There's a darkness
Living deep in my soul
I still got a purpose to serve
So let your light shine
Deep into my home
God, don't let me lose my nerve!
-- Erik Francis Schrody (Everlast)
Roger Covenant is presented almost entirely as a one-dimensional adversary in the Final Chronicles. However, we would be remiss if we didn't pay some attention to those small parts of the story that suggest that Roger might be more than an inimical agent. Indeed, if you are inclined to believe that the integrity of the series demands that Roger has a significant story arc, then a careful analysis of these details is obligatory.
Consider that Roger Covenant confronts his father in the last chapter of the last book in the last series of Chronicles. This is the chapter where Covenant and Lord Foul discover the final answer to evil. This is "it". And here is where Donaldson chose to have Thomas Covenant confront his son. This can't be an accident or an afterthought; Donaldson had been staging this final scene for decades, and he's been steering events through four large books to reach this point. This is the culmination, the plan come together, the apotheosis. So there must be a significance to Roger's presence in this scene. He simply would not be here otherwise.
It's quite possible to see Roger's inclusion as merely a mechanical element to facilitate the final showdown. To see Roger ending his part in the story as nothing more than a body shield for Lord Foul. A new twist on the showdown de rigueur.
I have come to believe that Roger has to be more significant than that. Perhaps the clues are tenuous; perhaps you may think I am grasping at straws. Nevertheless, I believe I am nearer to a better theory from my efforts at literary archeology. And I believe that there's value in discussing the topic whether or not I am right.
But fair warning. This analysis touches on The Ending. I am hoping that anyone needing to vent frustration at The Ending has done so, and if they haven't, they would be so kind as to vent in the many, many other threads dedicated to this venting. Because I would like to consider what Donaldson wrote in The Ending, what he might have been trying to say - irrespective of whether or not he said it well, and separately from whether or not it was enjoyable. I feel I owe Donaldson that much.
So:
If Donaldson saved Roger for The Ending, then we should conclude that, in some way, Roger plays a key role in Thomas Covenant's final advancements towards personal integration. Covenant's ultimate answer to Lord Foul is tied in some way to his answer to Roger Covenant.
Roger matters.
We know that Joan's parenting has left Roger to grow up into a loathesome man. Rather than recount various selections from the text, it is expeditious to consider the author's own summary of Roger's development.
We can accept as given, then, that Roger is "ruled by fear". Does this explain why Roger would ally with Lord Foul and seek to cause his father's ruin? According to Donaldson: yes. He provides this explanation:In the Gradual Interview, Stephen R Donaldson wrote:But you might try thinking of Roger as his father's doppleganger. Roger has inherited his mother's legacy of fear (and self-abhorrence) rather than his father's (learned) legacy of courage. In that, Roger is rather like Linden--without the benefit of Covenant's intervention; without spending crucial time in the company of characters who are motivated by love rather than by fear. You could say that he just doesn't know any better. Fear, I think, is a natural and inevitable part of the human condition. But being ruled by fear is a choice. And it's unfortunately true that choices can be very hard to see or understand if people haven't been taught that those choices exist; if people lack role models for making those choices. I knew as soon as Joan decided to abandon Covenant that Roger would follow his mother's example. It's the only one he's had.
I don't want to say much more on the subject. But I'm confident that Roger has NO IDEA he's being ruled by fear. He isn't aware of the choice.
(03/05/2008)
Roger's wants and needs are hinted at obliquely (by way of his mother) in the early chapters of The Runes of the Earth. It's a powerful place. He matters there. He makes a difference. Everyone makes a difference. I have to go there. I have to find that place. A desire to matter, a need to make a difference, is a fight against futility. Roger's motivations, then, can be viewed from the perspective of the Ironic Mode.In the Gradual Interview, Stephen R Donaldson wrote:For myself, I find it more useful to think of persons as being very crudely divided into two groups: those that choose to care about people other than themselves, situations other than their own, issues larger than their own well-being; and those that do not. The former group tends to evolve ethical structures (however peculiarly defined)--and then live by them. The latter group tends to be ruled by personal *want* and *need* (in other words, by fear).
(09/17/2004)
When we finally hear Roger speak, he confirms this. A portal to eternity. To become gods. Roger seeks power and significance and eternal life.
It is clear that Foul has seduced Roger with promises of power. The power of an Elohim; an opportunity to change the course of events in the Land; and ultimately the immortality of the cosmos. Roger wants and needs these things; they are seemingly the answers to his fears.
For Roger is ruled by fear, and Foul rules Roger by capitalizing on those fears. If you consider fear from the perspective of the Ironic mode, then you can imagine the fears of a man who feels caught in futility: the fear of impotence (being unable to change anything), the fear of insignificance (being too unimportant to matter to anyone), and the fear of death (being unable to survive). What such a man wants and needs, then, is the means to escape these fears: power, importance, and security against the threat of death.
The fear of impotence leads Roger to lead Foul's armies weilding a fist of magma and might. The fear of insignificance leads him to persue the great Thomas Covenant's destruction. And the fear of death leads him to wish for all things to end. All of these desires are attempts to escape his fears rather than surpass them. Roger has not, like his father, transcended the Ironic Mode. He is a man running from the shadow of his Ironic mode existence, and as such he is fodder for Foul's machinations.
Lord Foul once offered similar enticements to Thomas Covenant: might, significance, and power over death:
But Covenant was not tempted by these promises. He had already learned lessons about epic vision. These gifts did not seduce him because he did not need them. But his son was seduced by these same promises: fear makes bad choices.In [i]The Power That Preserves[/i] was wrote:"And I am not powerless to reward you. If you wish to share my rule over the Land, I will permit you. You will find I am not an uncongenial master. If you wish to preserve the life of your friend Foamfollower, I will not demur - though he has offended me." Foamfollower thrashed in his chains, struggled to protest, but he could not speak. "If you wish health, that also I can and will provide. Behold!"
And so it is clear how Roger and his father are a contrast of strength. Roger foils his father; lacking the "(learned) legacy of courage", his response to the promises of Despite is very different from Covenant's. He is indeed a doppleganger - he is the image of his father, had his father taken different paths. The events of Fatal Reventant, in which Roger wears the image of his father in a more concrete way, resonates with this idea.
Thus far, I am confident in my assessment of Roger. But from here on, I abandon confidence for the sake of pursuing ideas into wild places.
We have seen in each of the earlier Chronicles that Thomas Covenant must learn something critical prior to his meeting with Lord Foul, something which shows him how to defeat the Despiser. He needs a "key", if you will. In the first Chronicles, the key he needed was found when Staff of Law was destroyed by wild magic; he learned that he may not be able to pull wild magic from his ring with his will, but he could summon it with the right kind of trigger. In the Second Chronicles, the key he needed was Hamako; the stonedowner showed Covenant that sometimes the ultimate sacrifice is required to be true to yourself and to what you serve. Perhaps it is not always obvious before the end, but afterwards one can look back and trace the sources of Covenants inspirations to critical points on his journey. There was always a key that Covenant needed to find before he was ready for the final confrontation.
But what answers does Covenant find, what journey does he undergo, that shows him how to win this third time? This time, I don't find it so clear. Nevertheless, I believe that there is an answer, even though it's not as directly and as plainly articulated by the author. After all, victory requires some sort of journey for it to be meaningful. Covenant wasn't resurrected with the answers - the story demands that he had to earn them. So I believe that Covenant's decision to accept Lord Foul the Despiser into himself was prompted by something or someone he had witnessed.
I'd like to test the idea that Roger provided the final clue Covenant needed.
Because when Covenant enters Kiril Threndor, and finds Roger there, in Foul's possession, Branl summarizes the situation in this way.
Roger is the perfect human shield for Foul. Because Covenant cares what happens to his son. And because Roger wants his father to fail.In [i]The Last Dark[/i] was wrote:"Corruption has taken your son, or your son has given himself. We must oppose both or neither. We cannot harm the spirit while the flesh shields it."
[...] Branl was right. Of course he was. Covenant could not strike at Lord Foul without hitting Roger first. He would have to kill his son in order to hurt the Despiser.
Consider the alternatives. The people of the Land would willingly die for the sake of Foul's defeat. Even Linden or Jeremiah might, if Foul would dare it. But Roger wants to live with all the ferocity of a coward. Covenant can't honestly believe that Roger would sacrifice himself for the sake of the Land, voluntarily or otherwise. On the other hand, Foul has no other minions for whom Covenant has affection. Covenant would try to spare any of them if he could, and perhaps even try to rescue them. But there's only one choice that would really hurt. Only one person that might shake Covenant to the core, cause him to doubt his course. Dare him to destroy that which he loves, and be damned thereby.
So: in the final confrontation, Roger represents a problem for which he must find an solution. And he cannot deal with the problem of Lord Foul until he solves the Roger problem. My hypothesis is that Covenant's final confrontation with his son should provide the key that he needs to defeat Foul. The story tells us this in so many words: The physical situation and the metaphorical one are the same - Roger stands between Covenant and Foul. As it is an over-arching premise of this story that what happens to Covenant is what he needs, I believe that this is a sound premise.
But, we must now ask, how does solving the Roger problem provide Covenant with insignt as to how to solve the Foul problem?
The answer, I suspect, is that these two problems are so similar that the answer to one can be applied equally to the other.
First, we can consider the matter of responsibility.
As Covenant sees it, he is responsible for the plight of the Land. I'm the cause. Not because he intended it. But because he was placed by choice or destiny into the role of white gold wielder. Everything else happens because Foul wants his white gold, wants to increase Covenant's desparation. In a way, Foul has become what he is and has done what he has done because Covenant holds what he needs. Covenant caused, if not the Despiser, then his depradations. And so Covenant is responsible for defeating him. This is a conviction which he carries into the last dark.In [i]White Gold Wielder[/i] was wrote:"It's not my fault,' he went on harshly. "I didn't do any of this. None of it. But I'm the cause. Even when I don't do anything. It's all being done because of me. So I won't have any choice. Just by being alive, I break everything I love." He scraped his fingers through the stubble of his beard; but his eyes continued staring at the waste of Andelain, haunted by it. "You'd think I wanted this to happen."
He carries similar convictions for others. Like Joan.
And Roger.In [i]Against All Things Ending[/i] was wrote:Indeed, he had not merely made her what she was. By permitting himself to be withdrawn from the Arch, when he could have refused the summons to Andelain, he had removed a vital barrier against her madness and wild magic. To that extent, he had enabled the barren future within which he was trapped.
He thought that he knew where to find Joan; but he had no notion what he would do when he reached her. He was only sure that she was his responsibility.
Covenant is responsible for Joan and Roger, in the same way that he's responsible for Foul. Their lives were shaped by his leprosy. He was the cause of who they were now, and what they were doing.In [i]The Last Dark[/i] was wrote:And he was Roger's father. He was responsible for that lost soul as well.
Second, we can consider the matter of spirit.
Lord Foul is the Despiser, but Roger is a despiser. He is a vessel of hate and selfishness, and he would destroy everything to escape his prison of mortality. Foul seduces him, but he is readily seduced, because they are kindred spirits. Does Foul wish to vanquish Covenant? So does Roger. Does Foul wish to escape Time itself and flee into Immortality? So does Roger. Would Foul destroy the Earth and the Arch to gain victory? So would Roger.
And yet, Roger is not an immortal being, and he's not from the Land. He's as mundane and real as you or I. The things that shaped his life are just as mundane and real. Therefore, we can say this: Roger is a "real" despiser. He is a Lord Foul that you or I might actually meet on the street. This is important: As I have often proclaimed, Donaldson's fantasy is connected to us, because what the characters undertake and learn is real. We can be pragmatically inspired by witnessing their challenges. Therefore, Covenant facing down a "real" despiser matters to us.
Lastly, we can consider the matter brotherhood, which lies at the intersection of spirit and responsibility.
That Covenant and Lord Foul are spiritually united is plain for all to see. In the first Chronicles, Covenant recognizes that he came close to being just like Lord Foul. In the second, he recognizes that he and Foul are spiritually united, two sides of the same battle, each shaping the other. If I am yours, you are mine. And, of course, they become literally united in the Last Chronicles.
But we also have seen that Roger and Covenant are also united, in very much the same way. The author calls them "dopplegangers". Roger is Covenant as he might have been; Covenant is Roger as he might have been. Roger even pretends to be his father for half of Fatal Revenant! Once again, the physical situation and the metaphorical one are extant simultaneously.
If we consider all these matters, we can see that the problem of Roger and the problem of Foul are very much the same. It is the problem of confronting one's shadow brother - of finding a way to deal with someone who is evil but is your responsibility. A problem which needs to be resolved in a better way than simple destruction. And so I believe that there's a good case that can be made that resolving the Roger problem would necessarilly provide insight useful in resolving the Foul problem.
And Covenant already has one other insight, about what the wrong answer would be. Eradication.
These are the words Covenant utters to himself when he enters Kiril Threndor in that final chapter. We can see now why a "better answer" for Covenant's son is so important. You can't kill Despite. The answer he finds for his son will be the answer he finds for Foul.In [i]The Last Dark[/i] was wrote:He had already killed his son's mother. He needed a better answer.
Whatever else we may have thought about Covenant's relationship with his son, it is clear that, at this time, Covenant wants to save him. Between one breath and the next, he became conflagration; incandescent wrath. Such white gold conflagration does not appear without real passion, pure desire.In [i]The Last Dark[/i] was wrote:The Despiser had claimed Covenant's lost boy at last. Lord Foul had taken possession -
The sight set a spark to the driest tinder in Covenant's soul.
His plight demanded pity. For Covenant, pity was rage.
Covenant sees that Roger needs to be saved from what he had done to himself. Roger's sarcasm and arrogance masked the truth. The young man was appalled by what he had done to himself. He sets about saving him in two ways. The first way is reasoning.
And the second way involves rendering Roger impotent.In [i]The Last Dark[/i] was wrote:"No," Covenant snapped, wrestling for composure. "He won't take you with him. Whatever he offered you won't be what you think it is."
Kastenessen's hand was the source of Roger's power. Covenant wanted to part him from this source. He had tried this before, in the Lost Deep.In [i]The Last Dark[/i] was wrote:Covenant recognized his chance.
In a stumbling rush, he ran at Roger, gained the dais. Faster than he could think, he slashed with the krill.
One swift stroke severed Kastenessen's hand.
And he had seen this before, as well. Kastenessen.In [i]Against All Things Ending[/i] was wrote:Braced in the act of trying to slash downward with Loric's krill, Covenant confronted his son. He gripped the dagger in both fists, apparently striving to cripple or sever Kastenessen's hand.
Without Roger's hand, Kastenessen was greatly weakened, in heart as well as in puissance. When Covenant arrived out of a flare of wild magic, riding a horse and weilding Loric's blade like a hero, Kastenessen was deflated: literally deflated. With every step, he dwindled. Retreating, he became smaller. And so he was defeated.In [i]Against All Things Ending[/i] was wrote:While Kastenessen readied his blast, a Giant surged out of a crater behind him. Jeremiah would not have known who the newcomer was if Frostheart Grueburn had not shouted, "Longwrath!"
Swift as a bolt of lightning, the man reared high behind the deranged Elohim. In both fists, he gripped a long flamberge with a wicked blade. It edges gleamed against Kastenessen's lurid radiance as if starlight had been forged into its iron.
One stroke severed Roger's hand from Kastenessen's wrist.
But Kastenessen was not eradicated when he was defeated. The Elohim had a better answer. He was accepted into them.
The Elohim recognize that their brother Kastenessen had unique and invaluable experiences. Ones which could improve the resulting union of the Elohim. And so Kastenessen was not discarded or destroyed. He was brought into their fane, the last refuge of the Elohim. However, this could only be done once the means for Kastenessen to resist was taken away, otherwise the task was not possible.In [i]Against All Things Ending[/i] was wrote:[Kastenessen said] "You have earned my abhorrence."
Infelice's calm had become irrefusable. Placid as Glimmermere, she answered, "We have. We will not ask you to set it aside. We ask only that you allow us to soothe your pain."
Her response appeared to horrify him. "It is what I am."
"It is not," she countered, undismayed. "When it is gone, you will remember that you and you alone among the Elohim have both loved and been loved."
To that assertion, he had no reply.
I have no doubt that this was also Covenant's intent for his son. To accept him. And to value what he was. He only had to remove his power, and then the rest would follow: Roger would be deflated, and then he could be reasoned with. Then, and only then, could he be succored. Accepted into his embrace, into his family, and into his heart.
Yes, I know. This never happens! Foul intervenes before this can be done.
But then, most surprisingly, this: Lord Foul is defeated in exactly this same way!
As with Kastenessen, and as with Roger if only in Covenant's intentions, the Despiser was struck a blow which removes his power. He was deflated: literally deflated. Smaller now, beaten down or reduced by the bane's retribution. The means for Foul to resist acceptance was taken away. But then Covenant does not eradicate the Despiser. Instead, he reasons with him, and acknowledges that Foul is unique and valuable. And then accepts him. Into his sacred self.In [i]The Last Dark[/i] was wrote:Without warning, an overwhelming thunder swept through Kiril Threndor. It staggered the whole mountain. For an instant, Covenant thought that the Worm had drunk its fill; that the World's End had come. Then he saw more clearly.
A hand like the fist of a god struck down the Despiser. Strength that threatened to crack Covenant's mind left Lord Foul crumpled on the dais, almost corporeal, almost whimpering. A transcendent touch secured Jeremiah's forbidding. As if as an afterthought, something supernal deposited Linden at Jeremiah's side.
A heartbeat later, the thunder passed on, leaving the Earth to its own ruin. In the power's absence, the rising convulsions of the Worm's feeding felt like a reprieve.
It's enough, Covenant thought. Thank you. It's enough. [...] The emblem and summation of all betrayed women had given Covenant that gift.
The Despiser was smaller now, beaten down or reduced by the bane's retribution. He was almost Covenant's size. He hunched into himself as though he sought to hide. As though he wanted to be smaller still.
With wild magic and leprosy, Covenant reached out to him. With pity and terror, Covenant lifted Lord Foul upright.
"Do you understand?" he asked like a man bidding farewell. "If I'm yours, you're mine. We're part of each other. We're too much alike. We want each other dead. But you're finished. You can't escape now. And I'm too weak to save myself. If we want to live, we have to do it together."
The Despiser met Covenant's gaze. "You will not." The voice of the world's iniquity sounded hollow as a forsaken tomb. His eyes were not fangs. They were wounds, gnashed and raw. "You fear me. You will not suffer me to live."
"Yes," Covenant answered, "I will."
He was blinded now, not by fires and fury, but by tears as he closed his arms around his foe. Opening his heart, he he accepted Lord Foul the Despiser into himself.
This is the better answer. Acceptance and Union. It's better because you can find a purpose for what is good, while rendering impotent that which is bad. (Even impotence has a proper use.)
The resolution of these three characters - Roger, Kastenessen, and Foul - are all so perfectly the same that no one can doubt that there is a connection. Disarmament; diminishment; appreciation; incorporation. As a result, I am left perplexed as to why Roger's journey on this path was aborted.
Nevertheless, the connections remain, and are difficult to refute.
I am convinced, in a personal way, that Covenant succeeded in some obtuse way with Roger right before the end.
Does the fact of Roger's incomplete redemption shred my theories about applicability from Roger to Foul? I think it very well might have, if it were not for Roger's last act of mercy, and the inclusion of Kastenessen. We have just enough information from these things to believe that Covenant may have indeed found the key he needed before he finally confronted his Despiser. After all, it isn't necessary that Roger actually be saved; only that Covenant sees the way for him to be saved, and believes in it. These things are not hard to accept.In [i]The Last Dark[/i] was wrote:Then, however, Covenant saw the frenzy in Roger's eyes - saw the Despiser's bitterness dulled by a more human anguish - saw Roger hurl coerced scoria, not at Stave, who shielded Covenant, but at Branl, who could not.
Roger's blast did not destroy him. Instead it made a smoking ruin of his wrecked arm, stripped the flesh from his ribs. Even that lesser damage might have killed him; but Roger's attack cauterized as it burned. Branl was stricken unconscious: he did not bleed. His chest still heaved for air.
Roger had done that: Roger. It was as close to an act of mercy as he could manage. In spite of Lord Foul's mastery, Roger had left Stave alive to protect Covenant.
And so I redeem Roger. He is more important to the story than one might initially think. Without Roger, Covenant could not have found the final answer to evil.
What remains to be answered? Well, for one thing: why wasn't Roger allowed to live? And another: what could Covenant cherish and value in his son? These things I do not yet see. But I will always keep thinking about it. Persuing ideas into wild places.