A Syrup of the Bees — Context and Discussion

The Preface as a Lens on Narrative Voice

Bain’s preface does more than introduce the tale; it establishes a distinctive narrative voice that colors the entire work. He describes the Widyádharas as “extraordinarily touchy, and violently resentful of scorn or slight,” and notes that they are “not Christians, and generally t…”—the sentence breaks off, a deliberate ellipsis that mimics the fragmentary nature of the manuscript he claims to translate. This voice is arch, learned, and slightly mischievous, treating the story as a recovered artifact. The preface’s tone—half academic, half playful—prepares the reader for a text that is as much about the act of storytelling as about the story itself. Bain’s footnotes (e.g., explaining Widyádhara as “almost equivalent to our wizard”) further blur the line between translation and original commentary, making the reader aware of the mediating presence behind the tale.

Shifts in Pace: From Council to Domestic Intimacy

The narrative pace changes markedly between the opening council of Widyádharas and the domestic scenes that follow. The council moves with deliberate, formal deliberation: Smaradása proposes a punishment, Garuda hesitates, and crows are dispatched to spy—a process that unfolds over “a week.” The language is measured, with long sentences and logical argumentation (“the best way would be, to contrive some means of making her behaviour recoil upon her own head”). In contrast, the second section shifts abruptly to Makarandiká’s life with Arunodaya, where the prose becomes lyrical and compressed. She lives “like a siddhá in a moon without a spot”; he is “plunged for an instant in an ocean of intoxication, salt as her beauty.” The pace accelerates through a series of vivid, sensory images: swings with gold and silver chains, the roof overlooking the sea, the bee drowned in honey. This juxtaposition of slow, conspiratorial plotting against swift, ecstatic union creates a rhythmic tension that mirrors the story’s central conflict between duty and desire.

Recurring Motifs: Bees, Swings, and the Air

Three motifs recur with enough frequency to suggest deliberate patterning. Bees appear in the title, the epigraph (“Love was the wine, and Jealousy the lees, / Bitter of brine, and syrup of the bees”), and in similes: Arunodaya is “the very image of a bee drowned in the honey of a red lotus.” The bee image ties love to sweetness and danger, foreshadowing the jealousy that will sour the syrup. Swings are introduced as a consolation for Makarandiká’s lost power of flight; she swings “softly to and fro, and looking across the sea.” The swing becomes a symbol of her suspended state—neither fully mortal nor fairy, caught between earth and sky. The air itself is the element of the Widyádharas, who are “sky-goers, sky-roamers, air-wanderers.” Makarandiká’s loss of flight is her greatest regret, and the narrative repeatedly reminds us of her former aerial freedom. These motifs are not merely decorative; they structure the story’s emotional geography, grounding abstract conflicts in tangible, repeated images.

Readers should attend to Bain’s footnotes and asides, which often undercut or complicate the surface narrative. The story is presented as a translation, but the voice is unmistakably Bain’s own—ironic, erudite, and occasionally cryptic. Pay attention to the moments when the prose shifts from swift action to static description, as these changes often signal a turn in the characters’ fortunes. The title’s promise of “syrup” and “lees” suggests that sweetness and bitterness will be intertwined; the narrative delivers on that promise through its careful modulation of tone and pace.

I found myself thinking of the fairy’s willing fall from grace in A Syrup of the Bees, her choice to be mortal and ordinary. It reminded me, oddly, of the quiet way old Yorkshire tales linger on place—not on grand magic, but on the weight of a familiar stone or wind. Then I remembered Legendary Yorkshire — Context and Discussion, and how both feel less like stories and more like remembered weather.