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Home | Index | Archives | Help
he Beginning Foreshadows the Ending.
by Weird Harold: 2003-03-23 | Not yet rated
Previous Categories: Prophecies, Foretellings, and Talents
And it came to pass in those days, as it had come before and would come again, that the Dark lay heavy on the land and weighed down the hearts of men, and the green things failed, and hope died. And men cried out to the Creator, saying, O Light of the Heavens, Light of the World, let the Promised One be born of the mountain, according to the prophecies, as he was in ages past and will be in ages to come. Let the Prince of the Morning sing to the land that green things will grow and the valleys give forth lambs. Let the arm of the Lord of the Dawn shelter us from the Dark, and the great sword of justice defend us. Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.
(from _Charal Drianaan te Calamon, The Cycle of the Dragon._ Author unknown, the Fourth Age)
The quote above is the very first hint to the ending of the series, and, IMHO, should be revisited and analyzed in the light of an additional nine books.
Obviously it is couched in poetic language and heavy with symbolism and metaphor, but the additional information should help gauge the progress towards completion of the series.
"And it came to pass in those days, as it had come before and would come again, that the Dark lay heavy on the land and weighed down the hearts of men, and the green things failed, and hope died."
This first sentence clearly foreshadows developments in CoT at So Habor, but also seems to imply that those events are simply the beginning of the "darkness before the dawn." So Habor and the other indications of the "Dark laying heavy on the land" are relatively minor on a continent-wide scale. Hope has not yet died on a scale grand enough to be worthy of inclusion in an account from the Fourth Age.
I believe that this would imply that there is at least one more year before Tarmon Gai'don, or at least a summer of crop failures and famine.
One possible interpretation of "hope died" is that Rand will appear to die and therefore (temporarily) kill any hope of a victory by the Dragon Reborn?
"And men cried out to the Creator, saying, O Light of the Heavens, Light of the World, let the Promised One be born of the mountain, according to the prophecies, as he was in ages past and will be in ages to come."
Our Fourth Age correspondent seems to have things out of order here. At the start of the series, there have been no cries for salvation or signs of the approach of T'G in the general populace. A few scholars and Aes Sedai have recognized signs and began making preparations, but nothing on the scale suggested by this poetic passage.
However, maybe he doesn't have the order of things wrong?
Perhaps events will evolve in such away that the general populace comes to believe that Rand is NOT the Dragon Reborn for a time and begin to pray for the "True" Dragon to be reborn? A convincing "Death" that removes Rand from public view for a time would certainly cause despair and lamentation among his supporters and chaos for the Forsaken's plans.
"Let the Prince of the Morning sing to the land that green things will grow and the valleys give forth lambs."
This line clearly suggests that at some point Rand (or one of the others) has to make the connection with his visions in Rhuidean and make use of Loial's Tree-singing ability and the Tinker's Song. Crop failures and famine should be the catalyst for this development, but, as of the end of CoT, there is no indication of a speedy fulfillment of this portion.
An alternate possibility, which may occur to Elayne, is Elaida's facility with making things grow out of season. Angreals, sa'angereals, Link Circles, and the inclusion of Asha'man in circles would provide sufficient One Power to duplicate the effects of the Seed-Singing Rand witnessed in Rhuidean.
"Let the arm of the Lord of the Dawn shelter us from the Dark, and the great sword of justice defend us."
An apparently obvious literal reference to Callandor. But I think it is more a metaphorical reference to Rand's changes to the laws of Tear and other places he controls to make Nobles and Commoners equal under the Law.
I don't think this portion has been completely satisfied. If the reference is to changes to the Law rather than a literal reference to Callandor, or Rand's skill with a sword, then there is a LOT more political consolidation that needs to take place to bring Order and Justice to all the lands.
For example, neither Rand nor the Seanchan -- the two forces bringing Order and Justice to the land -- have done anything (on-screen at least) in Bandar Eban or the rest of Arad Doman. The Borderlands and Almoth Plain are in turmoil that also needs to be resolved.
"Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time."
I think the final line is merely a poetic intro to the story, but I'm convinced that just from the clues in this first foreshadowing, there is at least another year or two left in the WoT before T'G.
I can't see any way to resolve the political and other implications in this fragment in less than a year of the story timeline. I expect that the time span covered by each of the last books will stretch out again to complete all of the preliminaries to Tarmon Gai'don.
There is a great deal of Wind left for the Dragon to ride.