The cause of Covenants leprosy

[Skyweir]

I remember TC being explained about Hansens Disease .. and I am pretty sure the doctors told him that it was not a highly contagious disease ..

and that it would be unlikely for Joan .. per se .. to contract leprosy from him .. and that the most likely risk would be to the kid .. Roger ..

but even that wasnt that high a risk even ..

I will have to re-read the first few chapters and see if I can find this explanation.

Anyway .. it cant be that contagious .. because so many people who work on leper colonies would walk away with leperosy .. and I am pretty sure when she was alive Mother Teresa didnt have it! <being the only real example of someone I am aware of that did work with lepers>

<but then ofcourse SRD's dad also worked with lepers in India .. and I guess he is ok too ..

I really think the risk often associated with leprosy .. is just stigma and myth .. because it is such an ugly disease ..

Hence .. many religous texts describe it as an unholy disease .. and slap negative labels on those who have been stricken with it .. like .. unclean etc..

[Ryzel]

As far as I understand, leprosy is only contractable thru long term exposure to the disease, under normal conditions. I think that this is why people who chose to work in the old leper colonies thru history have been held up as very selfless.

The germ and infection theory of diseases is only a little more than a century old. Before that nobody really knew what caused diseases and the reason why people that chose to work in leper colonies were seen as selfless was probably because they were doing a job that most people would not dream of doing i.e. associating with the unclean.

Another matter to consider is that for people in underdeveloped countries and earlier in history did not really live all that long and if leprosy has an incubation time of say 20 years it would be very unlikely that someone that decided to start working in a leper colony when he was fully grown would ever have time to develop the disease before he was killed by pneumonia, the great killer of the ages.

[Dag son of Dag]

Leprosy is Corruption, isn`t it? I can`t see how the Creator could have inflicted Corruption.

[Mick Axbrewder]

Does the Creator even have the power to give leprosy to somebody in the real world? I thought his power was more limited than that. Perhaps I'm wrong......

[I'm Murrin]

I don't really think it's that important what caused it - Covenant's leprosy is one of the factors that made them choose him to go to the Land, but it was not caused for that purpose - Hansen's Disease just seems to happen sometimes, with no apparent exposure. I guess if he wasn't a leper he wouldn't have been chosen (just like if he hadn't given his ring to the beggar he wouldn't have been chosen), but no-one made him get leprosy so that he could be chosen...

[Guest]

I thought it was like this:
Covenant is the Land
Leprosy is Foul (Not wrong in our world but wrong in covenant)
The Wedding Ring is the Arch of Time

Events in Covenant's life reflect the Land (eg the book-burning / desecration)
The creator cannot affect Covenant except from without, whereas Lord Foul could because he is part of Covenant.

Thus the last line in the third chronicles will be the creator "Thomas, I am your father"

[Drinny]

The Wedding Ring is the Arch of Time

Wow, that's one I never thought of myself. But it makes so much sense, in a way. Nice thinking! So the destruction of the Arch of TIme would symbolize the destruction of Covenant's most important link to humanity, his marriage - his 'covenant'. Makes sense to me.

[Revan]

That also makes sense to me, Thomas being the earth and his ring the arch of time, and if he gets rid of his ring the land would have damage sone to it. But you are forgetting one thing, the fatc that Thomas doesn't have the ring anymore, Linden does. So does that mean that Linden is the land, which would also make sense considering that is what Thomas said to Linden at the end of the second chronicles.