Earl Guthwulf of Utanyeat

Character from Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams

The High King's Hand — blinded by Pryrates, driven mad by the sword Sorrow's call, wandering the lightless tunnels beneath the Hayholt like a ghost who doesn't know he's still alive.

Guthwulf was clever, shrewd, and absolutely loyal to Elias — his oldest friend, his king. He was the High King's Hand, the enforcer, the man who got things done without asking uncomfortable questions. Intolerant of disrespect, sharp-tongued with subordinates, and possessed of the political instincts that kept him useful. Then he confronted Pryrates about the priest's growing influence and lost his eyes for it. Abandoned in the tunnels beneath the Hayholt, he should have died. Instead, the sword Sorrow found him — or he found it — and its call drove him through the lightless passages in a state halfway between madness and prophecy. He survives on scraps, sustained partly by Rachel's secret charity. His arc is the trilogy's most unexpected redemption. The cynical enforcer, blinded and broken, retrieves the sword Bright-Nail from Prester John's barrow and delivers it to Simon at the crucial moment — not through heroism but through the strange, compulsive pull of the Great Swords on each other.

Appearance

Grey hair cut short, green eyes now sightless — Pryrates burned them out. Once a powerful, imposing man; now gaunt and hollow-eyed, stumbling through the castle's subterranean Sithi ruins by memory and the sword's pull. His court finery has been replaced by whatever rags he can find in the dark.

Also known as: Guthwulf, The King's Hand

What They Know

• The Hayholt's corridors memorized so thoroughly he navigates them blind — including passages most sighted people don't know exist
• Elias's court and its political machinery — who holds real power, who's compromised, who might still turn
• The location and pull of the Great Swords — after touching Sorrow, he can sense them, a maddening compass in his skull
• Pryrates' vulnerabilities — he learned the hard way what the priest will do when challenged, but also where the priest's attention doesn't reach

Connections

• former_friend_of — elias
• blinded_by — pryrates
• aided_by — rachel
• delivers_sword_to — simon

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