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Heroine

The heroine of Blackbringer is Magpie Windwitch, the granddaughter of the West Wind. She was raised in a different way than most of the reclusive faeries, traveling the world with her parents as they worked to record vanishing customs. Now she travels the world trapping devils with her band of crows.

Plot Summary

Devils are being freed from their bottles and unleashed on the world by unsuspecting humans hoping for three wishes. Magpie Windwitch and her friends the crows hunt the devils and bind them. When they come across an empty bottle that had been sealed by the Djinn king himself, it becomes apparent that something much worse has been loosed. In her search for the Djinn who have not been seen in many lifetimes, Magpie travels to the home of the faeries in the forest of Dreamdark to investigate this beast with the power to unmake the tapestry of creation.

Departure

Call to Adventure

The Call to Adventure occurs when Magpie’s grandfather, the West Wind, brings her a rumor of an abandoned ship at sea. This usually points to a devil freed from a bottle, which she and her friends will hunt to protect both faeries and humans, but when she tracks down the creature from the boat, she soon finds herself returning to the place of her birth to seek out the long hidden Djinn king Magruwen to warn him of an ancient evil that has escaped and threatens the very fabric of existence.

Refusal of the Call

There is no refusal of the call. Magpie does not hesitate to track the devil or seek the Djinn, even as those around her discourage it.

Supernatural Aid

We find out where most of Magpie’s supernatural aid comes from much later in the story, and it happens long before the story begins. Before Magpie was born, in the Moonlit Gardens where faeries and dragons travel after life, Bellatrix, Magruwen’s former hero, told stories about a faery hero to Fade, Magruwen’s dragon with whom he shared his dreams. This caused the Magruwen through his dreams to give Magpie, as well as most of those faeries born around the same time, the power to weave and affect the tapestry of existence. This made their magic much more powerful than the other faeries of the age. The other creatures of Dreamdark were aware of Bellatrix’s plan and also blessed Magpie with such blessings as animals and hedge imps can give (for example, excellent sight, sense of smell, reflexes, and the ability to travel between life and the Moonlit Gardens).

Crossing of the First Threshold

Magpie crosses the first threshold when she pursues what she comes to know as Blackbringer into the catacombs to a Djinn’s hidden lair. Here she discovers that the Djinn still exist and are sleeping in hidden places below the earth and that they are in danger from a formidable enemy that can unmake anyone and command elementals. It is also at this point that the strong magic has existed inside of her from birth is brought to the surface. While she has always had strong ties to magic, after she touches the Djinn’s ashes and experiences his memory, she begins to see magic around her and sometimes accidentally performs inexplicable magic without visualizing glyphs, as is usually necessary.

Belly of the Whale

I believe that Magpie reaches the Belly of the Whale when she  is taken across the threshold into the Moonlit Gardens (the faerie afterlife) and discovers her destiny as the faerie that Bellatrix caused the Magruwen to dream into existence. Her visit changes her understanding of the world and her role in it. She begins to realize some of what her powers mean.

Initiation

Road of Trials

As part of her road of trials, Magpie faces the false queen and her devil. She tries repeatedly and fails to interest the Magruwen in the unraveling of the tapestry. She also fights several unsuccessful battles with the Blackbringer.

Meeting with the Goddess

Magpie meets Bellatrix in the Moonlit Gardens and discovers that she is responsible for her existence. She has always idolized Bellatrix as a hero, and she discovers that Bellatrix feels that Magpie is like a daughter to her. 

Woman as Temptress

Magpie doesn’t experience any temptations on her journey that might alter her quest.

Atonement with the Father

Magpie convinces Magruwen the Djinn king to wake up and take interest in the Blackbringer and the unraveling of the tapestry. He begins to teach Magpie so that she might weave the tapestry knowingly, instead of by accident, and he makes Magpie his champion. In the end he returns to the world, and takes part once again.

Apotheosis

Magpie travels willingly into the Blackbringer, from which no one has ever returned, to free those who have been trapped inside. Once inside, she is able to return to the world, leading the Blackbringer’s victims out with a single star. Afterwards, when she is visioning the glymph to return the Blackbringer to his bottle prison, he whips out his tongue to suck her into the bottle with him. Magpie’s friends and family believe that she is lost forever, but she had visioned the glyph for the Moonlit Gardens before it was too late, and she sleeps off her exhaustion in the company of the faeries in the afterlife.

Ultimate Boon

Magpie defeats the Blackbringer and saves the tapestry from unraveling. She saves her friend Poppy Manygreen and Maniac, her crow brother, from the Blackbringer. She is the djinn’s champion, like Bellatrix before her, helping him repair the damage to the world.

Return

Refusal of the Return

Magpie already led an adventurous life, taking responsibility for killing devils. She chooses to continue being the Magruwen’s champion, finding and waking the djinn, killing devils, and rebuilding the tapestry without hesitation.

Magic Flight

Magpie escapes eternal imprisonment with Blackbringer by holding the glyph for the Moonlit Gardens in her mind to magically travel there before she is trapped forever.

Rescue from Without

While many faeries and creatures are involved in the battle in which Magpie frees those captured and imprisons the Magruwen, she provides her own escape in the end. She is not rescued from without.

Crossing of the Return Threshold

After a period of recovery, Magpie and the crows, along with Talon, return to their life of travel, seeking out the djinn and hunting devils.

Master of Two Worlds

Magpie is comfortable weaving the tapestry, using her new powers, and acting as champion for a djinn, as well as around a campfire with her brothers the crows while hunting devils.

Freedom to Live

Magpie no longer has to live in fear of the Blackbringer or of the the tapestry unraveling. She is free to help in the rebuilding.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed doing the project. Being able to apply the areas that we learned about in the course to a completely separate story was exciting. I thought it might be a challenge, but with my book ended up following the model almost literally.

In the end, I was very surprised at seeing how closely this book mirrored Campbell's archetype. When I chose it, I thought that it would be a little different than others that had crossed my mind. The setting is very different, but when I started to analyze it, each area stood out from the book easily without much effort on my part. By the time I got around to Meeting the Goddess and Atonement with the Father, I was just taking it for granted that this was a very similar story. Most of Tamora Pierce's books come to mind as other books that mirror this quest closely. The show Supernatural also displays some of the elements.