Goldmund's mother does not appear in the action of the novel, but is a recurring presence in Goldmund's thoughts. Her significance is as the book's main representative of the intuitive, emotional, and sensual parts of the human personality that the author equates with artistry. Of noble birth, this beautiful woman fell into the dangerous habits of wild living, and was rescued from near-oblivion by Goldmund's father, who married her. She bore Goldmund, and for a few years seemed to be reformed, but then she returned to her affairs with men and drinking, and eventually she disappeared from the lives of her husband and child. Goldmund's father influenced the boy to forget about his mother, and only when he was 18 did thoughts of her begin to return to Goldmund. Throughout the rest of the novel, she periodically appears in his mind as the embodiment of beauty, kindness, and a darker side, the fusion of which represents the artistic personality, which the author also identifies with femininity.
