Note: My thinking has evolved drastically on the alchemy of Kingkiller since writing this in college as a 23-year-old in 2011. I would highly recommend checking out the entire archive of the reread by clicking here.

I wondered about the alchemy question when I read the first words of the series, “it was night again.” However, having spent all last year in academic study of Harry Potter, thanks to my long-distance friend & mentor John Granger, not to mention my entire wedding ceremony based around alchemical purification (yes, the video and running commentary are coming soon. . .), I did not want to jump the alchemical gun. (1) I could be wrong. (2) It could ruin the experience. . . emphasis on could. (3) There might be better discussion elsewhere on the Name of the Wind or Wise Man’s Fear.

But then I read the opening lines of Wise Man’s Fear: “dawn was coming.” At first, seeing that WMF’s prologue read as a one-page metaphor of a three-part silence, I thought he actually copied and pasted the whole thing from the first book. I didn’t mind it, in fact it set the tone well for WMF. But then, halfway through the reading, I pulled out both prologues & made a comparison. Here’s the differences between the two, with NOTW on top of each couplet & WMF on bottom:

(1)
It was night again
Dawn was coming

(2)
hollow, echoing quiet
vast, echoing quiet

(3)
NOTW: a wind it would have sighed through the trees, set the inn’s sign creaking on its hooks, and brushed the silence
WMF:  a storm, raindrops would have tapped and pattered against the selas vines behind the inn.
Thunder would have muttered and rumbled and chased the silence

(4)
a crowd. . .handful of men. . . filled with conversation & laughter. . . clamor of a drinking house
travelers stirring in their rooms. . . grumbled the silence away like fraying, half-forgotten dreams

(5)
a pair of men huddled at one corner of the bar
a dark-haired man eased the back door closed behind himself

(6)
NOTW: they drank with quiet determination, avoiding serious discussions of troubling news
WMF: moving through the perfect dark, he crept through the kitchen, across the taproom, & down the basement stairs With the ease of long experience, he avoided loose boards that might groan or sigh beneath his weight. Each slow step made only the barest tep against the floor.

(7)
small, sullen silence to the larger hollow one.
small, furtive silence to the larger echoing one.

(8)
It made an alloy of sorts, a counterpoint
They made an amalgam of sorts, a counterpoint

(9)
listened for an hour. . .feel it in the wooden floor underfoot and in the rough, splintering barrels behind the bar.
listened long enough. . .feel it in the chill of the window glass and the smooth plaster walls of the innkeeper’s room.

(10)
NOTW: It was in the weight of the black stone hearth that held the heat of a long dead fire. It was in the slow back and forth of a white linen cloth rubbing along the grain of the bar
WMF: It was in the dark chest that lay at the foot of a hard and narrow bed.

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(11)
And it was in the hands of the man who stood there, polishing a stretch of mahogany that already gleamed in the lamplight

And it was in the hands of the man who lay there, motionless, watching for the first pale hind of dawn’s coming light.

(12)
. . .and he moved with the subtle certainty that comes from knowing many things
. . .and he lay with the resigned air of one who has long ago abandoned any hope of sleep

Then we finish with the patient, cut-flower sound of a man who is waiting to die, having already mentioned his “true-red hair, red as flame,” and “his eyes were dark and distant.”

Well, that was nice, Lance, but WTF?

For those needing an entry-level synopsis, head over to Hogwarts Professor to read up on Alchemy. John’s got a. . . ahem. . . couple of posts on the subject. For you seasoned vets, you’ll remember that Alchemy is not a form of chemistry at all, but rather an esoteric form of meditation practiced by medieval Gnostics (See my review of Burckhardt’s Alchemy). They believed that in the progressive states of meditating on the soul, the heavenly bodies, & various metals, they could attain purification. Layman’s terms? They believed they could change their jacked-up “leaden” soul into a holy and righteous “golden” soul through the philosopher’s stone – a symbol of Christ. (Hang with me, I’m not preachin’ here. . .)

This meditation broke down in to three (or four) major sweeps or stages or “works”, whereby the soul would move closer and closer to golden purity. The three are nigreddo, albedo, rubedo with the occasional citrinus between the last two. These Latin words merely mean “black”, “white” and “red.”

In the nigreddo, or black stage, the “vessel” (a word for the soul or initial metal, in our case it’s Kvothe) needs to become ash, for only with ash can we truly know that all “vile odour” and “impurity” has been purged. At the end of the purging process, we begin adding new information…

In the albedo or white stage, the “vessel” receives new information and substance. Added to the prima materia, the raw stuff of earth or tohu va vohu, the new information starts to form a new substance. Insight and light are gained, and the vessel becomes “brilliant” – a double entendre for smart & shiny…

In the rubedo or red stage, the “vessel” stands in the center of a collision between the red king (sulfur) and the white queen (quicksilver). There’s a death of the two, and out of the beautiful collision, the alchemical orphan or philosopher’s stone or climax or gold or perfected man is born.

As you can see, with a trilogy, it makes it simple to walk through with each book serving as a stage in the opus alchemicum, the alchemical great work. Let’s take a look at those quotes again, bearing in mind that NOTW = black stage & WMF = white stage:

  1. We see in the black that IT WAS NIGHT AGAIN, and at the beginning of the white DAWN WAS COMING.
  2. We contrast hollow with vast. One speaks of emptiness, the raw form of the black work. The other speaks of magnitude, as in “a brilliant idea.”
  3. NOTW shows a wind sighing through the trees, ambiguous, raw in the darkness. Remember how Kvothe’s mind felt both when he learned Alar & when he called the wind?
    WMF shows a storm, raindrops & thunder. These are CRUCIAL signs for identifying the albedo, perhaps the easiest of all three to find. Snow, rain, baptism (a character getting dunked, see Nolan’s Inferno) all reveal a cleansing, a washing with new information. This is amplified, quite literally (in the true sense), by the thunder.
  4. The clamor of the drinking room contrasts dreams. This one’s also HUGE because of the nature of chaos. You can’t discern any coherent message between groups of people in a drinking house, but dreams are different. Dreams can hold messages. Dreams even foretell. It’s a good image for the albedo, for at night (black) we go to bed with our worries, under the light of the full moon (albedo) we dream and our mind is illuminated and healed, and with the rising of the sun (rubedo) we awaken to new possibilities, or even “new mercies.”
  5. This one’s not that significant.
  6. Neither is this one (unless you see something I don’t). I think these are just dramatic flair and flavor of #4.
  7. sullen contrasts with furtive; hollow with echo. If you use synonyms of the first two, we could call it “gloomy emptiness,” perfect for nigreddo. If you do the same with the second pair, it’s “hidden repetition”. BOOM! Hidden repetition?! That’s these prologues, baby! Pat’s showing his cards, and he’s talking to you and I:
    Psst… I’m talking about alechemy.”
  8. alloy & amalgam: The first is a metal made by combining two or more metallic elements. You could bend the collision of sulfur & quicksilver over lead to mean this, or just quicksilver with lead. Amalgam? That’s a mixture in chemistry. Alchemy’s not a chemistry, but it’s close enough for confusion and/or poetic comparison. Pat’s doing number two.
  9. Hear it in the wood/hear it in the glass. The wood? Opaque. Rough. Natural. Raw. The glass? Clear. Smooth. Shiny. Silver even. Another nigreddo/albedo comparison.
  10. black stone earth & dead fire speak of the current black work, but the white cloth foretells the coming white work. Black chest at the foot of the bed (with assumedly white sheets), head nods to the previous work and moves into the white work – where Kvothe will be illuminated.
  11. We end up back at Kvothe – his red hair – polishing the mahogany (a dark wood) or waiting for the pale hind of light (an “white work” refernce).
  12. subtle certainty (thinking he’s got it all figured out) & resigned air (worrying about the future, waiting for a mental breakthrough)
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So what?

Well, many things. Let’s just start by assuming two things: (1) with all the connections, Pat’s probably talking about Alchemy. (2) Alchemy – outside of The University & Ambrose’s plumb bomb – means “the science of the purification of the soul” in the majority of literature.

Because of this, Pat’s showing us how Kvothe will first be stripped down (was he beat or torn down or did he fall on a bad stream of luck in book one?) in order to receive new insight (did he learn or gain access to the archives or discover something out about the world in book two?) so that, in the end, he can be equipped to fight the hardest fight of his life: Ambrose/Chandrian.  If he’s using literary alchemy, there are many conclusions and insights that could branch off of this:

Look throughout Name of the Wind & Wise Man’s Fear for any (or all) of thesesymbols. Each holds a key spot in literary alchemy, and I’ve found most in the series already. You need to put three things: (1) the symbol you’re referring to (2) a brief quote from the book and (3) the page number & book. Here’s the list:

  • ravens or jackdaws (or jackasses)
  • the peacock’s tail
  • a rainbow (the colors ROY G BIV in order)
  • water
  • snow
  • the color silver or mirrors
  • frogs
  • dragons
  • blood
  • an alembic
  • a chemist’s fire
  • cockatrice / basilisk
  • midnight or new-moon
  • dawn or twilight
  • red lion
  • white griffyn
  • unicorn
  • a fleeing stag
  • the color white
  • raw matter
  • purified substance
  • new info/insight/breakthroughs
  • the color red used in conjunction with “flame” or “death”
  • reference to living water or the spring of life
  • dark clouds
  • delirium or craziness or confusion
  • sound mind or focus or insight

That’s a good list to get us going. Happy hunting & you have one week. I’ll be in New York City until a week from this Sunday, and will not respond until then. The only thing I’ll post is a 46 @ 23.

Keep reading, those who (like me) haven’t finished!

(If you comment below with anything past the prologue of WMF, please give a spoiler alert to those who have not finished WMF.)


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  1. doberman

    I am very interested in your theories. And am also familiar with the form of alchemy as symbols of spritual progession. So many many facets of alchemy one can find and research. I will begin scanning TNOTW on Monday. Today and and Saturday I am busy preparing for Purim. Which begins Saturday sundown, and ends Sunday sundown. A very celebratory festival wherein we study the book of Esther.

    So, I am glad you are going ot be offline for a bit.
    Are other people posting on facebook? I am wondering when more people will be blogging.

    Have fun in NYC ! I have spent a lot of time there (Same may say too much!). Get canolli at Ferarras in Little Italy if you happen to be going there. They make them beautifully, not too sweet, just enough crunch in the shell. Delicious. Going to shows? Are you going to be daring and go to TKTS?
    I always go to MOMA.

    Let us see if this alchemical literating theory holds up in the story proper.
    Bon Voyage!

  2. lanceschaubert

    What’s TKTS? I’m hoping to go to MOMA.

    I also noted this on his bio:

    “”hard sciences… chemical engineer… philosophy… medieval history… literature… & DABBLES WITH ALCHEMY IN HIS BASEMENT!”

    so even if Kvothe acts coy about alchemy, rothfuss does not.

    1. doberman

      TKTS is a discount ticket booth you can’t miss it if you are in Times Square.
      They sell day of performance tickets to shows. You never know what you might find, if your time isn’t all pre-planned, it is worth looking at what is available. Have fun!

      1. lanceschaubert

        OH! yeah. I thought you were talking about another museum. Yeah, we went and saw Memphis. it was decent. I’ll prolly review it soon.

    2. doberman

      Good point re: the Rothfuss bio!

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Quick note from Lance about this post: when you choose to comment (or share this post with your friends) you help other readers just like you.

How?

Well, see, your comments & sharing whisper a few things to those who come after you:

The first is that this site is a safe place to speak up & stay curious. That it's civil. That discussion is encouraged. That there's no such thing as a stupid question (being a student of Socrates, I really and truly believe this). That talking to one another and growing together is more important than anything we could possibly publish. That the point is growing in virtue and growing together and growing wise. That discovery is invention, deference is originality, that we all can rise together. The only folks I'm going to take comments down from are obvious jerks who argue in bad faith, don't stay curious, or actively make personal attacks. And, frankly, I'd rather we talk here than on some social media farm — I will never show ads and the only thing I'm selling anywhere on the site or my mailing list is just the stuff I make.

You're also helping folks realize that anything you & they build together is far more important than anything you come to me to read. I take the things I write about seriously, but I don't take myself seriously: I play the fool, I hate cults of personality, and I also don't really like being the center of attention (believe it or not). I would much rather folks connect because of an introduction I've made or because they commented with one another back and forth and then build something beautiful together. My favorite contributions have been lifelong business and love partnerships from two people who have forgotten I introduced them. Some of my closest friends NOW I literally met on another blog's comment section fifteen years ago. I would love for that to happen here — let two of you meet and let me fade into the background.

Last, you help me revise. I'm wrong. Often. I'm not embarrassed to admit it or worried about being cancelled or publicly shamed. I make a fool out of myself (that's sort of the point). So as I get feedback, I can say, "I was wrong about that" and set a model for curious, consistent learning, and growing in wisdom. I'm blind to what I don't know and as grows the island of my knowledge so grows the shoreline of my ignorance. It's the recovery of innocence on the far end of experience: a child is in a permanent state of wonder. So are the wise: they aren't afraid of saying, "I don't know. That's new: please teach me." That's my goal, comments help. And I read all reviews: my skin's tough, but that's not license to be needlessly cruel. We teach one another our habits and there's a way to civilly demolish an idea without demolishing another person: just because I personally can take the world's meanest 1-star review doesn't mean we should teach one another how to be crueler on the internet.

For three magical reasons — your brave curiosity, your community, & my ignorance:

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