Otto of the Silver Hand

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes descriptions of child abuse and graphic violence.

“This tale that I am about to tell is of a little boy who lived and suffered in those dark middle ages; of how he saw both the good and the bad of men, and of how, by gentleness and love and not by strife and hatred, he came at last to stand above other men and to be looked up to by all.”

Howard Pyle begins his novel with a foreword that communicates Otto’s willingness to hold to a version of wisdom that few of his time shared. The Dichotomy of Good and Evil is demonstrated throughout the story via its various nuanced characters, such as the Baron Conrad, who despite his violent approach also has the will to sacrifice himself to save his gentle son. Otto’s power lies in Choosing Love over Violence, and he eventually becomes a hero of the day.

“Beyond these squalid huts lay the rushing, foaming river, spanned by a high, rude, stone bridge where the road from the castle crossed it, and beyond the river stretched the great, black forest, within whose gloomy depths the savage wild beasts made their lair, and where in winter time the howling wolves coursed their flying prey across the moonlit snow and under the net-work of the black shadows from the naked boughs above.”

Pyle’s flowing language and lengthy sentence structure reflect his romantic use of language to creates a poetic effect, and to this end, he heavily emphasizes the importance of the setting’s imagery. The moon is frequently mentioned in the context of its beauty and its status as a source of light amidst the darkness. Likewise, the river is a connecting force that binds the people of the land together.

“Dong! Dong! The great alarm bell would suddenly ring out from the belfry high up upon the Melchior Tower. Dong! Dong! Till the rooks and daws whirled clamoring and screaming.”

Pyle uses onomatopoeia to describe the sound of the bell in Melchior Tower, conjuring a vision of the moment when it would ring out in announcement of another raid. “Rooks and daws” is a line from Shakespeare’s poem “Spring,” and Shakespeare’s influence on Pyle’s work is clear throughout the story.