Actually I have many solidified thoughts about this chapter. Since I am an emergency sub I'm not going to make any disclaimers but I may go off on a tirade or two. I don't know what the technical term for this art is; "descriptive geologist", "naturalist", or "literary landscapist", please help me here folks... Let's see fauna (of which there is not much here) means animals and insects and stuff right? So I guess I would be right by saying how mezmerised I was by Donaldson's depiction of the flora of the mountianous area of the Land between Mithil's Plunge and the Verge of Wandering (the title of the next chapt., btw). Of course I'll have to back this up by a quote, the next time I see SRD in person I'll have to ask him if he makes a number of personal trips into the mountians to capture such scenes,
At this point Linden is pretty much a mess, she's in incredible pain trying to get her "Land-legs", and trying to keep up with the group and even though her Health-Sense has returned she's fairly deaf and dumb to what's going on around her. Indeed, even the author seems to be making fun of her by the sheer description of the terrain, as if to say, "Look at this! This is the history of the rock itself! The wars, the embraces, the catastrophes over millenium that have formed things just as they are! This is the initial nexus of what Anele talks about!" To me it's almost a subtle analogy/prologue of the complete history of the Land. I'd use an archiac term like a 'masculine' description, but to be PC let's just say 'rough'. At other times the rendering of the terrian is quite soft or 'feminine', and don't worry I'll toss another quote up now so that we don't go into a lenghty discussion of the Tao and comparisons to Le Guin,Ahead of her, the slope dropped towards a place of torn and jagged boulders, great blocks and monoliths, where two of the lower mountians appeared to have collided with each other. Studying the granite chaos, she feared that the Ramen would ask her to clamber there. However, they reassured her by turning so that their path angled more towards the east. As they rounded the mountianside beyond the tumbled monoliths, she saw that they were headed toward an arete between massive cliffs, a ridge like a saddle. It had been formed by tremendous rockfalls which had echoed each other off the higher cliffs and crashed together in the intervening valley, filling all of the space between the mountianside with rubble.
This is what stands out to me most in this chapter-this is some amazing writing! And very nice seasonal references that recall the beginnings of all three books in the first trilogy. OK, I set this up intentionally to lash out at some critics who believe that Runes doesn't the same 'feel' as the prior books. But look at it this way: we're in completely uncharted territory here, before we were led to believe that the edges of the Southron Wastes, were just that. There is untold beauty in the desert, so to speak, and the scope of the Land is (like The One Tree) again broadened-for me, the more I discover unknown parts of this world, the happier I am.Beyond the arete, a cluster of mountians leaned away from each other to unfurl a wide valley in their midst: a rich grass land, verdant as a meadow in springtime, fed by a network of delicate streams and small pools. In the afternoon light, the whole floor of the valley had a lush hue, an aspect of luxuriance, far deeper than the green sprouting of buds and grass around Mithil Stonedown; and the streams and pools seemed to catch the sun like liquid diamonds. It may have been a place out of time, sheltered from winter by the surrounding peaks: an instance of late spring or summer made possible by an abundance of water and sunshine amid the lingering cold of the mountians.
Agreed, we may not be going directly into the heads and depths of the characters, but can't that come about in time? Look at all the references in this chapter to what we already know...Ramen yearning to go back to the Plains of Ra, Bloodguard and Elohim history, suspicions of the Ranyhyn's plight, aliantha, aminabhavin the list goes on and on...Even though it's a new place, and we seem to be wandering right off the face of the earth, we're definately back in the Land. And it's a strange and unforgiving place too...Kevin's Watch smashing to the ground made it so right away...Anele as a multi-fauceted avatar for the voices of the stone, Foul and who knows what else? Too weird. The lifelong animosity between the Ramen and the Bloodguard/Masters due to treatment of the Ranyhyn. Too cold.
So after that how to I get back to the gist of Hints? You've got me. OK I'll take up the question of why Linden appears so weak when she first appears. The Staff of Law is gone, right? Kevin's Dirt has obsucred things and Health-Sense is quite different than Earth-Sight, isn't it? It's 10 years later and she's also dying, which wasn't the case in The Wounded Land. Covenant could barely put one foot in front of the other when he first entered the Land. However, in this chapter Linden is determined, for Jeremiah's sake, to find her strenght and does once the party tops the arete and her Health-Sense finds aliantha. Simply by consuming treasure-berries she passes another test of the Ramen, the first being sought by kresh, but that isn't enough: she must also go through a formal challenge.
The Ramen aren't innocent either...throughout the chapter Linden, Stave and even Liand gather suspicions by what Hami and Ramen are not telling them especially concerning the ur-vile's aide and the plight of the Ranyhyn.
Now is where I'm really going to need you help and discussion (dammit! I swore I wasn't going to make a disclaimer!
). Actually, even though it seems like I'm getting tired and whimping out, which I'm not, it might be fun to throw out a bunch of terms (we really don't know anything about) and a story or two and get your opinions. Ok, abandoning the strategy of going over things paragraph by paragraph one of the most important scenes (actually the two most important scenes) involves Anele weirding out again and appearing to be listening to the rock but something, someone has possesed him again, no it's not Foul, some bizarre He who cannot be named starts talking about; the Appointed, Durance, the skurj, the Elohim and Kastenessen. OK discuss, no just kidding. This is the first of the three important hints we receive here.So class, exactly what do we remember about the story of Kastenessen and who exactly is possesing Anele now? Are the Elohim all over this? Earthpower incarnate, able to assume forms undetected... If you recall earlier in the book it was said that at one time an Elohim had visited Mithil Stonedown saying odd things like, "beware the halfhand". To make a long story really short the Elohim had to make an Appointed (like Findail and the Collosus) to plug a fiery crack at the north of the world to prevent the destruction of the earth. But Kastenessen had rebelled and harmed a mortal woman in the name of love which led to him being stuffed in the crack by the Elohim and the woman's history leading to the creation of merewives (see: The One Tree).
Obviously this raises more questions than hints: First, again, why "'ware the halfhand"--Covenant's dead and what threat could Jeremiah pose? Warped by Foul? Huh? What is this skurj? And what does Durance mean? Shouldn't Kastenessen, like the Collosus, have passed? So is he still alive and has espaced the crack? Does Durance mean how long he had to be stuck there-and if he's escaped, "...he has broken the Durance", is skurj created from the fires unleashed on the earth? If Foul swears (yeah like we're going to believe him) he had nothing to do with Kevin's Dirt is the Dirt an aspect of this, or an aspect of the caesures? Essentially all this tells us nothing, or does it?
The next 'hint' is very simple and is probably the most poignant sentence in the chapter, from Anele's possesions and the kresh attack it is clear that Linden does not know how many enemies she has...
The third hint, or series of hints again comes from poor, possesed Anele. As the party makes camp in the structured Ramen environment in the grass Linden searches for any help she can get, sure there are things the Ramen and even Stave are holding back from her but how can they help her discover her enemies and fight them? Where is help to come from at all?
Anele grasps Linden and sheds tears of joy. Thomas Covenant is speaking through him, though he can barely maintain possesion over the mysterious "He". "He" is stronger than Covenant and the Law binds him in many ways." A joyous reunion is foreshortened by immediacy,When at last she lifted her head from her hands, she saw Anele standing on the grass beyond the edge of the clearing. A kind of fever shone from his blind face, and his whole body seemed to concentrate towards her.
He was beckoning as though he had heard her prayers and wished to answer them.
Briefly Linden considered ignoring him. Surely he would only confuse her further? Even from this distance, however, she could see that his madness had entered a new phase, one unfamiliar to her. He was in the grip of an intention so acute that it made him frantic.
Anele shoves her away, and runs off Linden persues him and he turns around, possesed again, and nearly sears her face off. Stave kicks him so hard he almost kills him."You're in serious trouble here." Already her beloved's voice sounded like tatters, scraps of presence. "Serious trouble." She was losing him again. "You need the ring. But be careful with it." His death had nearly undone her. "It feeds the caesures."
Covenant!
She could not bear to lose him a second time.
"Linden," he urged at the limit of himself, "find me. I can't help you unless you find me."
The worst cliche you can make in doing a dissection is calling the chapter "pivotal", but it's painfully obvious here. Linden does gain strenght, she does, at least, get a tiny inkling of what's going on, Covenant's appearance is mind-numbing...and if you don't believe we're back in the Land yet, then...
This chapter crosses the half-way mark.
I wonder what Linden would see if she could look at Jeremiah w/ her healthsense?
