Wolf Crawl #41: The dead watch us

   Henry says, 'I wish the cardinal were –' He breaks off. He, Thomas Cromwell, looks down at the documents on the table. The council rises, the babble of congratulation still floating in the air. 'Fitz, stay,' Henry says. 'Cromwell?'
   The noise recedes: laughter below; laughter above, perhaps, the cardinal applauding from somewhere beyond the primum mobile. The dead watch us, zealous in old causes.

last week | home page | reading schedule
further resources: Hilary Mantel | Wolf Hall

Welcome to Week 41 of Wolf Crawl. I am your guide, Simon Haisell, and this is a year-long slow read of Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy: Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, and The Mirror & the Light.

Each week, I delve into the details with summaries, background, footnotes and tangents to enrich your reading. I am joined on this journey by Bea Stitches, who delves into the archive on our behalf, and Matt Brown, who makes maps to help us find our way through Cromwell’s world.

You can find the reading schedule and plot summaries for the full cast of characters on my website, Footnotes and Tangents. There, you can join other slow reads, including Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, and The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald.

I start each post with a summary of the week’s story, illustrated by a map by Matt Brown. This week, we are reading the first half of Part Three. Chapter II. The Image of the King, Spring–Summer 1537.

In the UK Fourth Estate edition, this section runs from pages 437 to 477. In the US Picador edition, it runs from pages 374 to 409. It begins, “Hans does not like the pavonazzo.” It ends, “Legs that could never stagger, feet never lose the path.”

This summary is followed by a few footnotes of interest. This week, we eat fish while longing for red meat, Hans Holbein begins to paint the king, as we, Thomas Cromwell, plan our retirement at Launde. The king’s brother-in-law is at Chester Place, and the Lisles are shopping for everything the Seymours have. In the archive with Bea Stitches, we work our way through the damage done by time and hands and find what became of the abbey at Launde.

And then it is over to you. In the comments, let us know what caught your eye and ask the group any questions you may have. And if you’ve tumbled down a rabbit hole or taken your reading off on a tangent, please share where you have been and what you have found.

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