# The Wood Beyond the World — Character guide

> Key figures in The Wood Beyond the World by William Morris.

- [Golden Walter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wood_beyond_the_world_se/characters/golden_walter.md): Walter is heir to Bartholomew Golden, a headman of the Goldings and one of the richest merchants of Langton on Holm, and by all reckoning a lucky young man — except that his bride of six months has turned from him to a w
- [The Maid](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wood_beyond_the_world_se/characters/the_maid.md): The Maid serves the Lady of the wood as a bonded servant, and the iron ring she wears is a token that she belongs to her Mistress and may not be parted from her. When Walter first sees her, she blushes and hangs her head
- [The Lady](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wood_beyond_the_world_se/characters/the_lady.md): The Lady commands the strange land beyond the wood and holds Walter as her squire, speaking to him with an openhearted warmth that leaves him shamefaced and half convinced his earlier fears were a dream. Before the Bears
- [The Old Man](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wood_beyond_the_world_se/characters/the_old_man.md): He dwells in a straw-thatched house under a wooded mound with orchard trees and a few sheep, the only man between the sea and the dwellings of the Bears, and trades them calves and cider for pelts and lumps of copper. He
- [Bartholomew Golden](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wood_beyond_the_world_se/characters/bartholomew_golden.md): Walter's father, a wealthy merchant who dies early in the story.
- [Arnold Penstrong](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wood_beyond_the_world_se/characters/arnold_penstrong.md): Arnold commands the Katherine and is the practical counterweight to Walter's restless grief, the man who grins at the old hermit's talk of manlike bears and asks the blunt questions a merchant's son is too courteous to p
- [The Bears](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wood_beyond_the_world_se/characters/the_bears.md): They are manlike in body but taller and bigger than most men, spread wide behind the mountains, and reckoned miscreants by the hermit for trowing neither in God nor his hallows — though they worship a certain woman with 
- [The Dwarf](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wood_beyond_the_world_se/characters/the_dwarf.md): The Dwarf moves through the Lady's household as a spy and errand-bearer, and his uncanny foreknowledge of Walter's arrival marks him as something more than a mere servant. The Maid's violent reaction at the mention of hi
- [The King's Son](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wood_beyond_the_world_se/characters/the_king_s_son.md): A prince from a distant land who becomes a rival to Walter.
- [The Shipmaster](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wood_beyond_the_world_se/characters/the_shipmaster.md): The captain of the Bartholomew, who navigates the storm and new land.
- [Sir Squire](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wood_beyond_the_world_se/characters/sir_squire.md): A knight of Stark Wall who serves the new king.
- [The Reddings](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wood_beyond_the_world_se/characters/the_reddings.md): A group of red-clad warriors who attack Walter and the Maid.
- [Adam](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wood_beyond_the_world_se/characters/adam.md): A servant or companion mentioned briefly in the narrative.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wood_beyond_the_world_se/characters