Echo

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2015

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PrologueChapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue, Section 1 Summary: “A Witch, A Prophecy, A Kiss”

The book’s Prologue takes place prior to the action of the novel. The first section is a fairytale: a king is anxious that his legacy be passed down, but law says that his firstborn child will inherit the throne only if that child is male. Therefore, when the queen gives birth to a girl, he orders a midwife to bring his daughter into the woods. The midwife, however, takes mercy on the girl and gives her to a witch, who agrees that the girl can stay and do chores. The witch names the girl Eins, German for “one.” The midwife bestows a prophecy: “Your fate is not yet sealed./Even in the darkest night, a star will shine,/A bell will chime, all will be revealed.” In the coming years, the queen gives birth to two more girls, and the witch takes them in, naming them Zwei and Drei (“two” and “three”). The midwife shares the same prophecy with the other two sisters. The queen’s fourth child is a boy.

Prologue, Section 2 Summary

We learn that the fairytale just relayed appears in a book; its reader is named Otto, and he has been playing a game of hide-and-seek. He realizes that while he has been hiding and reading, he missed the signal for those who were hidden to come out. He wanders for hours in the forest and falls. Soon after, he encounters three young women: Eins, Zwei, and Drei. He realizes they are the girls from his book, and they ask to read it.

Prologue, Section 3 Summary

We return to the fairy tale, and learn that Eins, Zwei, and Drei have grown up together, taking care of the witch. They have “two consolations” in their otherwise boring lives: singing, and each other. As the years pass, their father dies, and the midwife tells the new king about his sisters. He sends her to find them, and she informs them of their true identities. However, the witch becomes angry, and curses them: “A messenger brought you about./ One-and-the-same must bring you out./You may not leave in earthly form./ Your spirits to a woodwind born./ You save a soul from death’s dark door,/ Or here you’ll anguish evermore.”

Prologue, Section 4 Summary

Otto and Eins, Zwei, and Drei discuss the book: the rest of the pages are blank. They decide the spell means that their spirits must be put into a woodwind instrument, and Otto happens to have a harmonica. They tell Otto they will help him return home if he allows them to play it, and if he agrees to pass it on so that it may eventually save a person who is near death. He agrees, and they play the instrument; its notessound like three melodies at once. Drei says thatOtto will now be forever joined to the girls. He swoons, and when he wakes up, he holds on to the harmonica, recognizing he is the “messenger” who will bring the sisters out of the woods.

Prologue Analysis

The Prologue introduces a book that contains a fairytale as well as blank pages. The three sisters from the fairytale seek to be freed from their captivity, and to do so, they will have to find a messenger willing to carry their spirits in an instrument. Moreover, that instrument must go on to save someone’s life. Otto is the first person to read this fairytale, and it seems to help save him, as the three sisters lead him out of the woods. They tell him that the harmonica will bind him to them, and to the others who will possess it. These chapters thus introduce music as something that can console someone in a moment of fear, and something that can possibly even save a life. The harmonica that the three sisters play will create a thread between the characters in the stories that follow.