Shardik
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Shardik is a fantasy novel written by Richard Adams in 1974.
Overview
Shardik takes place in an imaginary world. It is the story of a lonely hunter, Kelderek, who pursues Shardik, a giant bear believed to have the Power of God within him. Kelderek becomes involved in the politics of his entire empire and in a personal story of sin and atonement. Other key issues in the story are the strength and potential held in children and the task of adults to meet children's needs of responsibility and entertainment in hope of a better future.
Adams, famous for writing stories from the point of view of animals (Watership Down and The Plague Dogs), here creates a story in which the animal, Shardik the Great Bear, is an antagonistic force that generates the entire plot and yet cannot communicate overtly and is merely a template for the characters and readers to impose their views upon. At no point in the story is it explicitly confirmed that Shardik is a divine creature and several points in the story can be interpreted equally each way.
For example, the only chapter in which Shardik communicates expressly with the reader is the first; a confused chapter which shows him fleeing a forest fire and heading towards water. This act is later interpreted by the Ortelgans as Shardik seeking them out as prophesied, yet it could easily result from a natural instinct in an animal remarkable only for its size.
Scenes of a slaver torturing children and the main character are extremely disturbing to some readers.
Plot in detail
The plot of the story begins when Kelderek, also known in his village as play-with-the-children because of his simple nature and love of small children, spies a great bear in the forest surrounding his home. Kelerek believes that this bear is Shardik, a gift of god who is sent to restore power to Kelderek's people, the Ortelgans, who once ruled the continent. Kelderek's people are now limited to a small string of islands led by a small barony. Kelderek, after convincing the local priests and barons that it is in fact Shardik, is a pivotal figure in leading the army of Shardik to the capital. Their conquest of the empire sometimes hints at divine intervention. For example, the bear is caged and sedated by the priestesses so that he may be transported behind the army. On the path ahead the army is fighting a losing battle, but when Shardik awakens from his slumber, angered by after-effects of the drug, he breaks his cage and roars in bloodlust as the reminder of the cage rolls him down into the opposing army, devastating them.
Over the course of the story Kelderek becomes high priest to the bear Shardik, and the army re-establish a corrupt and brutal rule. Kelderek is dismayed with this in many ways, and ultimately when Shardik escapes and flees the people into the forests it is Kelderek who alone follows the bear. Shardik and his priest spend a great deal of time in the forest as their empire is destroyed by rebels in the city they abandoned. Kelderek, on the brink of madness after days alone with no sleep, follows the bears unknowingly to a location called the Streels of Urtah. Here, Shardik enters a massive hole in the ground and is presumed dead. A shepherd, who later unveils himself as a guardian of the Streels, informs Kelderek that any who enter them are beings of great evil who are destined to die. He also tells of one person who fell into the Streels only to climb out again; this woman was then fated to die in a horrible fashion but by her death bring about greatness. This woman gave birth to a son as she exited the Streels, a son who later grew to be a great hero instrumental in the destruction of the Kelderek's people's previous empire. As this story is told, Shardik emerges from the hole and flees again into the woods.
Kelderek continues to follow Shardik, meeting many foes along the path. Ultimately he ends in an outlaw town just beyond the borders of civilisation. Here he meets Melathys, an ex-priestess of Shardik whom he had known previously. Kelderek, who has lost Shardik and his faith, is enslaved along with a group of children and is cruelly treated. Meeting the children with kindness, Kelderek discovers that one of them is the son of a baron whom Kelderek had previously crossed paths with and who was responsible for letting him flee beyond the borders. Kelderek and the children are ultimately rescued when Shardik, mad and half-starved, erupts from the woods and defeats the slavers before collapsing before Kelderek in the river. Kelderek, his faith and kindness restored but now tempered with knowledge of the world, returns to the town with the children and attempts to re-establish a lawful society.
Here the story skips a number of years to a time when Kelderek is the mayor of the town. The closing chapters are told from the perspective of a distant traveller from a kingdom similar to ancient Persia, who is leading the first expedition between the countries. He arrives first in the town Kelderek has built. The town is home to hundreds of orphans and refugees who come to the town to work together to build a better future. Kelderek is widely regarded as a fair and wise leader and is married to his love, Melathys. Kelderek takes the traveller into his home and tells him of the bear Shardik who is known now as a great animal who taught the people of the land the meaning of both kindness and hardship. In the final passages the traveller, Siristou, stirs the logs in the fireplace and plays a game of spotting images in the flames. A small island, a glowing blade held savagely, a barred cage, an old priestess, a deep hole in the ground, a massive bear—he recognises these images in turn and finally remarks that the fire is beautiful and is burning well.
Trivia
Adams later wrote a novel called Maia that takes place earlier in the same world. Several characters appear in both novels.
A bear by the same name also appears in Stephen King's The Waste Lands, part of the Dark Tower series as one of the many anachronisms in the novel's setting. See Shardik (Dark Tower).
The early editions included hand-drawn pictures by Alfred Wainwright, perhaps better known as a fellwalker.da:Shardik