The Dark Is Rising Chapter 6 Summary

The Book of Gramarye

  • In a room someplace, although Will is not sure where, Miss Greythorne invites Will and Merriman inside. She tells Will the third Sign is the Sign of the wood, or the Sign of Learning.
  • She also tells him that wood has to be renewed every hundred years since the Old Ones love Rowan wood.
  • Miss Greythorne is happy to be able to give Will the Sign. He takes it but still has to figure out how to open it.
  • Suddenly a guy named Hawkin shows up. He's from the 13th century and he's here to help Will with the Sign.
  • Of course Will's confused by all this, so he asks Merriman which century he hails from. The answer—all of them—doesn't exactly straighten things out. Apparently Hawkin was around before the centuries and he's been in every single one. We're assured this will make sense later.
  • Merriman chose Hawkin to help Will out since he likes the guy.
  • Will is told that he must read the book of the Old Ones, a.k.a. the Book of Gramarye.
  • In fact, he has to stay in the room and read the book until he's done. On the upside, once he finishes he'll remember it forever more. That's something, anyway.
  • The book is written in the Old Speech, but that shouldn't be a problem for Will since he instinctively knows the language of his people.
  • Apparently Will has been speaking Old Speech this whole time, ever since his birthday.
  • Everyone leaves the guy to read the mysterious book.