I thought that after reading through the significant portions of the books again and reading numerous posts, there are some new thoughts that came to mind about the tower of ghenjei and the snakes and foxes (I don't want to use terms Aelfinn and Eelfinn because they are harder to type,)

This theory is based upon a premise that I think are well founded – Moiraine does come back to life. Min's viewings seem to conclude that, both that Rand needed someone who was woman who was “dead and gone, (ACoS,Ch35)” and that some of her viewings of Moiraine did not come true, which never happens (same chapter). Moiraine, therefore, has to come back one way or another. If you don't accept that she will come back, or that she will somehow deliver an important message/lesson to Rand, you might as well stop reading.

Some people argue that Lan's bond proves she is dead. And that is a problem. We know that Moiraine's bond did not pass to Myrelle when she went to the snakes, so why did it when she went through the second doorway if she isn't dead? I think there are two possible explanations to this. First, the door melted, severing her tie to Lan in the physical world. The second is that she released it the moment she went through the door. Rereading the end of TFoH is curious. If you read it again, it says that Moiraine looked for Lan and thought about how many times he saved her life. Then she grasped for saidar and lunged at Lanfear. Why grasp Saidar if you aren't going to use it? It becomes a beacon for Lanfear. I personally believes she severs the bond as she is going through the doorway or on the other side. Both of these theories, however, are only conjecture and maybe RJ just didn't think about it (I doubt it though). However, they are not the meat of this theory.

After realizing Moiraine comes back and is in the tower of Ghenjei, it is left to sleuthing and in this order: who, where, how, when?

The who, I think is explained in one of Egwene's earlier dreams which seem to narrow it down very succinctly:

"Mat throwing dice with blood streaming down his face, the wide brim of his hat pulled low so she could not see his wound, while Thom Merrilin put his hand into a fire to draw out the small blue stone that now dangled on Moiraine's forehead." (emphasis mine) (TFoH,Ch15) It's really important to note that Egwene had this dream at the same time – it is a single dream/prophecy that can't be broken up. So Thom and Mat are doing something that relates to one another at the same time... I have a theory about this later.

Other theorists have added people to this list but I think it's important to remember that in the game of snakes and foxes that there were two humans in the game (LOC, Chapter 33), and the only way they could win is if they cheated and captured the snakes and foxes (TSR, 28) Another revelation in this chapter is that Mat says, “If [he and Olver] were going to play the game, it might as well be without his luck taking a hand.” So I think that two things come out of this chapter – the rescuers will be two people, and that luck will play a huge hand in the outcome – as we know from Egwene's dream, Mat is throwing dice (using his luck). Thom has the motive as well. There are multiple references to what he thinks of Moiraine physically, and he seems despondent about her final letter... not only because it contains Owyn's gentlers, but also because it's from Moiraine (and perhaps more?)

The where, I think, is at the tower of ghenjei itself. Perrin (TSR, Chapter 28) is at the tower when Birgitte tells him that the tower is hard to get out of in the land of men, but even harder in TAR – so we know it can be entered outside of TAR. Slayer somehow enters, but I'm not really sure how that works. RJ, the trickster that he is, says that, “Perrin walked around [the tower of ghenjei] twice without seeing any opening, not so much as a crack, not even a mark on that smooth, sheer wall. The smell hung here, though, that cold, inhuman stink. The trail ended here. The man — if man he was — had gone inside somehow. He only had to find the way to follow.” (emphasis mine). Hopper than frantically tells him to stop, then rebuffs Perrin for being a cub.

I think that RJ dangles it in front of our face again. In many fairy tales, the proper way to do things is to do it three times – Perrin had walked around it twice, I believe Hopper stopped him from walking around one more time, or else he would have been inside! (I read this on another post somewhere, but I can't remember where – I apologize to whomever I have just plagiarized!) Nobody in Mat or Thom's entourage knows that trick though... or do they? We know that Birgitte knows how to get in, but her thread is tied to Elayne's too closely for some time yet it seems, and perhaps for the rest of the books. Noal (Jain), who seems to have random knowledge, may know the walking around three times is the way to get in, Thom may also know from one of his stories, or Mat might know from a past memory, if he chooses to dig it up. I guess this can be RAFO.

The tower itself makes the most sense – Mat and Thom are at least somewhere nearer to physical tower than most of the rest of the characters, and their plot string is dangling right now – especially Thom's, and absent Deus ex machina, there is no way to get into the land of the foxes anymore because Moiraine fried it, and Mat can't use the doorway in Tear. Someone else said portal stones, but that doesn't seem worthwhile anymore – the AS and Asha know traveling, and who is going to randomly come by to channel them in without that person going in with them (remember, only 2 people)

The HOW, I think is most interesting, and most difficult. We know they need four things: Courage to strengthen, fire to blind, music to dazzle, iron to bind.

Courage to strengthen: Others, I think, have it when they say that you can't be afraid of them. I can't imagine that courage would need to be a physical thing (The S&F's also do not ask if they courage, so it probably is not a physical item), and as we see from the last time that Mat was in the doorways, he liked to cuss the Snakes and Foxes out in the old tongue, perhaps as a remembrance from past lives that he was supposed to, in anycase both S & F's treated him better when he called them goats. We know that Thom knows the Old Tongue, and so can converse with them.

Fire to Bind: We have a few possibilities here. I think that Aludra's matches are the best possibility. It's important to note that Rand told Mat that the snakes were afraid of his fire-sword, so Mat will remember their reaction to fire. Aludra's matches, according the Nyneave in TFoH Chapter 33, that matches seem to be strike anywhere, “I have smoothed the little holes that hold the sticks so they can no longer ignite on the wood. A good idea, no?” Aludra is in the entourage, and while some hypothesize it's because she will make cannons (that may also be true), I think this is the reason her matches have been brought up twice previously in the books – when Mat and Thom save her and with Nyneave in TFOH.

For Music to Dazzle, this one I have no concrete idea as of yet. On another post, someone suggested a music box. Again that seems too dues ex machina. I think that Thom, as a gleeman is the clue here. He can chant, or sing in high chant, something that we hear about occasionally in the books. There is common, plain chant, and high chant. High chant is supposed to be the most sonorous. Why would they need instruments of music when a person can sing as beautifully as an instrument? And high chant is in the old tongue. Maybe there is a certain song or tale they need to sing.

Iron to Bind – again, I think that RJ slaps us in the face with this one... twice. Mat pulls out a steel dagger and the snake doesn't seem to care. Second, WAAAY back in the Eye of the world we have: “Captain Domon was walking by, and he paused, squinting toward the glint.”It do be metal," he said... “A tower of metal. I have seen it close up, and I know. River traders use it as a marker” “A metal tower?” Rand said...The captain nodded. “Aye. Shining steel, by the look and feel of it, but no a spot of rust. Two hundred feet high, it be, as big around as a house, with no a mark on it and never an opening to be found.” (emphasis mine)

How do you keep the snakes and foxes trapped in their home? Why with a steel tower, of course.

Again, others have said perhaps it's Cuendillar, which is another possibility, but I think it's easier for Jordan just to say that they used steel, made from iron, because Mat remembered that the snakes didn't notice the difference, rather than explain how Mat and Thom find out heartstone is made from iron as well, and then receive some of it without going to Tar Valon's siege. And I think that once they shy away from the fire and are dazed by Thom singing, Mat can slap on a steel necklace (something like an a'dam) and they are trapped, forced to do what you want, tricked according to the deals they made.

The When? Well that's tricky. It could be right away in KoD or it could be in the middle of book 12. All we know is that Moiraine has to come back. It may be that she only needs to say three words to Rand and then he will succeed in TG. And I assume Min sees Moiraine and Thom together (every protagonist in WoT gets married, let's face it), which could happen post book 12.

There are a few other points to discuss as well, but here is how I think it will go down:

At some point, Thom is going to decide to go after Moiraine, but doesn't know how. Mat will help by filling in knowledge of where she went and perhaps Noal will tell them about the tower, and Thom will remember seeing it in Book 1 with Bayle (Mat has holes in his memory b/c of the dagger). They will travel at some point to the tower. They will walk around it three times and be in a different place (again, how they acquire that knowledge I don't know). Perhaps they will begin near the spiral towers that mat describes in his first visit: “Through one circular window he saw three tall silvery spires, curving in toward each other so their points all aimed at the same spot. They were not visible from the next window, three paces away, but a few minutes later, after he and his guide had rounded enough curves that he had to be looking in another direction, he saw them again. He tried telling himself these were three different spires, but between them and him was one of those fan-shaped trees with a dangling broken branch, a tree that had been in the same spot the first time. After his third sight of the spires and the strange tree with the broken branch, this time ten paces farther on but on the other side of the hallway, he tried to stop looking at what lay outside at all” (TSR, 15).

These spires look like the tower of ghenjei (sort of), and “silvery” seems to indicate that they are made of steel, and remember, RJ doesn't give us useless bits of knowledge EVER. If we wanted to know that Mat walked by the same window twice, he would have only mentioned the tree. The towers are important, somehow.

Soon after getting in, they will see one or many of the creatures (like the game), but instead of moving away from the creatures, like in the game, they will move toward the creatures, perhaps insult it, blind it, daze it, and capture it with steel, or some combination thereof. At this point, I think Thom and Mat split up, according to Egwene's dream... Mat does one thing while Thom does another. We know he will be bleeding from what appears to be his eye. From Egwene's original dream, and another that says she sees, “Mat, placing his own left eye on a balance scale (TDR,Ch25).” And Min's viewing that says the same (TEotW,Ch15). We also have Noal's line CoT,Ch28 “Luck his soul, the lightning his eye,” which also surrounds other lines about Mat and the Seanchan.

I have two theories about this. I don't know if Mat would go to the snakes or the foxes, but he will gain something that will attain “the lightning” for his eye. We know that Hawkwing's symbol was a hawk clutching lightning bolts – it could be control over the Seanchan he gains, or access to them somehow, like “what do I need to do to marry Tuon?” or else it could be knowledge – give up one eye for a third eye, which represents omniscience in many stories, and would follow the Odin motif – like he could see everything that the Seanchan saw and be an omniscient battle commander (wishful thinking, I know). This is a bit hazy yet and I would appreciate other people's ideas here.

Before I get to Thom I need to explain a few other possibilities about Lanfear, Time in Finnland, and Moiraine.

First of all, before Moiraine and Lanfear fell into the Doorway, Moiraine had snatched the angreal away from Lanfear. I believe, that even though you do not need to be physically touching an angreal to focus its power, to have it wrested away from you on the other side of the doorway (physically at the tower of ghenjei or in another parallel universe perhaps) would surely break your focus on it, leaving you with an immense amount of saidar or saidin in you that would immediately burn you out. Therefore, on the otherside of the doorway, Lanfear would have been stilled and “held.” (according to Cyndane's POV) I think that after awhile, she must have died somehow – suicide or another way. That explains why Cyndane is significantly weaker, she was healed by the DO after being stilled, which reduced her power just like Suian and Leane. This theory is contentious and much talked about but that is my thought.

Second, we know that time flows differently in the land of the snakes and foxes. When Mat, Rand, and Moiraine visit the snakes, they come out on the same night – we know that because Rand was obsessed with time, and if days had passed, someone would have noticed. When Mat went into the land of foxes for what seemed like an hour, seven days passed (or else he hung for seven days... doubtful). So even if Moiraine was in the land for a year... only a few days would have passed (unless it's like TAR where time flows more complicatedly than that). Basically, I argue she wouldn't have died of starvation, and a year would not have passed like in Randland.

Finally, if Moiraine ever played snakes and foxes as a child she would know to create fire with saidar and tie it off. She couldn't have channeled for a whole year (I'm not sure of the chronology from the end of TFoH to the end of COT), but since time is different, perhaps she could for a week, or a few days so the foxes wouldn't bother her and hold her like they did Lanfear. Thom, who is separated from Mat and is looking for Moiraine could rescue her from the fire she has woven (ala Egwene's dream) and voila, Moiraine is back.

This theory, like all others has some holes in it. I'd like to see some discussion however on this theory because it twines in all the most plausible parts of the other Moiraine and Ghenjei theories I've read so far.