So, after too long I finally post my dissection.
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The chapter begins (as the previous one ends) in an explosion of light, which softens gradually to a human scale, but not before touching the various wonders it illuminates.
The flare of power from the gem resembled a scream.
…Jeremiah flailed his arms with Earthpower blazing in each hand.
The krill’s shining glared like a crisis in her eyes.
[Marhrtiir] wore a robe of samite so white and pure that it might have been woven of starlight.
The wild energy of the opening paragraphs, with Ranyhyn exploding into the group before the fane, damps down to the tender sapling Caerwood-ur-Mahrtiir holds in his hand, root ball and all. It’s all that seems to ground Covenant’s confusion, for the chapter is told from his perspective and all he can do is curse in response to the wonders that burst in on him. Here we meet the Covenant that has been forming from the beginning: one whose spirit has been healed to the point of being able to recognize the humanity and need in others, and respond selflessly.His familiar combative frown had become radiance. It had become eagerness. Reflecting the krill’s gem, he looked like wild magic cleansed of its extravagance and peril.
But before he can formulate his response Linden’s attention is drawn to Jeremiah and the wounded Cabledarm. (We do have to note that those pesky grass stains are gone from Linden’s jeans!) Her healing of the Giant is ruthless; in spite of Linden’s cleansed exterior, her inner wounds still control her. She and Jeremiah are sorry for hurting each other by the choices they have made in order to not be useless. Covenant wonders whether he should take it personally…He had the question ready; but he gritted his teeth against it. She needed something more from him. Something better.
How often had he said, Don’t touch me?
(There’s a drinking game in there somewhere, if one were so inclined…)
While Caerwood-ur-Mahrtiir sings his sapling into a tree before the fane, her attention wanders toward Stave and Branl, who holds Longwrath’s flamberge. She sees a threat in this and confronts him; but Covenant interprets her accusation as a cry for mercy.
Covenant interprets Branl’s possession of the sword for her, informing her that the raver turiya has been rent.…Covenant seemed to hear her crying, I woke up the Worm! Is no one ever going to forgive me?
Meanwhile, the Forestal keeps singing to his tree.
Stave steps in, asking for healing for his arm. Wut? Covenant isn’t the only one who has transformed. The effect on Linden is profound.
Linden finds a release in healing Stave that Covenant sees as his opportunity to also cry for forgiveness. He confesses to killing Joan although he had sworn not to kill again.A sigh of relief passed among the Giants. Jeremiah whispered, “Mom, Mom,” as if she made him proud.
The Forestal’s tree keeps getting shinier by the minute. Now its light outshines the krill, but without the harshness. An island of Andelain is beginning to surround them.
Covenant can finally tell Linden why he’s been all “Don’t touch me”. He is ashamed in part because of his necessary rejection of her so that she would do what she had to do. But now he also wants her to know that he did it out of his own brokenness. He wouldn’t have been able to do what he had to do, had they come together earlier. He was afraid. In one of the most poignant statements in the Chronicles, Covenant expresses his internal struggle by saying,
It’s now or never. Covenant removes the chain from his neck that holds Joan’s white gold ring.What did he gain by being a leper if numbness did not dull the edges of his fears?
His proposal is met with shock and even fear in the moment, but Caerwood’s song interposes itself—The clasp seemed to open by itself as if he had given a blessing. Attempts must be made—How else could he believe in anything?
Apparently, the Forestal is the Barry White of the Land. Linden can’t resist Mahrtiir’s mojo…”It is my heart I give to you,
My blood and sap and bone and root.”
I cried like a baby the first time I read this because after so much conflict and misunderstanding and issues between Linden and Covenant, they, and the reader, deserve this. It is a blessing. In the Dark, SRD pulls back the curtain and opens a window and lets sweet air in. In a preternatural, shiny bit of Andelain, white gold rings become a symbol of love and unity—after all the inner conflict and outer chaos they have caused. Their kiss causes wild magic to light up the night. The Giants cheer. A haruchai grins. They don’t give a rip.“Yes.” That one word seemed to contain her whole heart.
After a wedding supper of aliantha, the rest of the party withdraw to the shelter of the fane, while Linden and Covenant get to enjoy the honeymoon suite that Caerwood has so graciously provided under the shelter of his magical tree. The Forestal himself vanishes into thin air. The camera discreety pans away….
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Wild magic has dimmed and Linden and Thomas (as she now calls him, at his behest) lie on the grass in “soft radiance” from the Forestal’s tree. Their talk turns to Jeremiah; Linden is concerned that between the touch of Foul on his soul, the croyel, and Anele’s gift, and whatever else about Jeremiah’s messed-up past, -- she wants to understand him, but does not feel she has the right to question.
She asks him what changed him and they have the luxury of being able to recount the story of Covenant’s days apart from her. Then she asks what happened to his beard.
Ah, the beard. Throughout the Chronicles, Covenant’s beard expressed how he was feeling. He perversely insisted on shaving although it was dangerous for him, as a leper. When it grew it made him look wild and “prophetic” (think, Charlton Heston as Moses by the Red Sea shouting STAND STILL AND SEE THE SALVATION OF THE LORD!!!).
The “necessity” of self-abnegation and punitive discipline once controlled and defined Covenant. Now it’s gone forever. Thank God! It is hard to live with a prophet.Long ago, shaving had been a form of self-abnegation for him, a punitive discipline. He was glad to be rid of the necessity.
Leprosy, however, is still with him. His hands are more maimed than ever, but he still strokes Linden, reaches for her body and her soul through them. He wants to know (because she amazes him) what her story is. She painfully tells how Caerroil Wildwood sacrificed himself willingly (because he was tired of the deaths of trees) so that she and Caerwood ur-Mahrtiir and Hyn and Narunal could return via wild magic to Covenant, Jeremiah, and the Giants and haruchai. But the Howe’s death wail followed her. Covenant reassures her and for once, she does not resist reassurance.
(Rabbit trail: she has been different ever since she sewed the patch onto the Mahdoubt’s gown. Until then, her spirit was unable to accept grace in any form. Maybe it’s only my perception, but that was one of THE most important events in the Last Chronicles. Ok, back to the chapter at hand…)
A couple of nagging questions that readers may or may not have wrestled with are dealt with, since we are hanging out naked under a magical tree.
1. The issue of the grass stains comes up.
Inquiring minds want to know because this thread has woven itself in and out of the entire Chronicles. And basically SRD says, nothing to see here, get over it. Covenant and Linden make love again….”Oh my God. They’re gone….. What does it mean?
Lol.
2. Why wasn’t Linden a “rightful white gold wielder” since Covenant had left his ring for her after defeating Foul?
If there were any niggling questions about Linden claiming Covenant’s ring, or why its potency was so difficult for her to fully exploit, there it is. Again, that’s what you get.”I’m not entirely sure,” Covenant admitted. “Sure, I wanted you to have my ring. But I didn’t give it to you. Lord Foul just dropped it. And I was in the same situation with Joan. I only got her ring”—he stifled a wince—“because she couldn’t hold it any longer. That didn’t make me a rightful wielder either.”
He had experienced rightfulness. He knew what it meant.
“Now that’s changed.” With a gesture that felt effortless, he drew a brief streak of argent through the air….
In light of the recent discussion over the puissance of the krill, Covenant’s comment is very condign:
The chapter concludes with Linden and Covenant having a deep conversation on the nature of guilt, desperation, power, and salvation. They land on that if there is meaning to any of the mistakes and glories in the world, then attempts must be made, risks must be taken, mistakes must be hazarded because we are human. Even with argent puissance and Earthpower and krills and Forestals and Ranyhyn and malachite, every choice is human.If you hadn’t used the krill when you resurrected me, you would have torn yourself apart. That’s the krill’s real power. It mediates contradictions.
The light has softened to a harmonious gleam as Thomas and Linden sigh, and fall asleep.
This chapter concludes part 1 of The Last Dark. The amount of business it actually takes care of is significant, yet our dear SRD incorporates this truckload of revelation so gracefully, the reader does not feel burdened. Instead, Covenant’s long sigh of relief is felt by the reader. There is so much hope in this chapter, but it is not easy hope (if there is such a thing). It is hope because of the humanity (and Gianity??) of our heroes.
Worry not, I snuffled as well. Blaah, and as a consequence now pining for some Giantish mush...