Kevin's Watch

"Lord Mhoram's Victory" was the first that came to my mind.

The death of Lena.

I read TPTP first, so my first most memorable moments both came from that book. Undoubtedly, since they are both at the end of the book, they were intended to be the climactic moments of the series.

Lord Mohrams Victory. The triumph of understanding the power he can wield, and the vanquishing of the giant-raver. I can picture the battle, as he stands alone in the hollow, surrounded by foes, totally engulfed in power, surpassing anything the new lords have achieved. Totally triumphant and ablaze with earthpower. This was a true high.

Foamfollower carrying TC out into the lava. The sacrifice he made, not knowing he would survive, and the passion he showed as he led up to that decision. I was truly broken when I thought he was finished. This was a true low.

ah, I thought I'd posted in this thread previously, but apparently not - bonus, I can contribute now instead!

many, many, many memorable moments throughout the chrons.

very hard to choose an absolute favourite, but I feel as though SRD was at the absolute peak of his powers when he wrote of the mission to Seareach in TIW.
The chapters 'Runnik's tale' and 'Tull's tale' are so vividly written as to have a certain visceral effect upon me when reading them.

People have touched upon SRD's diversions in ur-horror, and I think these chapters best illustrate his knack for unspooling a can't-look-away dread, culminating in true horrific revelation.

It's a real journey of the damned, not one thing goes smoothly for Hyrim, Shetra, Korik and the rest of the Bloodguard; they are beset by myriad life-threatening and terrifying incidents almost from the get-go.

SRD's description of the Sarangrave is wonderful, the gibbering monkeys and iridescent birds, the mysterious and perilous pools of deadliness surrounding the company, the bugs and the shifting terrain - it's a wonderfully creepy place, and the spooked Ranyhyn only heighten the sense of looming terrror.

The luker's first appearance is still it's finest moment imo; we just don't know what it is at this stage of the story, for a while all the reader gets is it's brilliantly conveyed screaming and howling - Donaldson's words really evoke the sound, 'scaling up' from the sound of a crying baby to an ear-splitting ghoulish shriek.

All that before we even get to the Hoerkin/ahamkara part - this section really freaks me out too, the company recover one of the lost Warhaft from a previous failed mission to Seareach only to find him in a zombie-like state, his skin so frozen that it blisters Shetra's fingers to touch it.
Then ahamkara's dire message proclaiming the downfall of the Giants, and the foreshadowing of the only unaccounted-for Giant Raver, who is 'not to be named' (later revealed to be Kinslaughterer; one of Foul's cruelest 'jokes').

By the time Shetra warns

".. Hyrim, we are baited!"

, and Hyrim himself realizes that Foul and the lurker are able to track the company by honing in on the power of the Bloodguard's very Vow, it is too late; Shetra falls prey to the lurker, her body never recovered.

Hyrim becomes embittered and eventually falls to fever and illness, but he eventually rallies after his assigned Bloodguard Sill recognizes an 'unquenched spirit survived' - with Hyrim's power the remaining company navigate the Sarangrave and eventually make it to Seareach.

SRD's pacing in this section is just wonderful imo, the mounting dread as the Sarangrave-blackened company finds the outskirts of the city seemingly abandoned, then upon gaining Seareach itself, a Giant seaside ghost town,
they begin finding stained patches of dried blood, and soon bodies.
Hyrim's mounting despair

"Aided?" Hyrim gasped. "There is no aid for them!"

leads to his eventual realisation that the Giants have willingly accepted their violent end.

The company descends Giant staircases, discovering still more murdered Giants as they go of the city, the bodies fresher at each level.
Eventually, suspecting the murderer may still be in the city, the company come upon the 'last' Giant, Sparlimb Keelsetter, who sits in a near-catatonic state.
Then Kinslaughterer's great reveal, what a horrific scene, he detonates Keelsetter's head with a shard of Illearth Stone and righteously stomps around in the pool of blood and guts like a true Raving lunatic.
Kinslaughterer quickly subdues the Bloodguard and Hyrim before attempting to break the Law of the Sea .

At this point of the story I am usually cowering behind a chair ...

Hyrim somehow finds the courage and strength to confront Kinslaughterer, the impact of their brief clash leading to Hyrim's demise and Kinslaughterer's loss of the Illearth Stone.

The three remaining Bloodguard fall upon Kinslaughterer and beat him to death in rage and grief.

Hyrim, 'brain and heart' burned, attempts to warn the Bloodguard with his dying words against claiming the Illearth Stone, but to no avail.

*shudder*

seriously, that is a powerful, powerful section of the chronicles that is hard to match as far as I'm concerned.
sorry to rabbit on, but I wanted to outline just how much mind-blowing stuff is packed into those two chapters.

Cheval wrote:The utterance of "NOM" by Thomas. Blew me away.

Looking back to this post (almost a year ago), I got to thinking that
how I was emotionally moved when I was reading about
when Saltheart performed his caamora for the slaughtered
Giants in Seareach.

Maybe the meeting with The Giants in the Sarangrave, in TWL where Honinscrave [rubbing his Jaw from where Brinn has wacked him] says ruefully that his [Brinns] 'gladness' at seeing the Giants is, "a weighty matter."

Ayup All...

There are so many...

But my best three are these without doubt.

Third: 'this is the Caamora, come and be Healed !' what do I need to say about this ?

Second: Mhoram in the Hollow outside Revelstone: 'I do not wish to hurt you, but if you do me then I will give you death' (forgive any Misquotes please.) but you know where I'm coming from.

First, is in 'Soothtell' where Covenant is being FORCED to see how the Raver got into Revelstone and started the Banefire and corrupted everything he holds dear. He is being hurt on so many levels, and merely wishes to Immolate himself and everything. Theres a sentence or two about how he strains to connect the white gold to his pain, and then the phrase: 'Then the Tsunami struck'. This is the most violent sentence in the whole book I think, yet here we see his love and passion for the Land and the desire to protect and save everything. Every time I read this the emotion is overwhelming, with Goosebumps and I find myself wanting and wishing to be Covenant. To be extravagant as I ever could and do exactly what he does.

By contrast, the most 'Beautiful' sentence for me in it is when Covenant comes to Revelstone for the first time, and the Heartthrall (Thorm?) says: ' Here is Light. Darkness withers the Heart'. How true, and how marvellous the giving of the blessed light to dispel the Darkness...

Sorry for wittering on.

Ayup...

Oh, and I forgot:

'There is also Love in the World'...

Loric wrote:"Nom"

Definitely!

Ah - but which "Nom"?

peter wrote:Ah - but which "Nom"?

Been a while since I read the books (about 25 years I think) and I'm only re-reading the first chronciles now.

I had forgotten that it happened more than once - I meant the first time.

Well I won't blow it by revealing all here michaelm - but you will remember it when it happens [unless of course over the looong period since I also read the books I have fabricated a non-existant memory - by no means impossible I assure you ].

I just remember it being such a pivotal point in the book and something that made me want to just read and read.

peter wrote:Well I won't blow it by revealing all here michaelm - but you will remember it when it happens [unless of course over the looong period since I also read the books I have fabricated a non-existant memory - by no means impossible I assure you ].

Nope, it definitely happens twice. Both as jaw-dropping, and somehow completely unexpected on a first read, as each other

My all time favourite part in any of the books leads to the quote 'Stone and Sea Honninscrave - bravely done'

I love that Giant / all Giants.

Domne wrote:"Lord Mhoram's Victory" was the first that came to my mind.

Actually as I read it not long ago, what is really memorable now (but I had forgotten up until reading it) was the events that led to Mhoram being in that position. What sent chills up my spine was the part when Borillar led the remainder of the waynhim to help Mhoram.

Just passed the point in The One Tree last night where Covenant comes out of his blankness and says "Nom".

The first time round reading it was the best as it came out of nowhere and I just didn't expect it, but this time it was still a great point in the book.

That's one of my favorite scenes, from ""Honninscrave. In the name of pity." to "If you don't kill me, you won't have to go back to the Doom."

1. In "The Illearth War", are two in the same chapter: First was Tull tale "Lord, they-we could not- the giants" suddenly the habitual flatness of Tull's voice was gone. "Lord!" The word vibrated with a grief so keen that the Bloodguard could not master it.

2. the other was when Hile Troy asked Mhoram if that was what he had seen the other night when he was blasting the sky. Mhoram replies, "No, I saw Bloodguard fighting in the service of the Despiser"

3. In the "Power that Perserves" "Ah, Covenant, how can I tell you of it? This tongue has no words long enough for the tale. No word can encompass the love for a lost homeland, or the anguish of diminishing seed, or the pride – the pride in fidelity – That fidelity was our only reply to our extinction. We could not have borne our decline if we had not taken pride.

So my people – the Giants - I also, in my own way – the Giants were filled with horror – with abhorrence so deep that it numbed the very marrow of their bones – when they saw their pride riven – torn from them like rotten sails in the wind. They foundered at the sight. They saw the portent of their hope of Home – the three brothers – changed from fidelity to the most potent ill by one small stroke of the Despiser’s evil. Who in the Land could hope to stand against a Giant-Raver? Thus the Unhomed became the means to destroy that to which they had held themselves true. And in horror at the naught of their fidelity, their folly practiced through long centuries of pride, they were transfixed. Their revulsion left no room in them for thought or resistance or choice. Rather than behold the cost of their failure – rather than risk the chance that more of them would be made Soulcrusher’s servants – they – they elected to be slain.

“I also - in my way, I was horrified as well. But I had already seen what they had not, until that moment. I had seen myself become what I hated. Alone of all my kindred, I was not surprised. It was not the vision of a Giant-Raver which horrified me. It was my – my own people.

“Ah! Stone and Sea! They appalled me. I stormed at them – I ran through The Grieve like a dark sea of madness, howling at their abandonment, raging to strike one spark of resistance in the drenched tinder of their hearts. But they – they put away their tools, and banked their fires, and made ready their homes as if in preparation for departure-”

Rawedge Rim wrote:1. In "The Illearth War", are two in the same chapter: First was Tull tale "Lord, they-we could not- the giants" suddenly the habitual flatness of Tull's voice was gone. "Lord!" The word vibrated with a grief so keen that the Bloodguard could not master it.

2. the other was when Hile Troy asked Mhoram if that was what he had seen the other night when he was blasting the sky. Mhoram replies, "No, I saw Bloodguard fighting in the service of the Despiser"

3. In the "Power that Perserves" "Ah, Covenant, how can I tell you of it? This tongue has no words long enough for the tale. No word can encompass the love for a lost homeland, or the anguish of diminishing seed, or the pride – the pride in fidelity – That fidelity was our only reply to our extinction. We could not have borne our decline if we had not taken pride.

So my people – the Giants - I also, in my own way – the Giants were filled with horror – with abhorrence so deep that it numbed the very marrow of their bones – when they saw their pride riven – torn from them like rotten sails in the wind. They foundered at the sight. They saw the portent of their hope of Home – the three brothers – changed from fidelity to the most potent ill by one small stroke of the Despiser’s evil. Who in the Land could hope to stand against a Giant-Raver? Thus the Unhomed became the means to destroy that to which they had held themselves true. And in horror at the naught of their fidelity, their folly practiced through long centuries of pride, they were transfixed. Their revulsion left no room in them for thought or resistance or choice. Rather than behold the cost of their failure – rather than risk the chance that more of them would be made Soulcrusher’s servants – they – they elected to be slain.

“I also - in my way, I was horrified as well. But I had already seen what they had not, until that moment. I had seen myself become what I hated. Alone of all my kindred, I was not surprised. It was not the vision of a Giant-Raver which horrified me. It was my – my own people.

“Ah! Stone and Sea! They appalled me. I stormed at them – I ran through The Grieve like a dark sea of madness, howling at their abandonment, raging to strike one spark of resistance in the drenched tinder of their hearts. But they – they put away their tools, and banked their fires, and made ready their homes as if in preparation for departure-”

Yeah those are some awesome moments and some of my favorites as well. The retelling of the Grieve by TC in the 2nd Chronicles was just as poignant and gripping.