The One Tree, Chapter 1: Starfare's Gem
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The One Tree, Chapter 1: Starfare's Gem
Here we go! Book Two of the Second Chronicles begins.
As in TWL, the story opens from Linden Avery's point of view. Relatively little action occurs in this opening chapter: it's the calm before the storm.
It's the morning of a sunny day, as the great dromond Starfare's Gem heads in to dock at Coercri. As the company of the quest goes down to meet the ship, Linden sorts out her feelings toward herself and toward Thomas Covenant, in light of what she has experienced so far.
Linden sees Covenant as "an affirmation--an assertion of life" against the Despiser, a man who is committed to the Land at any cost. By contrast, she sees herself as someone who doesn't affirm life so much as simply deny death: "All her severity, all her drive toward medical effectiveness against death, had been negative from the start--a rejection of her own mortal heritage rather than an approval of the beliefs she nominally served."
"With his venom and his white ring, he was the most dangerous man she had ever known." But Linden desires Covenant's dangerous quality and wants to emulate him: just as he is a danger to Lord Foul, she wants "to be a danger to the forces which impelled people to their deaths."
As for her health-sense, Linden sees that it can be open to beauty, not just terror: after escaping the Sarangrave and the influence of the Sunbane, she had at last "tasted the tangible loveliness of the world" in the natural health of Seareach. Also, because she was able to help her friends against the lurker of the Sarangrave, Linden sees that her percipience can accomplish good, not just be used as a tool "to achieve the ruin of the earth" as Gibbon-Raver had proclaimed. She begins to believe she can free herself from the doom of his words.
Then Linden's percipience is drawn to the approach of Starfare's Gem, and she is awestruck by the majesty and vital stone of the Giantship, and by the vitality of its crew. She sees Grimmand Honninscrave high on the wheeldeck of his ship: "His shout in answer to Pitchwife's hail echoed off the face of Coercri, making the Grieve resound with welcome for the first time in many centuries. Then the sunlight and the ship blurred before Linden as sudden tears filled her eyes as if she had never seen joy before."
After the dromond is secured, the crew of Giants go forward to look at the city of the Unhomed, and Linden finds herself "surrounded by weathered, brawny men and women twice her height--sailors built like oaks, and yet as full of movement and wonder as saplings." After so much time, Coercri is once more alive with Giants.
But they cannot stay long. The First tells Honninscrave she has decided to help Covenant in his quest for the One Tree, and that it's a mission of the gravest urgency. Honninscrave recalls his crew to the ship, to the good-natured protest of some of them. He responds: "Patience, sluggards! Are you Giants, that a little patience eludes you? Let stories await their turn, to ease the labor of the seas. The First requires haste!"
While watching the Giants, Covenant asks Linden: "Tell me..do you think I should have tried to destroy the Clave? While I had the chance?" Linden replies: "Some infections have to be cut out. If you don't kill the disease somehow, you lose the patient. Do you think those fingers of yours were cut off out of spite?"
She doesn't mince words.
Linden boards Starfare's Gem, as does Thomas Covenant--with help from the Haruchai (White Gold Wielder and Vertigo Sufferer). Vain boards, too, and once on the deck, stays there. Really stays there.
"Sunlight covered the piers, spangled the gently heaving strip of water along the shipside, shone into the face of Coercri as if this day marked the first true dawn since the destruction of the Unhomed." Under Honninscrave's command, the Giantship Starfare's Gem pulls away from Coercri and heads out to Sea.
As in TWL, the story opens from Linden Avery's point of view. Relatively little action occurs in this opening chapter: it's the calm before the storm.
It's the morning of a sunny day, as the great dromond Starfare's Gem heads in to dock at Coercri. As the company of the quest goes down to meet the ship, Linden sorts out her feelings toward herself and toward Thomas Covenant, in light of what she has experienced so far.
Linden sees Covenant as "an affirmation--an assertion of life" against the Despiser, a man who is committed to the Land at any cost. By contrast, she sees herself as someone who doesn't affirm life so much as simply deny death: "All her severity, all her drive toward medical effectiveness against death, had been negative from the start--a rejection of her own mortal heritage rather than an approval of the beliefs she nominally served."
"With his venom and his white ring, he was the most dangerous man she had ever known." But Linden desires Covenant's dangerous quality and wants to emulate him: just as he is a danger to Lord Foul, she wants "to be a danger to the forces which impelled people to their deaths."
As for her health-sense, Linden sees that it can be open to beauty, not just terror: after escaping the Sarangrave and the influence of the Sunbane, she had at last "tasted the tangible loveliness of the world" in the natural health of Seareach. Also, because she was able to help her friends against the lurker of the Sarangrave, Linden sees that her percipience can accomplish good, not just be used as a tool "to achieve the ruin of the earth" as Gibbon-Raver had proclaimed. She begins to believe she can free herself from the doom of his words.
Then Linden's percipience is drawn to the approach of Starfare's Gem, and she is awestruck by the majesty and vital stone of the Giantship, and by the vitality of its crew. She sees Grimmand Honninscrave high on the wheeldeck of his ship: "His shout in answer to Pitchwife's hail echoed off the face of Coercri, making the Grieve resound with welcome for the first time in many centuries. Then the sunlight and the ship blurred before Linden as sudden tears filled her eyes as if she had never seen joy before."
After the dromond is secured, the crew of Giants go forward to look at the city of the Unhomed, and Linden finds herself "surrounded by weathered, brawny men and women twice her height--sailors built like oaks, and yet as full of movement and wonder as saplings." After so much time, Coercri is once more alive with Giants.
But they cannot stay long. The First tells Honninscrave she has decided to help Covenant in his quest for the One Tree, and that it's a mission of the gravest urgency. Honninscrave recalls his crew to the ship, to the good-natured protest of some of them. He responds: "Patience, sluggards! Are you Giants, that a little patience eludes you? Let stories await their turn, to ease the labor of the seas. The First requires haste!"
While watching the Giants, Covenant asks Linden: "Tell me..do you think I should have tried to destroy the Clave? While I had the chance?" Linden replies: "Some infections have to be cut out. If you don't kill the disease somehow, you lose the patient. Do you think those fingers of yours were cut off out of spite?"
She doesn't mince words.
Linden boards Starfare's Gem, as does Thomas Covenant--with help from the Haruchai (White Gold Wielder and Vertigo Sufferer). Vain boards, too, and once on the deck, stays there. Really stays there.
"Sunlight covered the piers, spangled the gently heaving strip of water along the shipside, shone into the face of Coercri as if this day marked the first true dawn since the destruction of the Unhomed." Under Honninscrave's command, the Giantship Starfare's Gem pulls away from Coercri and heads out to Sea.
The first ship in Coercri harbor in how long??
*bows to Starfare's Gem*
*blinks--oops, the Sea is reflecting the sun in my eyes*
While working on Tull's Tale I caught a detail that had always escaped my notice: Sparlimb Keelsetter had one of the only private dwellings directly on Sea level in the city, next to the shipyard workshops.
Why? Because he worked there. In x number of rereadings I hadn't parsed his name as a job description, only a Giantish figure of speech!
BTW, this chapter of TOT needs a soundtrack with vocals by Rita Connolly and Gordon Bok.
Matrixman wrote, about Linden,
SRD wrote:
Yikes! I'll shut up now, before my Anglo-Catholic accent gets any worse.
*bows to Starfare's Gem*
*blinks--oops, the Sea is reflecting the sun in my eyes*
While working on Tull's Tale I caught a detail that had always escaped my notice: Sparlimb Keelsetter had one of the only private dwellings directly on Sea level in the city, next to the shipyard workshops.
Why? Because he worked there. In x number of rereadings I hadn't parsed his name as a job description, only a Giantish figure of speech!
BTW, this chapter of TOT needs a soundtrack with vocals by Rita Connolly and Gordon Bok.
Matrixman wrote, about Linden,
Linden's drivenness in using the Hippocratic Oath against death tends to remind me of the Vow, which, although it was born in utmost affirmation, is in its actual text primarily a rejection of mortality. "We are the Bloodguard, the keepers and the kept, sanctified beyond decline and the last evil of death."By contrast, she sees herself as someone who doesn't affirm life so much as simply deny death: "All her severity, all her drive toward medical effectiveness against death, had been negative from the start--a rejection of her own mortal heritage rather than an approval of the beliefs she nominally served."
SRD wrote:
Direct morning sunlight, in utmost contrast to the same region of the city in Tull's tale:As the companions moved out into the direct sunlight on the base of the city...
The morning after the Harrowing of Hell (and that is my association to the Great Caamora of Coercri) is, well, Easter.The flat base of the city lay in the afternoon shadow of the cliff, and the unwarmed rock was damp with spray.
Yikes! I'll shut up now, before my Anglo-Catholic accent gets any worse.
Last edited by Durris on Wed Mar 03, 2004 8:01 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Shared pain is lessened; shared joy is increased.
--Spider Robinson
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I don't really know how to express this. Alot of folks love Coercri and the heartrending caamora, but the simple fact that Linden was able to touch a part of the Land unharmed by the Sunbane affected me deeply and gave her a ray of hope almost enough to truly understand and support TC's mad quest. The mere health of Seareach, despite the tomb that was Coercri, is the most inspiring part of the whole book, for me.SRD via Matrixman wrote:she had at last "tasted the tangible loveliness of the world"
fall far and well Pilots!
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Very nice job breaking things down, MM.
There was something powerful that struck me with this chapter.
For some reason I wanted very much for the Giant crew to have a chance to fully explore Coercri. The idea of the Grieve filled with joyous; laughing sailors would have been such a thrill to experience given its tragic history. I spent a great deal of the Second chronicles lamenting the absence of the Lords. TC was nearly the only living link to the brave defenders of the Land and to restore some life to Coercri would represent to me a small restoration of something precious that had been lost.
There was something powerful that struck me with this chapter.
For some reason I wanted very much for the Giant crew to have a chance to fully explore Coercri. The idea of the Grieve filled with joyous; laughing sailors would have been such a thrill to experience given its tragic history. I spent a great deal of the Second chronicles lamenting the absence of the Lords. TC was nearly the only living link to the brave defenders of the Land and to restore some life to Coercri would represent to me a small restoration of something precious that had been lost.
"If you can't tell the difference, what difference does it make?"
"There is tic and toc in atomic" - Neil Peart
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Well I agree because of the simple joy that Giants bring wherever they may be, but if Honninscrave had allowed it, time would've been wasted though the Giants might've appreciated feeling solid earth beneath their feet after such a long journey, and probably another fire would've had to been built so that the ones who would wish to expunge their personal griefs after hearing the Grieve's tale could do so... more time spent.TOM C wrote:Very nice job breaking things down, MM.
There was something powerful that struck me with this chapter.
For some reason I wanted very much for the Giant crew to have a chance to fully explore Coercri. The idea of the Grieve filled with joyous; laughing sailors would have been such a thrill to experience given its tragic history. I spent a great deal of the Second chronicles lamenting the absence of the Lords. TC was nearly the only living link to the brave defenders of the Land and to restore some life to Coercri would represent to me a small restoration of something precious that had been lost.
But just trying to imagine being on board this massive vessel with massive people that were her crew. Whew It boggles the mind what?
Tom C wrote:
It's an impulse similar to this one of yours, Tom, that makes me imagine post-Sunbane Revelstone as filled with gleeful, agile Haruchai children (and their blissfully reunited parents).
Amen!The idea of the Grieve filled with joyous; laughing sailors would have been such a thrill to experience given its tragic history.
It's an impulse similar to this one of yours, Tom, that makes me imagine post-Sunbane Revelstone as filled with gleeful, agile Haruchai children (and their blissfully reunited parents).
Shared pain is lessened; shared joy is increased.
--Spider Robinson
--Spider Robinson
Yes, it was sad that the Giants couldn't stay longer at Seareach. They had only just arrived, already they must leave?
Durris, I like your interpretation of the Vow: "We are the Bloodguard, the keepers and the kept, sanctified beyond decline and the last evil of death."
Powerful words. I assume they're your words. Or did the Bloodguard actually say them somewhere in the books? I don't recall coming across them.
Durris, I like your interpretation of the Vow: "We are the Bloodguard, the keepers and the kept, sanctified beyond decline and the last evil of death."
Powerful words. I assume they're your words. Or did the Bloodguard actually say them somewhere in the books? I don't recall coming across them.
Oh my goodness no, those words belong to SRD, not me. In "Gilden-Fire" the text of the Vow is given in both Haruchai and English; I quoted SRD's own English translation of it.
*cough, choke* The incense is getting too thick in the atmosphere around here!
*cough, choke* The incense is getting too thick in the atmosphere around here!
Shared pain is lessened; shared joy is increased.
--Spider Robinson
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But still, "I read "Gilden-Fire" only once a long time ago, so I've pretty much forgotten the details" are among the saddest words I've heard in some time!
Durris, you're at it again, with the incredible way you have of noticing things! The contrast of this sunlit city with Tull's is excellent!!
Durris, you're at it again, with the incredible way you have of noticing things! The contrast of this sunlit city with Tull's is excellent!!
Right?? Sheesh!!Matrixman wrote:Linden replies: "Some infections have to be cut out. If you don't kill the disease somehow, you lose the patient. Do you think those fingers of yours were cut off out of spite?"
She doesn't mince words.
Oh, that's gorgeous!! I swear when I close my eyes I can see this so clearly! Hear the shouts!His shout in answer to Pitchwife's hail echoed off the face of Coercri, making the Grieve resound with welcome for the first time in many centuries.
All lies and jest
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest -Paul Simon
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest -Paul Simon
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Oh! And let's not forget about this!!!
How awesome! Giants and dromond combine to make one huge organism!That stone surprised Linden. Instinctively, she had questioned the nature of the Giantship, believing that granite would be too brittle to withstand the stress of the seas. But as her vision sprang into the ship, she saw her error. This granite had the slight but necessary flexibility of bone. Its vitality went beyond the limitations of stone.
And that vitality shone through the dromond's crew. They were Giants; but on their ship they were more than that. They were the articulation and service of a brave and breathing organism, the hands and laughter of a life which exalted them. Together, the stone and the Giants gave Starfare's Gem the look of a vessel which contended against the powerful seas simply because no other test could match its native exultation.
All lies and jest
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest -Paul Simon
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest -Paul Simon
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I love it when SRD does things like this. He's supposed to be describing Giants, but he gives a new dimension to saplings while he's at it. "Circular perception," if you will.SRD wrote:sailors built like oaks, and yet as full of movement and wonder as saplings.
Good one, MM.Matrixman wrote:Vain boards, too, and once on the deck, stays there. Really stays there.
Isn't that such an evocative description? The scene bursts into a new level of life with that sound.Fist wrote:Oh, that's gorgeous!! I swear when I close my eyes I can see this so clearly! Hear the shouts!His shout in answer to Pitchwife's hail echoed off the face of Coercri, making the Grieve resound with welcome for the first time in many centuries.
Of Linden's senses,
My mouth actually waters at this sentence. Weird how SRD can make "impossible" perceptions so real to us readers.SRD wrote:She half expected to taste sap flowing beneath the surfaces of the Giantship.
Of Covenant and Linden,
I find myself revved up for their "dynamic" relationship by this sentence.SRD wrote:He regarded her as if she had ... made him aware of her in a way which would not allow peace between them.
"The universe is made of stories, not atoms." -- Roger Penrose
Fist wrote,
Again I'm reminded that SRD is the son of an orthopedist. Here he combines his father's knowledge of bone mechanics with Linden's ability to experience it from the inside.Oh! And let's not forget about this!!! Quote:That stone surprised Linden. Instinctively, she had questioned the nature of the Giantship, believing that granite would be too brittle to withstand the stress of the seas. But as her vision sprang into the ship, she saw her error. This granite had the slight but necessary flexibility of bone. Its vitality went beyond the limitations of stone.
Shared pain is lessened; shared joy is increased.
--Spider Robinson
--Spider Robinson
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What I think is really wonderful about this opening chapter is that it has the ability to bring joy into the heart of the reader, especially if they followed The One Tree closely on the heels of The Wounded Land. While true, TWL does end on a "happy" note the weight of the Sunbane still lingers on our minds. Here in TOT we are lifted into a sense of hope for TC and LA and get to revel in the joy of Giants in their true element.
Of course typical SRD he likes to
Love it love it love it.
Of course typical SRD he likes to
Spoiler
dash it upon the rocks as it were with the next chapter, aptly named "Black Mood".