SPOILERS! My Unpopular Opinion Regarding Artham

I am convinced that after the end of The Warden and the Wolf King, Artham HAS to drink the water, and it turns him back into a normal human being. Nothing else would be okay.

Why? First of all, let’s talk about melding! “Sing the song of the ancient stones, and the blood of the beast imbues your bones.” The person singing the song melds with an animal, usually an evil one, and the change goes bone-deep. And not just physically bone-deep, but it changes the very essence of who that person is; this is why fangs and cloven turn to dust when they die. They have exchanged their very identity for something new. The intent of both the person singing and the animal being melded affect the final outcome. And when Artham melded, the hawk was evil. (As indicated in TWatWK p. 173 – “Some terrible feathery beast in his soul screeched triumphantly” – also, Gnag and the stonekeepers wouldn’t have chosen an animal that wasn’t prone to evil to meld with him; it wouldn’t have worked the way they needed)

Artham went crazy because of guilt, yes, but not just guilt; he also went crazy because he started to meld and didn’t finish. (though I suppose one could make the argument that fangs are crazy, too, and they melded completely) Whenever Peet came to the forefront, there were feathers brushing against his mind or some other indication that the bird was gaining power (NoBE pp. 79, 250, TMitH p. 55, TWatWK p. 173). When he started to meld, he melded out of despair (definitely the wrong reason) and the bird melded out of… we’re not sure exactly, but we know its intentions were not good. It’s a bird of prey, and probably wanted to prey on something.

When Artham finished melding in NoBE, he had all the right intentions: to love and protect Tink. This is why he regained his sanity and good came of the melding. But the meld had already started years before with the wrong intentions, and the bird’s intentions were never good. The bird was still inside him, and it was still evil. In the first moments after he transformed, “The wild animal inside that he had struggled so long to kill pulsed with power, but it was no longer his master. He rode the pain like a knight rides a horse” (NoBE p. 294). Artham was stronger than the beast, but it was still strong and had to be constantly controlled. And when the madness was triggered by Artham’s guilt, the bird gained power again.

Also, melding with an animal at all was a perversion of what the Maker had intended when he had created people. Bonifer said, “Let the blood of the beast imbue your bones. Rise above the Maker’s foul work, and break the yoke of weakness. Let Aerwiar crawl with better beasts…” (TWatWK p. 363) and we all know that Bonifer was a liar.

Artham had many, many moments of madness after he transformed, some “moments” lasting months, and others lasting only a minute or so. And though he found ways to cope with it most of the time, the bird was still evil, and it was still inside him. Even after the fangs left Skree, he “was so lost” until Sara found him and gave him a job to do (taking her and her orphans to Anniera). At the end of chapter 95 of TWatWK, Artham was reunited with Arundelle and he completely ‘forgot’ his shame, but the bird – and his shame- were still there. Oh yeah, AND THE BIRD WAS STILL EVIL!

Okay, so Artham has an evil feathery beast in his soul that he struggles to control. When he first escaped from Throg and found the First Well, he believed that the water might heal him, remove his terrible red talons and maybe even quiet the voices (though the voices were there before he went mad). Of course he didn’t drink the water, but he wanted to. And he missed the chance to meld with Janner, because, let’s face it, if Artham had been there he would have seen what was happening and his Throne Warden instincts would have kicked in and he would have tried to stop Janner from dying and would have ruined everything.

Fast-forward to the epilogue. As he and Kal are explaining to the others why they want to make an expedition to the well, he says, “They say the water does amazing things. They say it heals – and maybe even more. I’ve wanted to taste it for a long time.” This seems to strongly indicate that Artham still believes the water will heal him, and that he still very much desires to be healed.

As long as he has the wings and talons (which, admittedly, are very useful at times), the bird is still there, imbuing his bones – and his soul. He’s not completely human. And not being completely human is a very bad thing. (Humans are created in the image of God; birds are not!) The Maker allowed this transformation to happen, and he definitely brought good from it, but this was not his original plan for Artham. This is not better than what the Maker made him to be. And this is why I believe that Artham MUST drink the water and be healed.