Tender Loving Care--What the Bloodguard Learned From Kevin

[Shuram Gudatetris]

About the second chapter of The Blood of the Earth, Part III of the Illearth War, a line stuck out at me (paraphrased): ...and he accepted a thick half-robe from Bannor [to protect him from the cold].

I guess I never picked up on the Bloodguard packing supplies to carry with them. But they do, and they pack with only one consideration: caring for those in their protection.

And then I remembered from earlier in the book that the Bloodguard spoon-fed Hyrim broth when he was sick. Suddenly, I was struck at how motherly the Bloodguard actually are. I say motherly, because I never had much of a father figure...no offense or sexism intended--I would say "parently" but that doesn't have the same impact or literacy as "motherly". I always pictured the Bloodguard as these warrior-type people, who only offered their physical strength as service to the Lords. But now I see them as something totally different.

I have visions of Bannor packing gear for a mission:

Hmmm, lets see....Well, white is Tom's favorite color, so I will take this robe along. Oh! It might get cold, so I will pack this heavy robe as well.....I better pack some bullion, too, just in case he gets to feeling a little punky, that way I can make him some nice warm soup. I can't forget to pack a pair of sandals, just in case he needs an extra pair of footwear. Some aloe vera in case he gets a sunburn, etc....

All this lead me to thinking about what they were like before Kevin's downfall. Maybe when they re-evaluated their Vow, they realized that they needed to care--love, nourish, provide--for their charges on many more levels than protection from physical threats. They needed to be thorough care-givers. Maybe Kevin only needed a shoulder to cry on, and a nice hot toddy and a warm blanket.

[shadowbinding shoe]

When Kevin took them into his service they were the younglings and he the all mighty hundreds years old Lord who took care of them but when the new Lords appeared they were the inexperienced younglings in need of comfort and protection.

[Vraith]

It's a good catch.
And Shoe's comment only enhances it...

a good and AFAIK previously unmentioned [GRATZ on that] conundrum/problem with the nature of the Har.
they're almost as blatantly paradoxical as TC.
[many are paradoxical...but they are smack-you-in-the-face-paradoxical]

They're just as comfortable [for instance] letting folk...even, maybe especially their own...die, even when the person is great, needed, AND the cost is great AND the saving simple.

They are young-ish [hale and hearty, anyway] when meeting Kevin.
In a personal/bodily sense...yet they ALSO know, directly far more of history then even long-lived Kevin could. They remember things that happened long before ANY Lord existed.

[peter]

It's a good post but I think the whole Bloodguard ethos is best sumed up by a comment of Bannor's to TC (IIRC) when questioned about something or other:-

"We suffice."

[High Lord Tolkien]

I fail to see any "change". They care for the lords, always have. if a lord is cold they get him/her warm. Need food they fed them. Not sure where the special "tenderness" is coming from. They're not robots.

[Holsety]

You make an interesting point! Whether they are "motherly" is a difficult question for me - or rather, whether the kind of emotion you ascribed (a sort of sweet fretting ) is how the bloodguards would feel.

I would say that while I don't think I've ever packed a meal for a child, I've done a fair amount of work for others as well as for myself, and I think it's fair to say that whether or not my perception is adequate, my basic focus is to try and meet the needs of the objectives I think they might have and to assist the capacities they may not have.

Obviously I'm not a mommy, but my point is that simply because the bloodguard wish to meet needs, that doesn't mean simply the emotional or most superficial or immediate needs of the lords are what motivate them.

And it's worth noting that the lords have a people as well as a "guard." I always got the feeling that in everyday communication, the lords were closer to the people of Revelstone than to the bloodguard, who don't really wield earthpower, study earthpower or (I think) put forth issues of policy...they watch for decay.
I think Kevin's example probably taught them that decay or corruption - whatever precisely that means - can reach many.

Yet it's possible that is the case. One thing I'd be interested in knowing, I suppose, is more regarding the way in which their vow and telepathic communication (they do have such a thing, right?) causes them to attempt to cultivate a shared sense of purpose and attitude - whether maternal, paternal, patronizing or whatever.

I think that the bloodguard, as, umm, sorta, militant and guardlike types, have a slightly different approach than a mother would. That is, I think that mothers probably have a fair amount of their care centered on the well-being of the child, their other children, their family, etc, and also do care about whether their child will love them or not - or something along those lines.

With the bloodguard, I think it's a bit different. They DO believe that they need to restrain the lords from corruption, but I think they have a more clear eye towards a critical "mass/domino effect" - that when a lord turns or falls into repeated, grave error, it is not merely a personal tragedy but a loss for all of the land, given expectations for the lords (i.e., most lords stack up in the basic sense, though I think Covenant is very conscious of those two poor old birds who die in the middle of battle).

And I think they are very ready for the need to slay, given Kevin's failure. When one of the lords - Verement, IIRC - stands against a giant-raver, the bloodguard with him gives up his life to kill him before he's corrupted through torment. I don't think a mother often has quite that attitude towards their child, in part because (I assume) a mom is not often given to such violence.

Considering their not too often shown, but seemingly clear readiness to move (in at least a basic sense) against that which they guard in attempting to preserve it - in part because of their long life-spans and completely consolidated way of living - I think they probably have a sort of disenchanted approach mothers or other caretakers often do not (well I know some mothers may actually be rather disenchanted, but I get the feeling the bloodguard may be a bit more clinical). I believe that this disenchantment and feeling of separation is created because of the relative potence of the lords. It is harder to forgive or trust a person, or "type" of person, perhaps, when to forgive or trust them is to take a great risk.

I think this is given to them by their stoic, detached approach, and by the properties of the vow, and kevin's oath, as I believe has been said...

When Kevin took them into his service they were the younglings and he the all mighty hundreds years old Lord who took care of them but when the new Lords appeared they were the inexperienced younglings in need of comfort and protection.

Even though I think this may be a proper appraisal, I'm not entirely sure that the bloodguard saw it that way. I'd have to look in the text again (and even then, they may have a different attitude than that which they express ofc), but I think their primary motivation in being "taken in" was based on the sort of essential conflicting desire between dominating the land and serving it (perhaps they felt their mastery would allow service).

[shadowbinding shoe]

I've wondered, when did Donaldson came up with the group mental telepathy for his haruchai? It's only explicitely explained in the 3rd chrons. Was it there in the background for the start or is it a later addition?

[peter]

I think the care of the Bloodguard can be seen as akin to the 'logistics' section of any army naffi/mess unit - and carried out with the same regard but detatchment from those who they serve. As above, they are there to meet the needs, and at times judge how those needs might best be met both individually and collectively on both sides even in the face of the dissaproval of those whom they serve. The Bloodguard elect to serve for thier own private and impenetrable reasons - but they are mastered by none and certainly not subject to any weakness of excess sentimentality (not I hasten to add that the mothering instinct can be bracketed with this)

[Orlion]

I've wondered, when did Donaldson came up with the group mental telepathy for his haruchai? It's only explicitely explained in the 3rd chrons. Was it there in the background for the start or is it a later addition?

It is definitely in the Gilden-Fire out take.

[Holsety]

I think the care of the Bloodguard can be seen as akin to the 'logistics' section of any army naffi/mess unit - and carried out with the same regard but detatchment from those who they serve. As above, they are there to meet the needs, and at times judge how those needs might best be met both individually and collectively on both sides even in the face of the dissaproval of those whom they serve. The Bloodguard elect to serve for thier own private and impenetrable reasons - but they are mastered by none and certainly not subject to any weakness of excess sentimentality (not I hasten to add that the mothering instinct can be bracketed with this)

See the illearth stone: I do not believe that the corrupted bloodguard can really be said to have mastered the stone, unless the "corruption" of the earth the stone represents is an earthpower that in some way appeals to them in the same way that the Land does.

As for the weakness of excess sentimentality, I think that it is likely that the vow itself is a sort of remnant of sentimentality or feeling, but the "point" is that the bloodguard don't easily see their feelings modifying to suit their times.

I believe that Covenant's argument with (IIRC) Bannor was essentially a way of proving that the bloodguard vow had modified with time, and bent to their sentiments (such as their distrust of Kevin), but it seems as though Bannor's and the bloodguard's sense of distance was probably warranted given what Elena did with Kevin.

However, considering we've never seen a bloodguard raver (?) which seems like a form the ravers might have liked to take if they could, and the stone seemed capable of mastering nearly anything, I more or less lean towards the rather absolute claims you have made.

[peter]

Gosh yes - I had forgotten the Illeath-stone. Still my comment re their not being 'mastered' was not so much as to say that they themselves mastered all-comers as to say that their service was rendered not because they percieved those who they served as being superior to them in any way (ie their 'masters' ala the servants of the aristocracy in Britain in the past) but more because they percieved the purity of service in the cause of dissapointing Corruption in the attainment of it's aims. This purity of unfailing service was why they met all needs of those they served and why of course Kevins saving of them caused them to doubt their Vow. They failed him and the purity was gone. The inflexible Haruchai world view did not allow for this.