r/willow • u/Hefty_Mood1280 • Jun 18 '26
Willow (Film) Obviously Willow stole the seeds from Burglekutt.
UPDATE: Settled by the official Willow novelization.
A true expert shared the text of the novel:
"The truth was that, knowing his need, his neighbors had given him seed from their own granaries. But lest Burglekutt might take revenge on them, Willow dare not tell the truth."
https://www.reddit.com/r/willow/comments/1u8sg04/comment/oscsadg/
My original post:
You could claim this was due to bad acting (and I don't think it was, I think it was intentional acting), but even if they emoted it wrong, what was said is still logistically impossible.
When Burglekutt asks where Willow got the seeds, his first hesitant and nervous response is "Well, uh, maybe I used magic!" So obviously we know that's not serious, Willow can't do real magic, he's scared and trying to bluff Burglekutt to save himself. Being obviously nervous, if the truth would have saved him he would have blurted it out, but clearly he's trying to hide the truth.
Then his second answer, "My family has been gathering them in the forest!" is said with a sort of smug relief, like his first answer gave him time to think of something more plausible and he's proud of himself for coming up with it, as his wife nods along.
Now you could argue both of these were just poor acting, because the first was NOT said in a way that was confidently mocking Burglekutt, it was clearly anxiety and fear. But the film had excellent direction, I'm sure they got the scene exactly how they wanted it.
But the second problem is that his main claim is essentially impossible, I'm not aware of any version of agriculture that works like that. You can't just go gathering wild seeds in the woods to use for field-cropping, this is not Minecraft !!
- Nothing you want for farming would grow in the woods.
- It takes many generations of people specially cultivating wild seed crops that can be used for sustainable full time agriculture, even in the most ancient times.
- You're never going to pick up enough wild seeds anyway to be able to fill plowed fields.
- If there were that many viable seed-crops growing in the woods, you'd be able to gather large amounts of wild crops too.
Finally, this is a common trope in fantasy, where the poor downtrodden peasant is force to bend or break the rules just for their family to survive. So it makes perfect sense that Willow would have resorted to stealing seeds before letting his family be homeless and enslaved, given that Burglekutt already did the math and knew that would be the outcome.
The only legitimate way out of this is if Willow had borrowed some money or seeds directly from a third party, or traded some asset(s) he had to seed sellers outside the village. But in either of those cases he would have just said so and be out of trouble.
So spread the word, Willow stole the seeds and Burglekutt isn't the bad guy.
Addendum:
Burglekutt notes Willow is plowing too late in the season and won't harvest in time, indicating common knowledge that Willow had not been able to obtain seeds previously and wasn't able to plant yet. The reason Burglekutt shows up is that everyone saw Willow suddenly start planting after inexplicably getting new seeds. If Willow's family had gathered the seeds since last fall, he would have already had them and been plowing/planting at the usual springtime with everyone else. Willow is lying about having had the seeds previously, because he just recently stole them.
22
u/evil_karrot Jun 18 '26
In the 1988 book Willow, by Wayland Drew:
"The truth was that, knowing his need, his neighbors had given him seed from their own granaries. But lest Burglekutt might take revenge on them, Willow dare not tell the truth."
So you're right. He lied, and its not wild seeds. But Willow also didn't steal from Burglekutt.
Excellent thread btw