Good post, ur-monkey! But I think I need to clarify the "eternal spring" idea a bit more here - or at least my version of it. I'm basing my eternal spring view of Andelain solely on how it's presented in the 2nd Chronicles, not on anything in the 1st Chrons.
What I'm suggesting is that Andelain, regardless of whether or not it followed the seasons pre-Sunbane, is staying in perpetual spring/summer during the Sunbane era, in order to keep the Earthpower flowing (or flowering) at maximum strength. And that helps boost Caer-Caveral's ability to protect Andelain, because I'm working under the assumption that a) he derives his strength from Andelain, and b) it's more difficult to draw Earthpower from a winter-locked Andelain. Of course, I've got nothing from the text of the books to back up this little pet hypothesis, so I'm basically "reading between the lines." SRD says he allows for his readers to interpret things on their own, so I'm sticking with my interpretation of Andelain for now, until it can be shown that I'm as clueless as a Cavewight about the whole thing.
CovenantJr wrote:If the seasons are natural - and they are
- I don't see why it would be any more difficult for Caer Caveral to access Earthpower in Andelain during winter. It's not he like he has to physically drag it through the frozen soil. It's power, it just comes out. Nothing is more natural than the changing of the seasons, and this natural cycle should itself radiate Earthpower.
What I'm suggesting is that maybe the "Law" of the seasons could've been bent or tweaked in Andelain by Caer-Caveral, without "breaking" it.
Wayfriend wrote:I'd like to believe that Andelain was significant in the healing of the Sunbane: that Linden was able to draw on Andelain's natural order to inspire her healing, able to model the healed Land on the example Andelain provided. "She felt in her bones the rhythm of rise and fall, the strict and vital alternation of seasons, summer and winter." Linden absorbed the Sunbane by becoming, in a spiritual way, one with the Land, absorbing the harm of the Sunbane, restoring the founding principals which lied buried under yuck. And Andelain is the heart of the Land; Andelain was a major source of that feeling of what was strict and vital.
If this is so, then Andelain would have natural seasons. The whole thing would not have worked if Andelain was "special" and "magical" rather than the epitome of nature itself.
You almost convinced me the eternal spring thing is hogwash, Wayfriend. But like CJ said, we're a stubborn lot. Stubborn as half-handed lepers.
Funny thing is, I've always considered Andelain as "special."
Look, it could be that I'm just infatuated with the poetic picture of an ever-green Andelain. As jwaneeta said: "...the idea of Andelain as a sort of perfect Sleeping Beauty is just so... pretty and poignant." Yes, and at the same time hopeful and tragic.
This "minor niggly question" of jwaneeta's has turned into an epic inquiry!
I think that, ultimately, only SRD himself can lay this question to rest and shut up both sides.
Oops, jwaneeta posted while I was composing mine. See, she was only referring to Andelain in the 2nd Chrons, too!
jwaneeta wrote:...at the end of WGW, we read about Andelain mustering its resistsance and persevering at its heart.
I think the general view is that it was the spirits of Sunder and Hollian that helped Andelain persevere. They must've taken on some of Caer-Caveral's power. They would be like, um, mini-Forestals? ur-Forestals?
I can see where the idea of eternal spring comes from - in The Wounded Land, SRD described the air as:
