Kevin's Watch

This is it, ladies and gents. Here goes nothing...

He was Bannor of the Bloodguard.

So this chapter starts off with a bang as we find someone I never expected to see again, in the last place I would have thought to look for him.

I see this chapter as being about fidelity, and about it being intact even when it seems to have been broken. We start off with Bannor, last First Mark of the Bloodguard.

'Why aren't you with the Lords?'
'The Vow was Corrupted. We no longer serve the Lords.'

Obviously TC doesn't understand why the Bloodguard can no longer serve the Lords, or does understand it as I suspect, but just hasn't stopped to think about it yet. What helped me to understand was the following heartbraking statement made by Bannor:

...'The Lords spoke of her. They were unable to heal her.' He shrugged slightly. 'They were unable to heal many things.'

The depth of regret in that one statement, the realization coming to Bannor that even though Kevin Landwaster may have been worthy of the Vow, the people that he had served after that for who knows how many thousands of years may not have been. This comes through in his distrust of Foamfollower:

'Yet you know me,' Foamfollower said to Bannor. You know that I am not one of the three who fell to the Ravers.'

Bannor shrugged noncommittally. 'Two of the three are dead. Who can say where those Ravers have gone?'

'I am a giant, Bannor!' Foamfollower insisted in a tone of supplication, as if that fact were the only proof of his fidelity. 'It was I who first brought Thomas Covenant to Revelstone.'

Bannor was unmoved. 'Then how is it that you are alive?'

At this, Foamfollower's eyes glinted painfully. In a thin tone, he said, 'I was absent from Coercri - when my kindred brought their years in Seareach to an end.'

The Bloodguard cocked an eyebrow, but did not relent.

This is something that even TC notes.

...'Give it up! Admit you know him. Hellfire! Bannor - you bloody egomaniac! You're so proud - after the Bloodguard failed you can stand to admit that there might be faithfullness left anywhere. It's you or nothing. But he's a Giant, Bannor!'

Even more saddening than all this however, is Bannor belief that he and his fellow Haruchai were unworthy.

'Ur-Lord, I say to you that the Vow was broken. Many things were broken. You were present. We could not - ur-Lord, I am old now. I, Bannor, First Mark of the Bloodguard. I require sleep and hot food. Though I was bred for mountains, this cold penetrates my bones. I am no fit server for Revelstone - no, nor for the Lords, though they do not equal High Lord Kevin who went before them.'

'I have come to share the work of the Ramen. A few of the Haruchai - I know not how many - a few felt as I did. We had known Kevin in the youth of his glory, and could not forget. Terrel is here, and Runnik. There are others. we teach our skills to the Ramen, and learn from them the tending of the great horses. Perhaps we will learn to make peace with our failure before we die.'

As well as TC trying to make sense of Bannor and what happened to the Bloodguard, a lot of this chapter is dedicated to Foamfollower trying to prove himself to Bannor and the Ramen. He eventually does this by enduring an unplanned caamora at the campfire, while TC tries to help out by yelling at Bannor.

'Wasn't Elena enough for you?' Covenant hissed. 'Are you trying to make another Kevin out of him?'

There are three other key things that happen in this chapter. First is the Ramen's distrust of TC, and the fact that the Ranyhyn are only still living on the Plains of Ra because of the promise they made to him.

Shortly, out of the shelter of a frozen gully came tow Ranyhyn, a stallion and a mare...They hardly seemed able to hold up their heads. But they nickered to the Cord. With a stumbling gait, they trotted forward, and began at once to eat the flowers he offered them. In three bites the food was gone. He hugged them quickly, then turned away with tears in his eyes.

Without a word, Manethrall Kam gave the Cord the bedraggled circlet from his hair, so that each of the Ranyhyn could have one more bite.

'We will not contradict the Rabyhyn concerning you. I saw - I would not have believed if I had not seen. To rear! Hurt as they are!...'

This chapter made me think of the Ramen as being very much like the Bloodguard, each giving their entire existance to serving someone or something greater than themselves. In the Ramen's case it was the Ranyhyn, in the Bloodguard's case it was High Lord Kevin and then the new Lords. I also had a lot of respect for the ways in which both dealt with failure. I think it took a lot of courage to abandone the Vow after so long, but it also took courage to keep serving the Ranyhyn in the face of such insurmountable odds.

Second we have Pietten. Although his warping isnt TC's fault, he did blame himself for what happened to Soaring Woodhelven, and Foamfollower gave the hurtloam saved for him to a cavewight rather than to the young boy. The two also asked the Ramen to care for Pietten and Llaura, and so it is because of them that he lives in Ra.

'Because of his great skill with the Ranyhyn,' Bannor went on, 'and because of old promises made in the days of the Quest, the Ramen share their lives and work with him. But he is feared for his wildness. Therefore he lives alone. And he abuses the Ramen as if they have outcast him.'

If I were not the best runner and Ranyhyn-tender in the Plains of Ra, you would slay me where I stand without a moments concern for promises.'

Darrkly, Kam muttered, 'We are not so swift to forget promises.'

'He licks the wounds of the Ranyhyn to clean them!'

Lastly, just before the covert is betrayed and TC and Lena run off into the night, we have Lena discovering that Elena is dead, perhaps not for the first time.

...'Elena - my daughter - What has happened to her?'

...'He said she fell!' she cried at him. 'What have you done to her?'

...'Dead,' she echoed emptily. 'Fault.' As Covenant watched her, the light of consciousness in her eyes seemed to falter and go out.

It's done! Sorry that it's so long, but I just kept finding new things. When you're dealing with the fidelity of the Giants, the Ramen, the Ranyhyn, and the Bloodguard, as well as with an ur-vile afflicted madman and a rapist and his victim who is in love with him, nothing is going to be short. Chapter 10 will arrive in a couple of days.

Sum sui generis
Variol son

This chapter has always deeply saddened me. Here are people -- ramen, Haruchai, Giants -- who should be working together against Corruption, and instead are all suspicious of, and arguing with each other...

I know what you mean Duchess. It did me too, it's exactly what Foul wanted to happen. Turn the people of the Land against each other. By this chapter I was becoming upset that NO ONE had yet told Covenant what really happened to the Giants. Foamfollower kept evading his questions, so when Bannor shows up and starts accusing Foamfollower of being a Raver it only confuses Covenant more.

Such heartache in this book...yet...so much triumph as well

No need to apologize for the length, variol son! If we didn't feel so passionately about this incredible story that we couldn't control ourselves, we wouldn't be here. Nice job!!!

This has always been the darkest chapter for me. Bannor's

"Pardon me, Saltheart Foamfollower. I trust you."

late though it comes, helps slightly. But then he gives a powerful little speech, ending with

"But I say to you: beware ur-Lord Covenant! You hold too many dooms in your unwell hands."

*WHEW* That's a powerful thing to hear from an Haruchai!

i know. in a way, im glad that bannor is now free 2 say wot he wants, but still, 2 gain that freedom @ such a price 2 himself and the land.

sum sui generis
vs

I can't even imagine giving over 2,000 years to a life all Vow and then have it end in such despair. Bannor lost his wife, his home, his mortality to this service of the Lords, only to have it crash down on him. Extravagance has an extravagant price. I think the Vow was corrupted the minute Kevin sent the Bloodgaurd into the mountains to save them from the Ritual of Desecreation. It was then, that they were denied the right, if not the privledge, to fulfill that Vow. Bannor was there for that as well. No wonder he distrusts Foamfollower...no wonder he finds it hard not to reproach Covenant. He doesn't even trust himself anymore. My heart went out to Bannor in this chapter...his whole life, a 2,000 year-old Vow!! Gone.

The most poignant part for me was when Bannor said

Spoiler

he had forgotten what it was like to have dreams...

The air was dim, but he could see well enough to discern several Ranyhyn standing against the walls. They were eating scant bundles of grass, and in this closed space the sharp aroma of amanibhavam made his head ring. All of them were injured - some so severely that they could hardly stand. One had lost the side of its face in a fight, another still bled from a fretwork of claw-marks in its flanks, and two others had broken legs which hung limply, with excruciating bone-splinters tearing the skin.

As he stared gauntly at them, they became aware of him. A restless movement passed through them, and their heads came up painfully, turning soft, miserable eyes toward him. For a long moment, they looked at him as if they should have been afraid but were too badly hurt for fear. Then, in agony, even the horses with broken legs tried to rear.

"Stop it. Stop." Covenant hardly knew that he was moaning aloud. His hands flinched in front of his face, trying to ward off an abominable vision. "I can't stand it."

Covenant, too, could not bear to see Foamfollower's hurt. He turned on Bannor and gasped into the Bloodguard's ear, "Give it up! Admit it, you know him. Hellfire! Bannor - you bloody egomaniac! You're so proud - after the Bloodguard failed you can't stand to admit there might be any faithfulness left anywhere. It's you or nothing. But he's a Giant, Bannor!" Bannor did not move, but a muscle quivered along his jaw. "Wasn't Elena enough for you?" Covenant hissed. "Are you trying to make another Kevin out of him?"

For an instant, Bannor's white eyebrows gathered into a stark frown. Then he said flatly, "Pardon me, Saltheart Foamfollower. I trust you."

-----------------

~Foamy~

Heart breaking

THIS is some kinda quote!!!!

“That was my purpose – when I departed Lord’s Keep. But I found I could not forget. I had ridden too many Ranyhyn. At night I saw them – in my dreams they ran like clear skies and cleanliness. Have you not beheld them? Without Vows or defiance of death, they surpassed the faith of the Bloodguard. Therefore I returned.”

I'm not avoiding you variol son, you've done such a great job that you have me immersed in the chapters...

The depth of regret in that one statement, the realization coming to Bannor that even though Kevin Landwaster may have been worthy of the Vow, the people that he had served after that for who knows how many thousands of years may not have been. This comes through in his distrust of Foamfollower:

Some might argue that not even Kevin was worthy of the Vow - he did, as some have said above, order the Bloodguard into the mountains to escape the RoD, thereby putting the first smear on the fidelity of the Vow.

I would also add that the Haruchai seem to be too willing to serve in such an extravagant way. In TWL, Brinn asks (paraphrasing) if another Earthpower enhanced Vow should be sworn in service to TC. I truly believe that if TC had required it, Brinn et al would have bound their lives to him, just as Tuvor et al did to Kevin.

I don't think anyone is worthy of such a vow. And Kevin certainly wasn't. No one is that deserving. The Bloodguard gave up everything for it. It was flawed from the beginning, because of its extravagance. Such things carry way too high of a price. Bannor's whole life was shattered when the Vow was broken. It's a wonder he, too, didn't sink into despair.

Spoiler

Covenant understood this all too well, which is why he refused Brinn when he tried to "vow" service to him. Yet, he accepted their "help", but when they wanted to go, he allowed them to do so. When Brinn decided to fight the Guardian of the One Tree, Covenant didn't stop him. He knew the cost of such service.

I think there's a thread about the Vow's flaws. And one of them must certainly be that nobody could be worthy of such service.

Yikes, people, you've all outdone yourselves. I picked this thread to read not-quite-at-random because I needed a caamora tonight for reasons that have nothing to do with the mythos. I found what I sought.

Don't stop here Durris Get involved in the discussions

Does anyone know why the Ramen were eating kresh meat when they could have been eating bananas?

BANANAS!!! How is possible bananas had survived Foul's winter?

If the bananas were growing in Andelain it seems an awfully long way to go to collect the leaves, return to the Covert, just to use them as plates!

Banas Nimoram

In Chapter 9 of [i]The Power That Preserves[/i] was wrote:The air was dim, but he could see well enough to discern several Ranyhyn standing against the walls. They were eating scant bundles of grass, and in this closed space the sharp aroma of amanibhavam made his head ring. All of them were injured - some so severely that they could hardly stand. One had lost the side of its face in a fight, another still bled from a fretwork of claw-marks in its flanks, and two others had broken legs which hung limply, with excruciating bone-splinters tearing the skin.

As he stared gauntly at them, they became aware of him. A restless movement passed through them, and their heads came up painfully, turning soft, miserable eyes toward him. For a long moment, they looked at him as if they should have been afraid but were too badly hurt for fear. Then, in agony, even the horses with broken legs tried to rear.

"Stop it. Stop." Covenant hardly knew that he was moaning aloud. His hands flinched in front of his face, trying to ward off an abominable vision. "I can't stand it."

Oh yes, so VERY sad to see the Ranyhyn in this condition!

(Credit to Foamfollower1013 for the quote I used in the above post. I flat-out swiped it! )