51 pages • 1 hour read
Adam of the Road
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Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Adam”
Adam of the Road opens in June 1295. Eleven-year-old Adam Quartermayne attends a Catholic boys’ school in St. Alban, England. His father, Roger, is a traveling minstrel who is currently learning the newest songs and stories in France. Adam is impatiently waiting for Roger to return and take him out of school so the pair can travel and perform together. He imagines his father’s coming for him in different daydreams each day and is always disappointed when he doesn’t arrive, but Adam never doubts that Roger is on his way.
In the meantime, Adam attends classes and Mass and gets into trouble with his friend, Perkin, who is a year older than Adam and sleeps in the cot next to him. Perkin is a serious student. He is the son of a plowman but plans to study at Oxford and dreams of being an advisor to the king.
Adam’s fun-loving nature encourages Perkin to relax, and the boys become best friends. Adam often recites stories and plays minstrel songs for the other students. When he is not bragging about his father, he is talking about his beloved dog, Nick. Nick is Adam’s red spaniel who can perform tricks. Adam and Perkin smuggle Nick into the school on more than one occasion, but Nick lives with an elderly woman in the town next to the school. Adam is grateful for his harp, his dog, and Perkin. He wouldn’t be able to patiently wait for Roger without them.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Nick”
On St. Alban’s Day, a holiday, the boys are given a free evening. Adam grabs his harp, and he and Perkin leave to visit Nick at Dame Malkin’s little house in the village. The boys ritualistically sneak around the school grounds, even though they’re free to go where they like on this occasion. They play a game in which Adam walks a few paces ahead of Perkin and sets a pattern of movement that Perkin must imitate. They then crawl through the school’s herb garden and climb an old wall. Adam takes his time at the top of the wall to enjoy the smells of spring.
Once they’re off school grounds, the boys follow the road to Dame Malkin’s house, where Nick runs out to greet them. Adam feeds his dog the scraps of food he saved for him and trains him to walk on his hind legs, roll over, and play dead. Then the two boys and Nick go inside to visit Dame Malkin.
The old woman asks Adam to sing her a song and play the harp. His first song is sad because he misses Roger. He realizes that Dame Malkin is in a happy mood, and he knows that a minstrel must sing what his listeners want to hear, so he sings a happier song for her. After he finishes singing, Dame Malkin tells him that she heard a rumor that a certain minstrel will be returning to the area soon.
Adam is overjoyed that Roger could be returning that same day, so he gives Dame Malkin a kiss as he and Perkin hastily leave and walk to the road that leads into town. She runs after them, carrying Adam’s harp, which he left on the table. Once he has his harp safely strapped to his back, Adam leads Perkin and Nick as they run to find Roger.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Roger”
Adam, Perkin, and Nick sit by the side of the road hoping that Roger will be on it. Perkin recognizes each coat of arms as other travelers pass, so he knows which family they belong to. The boys watch a carriage holding a pretty girl pass by. Adam stands on his head and tells Nick to walk on his hind legs. The girl watches and laughs.
After the carriage passes, Roger rides toward the boys on a warhorse. He dismounts, and Adam flings himself into his father’s arms. The father and son laugh and embrace, eager to see each other and ask questions about their time apart. Roger remarks on Adam’s growth and asks him how school is treating him. Without answering, Adam asks Roger where he traveled and where he got the horse.
Roger tells Adam he spent time performing for knights, and a particularly generous one named Sir Edmund de Lisle gave him Bayard, the warhorse. He also commissioned Roger to be his family’s minstrel, so wherever the de Lisle family travels, so does Roger. Adam asks if he can join them, and Roger agrees. The de Lisle family leaves for London the very next day. Adam is thrilled to be joining Roger but sad to leave Perkin.
Chapter 4 Summary: “The Road”
Adam is too excited to sleep and wakes early to dress in the new minstrel’s clothes Roger gave him. He also gave him sweets, and Adam leaves some of them on Perkin’s cot. Because the boys must go to Mass, their goodbye is rushed. After Mass, Adam finds Roger in the stables and asks if he can bring Nick along. Roger agrees and tells Adam to pack his things and say his goodbyes.
Adam packs and walks to Dame Malkin’s to retrieve Nick. On his way, he sees the carriage from the previous day and peeks inside. The girl he saw in the window is inside, and the two speak in French. She is Margery de Lisle, the younger daughter of Sir Edmund. As Adam and Margery talk, her page, Hugh, joins them. He insults Adam and Nick, saying that Nick is just like any other dog. Adam is angry but knows not to insult his audience. Instead, he continues on to Dame Malkin’s.
He spends a while with Dame Malkin, giving her what is left of his sweets and eating strawberries she picked for him. Roger rides Bayard to Dame Malkin’s and picks Adam and Nick up, saying a heartfelt thank you and goodbye to her. Adam is scared to ride Bayard because he doesn’t know if Nick will be able to keep up, so he spends the first leg of the journey constantly watching and calling for his dog. When he is sure Nick will follow the horse, he looks around and is struck by how long the road ahead is. Roger tells him that the road is sacred and will always be home for a minstrel.
Chapters 1-4 Analysis
The first four chapters introduce the main characters and provide the necessary background information for the rest of the book. The story is set in England during the Middle Ages; Catholicism is the only accepted religion, and kings are often fighting religious crusades in foreign lands. At the time of the novel, England is ruled by King Edward Longshanks, or Edward I. On a smaller scale, lands are ruled by feudal lords who protect the local people in exchange for their service.
Chapter 1 introduces and characterizes the protagonist, 11-year-old Adam. Adam is a typical protagonist for a coming-of-age novel: When the story begins, he is young, innocent, and naive. He is self-centered, though not maliciously; he thinks only of the world as it concerns him. When the novel opens, Adam is wholeheartedly focused on the return of his father, Roger the minstrel, from France to take him out of school. St. Alban’s is a peaceful and happy place for Adam; the monks teach, feed, and care for the young boys. However, Adam longs for the adventurous life of a minstrel and is impatient to rejoin his father on the road: “It was a famous school the monks kept in the Abbey of St. Alban, but Adam had had enough of it” (14). This introduces two of the book’s main themes: Adam’s Hope, Perseverance, and Determination in the Face of Adversity and Searching for a Sense of Home, Belonging, and Fulfillment.
Though he longs to be on the road, Adam is relatively happy at St. Alban’s: “Three things Adam had to comfort him […] his harp, his friend Perkin, and his dog, Nick” (15). Perkin is a foil to Adam in many ways. Adam is impatient and eager to be on the road, while Perkin is focused on his education. Adam is fun-loving and mischievous, but Perkin is steady and serious. Despite their differences, the boys become fast friends (17). Perkin is the son of a plowman and has the opportunity to learn to read and write only because he caught the attention of a parish priest; one rarely has an opportunity to rise above their born station in feudal systems. Perkin is determined to study his way to Oxford and then dreams of being a chief advisor to the king (16).
On the other hand, Adam does not care for school and wishes only to play his harp, sing, and tell the minstrel stories his father taught him. His deep desire to please his audience is evident multiple times in these introductory chapters. Regardless of his own wishes, Adam reads his audience and plays what they most want to hear, as he does for Dame Malkin (29). He has the instincts of a minstrel but is still young and does not yet consider himself a fully developed minstrel. He still looks to his father as an example of a true minstrel.
In his youth and naivety, Adam views his father as an infallible hero. In his eyes, Roger is a higher class of minstrel who tells tales of love, adventure, and chivalry instead of the crude stories the “poorer sort” of minstrels share (14). This distinction reflects minstrelsy’s power hierarchy. Although Roger is near the top of the hierarchy, as he “[is] welcome at manor houses and at great fests in castles, and everywhere people gave him rich gifts” (14), he remains dependent on the favor of those more powerful than he, such as his patron. Sir Edmund hires Roger to accompany the knight’s family and even gives him a warhorse (39).
Roger’s arrival at St. Alban’s and his news of his patronage with Sir Edmund set the stage for the next part of the book, which begins to follow a traditional narrative structure for presenting the stages of a hero’s journey. Adam’s first step on this path is the call to adventure: He leaves a place of security and enters into the unknown, where he will inevitably be challenged. His reluctance to leave Perkin serves as the second step of the hero’s journey, the refusal of the call. However, Adam is allowed to bring his dog and is guided by Roger, who acts as his mentor. At the end of Chapter 4, Adam takes particular notice of how long the road ahead is, touching on a recurring symbol throughout the story: Roger tells Adam that the road is home for a minstrel, even if they happen to be sleeping in a castle (52).
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