Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery

Chimeras—beings that are half-animal, half-human—abound in Slewfoot. The wildfolk all have the bodies of animals but the faces of children; Mamunappeht has the body of a man with skin “made up of tiny bumps and scales” (202); and Martha, after being cured, has a vision of Abitha as an angel with horns. It is Abitha who undergoes the novel’s primary chimeric transformation: By ingesting Samson’s blood, Abitha loses her purely human form and gains a goat’s legs along with pupils that are “slits, like some wild beast, only filled with hatred, all but gleaming with venom” (269). The many chimeric bodies in Slewfoot are part of the novel’s horror; they call into question the very boundaries that humans use to differentiate themselves from animals, hence underpinning the novel’s exploration of The Relationship Between Humanity and Nature.

Abitha’s movement toward becoming a chimera mirrors her descent toward the need for revenge. Samson warns Abitha when she takes his blood that “[i]f you walk with the beast you become the beast” (261). Her need for vengeance can only be sated by taking on her chimeric body and using that body to enact the violence she craves. In this way, the chimeric body represents the eruption of the base, animal instincts that humanity tries, but often fails, to keep at bay.