Summoned. Lots and lots of summoning in this chapter. More broadly, summoned to oppose the onset of ‘the last dark’, to oppose the Worm, to oppose ‘all things ending’. The heroes and their companions are summoned to oppose in battle. Skurj, Sandgorgons, feroce, the lurker, and even Fire Lions are all being summoned. The summoning of more Giants (yes, too many) courtesy of Brinn, of Earthpower by Linden, of wild magic by TC. The summoning power of the Seven Words. Even Linden summons up more parenting skills to deal with Jerry’s mood swings. And of course the overarching theme of the need to continually summon the courage to oppose one’s own inner darkness and the temptation to despair when things look most bleak, and instead make the effort, do something positive, ”something they don’t expect”. Finally, I myself have summoned my own daring to do something unexpected, to oppose my fears and take on this my very first chapter dissection.
Okay, so the Elohim (along with Kasty) are tucked away in Legoland or wherever. New Forestall Caerwood urMarthir has woven his Garden of Forbidding, which Linden and TC turned into their own Garden of Eden. The stars have stopped disappearing, Kevin’s Dirt is lifted, the company is translating its way toward Mt. Thunder, and Jerry has been stepping on all the wrong sorts of grass.
TC knows they can’t stop the Worm, but they definitely can’t let Lord Foul get loose, especially with Jerry, since he'll use Jerry’s abilities to imprison the Creator. I’m not sure what the Creator’s role in all this has been along the way, but somehow imprisoning him doesn’t sound like a good option if you want the happily-ever-after ending. So, TC has to get to Mt. Thunder for yet another showdown with the Despiser. [Query: were the Ranynyn leading him there all along, or was it always TC’s intent?] Jerry’s best impression of Linda Blair impersonating Lord Foul gets him a special “gift” for his troubles, the ability to see and feel the Worm, and so experience utter despair (you’d think he could at least levitate or something, too)….
… And so now ….
Another race through the interstices between instants and leagues…
… and the company is translated just below Landsdrop, amidst the onset of some preternaturally bad weather (the Worm's passing). Jerry's in a mood again, pissed at the world, and feeling all useless ‘cuz he's got no purpose now that his Elohim hiding place is finished. And mommy’s coddling ("is it that bad, honey?”), isn’t really helping. I like Jerry. He’s been through a lot. And he likes matchbox cars and tinker toys, which is cool. Up until the fane, I really wasn't sure I trusted him. I kept waiting for some literary trap to spring on us, but it never did. And now that I do trust him, he's really annoying the crap out of me! "I don't mean anything"! You just saved the #%&’ing Elohim, for crying out loud! They’re as close to demi-Gods as you get in the Land, and still they needed YOU! People are dying for YOU all over the place! Your mother brought a dead guy back to life because YOU were lost. She gave away her favorite toys to some jerk of an Insequent to find YOU. She even went time traveling twice on YOUR account! (well, that one sounds like fun, actually). And on top of all that, we find out in Chapter One how much TC-Timewarden cared enough to talk to YOU about just how much you mean to your mother. Seriously, Jerry needs a good paddling. But, I guess you can’t get away with that in this day and age of the Land. I’m all for positive reinforcement, but didn't Anele say, “without forbidding there’s too little time”? Jerry needs some good old fashioned forbidding, imho, if only because “there’s too little time” for his crap! Kids!! Hey, maybe that’s what Anele meant all along!
Another translation, and we are at Gravin Threndor, below Landsdrop, at a ravine at the edge of Defiles Course. TC thinks LF won’t expect them to use the back entrance to the mountain, since in prior visits they have always come through the front door, from the west above Landsdrop. So, this is a clear tactical advantage, right? Wrong. Foul’s minions are on them right off. But, by battle’s end, it actually was the better choice anyway, since they end up getting aid from the lurker, the sailor-giants, and eventually the famous Fire Lions.
Spoiler
Their goal: To enter that gaping wound while trying to avoid all that putrid excrement. Nice visual. The horses depart, and TC decides he needs the lurker/feroce, so he starts a séance. To me, TC is really stretching the lurker's end of the bargain, but after all, he did exorcise a raver, and you must get bonus credits for that in the video game version of our story.
Jerry keeps slipping into despair with his visions, "why bother, we’re all going to die" … blah, blah, blah. Just when I really want to pop him one, Coldspray shows us how to be gentle and wise:
All paths lead to death...nevertheless we must strive. How otherwise will we hold up our heads at the end of our days.
Love that. While any teenager would be rolling their eyes, still that's the theme of the Chronicles for me. The trying matters, the little victories matter, they lead us onward, give us hope. And after all, Jerry will be needed. But I still say a good thwacking is in order!
And now Linden steps in with some “nuvo-Parenting 101”. Instead of laying down the Staff of Law-of-the-land on Jerry’s backside, she just decides to hand it right over to him (yikes!). The Staff is loaded up with mega-lore now from being refashioned and etched with special runes and all. Earthpower on Earthpower can’t be a bad thing, can it? Even if the wielder is a whiner? Then Linden lays on Jerry some more positive reinforcement,
There’s always something we can do, even if it's just changing the way we look at what’s happening, or the way we look at ourselves.
Again, good stuff there, even if it’s wasted on a grumpy kid. We learn from positions of weakness, not strength. Let go of that guilt, and learn from it. Do as I say, not as I do….right Linden?
But suddenly, Linden is summoned out of her Jerry moment. Skurj are on the attack! “Erupting” from underground across the river. Linden takes the staff back (thank goodness), but it needs a jump start (did Jerry do something to it?), so she uses those famous Seven Words you can’t say on TV (‘cuz if you did they’d commit you). Now, I counted about eight times the Words are used in this chapter, so I think this merits some further attention. I once looked into their meaning (might have been an old Watch dissection), and put it aside for a rainy day. Well, a storm is coming, and it’s rainin’ skurj, so here goes. Feel free to correct any mistranslations:
1. melenkurion – bastion, source
2. abatha – need for endurance
3. duroc – reference to earthpower as a form of theurgy
4. minas – earthpower as a foundation
5. mill – invocation
6. harad – stricture against selfishness, tyranny, malice or other forms of despair. Binds speaker to make no use of earthpower that does not serve/preserve the overriding purpose of creation.
7. khabal – an affirmation or incarnation of sworn oath to the land.
So, putting this all together, “Melenkurian abatha. Duroc minas mill. Harad khabal”, might mean something like: “Source of all endurance (creator?), I invoke all elements of earth power both pure and magical. I swear to use this power for good, unselfishly, and in a manner that will always serve creation”. This invocation (silent or spoken) is usually matched with some great emotional charge or purpose, along with the help of some tool to channel the power. A binding effect is created between the person doing the invoking and the power invoked. [More on this later.]
And so Linden calls on the Words, along with her super-charged staff and her super-charged instincts to preserve and heal, and all her pent up frustrations, and throws it all into black streaks of earthpower (black because of her past sins?) ... and down go skurj …. down go skurj !
Linden uses the Seven Words once again to cut away the dense fog, only to see Sandgorgons coming! "Albino lightening"! Capable of "pulvarizing granite with the prehensile stumps of their forearms!" (Prehenisile: adapted for grasping, like a monkey’s tail or something). I picture these things as giant-sized-stretch-armstrong-like-oscar-trophy’s in motion? Or was that Vain?
Linden can do nothing about the ‘gorgons, and they’re picking on TC anyway, and since he’s ignoring her struggles, well then he can just fend for himself. Anyway, she knows Jerry is safe from Sandgorgons 'cuz they have cognitive abilities LF can manipulate, and LF wants Jerry alive. So, quite naturally, she turns her attention to… skurj fangs. And, quite shockingly, Coldspray “had not considered such a ploy” (I mean really, Coldspray? What are we paying you ladies for, anyway?). And thank goodness, Linden remembers the Prophesy, that her fate is “written in water”, and that's handy, since she has an entire river right there in front of her. So, she goes slashing and bashing at skurj face and saying more Words, and skurj start plopping into the river (they hate water it seems), where Linden can then sear away any remaining poisonous ooze secretions before they finally die. After all, she’s a doctor, isn’t she?
Meanwhile, TC, who has been busy all this time summoning his giant octopus monster thingy and its little green lanterns, finally hits pay dirt. Those ferocious Feroce arrive on the scene, just in time to wield that awesome power of theirs to… (wait for it)… to cause …(wait for it) … remembering! That’s right, remembering. Hey, that’s big for them. And anyway, it works! The 'gorgons recall their “capacity” for fear, all their Nom guilt, which causes them to hesitate... but good ole’ Branl … he doesn't hesitate. Even though Hurachai remember everything, apparently it causes no hesitation when it comes to killing. Great plan by the Feroce, job well done all around. We can go home now, right? Wrong. TC wants more. He still insists the lurker hasn’t met all the terms of their unilateral contract, so he puts him back on the summoning speed dial.
And now Linden decides that, well, she actually is afraid for Jerry after all (since the skurj are winning and they don’t think, they just kill), and so …yep…the Seven Words. But, for some reason, and at a time like this mind you, the skurj decide to take a lunch break … and start feeding on their dead selves, which causes them to begin to replicate!
Okay, so let’s check that recipe again, since it does seem to make the skurj lick their chops. First you fry their heads in hot flames of obsidian Earthpower, next you sear them nice and crispy, let them cool in some defiled water, and finally add garnish and serve sushi style to unlimited numbers. Bam!
(btw, did I miss something or is this the first time we see this eating and replicating business with skurj? I’m not big on new inventions this late in the game, and this one seems kinda thrown in there by SRD imho, but so be it).
So, they’re cooked (Linden and company, not the skurj), since the only way to stop the feasting and replicating is to stop the killing (of the skurj, not the company), but if they DON’T kill, they’ll get eaten (the company, not the skurj), and we don’t want that, and yet if they DO kill, they’ll just feast and replicate (the skurj, not the company). A true conundrum. Needless to say, the situation is dire, and Linden needs more power and more time to maintain warp drive. The Giants are frantically making saves everywhere, but then Latebirth dies a horrible death in the jaws of a skurj. All hell breaks loose, with more and more skurj coming. The company is desperate. They can’t hold the onslaught off any longer, and they can’t run. And so Linden readies within herself to yell those saving words yet again.…you know them.....er….no….just one word this time….“Thomas”!
Okay that threw me a bit, I must say, but her summons works. Of course it does, TC is like Underdog in her hands. And so he drops everything …grabs his ring…aims it at the ‘gorgons…and while we all take a short sharp collective breath, TC orders them to…wait for it….to….. depart! That’s right, “depart”! Uh, that doesn’t work, no. Nice try, but that was for Nom a few thousand years ago. Times have changed since then, Timewarden, where have you been?
And so the ‘gorgons get all offended, and they start acting out by pounding the ground with their stumps, ‘cuz that’s just what pissed off cognitive Sandgorgons do. Enter the lurker, in person this time (apparently after having consulted its lawyer, and finding the contract iron clad), and it starts throwing its tentacles all around, drowning and scattering ‘gorgons. But it’s getting hurt too, so TC grabs the krill with his ring hand and “remembers the Seven Words” (or is he just copy-catting Linden). Interestingly, it has no effect, since the Words “bespoke Earthpower and law”, and “his force was of another kind all together”. Okay, not sure what happened there, but let’s read on.
Some big names are now dead or down, Latebirth, Cabledarm, Stormpast, all of them Giants. And since SRD has to always be juggling a circus load of characters at one time, we obviously need more Giants, right? Yep. So we get the Brinn-boon! Hooray, I guess. These are the sailor men folk who stayed back at the ship, while all the women folk went out fighting battles. But, these guys come bearing billhooks, belaying pins and studded knouts, so I’d say they’re ready for action. And while the story’s getting a little (okay a lot) congested (usually meaning nobody’s safe), at least these are GIANTS, in all sooth. “For ease of use in peril, I am called Hurl.” I mean you gotta love more of that.
And while TC’s wild magic is ripping Sandgorgons apart, and Linden and the Giants are burning and hacking wild skurj, it doesn’t put a dent in things. More just keep coming and replicating. And now they’ve pulled the old switcheroo, and it’s ‘gorgons vs. Linden, and skurj vs. TC … and that’s finally the last straw for TC:
What good was leprosy if he could not trust its implications? If it did not enable him to bear what he required of himself”? Like Berek Halfhand before him, he needed blood and desperation to accomplish what even wild magic could not.
I think for what comes next, it’s helpful to go back and look at some parallels between LFB and TLD. Recall LFB’s backstory of the Legend of Berek Halfhand. In the ancient war of the King and Queen, Berek, as the Queen’s lone remaining hero, fought the King, who was possessed by an evil "shadow" (LF?), and the King cut Berek's hand to give him his name "Halfhand". Then Berek came at last to the slopes of Mt. Thunder, and he cried pity for the earth…and the stones “answered” that they were alive as much as he was, that he had Friends in the earth itself if he would "pledge his soul to its healing”. And then...
LFB (Berek backstory):
[Berek] "took the pledge, sealing it with the blood of his riven hand” [and the Earth] “replied with thunder; from the heights of the mountain came great stone Fire Lions, devouring everything in their path" [and Berek then] "made the Staff of Law from the wood of the One Tree, and with it began the healing of the Land.”
And then…
LFB (Covenant’s time), again at Mt. Thunder:
“Prothall strives to call the Fire-Lions. He cannot succeed- the power of the staff is closed, and we have not the knowledge to unlock it. But white gold can release that power. It can be done!” Covenant recoiled as if Morham had betrayed him. No! He panted. I made a bargain-!”
…and…
"Morham's mercy affected him more than any argument or demand" [and so, he placed his hand on the Staff of Law, and] “power seemed to explode in Covenant's chest. A silent concussion, a shock beyond hearing, struck the ravine" [and] "Great yellow fires began to burn on the shrouded peak...the flames erupted....fires started charging like great, hungry beasts down every face and side of the mountain".
And so TCs summoner, Drool Rockworm is destroyed in the nick of time, and TC is transported back to his own world.
And now…In TLD:
TC cuts his hand with the krill, smears the gem with blood, and shouts the Seven Words in his mind, “a prayer that meant, Please”… And the prayer is answered:
“Power without shape or sound exploded in him” in a "detonation both silent and invisible…Theurgy as old as the world seemed to ripple across the fabric of reality”.
“Dimly in the distance, he thought he saw yellow fires break through the clouds …discrete flames surge lower like the onset of an avalanche. They roared as if the very air had become conflagration.”
“You are answered ur-Lord,” Branl announced distinctly. “…the summons is both valiant and unforeseen. I am proud and Humbled in your name”.
First of all, I really love that last line from Branl…”proud and Humbled”, juxtaposed like that. Proud to be TC’s friend and companion, proud of the trust they have for each other, Humbled (capital ‘H’) because he is marked in the manner of TC, but also humbled (small ‘h’) by the sight, to be a witness to such a moment, to be deemed worthy to be a part of it all. The Haruchai are a frustratingly stoic people, but if they weren’t, lines like this might just pass us by.
Okay…The Fire Lions! Perfect bookends to the series. I picture these creatures as something like the water horses invoked by Elrond’s elven magic at the Ford of Rivendell. It would make a very cool scene in the TC movie.
So what exactly is required to summon these Fire Lions? The ring, the blood, the Words, the staff, the krill, a combination? In LFB, Attiaran had told TC that white gold is not found in the Land, and that legend has it that its properties could release the wild magic hidden in the earth. Is that what the Fire Lions are, hidden magic in the earth? I would say yes. They are fires of theurgy, and fire is an element of the earth. In fact, aren’t all four elements being activated here, earth (cataclysms), wind (storm clouds, thunderheads), fire (the Lions) and water (the river’s rising and the rain). These are properties that only wild magic can invoke. But then how did Berek do it? What’s the blood all about? Blood sacrifice or something? Morham tells TC that white gold can unlock the power of the Staff, and so there’s some merging of law and wild magic going on here.
Formula for what doesn’t seem to summon Fire Lions:
LFB: Prothall’s “locked” Staff + Words DOES NOT = Fire Lions
TLD: Krill(tool of Earthpower) + white gold(wild magic) + Words(Oath) DOES NOT = FLs
Formula for what does invoke Fire Lions:
LFB: Berek’s Pledge (Oath/Words) + Blood (sacrifice?) = FLs
LFB: TC gripping “unlocked” Staff + white gold + Blood (head bleeding?) = FLs
TLD: Blood rubbed on krill’s gem + white gold (“you are the white gold”) + Words = FLs
I guess since TC doesn’t have a claim on the Staff anymore, we substitute in the krill and we’ve got ourselves an “unlocked” tool of Earthpower. But it does seem the summoner must be willing to shed his blood for the Land. That’s all part of the Oath, I guess. But it’s not just the Words, it’s what you mean when you say them, your commitment to the Land, a willingness to sacrifice the self for the good of others, and a desire to use all forms of available power (both pure -the krill, and magical –a white gold ring) to serve the Land. And the common denominator is “Blood”. Berek didn’t have wild magic at his disposal, but his emotions were true, as was his sacrifice and Oath. Prothall lacked the passion and the blood. TC has the white gold, to unlock all the hidden powers in the earth (perhaps they used to be less hidden in Berek’s time?), but he still needed the sacrificial commitment to its good, and the Land itself, alive as it is, recognized and responded to it.
So, the Fire Lions rage downward, the skurj and ‘gorgons are dispossessed of their Ravers, Defiles Course rises in a tidal flood, the company is forced into tactical retreat up the mountain, and “the result was cataclysm”:
It shook the foundations of the Lower Land for leagues in every direction. Struck by acrid eruptions of storm and fury, the thunderheads became a bludgeoning deluge that seemed to erase the valley from existence. Rain fell like the ultimate darkness.
Calm comes at last, the company is mostly spared, and the skurj and Sandgorgons are all dead and gone, but still, “Thomas Covenant felt no relief”.