Egderus receives a full-length portrait in the two previous volumes of We Descend; here he appears not as the founder of the Archives or even as a principal player in the important events detailed elsewhere in WDvol3, but as a marginal figure, an old man, the director of a remote eremitic community that is suddenly called upon to serve as a sanctuary for refugees from calamity in the outside world.

It is unknown whether Egderus survived the turmoil of his time, or was swept away by it along with so many of his contemporaries, but we must believe that he met this last challenge with the courage and resourcefulness he had shown throughout his life, not least in contriving — in the midst of the total disintegration of his world — to collect and pass along to us the Archives that bear his name.

The affectionate reminiscence {New Year} presents a lively picture of life in such a Retreat House when Egderus was a boy, and also introduces the odd beggar who may well be the Old Poet who wrote {patteran}, which also appears in this volume.

In {What can we do here?}, Egderus lays out first thoughts on preparing his isolated refuge for the world catastrophe that he feared could soon reach its door.

But it is in the address {this work} that Egderus shows his character most fully, urging his followers (and us) to remember our place in the procession of all the generations of our kind.