Fire Lions in Book One?

[RobNyack]

I was a little confused at the end of the book when Covenant and Prothall summon the Fire Lions. Just what exactly did these fire-lions do? SD described the sky when the spell was being cast, but really said little else about what the Fire Lions did once they were summoned.

At one point after the Fire Lions were summoned, SD wrote a piece that made it seem like the Fire Lions were coming after the questors!

I found that part a little confusing and distracting.

[[Syl]]

I remember feeling that way somewhat when I first read the books. As a matter of fact, going over that part again, I think the fire-lions might have destroyed the company if not for the ranyhyn. the ring unlocked the staff, "releasing" the fire-lions, but SRD never implies that they were controlled.

"There is a way! Prothall strives to call the Fire-Lions. He cannot succeed -- the power of the Staff is closed, and we have not the knowledge to unlock it. But white gold can release that power. It can be done!"

and

They had given up their attempt at flight; together, they watched the progress of the Lions. The midnight clouds cast a gloom over the whole mountain, and through the dimness the pouncing fires blazed and coruscated like beasts of sun flame. They sprang down the walls into the ravine, and some of them bounded upward toward the crevice

basically, Mt. Threndor erupted and the lava had a slightly beastly form. i've seen on the discovery channel that the pyroclastic flow can reach upwards of 100 mph. makes me wonder how fast, exaclty, the ranyhyn are.

For a moment, there was stillness in the ravine a quiet so intense that the blast seemed to have deafened all the combatants. And in that moment, the entire sky over Gravin Threndor turned black with impenetrable thunder.
Then came noise -- one deep bolt of sound as if the very rock of the mountain cried out -- followed by long waves of hot, hissing sputters. The clouds dropped until they covered the crest of Mount Thunder.
Great yellow fires began to burn on the shrouded peak.
For a time, the company and their attackers lay in the ravine as if they were afraid to move. Everyone stared up at the fires and the thunderheads.
Suddenly, the flames erupted. With a roar as if the sir itself were burning, fires started charging like great, hungry beasts down every face and side of the mountain.

[fightingmyinstincts]

I was kinda wondering....were the fire lions just lava or actual lava-lions...cool either way, but fire lions as in lions would be lots cooler> He describes them very lionly...they sprang and roared and pursued...lava flows...and just plain lava doesn't look much like lions...I was intending to ask this, Rob, but ya beat me to it!

[Sevothtarte]

I think they are 'lions', some kind of manifestation of Earthpower... if it was just normal lava, Covenant would have remarked on it.

[Revan]

that was the onlt thing i failed to understand in the first book, because its never fully stated that the lions are the shaped of lions or just normal lava.

[Warmark]

i always saw them as actual lions

[Warmark]

i always saw them as actual lions

P.S. i just entered the top 100 posters on this site

[Vector]

I tend to perceive the FireLions as being Earthpower manifested as Lava - the "Lions" being a metaphor for its ferociousness.

From the description in the book it sounded like it/they mindlessy engulfed everything in their path, which seems more to imply lava like action vs. actual beasts with some level of intelligence - even bestial intelligence.

[wayfriend]

I see them as very large Wraiths.

[Vector]

That's right, the Fire Nazgul...

[High Lord Tolkien]

When I first read LFB I just thought it was a metaphor.

I always saw them as lava flows that had "heads" in the form of lions.
Like what Gandalf did to the Flood that took down the mounted Nazgul.
The water just looked like horses in that case.

But upon after numerous re-reads (is that a word?) it does seem to signify something other than lava.

In WGW doesn't Linden "see" the Fire Lions as her Earthsight expands up and out from Mt Thunder?

But it's clearly just lava that is under Mt Thunder as we see when Vain is cast into it by Findail.

So I think, what Vector said "FireLions as being Earthpower manifested as Lava" fits the definition that I have in my head.
(this month anyway)

[Luke The Unbeliever]

I could be wrong but, when Atarian told the story of Berek Halfhand in LFB, weren't the Fire Lions associated as being a firey rock-like form ?

Maybe I thought that because the stones were speaking to Berek and it stuck in my mind, but I'm pretty sure about the above^...

[wayfriend]

That's right, the Fire Nazgul...

... Andelain Wraiths. Big, nasty, red ones. They are to a burning pyre what the Andelain Wraiths are to a candle flame.
Oh, wait ... you jest with me.

[Vector]

That's right, the Fire Nazgul...

... Andelain Wraiths. Big, nasty, red ones. They are to a burning pyre what the Andelain Wraiths are to a candle flame.
Oh, wait ... you jest with me.

Nary the thought !!! The Nazgul ARE the Andelain Wraiths that were summoned to Middle Earth to to "save or damn" the hobbits and sundry - though apparently they must have chosen the "damnation" path - if one is to believe Tolkien's account - though personally I have more confidence in the inner character of those cute little ringwraiths and in the end they will find redemption....

[wayfriend]

This one is interesting because of it's source: the out-takes from Fantasy Bedtime Hour Episode 39.

In which SRD says:

SRD: They are, in fact, lions made out of stone, but they're so hot that sometimes the stone is melting, and so then it's fiery.

Heatherly: Okay, so they are in fact the same creature, they're not two separate species?

SRD: Yes, they are the same creature.

I presume this to be a description of the fire lions, and a confirmation that what Covenant saw on Mt. Thunder is the same fire lions spoken of in the tale of Berek Halfhand.

Cool, huh?!?!

[Avatar]

Interesting. I always just assumed it was a poetic way of describing the lava flow.

--A

[Relayer]

SRD: They are, in fact, lions made out of stone, but they're so hot that sometimes the stone is melting, and so then it's fiery.

This is essentially how I always pictured them. Not just lava, but some sort of animated lava/rock creatures.

[IrrationalSanity]

Interesting. I always just assumed it was a poetic way of describing the lava flow.

I always had a little doubt - while in our world it would be a simple lava flow (or pyroclastic surge), I always figured there was something a bit different.

Then when I read Mordant's Need, I wondered if the "fire cat" was actually a fire lion, crossed-over into the other story via translation.

[drew]

I pictured them; simalar to the part in the Fellowship of the Ring (By JRR Tolkien) when Frodo sees the river flowing at the Nazgul, and it looks like charging horses..only with fire lava...and lions.

[Ur Dead]

It also may be a flow of lava that when released by Earthpower, it consume with such speed that it can be described as a lion when it attacks it prey.

Then of course I havn't read anywhere on the world where the land exists any real lions being around.

And as to the river rising up to sweep away the Nazgul. It was Gandalf who added the horse head touch. It was Elrond's river and it was through his power the river rose up against the wraights.

(Back to the original question)
But this bring about a new question. It was Bannor who made Covenant's ring touch the Staff of Law. This started the lava flow. The Bloodguard seem to have more knowledge than they let on to. Plus the ability for memories to be past on generation to generations they may know (or feel that they know) all there is what Earthpower is.

Has anybody else come to that conclusion?