Chapter VIII opens with a chilling discovery: the Sixth Commandment on the barn wall now reads "No animal shall kill another animal without cause." The animals vaguely recall the commandment being different, but Squealer convinces them the qualifying words were always there. This quiet alteration retroactively justifies the bloody purges of the previous chapter and signals that the pigs will rewrite reality whenever it suits them.
Napoleon's cult of personality reaches new heights. He is now referred to by grandiose titles such as "our Leader, Comrade Napoleon," "Father of All Animals," "Terror of Mankind," "Protector of the Sheep-fold," and "Ducklings' Friend." Every success on the farm, from a hen laying extra eggs to the taste of the water, is attributed to Napoleon's genius. The poet pig Minimus composes a sycophantic poem entitled "Comrade Napoleon," which is inscribed on the barn wall opposite the Seven Commandments and accompanied by a portrait of Napoleon in profile. Napoleon now lives in separate quarters, eats from Crown Derby china, and requires a cockerel to march before him wherever he goes.
The chapter's central crisis involves the sale of the farm's stockpile of timber. Napoleon plays the neighboring farmers, Pilkington and Frederick, against each other, alternately favoring one and demonizing the other. Propaganda about Frederick's cruelty to his animals circulates whenever Napoleon leans toward dealing with Pilkington, and vice versa. Eventually, Napoleon announces a deal with Frederick, who pays in genuine-looking five-pound notes. The animals celebrate the shrewd bargain, but within days the terrible truth emerges: Frederick's banknotes are forgeries. Napoleon pronounces the death sentence on Frederick.
Frederick wastes no time pressing his advantage. He and fifteen men invade Animal Farm with guns and dynamite. The animals fight fiercely, but the men reach the windmill — the structure the animals have labored for over two years to build — and blow it to rubble. The destruction enrages the animals beyond all fear; they charge the men in a furious counterattack and drive them from the farm. This engagement becomes known as the Battle of the Windmill. However, the victory is pyrrhic: several animals lie dead, nearly all are wounded, and Boxer has been shot in the leg.
Squealer, arriving late as usual, proclaims the battle a magnificent triumph. The animals are skeptical — they have lost the windmill, after all — but Squealer reframes the narrative: the real victory is that they have recaptured their own soil. Napoleon awards himself the new "Order of the Green Banner" and declares two days of celebrations, complete with songs, speeches, and extra food rations.
A few days later, the pigs discover a case of whisky in the farmhouse cellar. That night, raucous singing echoes from the farmhouse. The next morning, Squealer appears with the alarming news that Napoleon is dying, and Napoleon's "last decree" is that drinking alcohol shall be punishable by death. By evening, however, Napoleon recovers, and the following day he orders the animals to sow a small paddock with barley. Shortly afterward, Muriel notices something different about the Fifth Commandment on the barn wall. It now reads: "No animal shall drink alcohol to excess."