A Tale of Two Ladies (Wood Beyond the World)

“She held her peace a while, and looked on him keenly; and he reddened under her gaze. Then wrath came into her face, and she reddened and knit her brows, and spake to him in a voice of anger, and said: Nay what is this? It is growing in my mind that thou deemest the gift of me unworthy!”—William Morris, Wood Beyond The World pg. 116.

“As for the Maid, she stood for a while without moving…Then she turned about to where Walter lay and lightly put aside the boughs…She said softly but eagerly: Friend, touch me not yet”—William Morris, Wood Beyond The World, pg. 110

As Golden Walter, the merchant’s heir continues to explore the new land on which he has landed, he quickly makes the acquaintance of two very different women. The first is the Maid and the second is known as the Mistress or the Lady. When the Maid warns Walter about her superior, the Lady, we, the readers, come to learn that she is a evil sorceress of some kind. So, by the time he finally does find his way to where this sorceress is we expect some immediate witchery and spells; instead,  it turns out that she just runs intermittently hot and cold. This portrayal offers great variance from the descriptions we get of the calm and cautious Maid.

Andrew Dodds, who does analysis of William Morris’ prose for the Morris Society, finds the difference in these beauties is a tool the author uses to contrast two types of love: the spiritual and carnal (or lustful):

As the story develops our impression of the Mistress as hostile and unapproachable is

gradually confirmed, and she begins to take on the attributes of Robert Graves' White

Goddess, a powerful symbol of destructive sexuality, who is closely associated with

Diana, the fierce "hunting goddess of the Gentiles"

Dodds’ analysis makes sense when you consider what the Lady’s and Maid’s love produce. Whereas the Lady’s passions lead her to abruptly end her involvement with the King’s Son and quickly manipulate Walter, the Maid’s desires produce a spiritual sort of relationship in which she cannot be touched and refers to our protagonist as a “friend.”