So here at last, is the chapter dissection I promised to do. I've broken it into three parts.
AATE, Part II, Chapter 10: The Pure One and The High God
Part 1 - The Thoughts of Thomas Covenant
At the end of chapter 6 Covenant rode off on the Harrow's destrier accompanied by the two remaining Humbled and their ranyhyn mounts to deal with Joan. Now we return to him. He has just left the group. Still in the straits between Landsdrop and the Sarangrave flat, his destination is Foul's Creche where Joan, his maddened, nihilistic former wife resides, possessed by turiya raver and surrounded by acidic Skest.
In stark contrast to Linden's company, this group, man and horse alike, is hard, humorless and driven. Even Mhornym and Naybahn, the two ranyhyn, show a darker side here:
This is a classic sacrificing someone 'for the greater good'. The ranyhyn already led Linden into the clutches of Horrim Carabal a few chapters ago, now they are pushing this horse past any endurance, subduing and subverting its will so it would do their bidding. They use him cruelly for the benefit of another or perhaps so that other would learn a lesson. Maybe you don't expect better. After all he's only a horse and not a very likable one at that. But this is the Land and these are the Chronicles of TC! The ranyhyn in their old age have grown harder.The Ranyhyn set a harsh pace, apparently disregarding the limitations of Covenant's mount. […] Covenant sensed that it would strive to emulate its Earthpowerful companions until its heart burst. And by some means, Mhornym and Naybahn seemed to impose their will on the beast, stifling its instinctive loathing for an unfamiliar rider; transforming its trained battle-frenzy into speed. While it could, the horse matched the fluid gallop of the Ranyhyn.
Covenant silently shares his troubled thoughts with us, giving us an interesting peek into his psyche. As is often the case with him, his thoughts revolve around Linden. Linden, he tells us, wouldn't be Linden if she didn't have her flaws. And if she didn't have her flaws, he wouldn't be able to love her as much.
Her flaw is her:
Notice that this is the same flaw that haunts the unforgiving Haruchai and that Covenant will spend much of this chapter trying to address. Why then is Linden worthy of devotion and trust while the Haruchai are repeatedly denounced? We will return to this question in the second section.refusal to forgive [that] harden towards despair
But what bothers Covenant is how cold he was to Linden. He tries to assuage his guilt with a list of compelling reasons for his aloof manners:
1. He might die facing Joan. How can he make any promises to Linden if he is going to die and disappoint her?
2. He might be changed. Become an abhorrent murderer. She'd probably be glad that there aren't any strings attached between them if that happens, right?
3. She might try to join him and doom her son by this choice. It would be a shame, after all the sacrifices made in Jeremiah's name, if Linden had forsaken it all for the sake of a cute twisted Covenant smile. Better safe than sorry as they say.
Better, he thinks, not to promise her happiness if there is any chance that it might be taken away again. Linden is not strong enough to handle such decisions.
And yet he also says
And his only justification, although it sounded contradictory, was that he trusted her. He trusted her more than he trusted himself.
He trusted the implications of her devotion to her son.
The contradiction is that he doesn't trust her to make decisions about her relationship with him. I think what he trusts is the abstract he has of her that he had loved for the millennia he was trapped in the Arch of Time. An abstract that gave her heart and soul and everything to save her crippled son from the troubles and illnesses that haunted him in his visions of the Land's future. So he takes the choice away from Linden so there would be no chance that abstract would shatter in the face of reality.
We return to Covenant's famous mantra from the second chronicles:
"There's only one way to hurt a man who's lost everything. Give him back something broken."
And Covenant adds a new and deeper truth to it, a real gem:
How can he give anything of himself to her when he is not sure he can fulfill that promise in the end? Linden never had much. Look how strongly she attached herself to broken Jeremiah. If he gave her anything of himself only to disappoint her shortly thereafter, it would surely crush her.Even broken things were precious. [...] And they could still be taken away.
But not everything is about Linden. Covenant also thinks about himself and the new life he'd been given. Everything is precious to him: Linden, their companions, the Land and (twist the knife that is life) it could all so easily be taken away from him!
Gone are the certainties of his life as a Time Warden. Now he has to rely on his intuition to guide him. He cannot explain his reasoning because he cannot remember them himself! Faith must replace reason. Gone are the contented explanations for the superiority of limited mortal life. In his heart of hearts, Covenant wants his Warden-powers back! His limitations, both mental and physical are sorely chafing:
1. The big perspective he had as a Time Warden overshadowed Linden's suffering. He could understand it, but he could also understand the reasons for it and the possibilities in it. His new limited perspective is like a tomb to him who understood so much before.
2. When he was immortal he knew he would have the freedom to act as a mortal. Now that he is mortal, he has to take that on faith.
3. His body is a big bother. Every time he wants to concentrate on his thoughts or his emotions, his body demands his attention.
4. His knowledge is very flawed. He doesn't even know where he is.
Covenant still has intuitive knowledge about the past and what should be done to achieve a good future. But is this earned knowledge? He is no longer the Time Warden. This knowledge no longer belongs to him.
We see that his new uncertain mortal existence is already bearing rotten fruit: he made no preparations for this journey. His horse cannot withstand the hardships of the road ahead, he has no provisions or water. He just wanted to get away from Linden and to Joan before he lost his courage and didn't think of anything else. Planning, thy name is mortal.
As a side note, Covenant mentions that the Elohim's powers to transcend time surpassed even his own Time Warden powers. Their knowledge of the future has always been better than his. This raises an interesting possibility. We have been repeatedly told that the Worm has been hunting down the Elohim since the start of the book and soon none of them will remain. But if they can appear in other times (as Esmer did when he jumped to the past to summon the Demondim) maybe they will jump into the future as well. We should expect more Infelice visits.
Part two - Covenant and the Haruchai
The Humbled want to air some grievances they have with Covenant. They've been pushed around long enough, now they want to be understood for a change. Their hero is at long last alone with them. There is no distracting WorldRending Linden, or bubbly giants or confrontational Ramen, or the traitorous Haruchai who can read their minds and shred their arguments before they even have a chance to open their mouths. Only the silent Ranyhyn, the Haruchai's faithful companions, and the Land (which the Haruchai mistakenly think has nothing to say) remain. This is their golden chance.
As soon as Covenant opens his mouth the Humbled find a way (he used the word humble) to turn the conversation to what's interesting them: they're misunderstood. unappreciated. Covenant doesn't give them any respect. Ever since he's been brought back to life he repeatedly humiliated them and tried to diminish them. Why can't he be like he was in old times, huh?
Once again the subject of Linden's healing is brought up. Receiving healing is like getting a gift. The haruchai are very much opposed to the concept of gifts. Everything must be met with commensurate returns in their opinion. If you don't pay back for what you receive, you're humiliated.
Covenant thinks: they refuse to mourn and therefore cannot accept failures and loss. If they did they would have to mourn them so instead they consider such things humiliations.
I mentioned earlier the similarity between this description of the Haruchai's central flaw and Linden's (according to Covenant.) So why are they treated so differently by everyone? Is it that Linden is a figure of destiny not to mention Covenant's love and therefore gets special treatment? Maybe its because the Haruchai have hidden their hurt so deep only Covenant and the Mahdoubt could see it while everyone knows much of what happened to Linden. Or could it be because Linden is fighting for the sake of someone (Jeremiah) while they are only fighting against, be it Foul, Linden or even knowledge and power?
Covenant is not a passive listener. He wants to heal the Haruchai's of their hardness but he's thirsty and has problems staying on his horse and the Haruchai aren't very receptive to his message. He's also afraid that they wouldn't be able to withstand facing some of the truth about themselves if he managed to make them see them. So he has a lot of retorts running in his mind but he keeps a lot of them to himself (and us.)
But the Land tries to aid him. When he thinks that the Law is all well and good but sometimes there are also miracles, they immediately stumble into a welcoming oasis filled with good water and aliantha. Throughout the chapter the descriptions of the landscape reflect the mood of the company and gives voice to hidden and not so hidden messages. We began with a grim and arid landscape filled with sharpened rocks fitting to the mood and purpose of the company. Covenant notices the 'coincidence' of the oasis but its hard to say what the Humbled took from it.
The next landscape we traverse is clattered with barrows and moraines, the bones and debris of history and Covenant listen to the Humbled explain why he is their role-model: Covenant managed to defeat Foul twice despite all his obvious weaknesses because, they decided, he accepts his weaknesses and never surrenders. He doesn't flinch from what might befall him. on the contrary, he's willing to pay any price for what he believes in.
In other words he's a monomaniac.
If Covenant feels uncomfortable at the crooked mirror the Haruchai set before him, the Haruchai would have been crushed to see how they look like to Covenant: egocentric and egotistic. Instead of thinking of the salvation of the Land they only think about how they could improve their image of themselves. They let the world burn as long as they keep to their principles.
So covenant takes a different path instead. He argues that he could never have succeeded without the friends that helped him. It was all about the teamwork and all that. As might have been expected, the Humbled only see this as another form of humiliation. They don't trust these companions Covenant wants them to trust. They're still thinking about how getting gifts is a humiliation. Unrestrained friendship does not come easily to them and so this comes to nothing again.
So Covenant tries to explain his beliefs about power and guilt, how all power has some evil in it and therefore in order to keep your purity and innocence you would need to be powerless. The problem is that the Haruchai were never powerless and the people they cultivated in the Land were not innocent but just ignorant, since it was artificially enforced by the Masters. He, on the other hand, didn't accept being weak like they said, the accepted guilt that came from using his power to accomplish his goals.
Do the Humbled see the light and change their ways? Of course not. They just think Covenant despises them. Argument and logic are not the answer in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.
Covenant tries to backpedal a bit and tells them he envies their courage and power and infallible memory. The same things that he lost when he became mortal and mourned earlier in the chapter. His life would have been much easier, he tells them, if he wasn't so frightened of facing Joan or had enough courage, he thinks to himself, to tell Linden he loves her, admitting to himself that the 'reasons' he gave earlier for his reticence with her were in fact excuses.
The Humbled visibly warm up to him. Neither of them convinced the other to accept their viewpoints but he has shown them that he appreciates them, that he is, in other words, their friend.
Part three - The Sea, the Horse and the Feroce
After two days of riding through storms and aimless caesures the company reaches the cliff by the seashore just north of the Shattered Hills. Covenant's horse is near death from exhaustion but Covenant comes up with an idea: he orders the Humbled to feed his horse aliantha. It works. Covenant wins another fight in his battle of wills with the ranyhyn.
The Land gives us a new vision: the Sunbirth Sea at sunset:
This relentless force, majestic and terrifying all at once, is gnawing on the peripheries of the Land and there is nothing that could possibly stop it.Under a leaden sky at the onset of evening, it looked misnamed. Lashed waves taller than Giants, and as dark as thunderheads, seethed heavily toward the cliff and out of sight. Tumbling winds ripped the crests of the waves to spume, tore them in all directions. Nonetheless the seas heaved closer with the massive inevitability of avalanches or calving glaciers. In spite of his numbness, Covenant seemed to feel a faint tremor as each breaker crashed against the granite coast. Somewhere far beyond the range of his perceptions, storms which had fled eastward earlier hammered the oean; or some new atmospheric violence was gathering against the Land.
While Clyme and Mhrnym remain behind to care for the destrier, Branl and Naybahn lead Covenant into a cave with a fountain in the cliff-face.
The smooth white walls and dome-like ceiling give the cave the feel of a chapel. The pure shadowless light of the krill adds to the feel of the place. The floor on the other hand is rough and black.
If this is a chapel, it is a cold and unforgiving chapel of absolute purity that stems from its opposite, a fitting image.
Covenant reflects on the fact that he is lighted by Joan's despair.
He considers the reasons for his guilt: he has kept his promise not to ride the ranyhyn but he sacrificed his own daughter and he considers killing Joan, his former wife.
He promises himself he would not break his promise to the ranyhyn not to ride one of them. What an odd order he gives to his crimes. The death of his daughter seems to be the least of his crimes in his eyes while hurting Linden's feeling is going beyond the pale! The promise to the ranyhyn, which has no intrinsic value has somehow become sacrosanct.And he had hurt Linden---
As he nods off, he recall the race of quellvisks whose bones we saw in the previous chapter. Apparently Covenant retains parts of his plan from his days as Time Warden to save the Land. The Quellvisks were originally a race of intelligent herbivores but they were changed into a new race filled with overweening ambition and thus became incontrolable. They fought the Elohim in their thirst for the power to dominate over the world. They even invaded the Elohim's own home. But the Elohim were merciless and without pity and committed genocide against them as we well know. The most interesting nugget in this tale is this: they buried the bones in Muirwin Delenoth (resting place of abhorrence) west of the Shattered Hills
Near dawn, Branl wakes Covenant to tell him that strangers approach the cave. Still half asleep Covenant hears their description. These are the same beings who attacked Linden's company and put Linden under a spell. Their description reminded me of the ghouls that harrowed the Care of Fayle in Donaldson's second Mordant's Need book.As if the Land were a midden for everything that the Elohim despised.
Spoiler
Covenant doesn't want to leave since his horse is in no shape to flee. The Krill could do more harm than good in a fight since it will attract the attention of Joan. He recalls the sur-jheherrin (a prophetic connection?) as a counterexample for peaceful inhabitants of the Sarangrave. So Clyme, like in the previous meeting with these creatures is told to try to talk with them.
The name Feroce brought two words to my mind: Fierce and Frost.[they call themselves] the Feroce. At the behest of their High God, they crave an audience with the Pure One."
Covenant disregard the mention of the High God and instead latches on to the title the Pure One. These being ARE connected to the jheherrin. The Feroce want to negotiate an alliance with him.
Covenant agrees and tells them to send 3 of their members to the cave. He feels indebted to them since they're apparently the descendants of the jheherrin.
He recalls that the jheherrin, the failures of Foul's trials at creation had all sorts of shapes, one of them similar to theirs. They were originally ordinary creatures with the ability to produce children according to their legends. Some few of them escaped Foul and still bore children. One such child, who was pure and invulnerable against Foul's power, was supposed to come to Foul's home bearing tokens of power and redeem the jheherrin if they proved themselves worthy. He'd win from Foul their freedom from fear and mud.
Since Foamfollower turned out to be the Pure One should we conclude that the jheherrin were related to the Giants? I think it more likely that the few who escaped Foul's clutches were all the living creatures in the Land's world who didn't fall under Foul's shadow and were twisted. The tokens of power were Covenant and his ring.
But the jheherrin descendants Covenant met in the Sarangrave were still creatures of mud even if they lost their fear. Even the fear didn't leave them thanks to a change in them, it left them because the reason for their fear, Foul, was gone after Covenant and Foamfollower defeated him.
We get another cameo from the scene: When the 3 Feroce enter the pure light of the Krill is marred with the green of acid and hunger but the two lights do not mix. The darkness outside turns threatening.
The Feroce reach shoulder height. They are bald, naked and have big pool-like eyes . Their voice is muddy. They are terrified of Covenant and of the Krill. The have the evil of Mount Thunder's poisons in them and they have no individuality. They barely even have a group mentality, so strongly are they under the influence of Horrim Carabal.
And thus we can hear Horrim Carabal (I'll call him Horr from now on to save space.) speak through them. Horr has a quaint dictionary. The first and foremost word in it is Agony. Apparently he is in agony. And apparently, he is always in some degree or another of agony. (Compare it to Joan who is in anguish. Agony is a more physical feeling while anguish is a more emotional one.) The reason for Horr's agony: he fears not being invulnerable. He fears his ending.
His current problem is the approach of the Worm - the enemy of all life. This event Horr calls havoc (the same word Esmer dramatically used in the final battle before his death.) He had tried to seize a Stick of enormous power (The Staff of Law, as we know it. Why does Horr call the Staff 'Stick'? When he used it among Linden's company it seemed a derogatory term used to hint at Horr's power. Now a different answer arises. Stick is a dead branch of small size and indeed to the vast Horr, the Staff is but a Stick and Law means nothing to him.) and failed. Covenant, the wielder of Abhorrent Metal (are they talking about the Ring or the Krill?) and the deliverer of agony is his only hope now."He desires life. He desires power. He must have might, and greater might, and still greater might, lest he perish.".
Covenant asks the Feroce to tell him about themselves. They are of course the descendants of the jheherrin. Here the Feroce's voice becomes more complex as they gain more independence from their master in order to answer Covenant's questions.
The original jheherrin were many beyond count and they had many many forms, each called [some type] befylam, all made out of mud. Could there be more truth to their legends then we ever suspected? Maybe the vast majority of creatures in the Land's world were subverted into these befylam jheherrin and only the minority remained in their natural free shape. Foul certainly did a lot of experiments according to what they say. According to them, Covenant only saw a few of their forms when he met them at Foul's Creche, the best looking of the lot. The rest hid in the darkness.
In any case, after Foul was gone it took them a long while to gather their courage to leave the remains of Foul's Creche and seek a new home. The need to find a wet place that would prevent their eventual death had a lot to do with it. When they eventually reached the muddy waters of the Sarangrave Flat most of them were taken in by his the grandeur and glory and wondrous majestic visage of Horr and were transformed. He gave them a home and a chance at life and they wanted to repay him as best they could.
At this point the jheherrin divided into four groups, each choosing to make a different response to Horr's 'largess':
1. The Skest - mindless and servile and too easily swayed to give Horr his due homage. After ages of loyal service to Horr, they now serve others.
The feroce despise them.
2. The sur-jheherrin - who we met in the Second Chronicles. Too fearful to honor 'their true lord' and too cunning to attract his attention
The feroce despise them.
3. The devout - these jheherrin sought to repay their salvation with surrender. In the absence of the Pure One, only the High God remained. Horr granted their wish and devoured them all. 'They nourished his increase of majesty.' The Feroce claim these 'wiser' jheherrin came for all the ranks of the befylam but I suspect they were dominated by the more hideous of the befylam who sought escape from the shapes Foul condemned them into.
The Feroce revere them.
4 The Feroce - they desired purpose in another form. They did not 'aspire' to reach the Oneness of the devout. They were too 'humble'. Rather, they sought abasement instead of surrender. Horr granted their wish and created the Feroce from them. Ever since, they have been multiplying and fulfilling thereby the redemption of the jheherrin, heh heh. As we saw they seem to be the descendants of the most humanlike of the jheherrin befylam.
The Feroce are them.
Covenant keeps the deception that he is the Pure One going in order to make the alliance with Horr and get through this meeting with his skin whole. He feels horribly guilty about it but did he consider this:
The sur-jheherrin have known the truth about the Pure One for thousands of years and yet they haven't informed their relatives about it. Shouldn't the blame fall on them much more heavily than on Covenant if that is the case? On the other hand, we know that the Skest abandoned Horr's service sometime between the Second and the Last Chronicles. Could it be that the sur-jheherrin DID inform their two remaining relatives of what they learned and that is why the Skest abandoned Horr's service? For all their supposed mindless servility, they probably have more independence of thought than the crafty Feroce. So perhaps it would have achieved nothing for Covenant to tell them the truth. They would have forgotten it again immediately and perhaps hurt him in the process.
Finally, Covenant makes the treaty with Horr.
He promises that if he manages to save the Land from all the threats that face it, he will save all of it, including the Sarangrave and its master. However he says the Worm will have to come last after all the lesser threats are handled. He also promises that all his allies will honor their treaty.
In return, the Feroce offer safe conduct through Horr's domains to Covenant and his allies. They offer to fight the Skest for him and help him in his fight against Joan who brings lesser hurts from cruel metal.
To twist the knife of his betrayal a little they continue by saying:
The Pure One salvation is equated with destruction and slaying."The Pure One is wise in the ways of salvation. You will end the lesser hurts. If you do not fail, you will do more/"
They mention an ally who wandered into Saranrave who they will now free. This is probably Longwrath.
Finally they return Covenant's horse to his full vigor. Their magical powers apparently work by restoring its subject to an earlier remembered state of being. In Linden's case they restored her mentally to the time she was in Covenant's burning farmhouse and fine-tuned it to keep her at this point while in the case of Covenant's horse they must have transformed its physical state as well. Is this another unsuspected outcome of the weakening of the Law of Time?
What is the source of the Feroce magical powers? Is it something they developed on their own or did Horr imbue it into them? The sur-jheherinn, the most independent of the jheherrin descendants show no signs of new abilities. The Feroce speak of Horr's ability to transform beings and change them. He gave the Skest their acidic powers. In the First Chronicles he brought a cadaver into a horrific parody of life. Perhaps their magic is a form of his abilities as well.
Final thoughts
Making the deal with the horrid Lurker and concealing the truth from these jheherrin descendants takes a lot out of Covenant. He loses his confidence that what he is doing is right.
What kind of a role model is he if the two people who worship him, the non-sur jheherrin descendants and the Haruchai turn out the way they did? The name of this chapter speaks of "The Pure One and the High God". As he repeatedly told everyone, the haruchai most recently during their long discussions he doesn't believe in purity or innocence. He wants to have power to affect things even though he believe that all powers corrupt and therefore he is tarnished and guilty. In other words he prefers to be the High God over being the Pure One. He had told the Humbled that he couldn't have beaten Foul without his companions. That it was actually Foamfollower who won the day and not him. Is it BECAUSE he is the High God and not the Pure One? A High God can defeat an evil power like Foul but he cannot heal what was ruined. Only a Pure One like Foamfollower can do that.
Are his victories worth than the cost of his legacy?[/quote]