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 17 + 18:
- CHAPTER 18
- Navigate to other chapters:
Note about me:
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Name of the Wind Analysis — Ch 17 + 18:
It’s fascinating that Bast, the “big good wolf” is close to tears. As a son or as an empathetic person or…?
He’s “not” telling it to garner sympathy.
True or false?
I mean… what’s the one lie he told?
“Time is the great healer” — if time does come into play in this book, this phrase will take on an exceedingly dark tone. Otherwise, this seems to be him saying something incredibly flippant and stuffing things down even further (which seems to be what’s intended).
Fascinating too that the chill in the weather marking the coming of winter comes right after the Cinder chapter.
It’s fascinating when Bast and Chronicler make up, Bast keeps hammering how dark Kote’s mood has been. That they shake hands, that Bast admits he may have killed Chronicler.
Also fascinating that we don’t hear him taking a “wheel barrow,” but just a barrow. A “flat-bottomed barrow,” almost as if he’s hauling not cord on cord of oak, but bodies.
He covers his face even with no one to see because the thing an actor like him fears most is showing his true feelings. He’s ashamed, even backstage.
Before I start on the next section, I want to make a note about the previous section — section 16. No one has ever mentioned this, but since we’re talking about the possibility of a homunculus — of false bodies for true persons, often alchemists as in the case of Menda — then there’s always a possibility that the bodies of the troupe are the homonculi of the seven.
For that to happen, though, we’d need seven:
- 1. Arliden
- 2. Laurian
- 3. Trip
- 4. Teren
- 5. Shandi
- 6. Marion + Wife
- 7. Abenthy
Either seven or eight, depending. I know there’s Hetera, but since she’s a courtesan, I don’t know that this is entirely disconnected.
As for Laclith, there’s a possibility that he’s Abenthy, depending on how we take the dream.
CHAPTER 18
I do wonder about these four doors often. If there’s an analogue to the book, the door of sleep is basically book one. He’s sleepwalking through life. In fact, his “sleeping mind” is what, generally, takes over in book one. The word “sleep” or some form shows up over a hundred times. Also dreams. Not that it doesn’t show up in book two a ton…
The door of forgetting seems to me to be all book two. He does forget both himself and his purpose often. Especially in book two: we hear about forgetting, remembering, and memory often.
When this fails, I wonder if he truly changes his name to try and forget.
The door of madness (and the others) seem to parallel Auri. And I think that Kvothe will go mad in this book. And then die. And that door of death will be two ways. First he’ll open the literal door of death (the main door of stone) — the realm of the dead — and unleash horrors on all. And then he’ll be waiting to die. And he will over and over and over again.
“Nothing can hurt us after we are dead, or so we have been told.”
Can something hurt him after death?
“A good portion of my mind simply stopped working — went to sleep if you will.”
Aside from the obvious trauma response, this is the time when his “sleeping mind” wakens. I want to mention here, mainly because of the way eyes have played out so far, that there are several moments where people look out of the “corner of their eye” as you might if you wanted to catch that Bast was a Fae creature. Assuming (this is likely not the case, but assuming) that every time someone does this, they’re trying to see if someone is being fae-ish, here’s what we end up with:
“[Ben] looked at me out of the corner of his eye, as if he didn’t quite believe me but didn’t want to admit it. He picked at the rock absently with one fingernail, then shrugged and held it up again. “I want you to believe the rock will fall and that the rock will not fall when I let go of it.” He grinned.
“In fairness, something ought to be said about Bast. At first glance, he looked to be an average, if attractive, young man. But there was something different about him. For instance, he wore soft black leather boots. At least, if you looked at him that’s what you saw. But if you happened to catch a glimpse of him from the corner of your eye, and if he were standing in the right type of shadow, you might see something else entirely.
“No harm in looking,” she said sensibly. She looked at my father from the corner of her eye. “If you can find enough, bring back an armload. We’ll dry it for later.”
“I am shamed to admit it, but I remember nothing of the song. Despite the fact that I had never seen a court lute, let alone heard one, my mind was too awhirl with thoughts of Denna to absorb much else. As we leaned on the railing side by side, I snuck glances of her out of the corner of my eye.
“I was playing at Anker’s later that night when I caught the eye of a beautiful girl sitting at one of the crowded tables in back. She looked remarkably like Denna, but I knew that to be nothing more than my own fancy. I hoped to see her enough that I had been catching glimpses of her out of the corner of my eye for days. My second glance told me the truth. . . . It was Denna, singing along with half the folk in Anker’s to “Drover’s Daughters.” She saw I was looking in her direction and waved.
“Denna came unsteadily to her feet, and I tucked my water bottle back into my travelsack, watching her out of the corner of my eye.
“The three of us stared at each other for a moment, each of us startled in our own way. Elodin and I were surprised, but out of the corner of my eye I saw Auri grow perfectly still, like a deer ready to spring away to safety.
“Devi looked at me with such contempt that I cringe to remember it. Then she spat on me, tiny flecks of saliva striking the poor-boy and hissing into steam. “If I glimpse you again, even out of the corner of my eye, it will end badly for you.”
““But some students had trouble finding the name of the wind. There were too few edges here, too little risk. So they would go off into the wild, uneducated lands. They would seek their fortunes, have adventures, hunt for secrets and treasure. …” He looked at me. “But they were really looking for the name of the wind.”
Our conversation paused as someone came onto the bridge. It was a man with dark hair and a pinched face. He watched us from the corner of his eye without turning his head, and as he walked behind us I tried not to think how easy it would be for him to push me off the bridge.
Then he was past us. Elodin gave a weary sigh and continued. “Things have changed. There are even fewer edges now than there were before. The world is less wild. There are fewer magics, more secrets, and only a handful of people who know the name of the wind.”
“I ate another spoonful and pretended to enjoy it. From the corner of my eye, I watched my neighbor, a tiny, older man I knew to be the Viceroy of Bannis. His face and hands were wrinkled and spotted, his hair a disarrayed tousle of grey. I watched him put a finger into his soup without a hint of self-consciousness, taste it, then push the bowl aside. He rummaged in his pockets and opened his hand to show me what he’d found. “I always bring a pocket full of candy almonds to these things,” he said in a conspiratorial whisper, his eyes as cunning as a child’s. “You never know what they’ll try to feed you.” He held his hand out. “You can have one if you like.” I took one, thanked him, and faded from his awareness for the rest of the evening. When I glanced back several minutes later, he was eating unabashedly from his pocket and bickering with his wife about whether or not the peasantry could make bread from acorns. From the sound of it, I guessed it was a small piece of a larger argument that they had been having their entire lives.
THAT one is about as Fae as it gets.
“His bow hummed and the man sprouted an arrow from his upper thigh, piercing the chain mail, the leg itself, and the armor behind it. From the corner of my eye I saw Marten draw another arrow and put it to the string in a fluid motion, but before he could shoot it, I saw their leader bend. Not a deep bending at the waist as if he were doubling over in pain. He bent at the neck to look down at the arrow that had pierced his leg.
“I watched her from the corner of my eye. She sat as if listening with her entire body. Her eyes were wide. She’d raised one hand to her mouth, upsetting the butterfly resting there, while the other pressed against her chest as she drew a slow breath. This is what I had wanted, but I regretted it nonetheless.
“I had just made it through Circling Hands when I caught a flicker of movement from the corner of my eye. I did not pause, as Tempi had taught me to avoid distraction while performing the Ketan. If I turned to look I would have to start over again.
“The crowd parted gently as I walked to the foot of the hill. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a bloodred figure rushing toward me. Alarmed, I turned and saw it was none other than Tempi. He hurried toward me, gesturing a broad enthusiastic greeting.
“There was a pause in the conversation, then Shehyn gestured solemn importance. “When we spoke before, you asked me of the Rhinta. Do you remember?” Shehyn asked. From the corner of my eye I saw Vashet shift uncomfortably in her seat. Suddenly excited, I nodded.
“I was just putting the finishing touches on the horseshoe when I saw a flicker of movement from the corner of my eye. It was Krin peeking around the corner of the wagon. I guessed I’d woken her with the sound of hammering iron. “Oh my God.” Her hand went to her mouth and she took a couple stunned steps out from behind the wagon. “You killed them.”
“That’s three times this term,” Elodin said approvingly. “Sought and found when you had need of it. And not just a breeze but a breath. That’s subtle stuff.” He looked at me from the corner of his eye, giving me a sly smile. “How long do you think it will be before you can make yourself a ring of air?”
That’s the set. In any case, I think there are certainly some other fae creatures in here.
He dreams he (Leahy) was walking through the forest with plain-faced Laclith. This sounds a hell of a lot like Lackless with a lisp. Is this Lanre? King Oak?
He gives Kvothe, in the dream, exactly what Kvothe needs in order to survive. And then turns into Abenthy. Again in a world of so many actors, particularly of shape shifting and glamorous fae, who’s who is always a question. It’s like watching a Mission Impossible film: you’re never quite sure. I’d also point out that “sagebeard” and “willow” and “itchroot” and “baneberry“ themselves parallel the virtues and vices of the seven.
But these lessons save him. I don’t think it’s Kvothe’s brain.
Because Laclith turns into Abenthy, who teaches him knots Kvothe never learned from him. Not only this, but he says either the weak or the strong part of the rope is the not, then holds up an “impossibly complex pattern spread between his fingers.”
The story knot.
This story’s knot.
The one of which Lin Manuel said, “‘I’m sorry I couldn’t get you any closer and help you figure out how this insane Russian nesting doll structure of a book becomes a movie or a TV show.’”
Possible that it’s even knot magic that Abenthy shows him in the dream. And if Abenthy is Laclith, then we keep our count above to 7 (assuming the husband wife combo is either the bearded Venus or the twins of Dalcenti). In either case, I still have my doubts as to whether the seven killed Kvothe’s family.
But then Ben turns into his father.
And I do wonder about this, because we never get straight answers as to whether this is Arliden or not. We get hints. But… his voice changes into Ben’s voice. So is this the father of his line?
Or his true father, the wandering God whom his mother bedded down with?
Especially if it was Laclith or something similar?
In any case, it seems like Fae Dad has come to Kvothe in a dream in order to save his life. And I’m not entirely certain that Haliax didn’t do just that.
Particularly when he said that Cinder should send him to the “soft and painless blanket of his sleep.” When a character called a nightmare is told that, perhaps he has dream powers as well? After all some snares catch rabbits, some snares kill. Maybe they only intended to catch Kvothe and send him on a path?
They stop at waystones because of tradition but some say they mark safe roads to safe places and safe roads to danger. It’s a safe road, a shortcut.
What the double circle of standing stones mean, I cannot say, but there’s the shadow underneath. Haliax again and also the Draugar.
And that reminds me of the doors of stone, obviously, at the university.
But at the end, it’s clear that his father had never played the song and Ben hadn’t taught knots. More importantly Kvothe has heard his father’s song, at least in his sleeping mind.
We also come across moonlight, the fixed stars, and the stone by the water — sort of a child of stone.
It’s fascinating that he doesn’t like getting his hands dirty skinning the rabbit. Is it because of his family’s blood?
Or because he doesn’t want to kill?
Navigate to other chapters:
I’ll put this at the end of each chapter so we can actually navigate the text. Because this is getting unwieldy — we’re going to eventually have dozens of links — I’m going to just link to the category from here on out:
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