Blood meridian

Plots

The kid

a sixteen-year-old runaway, he is a witness to the carnage and often displays passive violence or occasionally, subtle moments of restraint.

John

John Joel Glanton, The leader of the scalp-hunting gang. A ruthless, small-statured strategist, he drives the, group's violent expeditions against Native Americans and Mexican officials

The judge

a massive, bald, and incredibly intelligent intellectual. a philosopher of violence, nihilist.

Toadvine

An earless, branded outlaw who often acts as a foil to the judge, showing moments of, limited morality despite his extreme violence

Tobin

A member of the gang who acts as a mentor-like figure often providing insight into the Judge's truly diabolical nature

Intro

And they are dancing, the board floor slamming under the jackboots and the fiddlers grinning hideously over their canted pieces. Towering over them all is the judge and he is naked dancing, his small feet lively and quick and now in doubletime and bowing to the ladies, huge and pale and hairless, like an enormous infant. He never sleeps, he says. He says he’ll never die. He bows to the fiddlers and sashays backwards and throws back his head and laughs deep in his throat and he is a great favorite, the judge. He wafts his hat and the lunar dome of his skull passes palely under the lamps and he swings about and takes possession of one of the fiddles and he pirouettes and makes a pass, two passes, dancing and fiddling at once. His feet are light and nimble. He never sleeps. He says that he will never die. He dances in light and in shadow and he is a great favorite. He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die.