continue with his own men, while making clear that Matt’s word now carries greater authority. That later arrangement does not erase the history of the occupation, but it transforms the question of who belongs in the fortress: what began as a rival band’s contested home becomes part of a united robber band, with leadership settled through a fight rather than a siege.