The Buried Giant

The “dark widows,” as Gawain calls them, represent the loss of important memories of a loved one. They also represent the inability to accept the death of a loved one. For these reasons, the widows roam, tormented, in the novel. Because they do not have the fullness of memory, they cannot accept the passing on of a loved one—they need them nearby to remember them and their love.

Beatrice mourns the loss of the candle she and Axl once used to light up their chamber in their village. She stubbornly refuses to give up the one offered to her by a young girl. In her village, the leaders take the candles from the elderly. Candles, then, represent memory itself. The youth in her village do not understand the value of such of thing, particularly to someone so old. Beatrice fears that without a candle there is no hope of retrieving the memory of their son, or the memory of her love for both him and Axl. The final scene in the novel, too, with the large fire burning around her, suggests that the light is finally given back to her, and she can move on in peace with her memories returned.