Lincoln in the Bardo: Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

As Willie walk-skims with Vollman, Bevins, and the Reverend, a woman joins them and lists off the names of various “wildwoods flowers.” As she exhibits her vast botanical knowledge to Willie, a man follows behind her, groping her and bragging about his “subtle understanding of the significant aspects of” female clothing. Just as this woman is about to sing a song for Willie, she and the groping man halt. “Oh no,” she says, “I won’t go no closer. Good day to you, sirs.” With this, she and her lusty companion hastily retreat.

“We had reached the edge of an uninhabited wilderness of some several hundred yards that ended in the dreaded iron fence,” Hans Vollman says, and Roger Bevins III explains that this is the “noxious limit beyond which” they cannot “venture.” Affixed to this fence lies the Traynor girl, who has been fastened there so long that she has ultimately become part of the boundary itself. As Willie and his guides approach, Elise Traynor “manifests” as a “horrid blackened furnace.” With sorrow in his voice, the Reverend recalls when the girl first arrived, a period during which “she uninterruptedly manifested as a spinning young girl in a summer frock of continually shifting color.” Now, Vollman asks her to tell Willie about “the perils of this place,” but she only turns into a series of horrid objects. When the group turns to leave, though, Elise beckons Willie closer and begins her tale.