Kevin's Watch

Here's a few quotes.

The song made Covenant quiver, as if it concealed a specter which he should have been able to recognize. But Atiaran's voice enthralled him. No instruments aided her singing, but before she had finished her first line, he knew that she did not need them. The clean thread of her melody was tapestried with unexpected resonances, implied harmonies, echoes of silent voices, so that on every rising motif she seemed about to expand into three or four singers, throats separate and unanimous in the song.

But Findail did not begin his tale at once. Instead, he lifted his eroded visage to the stars, spread his arms as if to bare his heart, and raised a song into the night.
His singing was unlike anything Linden had heard before. It was melodic in an eldritch way which tugged at her emotions. And it was self-harmonized on several levels at once, as if he were more than one singer. Just as he occasionally became stone or wind or water, he now became song; and his music arose, not from the human form he had elected to wear, but from his essential being. It was so weird and wonderful that Linden was surprised to find that she could understand the words.

SRD loves music! But he doesn't just have beings in his books love music too, he gives music the highest position. Kevin's Lore depends on singing for just about every act of power we witness. And most important, the Forestals!

A shimmer of music rippled his sight. When it cleared, he saw Caerroil Wildwood walking toward him across the greensward.
The Forestal was a tall man with a long white beard and flowing white hair. He wore a robe of purest samite, and carried a gnarled wooden rod like a scepter in the crook of one arm. A garland of purple and white orchids about his neck only heightened his austere dignity. He appeared out of the gloaming of the Deep as if he had stepped from behind a veil, and he moved like a monarch between the trees. They nodded to him as he passed. With every step, he scattered droplets of melody about him as if his whole person were drenched in song. His sparkling voice softened the severity of his mien. But his eyes were not soft. From under his thick white brows, a silver light shone from orbs without pupil or iris, and his glances had the force of physical impact.

And when Covenant meets Caer-Caveral in TWL:

The man was tall and strong, and robed in whitest sendaline. In his hand, he held a gnarled tree limb as a staff. Melody crowned his head. Music flowed from the lines of his form in streams of phosphorescence. His song was the very stuff of power, and with it he cupped the night in the palm of his hand.

I'm surprised the <I>Elohim</I> aren't described much as the Forestals, but about Daphin, it says, "Her voice also was music...", and they all basically sang everything. And then there's those damned bells that drove Linden crazy!

It would seem that the greatest, purest power is music. I'm pretty happy about this!!!

Didn't the root of the Forestal's power come from the mergeing of an Elohim with the One Forest? If so then the music of the Forestals and Elohim are closely related.

Absolutely correct.

a discussion about my 3 favorite things, music, forestals and earthpower

i can understand y SRD uses music to convay most things, as a story could be boring after a while, i mean how many times can u hear jack and the bean stalk b4 u get bored of it? where as songs, who's a nirvana fan? how many times u listened 2 smells like teen spirit? a few hundred?

music has a power where words fail, the power of suggestion and inspiration, of heart and joy... this is all achieved by music, where as a story doesn't do it anywhere near as well.

oh how i love the songs of TCTC...

various and sundry amplifying quotes.

"Enough," the Forestal hummed. "Even now he falters." Graceful and stately, he moved to Covenant's side. "Thomas Covenant, I will not name the thing you seek. But I will enable you to find it." He touched Covenant's forehead with his staff. A white blaze of music ran through Covenant's mind.

He understood what had happened to the Colossus of the Fall, It had been an avatar of the ancient forests, erected on Landsdrop to defend against Ravers; and the Sunbane had destroyed the forests, unbinding the will of wood which had upheld for millennia that stone monolith.
He understood how Caer-Caveral had been driven to Andelain by the erosion of Morinmoss-and why the last of the Forestals was doomed to fail. At its root, the power of the Forestal was an expression of Law, just as Andelain was the quintessence of Law; and the Sunbane was a corruption Caer-Caveral could resist but not defeat.

"Their knowledge they employed to bind her in stone, exercising her name and being to form an interdict against that hate. Thus was she lost to herself and to her people-but the interdict remained while the will of the forest remained to hold it."
"The Colossus," Covenant breathed. "The Colossus of the Fall."
"Yes," Findail said.

all of Chapter 14 of WGW, but especially the last line.

But in Andelain there was no more music.

The strange gleam upon the
Stonedownors was the same magic which had given Caer-
Caveral's music its lambent strength. Sunder and Hollian were
solid, physical, and whole. Yet in a special sense they had be-
come beings of Earthpower

the forest which should have been helpless against ravage and fire, would have been helpless if some outer knowledge had not intervened, making possible the interdict of the Colossus of the Fall, the protection of the Forestals.

At the end of that time, there were only four places left in the Land where the soul of the Forest lingered -- survived, and shuddered in its awesome pain -- and took resolve to defend itself. Then for many ages Giant Woods and Grimmerdhore and Morinmoss and Garroting Deep lived, and their awareness endured in the care of the Forestals. They remembered, and no human or Vile or Cavewight who dared enter them survived.

i apologize for the slightly haphazard order. mainly, the connection between the colossus and the forestall surprised me, and i was doing a bit of a hunt trying to tie down a chicken and egg quandary. i'd say the evidence leans heavily to the colossus creating the forestall, vice my impression that the forestall were an expression of the will of the forests, not the colossus. i'd seen the colossus as a kind of prison (kinda like the prism thing in Superman). now i need to do more research.

(i wish people would realize a timeline is much more usefell than a glossary)

Sylvanus wrote:i apologize for the slightly haphazard order. mainly, the connection between the colossus and the forestall surprised me, and i was doing a bit of a hunt trying to tie down a chicken and egg quandary. i'd say the evidence leans heavily to the colossus creating the forestall, vice my impression that the forestall were an expression of the will of the forests, not the colossus. i'd seen the colossus as a kind of prison (kinda like the prism thing in Superman). now i need to do more research.

Let me quote a little more of what you started:

"Therefore we met, and from among us Appointed one to give her life to that forest. This she did by merging among the trees until they gained the knowledge they required. Their knowledge they employed to bind her in stone, exercising her name and being to form an interdict against that hate. Thus was she lost to herself and to her people-but the interdict remained while the will of the forest remained to hold it."
"The Colossus," Covenant breathed. "The Colossus of the Fall."
"Yes," Findail said.
"And when people started coming to the Land, started cutting down the trees as if they were just so much timber and difficulty, the forest used what it'd learned to create the Forestals in self-defense."

The Forest gained knowledge from the Appointed, created the Colossus using stone and the Appointed, and later created the Forestals. (And I wouldn't say the word "prison" was out of line.)

ahhh, i glossed right over that last bit. even looked right at that quote today.

weird thing about the plural of forestal. saw somewhere earlier today that implied forestall was the plural. might have been a bit error, tho. *shrug* off my game today.

Forestal wrote: a discussion about my 3 favorite things, music, forestals and earthpower

Where has Forestal been? I'll bet he'd do 'most anything to get his hands on one of Sylvanus' Forestaal. (I REALLY like that way of pluralising )

Forestal wrote:i can understand y SRD uses music to convay most things, as a story could be boring after a while, i mean how many times can u hear jack and the bean stalk b4 u get bored of it? where as songs, who's a nirvana fan? how many times u listened 2 smells like teen spirit? a few hundred?

This reminds me of a live Joni Mitchell album. She says that musicians have a big advantage over other types of artists. She says something like, "After all, nobody ever went up to Van Gogh and said, 'Hey man, paint A Starry Night again.'"


Well, I dug up this thread because, since my Forestal moved in, I started reading again, and found this stuff, and this is the closest thing we have to a Forestal thread on this forum. I don't want to lose their music by starting a new thread.

And don't read if you don't want spoilers. I didn't black them out. Read TIW first.

Anyway, Mssr. Wildwood said these two things, which I thought were VERY interesting. First, when Bannor and Covenant are approaching Gallows Howe:

"Who comes? Have you made other bargains?"

"If I have," sand the Forestal, "they are no concern of yours. But these two pass on sufferance. They have not spoken to me. I allow them because the light they bear presents no peril to the trees - and because they hold a power which I must respect. I am bound by the Law of creation."

And when he takes the white gold away from Troy:

"No," he trilled. "I cannot permit this. It is a breaking of Law."

Caerroil ("C" to his friends) seems to know some interesting stuff! You think maybe the Law says that Covenant is the white gold?

And even though this is the Deep in general, it is obviously the doing of Caerroil Wildwood. When the Deep is destroying Fleshharrower's army:

Then the trees drank the blood and ate the bodies - eradicated every trace of the enemy in an apotheosis of ancient and exquisite fury.

*WHEW* THAT is one powerful sentence!!!!

Yep, good ol' C... sometimes CW. We called Caveral CC for a few hundred years, and it always irked him, muttered something about, "Do I look like I play guitar in an 80s hair band? (really, though, gotta give DeVille credit. he did have a degree from Juliart, I believe).

Great quotes, Fist

Eherm, this forum seems a bit forgotten... Anyone out there?

I wrote at least two weird tunes for lyrics from TCTC many years ago and perhaps there is space for some home-made tunes on the KevinsWatch?

At least I refuse to believe that I am the only one to have written some tunes for TCTC, I would love to hear other versions!

A couple of tangential comments:

1) "The Law of Creation" mentioned by CW above - another law, just itching to be broken in the Last Chronicles?

2) I was always puzzled by the fact that when Hile Troy had momentary control of the white gold, he was able to draw power from it. TPTP partially answered this for me, b/c Mhoram discovered that the secret to the Ritual of Desecration was channeling passion and emotion into lore - something that the Oath of Peace prevented the New Lords from doing. Yet TC was not without passion, and could never (pre-envenomization in TWL) activate the white gold. On the other hand, LA quickly gained a complete mastery of the wild magic, presumably aided by the health-sense and her role as the Sun-Sage.

dlbpharmd,
We had a discussion about your 2) in Dissecting The Land: The Illearth War - Chap 26 Gallows Howe. Pretty fun stuff!

Yeah, but nobody wants to talk about Dissection stuff in the actual Dissecting Forum anymore... much less the thread about the chapter *noonch*

(feeling snarky)

Han-shan wrote:dlbpharmd,
We had a discussion about your 2) in Dissecting The Land: The Illearth War - Chap 26 Gallows Howe. Pretty fun stuff!

I've looked but I can't find this thread - can someone help? Thanks!

dlbpharmd - It's in the Dissecting the Land Forum, it was pretty far down so I bumped it for you. Or here's a link, enjoy! kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1271