Are we all too hung up on the word "Worm"?

[High Lord Tolkien]

Are we all too hung up on the image invoked from the word "Worm"?
It comes from the Giants that got it from the Elohim, but then a few chapters later in the one Tree we learn from the Elohim themselves that they don't really use the term but use "Wurd".

"Sun-Sage," replied Daphin, "we are the Wurd of the Earth."
She spoke clearly, but her tone was confusing. Her Wurd sounded like Wyrd or Word.
Wyrd? Linden thought. Destiny-doom? Or Word?
Or both.
Into the silence, Daphin placed her story. It was an account of the creation of the Earth; and Linden soon realized that it was the same tale Pitchwife had told her during the calling of the Nicor. Yet it contained one baffling difference. Daphin did not speak of a Worm. Rather, she used that blurred sound, Wurd, which seemed to signify both Wyrd and Word.

And the Waynhim and Demondim speak of "Weird"

It's not the whole of the earth in size but rather a range of hills.

We really have no concept of what this thing is.

[Mega Fauna Blitzkrieg]

So much confusion arises from a simple speech impediment.

This is why we need to focus on early childhood education and development!

[Krilly]

I bring this up in every topic that makes this assumption. I think we all tend to picture a "Dune-esque" creature, when in reality SD has yet to reveal what form it takes.

Who knows, maybe it's form changes based on what it eats.

"W-What?! Wormchu is evolving!"

[wayfriend]

I've long held that the WotWE wasn't a Dune-esque creature. However, the farther we get into the Final Cs, the more likely it seems that I am wrong.

But I have been pointing out for a long time that we've never seen it. All we have to go on are the words of the Elohim, who tell everyone that it is around. (These are the same people who also call it their Würd.) Even Linden's percipience did not detect a Worm at the Isle of the One Tree. So I hold out hope that Donaldson has something unexpected here.

It'd be really lame if it turned out to be nothing but a big skurj. Or a giant Creator hand wearing a sock.

[Vraith]

I've long held that the WotWE wasn't a Dune-esque creature. However, the farther we get into the Final Cs, the more likely it seems that I am wrong.

But I have been pointing out for a long time that we've never seen it. All we have to go on are the words of the Elohim, who tell everyone that it is around. (These are the same people who also call it their Würd.) Even Linden's percipience did not detect a Worm at the Isle of the One Tree. So I hold out hope that Donaldson has something unexpected here.

It'd be really lame if it turned out to be nothing but a big skurj. Or a giant Creator hand wearing a sock.

Sock Worm???
Cracked me up.

I don't know what it's going to look like...I'm not entirely sure it matters as long as it isn't something completely silly.
Usually I tend towards something dragonesque [in my head, that's what pops I mean, not from text except that it is called a Worm]. The Serpent-like versions akin to many Eastern ones and some Norse versions [for obvious reasons, including the Nicor is its off-spring "myth."]
Once in a while it looks like a giant potato bug except not grey [some places they call them "pill bugs," but it was potato bug where I grew up...and I have no idea why my brain makes that picture. Maybe cuz I don't do pictures much...and they DO spend a lot of time curled up in the earth.]

[dlbpharmd]

Go to this page, scroll down to question #2 ("Why a worm?"), and click the appropriate video feed for a discussion on this topic.

[Mega Fauna Blitzkrieg]

When are those interviews from? I said this in another topic but, I think the worm has a physical body, like an Ouroboros, which also SRD mentioned in that clip, hah i m so smrt, but I'm sure it will also have a metaphysical/spiritual/magical component, which is what everyone will be dealing with.

I doubt we will have a giant Godzilla snake running around literally eating things with teeth.

The other thing is, in the third trilogy he is doing a lot of revisionist history. Like Berek didn't make any 'pact' all he did was cry and bleed on Mount Thunder. They dismissed the old giant's story of stars in the sky being the Creator's brats trapped like Foul is.

Someone go read the end of book 5 and see, is there an actual physical worm that comes up and growls, or they see it's tail or something, or does the island just sink suddenly and the Elohim claim it is the worm?

In short, I think he is going to do something that is nothing you would guess from literally reading the previous books, in the same way that none of the other oldest legends of the land actually are true. I mean shit, even Berek coming back to the land/the white gold legend that is a major focus in LFB, was planted by the Theomach to cover up historical gaps?

[dlbpharmd]

Those clips are from Elohimfest 2007.

[Corwin]

Within the myriad of visions that are revealed to her (by Foul or some collaboration of agents) she is shown the skurj, and the actual awakening of the Worm. I don't have the time to reference TROTE since i'm procrastinating for an exam i have in the AM but it literally describes the Worm of vast size and power awakening, shaking its head like a sleepy puppy dog and then looking at her, RECOGNIZING her for what she is or what she has done. So while there is a rather mythical quality to such a concept/beast as referenced by SRD and others, I believe there is something tangible that he is incorporating into the tale as well. Just my two cents.

Good to be back!

Cheers!