Trell and Covenant

[Black Asgard]

Hello, folk.

One of the things I do as a writer is to try and work analogous characters in to represent 'the other path'. Sometimes these can serve as an inspiration or an example, vindicating or punishing the main characters.

So as I was discussing the first chronicles with a friend of mine the other night, talking about Trell and how bad he had it, I began to wonder if Trell wasn't an intentional analog of Covenant.

Think on this:

In LFB we learn that Joan has just left Covenant, taking his son Roger away from him. To Covenant, the loss of his wife and child is Agonizing.

Enter (in)famous Stonedownor family. Trell, his wife, and daughter, form a similar unit to the Covenant family.

In LFB, Trell's family is quickly split by the rape of Lena and the departure of Atarian to take Covenant to Revelstone.

In raping her, Covenant forced Lena out of childhood and into a premature womanhood that broke her. Very much so, Trell has 'lost' his daughter the child, though not in a physical sense. His wife becomes obsessed with her deep anger and perhaps hatred for Covenant.

--

In TIW, Lena is entirely absent; Atarian is dead, because of her obsessive hatred. Trell is a man alone, and he ends up in a place he can't stand: Revelstone. He is lost, and alone with himself, very much the way Covenant is in the Leporsarium pre-LFB.

He also takes to wandering--in Covenant's case, the forests around and behind Haven Farm. In Trell's case, the halls of Revelstone.

Both have a power that I think they do not entirely understand. Trell is a Rahamaerel, yes, but like everyone in the Land at the first entrance of Covenant (and usually), they are only a shadowed wisp of former glory. Trell is strong, but he is also greatly diminished in his power because he doesn't understand the depths of his own strength, or where it truly draws from. Covenant, on the other hand, has his white gold ring, which he makes use of, but does not truly understand.

Both come to a stronger grasp of their power by the TPTP.

Of course, an analog is not a mirror. At some point, the two must be dissimilar. And they do differ, eventually.

They differ when Covenant, instead of despairing, marches off to Hotash Slay and Foul's Creche. Yet back in Revelstone, during the darkest day of the new Lords, Trell does give into his own rage and hatred, and despairs. He enacts the Ritual of Desecration and almost blows the entire plateau into a nuclear rubble.

So, with all of that, I'm convinced that Trell Atarian-mate might have been intended as more than just a bit-character, but actually an analog of Thomas Covenant .

[Vraith]

Interesting things in there...and Trell is certainly a "warning" related to what TC could become. I consider him more of an analog, keeping to your idea, of Kevin, and the whole process of corruption/desecration [not opposing, but inclusive of the things you pointed out]

I would quibble about the statement that Trell can't stand Revelstone: my reading of this situation is that he can't help loving it; it's the only place that could console him, yet he cannot live up to it/overcome the break in himself between the personal and what Revelstone stands for [the lords, the lore, the Land]. If he hadn't met TC face to face again [reinforcing/feeding the personal], he might have healed [or at least maintained stability].

Though I don't think that detracts from what you've said.

[SGuilfoyle1966]

So, with all of that, I'm convinced that Trell Atarian-mate might have been intended as more than just a bit-character, but actually an analog of Thomas Covenant .

I think the term you are looking for is "foil."
He is a foil for Covenant.
Like Laertes to Hamlet. That kind of thing. Never thought of it that way. And I think it is spot-on, because you can be a foil by both contrasting and comparitive elements.

So I would say you point is a hit. A very palpable hit.

[Thorhammerhand]

IMHO, the only reason that Trell can't stand Revelstone is TC's presence. Notice the particular wording that Elena uses after Trell attacked TC IeW, the healers will sit with him and convince him that the oath can be kept once broken. Not ... have been sitting with him, restoring his self worth.

TPTP, He only enacts the ROD after the first gate has been compromised, when, in his eyes the battle has been lost. (Indecently, this is the point that HL Mohram discovers the hindrance that the oath of peace has been to the Lords development)

[Krazy Kat]

So, with all of that, I'm convinced that Trell Atarian-mate might have been intended as more than just a bit-character, but actually an analog of Thomas Covenant .

I'm sure Trell is much more than a bit-character and his relationship with Covenant runs deep.
I'm reminded of a passage in the chapter, Lomillialor:

In the background of his haze, he (Covenant) thought he saw the kind yellow light of graveling. That pleased him; he could rest better if the grey fog did not dominate everything.

Could there be a connection here between wild magic and the graveling which Trell found to unlock the power of the ROD.
Kind yellow light opposed by a grey fog?

Makes me wonder how High Lord Kevin was able to perform the Ritual of Desicration if white gold didn't exist in the Land.
But then there is wild magic graven in every rock...etc!

[SGuilfoyle1966]

What makes you think white gold is necessary to enact a ritual of desecration.
It's quite clear in the first trilogy -- anybody of power can do it. The scale of their personal power kind of determines the scale of the damage. Kevin was described as the most puissant of the Old Lords, so when he struck down that which he loved, he struck it all down.
Trell could have taken out Revelstone if not opposed by Mhoram and his greater strength.
White gold is only necessary to destroy the arch of time. That's what the second chronicles make clear.

[Black Asgard]

For my purposes, I was only using the word my professor was using; analog. Defined as analogous, "Similar or equivalent in some respects though otherwise dissimilar".

However, you are right, SGuilfoyle, "foil" is a better word for what I was getting at.

[Krazy Kat]

What makes you think white gold is necessary to enact a ritual of desecration.
It's quite clear in the first trilogy -- anybody of power can do it. The scale of their personal power kind of determines the scale of the damage. Kevin was described as the most puissant of the Old Lords, so when he struck down that which he loved, he struck it all down.
Trell could have taken out Revelstone if not opposed by Mhoram and his greater strength.
White gold is only necessary to destroy the arch of time. That's what the second chronicles make clear.

You're right about the people of the Land not needing white gold to enact desicration. It was poor wording on my part.

I was thinking along the lines of how Trell (and HL Kevin) tapped into the wild magic. I suspect Trell was consumed by hate, a central concept in TPTP. Through hate he was able to use his rhadhamearl lore and the graveling pit to unleash uncontrolled wild magic.

BTW. If we disregard the Last Chronicles, how on earth did the Lord's know about white gold. ... more questions than answers.

[Kalkin]

I suspect that the Ritual had nothing at all to do with wild magic. Only the white gold could release that. The energies released by Trell and Kevin were extremely powerful and choatic, but that does not, in itself, make it wild magic. If it were, Foul wouldn't need Covenant. He'd just work on Mhoram, or really anyone of power and get them to the position where their despair leads to the kind of destruction, a sort of murder-suicide, that Kevin unleased. For that matter, Kevin's Ritual would have done the job.

It is the ability to hold peace, and deny the powers that lead to the Ritual of Desecration that made Mhoram, and to a lesser extent his fellow modern Lords, far better servants of the Land than Kevin or the other old Lords.

[Vraith]

Yea, Desecration doesn't require wild magic [if it did, the arch could be destroyed by powers in the Land...or at least in the world].

For the rest, certainly Mhoram was better equipped than Kevin [didn't give in]...not sure about better than all the old lords, since they also resisted at least one serious temptation [actually, even Kevin did]...the Power of Command.

I'm also very, very uncertain about the choice of Mhoram and the new lords to turn away utterly from the old Lore: Yes, true mastery required passion, passion can lead to despair...but it is hard to imagine a committed [yet passionless and potent] pursuit of service to the Land. [I can imagine such commitment to lots of other things, but the Land is different in quality and quantity, as are the forces opposed to it].

[Kalkin]

Mhoram didn't say power with no passion, as love is certainly a passion. he said they would devote themselves to no power that precludes Peace. They would find their own way, hopefully a better one.

As for the Power of Command, I kinda exclude her from any list of Lords. She was half alien to the Land, and she was under a cumpulsion from the Ranyhyn, so it's really hard to put her in any list.