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 11:
- Navigate to other chapters:
Note about me:
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Name of the Wind Analysis — Ch 11:
Iron drabs. Sympathy. Amyr.
Copper pennies.
Silver pennies.
What I can’t discern is whether copper, being nameless and of Venus is of the Fae or the realm of the dead?
Assuming my Ptolemaic modeling (now adjusted) is right:
- Haliax bears a striking resemblance to ἡλιακος — the greek word for “of the sun.” That means his main metal is gold.
- Ferule is the word for “rod,” the tool in the sun’s hands. What rod? The rod of war. This is Mars, the iron fist.
- Stercus is a Latin word for dung. This is Saturn. The fertilizer god. Lead is the element here.
- Usnea is a kind of moss, a lichen, that’s also called “old man’s beard.” We could go on a wild tangent here with that and compare this to Leshy. But no, it’s simpler — a word scramble: Eanus. Venus. Who is sometimes connected with undertakers through Venus Libitina and therefore lives in nothing but decay. Copper is the element.
- Dalcenti is a soft mutation of talcen tŷ, a Welsh phrasing meaning gable-end. Gable crosses are common on germanic and Saxon houses, partly to protect from the wind, but also to invoke the divine twins — the sons of Zeus — Castor and Pollux. They can also be two sides of Jupiter. Twin cities, anyone? Also the element is tin.
- Cyphus also happens to be another name for the capital of Thessaly, the site of Mount Oeta and Mount Olympus, where the battle of the titans and olympians happened. The earlier name, however, was Aeolus: the kingdom of the man who kept the names of the wind. That makes this rather Mercurial and also quicksilver.
- Alenta brings the blight is a reference to things that kill crops. The harvest diety and moon diety is Artemis / Diana. The moon. And normal silver is her element.
If that’s right, then copper is the element of the dead, silver the element of the moon and therefore the fae. So I think a copper penny, an iron penny, and a silver penny are the ways to pay off all three realms and keep the balance.
So too would an iron lock, a copper lock, and a silver lock. One would keep out fae and the dead by way of men, one would keep out men and the fae by way of the dead, one would keep out men and dead by way of the fae.
It’s also why copper knives can kill a namers: the realm of Usnea (which autocorrect keeps turning into “Usenet” to my bane) is “nothing but decay” and, therefore, has no name. There’s no name to dead things. They’re dead.
Also, again, pair of copper pennies will get you cross the Styx!
So here’s Kvothe, juggling drabs:
[Ben] looked at me. “Did you learn to juggle all at once? Five balls at a time? Knives too?”
Subtract the moon (the threefold goddess) and the sun (assuming Ben) from the Ptolemaic system and you get, precisely, five balls juggled at the same time.
By the way, if “E’lir” means “Seer” and Ben uses it to mock “wise one” than the “eternal E’lir” is the “eternal seer.”
Who might that describe other than old one-eye Selitos?
Consider too the law of hospitality and where Manet gets invited that he considered new territory.
Of course, the Sun itself is also the great one-eye…
Again, we return to my pet theory of Helios:
Helios’ journey on a chariot during the day and travel with a boat in the ocean at night possibly reflects the Egyptian sun god Ra sailing across the skies in a barque to be reborn at dawn each morning anew; additionally, both gods, being associated with the sun, were seen as the “Eye of Heaven.”
In Crete, the cult of Zeus Tallaios had incorporated several solar elements into his worship; “Talos” was the local equivalent of Helios. Helios is referred either directly as Zeus’ eye, or clearly implied to be. For instance, Hesiod effectively describes Zeus’s eye as the Sun. This perception is possibly derived from earlier Proto-Indo-European religion, in which the Sun is believed to have been envisioned as the eye of *Dyḗus Pḥatḗr (see Hvare-khshaeta). An Orphic saying, supposedly given by an oracle of Apollo, goes:
In fact, while we’re here…
The Sun-god Helios once spied Ares (Mars) and Aphrodite having sex secretly in the hall of Hephaestus, her husband. Helios reported the incident to Hephaestus. Contriving to catch the illicit couple in the act, Hephaestus fashioned a finely-knitted and nearly invisible net with which to snare them. At the appropriate time, this net was sprung, and trapped Ares and Aphrodite locked in very private embrace.
But Hephaestus was not satisfied with his revenge, so he invited the Olympian gods and goddesses to view the unfortunate pair. For the sake of modesty, the goddesses demurred, but the male gods went to witness the sight. Some commented on the beauty of Aphrodite, others remarked that they would eagerly trade places with Ares, but all who were present mocked the two. Once the couple was released, the embarrassed Ares returned to his homeland, Thrace, and Aphrodite went to Paphos
In any case, that didn’t really fit anywhere else and “The Binding of Iron” makes me wonder how much of that is connected to:
With the sun rising Tehlu laid the body of the demon on the wheel. At the first touch of iron, Encanis began to stir in his sleep. But Tehlu chained him tightly to the wheel, hammering the links together, sealing them tighter than any lock. Then Tehlu stepped back, and all saw Encanis shift again, as if disturbed by an unpleasant dream. Then he shook and came awake entirely. Encanis strained against the chains, his body arching upward as he pulled against them. Where the iron touched his skin it felt like knives and needles and nails, like the searing pain of frost, like the sting of a hundred biting flies. Encanis thrashed on the wheel and began to howl as the iron burned and bit and froze him.
Anyways, didn’t mean to go on a crazy tangent. But thinking now about bindings overlayed upon the Ptolemaic system:
- Sympathetic Binding of Parallel Motion: The very first binding Kvothe learned, it’s the binding used to move a coin by moving a similar one, binded by a Sympathetic Link. It probably redirects part of the kinetic energy of one body to another, in order for both to move parallel one to the other (for both to achieve the same acceleration and therefore speed). This could also affect the movement of planets in orbit and the movement of electrons within elements.
- ‘Chemical, Second Catalytic’: The binding Kvothe suggests to use in order to dissolve the oil that makes a bird’s feather smooth, lathering a similar feather binded to the feathers of the bird into lye soap. Although Sympathy is said to be a transfer of energy, this seems to indicate that it’s also possible to transfer chemical properties, transfering some kind of ‘alkaline’/’caustic basic’ property through the link. This could also affect the nature of alchemy, but specifically could transfer the chemical power of Cinder’s/Menda’s/Tehlu’s skin to Haliax. Or vice versa with the shadows.
- Capacatorial Kinetic Luminosity: The binding Kilvin uses to make light burst out of his hands by moving them, probably transferring kinetic energy into luminosity. Although Kvothe can be talking about a different one, he says “the ‘motion-to-light binding’ is rather difficult without a piece of metal to use as a focus”, while using it to light the darkness in the Fae, while walking with Felurian. This could either illuminate the moon by its ever moving nature, illuminate the sun by the moving of the moon (sort of the opposite of a man-mother, anyone?), or move the moon by the power of the sun.
- First Parallel Kinetic Binding: Elxa Dal asks Kvothe the words for this binding, but none of them explains what the binding does, although it could be just a different name for the Sympathetic Binding of Parallel Motion. It could also be a binding that would simply transfer Kinetic Energy to another body, as transferring an equal amount of kinetic energy wouldn’t mean an equal motion (done by the quoted binding), as different masses would require a different amount of energy to move. This could in theory get other planetary bodies to move in concert with those that move, perhaps in other directions. Similarly with particles.
- Binding for Linear Galvanic Attraction: As in the above binding, Elxa Dal asks Kvothe about it in one of the University’s interviews. It is speculated that Kvothe used this to create lightning. Linear Galvanic Attraction is a way to control electric/galvanic attraction between bodies using excess of proportions, creating an equilibrium. The laws of physics imply; Thus the thunder cloud being formed from vapour in the atmosphere, there is a contraction of volume, an excess of the pervading principle, which, by being transmitted to the earth beneath, produces lightning. Kvothe connected this to the ground through the “Galvanic Binding”; In theory, this could discharge massive amounts of electricity between a disequilibrium of bodies. Say, one ever-moving and quite still. It could also use the attraction of two planetary bodies to make a massive energy source.
- ‘Galvanic Binding’: Kvothe actually uses a galvanic binding to make a link between two similar arrows, in “an attempt to ground a tree more strongly than any lightning rod”, in order to make a lightning bolt strike a tree in the middle of a bandit camp. He doesn’t say which type of Galvanic Binding it was, but it definitely shows it’s possible to make links for electricity. This could be the link to the above. Or a way to create entire power grids based on thought.
- ‘Maxim of Variable Heat Transferred to Constant Motion’: A sympathetic binding that Abenthy assigns to Kvothe to learn early in NOTW. It it not described save for the fact that it took Kvothe only 15 minutes to master, despite Abenthy expecting it to take three or four hours. This seems to be the opposite of what Kilvin uses. And therefore could do the opposite: use the power of the sun to move the moon.
Anywhoodle. The Binding of Iron is, it seems, Sympathetic Binding of Parallel Motion. If the theory of Tehlu / Cinder as a heat sink is true:
And if all iron is one iron, then motion is predicated on Cinder’s binding — the “rod” the drives the horses of Helios’s chariot. If he’s a heat eater, he’s a heat eater that either moves planetary bodies or feeds the energy at the end of the loop back into the sun.
Or, more simply, rotates Temerant.
Unfortunately, there’s no way we’ll get 144 different bindings. But perhaps these different words are the beginnings of names? Phonemes like in Chronicler’s script and the knots?
If energy is lost, perhaps it can be found again. Perhaps Cinder finds it, heateats it, and sends it back to the sun?
Or so moves the moon?
Similarly, if dissimilar bodies are sympathetically forced together, and it’s too hard to keep them together, will one eventually break?
Say… the moon?
“Heldred” in Dutch etymology is “bright.”
And all iron is one iron. All copper is one copper. All fire is one fire.
Which, seems to me, to be directly connected to the name of the thing: it’s all the person. How does their commonality (sympathy) operate differently from the uniqueness of a thing (naming) ?
It’s sort of like someone arguing a Porphyrian tree against a mesh network.
It’s interesting here that Abenthy jots phonemes down on the paper.
Not the language.
Not the proper writing.
The phonemes.
This is exactly what Kvothe is getting Chronicler to do. Again, if Yliish story knots have a connection to naming, sympathy, sygaldry, the rest — this is indication that phonemes matter.
Let’s assume that it’s not a story knot here that he’s casting over Chronicler.
Let’s assume even that it’s not naming.
Even as just phonetic, raw, sygaldry, he could still be working magic on the text itself or through the text itself.
Moving past that section, we get to the “trouble” Kvothe gets into is directly connected to chanting the Lackless rhyme. That’s obvious, but again: why would she personally be mad? I think her as Natalia is more likely than Denna, frankly, though the parallels exist:
Set aside all the innuendo in the rhyme for a moment. I mean, maybe that’s all it is. But then again, maybe it’s not:
1. A ring that’s not for wearing is, as I said, I think a farmer’s ring. A sun ring for telling the time, the month, the season, the year. Could also be an orbit or a “circle of influence” as in a group of people. But I’m partial to the sun ring, sun dial thing.
2. One a sharp word, not for swearing. This could be an s-word (sword) or a sharp word like a name of a rod like Ferule. It’s sharp, being Iron, and since it’s Ferule — the true name of Tehlu — it’s compared to a curse.
3. Husband’s candle. Isn’t just any candle. It’s the candle of the sun. All fire is one fire.
4. Door without a handle. Door to the fae? Doors of stone? Why not the door to the dead?
5. Door without a handle in a box. The door is in the lockless box. This is the biggest thing, the enjambment of that line. Couple that with his oft-cited Robert Frost poem:
The Lockless Door
It went many years,
But at last came a knock,
And I thought of the door
With no lock to lock.
I blew out the light,
I tip-toed the floor,
And raised both hands
In prayer to the door.
But the knock came again
My window was wide;
I climbed on the sill
And descended outside.
Back over the sill
I bade a “Come in”
To whoever the knock
At the door may have been.
So at a knock
I emptied my cage
To hide in the world
And alter with age.
Wonderful poem. Kind of a thriller, a horror. And if that’s the poem that truly inspired this main mystery — the lockless box and the Valaritas door — I do wonder here if the door is inside the box. Frost (or the narrator) doesn’t go in the door, but out the window to hide and alter with age. Only after puttering the “come in.”
My assumption, of course, and I think that of many of us is that Kvothe gets the door open. Doing so prompts him to hide in the world and alter with age.
6. Lackless keeps her husband’s rocks. Yes, this could be the obsidian (our mountain glass) spike or a copper knife. But what if it’s the elements of the planets? The “rocks” of the seven? Moon, sun, and the five fixed stars? Or, worse, the “rocks” of the scrael and other rock-like fungus demons?
7. Dreaming and not sleeping. Sure sounds like the fae. Sure sounds like the realm of the dead. But it also sounds like sleepwalking, which would describe Denna, Auri, and Felurian pretty well to me.
8. On a road that’s not for traveling. Well if this is a traditional riddle, this could be one’s metaphorical pilgrimage, the act of riding horseback, a hostile ride against a particular area as in a raid, a partly sheltered area of water near a shore in which vessels may anchor as in a “roadstead”, or a way or route. This works with the waystones and teleportation, but it also works if “sleeping on a road” again, enjambment, is sleeping on her ride across the sky, sleeping on her shelter, sleeping on a raid. I like the last one, in general, because of its connection with the Draugr.
9. Riddle raveling. Of course this means tangled. Interestingly it can also mean untangled. Ravel is a contranym that has both senses of tangling: to tangle and to untangle. Could it be that both are true? Like story knots? There is, too, the Ruh situation — dreaming and not sleeping on a road that’s not for traveling she’s with the “ravel.” Interestingly enough here, “rabble” — the word we’re paralleling in this world, it seems — is the word for the mass of common people, the disorderly crowd. Comes from Middle English rabel, borrowed from Arabic رَبَاب (rabāb). A rebec (or rebecist) is a person who played an early three-stringed simple violin.
It comes from رب (rubb) which is the word in Arabic for “to be master, to be lord, to have possession, to gather, to control, to have authority over, to govern, to collect, to congregate, to grow, to increase, to become greater.” As a verb it can mean “to bring up, to raise (a child).” It’s an epithet of God. It’s parallel with “rabbi” and could reasonably be translated “Maester.”
I’ll remind you there was a time in Ireland where the Bards were Kings and, in some stories, that creation wasn’t spoken, it was sung.
That plus the Bast-ard in the Waystone again gives me pause.
Also interestingly in the poem, we have key, coin, candle, ring, cloak, staff, sword. Seven items, of course. Let’s overlay those on the poem. It’s tricky because which are the seven? Black dress, ring, sharp word, candle, door, rocks, secret? Ring, sharp word, candle, door, box, rocks, road? There are several things in this poem and it’s really, really difficult to know which are the precise seven. So I’ll touch on all of them:
0. Poem item — Taborlin item — potential referent
1. Black dress — cloak — shaed / shadow’s hame
2. Ring — ring — sun ring
3. Sharp word — sword — name of Ferule / Tehlu
4. Husband’s candle — candle — sun
5. Door — Door in later T. story — Valaritas
6. Box — Box — Folding House / lockless box
7. Rocks — coins: copper penny, iron penny, silver penny (also gold, quicksilver, lead, tin) — control over the Ptolemaic system
8. secret — key — name of the moon? Or name of self? Is this the Rhinta thing?
9. Dreaming and not sleeping —
10. Road — staff —
11. Raveling —
I don’t know. I’m out of ideas, someone help me here. The poem, like so many things, is maddeningly intentionally vague.
“Always think about what you’re singing, honey” seems to me to be a very long-term warning.
His mother “smiled like the sun” at Kvothe.
But she’s almost blatant. “You could make it up to both Lady Lackless and myself…”
He “rattled the sheet of tin” when they needed thunder. I’ll remind you that Tin is the element of Jupiter — Dalcenti. The lightning wielder.
And now for something completely irrelevant while we’re here, this was in Iceland recently:
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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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