Hey friends, long time no write about the Name of the Wind, Kingkiller, etc. I’ve intended to do a Name of the Wind analysis reread (not to mention the other books) for some time now. —
You should assume spoilers henceforth! Forthwith! This post shall take a fortnight of hours to read!
Table of Contents
- You should assume spoilers henceforth! Forthwith! This post shall take a fortnight of hours to read!
- Note about me:
- Name of the Wind Analysis — Ch 3:
- Navigate to other chapters:
Note about me:
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Name of the Wind Analysis — Ch 3:
Turn your hymnals to the appropriate page and chapter. I’ll give Connor the first word here:
Kvothe “a plant in the wrong soil” still getting across that he’s been acted upon and not the actor. Or that he’s made for some other realm, some other place. That this “Nowhere” is the wrong place and that a crucial place is disconnected.
— Connor Hathaway
In the chapter, Four months waiting for wood seems like a long time to wait for roah wood, particularly because it seems relatively easily available when the time comes for burning scrael, but I really wish that we could map out some of these places like Aryen. In any case, there’s a great taxonomy of the flora of Temerant here:
You’ll need the replies or the OP to make sense of that one^^^ nevertheless, that seems to be the best we have at the moment.
Is everything made of roah, the magical wood? Kind of a deflationary situation here. Some stuff has to just be normal wood, right?
— Connor Hathaway
By deflationary, I think Connor means literally “it makes it less rare and worth less.” If many things are made of it — and if it’s readily available for burning scrael — why the four month wait?
Regardless, I actually think the box — if it isn’t made of the tree the Cthaeh is inside (or the chest isn’t) — may be entangled sympathetically with the tree.
And does it actually have iron in it? Copper? Both? Silver too? Is it a tree of metal entire? It’s like stone under a saw so there’s definitely something mineral inside of it. Which makes me think of the scrael and living rocks. Or “star iron.” I think roah is a fae-exclusive tree that happens to populate the human side of things. Or, perhaps, a tree of the realm of the dead. But they sear it with a hot iron: was it “cold” iron they made hot? Yes, I think the wood is fae. Stank like “old leather and clover” — rotting flowers and burning hair? Lemon?
Why not skin? Old leather is skin. Is the tree what’s left of him and he’s “inside” the tree the way, for instance, Tehlu is inside the hommonculus Cinder/Menda?
As for the “sea-foam eyes,” were they always? Did he actually have blue at one point? This seems important considering the stories.
Also: it’s interesting that Kvothe says he does the best when he stops thinking. That he over-thinks. Particularly because Ben’s main worry is thoughtlessness. I identify with this, but it’s also something of the fae (intuitive, sleeping mind) part of him verses the Amyr (over analytical, dead) part of him. So I really do wonder if the “thoughtless” is really him being clever (thinking through what he could do) without wisdom (thinking through what he ought do) and his gut is better at the second?
Consider these:
Moving on:
He has a catch in his voice when he goes to hang the sword.
Why?
Someone thinks it’s what’s left of the sword tree:
We don’t know that the sword is named Folly, for the record. We do know it’s (likely) not the same sword as the one the Ademre gave him.
Of course, it’s also sort of reification of the moral of the story:
What is it about the sword that actually gives him grief?
Is it what the sword did?
Or is it what the sword is?
Or is it what the sword was?
Could he have distilled the sword tree into a sword? Or is it just the last piece of the rumor — the literal foil — that will spring the demon trap? Is the sword the bait?
He talks at different points as if his lute is a lady, but why not the sword? Could the sword be the last remnants of the reified body of his goddess? Or better yet:
WHAT IS FOLLY?
I still think about this every time. I feel like so much is wrapped up in the sword. I don’t know where I land. I’ve thought the blade was made out of quicksilver. There are also copper alloys that present as the kind of grey listed. I’ve thought it’s a piece of junk that’s supposed to spring the trap
But what if it’s a sword made out of a shard of the moon?
“He drew the sword without a flourish. It shone a dull grey-white in the room’s autumn light. It had the appearance of a new sword. It was not notched or rusted. There were no bright scratches skittering along its dull grey side. But though it was unmarred, it was old. And while it was obviously a sword, it was not a familiar shape. At least no one in this town would have found it familiar. It looked as if an alchemist had distilled a dozen swords, and when the crucible had cooled this was lying in the bottom: a sword in its pure form. It was slender and graceful. It was deadly as a sharp stone beneath swift water. Kote held it a moment. His hand did not shake.”
Perhaps he did so distill it?
Perhaps that’s exactly what an alchemist did: distill the swords of the stars. It’s perhaps a sword of star iron. Or the sword tree.
Or a piece of the moon.
Folly rhymes with Holly by the way. It’s foil-y. It’s also rather Fall-y. It’s also Old French for “insane,” which comes from the Latin follis for “bellows” and “a small coin.”
But here’s the thing. If it’s just a foil, then why is Bast shuttering? And why is such a reaction “disturbed on Kvothe’s account?” Is he shuttering because it’s a piece of his mom’s body? Because he knows it’s bait for a trap? Is he disturbed because it’s a piece of the Cthaeh or a weapon of something like that?
Then we get the bit about the blue flames… there are so, so, so many flames that burn blue. It’s one of the more common colors, honestly, unless we’re talking pyrotechnics, then it’s copper you need.
Do we have any other synonyms for the hearthfire turning blue? Like any subtle hints that it has or does?
Other signs we get: black eyes and no face. Refer to the eye color post above for the black eyes bit.
Kote sings Tinker Tanner? I was told there would be no singing.
— Connor Hathaway
He’s kidding, of course. I laughed. We then meet a sandy-haired man at the inn — is this person Adem? Or related? He mentions the cobblestones. Who did Kvothe kill by the cobblestones? And why does remembering the stones are shattered become difficult for him?
Or is it because Kvothe has direct powers over memory? Is that what some of the storytelling / singing is about? Is he able to change past events or the way they’re remembered in a substantial way, beyond the B.S. now? Or is this just some glammourie?
Connor has thoughts:
So if K is a Chandrian, changing his name also keeps people from saying it around him protecting him from Chandrian Kvothe, but sharing his songs and stories about K would be like spreading the leaves with his blood on them in the House of the Wind. Covering his tracks.
Two men. One sandy haired one dark. Sandy recognizes Kote and K runs. Is this Will and Simmon? The Sandy-haired one is given Mhenka. K in the medica basically recalls it as a rohypnol type. Cool stuff! Next morning Sandy doesn’t remember at all.
— Connor Hathaway
They drug the sandy haired one with Mhenka. I have honestly always liked, as a completely alternate idea, that Kvothe is just crazy. That his mind broke. That all of the people in the frame story are just his friends trying to snap him out of it. In this case, Crazy Marten is Marten. And the two priests are professors, etc.
Few folks notice that one scar of his was jagged and red. All the others were silver like lightning. Those are the whips. But what’s the one that’s not?
What’s it from?
And why wasn’t it stitched well? Why wasn’t it healed properly?
“Lover in an empty bed” isn’t a metaphor, I don’t think. I mean maybe it’s just saying how seductively sleep came to him, how it crashed into him.
But he’s also a lover in an empty bed.
What is killing the sheep? The scrael or something else?
Kote shrugged. “My granda always told me that fall’s the time to root up something you don’t want coming back to trouble you.” Kote mimicked the quaver of an old man’s voice. “‘Things are too full of life in the spring months. In the summer, they’re too strong and won’t let go. Autumn . . .’” He looked around at the changing leaves on the trees. “‘Autumn’s the time. In autumn everything is tired and ready to die.’”
…
He’s talking about hunting the scrael.
But he’s also talking about himself.
Navigate to other chapters:
I’ll put this at the end of each chapter so we can actually navigate the text
- Name of the Wind Analysis — Prologue
- Name of the Wind Analysis — Chapter 1
- Name of the Wind Analysis — Chapter 2
- Name of the Wind Analysis — Chapter 3
- Name of the Wind Analysis — Chapter 4
- Name of the Wind Analysis — Chapter 5
- Name of the Wind Analysis — Chapter 6
- Name of the Wind Analysis — Chapter 7
- Name of the Wind Analysis — Chapter 8
- Name of the Wind Analysis — Chapter 9
- Name of the Wind Analysis — Chapter 10
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