WOTRR recap: TEOTW Part I (Prologue-Chapter 5)

So, of course I have been stalking following Brandon as he does his final WoT re-read to prepare for writing AMOL, which is OMG THE LAST BOOK OF WOT NO REALLY GUYS THIS IS IT. Brandon plans to be done reading by April, and in the meantime, he's making an outline and studying RJ's notes.

Since we, the fandom, spontaneously decided that Brandon had invited us to read along with him (which he did not, really) and it has now become a Thing (because why shouldn't we?) I figured I would recap the high points as it progresses...that is, the high points in the Twitter conversation with Brandon, and the high points in the books that I - as a Hard Core Fan Freak - find relevant to our interests. I'm doing it because I figure it's better than spamming the hashtag with my verbose (for Twitter) observations. Brandon is humoring us quite nicely so far.

Also, this brilliant idea was belated, but I shall endeavor to catch up very quickly. That being said, I'm not particularly worried about catching up to Brandon; he has to be done by April, but we don't. I'll probably do less detail per chapter as I go on - the foreshadowing is pretty thick in the early chapters.

Also, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR ALL BOOKS UP TO TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT IN EVERY POST. Just saying. Also, I'm not summarizing the chapters for you. If you want chapter summaries, go here. If you want chapter summaries with witty and/or snarky commentary, go to Leigh Butler's re-read. Hell, they're still re-reading after...wow, 2 years now. And they're still on CoT. And poor Leigh is tearing out her hair and remembering just why she left us all those years ago (really, that started with TPOD, but I digress).

Table of Contents

Prologue - Dragonmount
Chapter 1 - An Empty Road
Chapter 2 - Strangers
Chapter 3 - The Peddler
Chapter 4 - The Gleeman
Chapter 5 - Winternight

Prologue - Dragonmount

I have encountered a number of people over the years who claim that they couldn't get into WoT because of the prologue. Some of them skipped it and went straight to chapter one, and now they're happy HCFFs. Some didn't. Of course, the happy HCFFs went back and read 'Dragonmount' later upon which time it made a great deal more sense.

Now that we've all read TOM, it's like we've come full circle. Rand has returned to Dragonmount and has faced the grief and guilt that led to its creation in the first place, and the stage is now set for the final battle between Rand al'Therin Telamon and Elan Ba'Ishydin Mordronai. Matt Hatch, beloved Tamyrlin of Theoryland, has said that he dreads it (even thought it seems inevitable) because haven't we seen that three times already?

The answer is, hell no we haven't seen that three times already, because Rand didn't remember before. He started (truly) remembering his past life just after he killed Ishamael (TSR 9-10) and he oddly never really thought about Ishamael's role in the events of 'Dragonmount' until TGS15 when he met Moridin in the dream (even then he barely touched on it). Since his epiphany on Dragonmount (heh)...now he remembers everything. He might even remember the claim that Ishamael made in an upcoming chapter:

TITLE - The Eye of the World
CHAPTER: 14 - The Stag and Lion
"I stood at Lews Therin Kinslayer's shoulder when he did the deed that named him. It was I who told him to kill his wife, and his children, and all his blood, and every living person who loved him or whom he loved. It was I who gave him the moment of sanity to know what he had done. Have you ever heard a man scream his soul away, worm? He could have struck at me, then. He could not have won, but he could have tried. Instead he called down his precious One Power upon himself, so much that the earth split open and reared up Dragonmount to mark his tomb."

The truth? Probably not, at least in reference to the first bit (of course the rest was true). In the omni POV, Ishamael seemed surprised at the carnage when he arrived:

The laughter cut off as if it had never been, and Lews Therin turned, seeming unsurprised. "Ah, a guest. Have you the Voice, stranger? It will soon be time for the Singing, and here all are welcome to take part. Ilyena, my love, we have a guest. Ilyena, where are you?"

The black-clad man's eyes widened, darted to the body of the golden-haired woman, then back to Lews Therin. "Shai'tan take you, does the taint already have you so far in its grip?"

But either way, now that Rand remembers his past life intimately, his rivalry with Moridin has a much deeper significance. Brandon notes, however, that Moridin has changed a great deal since then:

Brandon on Twitter - 3 January 2011
Man, I love the EotW prologue. Some of my favorite writing in the entire series. Great insight into Ishamael's personality pre-madness.
Brandon
People like to talk of Rand's character development. Elan -> Ishamael -> Moridin is almost as interesting to me. His outlook has evolved so much.
Justin Lee
Has it really evolved? he's still the megalomanical favorite/topdog he's always seen himself to be.
Brandon
No, he's really changed a lot. He's a fatalist now, as I mentioned to @dragonmount. He knows far more.
Jason Denzel
How would you compare Ishamael's motivations from when he was Elan vs when he was Moridin?
Brandon
Elan is actually more selfish. He still thinks he will rule, that the Dark One will take over the world and create a new one.
Brandon
Moridin has been through madness and touched the mind of the Dark One. He is far more fatalistic, and actually less selfish.
Terez
And therefore...less predictable? :)
Brandon
I was wondering if anyone would pick up on that quote¹ in relation to my tweet.
Austin Moore
Is it wrong for me to have been under the impression that Moridin isn't "mad?" I've thought he was less mad than he was...
Austin Moore
...as Ishamael. Mad being crazy not mad being evil because obviously he's evil.
Brandon
Moridin is less insane than Ishamael was. Much as Rand is less insane than Lews Therin was.
Azral Joe
You say Moridin is less selfish. Is he now a Dark Buddha wanting to end the suffering of existence in the nirvana of oblivion?
Brandon
It's not that he's unselfish. But compare his lines in EotW and KoD or TofM to see the difference.

One of the most interesting things about the prologue to me is that it touches philosophically on the pop culture phenomenon of legal insanity, a notion that is troublesome to many. The controversy always rests in the uncertainty involved in determining that someone ought not be held responsible for their crimes. One popular example is John Grisham's A Time to Kill, a novel featuring a perfectly sane vigilante who (convincingly) uses a plea temporary insanity as his Get Out of Jail Free card. We are meant to sympathize with this character, but often the trope tends toward the unrepentant and cold-blooded killers who use the plea deceptively.

Contrast these with Lews Therin. If any fictional character has ever been convincingly insane - that is, completely incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong - then Lews Therin has got to be the poster boy. If he had remained in that state, we would have no choice but to show mercy toward the poor chap in the courtroom, and Lews Therin himself probably wouldn't care one way or the other. But after he was Healed - temporary sanity? - he was so horrified by what he had done that he held himself responsible for it even though he knew that he had not been in his right mind. And who wouldn't?

This brings us to Brandon's Easter Egg:

The land around him was flat and empty. A river flowed nearby, straight and broad, but he could sense there were no people within a hundred leagues. He was alone, as alone as a man could be while still alive, yet he could not escape memory. The eyes pursued him through the endless caverns of his mind. He could not hide from them. His children's eyes. Ilyena's eyes. Tears glistened on his cheeks as he turned his face to the sky. "Light, forgive me!" He did not believe it could come, forgiveness. Not for what he had done. But he shouted to the sky anyway, begged for what he could not believe he could receive. "Light, forgive me!"

I picked this out on my nth reread back in 2006, and I knew there hadn't been much discussion on it (as opposed to every other detail of the prologue), so when Brandon mentioned Yet Another Overlooked Detail, this immediately came to mind:

Brandon - 4 January 2011
WoT Easter Egg: there's an easily overlooked line in the EotW prologue which gives huge foreshadowing of things Rand can do in TofM.
Terez
I always thought the fact that Lews Therin could sense that there were no people around for miles was interesting.
Brandon
I should have guessed that you'd be the only one who would pick out the right line, Terez.
Brandon
The Easter egg in the prologue has to do with Lews Therin sensing the lack of people around him for miles and miles.

Brandon on Twitter - 5 January 2011
On to other topics. Regarding yesterday's Easter Egg, Maria mentions RJ was preparing a blog post on the concept.
Brandon
For those who missed it, it has to do with Lews Therin sensing nobody was nearby when he made Dragonmount.
Brandon
And before you ask, no, I can't say more. Sorry. Suffice it to say that what is in the books stands as enough of an answer, for now.
Terez
My original(ish) post on the ability to sense for people: http://bit.ly/safegates in '06. I was a noob(ish) then.
Brandon
Interesting theory. What do you think of it now?
Terez
I think it still holds up (despite a few details I missed), but I think it's not what you were getting at. :)

And indeed, Rand doesn't even Travel much in TOM, so it's not likely to have anything to do with that (though the theory might still be valid). I'm reluctant to jump to any conclusions just yet about what, exactly, Brandon was getting at here, but I find it interesting that RJ was going to write a blog post about it. There are some ideas floating around, but nothing particularly compelling just yet.

A few odds and ends from the prologue:

1. RJ told us that the Nine Rods of Dominion were not actual rods (and therefore were not Oath Rods), but rather positions of power:

DragonCon 4 September 2005 - Emma reporting
Question Part 1: I have a question about the Nine Rods of Dominion. We have a couple of references to this, and Ishamael says that Lews Therin summoned the Nine Rods of Dominion, and theories have been floating around. Are the Oath Rods not the Nine Rods of Dominion?
Jordan: They were not the Oath Rods.
Question Part 2: Well are they positions of power? Were they people, or were they actual rods?
Jordan: They were actual people, and they were, but you might call them regional governors of the earth, regional governors of the planet. So if I say, summon them, then we've got a guy who has been given in effect ultimate power.

RJ's blog 10 December 2005 "THIS AND THAT"
 - None of the Forsaken were among the Nine Rods of Dominion, and the "Rods" were symbols of office.

2. In the glossary of the split version of TEOTW, we learn that Tamyrlin was probably the name of the person who discovered the One Power at the beginning of the Second Age. Also, we know that Lews Therin was not called the 'Tamyrlin Seat' - the High Seat and the Ring of Tamyrlin (possibly an 'angreal of some sort) were rather marks of his office as First Among Servants for the Aes Sedai, and the word 'Amyrlin' is a corruption of the word 'Tamyrlin'.

3. Does Lews Therin imply that anyone can have the Voice for seed-singing? Later on it appears as though only Aiel and Ogier and Nym can participate, but perhaps that's not true. Perhaps it was just insane rambling, but Lews Therin specifically implies that this invitation is somewhat non-customary - 'here all are welcome to take part'.

4. This nifty appearing and disappearing thing that Ishamael does is True Power Traveling, which does not involve gateways. RJ said so.

5. Lews Therin created not only Dragonmount with his suicide, but also the island of Tar Valon. There is some clever symbolism here which Brandon was very kindly willing to discuss with us, but be warned: IT CANNOT BE UNSEEN.

Chapter 1 - An Empty Road

This time, we'll start with Brandon's first impressions:

Brandon
The first wind is in the Mountains of Mist; I've always assumed this was a nod to Tolkien's Misty Mountains. 

Brandon
Look in The Way of Kings on the full map of Roshar for something similar. (It's not on the map, but the mountains sheltering Shinovar are called the Misted Mountains.) 

Shecky X
Well, his Charlestonian background makes the "Two Rivers" the Charleston area, so the "Mountains of Mist" may be... 

Shecky X
... the Smoky Mountains, upstate from his home. (FYI: the Charleston area is defined by the Ashley and Cooper Rivers.) 

Brandon
Nice note. I'd never known that. 

Lynn Oliver
Listening to WoT on audiobook, first time through series. Book 1 seems heavily influenced by Tolkien so far. 

Brandon
Yes, book one is very Tolkien influenced. Very. Book two less so. It's almost gone by book three.

I'm not a Tolkien expert, but the only Tolkien reference I can think of in TGH is the inn called The Nine Rings in Tremonsien (near where the Choedan Kal statue was buried). Rand and Lanfear went there with Loial and Hurin after they escaped from the Portal Stone world. The parallel to Charleston is of course valid, but RJ was quite open about having deliberately referenced Tolkien in the early chapters:

Robert Jordan's blog 2 October 2005 - 'ONE MORE TIME'

For Cooner 1987, I don’t think there is any similarity between Hobbits and the Two Rivers folk. The Two Rivers people are based on a lot of country people I have known, and among whom I did a lot of my growing up. I did try to make the first roughly 100 pages of EYE seem somewhat Tolkienesque. I wanted to say, “This is the place you know, guys. Now we’re going somewhere else.” And then the Trolloc kicked in the farmhouse door. But I didn’t take it to the point of trying to make the Two Rivers folk seem like Hobbits. I mean, I love The Lord of the Rings and have read it at least a dozen times, but when you have too many Hobbits together, they can be so bloody cute that I need a stiff drink. 

The Mountains of Mist are only the beginning, really. Mat and Perrin seem to be a nod to Merry and Pippin, the sidekicks of Tolkien's hero, Frodo (in fact, the apparently deliberate trio-ness of the boys from several thematic perspectives makes me wonder if RJ's story about the fourth ta'veren is simply an elaborate joke on Sweet's art) and in chapter six, Rand's encounter with the Myrddraal on the Quarry Road is very reminiscent of the Hobbits' first encounter with the Nazgûl.

These things have led a number of people to claim that WoT is nothing but a Tolkien rip-off. It's laughable, really. Brandon said it best:

Brandon on Twitter - 30 March 2010 2:37 pm
Calling WoT derivative of Tolkien is like calling Tolkien derivative of Beowulf. True, but missing the point entirely.

An entertaining almost-aside:

ComicCon 15 July 2005 - Diomedes reporting
One person asked, rather impertinently I thought, if RJ had ripped off Tolkien's Middle-Earth map when he created his own. Of course, RJ denied that, and said that after he had handed in The Eye of the World, he was asked to provide a map. "Why do you need a map?" RJ asked, and he was told, "Tom Doherty likes maps." So, RJ slapped a couple pieces of paper together and drew in the mountains, then scattered the countries around, added some cities rivers and other geographical features and sent it off to Tor. Tor revised it a number of times until Elise Mitchell produced the version that became part of The Eye of the World. RJ also stated that if you look at a map of southwestern Saudi Arabia you'll see two mountain ranges that intersect at right angles.

In reference to the previously-mentioned things that cannot be unseen...well, now we know who to blame. :)

Odds and ends for chapter one:

1. Rand sensed the Myrddraal - 'The hairs on his arms stirred; his skin prickled as if it itched on the inside.' - and while he had a strong feeling that it hated him, Mat did not.

2. Twice in rapid succession, Rand unwittingly touches on the true nature of what he saw (along with a funny foreshadowing of Rand's role as the Dragon):

"I don't know. But I do know that rider was ... evil. Don't laugh. I'll take oath on it. Maybe it was the Dragon."


"You're just full of cheerful thoughts, aren't you?" Rand muttered. "You sound worse than Cenn."


"My mother always said the Forsaken would come for me if I didn't mend my ways. If I ever saw anybody who looked like Ishamael, or Aginor, it was him."


"Everybody's mother scared them with the Forsaken," Rand said dryly, "but most grow out of it. Why not the Shadowman, while you're about it?"


Mat glared at him. "I haven't been so scared since ... No, I've never been that scared, and I don't mind admitting it."


"Me, either. My father thinks I was jumping at shadows under the trees."

Fades are called Shadowmen, and of course, they appear and disappear by traveling through shadows. Also, speaking of Cenn Buie...

3. Brandon notes that Cenn is more often right than wrong in the beginning:

Brandon
Another thought: Cenn is right more often than wrong in these early chapters. Unexpected, as I think of him as a blowhard.

At the time, Brandon had recently read this:

"An ill omen," a scratchy voice announced, "no storks nesting on the rooftops at Bel Tine." Cenn Buie, as gnarled and dark as an old root, marched up to Tam and Bran and leaned on his walking staff, near as tall as he was and just as gnarled. He tried to fix both men at once with a beady eye. "There's worse to come, you mark my words."


"Have you become a soothsayer, then, interpreting omens?" Tam asked dryly. "Or do you listen to the wind, like a Wisdom? There's certainly enough of it. Some originating not far from here."


"Mock if you will," Cenn muttered, "but if it doesn't warm enough for crops to sprout soon, more than one root cellar will come up empty before there's a harvest. By next winter there may be nothing left alive in the Two Rivers but wolves and ravens. If it is next winter at all. Maybe it will still be this winter."


"Now what is that supposed to mean?" Bran said sharply.


Cenn gave them a sour look. "I've not much good to say about Nynaeve al'Meara. You know that. For one thing, she's too young to – No matter. The Women's Circle seems to object to the Village Council even talking about their business, though they interfere in ours whenever they want to, which is most of the time, or so it seems to – "


"Cenn," Tam broke in, "is there a point to this?"


"This is the point, al'Thor. Ask the Wisdom when the winter will end, and she walks away. Maybe she doesn't want to tell us what she hears on the wind. Maybe what she hears is that the winter won't end. Maybe it's just going to go on being winter until the Wheel turns and the Age ends. There's your point."

And of course, Cenn did indeed have a point. But I wonder if Brandon's comment extended to his omen-reading abilities. :)

4. Brandon gives us a nice tease concerning one of the prequels RJ planned to write:

Brandon
Ha. Thom showing up at night, and people grumbling, makes me smile now knowing about the unwritten prequel involving his arrival.

5. Rand's leadership potential is clearly foreshadowed here:

"You have a head on your shoulders when you choose to use it," Bran said. "He'll follow you on the Village Council one day, Tam. Mark my words. He couldn't do much worse right now than someone I could name."

It's interesting that, despite Rand's wise and sensible nature, he still had such a hard time of it. RJ did always say that the concept for WoT came from the question of what it would really be like if the average sensible guy was tapped on the shoulder and told he had to save the world. Rand's journey is about exploring this question.

Chapter 2 - Strangers

One of the things that makes RJ such an incredible author is that he is very deliberately weaves a good number of uncertainties into the story, far more than most authors can manage. They are a huge part of what makes the WoT world so real. RJ has even said it's more or less one of the themes of the books:

DragonCon 5 September 2005 - Tamyrlin reporting(video) One of the themes I have running through the books is that whatever you think you know, some of it is almost certainly wrong, and it may even be the most crucial bit that is wrong. 

Mat's appraisal of Luhhan in the beginning of the chapter is just one small example of this sort of thing. We learn later from Tam that the Council had discussed the Fade sightings, discovering that five boys - Rand, Mat, Perrin, Ban Crawe and Lem Thane - had all seen the same thing, independently. To this day, we're not completely sure why Luhhan stared them down, because RJ gave us two very believable options (if you'll remember, Mat tried to scare the younger boys with tales of ghosthounds, and he floured Luhhan's dogs). Mat was probably right - Ewin Finngar did say that Mistress Luhhan had a good idea who had done it - but it's details like this that give so much depth to the story.

Only two of the men before the fire, Haral Luhhan, the blacksmith, and Jon Thane, the miller, so much as glanced at the boys as they entered. Master Luhhan, though, made it more than a glance. The blacksmith's arms were as big as most men's legs, roped with heavy muscle, and he still wore his long leather apron as if he had hurried to the meeting straight from the forge. His frown took them both in, then he straightened around in his chair deliberately, turning his attention back to an over-studious tamping of his pipe with a thick thumb.

Curious, Rand slowed, then barely bit back a yelp as Mat kicked his ankle. His friend nodded insistently toward the doorway at the back of the common room and hurried on without waiting. Limping slightly, Rand followed less quickly.

“What was that about?" he demanded as soon as he was in the hall that to the kitchen. "You almost broke my – "

"It's old Luhhan," Mat said, peering past Rand's shoulder into the common room. "I think he suspects I was the one who – " He cut off abruptly as Mistress al'Vere bustled out of the kitchen, the aroma of fresh-baked bread wafting ahead of her.

Ahh, Marin al'Vere. She is the perfect wife of the 50's sitcom, celebrated for her cooking and her sweet disposition, and this chapter opens with the aromatherapy of her skills. What more could one want in a woman?

Brandon has made a number of comments so far about gender roles in WoT, and how there is sexism on both sides in an oddly incongruous balance. Women rule the world, and this simple fact seems to explain the overbearing personalities that many of them display, but in the Two Rivers, women are almost without exception homemakers. The Village Council is composed entirely of men, while the Women's Circle must rule behind the scenes, and there is even an implication here that this balance is suited to the subtle and often devious nature of the woman, as opposed to the straightforward nature of the man. The women of WoT might even agree, though they might see it as the clever nature of woman as opposed to the simple nature of men.

RJ, being a Southern Gentleman, might have been of the mind that there is nothing particularly wrong with the traditional gender roles in society because for the most part, they work. Harriet is a career woman, and a very strong personality, so obviously he didn't feel that traditional roles were in any way mandatory. But many believe that there are equal roles that are more suited to one gender or another. The homemaker role is one example of that, and Brandon explores the concept in The Way of Kings in a less traditional way with the 'masculine' and 'feminine' arts.

In WoT, the trick is that Marin al'Vere is not the star of this story.  She's quite a contrast to her daughter, for example, and to Nynaeve as well. We were introduced briefly to both in chapter one - Rand's nervous thoughts of Egwene, and Cenn's complaints about Nynaeve - but Brandon calls our attention to this moment in chapter two:

Brandon
First laugh: "She asked the Wisdom for directions this morning," Ewin said, "and called her 'child.'" Rand and Mat both whistled...

The extended version:

"Her name is Moiraine," Ewin said into the momentary silence. "I heard him say it. Moiraine, he called her. The Lady Moiraine. His name is Lan. The Wisdom may not like her, but I do. "

"What makes you think Nynaeve dislikes her?" Rand said.

"She asked the Wisdom for directions this morning," Ewin said, "and called her 'child."' Rand and Mat both whistled softly through their teeth, 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."

"Is that all?" Rand said. "You know Nynaeve's temper. When Cenn Buie called her a child last year, she thumped him on the head with her stick, and he's on the Village Council, and old enough to be her grandfather, besides. She flares up at anything, and never stays angry past turning around."

"That's too long for me," Ewin muttered.

Rand sums up Nynaeve's personality perfectly. Her temper flares tend to turn people off, but those who know her well understand how to take her in context. So long as you don't push her buttons and don't overreact to her tantrums, she's relatively easy to get along with, and a good person to have on your side.

It's kind of funny that, at first, Mat seems more excited about Mandarb and Aldieb than Moiraine and Lan - "Their horses, Rand. I never saw horses so tall, or so sleek. They look like they could run forever." - and Brandon was amused by Mat's reaction to Moiraine:

Brandon
If Mat could go back in time, he'd thump himself fawning over Moiraine in EotW. Then he'd fawn over Moiraine, but pretend he wasn't.

...but I find it hard not to put myself in Moiraine's shoes in this moment, especially after reading New Spring. Twenty years of hard searching, and she finally finds what she is looking for:

"You know my name," she said, sounding delighted. As if her presence, however brief, would not be the talk of the village for a year! "But you must call me Moiraine, not lady. And what are your names?"...

..."I'm Matrim Cauthon, La ... ah ... Moiraine," Mat said. He made a stiff, jerking bow, then went red in the face as he straightened.

Rand had been wondering if he should do something of the sort, the way men did in stories, but with Mat's example, he merely spoke his name. At least he did not stumble over his own tongue this time.

Moiraine looked from him to Mat and back again. Rand thought her smile, a bare curve of the corners of her mouth, was now the sort Egwene wore when she had a secret. "I may have some small tasks to be done from time to time while I am in Emond's Field," she said. "Perhaps you would be willing to assist me?" She laughed as their assents tumbled over one another.

After all of her years of struggle, here she was, with two of the boys who might be the Dragon Reborn, both of them fawning over her like fanboys. It's hard not to share her excitement. But it doesn't last long:

"Lady ... I mean, Moiraine?" Rand asked hesitantly as she turned away. She stopped and looked back over her shoulder, and he had to swallow before going on. "Why have you come to Emond's Field?" Her expression was unchanged, but suddenly he wished he had not asked, though he could not have said why. He rushed to explain himself, anyway. "I don't mean to be rude. I'm sorry. It's just that no one comes into the Two Rivers except the merchants, and peddlers when the snow isn't too deep to get down from Baerlon. Almost no one. Certainly no one like you. The merchants' guards sometimes say this is the back end of forever, and I suppose it must seem that way to anyone from outside. I just wondered."

Later Moiraine tells us that she coins she gave the boys should have made them even more resistant to questioning her than they appeared to begin with, before she gave them the coins. But this was after. In a way, the coins are a type of Compulsion, and like Compulsion, it can be resisted by those with a strong enough will. Imagine Moiraine's shock, especially on the heels of her earlier excitement. This was her first hint that Rand was the one, and though she might have thought that her twenty-year struggle was finally over...in truth, it was only just beginning.

And finally, a nice bit of foreshadowing...and one of the funniest lines in the entire series:

"He could be a Warder," Ewin insisted.

"Did you see any gold or jewels on him?" Mat scoffed. "Do we have Trollocs in the Two Rivers? We have sheep. I wonder what could ever have happened here to interest someone like her."

"Something could have," Rand answered slowly. "They say the inn's been here for a thousand years, maybe more."

"A thousand years of sheep," Mat said.

Foreshadowing in triplicate, really. That Lan is a Warder, that there are Trollocs in the Two Rivers, and that the Two Rivers really does have a past to be proud of...and Mat himself is descended from the last king of Manetheren, maybe even Aemon reborn:

sleepinghour
In TEotW, is Mat remembering the Old Tongue from his own past life or from his ancestors? 

Terez
Good question. He seems to have confirmed Old Blood for the Old Tongue, but the Aemon memory (in TDR, Mat's first POV)? 

Felix
That's what my belief is, Aemon. Mat Cauthon is the reborn soul of Aemon. Aemon's Old Tongue. 

Brandon
It isn't made clear. It could be either. The implication is his bloodline. 

Brandon
The Aemon connection is certainly implied strongly.

Mat's scoffing is similar to Rand's own scoffing about the Dragon in the early chapters, and a very subtle foreshadowing of Mat's own importance.

Chapter 3 - The Peddler

With chapter three, our third ta'veren is introduced, and of course, Padan Fain, and right off, his interest in the three boys is foreshadowed:

"Later. I'll explain later. Later, I said!"

At that moment Padan Fain stood up on the wagon seat, and the crowd quieted in an instant. Rand's last words exploded into utter silence, catching the peddler with an arm raised dramatically and his mouth open. Everybody turned to stare at Rand. The bony little man on the wagon, prepared to have everyone hanging on his first words, gave Rand a sharp, searching look. Rand's face reddened, and he wished he were Ewin's size so he did not stand out so clearly. His friends shifted uncomfortably, too. It had only been the year before that Fain had taken notice of them for the first time, acknowledging them as men. Fain did not usually have time for anyone too young to buy a good deal of things off his wagon. Rand hoped he had not been relegated to a child again in the peddler's eyes.

We learn later exactly why Fain had taken notice of them the year before, and of course there is a great deal of irony in Rand's fear that Fain might underestimate him. Equally of note is the villagers' reactions to the news of Logain, and their misguided notions about the Dragon Reborn. They go just a little bit crazy about the idea that the Dragon Reborn might be so close as Ghealdan, and all the while, he stands in their midst, sharing their fear. Another example of Cenn being right (by virtue of being a pessimist, really):

Cenn looked around defiantly, trying to stare down the glowers, and raised his voice. "I didn't hear Fain say this was a false Dragon. Did you? Use your eyes! Where are the crops that should be knee high or better? Why is it still winter when spring should be here a month?" There were angry shouts for Cenn to hold his tongue.

Another one of the best lines in the series, from Tam:

Cenn's wrinkled face grew darker with every word from Tam and the Mayor, until it was almost purple. "You know what kind of women he's talking about. Stop frowning at me, Luhhan, and you, too, Crawe. This is a decent village of decent folk, and it's bad enough to have Fain here talking about false Dragons using the Power without this Dragon-possessed fool of a boy bringing Aes Sedai into it. Some things just shouldn't be talked about, and I don't care if you will be letting that fool gleeman tell any kind of tale he wants. It isn't right or decent."

"I never saw or heard or smelled anything that couldn't be talked about," Tam said.

Except for one thing, of course:

"Old Bili named the Dark One. I'll bet you didn't know that."

"Light!" Rand breathed.

Mat's grin broadened. "It was last spring, just before the cutworm got into his fields and nobody else's. Right before everybody in his house came down with yellow eye fever. I heard him do it. He still says he doesn't believe, but whenever I ask him to name the Dark One now, he throws something at me."

"You are just stupid enough to do that, aren't you, Matrim Cauthon?" Nynaeve al'Meara stepped into their huddle, the dark braid pulled over her shoulder almost bristling with anger. 

This along with the bit in the prologue - "Dangerous for you, fool, not for me." - makes it clear that naming the Dark One really is dangerous. And Nynaeve's braid 'almost bristling' is a neat trick. It doesn't get tugged until later.

By far the most poignant foreshadowing of Rand's role:

"I heard a story once," Mat said slowly, "from a wool-buyer's guard. He said the Dragon would be reborn in mankind's greatest hour of need, and save us all."...

..."What kind of need would be great enough that we'd want the Dragon to save us from it?" Rand mused. "As well ask for help from the Dark One."

Brandon's only observations on this chapter are about Rand and Egwene:

Brandon

Amusing that, after all they've grown, Egwene and Rand's interaction in EotW 3 has many similarities to their interaction in TofM.

And of course, he's right. Rand and Egwene have been annoying each other since before the story even began. Some even theorize that Egwene is Latra Posae reborn, come to trouble Lews Therin again in another life.

Chapter 4 - The Gleeman

An interesting tidbit from the beginning of the chapter, and probably a subject for the aforementioned prequel:

"Old news, even in Baerlon," the gleeman said dismissively, "and that is the last place in the world to hear anything." He paused, looking around the village, and dryly added, "Almost the last place." Then his eyes fell on the wagon in front of the inn, standing alone now, with its shafts on the ground. "So. I thought I recognized Padan Fain in there." His voice was still deep, but the resonance had gone, replaced by scorn. "Fain was always one to carry bad news quickly, and the worse, the faster. There's more raven in him than man."

Apparently, not only does Thom know Fain, but he's known him for some time. From the raven comment, Thom might even suspect that Fain is a Darkfriend. Also interesting is that Thom has not encountered Fain since they left the Two Rivers, and presumably has no idea of Fain's importance, which did not become known until after Thom disappeared at Whitebridge. When Thom reappeared in TGH, he even performed at Barthanes' manor, never having a clue that Fain had been there. Rand told him that Barthanes was a Darkfriend, but he did not mention Fain.

The first foreshadowing that Rand is an Aielman:

Suddenly he thrust a finger at Rand. "You, lad. You're a tall one. Not with your full growth on you yet, but I doubt there's another man in the district with your height. Not many in the village with eyes that color, either, I'll wager. The point is, you're an axe handle across the shoulders and as tall as an Aielman. What's your name, lad?"

Brandon's only comment on this chapter had to do with Thom's stories and the references to the events of our Age (which have been corrupted almost beyond recognition):

Brandon
And, here we have mention of Anla the Wise Counselor. For those not in the know, there is theorizing on her: http://bit.ly/f8s2T4

Not just Anla (Ann Landers), but also Mosk and Merk with their spears of fire (Moscow vs America), Marterese and the Wondrous Ind (Mother Teresa). But one thing seems odd:

The balls now danced between Thom's hands in two intertwining circles. His voice was almost a chant, and he turned slowly as he spoke, as if surveying the onlookers to gauge his effect. "I will tell you of the end of the Age of Legends, of the Dragon, and his attempt to free the Dark One into the world of men..."

Thom seems a bit too educated for that one, but perhaps he told this sort of story in the rural places where the people would not believe the truth; it fits with the story about the wool merchant's guard, who was fired for telling Mat the truth about the Dragon Reborn.

Of course, Thom recognized that Moiraine was an Aes Sedai right off the bat, but there is also an implication that she knew exactly who he was, too:

Thom blinked, then bowed again, more deeply. "Your pardon again ... ah, Lady. I meant no disrespect."

Moiraine made a small waving-away gesture. "None was perceived, Master Bard. And my name is simply Moiraine. I am indeed a stranger here, a traveler like yourself, far from home and alone. The world can be a dangerous place when one is a stranger."

She knew who he was by TSR at the latest. Perhaps she researched him after she learned about Min's viewings, but it may well be that she always knew. Thom was known in every royal court in the land, supposedly, but Moiraine had already gone to the Tower by the time Morgase became Queen, and Owyn was most likely killed not long after the events of New Spring. Moiraine would have had to have encountered him very soon after, perhaps on her continuing quest to find Rand. 

Twice more in this chapter, the boys' encounters with the Fade were described as 'jumping at shadows'. Interesting that, at first, it seems that maybe only the young can even see them, since they were only spotted by young men, but of course we learn the reason for that later on.

Chapter 5 - Winternight

Back to the RJ quote from earlier:

I did try to make the first roughly 100 pages of EYE seem somewhat Tolkienesque. I wanted to say, “This is the place you know, guys. Now we’re going somewhere else.” And then the Trolloc kicked in the farmhouse door.

According to RJ, this is where he breaks from Tolkien and moves on to other things. It may have been a bit of hyperbole, but it's essentially the truth; there are some things later, but for the most part they were first referenced in the previous chapters (such as the Nazgûl ref and the dangers of naming the Dark One).

Noal gives us the impression of having been introduced only late in the series, but truly, he's been an important character since Thom mentioned him in chapter four, and here we have the first mention of his book, along with a nice foreshadowing:

If the room did not look quite so freshly scrubbed as most farm wives kept their homes—Tam's pipe-rack and The Travels of Jain Farstrider sat on the table, while another wood-bound book rested on the cushion of his reading chair; a bit of harness to be mended lay on the bench by the fireplace, and some shirts to be darned made a heap on a chair – if not quite so spotless, it was still clean and neat enough, with a lived-in look that was almost as warming and comforting as the fire. Here, it was possible to forget the chill beyond the walls. There was no false Dragon here. No wars or Aes Sedai. No men in black cloaks. The aroma from the stewpot hanging over the fire permeated the room, and filled Rand with ravenous hunger.

His father stirred the stewpot with a long-handled wooden spoon, then took a taste. "A little while longer."

On reread, Tam's comment takes on a foreboding double meaning because we know what's coming.

Tam locks the doors and pulls out the old chest, two things he's never done that Rand can remember, which leads to something we don't get the full story on until TGS:

"Where did that come from?" he asked. "Did you get it from a peddler? How much did it cost?"...    

..."I got it a long time ago," Tam said, "a long way from here. And I paid entirely too much; two coppers is too much for one of these. Your mother didn't approve, but she was always wiser than I. I was young then, and it seemed worth the price at the time. She always wanted me to get rid of it, and more than once I've thought she was right, that I should just give it away."

Some people assumed that Tam had actually paid for it, but most HCFFs took it for granted that the price was something other than money. We already had a hint in chapter three - "Battles don't interest me, Matrim" - but if that wasn't enough, this makes it clear that Tam learned in his years outside to hate killing:

Reflected fire made the blade seem aflame. Rand started. He had often daydreamed about owning a sword. "Give it away? How could you give a sword like that away?"

Tam snorted. "Not much use in herding sheep, now is it? Can't plow a field or harvest a crop with it." For a long minute he stared at the sword as if wondering what he was doing with such a thing. At last he let out a heavy sigh. "But if I am not just taken by a black fancy, if our luck runs sour, maybe in the next few days we'll be glad I tucked it in that old chest, instead." He slid the sword smoothly back into its sheath and wiped his hand on his shirt with a grimace.

To Tam, the sword was a reminder of all the death that had had caused when he was a soldier. Rand and Mat are both young and innocent enough that they don't understand, but Tam is a veteran, as RJ was. And much like Tam, RJ did not like who he had become when he was a soldier. This theme resonates more strongly than perhaps any other theme in the series because of the way that Rand's character progresses: how he also comes to hate killing, but makes the mistake of becoming the Iceman; how his past life memories exacerbate the situation; how Rand's identity crisis begins with Tam and mirrors the Lews Therin crisis in throught-provoking ways; and finally, how his father unwittingly saves him from the brink of madness with their long-awaited reunion. In some ways, it's easy to forget now that Rand saw Tam for the last time in chapter nine because RJ made their connection so profound and convincing.

The Trolloc kicks in the door, and Rand's innocence is shattered. He sees real violence for the first time - murder is almost unheard of in the Two Rivers - and then he kills for the first time. Only a Trolloc, but it talked to him.

The touch roused Tam, but only into a hazy wakefulness. "Is that you, boy?" he breathed. "Worried about you. Dreams of days gone. Nightmares." Murmuring softly, he drifted off again.

"Don't worry," Rand said. He lay Tam's coat and cloak over him to keep off the wind. "I'll get you to Nynaeve just as quick as I can." As he went on, as much to reassure himself as for Tam's benefit, he peeled off his bloodstained shirt, hardly even noticing the cold in his haste to be rid of it, and hurriedly pulled on the clean one. Throwing his old shirt away made him feel as if he had just had a bath. "We'll be safe in the village in no time, and the Wisdom will set everything right. You'll see. Everything's going to be all right."

That thought was like a beacon as he pulled on his coat and bent to tend Tam's wound. They would be safe once they reached the village, and Nynaeve would cure Tam. He just had to get him there.

Rand is one of those people who uses the internal mantra as a defense mechanism. He can either panic, or he can ignore inconvenient truths and convince himself that everything will be alright, that everything is as it should be. In a way, you might say this is one of the themes of the series as well. In most cases, Rand still manages to do what needs doing, but sometimes he does not.

The quirks of Rand's psyche are particularly important in the next few chapters as Rand learns the truth about his father and confronts the reality of his situation in Emond's Field.