# Black Benjamin — Midwinter character guide

> Black Benjamin in Midwinter by John Buchan.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Benjamin, Benjy, Gypsy Ben, Ben, Bennet

**First appearance:** 0010-viii-broom-at-the-crossroads

## Snapshot

A gypsy with dancing eyes and a soft, ghoulish voice, who keeps a pothole called Journeyman John and calls himself a kind mammy.

## Who they are

Gypsy Ben first appears as a sneering mischief-maker at the Flambury Hunt, then reappears in a peat-fire hut where his manner has turned bright and mad. He speaks of orders that have changed, of a master who has decided Alastair is too good for this wicked world, and he shows off the grinding darkness of Journeyman John like a showman displaying a cage. His ghoulish hospitality and his shagreen-handled knife make him the story's most intimate face of arbitrary cruelty.

## Relationships

### [Alastair Maclean](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/midwinter_se/characters/alastair_maclean)

_rivalry_

Black Benjamin is a brutal outlaw who repeatedly crosses paths with Alastair as a deadly adversary.

### [Alastair Maclean](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/midwinter_se/characters/alastair_maclean)

_rivalry_

Black Benjamin is a brutal outlaw who repeatedly crosses paths with Alastair as a deadly adversary.

### [Alastair Maclean](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/midwinter_se/characters/alastair_maclean)

_rivalry_

Black Benjamin is a brutal outlaw who repeatedly crosses paths with Alastair as a deadly adversary.

## In the story

### [V: Chance-Medley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/midwinter_se/chapters/v-chance-medley)

A gypsy-looking youth leading a mutiny among Oglethorpe's recruits, dragging a bound sergeant.

### [How a Man May Hunt with the Hounds and Yet Run with the Hare](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/midwinter_se/chapters/vii-how-a-man-may-hunt-with-the-hounds-and-yet-run-with-the-hare)

The gypsy guide who meets Alastair at the white gate to lead him out of the county toward Cheshire.

### [XII: The Hut in the Oak Shaw](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/midwinter_se/chapters/xii-the-hut-in-the-oak-shaw)

The gypsy who struck Alastair and boasts of his cleverness; he guards Alastair and reveals the passage of nineteen days.

### [XIII: Journeyman John](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/midwinter_se/chapters/xiii-journeyman-john)

Ben is the gypsy captor, a lithe and powerful madman who intends to feed Alastair to the Journeyman John. He reveals the involvement of the 'grey she-corbies' in Brightwell and a red-faced Scot.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/midwinter_se/characters/black_benjamin
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/midwinter_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/midwinter_se/characters