dlbpharmd wrote:So, Tuvor was first mark, and (if my memory is right) Morin was assigned to Mhoram in LFB. I don't recall that Korik was assigned to a lord, but I presume he wasn't, since he went to Seareach, and it doesn't seem logical from him to step down from this high post of guardianship, especially in times of war.
So, my question is: why wasn't Bannor assigned to a Lord? Doesn't it seem strange that one of the best Bloodguard was just sitting around, until the arrival of TC?
When Covenant and Foamfollower initially arrived at Revelstone in LFB, First Mark Tuvor was the first person to meet them--he, with some unnamed comrades, was on sentry duty over the front gates. When Warmark Quaan introduced the visitors and asked him if places were ready, he replied, "The orders are given. Bannor and Korik await."
We're told no more than that; since both Bannor and Korik were members of the original high command, I'm inclined to agree with Ylva Kresh's suggestion:
Ylva Kresh wrote:To be a leader cannot be the same as a good bodyguard (eventhough I think all of them were at least good bodyguards).
It seems as though the First Mark was always the protector of the High Lord,
ex officio, but perhaps a subset of the senior commanders always remained available for "matters arising," and especially in wartime when additional, tactically or strategically important, leadership-requiring duties were apt to become necessary without advance notice.
Also, perhaps there are implications of diplomacy in this assignment. Foamfollower was an official legate from the Giants of Seareach, the Land's good friends for millennia, and Covenant was a stranger, of which the Lords knew nothing except that he could be either very dangerous or very important or both. Assigning seniors rather than enlisted men (although the Bloodguard hardly could have had "enlisted" as we think of them; the custom of ritual combat, and the solemn obligations of the Vow, must have kept them all to an elite standard! In _Gilden-Fire_, new postulant Tull very nearly felled Korik in ritual combat.) did the visitors honor. (Incidentally, it's made clear that Korik and Foamfollower were old friends--given the Giant lifespan, probably for centuries.)
I too was a bit surprised that Bannor became First Mark; though his conversations with Covenant earlier on establish the antiquity of his service, only in
Gilden-Fire (which I read
after the main First Chronicles sequence) is it said that he had been among the leaders.
It's possible either that Terrel and Bannor decided by combat which of them would succeed to the post of First Mark, or that Terrel deferred to Bannor for a reason known only to themselves. As Covenant began to be seen as a friend of the Land rather than a potential foe, perhaps having been his protector conferred additional moral authority on Bannor.
(Terrel is an extremely peripheral character; all I remember is that he was Mhoram's protector in TIW while High Lord Elena was living. There's a scene just before "Tull's Tale" where Mhoram has a prophetic nightmare and is blasting Lords' Fire in all directions, still half asleep, until Terrel shakes him awake with the warning, "Lord! Corruption will see you!" Terrel is also the one who hits Tull when the younger Bloodguard begins to lose control of himself while trying to tell the tale of the Giants' demise.)
I have to agree with Cail. Bannors lord probably just died and he didn't have another charge yet. Maybe they liked to keep at least one of the five leaders free, so that they were readily available for when something important happened (like when TC showed up).
