Power does not Preserve

[Sharguild]

And thats where the song of the Lords get it wrong.
Power is fleeting and more frequently than not can turn against the user. I do nor deny that the concept is tempting and SRD thought along this line when he crafted the song but assuredly. after living in India of all places he would realize that power does not preserve. not the status quo nor the mandates of those in power.
Now, if if it the the power that is meant to be preserved, the concept is even more innapropriate as power cannot be preserved even in a royal lineage, extended yes but not preserved.
So let me give SRD a break and say that the Power that Preserves is undeniably circumspect but alterable to meet requirements. In some instances the Power is the Earthpower that binds all but subject to circumstance (Staff of Law, Illearthstone, Power of Command etc).

So, WHY is Foul able to raise an army of such magnitude of ill-formed creatures? This is beyond the Power that preserves and it takes place in the iLLEARTH wAR prior to the fall of the Staff.

Just askin....

[Vraith]

To fully respond, and make sure I'm not using selective/distorted memory, I'd have to read them again.
Short version thoughtlessly improvised: That isn't what he meant...[or..not all of what he meant...hell, it might not even have been SRD's title, LFB wasn't]
Still...Earthpower [on its own, without use] is good, or at least healthy...yet the Lord's very existence is due to the fact that Earthpower was insufficient to preserve on it's own. The "Power that Preserves" is not that, or the Lords power derived from it, or even a force at all: it is the power of choice, commitment, (dare I say love?)...obviously, there's more than one choice...LF made a choice that is the opposite of Preservation...Covenant's choice is preservative (though imperfect, of course) as is Foamfollower's laughter, and the Lord's [guided by Mhoram] to seek new ways. [In intention, anyway...I'll stop before I hit Last Chron spoiler territory.]

[Blackhawk]

to me the power that preserves was never the ring or the earthpower or the council of lords... i have to go along the line of what Vraith said being the power of choice commitment and yes Love...along with people who gave him the power to go forward, for me the three powers that kept TC living breathing and moving forward were Moram, Banor and most of all Foamfollower with his preservation and cleansing in hotash slay.

[High Lord Tolkien]

I think Sharguild, that you're missing the simplicity of that part of the story.

Lord Mhoram says: "You are the power that preserves"

"You" is Thomas Covenant
"power" is wild magic
"preserves" is the life itself from Foul's destruction.

It was a simple song of praise to TC for saving them all.

[dlbpharmd]

IIRC Mhoram sings "Yours is the power that preserves."

[High Lord Tolkien]

IIRC Mhoram sings "Yours is the power that preserves."

Hey I was close enough.

No, I should know better than to quote something and not have it exact.
Thank you.
But my reasoning stands.

[wayfriend]

IIRC Mhoram sings "Yours is the power that preserves."

Yes. The wild magic. But, as others pointed out, it is but one of the powers that preserve. SRD usually always means many things with his book and chapter titles.

[Unfettered One]

SRD usually always means many things with his book and chapter titles.

Usually always? Interesting word choice.

[spoonchicken]

Everything in any SRD text always seems to have more than one meaning, so here goes......"The Power That Preserves" is A) wild magic. Why? Because wild magic was the only thing potent enough to stop Lord Foul, thereby preserving the Land; i.e.; 'Power that Preserves'.( And I'm willing to bet, that the title "The Power That Preserves" was the editors choice for a title,not SRD's). B) It refers to the enduring spirit of the Lands inhabitants. The choice to fight & die freely for the Land, as opposed to giving up & submitting to Despite. So long as one person (or sentient being) who loves the Land, and refuses to give up hope still lives, then Lord Foul can never be "truly" victorious. Not so long as the last surviving Earthfriend remains True...............that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

[wayfriend]

See also The *Power?* That Preserves (What?).

Disclaimer: no criticism of starting a thread similar to another thread is expressed or implied. Some may find the responses in the other thread informative. You're interest may vary.

[Vraith]

Nah...it's not wild magic. Wild magic could also destroy the world and free LF. It's all in the choices and wielders. Power is nothing without some mind/will to direct it.

[hearthrall antonicus]

THe power that preserves ,in my opinion is the power of committment to the Lands and its beauty

[Guest]

who can define power. realize the power thats us/you it will set you free... from all venues.

[wayfriend]

Nah...it's not wild magic. Wild magic could also destroy the world and free LF. It's all in the choices and wielders. Power is nothing without some mind/will to direct it.

You could say that wild magic is "the power to preserve" as well as "the power to destroy". (Save or damn.) And in the book of that title, Covenant chooses one and not the other. So in that way, it is about both Covenant's choice and the wild magic.

[Zarathustra]

I always thought it was love/hope/caring . . . the opposite of the "power" that destroys.

And preservation doesn't imply eternity. It's that within us which resists the inevitable flow of entropy. All around us, the universe is dying. But we form local pockets of order and life. And for a time, we preserve beauty in the world.

[Fist and Faith]

Laughter saved the day. The power to choose a path away from hate and revenge.

[Rocksister]

Just noticing HLT's newest avatar. Ha, 'bout laughed my tookus off on that one. I think the book titles were not SRD's choices. I read that somewhere.

[Orlion]

I know Lord Foul's Bane was Lester's choice, and he was unable to name the books in the second chronicles to his liking, and then there's AATE... but I don't know about The Power that Preserves...

[wayfriend]

I stumbled across this today, looking for something else. Looks like "The Power That Preserves" was indeed Donaldson's choice.

It's been a long time since I covered this is the GI. I'll try to be brief.

Titles changed at the insistence of my editor:
"Lord Foul's Bane" (formerly "Foul's Ritual")
"The Man Who Killed His Brother" (formerly "City of Day/City of Night")
"Strange Dreams" (formerly "Unforgettable Stories")

Titles changed because my editor insisted on publishing "The Second Chronicles" as a trilogy instead of a tetralogy: all of them (but the only one I can now remember is "Sunbane," which originally formed the first two thirds of "The Wounded Land").

In any case, as I recall, no titles were actually imposed on me (except for "Lord Foul's Bane," as I've said before). My editors simply rejected my titles until I came up with ones they liked.

Since "The Second Chronicles" (and not counting "Strange Dreams"), I've chosen all of my titles without objection from my editors; I came up with the titles long before I wrote the books; and only once have I changed a title after it was "set" in my mind (and still this happened well before I wrote the book). Curiously, the original title for "Forbidden Knowledge" was--drumroll, please--"Strange Dreams." But I couldn't think of a good alternative to "Unforgettable Stories" until I realized that "Strange Dreams" was actually a lousy title for the second GAP book. So I transferred that title to the anthology; and almost immediately "Forbidden Knowledge" suggested itself.

I don't foresee any problems with the titles in "The Last Chronicles." And I'm certainly not going to change the general shape or purpose of the story at this late date. Many details, however, are still being negotiated by my conscious and unconscious minds.

(07/25/2005)

BTW, this predates his changing "Should Pass Utterly" to "Against All Things Ending", which happened in 2007, due to editor objection I believe.