Siward (The True Tragedie of Macbeth)

Siward was a character in William Shakespeare's play Macbeth.

He was part of the army which Malcolm and Macduff amassed in order to remove Macbeth from the Scottish throne. Appearing in Act V Scene IV, at its beginning he asked what wood was before their troops. He was answered by Menteith who told him it was Great Birnam Wood. Siward and the other soldiers used branches and leaves from the forest as camouflage so that their approach would not be suspected. Their forces were ultimately victorious with Macbeth "fight[ing] and los[ing]" due to not realising his men were outnumbered until it was too late, unpreparedness which was caused by his misinterpretations of the Weird Sisters' prophecies in Act IV. (PROSE: The True Tragedie of Macbeth)