#haral luhhan

[iviarellereads]

The Eye of the World, Chapter 2 - Strangers

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

(Ravens icon) In which the chapter icons first become specific and notable.

The boys get the first barrels inside, and a couple of pages are spent describing the common room and the few people inside (Bran, Tam, and Cenn, as well as Haral Luhhan (the blacksmith), Jon Thane (the miller), and a couple of unnamed members of the Village Council. Master Luhhan frowns at the boys, before turning back to business.

On the way to the basement they meet Mistress al'Vere, who offers them the bread, cheese, pickles, and honeycakes in the kitchen. Rand likes her, because she's one of few who won't try to matchmake for Tam. He suggests they wait to eat, or they'll never get the cart unloaded.

In the basement, Mat tells Rand a prank he pulled involving borrowing the Luhhans' dogs and covering them in flour to pretend ghost hounds were on the loose. When the dogs went home, they got the house covered in flour, angering Mistress Luhhan, and Master Luhhan by proxy.

When they go back out, they find two plates of snacks and two mugs of mulled cider, so despite Rand's earlier suggestion, they juggle the piping hot honeycakes and the casks for the last two trips.(1)

As they're finishing up, Ewin Finngar finds them, excited. He tells them there are some strangers in the village, and they're not impressed. Ewin is only fourteen, and the years between him and them(2) usually make them pretty dismissive of him. But today, their minds are on the black rider, so they ask if it's him, but Ewin is confused and starts talking about the lady and her guard. Mat slaps his own forehead and says he meant to tell Rand about them before they got distracted. He waxes poetic about their horses(3) before going on to the people themselves.

Rand, who's unimpressed with the florid descriptions from Mat and interjections from Ewin, asks who they are, and what they want. Mat doesn't care what they want, he's just curious about strangers and adventure.

Ewin says he overheard that her name is Moiraine, and his name is Lan, and the Wisdom doesn't like her at all. Rand asks why.

“She asked the Wisdom for directions this morning,” Ewin said, “and called her ‘child.’ ” Rand and Mat both whistled softly through their teeth,(4) and Ewin tripped over his tongue in his haste to explain. “The Lady Moiraine didn’t know she was the Wisdom. She apologized when she found out. She did. And asked some questions about herbs, and about who is who around Emond’s Field, just as respectfully as any woman in the village—more so than some. She’s always asking questions, about how old people are, and how long they’ve lived where they live, and . . . oh, I don’t know what all. Anyway, Nynaeve answered like she’d bitten a green sweetberry. Then, when the Lady Moiraine walked away, Nynaeve stared after her like, like . . . well, it wasn’t friendly, I can tell you that.”

The lads debate whether Nynaeve's temper will hold a grudge, because she usually doesn't for very long, before Mat says, who cares, with a gleeman and strangers for Bel Tine, who even needs fireworks? Ewin gloms on to the gleeman line, asking if it's another trick, and Mat and Rand studiously ignore him as they leave the basement.

Outside, Bela's been taken away with the cart, probably by the stablemen. So, Mat says he's not lying this time, and Rand can back him up. But before Rand can say a word, he feels eyes on himself. A glance around reveals nothing, but he lifts his gaze and finds a raven on the inn's roof. Mat follows his eyeline and they both get angry at it. They throw rocks, but the raven dodges, unsettling them.

“A vile bird,” came a woman’s voice from behind them, melodious despite echoes of distaste, “to be mistrusted in the best of times.” With a shrill cry the raven launched itself into the air so violently that two black feathers drifted down from the roof’s edge.

We officially meet the Lady Moiraine, who is very short,(5) to the point of making Rand feel awkward about his tallness, and looks ambiguously old. Her eyes give an impression of age, but her face looks almost as young as Nynaeve's, only it also... doesn't, somehow. She also wears her hair loose, unlike any adult woman in the village, and her clothes have an entirely unfamiliar cut. She has a chain in her hair, dangling a blue stone on her forehead, and a gold ring in the shape of "the Great Serpent, an even older symbol for eternity than the Wheel of Time."(6)

The lads greet her by the name they've overheard and shared, and she asks for their names. She gives the boys coins in exchange for a promise to help her with some vague tasks while she's in the area, and perhaps a conversation about themselves.(7) Rand asks why she came, and she says she collects stories, and she's heard many about the Two Rivers.

They get confused, what could ever have happened here that was interesting? She says something vague that may be about reincarnation, and the boys are transfixed until she stares at them each in turn. Then they shake it off, and she excuses herself, promising to talk to them later. Her guard, who none of them noticed, peels himself off the front of the inn where he was watching and follows her.(8) Ewin says that's Lan, and he must be a Warder. Mat says Warders are only in stories, and they wear armour covered in jewels, which this man obviously doesn't.(9)

Now that she's gone, the boys realize the coins are silver, enough to buy a good horse with change left over. Mat and Rand both decide not to spend the coins, though what else silver is good for, Rand doesn't know. Ewin resigns himself to keeping his as well, and Rand says to cheer up, there's still the gleeman, if he ever wakes up.

Then the peddler rides in, wagon loaded with goods for trade, and Rand thinks this is going to be the best Bel Tine ever.

=====

(1) It's not entirely clear here, and I'm not putting the supplementary secret extra prologue in the queue until next week, so here's where I say the al'Veres only have daughters, and I like to think Marin al'Vere always wanted a son to dote on and raise properly. (2) Time to clear up a common misconception about these books early: the boys may act young, but they're 19. Rand was born in what we'd think of as November of the year 978 NE (New Era). The current year in-book here is 998 NE. Bel Tine, being something like the spring equinox from context clues, means he's close to 19 and a half. His friends are of comparable age. It's one of my pet peeves when people get this wrong, because we're being locked into our first perceptions of their ages without getting a number. I just want to try to fix this one before it has a chance to become a problem for anyone. (3) Can you tell what Mat's family's profession is, from his priorities? (4) We've already heard from Wit Congar and Cenn Buie that some of the village think Nynaeve is too young for duties as a full Wisdom. Now, whatever her age (though I can tell you she's about 25) nobody likes being treated as too young, irresponsible, and inexperienced to do their jobs. Wisdom as a title implies age and maturity, so something odd's probably happened to put this young woman into such a respected position in the community so early in life. Now imagine you know people look down on you, despite your respected position, every day speaking as if they're your superior when your social position is supposed to be above or outside their sphere. Add to that, one of your duties is predicting the weather and the seasons, and people start complaining about you having predicted the winter wrong, every cold gust of wind a red mark on the honour and respect accorded to your role in the community. Then this woman waltzes into town and calls you "child"? Of course she's gonna hate her.

(5) A lot of details I'm gonna leave out, but this one has twofold importance: one, it's a very distinguishing feature compared to all these giant men, and two, she's so tiny and delicate but also obviously so much more than she appears to be. Her archetype in the story is still almost as ambiguous as her age, so I'll leave you to guess. (Yes, I'm giving her and Lan's family names in the tags when they haven't been revealed yet, but it's so that my tags remain cross-reference-able when we get that information. What, you didn't think they'd show up all mysterious then cease to be relevant, did you? This won't happen with all mysterious characters, but I think it's fair for these two.) (6) Related to the snake on the wheel icon from the previous chapters, but that snake was in a figure-eight, while the text implies that it's just a snake's head eating its tail, cast in gold. There have been plenty of interpretations over the years in both directions. (7) Not suspicious at all, especially after Ewin describing her questioning everybody about who's who in town. (8) The camouflage-colour-changing cloak, the sword that's practically a part of his body, the smoothness? Yes, this is your Aragorn archetype, at a glance. (9) Whatever you think a Warder might be, they must be warriors of some sort. But, what kind of warrior would fight laden down with gold and jewels? As far as I know, only one who wants to end up dead. It's so funny what we assume must be true because of stories, and fascinating to think about what the truth behind it might be.

[sparklyeevee]

One of the problems with Wheel of Time is that there's just, so much going on, sometimes you catch a new implication casually thrown into an offhand sentence in the middle of a scene about something else, and you work it through with other textual evidence until you've got a pretty good idea what it means, and you move on with your life, but now you know this new thing, and it becomes part of your basis for further analysis, and you try to talk about a theory that's partly based on it and people go "Wait, what do you mean Haral Luhhan is Perrin's biological father?"

[wheel-of-fashions]

Chapter 7

“clutching a woodman’s axe in one thick-fingered hand. [...] ash-smeared nightshirt hung to his boots”

[highladyluck]

Third Age Relics: The Two Rivers Plot Contest

Here's another plot contest entry from rasfwrj. This is one from "What Happened in the Two Rivers in The Fires of Heaven", which was a plot contest held after The Fires of Heaven came out and 'everybody complained because Perrin and Faile weren't in the book'.

Author: Captain Commander Hillyard (aka SEH)

Winner: First Place, Most Humorous Winner: Second Place, Most Novel

Welcome to the 6:00 news.

In local news, this is election day. If you haven't voted yet, please do. Exit polls put Mayor al'Vere ahead with 60% of the vote in his bid for a fifth term. Although there have been allegations of an underhanded strategy to help limit the Coplin vote.

Proposition one is too close to call. In order to help the undecideds here's Haral Luhan and Cenn Buie in point/counterpoint. Cenn.

"Proposition one is needed badly. Emond's Field is the only village in the Two Rivers without any zoning laws, and look what it has gotten us. A large eyesore of a manor built near the historic village green (by the way, the historic preservation society's attempt to block the building with an injuction is going smoothly so far.), that building is menace. Perrin is a menace. Why we've have three children bit by wolves in the last month. They think just because Perrin can talk to wolves that they can too, somebody ought to sue. Why he should..."

Thank you Cenn. Haral.

"Proposition one is about three things. Jobs, jobs, jobs. What with those ill directed anti-smoking ordinances and the Wisdom Generals wool headed warning against tabac. Our exports have gone into the chamber pot. Not to mention the beating the wool industry has been taking due to synthetics, and imports of Aiel (the darkfriends) koton. Emond's Field needs the industry that will be brought in by its comparative advantage in cheap commercial land."

Very good. Now here's Daise with the weather.

"Well, I'm sorry to say that the wind has been mighty shy lately and hasn't said exactly when the drought will end. Do buck up though. Winter will be mild."

Thank you Wisdom, now a word from our sponsor.

"Mat Cauthon, you just killed the insane leader of half a million rampaging black veiled Aiel. What are you going to do now?" "I'm going to Valan Luca's."

Now to sports. Tam al'Thor again won the longbow competition. Although there have been some allegations. Here's master Coplin.

"Nobody can shoot that well without One Poweroids, and just look at his son. There is no doubt about it. He's juiced. His medals should be stripped."

In other news, the trial of Padan Fain has come to a close. Despite many eyewitnesses and a video tape showing him torturing and killing two Tinkers, the jury apparently bought the prosecutions argument that he was swept up in mob mentality due to his association with the Whitecloaks, and therefore was only sentenced to a slap on the wrist, albeit by Alsbet Luhhan.

Finally, this station has been assured by the White Tower that rumors of the Dark One breaking free have been greatly exaggerated, and if he does get out, the Tower will be able to take care of it if only RALFTA (RAndLand Free Trade Agreement) is ratified.

[astrometriia]

So I was skimming through The Eye of the World again and I stumbled over this little gem I had completely forgotten about that Tam mentions:

“Master Luhhan is a strong man, and a brave one, but he can’t bear to see butchering done. Turns pale as a sheet.”

Don’t imagine Haral Luhhan in the Field of Merrilor during a lull in the Last Battle, ferrying as many injured back to Mayene as he can. He can’t fight, no, but he can damn well help in any way he can.

Don’t imagine Haral Luhhan swallowing past the bile rising in his throat at the sight of all that blood, all that death, and steeling himself to go on because there are people alive out there that need treatment.

Don’t imagine Haral Luhhan’s first brush with someone grievously injured actually being before the Last Battle.

Don’t imagine him seeing Perrin, his apprentice, the son he never had, bleeding out on the ground. Don’t imagine the anxiety he must have felt, the blind panic, the nausea, which he buried deep within to sling Perrin across his back and get him to a gateway in time.

Don’t imagine Haral Luhhan overcoming his fear at the sight of blood because the fear of losing Perrin is stronger than every one of his other fears combined.

[iviarellereads]

The Eye of the World, Chapter 7 - Out Of The Woods

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

(Dead tree icon) In which some costs are too great, but perhaps we can hope, not this one.

Rand plods on until he notices the dark night fading. He can barely feel his shoulders or his legs anymore, just the queasy hunger in his stomach and the burning in his lungs. He smells smoke, and smiles, but shortly realizes there's too much of it in the air.

The city's been sacked. Sort of. The destruction is in patches, as if specific houses, specific streets were targeted, and those between and around them left alone.(1)

Master Luhhan is the first one Rand can flag down, and he calls for Egwene and helps Rand with the litter. Egwene leads them to Nynaeve, who looks Tam over and declares sadly that she can't help him. Rand protests that Tam is dying, and Nynaeve says she knows he is, but she knows what she can do with her herb lore, and there are people she can still save.(2) She goes back to her work, calling Egwene in after her. Egwene gives Rand a tackle-hug for comfort, and goes back to work.

Rand sets himself to bring Tam to the Mayor, surely Bran al'Vere will know something to do. He walks in a daze, brushing off offers of help from others in the village. Thom Merrilin is outside the inn, and says he's sure the Wisdom will set Tam right, he admires her work since last night, and how odd that Padan Fain disappeared in the night.

Ignoring Thom as he did the other villagers, Rand is started on his arrival at the inn to see its door marked with charcoal, a teardrop shape balanced on its point. Rand calls it the Dragon's Fang,(3) and thinks it's used to accuse those within of evil, why would anyone accuse anyone at the inn of evil? Somewhere along the way, Master Luhhan left to other tasks, so Thom helps get Tam on the litter inside.

Rand gets Tam in and Bran insists on settling the man in a bed, so he can at least rest. After telling them Nynaeve won't help him, Rand begs Master al'Vere and Thom the gleeman for any idea what he can do to save his father.

Thom wonders who scrawled the Dragon's Fang on the door,(4) and the Mayor accuses the Coplins and Congars, troublemaking families. One of them, he says, told him he ought to throw Moiraine and Lan out of the village, as if there would be a village left without them.

Rand is confused. What did they do? Turns out Moiraine is an Aes Sedai. She called lightning out of the sky and killed many of the Trollocs. Lan being her Warder, his sword felled any that came near him. Bran realizes that Aes Sedai can heal, and asks why Thom didn't just say that in the first place, since he knows all the stories? Thom remarks coolly that the Coplins and Congars aren't the only ones who want no truck with Aes Sedai.

Help from an Aes Sedai was sometimes worse than no help at all, so the stories said, like poison in a pie, and their gifts always had a hook in them, like fishbait.

Despite his misgivings and the men's warnings, Rand runs off to find Moiraine and ask for her help. As he walks up, Lan and Moiraine talk about how seven bands of Trollocs have been noted in the dead, that many haven't worked together since the Trolloc Wars.(5)

Rand stumbles over his words and says he'll pay any price in his power if she can help his father. Moiraine says they'll talk of prices later, if at all, but she'll do what she can. When Rand tries to rush them, Lan snaps that she's obviously tired, from what she'd already done the night before. He adds that he's not sure Rand is worth helping, "no matter what she says."(6) Moiraine bids Lan to go gently, the boy only cares for his father as much as Lan wants to protect Moiraine.

For his part, Rand just tries not to worry what price she'll ask as they approach the inn.

=====

(1) What were they looking for? Well, nearly all the boys of an age range in and around town reported seeing the black rider in the days before. That would be a pretty big coincidence. (2) Triage is a wonderful and terrible thing. (3) And this is why I used that name a few chapters ago. Only, we see now what connotation it carries. Looking back, what in chapter 3 might have justified its use there? Was it the talk of the Dragon, or something more sinister? (4) Note here, how Thom tries to draw attention to Moiraine Sedai's ability without saying so. He knows the Fang was probably exactly what Bran said, done to accuse Moiraine and Lan of being Darkfriends. So, he tries to guide Bran down the path to "Aes Sedai can heal" without compromising his principle to know about and interact with Aes Sedai as little as possible. (5) We've seen mention of the Trolloc Wars before, "when men battled Trollocs for rule of the earth", from Thom's bragging about all the stories he knows. We didn't know quite what Trollocs were then, but we have a much better idea, now, of what horror a Trolloc War might entail. (6) Moiraine seemed awfully relieved to see Rand had survived the night, and now we learn that Moiraine thinks Rand is worth putting herself out over. Who is this woman, this Aes Sedai, and why is she here?

[wheel-of-fashions]

Chapter 2

“long leather apron”