confused about something in the first trilogy

[Grimmand Honninscrave]

I just had another thought. What if the fire was made with Earthpower and the thoughing of more wood on it only brought out the Earthpower in the wood thus making the light stronger.

[theDespiser]

as far as i can remember, there were some instances where it was ok for wood to burn naturally...like in some instances...it was ok to use rock...um...the way that is contrary to how it is, uh, usually used...

i know it seems like im reaching here(as ive said before, i dont have the books with me at the moment) but i seem to remember an instance where covenant brought it up, or someone else did, and they said in some instances it was acceptable

[The Pumpkin King]

I think burning deadwood and such is perfectly fine.

It's when you go and chop down a tree when things start to get unruly.

[balon!]

I would think that the wood was actually burning, i mean those lorewarden guys had to work for a long, long time to be able to use the lillianrill and rhadhameral lore. Average soilders would just burn their wood, i think.

[dlbpharmd]

Sergio D. Caplan: Mr. Donaldson,

In rereading the first trilogy here I am catching phrases which I either missed all the other times, or am missing something now.

In The Illearth War there are many indications of "burning wood":

page 214 (near bottom)
page 217 (near top):
"coals of the fire"
"troy threw an armful of kindling on the fire"
"troy piled wood on the fire so that he could see better"

page 235: "The fire had died down to coals..."

Just doesn't make sense to me.

Sergio

I guess we need to make a distinction between (to pick two convenient terms) "mundane" and "magical" activities. People in the Land who have learned the appropriate wood-lore (lillianrill) are able to elicit fire from wood without consuming the wood itself: their fire is an expression of Earthpower. People who haven't learned--or can't access--the appropriate lore make fire the old-fashioned way: by expending the life of the wood rather than by drawing Earthpower through the wood. And there are a number of indications in the story that part of the lillianrill lore involves *preparing* the wood: even a Hirebrand can't draw fire from just any old stick without consuming it. So even when the Lords were at their most effective there were still (inevitably) plenty of fires that actually consumed wood.

(02/05/2005)

[matrixman]

Thanks, dlb. So, the boss has answered! Well, okay, I'll accept now that there were in fact a lot of wood-burning fires in the Land. In which case, SRD did not make that explicitly clear enough in the book, thus leading to this confusion. Nuts.

[dlbpharmd]

I agree, MM. This makes Covenant's reaction to the wood consuming fire in Nassic's hut a bit strange, doesn't it?

[Grimmand Honninscrave]

I am re-reading Illearth War and I came across some thing interesting. On the mission to Seareach, the Blood Guard made a raft out of trees. The trees were dead so they made a raft out of them. Also, the Warward had to make rafts to get to the central pains ahead of Fouls army. They also must have made them out of dead trees. This must mean it ok to use dead trees to make rafts and burn so the power to make a fire out of lillianrill wood so as not to give away their possition.

[drew]

Good point.

[Grimmand Honninscrave]

Good point.

Thanks. <Grinning>

[chaetophile]

In The Wounded Land, Covenant sees a blazing torch held aloft and approaching in a downpour.
In his experience of the Land, Earthpower would be required to perform such a feat, so his reaction to the burning, smoking wood is appropriate.
If Earthpower were being used, the wood would not smoke. Therefore, some other power is being used, which turns out to be the Sunbane Lore of blood.

No wonder he is so appalled!

[MrKABC]

What HE said... ^^^

[Grimmand Honninscrave]

That is true but we were disscussing the first chonicles.

[Variol Farseer]

A thought:

As far as I know, the only time in the First Chronicles that we see plain old wood-burning fires is in Part II of TIW, where the Warward is marching to battle. It seems reasonable to suppose that with all the other duties of the Gravelingases and Hirebrands in that emergency, they couldn't also provide enough fires for 21,000 troops. I imagine firewood is a lot easier to gather en route than graveling would be.

As for the question of respect for Earthpower, I think Berek's Code suggests the answer. By freeing the Gravelingases and Hirebrands for more urgent duties, the burning of wood increases the Land's chances of survival. It actually does less harm to the Earthpower than letting Fleshharrower choose the battlefield. Look how much wood was burnt in the next campaign, when Satansfist marched against Revelwood!

[Grimmand Honninscrave]

I never thought of that. Good post.