Through this doubt we see ‘custom and suspicion’ slowly dividing the Saxons and Britons in the novel, as some begin to guess at their past and wish to wreak vengeance. Ishiguro asks us, ‘when is it better to remember and when is it better to forget?’ While the she-dragon sleeps on, the question of individual intent, whether it is to remember the past in the vain fight for the truth, or to help a nation find peace after a brutal war, is queried. ‘I’m suggesting that every community, every society has its buried giant I think Britain does … every country does, just as every family does, every relationship and friendship’ (Kazuo Ishiguro, UEA Literary Festival 2017)
Through the use of these fantastical elements the book ceases to become a historical novel. Memory is portrayed as something intangible, it is only attainable through shimmering strands as the mist fogs the truth of the past. Through this land of dragons, ogres and sprites Ishiguro explores the predicament of selective forgetfulness as a reflection of our lives today. At the centre of the tale is the slumbering she-dragon that breathes a ‘mist’ of peace among the Saxons and Britons. Along this journey they are brought together by the trials of exclusion, the thirst for truth, and the wrath of Lord Brennus who wishes to tame the she-dragon to bring war against the Britons.
All are on different quests yet their true goal is the same – their memories. Ishiguro sets out on a fairy-tale journey with five paradoxical characters, an old couple from Briton searching for their long-forgotten son, a young Saxon boy exiled from his town due to a bite rumoured to be from an ogre, a Saxon knight commanded to destroy the great she-dragon and the last knight of Arthur’s realm Sir Gawain who, legend tells, wanders the land searching for the she-dragon. King Arthur’s great rule is now a shadow of the past in a fabled land, containing a secret, hidden by a convent of monks and the last remaining knight of King Arthur’s court. It is the fourth century in a mythical England.
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