A Memory of Light Read-through #17: Chapter 14—Doses of Forkroot

By Linda

Perrin POV

In Tel’aran’rhiod, the wind blows hard in natural patterns, but Perrin finds it easy to impose calm on a limited area, due to his skill and also his devotion to rightness and the natural order of things. Reality in the dream looks worn and the Land is coming apart. This is a step beyond what Moridin described to Rand earlier in the book:

"It dies, and the dust soon will rule. The dust . . . then nothing."

A Memory of Light, Advantages To a Bond

Moridin saw the end as a winding down of a universe crushed by entropy rather than a big crunch:

”The end is near,” Moridin said. “The Wheel has groaned its final rotation, the clock has lost its spring, the serpent heaves its final gasps.”

The Gathering Storm, Prologue

The storm is no longer gathering: it has arrived and is eroding the Land in Tel’aran’rhiod. It is worse where Rand is, reflecting the conflict between Rand and the Dark One and Rand’s arrival near Shayol Ghul. Fragments of land are sucked up by the wind and pulled toward the black clouds. The winds herald oncoming destruction. This is part of the “hills take flight” motif in the Lord of Chaos rhyme:

The lions sing and the hills take flight.
The moon by day and the sun by night.
Blind woman, deaf man, jackdaw fool.
Let the Lord of Chaos rule.

Lord of Chaos Prologue

Rand becomes Lord of Chaos as he fights the Dark One. It is the Dark One’s aim to make him the Lord of Misrule so that he has trouble garnering support, but the Pattern accounts for this by making Rand’s chaotic actions resulting in unexpected counters to the Shadow’s plan. Perrin sees that sometimes the land comes back together again—resists the pressure of destruction.

Gaul’s strong will, identity and focus keeps him steady in Tel’aran’rhiod. Perrin asks him what he did to deserve Gaul’s loyalty. First was freeing him, which made Gaul follow Perrin because the Aielman had toh. He continued to follow not from what Perrin did, but what he is: ta’veren, strong, wise, an honourable fighter against. Gaul was always impressed with Perrin’s fighting ability and physical and mental strength and has assigned himself the task of supporting him. He won’t explain this to Perrin and deliberately changes the subject.

Gaul has to choose whether to marry two women– one who doesn’t love him and one who does—or no marriage. Mirrors Perrin who had to “choose” between Faile and Berelain, though that was an easy choice, and will again between Faile and Lanfear.

Lanfear surprises Perrin by appearing beside him—like a lamia or succubus apparition. A lamia is a beautiful woman from the waist up and a serpent from the waist down, who kills children, seduces sleeping men, and enchants her victims with glamour and illusion. A succubus is a female demon who takes on a human female form to seduce men in their dreams. Lanfear—or Cyndane, as we should call her, because Moridin is strict with names—is not wearing Moridin’s colours, but her own. When she learns the wolves’ name for her, she denies hunting the moon because it is hers already. The name 'Moonhunter' is derogatory as well as accurate—Lanfear is arrogant and deluded.

The Forsaken declares that she wants vengeance on somebody, this obviously being Rand, whom she blames for her predicament (and perhaps Moiraine, in passing, also). Moridin indicated this earlier:

"Mierin hates you now, anyway," Moridin continued. "I think she blames you for what happened to her.”

A Memory of Light, Advantages to a Bond

The two scenes are linked. Lanfear can sense when Moridin is wondering where she is and quickly flits back to a more acceptable activity.

Perrin says Lanfear has never made any sense to him. He remembers that the wolves said she wants him. He doesn’t know what for, and neither do we. Not yet.


Androl POV

Turned, Toveine has flung aside her reservations about Logain to be openly affectionate. Logain is crucial to either side due to his influence and strength. His resistance and devotion to the Light is very impressive; he has resisted eleven or so attempts to Turn him. Only this time does he scream in agony.

The Black Asha’man are exhausted trying to Turn Logain and his faction. All Reds except Pevara have also been Turned. Graendal—Hessalam, now—is in charge of the Black sisters. She is dressed in black, which she has never worn on screen before. The eleventh attempt at Turning Logain is underway, and with plenty of women, the procedure is close to succeeding, judging by his screams. Truly the eleventh hour, the last chance to save him; a twelfth attempt (symbolic number!) will probably be successful. Women Turn men easily and men women, as with Healing stilling. It is evidence of the necessary balance between the sexes and between saidin and saidar.

Evin still kind and well-meaning to Androl, and persuaded Taim not to kill him. Evin still has anxiety from before his turning, as well as paranoia from taint. Androl plays on it to break free.

The doses of forkroot have been stopped for Androl, because they are going to Turn him soon and also because he is considered negligible, particularly with the dreamspike preventing his only major Talent from working. Which is why he is triumphant when he uses Evin’s paranoia from the taint to make him strike at Abors, who is holding Androl’s shield; using the Shadow’s weapons against them. Later in the chapter he does the same with their weaves. Impressively, he is able to open a tiny gateway under extreme duress despite the dreamspike being still in place. This could well be something the Forsaken consider impossible.

Taim reveals that he has the Seals but hasn’t handed them to the Dark One yet:

"I have already provided a gift to the Great Lord himself. Beware, I am in his favor. I hold the keys in my hands, Hessalam."
"You mean . . . you actually did it? You stole them!"

A Memory of Light, Doses of Forkroot

Taim uses similar tactics to those of Sammael, and she backed off from him also. Androl doesn’t know what Taim is referring to, but he can see that Hessalam does. He doesn’t know who she really is, either.

It is amazing that Androl broke the barrier of the dreamspike for a tiny gateway. He uses gateways to beat Taim’s minions and kill most of them by using their own weaves against them.

Logain he sent far from the Black Tower. On the Shadow’s side, it was Graendal who opened a gateway to safety, and Taim followed her.


Perrin POV

Lanfear explains to Perrin that the Asha’man guards were Turned and what this process is. She thinks Turning people to the Shadow is a waste, because it damages them; better if people come willingly. It is a crude method in her opinion, but since Semirhage devised it, Lanfear was always likely to reject it. After all, she says that Compulsion – Graendal’s preferred method – is cheating. Lanfear’s way to tie people to her was seduction.

She puts a dose of forkroot in the guards’ wine to help Perrin because she is “fond of him”. Perrin says no one should be forced to the Shadow. She counters, saying that they could have chosen to be severed from the Source; then, as non-channellers, they couldn’t be Turned. It’s spiritual warfare.

"That's not much of a choice."
"This is the weave of the Pattern, Perrin Aybara. Not all options will be good ones. Sometimes you have to make the best of a bad lot and ride the storm."

A Memory of Light, Doses of Forkroot

The storm is outside. Time for final choices.

When she reminds him that the Pattern offers only bad choices sometimes, Lanfear implies that’s all that she had when she swore to the Shadow. It led her to be shut in the Bore for over 3,000 years. Perrin is not convinced by her claim—excuse, really—that she has suffered enormously—he is aware of how many she has made suffer enormously. Any thwarting of her desires or plans is agony to such a spoiled brat. Her current sufferings are punishment for trying to use Rand to overthrow the Dark One or make the Dark One owe her—and have not stopped her from promoting this plan.

As “the one who is punished most” (A Memory of Light Prologue) she says she is no longer one of the Forsaken due to the Dark One learning that she was planning to help Rand win. (At the time of the prologue, Moridin indicated that she was a Forsaken, though the lowest ranked.) This sounds more altruistic and cooperative than it actually is: Lanfear planned to use Rand, not help him. He was to either beat the Dark One with her “at his side” or she would kill him as he tried to do so and thereby save the Dark One. Now she is helping Perrin to keep him amenable to her influence.

Perrin is impressed with her skill in Tel’aran’rhiod. Lanfear is not supposed to be able to “do this” – move around independently in Tel’aran’rhiod? The Forsaken is sticking to her usual methods of using powerful men: she tells Perrin how he will be of use to her: to win with her at his side, as though he is doing it for her or sharing it with her. Basically he is to win the battle for her as her Champion, and Lanfear would be the dark Lady of Sovereignty.

Perrin shrugs her off. Lanfear tries a little honey and shows him how to set and unset the dreamspike. Perrin hopes that the retraction of the dome will bring Slayer to him. What it does immediately is enable Androl to make gateways again—gateways that aimed the Dreadlords’ weaves back at them.

In both scenes we see the Shadow undermining itself—Evin manipulated into attacking another Dreadlord, Dreadlords killed by their own weaves, and Lanfear plotting against the Dark One.

Towers of Midnight Read-through #65: Epilogue - And After

By Linda


Graendal POV

How surprised Graendal was that the prophecy did not work as she assumed, although Moridin warned her that prophecies can be tricky:

"What is this book?" she finally managed to force out. "Where did these prophecies come from?"
"They have long been known to me," Moridin said softly, still studying the book. "But not to many others, not even the Chosen. The women and men who spoke these were isolated and held alone. The Light must never know of these words. We know of their prophecies, but they will never know all of ours."
"But this . . ." she said, rereading the passage. "This says Aybara will die!"
"There can be many interpretations of any prophecy," Moridin said. "But yes. This Foretelling promises that Aybara will die by our hand."

Towers of Midnight, Writings

Mind you, he said himself that the prophecy indicated that the Shadow would kill Perrin. And then again, earlier in the scene he said that Perrin would escape Graendal. The latter judgment was correct; not the misplaced confidence in their interpretation of the prophecy.

Apart from the death of hundreds of “living dead” (Compelled slaves), Graendal lost a lot when Rand balefired her palace. She is about to lose even more. As a parallel of Aphrodite, who was born in the sea, Graendal has two hideaways near the ocean – her palace at Ebou Dar and her cave on an island in the middle of the Aryth Ocean in Towers of Midnight, Writings.

If Graendal had not stopped to pack, she might have escaped punishment…but she likes her conveniences too much. At this point it is indirectly revealed that Graendal killed Asmodean. For those disinclined to accept this, it was openly stated in the Towers of Midnight glossary.

Graendal was forced to take responsibility for the failed missions, but still argued and persuaded. Shaidar Haran assaulted and killed her, then the Dark One gave her an ugly body. In her former incarnation, her most prominent mythological parallels were alluring Aphrodite and Circe; now she is Grendel of the Anglo Saxon saga, monstrous in appearance as well as character.

The opportunity to wreak havoc while believed dead has gone to Lanfear/Cyndane, as we shall see later in this chapter.


Perrin POV

The Wrongness, the Dark One’s breaking of the Pattern, has now reached the stage where it is in Tel’aran’rhiod. Perrin tries to dispel it and replace it with health/rightness, but it is too large a scale for him to undo. This makes him reflect on how there are always limits and should be limits. Extremes are dangerous or wrong. Perrin went too far trying to bring back Hopper in Tel’aran’rhiod, as well as undo wrongness.

Then Perrin remembers the wolf with the name of Boundless – without limits, in one sense, free, in another. Hopper thought Perrin had found his answer for the man/animal balance or dichotomy but did not understand it. (Because Perrin thought it was a dichotomy, when actually it was a balance.) Boundless flees from Perrin when he asks for information. Perrin has to learn that Noam didn’t lose his humanity. He rejected it.

In the early stages of adjusting to being a Wolfbrother, Perrin unfortunately received misleading information from Moiraine:

“Is that what I can expect?” he asked. “To end like that?”
“Perhaps…Perrin, even in the Age of Legends, they knew little of this. Whoever wrote it seemed uncertain whether it was truth or legend. And I only saw a fragment, remember. She said that some who talked to wolves lost themselves, that what was human was swallowed up by wolf. Some. Whether she meant one in ten, or five, or nine, I do not know.”
“I can shut them out. I don’t know how I do it, but I can refuse to listen to them. I can refuse to hear them. Will that help?” “It may.” She studied him, seeming to choose her words carefully. “Mostly, she wrote of dreams. Dreams can be dangerous for you, Perrin.’

The Dragon Reborn, Wolf Dreams

and made wrong assumptions himself. False or incorrect knowledge is an important theme in The Wheel of Time. Perrin saw Noam in the early days of being a Wolfbrother when Noam hadn’t made his choice or found an equilibrium, a new state of mental health. Noam’s problem is that he saw too truly and too deeply and abandoned the human world for the lupine one. Everyone has their own balance, their own choices to make. What is right for one is not necessarily so for another. Each must take responsibility and understand what they are doing. Noam did. (There is an interesting parallel behind his name). This scene completes Perrin’s growth just in time for the Last Battle.


Olver POV

Olver quotes Mat’s Old Tongue saying: "Dovie'andi se tovya sagain," (It’s time to roll the dice). I guess he’s heard it enough times. In this scene, Olver has Mat’s luck too. He wins the game without cheating. Olver had no idea the game, based on a real world game of unequal forces, “can’t be won”, ie has a very low probability of victory. His game parallels Mat’s visit to Sindhol. The boy had been starting to lose his faith in the game, just as Mat began to doubt he would win against the *Finns.

In his grief, Olver focusses on avenging his father’s death. He has plans of going to the *Finns to get information on the Aiel man who killed his father. Grudgingly he acknowledges that he needs some fighting practice first. This war and the Blight change his mind – show him the reality. Not surprisingly, the boy was sadly traumatised by the Shaido’s predations in Cairhien and has supplied himself with a weapon, so he is not defenceless. Olver is a bit behind in his reading due to lack of education while a refugee.

Mat rightly thinks Olver can’t take care of himself well without help. He lied to the boy so he wouldn’t feel left out, which was futile, since Olver eavesdrops far more than Mat is aware.

Olver does what Mat and his men refused to do: find out what task Verin wanted done. This leads to the unwelcome discovery that the Last Battle has begun and that Shadowspawn are in Caemlyn.

Verin’s reliance on Mat’s curiosity was flawed – she underestimated his fear of the Power and dislike of Aes Sedai. As we saw in the previous chapter, even when in bad pain and with an Aes Sedai he respects, Mat won’t accept Healing. Without Olver’s innocent reading of other people’s correspondence, the cannon would be lost to the Shadow. They made a difference in the war, and also will to channeller/non-channeller relations.


Barriga

Barriga was a merchant seen at the beginning of Towers of Midnight. Then, he was a prosperous merchant, now he is wounded and dazed in the Blight. The dark-eyed Aiel he describes confused readers, since dark eyes are very rare among Aiel. Perhaps he mis-saw because of the mistaken saying “black-eyed” Aiel. They have red veils, not black, and we now know they hide whether their teeth filed or not. Filed teeth mean the “Aiel” was Turned to the Shadow and must therefore be a channeller, yet this one uses a knife. He takes down his veil to kill, as Isam’s POV explains. These are all a reversal of Aiel ways, so Barriga was right that they are not Aiel. They are reverse Aiel.

The scene is a cliffhanger and teaser to A Memory of Light, where many questions are answered in Isam’s POV.


Rand POV

Rand counted on Egwene uniting those opposed to his plants to break the Seals. Like Moridin, he is playing on the reputation for being dangerously irrational to intimidate people into obedience or cooperation, and had no firm plan B if his conditions were refused. He more or less thought they wouldn’t feel able to refuse, because he was scary and the alternative – no sacrifice – was unthinkable. It all hinged on his bluff not being called.

He has learned (via Lews Therin) how to control his own dreams and uses them to meditate. He recreated the valley where he sheltered for a while after he made decision to declare himself, and where he fled those close to him, because of what he was, to go to Tear on his own.

Lanfear is the one that given task of manipulating Rand instead of Graendal, and considering the residual feelings he still has for her, more likely to succeed. She breaks through his dreams, showing her skill in Dreamwalking: as the Wise Ones said, it’s not easy or safe because when you enter another’s dream they control all there. In Rand’s dream, Lanfear influenced him and was not under his control. She relied on his protectiveness and her own womanly wiles to manipulate him. Her hangout is an underworld, a cavern of light-sucking, life-sucking blackness, with walls of bone-white. It reminds him of death.

Rand falls for her act even though he recognises her, or perhaps because of it. Since Rand recognises her in a different body when he had thought her dead, he didn’t create her in his mind. He calls her Mierin – as if she had never joined the Shadow, or he overlooks her apostasy. At this stage, there is still some lingering feeling for her that has to be settled in his mind before he is ready to face the Dark One.

She may be being tortured, but she is also exaggerating. Lanfear is dragged into a pit (of hell), yet she is a hell goddess. Her claims that

”He grinds my bones and snaps them like twigs, then leaves me to die before Healing me just enough to keep me alive.“

Towers of Midnight, Epilogue

are suspect. They imply her bones would be not knitted properly or fully. Yet she moves freely; she is Healed a lot better than that.

Here we have the hell goddess suffering hell. Her comments to Perrin suggest that she is a hell goddess because of her suffering, not for what she does to others:

"I've suffered for my decisions. I've borne pain, agony, excruciating sorrow because of what I've done in my life. My suffering goes beyond what you could conceive."

A Memory of Light, Doses of Forkroot

Or that’s what she’d like to believe. More misunderstood than bad, apparently. Not her fault she went to the Shadow. She was driven to it.

Lanfear’s act aimed to destroy Rand’s hard-won peace and equilibrium on the day before his publicly announced meeting with the nations. This is hardly a coincidence.

"No!" she screamed. "He comes! The Shadow in every man's mind, the murderer of truth. No!"

Towers of Midnight, Epilogue

is overdone. All Forsaken are liars on this scale, not just one of them. As Jordan said, Lanfear was always a drama queen.

I must admit that I sighed at this act and Rand falling for it. I thought: “here we go again…” But she was artistically dragged away a little too soon and Rand does see the histrionics after a while, as we see in their next encounter.


Lan POV

Kaisel – a prince and heir – prods Lan into declaring himself. Until now, Lan has been a hidden monarch figure. Their charge is a parallel of the charge of the Light Brigade, who bravely carried out their mistaken orders to make a frontal assault on a Russian artillery battery at the Battle of Balaclava, as described in Tennyson’s The Charge of the Light Brigade:

Half a league, half a league,
  Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
  Rode the six hundred.
'Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns' he said:
Into the valley of Death
  Rode the six hundred.

'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldiers knew
  Someone had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
  Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to the right of them,
Cannon to the left of them,
Cannon in front of them
  Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
  Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turned in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
  All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
  Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
  Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
  All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
  Noble six hundred!

The poem emphasised their patriotism and dutifulness despite Rand’s long-delayed support. Lan’s forces are at the jaws of the Bight, where is located Hell, and the shadow of Death.

The Borderlander forces feel just as doomed. Lan thinks they are. The charge represents the Land fighting back, attacking rather than defending, even though they have not the numbers for it.

Now that Nynaeve has Lan’s Bond – a recent change - he doesn’t feel “One Man Alone” physically or emotionally. All Malkier rides with him. They have done a lot to help Lan, as have the noble Borderlanders with him, but Nynaeve most of all.


Dark Prophecy

The book closes with an excerpt from Moridin’s book of dark prophecy:

Lo, it shall come upon the world that the prison of the Greatest One shall grow weak, like the limbs of those who crafted it. Once again, His glorious cloak shall smother the Pattern of all things, and the Great Lord shall stretch forth His hand to claim what is His. The rebellious nations shall be laid barren, their children caused to weep.
There shall be none but Him, and those who have turned their eyes to His majesty.
In that day, when the One-Eyed Fool travels the halls of mourning, and the First Among Vermin lifts his hand to bring freedom to Him who will Destroy, the last days of the Fallen Blacksmith's pride shall come. Yea, and the Broken Wolf, the one whom Death has known, shall fall and be consumed by the Midnight Towers. And his destruction shall bring fear and sorrow to the hearts of men, and shall shake their very will itself.
And then, shall the Lord of the Evening come. And He shall take our eyes, for our souls shall bow before Him, and He shall take our skin, for our flesh shall serve Him, and He shall take our lips, for only Him will we praise. And the Lord of the Evening shall face the Broken Champion, and shall spill his blood and bring us the Darkness so beautiful. Let the screams begin, O followers of the Shadow. Beg for your destruction!

Towers of Midnight, Epilogue

perhaps the very one which misled Graendal to believe she would kill Perrin:

"What is this book?" she finally managed to force out. "Where did these prophecies come from?"
"They have long been known to me," Moridin said softly, still studying the book. "But not to many others, not even the Chosen. The women and men who spoke these were isolated and held alone. The Light must never know of these words. We know of their prophecies, but they will never know all of ours."
"But this . . ." she said, rereading the passage. "This says Aybara will die!"
"There can be many interpretations of any prophecy," Moridin said. "But yes. This Foretelling promises that Aybara will die by our hand.”

Towers of Midnight, Writings

Interesting that this is the first prophecy she saw.

The One-Eyed Fool is Mat. He has been a Fool and Joker figure from the beginning. The halls of mourning he walks may be the Tower of Ghenjei where Thom played his dirge and so many have died, including Noal, but it is even more applicable to the battlefields Mat will soon roam.

The First Among Vermin – Rand – frees the Dark One, by opening his prison. The Seals weakened on the prison so that the Dark One corrupted and weakened the Pattern. People felt abandoned by the Creator and despaired so that there was “None but Him”, none but the Dark One in the world.

The Fallen Blacksmith is Perrin, but these are not his last days, just those of his pride. He now accepts his nature and his responsibilities.

The Broken Wolf who has known death is Hopper. The Midnight Towers are a negative reflection of the White Tower riddled as it was with Black sisters controlled by Mesaana—or how it appeared in Tel’aran’rhiod. Hopper was consumed by the Midnight Towers; he died forever there in the dark reflection of Tar Valon in Tel’aran’rhiod. The wolf fell in battle against Isam and the Black Ajah, a battle that shook people. He is now always in the afterlife, and cannot be reborn, which made Perrin grief-stricken and also shaken to lose his mentor.

Ultimately, Darkness was not brought – except for the Dark One, who was locked way, and for the Forsaken and Darkfriends killed. Many who walked in the Light sacrificed themselves to turn back the Darkness.

This prophecy of the Dark One stretching forth his hand to take over the world parallels the prophecy of Rand stretching out his hand to catch the Shadow and prevent it choking the land:

The Shadow shall rise across the world, and darken every land, even to the smallest corner, and there shall be neither Light nor safety. And he who shall be born of the Dawn, born of the Maiden, according to Prophecy, he shall stretch forth his hands to catch the Shadow, and the world shall scream in the pain of salvation. All Glory be to the Creator, and to the Light, and to he who shall be born again. May the Light save us from him.

The Shadow Rising, Prologue

Neither prophecy is for the faint-hearted, being a warning of misery and terror.

The Fires of Heaven Read Through #6: Why Lanfear Had To Go

Why Lanfear Had To Go

by Linda

In News Comes to Cairhien, Moiraine tells Egwene and Aviendha that tomorrow will be difficult for them all. This is true. Moiraine is flung around by Lanfear, whom she attacks while dangerously hurtling into another world, and the girls are injured by Lanfear, Egwene grievously.

At the docks Moiraine is dressed in her best clothes and jewellery, not only her kesiera, but a necklace of large sapphires and a silk dress shot with gold thread. Since she was at pains to duplicate what she saw in the rings, placing the bracelet angreal precisely as she remembered, her expensive attire may also be relevant. Is it something to pay the Eelfinn when they bargain?

The rings at Rhuidean showed Moiraine this future and two others: one where Lanfear kills Rand, and the other where Lanfear enslaves him as Lews Therin. Lanfear must be removed since she knows Rand has the access keys and believes Rand is beginning to consider her idea for them to use the Choedan Kal together (The Fires of Heaven, Gateways). She had set up a confrontation with Rand and Sammael which supposedly she, Rahvin and Graendal would use to take Rand (The Fires of Heaven, Prologue and A Silver Arrow). She could present this to Rand as an opportunity for the two of them to kill three of the other Forsaken in one blow with the sa'angreal plural. Whatever her ideas about Rand’s capture, soon she would have pressured him to use the Choedan Kal with her. If he refused to share them with her, she would kill him, or, if she is able to Compel him, then he becomes her slave and they use them together. This is why she had to be removed.

Moiraine does not know anything of the future that comes after she enters the doorway except for one small thing that doesn’t concern Rand, or Lan either. My guess is that it concerns Thom and perhaps indirectly her rescue party.

Moiraine embraces saidar and leaps at Lanfear to push them both through the ter’angreal doorway face to face. Moiraine claws the bracelet away and Lanfear may be burned out as the angreal is ripped from her while she is drawing so much saidar through it. After buzzing a bit, the doorway burned (see Doorway Ter’angreal article). At a booksigning, Jordan explained that the doorway burned in part because both were channelling and the world on the other side of the doorway has a radically different set of natural laws. (Yet channelling is possible in the world of the Aelfinn; after all, Rand made a sword of fire without ill effects when he met them.)

The realm of the Eelfinn is on a different plane of existence from the main world. Moiraine and Lanfear may have torn the connection between the worlds, thus melting the doorway and breaking the Warder bond. A ter’angreal melts if it is overloaded, or misused, or is unable to connect to what it is linked to. For example, the female access key melted after its sa’angreal disintegrated (see Broken Ter’angreal article). The connection between the land of the Eelfinn and the main world was probably snapped when the doorway ter'angreal was destroyed, snapping Moiraine’s bond to Lan as well. Lan could not feel Moiraine anymore, but he could feel Myrelle, and assumed Moiraine was dead. The ter'angreal doorway in Tear connects to a different realm (of the Aelfinn), and the Tower of Ghenjei is closed unless the right mark is made in the right way, so these connections may not have been able to keep Moiraine’s bond to Lan operational when the connection to the Eelfinn’s realm broke. I think that without an open connection between the worlds, the bond breaks. Therefore Lan’s bond transferred to Myrelle because Moiraine was effectively dead as far as the bond was concerned.

I think of the Aelfinn’s world as a tangential world, touching the main WOT universe at only a few points. If you pass through one of these points, such as one of the redstone doorways, you pass through a singularity. So you can't see what happens to you in there, or whether you come back or not, and you certainly can’t see what happens to you after you come back to this world. If you come back.

The Fires of Heaven Read-Through #2: Gang of Four

Gang of Four

by Linda


In the early books there is little information on the Forsaken’s plans. Of course there’s also little information on their weaknesses and disunity either, so that they seem more all powerful and knowledgeable than they really are. The Forsaken appear as demigods at first – with the mythological parallels underpinning their characters well to the fore – to make the male and female heroes more vulnerable and ignorant in comparison. From The Fires of Heaven on, as our heroes gain in knowledge and abilities, the weaknesses of the Forsaken are revealed. This is when the historical parallels of the Forsaken – such as members of the Nazi high command – are more obvious. And lest you think I’m reading too much into the Forsaken here, RJ himself compared the Forsaken to the Nazis on his blog.

During the early part of World War II, the Nazi commanders seemed dangerously malevolent and powerful, yet at the Nuremburg trial, onlookers were struck by their mediocre characters. RJ deliberately de-mythologised the Forsaken to follow this historical example.

Take Graendal as an example. She’s Circe and Aphrodite at first, but by Lord of Chaos she is more like Goering, actually a lot like him, with some Goebbels and even a little Poppaea Sabina and Messalina of Ancient Rome for good measure.
This issue is explored further in Three Strands Common to the Forsaken now released on the Thirteenth Depository, which has a discussion of the similarities of the Forsaken to the Nazis, and a list of the mythological, Nazi and Ancient Roman parallels of the Forsaken, and also in the individual essays on the Forsaken (Lanfear, Graendal, Asmodean and now Sammael have been published so far).

In The Fires of Heaven, a Gang of Four meets to plot against Rand. He will be lured to Illian to attack Sammael and a circle of Rahvin, Graendal and Lanfear will take him.

Graendal needles the others to put them off balance as is her wont, but Lanfear does the same more successfully to goad them into supporting her plan. It’s a curious plan for Lanfear to propose, since she still has hopes of Rand becoming her lover, yet here she is arranging for three other Forsaken to kill him. Or is she? Was she going to nip back to Rand just before kick-off and betray them to him? If so, Moiraine’s actions were in the nick of time. (More on this in a later read-through post.)

Sammael doesn’t believe Asmodean chose to back Rand, because Asmodean never took a chance before. Lanfear says Asmodean set an ambush he thought would put him above other Forsaken and when it failed he chose Rand rather than death.

Rahvin decides information on Rand’s friends companions and allies (The Fires of Heaven, Fanning the Sparks) will be handy. Lanfear later tells Rand that Rahvin sent the Darkhounds to Rhuidean since he sees Rand’s Tairen soldiers as a threat to his ambitions to be King of Cairhien as well as Andor (The Fires of Heaven, Gateways).

In A Silver Arrow Rahvin says he can ensure that Rand goes for Sammael by arranging for someone close to Rand to die plainly at Sammael’s orders. (Rahvin doesn’t want Rand and his enormous and highly skilled forces anywhere near Andor.) This assassination nearly happened: when Mat mentioned Caemlyn, Melindhra attacked him with a knife ornamented with the sigil of Illian. Mat and Rand fell for it, and assumed it was arranged by Sammael but they wanted to get Rahvin first. The attempt did stop Mat from running away, however, and make him decide to fight back for a change:

“Are you dressed for the ride south, Mat?”
Mat shoved a hand into’ his coatpocket, fingering something. He usually kept his dice and dicecup in there. “Caemlyn. I’m tired of them sneaking up on me. I want to sneak up on one of them for a change.”

- The Fires of Heaven, Choices

Sammael wanted to be part of the link because he feared the other three would turn on him. Graendal says Rand would notice since Asmodean would have taught him that much at least. This would fuel Sammael’s keenness to get rid of Asmodean.

Moghedien spied on this second meeting. Ever alert, she sensed Nynaeve and Birgitte doing the same. It was probably Nynaeve she sensed, since Nynaeve didn’t know the trick of masking her ability to channel.

In the Battle for Cairhien, Rand quotes the Duke of Wellington while focussed on Sammael:

Only a battle lost is sadder than a battle won. He seemed to remember saying that before, long ago. Perhaps he had read it.

- The Fires of Heaven, The Lesser Sadness

And like Wellington, he said it after a great and bloody battle. To emphasise the importance of this quote, the chapter is named after it. Linking Rand will Wellington in this way, even hinting that Rand might have been Wellington in a former life (see Rand essay), highlights the many similarities between Sammael and Napoleon. These are described in the Sammael essay now released along with his parallels to other historical figures such as the Nazi military commanders Rommel and Jodl, and Nazi governor Seyss-Inquart, and to mythological figures such as Apollo and Ull.

Ironically, Rand’s belief that Sammael attacked him during the battle for Cairhien may not necessarily be right. It could well have been Rahvin.

The Dragon Reborn Read-through #5 - A Little Something About the Wine: Perrin's Dreams

A Little Something About the Wine: Perrin's Dreams

by Linda

Perrin has a couple of dreams in The Dragon Reborn, Shadows Sleeping. They are not the predictive dreams he has later in the book, but they are crucial nonetheless, particularly since Jordan chose to show little of what the Forsaken are up to.


Dream the First:

Ishamael tries to lure Perrin into giving up the axe. Perrin says not yet.

Murmuring from wolves makes the room flicker, or details chaLnge. The wolves protect Perrin from the dangers of Tel’aran’rhiod, even Ishamael’s weavings to a degree. Only when Perrin forces them away does the dream, controlled by Ishamael, stabilise.

Ishamael wants Perrin to ‘go back to the hammer.‘ I don’t think this means that Ishamael knows that Perrin is the Wolf King and needs to take up the hammer in the Last Days. Ishamael seems to think it is an advantage for him if Perrin goes back to the hammer and what he is after is for Perrin to give up his ta’veren and Bannerman role and return to blacksmithing. Perrin has not got a hammer of his own yet; he will do so later in this book.

Perrin refuses because he is ta’veren and it is his duty to use the axe for a while. Perrin is sure that Ishamael knows he is ta’veren (Perrin doesn't know it, but Ishamael can find ta’veren in the Pattern and may well have the rare Talent of seeing ta’veren.) Ishamael grimaces and suggests Perrin could avoid his duty:

“There are ways to change things, boy. Ways to avoid even fate. Sit, and we will talk of them.”

Symbolically, Perrin takes “a step back, keeping well in the light.” This can be taken on many levels. Throughout this scene, shadows and light levels in the room symbolise the battle between evil (Ishamael) and good (Perrin). For example: "Darkness molded the man [Ishamael] like a caress.”

Ishamael then tries to get Perrin to accept his offer of a drink. With a toast (or vow) "to years past and years to come” and a promise to "see things more clearly after." The blood red wine in a silver cup is meant to seem like a kind of sacrament and is an allusion to the Black Mass. Things made in Tel’aran’rhiod to be ingested can do or taste like pretty much whatever the maker wants. It might have only made Perrin sleep for a hundred years, but it could have made him a tool or a slave or even a devotee of the Dark One. If they wanted to kill Perrin, either Ishamael or Lanfear could have, wolves or no wolves. Both Ishamael and Lanfear are masters of Tel'aran'rhiod. Most likely the wine was to bind Perrin to the Shadow, of his own volition, even if he didn’t know what the consequences of drinking would be. IE he was to freely take what was offered and ingest it. Those consequences being that some things done in Tel'arah'rhiod are stronger than in the real world. I think it's a very bad idea to freely take something the Shadow offers you in Tel'arah'rhiod. Especially something you ingest. It would seal the deal for signing up in Shaitan’s service. And no coercion.

The wine is meant to remind you of Communion wine; only you end up communing, shall we say, with the Shadow. It is thus the antithesis, and a mockery of, Communion wine and therefore similar to something out of the Black Mass. Moiraine tells us that Darkfriends perform rites that are disgusting and depraved, so the Black Mass parallels are there.

It's the symbolism of the act that counts. Drinking a toast with the Shadow is allying yourself with them. Moiraine described Fain as having performed rites in dreams that bound him ever more tightly to the Shadow. Since this was in a dream the deeds were not literally performed; they were symbolic. It was the effect that was real.

Ishamael tried this previously: he offered a cup of wine to the boys in their dreams back in Baerlonin The Eye of the World,. Had any of the boys freely taken what was offered to them by Ishamael (the drink) they would have been tied to the Shadow if not fully (and that's definitely possible, given the Black Mass type parallels), then at least enough to be followed/located easily by various Shadow henchmen or influenced by Ishamael or the Dark One. Ishmael didn't get disappointed for nothing. It was obvious that he hoped to gain something from them drinking.

Having failed with temptation, Ishamael resorts to threats.

Perrin feeling heat as he leaves reminds us of Ishamael’s flaming eyes and mouth, which are often described as furnace like, and of the Pit of Doom/Fires of Hell, etc


Dream the Second:

After Ishamael, Perrin is taken by Lanfear. Was she waiting in line?

The gilded lion helmet she offered him is similar to Macedonian armour in classical times and is a reference to Alexander the Great. There is the hint that Perrin was Alexander the Great in a former incarnation, and could have been led to be Alexander again. This would lead him astray from the Pattern of his life for this Age as Lanfear knew very well. Lanfear is luring him back along that path. And that would weaken Rand's cause and thus aid the Shadow. It didn't work, which is why we haven't seen it again. Lanfear wanted Perrin to go for glory. Wolves aid Perrin in rejecting glory and the helmet.

The axe is linked to Perrin, maybe from past lives, or maybe Lanfear is trying to prevent Perrin from taking up the hammer.

Lanfear puts an image in his mind :

The Horn rang out, and the wild charge began. Death rode at his shoulder, and yet she waited ahead, too. His lover. His destroyer.

Instead of openly trying to get Perrin to turn away from his fate, Lanfear tries to substitute the ‘wrong fate’ in Perrin’s mind:

”You must not listen to those who would try to turn you from your destiny. They would demean you, debase you. Destroy you. Fighting fate can only bring pain. Why choose pain, when you can have glory? When your name can be remembered alongside all the heroes of legend?”
“I am no hero.”
“You don’t know the half of what you are. Of what you can be. Come, share a cup with me, to destiny and glory.”

She too tries to get Perrin to drink, but the wolves aid Perrin again and the cup changes from silver to gold.

Lanfear’s threat is to haunt his dreams like a succubus:

“The night is always there, and dreams come to all men. Especially you, my wildling. And I will always be in your dreams.”

Each Forsaken wants people who serve only them. The more powerful or talented the person, the better. Someone whom the Wheel spun out to be crucial to the Light's cause? Better still. A Forsaken would gain great kudos from that, and also power to affect events to his or her own gain.

Lanfear

By Linda

This essay will deal with the sources I think were used to create Lanfear/Cyndane.


Drilling the Bore

Lanfear was probably one of the most beautiful women of her Age or any other.

- Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time

She was also one of the most powerful channellers, and is forever notorious as the instigator of the catastrophic experiment to drill the Bore into the Dark One’s prison in search of a new source of the Power. Such fatal curiosity in a beautiful woman has a parallel in Greek mythology: Pandora was a beautiful woman upon whom the gods bestowed their choicest gifts. In art, she is typically depicted with red hair, as in the painting right, symbolising her headstrong, fiery nature. She found a jar or vase—the so-called Pandora's box—containing all manner of misery and evil. Pandora opened the jar out of curiosity, and evils flew out over the earth. Only hope remained in the vase (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Similarly, beautiful and powerful Mierin drilled a bore into the Dark One’s prison as part of an experiment, causing initial catastrophe and allowing Shaitan to touch the world again and corrupt it. Jordan gave Lanfear Pandora’s temperament, but the dark colouring of Lasair, the Irish goddess.

Fiery Goddess

Lasair ("Flame"), goddess of spring budding, is the eldest of a triad of Irish goddesses associated with the growing and reaping of crops. Her two younger sisters are summery Inghean Bhuidhe (“Yellow-haired Girl”, a parallel of Graendal) and harvest goddess Latiaran, who was burned due to being distracted (a parallel of Moghedien). Interestingly these three are the last female Forsaken remaining in the Last Battle as the Shadow reaped what it had sown. Lanfear/Cyndane did not contribute much to the Shadow’s efforts but played her own game, an analogue of ‘spring budding’ being long over; Lanfear had done her main job earlier. In A Memory of Light, she returned to pursuing the two men she had manipulated early in the series.
Lasair has a similar appearance to Lanfear: long black hair and silver jewellery, but also a silver crown. As well as her name, another example of her fiery nature is that she lives in Red Castle. Lanfear was noted for her a fiery temper and projected herself as young Selene, a woman in the springtime of her life, to Rand.

Vice Rather Than Virtue

Rand was severely disappointed that Lanfear knew the right way, Virtue, but turned away from it for own ends. To him, that meant she was unworthy of his attentions, and he felt nothing for her in the end. Perrin, however, has a strong theme of choosing between two women, one representing Virtue and the other Vice, in his plotline (see Perrin essay). Faile has always represented Virtue to Perrin, and for a long while Vice was represented by Berelain, until she was forced to behave better, but Lanfear was far more a Vice figure than Berelain and secretly attached herself to Perrin before either woman. The Forsaken wanted a powerful consort to aid her, and Perrin was her second choice after the Dragon. This probably reflects the extent of Perrin's skills and power—second after Rand among all men—considering that Lanfear is ruthless in selecting and claiming what she perceives to be the most powerful mate for herself.

As part of her usual tactic to convince men rather than force them:

"I will not compel you. I have always believed men perform better if convinced rather than forced."

- The Dragon Reborn, Visitations

she told Perrin that with great power he could do great good, but he brushed these manipulations aside (A Memory of Light, The Wyld). Ironically, she did resort to Compelling Perrin—even though she regarded it as cheating:

She glanced at him. "Such an inferior tool," she said, smelling dissatisfied. "I hate having to use it. This makes me no better than Graendal." She shivered. "If they had given me more time, I would have had you fairly."

- A Memory of Light, Light and Shadow

She justified it on the grounds that she didn't have time to seduce Perrin, yet it was done over a year earlier. Her Compulsion was harder to shake off than her temptations, especially in the Underworld where she is a goddess.


Visiting the Elves

When Lanfear went through the doorway ter’angreal, the Eelfinn were bound by the ancient agreement to grant her three wishes (Towers of Midnight, A Rabbit For Supper). The Elfinn and Aelfinn claimed they got the better of Lanfear, though: they told Moiraine they drained Lanfear’s ability to channel, although so quickly they killed her. (Yet as Cyndane she only had a small drop in strength.)

It is possible that in her efforts to be the fairest and strongest of them all, Lanfear may have been previously to the Eelfinn to have wishes granted, and received a ter’angreal or angreal from them that she wore as jewellery.

Matt: …from a beauty perspective can they [the Eelfinn] affect the outer body of some individual?
Brandon: I would say that, yes they can, but they may have to be using some type of ter’angreal or…
Matt: …some item of power?
Brandon: Some item of power, something like that…of which they have great stores…

- The Gathering Storm, book tour

This would be an equivalent of those adventurous or reckless souls of folk tales who visit the elfin or fairy folk for a boon or for fairy treasure. Perhaps this is why Lanfear was certain no woman could be stronger than she without an angreal (Winter’s Heart, With the Choedan Kal), and no wonder her beauty was so extreme as to be ‘almost’ unearthly. Elfin folk, parallels of the Eelfinn, are associated with magic and magical items and with beauty and casting glamour or illusion on people. Lanfear’s item/s of the power thus gained may be her woven silver belt (which would then be equivalent to the girdle of Venus, goddess of love and beauty, making her irresistible in either sense of the word) and/or her moon and stars jewellery that she always wore. Whether she had visited them previously or not, she is strongly linked with the elfin folk, the Sindhol.

Spoiled beauty

The spoiled and ambitious beauty is a common motif in literature as well as in real life. Such people get what they want so easily that they can’t be satisfied. Lanfear’s great beauty and strength in saidar (however acquired) gave her both enlarged ambitions and the possibility of achieving them. She aspired to godhood no less—with the Choedan Kal she hoped to:

supplant the Great Lord himself, challenge the Creator.

- The Fires of Heaven, Gateways

Her plan B was to kill Moiraine, Nynaeve and Rand at Shayol Ghul with Perrin’s aid, seize control of Callandor and earn ultimate power by saving the Dark One (A Memory of Light, Light and Shadow).

A spoiled beauty from literature with a striking resemblance to Lanfear is Milady de Winter from The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas pere. Milady was a venal, violent and vengeful character who remorselessly seduced and destroyed men for personal gain, as was Lanfear. When thwarted, the faces of both women contorted with rage and hatred, evoking terror and horror in those who witnessed their wrath. Milady was a branded felon; Lanfear was a felon who had, in Rand’s words, “let the Dark One attach himself” to her (The Shadow Rising, The Traps of Rhuidean). As a result of their evil natures, both women were scorned by the hero.

Another literary parallel for Lanfear is the very tall, beautiful and strong White Witch of C. S. Lewis’ world Narnia. The witch was the culmination of a long line of increasingly harsh and cruel rulers of the world of Charn. She destroyed Charn, first by loosing world war, and then when she lost, by saying the Deplorable Word, the spell which killed everything in the world except her.

A curious child struck a gong in Charn and awakened the evil witch who manipulated people to bring her to Earth and then to the world of the Narnia (C.S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew). She was the first to rebel in Narnia and became immortal by eating forbidden fruit. It took her a while to gain power over the world, but eventually she made it always winter in Narnia.

In The Wheel of Time, the Deplorable Word is the name of the Dark One, Shaitan. Only Ishamael/Moridin was allowed to say it. Charn was a Da’shain Aiel who worked for Mierin, a very tall, beautiful woman very strong in the One Power whose curiosity led her to drill a hole in the Dark One’s prison, the deplorable deed if you like, and who later became the evil Lanfear. He was a remnant of a time before the War of the Power—a world now dead. After the Bore was drilled, the Age of Legends society became increasingly violent and corrupt. The destruction of Charn by war and magic is similar to that of the Age of Legend’s destruction. In The Wheel of Time, it is the Dark One who fixed the seasons, first to winter then to summer.

There is not a drop of human blood in the White Witch; she is half giant (reflecting Lanfear’s height and strength) and half Jinn. The word Jinn is a link to the Da’shain, who served the Aes Sedai and became Jenn, as well as an allusion to Lanfear’s skill in magic. The White Witch killed Aslan on the Stone Table and was shocked that he returned to life because he was a willing sacrifice who had committed no crime. Rand was a sacrifice for humanity’s salvation and Lanfear wanted to kill him, but Perrin prevented that, burdening himself with the violation of his ethics for Rand's sake (see Wheel of Time and Narnia Parallels article for further parallels).

Petted and admired, beauties are notoriously temperamental. Lanfear’s temper is said to be "uncertain at best” and Lews Therin had to “squelch her little tantrums” (The Fires of Heaven, The First Sparks Fall). But Lanfear could swallow her pride, she claimed: her

pride is strong enough to support a little fat when it must.

- The Shadow Rising, The Traps of Rhuidean

Perhaps to only a small degree, since while it was reasonable for Lanfear to put on a Mask of Mirrors to make herself younger and thus closer to Rand’s age, she resumed the disguise again even after he knew what she really looked like (The Shadow Rising, The Stone Stands). Moreover, as suggested above, even her ‘normal’ appearance was perhaps magic-enhanced.

Even though she had great natural, and maybe unnatural, gifts, Lanfear wanted even more than she could achieve by herself. Lews Therin believed she loved the status he gave her more than she loved him (Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time). When he broke off their relationship, she sought power for herself and control of Lews Therin through the Shadow and all hell broke loose.


The Hell Connection

Lanfear chose her own name because, having missed out on the honorific name, she wasn’t going to risk getting an unflattering Forsaken name. The name Lanfear is similar to l’enfer, which means ‘hell’ in French. ‘Fear’ is included for good measure, since Lanfear is fearsome and terrifying as well as hellish. (Apart from the addition of fear, the French origin of her name also suggests the French phrase femme fatale, and lastly, her strong links with Dumas' character Milady.)

Why hell? There are several good reasons.

When Lanfear:

did pledge her soul to the Dark One, it was for the most basic of reasons: love and hate.

- Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time

William Congreve wrote:

Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.

- The Mourning Bride

Lanfear is the scorned woman par excellence, as she herself is aware. While disguised as Keille Shaogi, Lanfear said to Rand:

"I have a feeling that you know something of the dangers of scorning a woman.”

And then to Mat, while laughing at Rand:

"Scorn a woman’s offer, and perhaps she thinks nothing of it, but perhaps”—and she made a skewering motion—“the knife. A lesson any man can learn. Eh, my Lord Dragon?”

- The Shadow Rising, An Offer Refused

Rand completely missed her double talk, since he did not know at that stage that Keille was Lanfear in disguise. Lanfear’s thwarted love for Lews Therin and fury at being rejected impelled her to the Dark One—and to hell.

The Scandinavians had a goddess called Hel, named after the underworld she ruled (Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology). The Northern French term for the Wild Hunt, "Mesneé d'Hellequin," was named after Hel because it was believed that anyone who encountered the Wild Hunt would be brought to her land of the dead. Her realm was guarded by the huge dog Garmr, who will fight Tyr (a parallel of Rand, see Rand essay) at Ragnarok and they will kill each other. Wolf King Perrin fought in the Last Hunt against the Darkhounds and hound of the Shadow Isam, and then met Lanfear at Shayol Ghul. She planned that they would take over and destroy Rand’s party. She thought she had Perrin as her dog, but instead, he turned on her. At the end, Rand was (partially) killed and so was Moridin.

Another figure with a hell-ish name is Hellawes, a witch in the Arthur myths. She was Lady of the Castle Nigramous (black magic, necromancy) who tried to win Lancelot’s love but was rejected (Thomas Mallory, Morte d’Arthur). Hellawes would rather have had Lancelot as a dead lover, a hint of her necrophiliac tendencies, than live without him. He escaped her and she died of unrequited passion. Rand publicly rejected Lanfear at the docks of Cairhien (The Fires of Heaven, Choices), and Moiraine removed her from the world to the realms of the Elfinn folk. Had she not done so, Lanfear would have killed Rand, or enslaved him with Compulsion, or with seduction in his dreams. Lanfear was killed by Moridin when he rescued her from the *Finns. Note that Hellawes contains the word hell.

With her incredible beauty and strength in saidar, her thirst for power and her rage, Lanfear surely is one hell of a woman—in all senses of the phrase.

How ironic then that Lanfear/Cyndane claimed she was being punished with torments by Shaitan (Satan) or his avatar Shaidar Haran, or his regent, the ‘demonic’ Moridin:

He grinds my bones and snaps them like twigs, then leaves me to die before Healing me just enough to keep me alive. He—" She cut off, jerking.
"What?"
Her eyes opened wide and she spun toward the wall. "No!" she screamed. "He comes! The Shadow in every man's mind, the murderer of truth. No!" She spun, reaching for Rand, but something towed her backward. The wall broke away, and she tumbled into the darkness.

- Towers of Midnight, Epilogue

The goddess of Hell was apparently suffering as though she were one of the damned being tortured by the demons in Hell.

In Greek mythology Thanatos (Death, a parallel of Moridin), son of Nyx (Night) and Erebos (Darkness)

has a heart of iron, and his spirit within him is pitiless as bronze: whomsoever of men he has once seized he holds fast: and he is hateful even to the deathless gods.

- Hesiod, Theogony

He is loathed for his mercilessness to mortals and immortals alike. The Dark One and Shaidar Haran have been harsh on the Forsaken that displease them, but Moridin, too, was prepared to punish Graendal in Towers of Midnight, Writings, and was described by Moghedien as meting out horrific tortures. Moridin described Cyndane as “the one who is punished most” (A Memory of Light, Prologue).

Thanatos was due to take the soul of the woman Alkestis to Hades, the Underworld, but the Greek hero Heracles (a parallel of Rand) overpowered Thanatos and rescued her from his clutches. Rand thought that much, if not all, of Lanfear’s dramatic sufferings was an act, including her pleas that “he has claimed me” (A Memory of Light, A Shard of a Moment).

Lanfear’s punishment of daily torture followed by Healing is also reminiscent of Prometheus. He was a Titan who tricked Zeus into choosing the bones wrapped in fat as the standard sacrifice to the gods rather than the meat, allowing humanity to keep the meat for themselves. When Zeus took fire away from humanity as punishment, Prometheus stole it and gave it back to them. Prometheus was condemned to have his liver gouged out by an eagle each day and healed each night as punishment. Many years later, Heracles killed the eagle and set Prometheus free. Zeus punished humanity, too, for receiving fire from Prometheus by sending Pandora (another parallel of Lanfear) to live among them. As described above, her curiosity led her to let loose evil into the world.

In both these myths Heracles sets the sufferer free. Rand was not convinced by Cyndane’s performance that she was being tormented. She may have been suffering, but it was also at least in part a trick, just as Prometheus tricked Zeus. Either way, she was luring Rand.

There was a goddess of love and war who made a famous journey to the Underworld.

Attempted Underworld Takeover

Inanna was the goddess of love (but not marriage) and warfare, and the most prominent female goddess of Mesopotamia. Her name is derived from Nin-anna, Queen of Heaven. (The Akkadian goddess Ishtar is often equated with Inanna.) One of the symbols associated with Inanna is the two twisted reeds of the door post. Inanna is noted for her descent into the underworld, which in Sumerian myth was a one-way ticket for everyone except official messengers—even Ereshkigal, queen of the underworld and sister of Inanna, could not leave. Inanna had no intentions of staying there and as a back-up had instructed her aide Ninshubur to plead with three gods, Enlil, Sin and Enki, to save her if necessary. The goddess dressed up for the occasion, which is just as well, since at each stage along her journey she had to hand over a valuable piece of jewellery or garment. These items were imbued with her power, so she was weakening herself by doing so. By the time Inanna reached her sister Ereshkigal, she was naked. Undeterred, she made Ereshkigal get off her throne and sat down in her place. Ereshkigal and her underworld judges delivered a judgment against Inanna and she was killed.

Lanfear planned to become the highest, to become a dark goddess, or at least the Naeblis. However, going through the twisted redstone doorway into the hellish otherworld of the *Finns was ironically not part of her plans. The *Finns can only leave their world and enter the main world for a short while and distance. Moiraine was stripped naked by them, so Lanfear may have been too. The Eelfinn drained Lanfear’s channelling ability, weakening her somewhat (but were interrupted by Moridin before they got very far). Lanfear was killed and her soul was transferred into a new body.

Ninshubur went to Enlil, Sin/Nanna and Enki in turn as instructed, but only Enki agreed to do anything. Enlil and Sin said that Inanna was power-hungry and had over-reached:

In his rage father Enlil answered Ninshubur: "My daughter craved the great heaven and she craved the great below as well. Inanna craved the great heaven and she craved the great below as well. The divine powers of the underworld are divine powers which should not be craved, for whoever gets them must remain in the underworld. Who, having got to that place, could then expect to come up again?"

- Inanna’s Descent into The Underworld

Enki created two figures and told them to appease Ereshkigal and ask only for Inanna’s corpse, which they were to revive with a sacred plant and water. When they arrived in front of Ereshkigal she was in agony and offered them anything if they would make the pain go. They obtained Inanna’s corpse as payment for easing Ereshkigal’s pain as instructed and revived it, but by the laws of the underworld Inanna couldn’t leave unless someone took her place. She decided to sacrifice her lover, Dumuzi, since he was not mourning her death. (The haughty Inanna was known for ill-treating her lovers.) Dumuzi was taken to the underworld, although in some versions of the myth he spent six months in the underworld and six months in the land of the living as an explanation of the seasons.

Moridin and the Dark One were most displeased with Lanfear, and judged her to be disobedient and to be damaging the Shadow’s plans (quite true), which is why she was killed after Moridin rescued her—or so he could rescue her—from the underworld of the *Finns. No one pleaded for Lanfear’s rescue the way Mesaana and Demandred pleaded to Moridin for the death goddess Semirhage to be rescued. Or perhaps they asked Moridin to help free Semirhage because they deduced he had saved Lanfear.

In one way, love/war goddess Inanna and death goddess Ereshkigal show the rivalry between Lanfear and Semirhage that Mesaana noted in Lord of Chaos, Prologue, but Inanna and Ereshkigal also represent both of Lanfear’s personas. Lanfear was a war and love goddess, and Cyndane was bound to Moridin, Death, experienced agony at his hands, and was held apart from the other Forsaken.

The ending of Inanna’s underworld journey refers to Lanfear's attack on Shayol Ghul and plans to supplant the Dark One. To achieve this, she would sacrifice her former love Rand; she wanted to kill him because he didn’t love her and couldn’t be coerced into being her consort while she ruled the world as a Dark goddess.

The reader is left with the feeling that Inanna’s attempted power coup was always doomed, and the same for Lanfear. Had she succeeded in making Rand bow to her and saved the Dark One, what then? Would Shaitan had made her the highest of the high as she expected she could negotiate? Would this have been the ultimate example of her seductive power? Or would the Dark One have killed her because he believed that she would try to oust him in the future? Enlil and Sin were right: Inanna over-reached herself; and so did Lanfear. Both thought mainly of themselves and their ambitions.

Hell, the underworld, is associated in mythology with night, magic and the moon, as is Lanfear, Daughter of the Night and very powerful channeller. The moon and moon goddesses will now be described further.


Oh Silvery Moon – Moon Associations

In astrology, the moon is associated with the colour white and the metal silver (William Lilly, Christian Astrology, 1647). Lanfear was:

usually seen wearing gowns of purest white, often accented with a woven silver belt and jewellery in moon and star motifs.

- Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time

Her chapter icon (found in The Dragon Reborn, The Shadow Rising and The Fires of Heaven) is a crescent moon and stars and her seal is the same in white wax (The Great Hunt, The Shadow in the Night). So Lanfear, with her hair like "waterfalls of night” (The Shadow Rising, Decisions), her “eyes as dark as night” (The Great Hunt, First Claiming) and her preference for white and silver, is strongly linked to the moon.

The people of earlier times believed that the moon was associated with, well, lunacy. Hippocrates said that moonlight caused nightmares, while Plutarch wrote that sleeping in moonlight would result in insanity. Lanfear used her skill with dreams and the World of Dreams to drive people to madness and suicide in the Age of Legends (Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time).

The moon has no light of its own; it reflects that of the sun, just as Lanfear basked in reflected glory from Lews Therin (the Lord of the Morning) to the extent that Lews Therin believed she loved the status he gave her more than she loved him (Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time). Interestingly, Lanfear was supplanted in Lews Therin’s affections by Ilyena Sunhair (the epithet is from The Eye Of The World Prologue). In many mythologies, the sun is the opposite/rival of the moon. This also shows the strong compatibility between Lews Therin (Lord of the Morning) and Ilyena Sunhair, since they both have solar parallels.

The moon in ancient Greek mythology was personified as a three-fold goddess, each corresponding to the three phases of the moon and the three spheres of influence the ancients recognised:

• The new and crescent moon was depicted in the form of a maiden or virgin and was associated with the heavens (Selene).



• The moon waxing to fullness was an image of fertility in nature and was associated with the earth (Diana/Artemis/Cynthia, the huntress).



• The moon waning to darkness corresponded to the underworld and was portrayed as a witch or crone (Hecate.)

These Greco-Roman moon goddesses (e.g., Diana, Selene, or Hecate):

were associated with the performance of malevolent magic that took place at night.

- Encyclopaedia Britannica

Lanfear also did a lot of her malevolent work at night: sending Rand to another world while he slept by the Portal Stone (The Great Hunt, Woven In The Pattern), luring Rand to her in his dreams, and forcing people out of their dreams and into Tel’aran’rhiod to kill or Compel them (Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time).


Artemis/Diana

Taking the most well-known moon goddess first, Diana/Artemis is also well-known as goddess of fertility and the hunt. One of her favourites was Orion, a handsome giant who was temporarily blinded, and whom she killed (Bullfinch’s Mythology). Lanfear’s favourite was Lews Therin/Rand, a probable parallel of Orion, since Perrin had a viewing of Rand with a bandage over his eyes:

It was Rand. Perrin thought it was Rand. He wore rags and a rough cloak, and a bandage covered his eyes.

- The Shadow Rising, To the Tower of Ghenjei

Lanfear also studied Lews Therin:

as a dedicated hunter might study the life and habits of her prey.

- Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time

The Greeks also sometimes called Artemis Cynthia from her birthplace on Mount Cynthus on Delos. The name Cynthia is similar to Cyndane, Lanfear’s current incarnation. Cyndane had silver hair (The Path of Daggers, New Alliances), a colour associated with the moon, but she was short (since Lanfear was cut down to size) and had to wear Moridin’s livery of red and black, not her own white and silver.


Selene

Selene was the pseudonym adopted by Lanfear, according to Robert Jordan’s The World of the Wheel of Time. In Ancient Greece, Selene was goddess of the crescent moon:

She was worshipped at the new and full moons and was usually represented as a woman with the moon (often in crescent form) on her head… Selene is most identified with the beautiful youth Endymion, whom she loved and who was cast into eternal sleep in a cave on Mount Latmus; there, Selene visited him while he slept. A common form of the myth represents Endymion as having been put to sleep by Selene herself so that she might enjoy his beauty undisturbed.

- Encyclopaedia Britannica

There are a couple of parallels here. Lanfear had a liking for crescent moon motifs in jewellery, and she also visited Rand as he slept. Egwene dreamt of an evil woman with eyes that "seemed to shine like the moon" (Lanfear) standing over Rand (a parallel of Endymion, see Rand essay) as he lay sleeping by the Portal Stone (The Great Hunt, Woven in the Pattern). Lanfear also visited Rand in his dreams in the Aiel Waste (The Shadow Rising, Traps) and was going to use her control of him in Tel’aran’rhiod to enslave him.

And now for the moon goddess in her most hellish aspect: Hecate.


Hecate

Hecate was a divinity of the underworld (hell) in Ancient Greece. She predated the Olympians and in one myth (the Bacchylides Fragment 1B) was the daughter of Erebus and Nyx, goddess of the night, so she was literally ‘daughter of the night’, which is the meaning of Lanfear’s name (and presumably a sibling of Thanatos, Death (Moridin)). Even when Zeus and the other Olympians took over, she retained her powers. She was believed to bestow good fortune and glory as she pleased (Carlos Parada, Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology). Lanfear’s temper was just as ‘uncertain’.

Hecate was goddess of the night, magic (witchcraft), the waning moon, the underworld and crossroads (Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology) and was associated with infernal spirits. Originally, she was depicted as a young goddess of both beauty and power, carrying a torch and wearing a headdress of stars. Lanfear also had great beauty and power in magic, and wore jewellery with moon and star motifs. Until the scene at the docks in Cairhien when she accepted Rand’s/Lews Therin’s rejection, she ‘carried a torch’ for Lews Therin. The *Finns are infernal spirits as we saw in Towers of Midnight.

In later Greek myths, Hecate was a dark and terrifying hag of the dead, often with three heads. Lanfear was beautiful as well as dark and terrifying, and, as Lanfear and Cyndane, was two-fold rather than triple-headed.

At night during the dark moon, Hecate was believed to carry torches as she roamed the roads with her howling black dogs (one of the sources for Darkhounds, see Darkhounds essay). Offerings were made to her at crossroads, which were sacred to her (Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology). Crossroads were also seen as dangerous places full of evil magic, and in later times suicides and criminals were buried there. In The Wheel of Time series, howling black dogs and crossroads are linked to the Dark One.

In the Greek underworld, Hecate also kept company with the Furies.


Since hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, what about the Furies?

The Furies (Erinyes) were dark, powerful figures in the underworld of Ancient Greece that punished the guilty, hounding them to madness and despair (Nonnos, Dionysiaca). Lanfear drove a great many people to suicide or madness in the War of the Power through their dreams (Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time), and in the Third Age, it was probably she who drove Masema from zealotry to insanity through his dreams. Her Compulsion of Perrin probably added to his internal conflicts over duty versus love, and his humanity versus his animal nature.

In the plays of Aeschylus, the Furies were the daughters of Nyx (the Night); in those of Sophocles, they were the daughters of Darkness and of Gaea. Euripides was the first to speak of them as three in number. Later writers named them Alecto (“Unceasing in Anger”), Tisiphone (“Avenger of Murder” or “Voice of Revenge”), and Megaera (“Jealous”). They especially hounded and punished those guilty of crimes against blood-relatives.

- Encyclopaedia Britannica

Appropriate then, that furious, jealous Lanfear had Lews Therin Kinslayer in her sights. However her attempts to manipulate his reincarnation, Rand, failed.

Another vengeful and demonic parallel for Lanfear is Lilith.


The Other Woman

In Hebrew mythology, Lilith was Adam’s first wife, and from their union:

sprang Asmodeus and innumerable demons that still plague mankind.

- Hebrew Myth, Robert Graves and Raphael Patai

Lilith was made of dust as Adam was and claimed this made her his equal. He disagreed and they quarrelled until:

Lilith, in a rage, uttered the magic name of God, rose into the air and left him.

- Hebrew Myth, Robert Graves and Raphael Patai

Adam complained to God that Lilith had deserted him and God sent angels:

to fetch Lilith back. They found her beside the Red Sea, a region abounding in lascivious demons, to whom she bore lilim at the rate of more than a hundred a day.

- Hebrew Myth, Robert Graves and Raphael Patai

She refused to return to Adam saying that it was her task to kill infants, though she would spare any with a protective amulet. God:

punished Lilith by making one hundred of her demon children perish daily; and if she could not destroy a human infant, because of the angelic amulet, she would spitefully turn against her own.

- Hebrew Myth, Robert Graves and Raphael Patai

Since Adam was left without a mate, God then took one of Adam’s ribs and formed it into Eve. In some versions of the myth, Lilith took exception to Eve:

it is said Lilith became the enemy of Eve, instigator of illicit loves, disturber of unions.

- Kabbalah And Its Symbolism, G. C. Scholem

Lilith escaped the curse of death which overtook Adam and Eve, because she left Adam before the Fall (Hebrew Myths, Robert Graves and Raphael Patai).

Lilith not only kills infants, she also seduces dreaming men by giving them erotic dreams. She is titled Queen of Demons or Queen of the Night, and is the equivalent of Lamashtu (Mesopotamia), who kills children, drinks the blood of men, disturbs sleep and brings nightmares, and of Lamia (Ancient Greece), a beautiful woman from the waist up and a serpent from the waist down, who kills children, seduces sleeping men, and enchants her victims with glamour and illusion. (Female demons who take on a human female form to seduce men in their dreams are succubi (sing. succubus). Many cultures have stories of such creatures.)

According to G. C. Scholem, Lilith:

is bound in the greatest depths of the Sea, and abjurations are made to keep her there so she can’t come back to disturb the lives of men and women.

- Kabbalah And Its Symbolism

There are many parallels between Lanfear and Lilith, although Lanfear is derived from Lilith’s role of the ‘other woman’ and not her role as a Dark Mother.

• Lanfear was Lews Therin’s love before Ilyena, as Lilith was Adam’s first wife (see Lews Therin essay). Lanfear could not bear Lews Therin marrying another woman and did her best to disturb their union, as Lilith did to Adam and Eve in some versions of the myth. Lanfear disrupted the wedding ceremony and publicly blamed Ilyena for stealing him from her (Robert Jordan’s The World Of The Wheel Of Time).



• In the Age of Legends, Lanfear wasn’t considered Lews Therin’s equal—she never earned the coveted third name and Lews Therin himself thought that Lanfear loved the status he gave her more than she loved him (Robert Jordan’s The World Of The Wheel Of Time). When Lanfear revealed herself to Rand in Tear, she made sure to establish her superiority:
  
  

  ”Whatever you can do, Lews Therin, I can do. And better.”
  
  - The Shadow Rising, The Stone Stands
  
  

  However in The Wheel of Time series, Lanfear didn’t leave Lews Therin, he scorned Lanfear instead, due to his disgust over her ambition. Rand, too, rejected Lanfear publicly, causing her anguish and then rage. She didn’t storm off and refuse to return, but was pushed by Moiraine into another world, where she was trapped. This reversal of the myth links the story with the scorned woman motif described above and thus the Hell connection.



• Lilith utters the secret name of God, but Lanfear was not allowed to say the true name of the Dark One, because that would be blasphemy (The Shadow Rising, Decisions).



• Lanfear is linked to Asmodeus/Asmodean: she teamed up with Asmodean to try to bring Rand to the Shadow in The Shadow Rising.



• There is no parallel with Lilith’s demon offspring and infanticide, although Lanfear uses her magic powers to spread evil and has a reputation amongst the other Forsaken of spitefulness and an uncertain temper. It was because Lews Therin’s and Lanfear’s relationship ended that Lanfear went to the Shadow and contributed to the evil that plagued people for three thousand years.



• Like Lilith, Lanfear was immortal, although this was a gift of the Dark One, whom she ultimately joined because Lews Therin left her.



• Lanfear visited people in their dreams. In the Aiel Waste, she entered Rand’s dream to seduce him and wanted to make him enjoy the dream so much he would never forget (The Shadow Rising, Traps.) This is reminiscent of Lilith and the Lamia seducing men in their dreams and enchanting them, and is also a parallel to Selene described above.
  
  She was able to lure Rand to her even though his dream was warded:
  
  

  No, this was one of his own ordinary dreams. He controlled them now. They were a place he could find peace to think, protected by wards while his body slept beside Min in their new camp, surrounded by Borderlanders, set up on the Field of Merrilor...
  He closed his eyes, enjoying tranquility. Calmness. Harmony.
  In the distance, he heard screams of pain.
  Rand opened his eyes. What had that been? He stood up, spinning. This place was created of his own mind, protected and safe. It couldn't—
  The scream came again. Distant. He frowned and raised a hand. The scene around him vanished, puffing away into mist. He stood in blackness.
  There, he thought. He was in a long corridor of dark wood paneling. He walked down it, boots thumping. That screaming. It shook his peace. Someone was in pain. They needed him...
  How had this woman gotten into his dream? Was she someone real, or was this a creation of his mind? He laid a hand on her shoulder...
  Rand jumped forward, reaching for her, but he was too late. He caught a glimpse of her before she vanished into the blackness below.
  Rand froze, staring into that pit. He sought calmness, but he could not find it. Instead, he felt hatred, concern, and—like a seething viper within him—desire. That had been Mierin Eronaile...
  
  - Towers of Midnight, Epilogue
  
  

  It is telling of Lanfear's seductive abilities that although in a new and, to Rand, unrecognisable body, Cyndane inspired concern and desire in Rand. However Rand was more sceptical and resistant the next time she tried it.



• Like Lamashtu, Lanfear gave bad dreams—in the Age of Legends, she drove people to madness and suicide with her manipulation of their dreams and the World of Dreams, so that people feared going to sleep (Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time). It was probably Lanfear who manipulated Masema with visions or dreams (The Gathering Storm, Prologue).



• Lanfear was bound in the Bore in an endless dreamless sleep, unable to disturb the dreams of people (The Dragon Reborn, Daughter of the Night), just as Lilith is described as bound deep in the Sea in some versions of the myth.

There is one important change to the Lilith-Eve myth: Lanfear’s decision to drill into the Bore (with Beidomon’s assistance) to find a single Power men and women could both use, combines the ambition of Lilith with the fatal curiosity of Eve eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.


Dreams and Arianrhod

Lanfear’s domain was the world of dreams, Tel’aran’rhiod, as well as peoples’ dreams. The name Tel’aran’rhiod was derived from Arian Rhod (“silver wheel”—a link to the moon) of Welsh mythology, who lived in Caer Arianrhod. (In his White Goddess and early handwritten notes, Jordan conceived of Arianrhod—later to be Tel’aran’hiod—as a castle or prison where people wait to be reborn, a frigid place, and representing his theme of Death in life and Life in death.)

Arian Rhod was tested for her virginity by her uncle Math ap Mathonwy, the King of Gwynedd, during which she spontaneously gave birth to Llew Llaw Gyffes, parallel of Lews Therin, and Dylan, a sea spirit. Dylan soon left for the sea and and Lew was kept in a box and raised by Arianrhod’s brother, Gwydion. Angry at her humiliation, Arianrhod wanted to control Llew and put a geas (obligation or compulsion) on him so that only she could name him or arm him with a sword. she repeatedly tried to kill Llew, but he was almost impossible to kill: he could only be killed neither by day nor night, indoors nor out of doors, riding nor walking, clothed nor naked, nor by any weapon lawfully made. He was tricked into assuming this vulnerable position and slain.

Llew Llaw Gyffe’s virgin birth foreshadows Lews Therin Telamon’s prophesied rebirth born to a maiden, and his containment in a box Rand’s imprisonment in a box by the Aes Sedai. Lanfear wanted to use Lews Therin to increase her status and wanted to control Rand too by baiting him to use the Power and also to declare himself the Dragon Reborn. She also considered seducing him in his dreams so he would “never forget” her. Furious at Lews Therin’s and Rand’s rejections, Lanfear wanted to kill Rand/Lews Therin (they are equated in her mind). Her ultimate trap was to try and kill Rand when Rand was in the Pit of Doom (neither indoors nor outdoors), during an eclipse (neither day nor night), while standing and using the One Power and True Power as a weapon (drawn indirectly through Moridin and Callandor).


Medea

Medea was a witch in Greek mythology and a priestess of Hecate, a major parallel of Lanfear (see above). She was the wife of the Ancient Greek hero Jason and aided Jason on his quest. When Jason made an army of warriors by sowing dragon’s teeth in a field, Medea told him how to distract them so that they fought each other. She gave Jason a narcotic potion to make the dragon guarding the Golden Fleece fall asleep so Jason could steal the treasure. This is a parallel of her partnership with Asmodean to enslave the Dragon Reborn (see Asmodean essay) and of her relationship with Rand (and Lews Therin). Asmodean imprinted the dragon tattoos on Couladin’s forearms to distract Rand while Asmodean raided Rhuidean for the male Choedan Kal access key, a treasure as great as the Golden Fleece. As a result, the Aiel, Children of the Dragon, fought each other over whether Rand was their Car’a’carn.

Jason and Medea visited Circe, Medea’s aunt, a parallel of Graendal (see Graendal essay). Circe aided them, unlike the more-deadly Graendal who ambushed Asmodean. Cyndane and Lanfear both met with Graendal to get her cooperation.

When Jason betrayed Medea for another woman, she was furious and wanted revenge, just as Lanfear felt betrayed and scorned by Lews Therin and then by Rand when they rejected her. She was also furious with Asmodean when he started balking at her plan to manipulate Rand.

Medea healed the Greek hero Heracles (a former Argonaut and a parallel of Rand, see Rand essay) after he killed Iphitus, the son of the king of Oechalia. Lanfear Healed Rand a couple of times in The Great Hunt after he was wounded by Ishamael, and also reluctantly Healed Perrin (A Memory of Light, The Way of the Predator).


Lanfear, Rand and Moiraine

The situation of Moiraine protecting Rand from being enslaved by Lanfear has a parallel from Greek mythology. Calypso was a nymph who became enamoured of Ulysses/Odysseus when he landed on her isle. She wanted to make him immortal and keep him with her forever, but she was forced to let him go. Telemachus, Ulysses’ son also landed on Calypso’s isle while on a search for Ulysses. Calypso fancied him, too, and offered him immortality if he would stay with her. However, Minerva, who in the shape of Mentor accompanied Telemachus, encouraged him to repel her advances. When they couldn’t stop Calypso, Mentor and Telemachus leaped from a cliff into the sea and swam to a ship (Bulfinch’s Mythology).

Lanfear was enamoured of both Lews Therin Telamon and Rand; she offered the latter immortality and to rule the world at her side. In order to prevent Lanfear from controlling Rand, Moiraine, his mentor, leaped upon Lanfear and drove them both through the redstone door ter’angreal.


History Turning to Legend

A major parallel for the Age of Legends is the ancient Roman Republic with Lews Therin Telamon, the last ruler of the Age of Legends, an analogue of both the last King of Ancient Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus and, even more importantly, the last ruler of the Roman Republic and most acclaimed man of that time, Julius Caesar. Both men were closely involved with notorious women, Tullia and Cleopatra respectively, who contributed to their downfalls and have strong parallels to Lanfear.


Tullia

Tullia was the younger daughter of Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome. Servius arranged for his daughters to be married to the two sons (or grandsons, the histories are uncertain) of his predecessor and father-in-law, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus. Tullia Minor married Aruns, and her older sister married Lucius. However, Lucius and Tullia found they had much in common and arranged the murder of their respective siblings; they then married.

Being ambitious, Tullia persuaded Lucius Tarquinius to have her father killed and usurp the throne. On her way home, she encountered her father’s body lying in the street and ran her chariot over it to despoil it. For this action, she was forever infamous in Ancient Rome. Tarquinius’ reign lasted many years but was regarded by the Ancient Romans as a tyranny that justified the abolition of the monarchy. Tarquinius’ family was exiled and the republic founded, so Tarquinius Superbus was the last king of Ancient Rome. Tullia was cursed by the populace as she left because of her role in the murder of her father.

Lanfear was Lews Therin’s love before Ilyena, although he broke off the relationship before he met his future wife because he believed that Lanfear loved the status of being his lover far more than loved him. The rejected lover did not take this well and tried to replace Ilyena, whom she regarded as having stolen her position. Lanfear was forever infamous as the one who drilled into the Bore, and also for her crimes once she joined the Shadow in her rage at being the woman scorned. Unlike the other Forsaken, who were given unflattering names by the populace and adopted them in pride, she chose her own new name. Lews Therin was a kinslayer as well as the last ruler of the Age of Legends. It was Rand and also Perrin that Lanfear tried to manipulate into gaining power for her in the Third Age, and she also contemplated usurping the Dark One, but we don’t know what tricks she tried on Lews Therin in the Second Age.

Cleopatra

Caesar’s lover, Cleopatra VII, the last of the Pharaohs, has much in common with Lanfear. Cleopatra was the:

Egyptian queen famous in history and drama, lover of Julius Caesar and later the wife of Mark Antony. She became queen on the death of her father, Ptolemy XII, in 51 BC, ruling successively with her two brothers Ptolemy XIII (51–47 BC) and Ptolemy XIV (47–44 BC) and her son Ptolemy XV Caesar (44–30)… Her ambition no less than her charm actively influenced Roman politics at a crucial period, and she came to represent, as did no other woman of antiquity, the prototype of the romantic femme fatale.

- Encyclopaedia Britannica

In keeping with his theme of history changing over time to myth, Jordan has used both the history and the legends surrounding Cleopatra to develop Lanfear.

Cleopatra came into power young, at 18. The Cleopatra of myth is a dark, glamorous queen of devastating beauty, while the real Cleopatra was highly intelligent, ruthless and not even particularly pretty. Lanfear is a blend of the two: being dark, incredibly beautiful and ruthless. As a very strong channeller, she, too, came into power young.

Cleopatra had a very compelling voice and used it to great effect to charm, flatter and persuade. Lanfear used Compulsion and her skill in Tel’aran’rhiod to get others to do her bidding.

Cleopatra dreamed of becoming the Empress of the world and almost did so. Her favourite oath was said to be: "As surely as I shall yet dispense justice on the Roman Capitol." Lanfear wanted to be Naeblis or, better yet, use the Choedan Kal to challenge the Dark One and the Creator, and finally settled on taking over Rand’s group at Shayol Ghul, killing them and saving the Dark One.


When Caesar arrived in Egypt, Cleopatra was excluded from the talks by her co-ruler Ptolemy XIII. Determined to be in on any deals, legend has it that she had herself smuggled into Caesar's presence rolled up inside an oriental carpet (in reality it was bedding). When the rug was unrolled, she captivated Caesar and they became lovers that night. Appropriately, Graendal sneeringly said that Lanfear would:

"have stretched out at his [Lews Therin’s] feet if he said ‘rug’."

- The Shadow Rising, Prologue

Cleopatra sought power and the restoration of the dominions of the first Ptolemies from Caesar. Caesar sought money from her. Lews Therin differs from Caesar here in being used rather than using in return. He believed Lanfear loved the status he gave her more than she loved himself.

Cleopatra committed crimes: her mercenaries killed the Roman governor of Syria's sons when they came to ask for her assistance for their father against the Parthians; she had her consort and brother, Ptolemy XIV, assassinated; and she asked Antony to have her sister Arsinoe killed. Lanfear committed far more crimes.

Some time after the assassination of Caesar, Cleopatra captivated another man, Mark Antony, and subtly exploited his unsophisticated and unstable character. Lanfear tried to do the same to Rand, who was also unstable (due to the taint) and unsophisticated, but thanks to Moiraine she did not succeed, and did Compel Perrin, but he broke free of it at the last.

The Lanfear/Cleopatra parallel is an important one, not just in showing how history repeats itself, but also in showing the consequences if events had been allowed to take their course. Moiraine saw from the rings in Rhuidean that Rand could end up enslaved by Lanfear, or killed by her. In some legends, it was Caesar’s relationship with Cleopatra that was a factor in his assassination. Cleopatra enslaved Antony, ultimately leading to both their deaths, with her inciting him to kill himself. Besotted with Cleopatra, Antony forgot about his wife and his planned military campaign in Parthia and returned:

as Cleopatra's slave to Alexandria, where he treated her not as a “protected” sovereign but as an independent monarch.

- Encyclopaedia Britannica

Twins were born to Cleopatra and Antony: a boy, Ptolemy Helios (Helios being a solar god) and a girl, Cleopatra Selene (!). (Interestingly Rand, analogue of the unconquered sun, has fathered twin boy and girl with sunny-natured, golden-haired Queen Elayne). In this Age, Lanfear was determined to be Rand’s equal or superior. She also wanted to make sure that Rand completely forgot about his role as the Light’s champion and also his love of Elayne and Aviendha (and Min, if she had known). However, Lanfear has never been interested in children. And of course, she disguised herself as a young woman named Selene in the early books. It was only by remembering his love for his wife that Perrin was able to break her Compulsion.

After the Roman armies of Octavian (the future emperor Augustus) defeated their combined forces, Cleopatra realized that she and Antony were doomed. She could neither kill Antony nor exile him, but she believed that if he could be induced to kill himself for love of her, they would both win undying renown (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Lanfear planned to use Rand to obtain ultimate power for the pair of them. However, Moiraine’s bravery derailed Lanfear’s plans and Rand was freed of her influence. Thwarted in her first plan, Lanfear then tried to use Perrin to help her kill Rand’s group at Shayol Ghul so she could gain ultimate power from the Dark One.


Mierin Eronaile (Lanfear’s original name):

While Mierin is similar to the real-world place name Mierini in Latvia, it may also refer to Muirenn, of Irish mythology. She was the one of the Sidhe, or ‘fairy folk’ and was often called ‘Muirne of the White Neck.’ Muirenn fell in love with Cumhaill, a young warrior in the Fianna, the bodyguard of the High King of Ireland, and refused to leave him and return to the Otherworld. In the Age of Legends, Lanfear was an Aes Sedai; Jordan derived their name from the Sidhe. Lanfear turned her life upside down for love and she, too, had beautiful white skin and went to the Otherworld of the Eelfinn 'fairy folk'.

Eronaile may be a reference to the Erinyes, the Furies, as described above, and also to Erin, Ireland, and the Celtic origins of Mierin/Muirenn.


Keille Shaogi

In the Waste, Lanfear disguised herself as a fat Darkfriend called Keille Shaogi (in The Shadow Rising and again in The Fires of Heaven). Her name has interesting allusions. Keille is similar to ‘kill’. Liu Shaogi was the Chinese Communist party organiser and Mao’s second in command for more than 20 years. The name thus hints at Lanfear’s plans to ruthlessly manipulate Rand and Asmodean.


Silvie

Silvie appeared at Egwene’s side in Tel’aran’rhiod in The Dragon Reborn, Tel’aran’rhiod, to see what she was up to and to influence her. She was obviously one of the Forsaken in disguise—one that had strong ties to the White Tower. With her ancient, ugly, hag-like appearance (reminiscent of Hecate) and her name being so close to ‘silver,’ it is likely she was Lanfear.


Cyndane’s parallels – More History Than Myth

As has been described above, the name Cyndane is similar to Cynthia, which is what the ancient Greeks sometimes called Artemis (their goddess of the moon and the hunt) after her birthplace on Mount Cynthus on Delos.

Cyndane incorporates the word Dane as a reference to her colouring: she now has silvery blonde hair and blue eyes. Furthermore, the Vikings who caused so much grief and destruction when they invaded England from the late 8th century to the 11th century were referred to as Danes.

Cyndane’s situation as Moridin’s slave has an historic parallel from the Nazi regime, the regime on which Jordan based the Shadow, see Three Strands Common to the Forsaken essay. Wilhelm Keitel was Adolf Hitler’s Chief of Staff and completely subject to him. He was chosen by Hitler for this very reason:

In Keitel, Hitler found exactly the type of officer he was seeking: someone who would carry out his commands to the letter and without question, a yes-man who would be content to be merely a glorified executive officer, without independent command prerogatives.

- Samuel W. Mitcham, Hitler's Field Marshals (1988)

Even if Keitel disagreed with Hitler’s decisions, his objections were brushed aside and he meekly drafted or endorsed the decrees Hitler wanted. Keitel loathed his situation, but felt powerless to stop it:

Constantly in Hitler's presence, he had completely succumbed to his influence. From an honorable, solidly respectable general, he had developed in the course of years into a servile flatterer with all the wrong instincts. Basically, Keitel hated his own weakness; but the hopelessness of any dispute with Hitler had ultimately brought him to the point of not even trying to form his own opinion. If, however, he had offered resistance and stubbornly insisted on a view of his own, he would merely have been replaced by another Keitel.

- Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich (1970)

The other members of the Nazi high command were content to do nothing:

Why did the generals who have been so ready to term me a complaisant and incompetent yes-man fail to secure my removal? Was that all that difficult? No, that wasn't it; the truth was that nobody would have been ready to replace me, because each one knew that he would end up just as much a wreck as I.

- Wilhelm Keitel, In the Service of the Reich

Mindtrapped Cyndane was also largely unable to pursue her own goals. Until the Last Battle, she was apparently eager to obey Moridin (Winter’s Heart, Wonderful News) and tell him “everything she knows.”

As Hitler’s lap-dog, Keitel endorsed orders for killing of captured commandos and reprisals against the families of Allied volunteers, attacks on neutral Belgium and the Netherlands, revenging the death of German soldiers in the East by killing 50 to 100 Communists for one German soldier (with the comment that the life of a Slav was less than nothing), and military commanders always having hostages to execute when soldiers were attacked.

A particularly apt decree that Keitel drafted, bearing in mind Cyndane’s “abilities” with dreams, is the infamous Night and Fog decree. This decree, Nacht-und-Nebel-Erlass authorized the night time arrests and secret killings of suspected members of the resistance. It was a:

secret order issued by Adolf Hitler on December 7, 1941, under which “persons endangering German security” in the German-occupied territories of western Europe were to be arrested and either shot or spirited away under cover of “night and fog” [as Hitler liked to put it] to concentration camps. Also known as the Keitel Order, the decree was signed by Wilhelm Keitel, chief of staff of the German army (Wehrmacht), and was issued in response to the increased activity of the Resistance in France. The German minister of justice established special courts to deal with these cases. Some 7,000 persons are known to have been sent to concentration camps as a result of this decree.

- Encyclopaedia Britannica

To say nothing of the number of those who were executed.

The “Night and Fog” decree was intended to terrorise all resistance movements. Suspects were arrested in the middle of the night and never heard of again and their families never learned their fate. It certainly ensured that anyone associated with the Resistance in occupied territories would never sleep easily.

In the Age of Legends, people in territories Lanfear controlled:

had more than the usual horrors of the Shadow to face; they feared sleep itself.

- Robert Jordan’s The World of the Wheel of Time

That is because she took people out of their dreams into Tel’aran’rhiod to kill or compel them (rather like Freddy Kruger from Nightmare on Elm Street). Cyndane/Lanfear tried to manipulate Rand via his dreams in Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light, and he was tempted at first but suppressed the urge to take the bait.


Finally

Lanfear is a very complex character drawn from a great variety of sources, most especially from Graeco-Roman moon and infernal goddesses, from Cleopatra, Serpent of the Nile and from Lilith, Queen of Demons. These are powerful figures, not to be trifled with. Selene, for instance, was more powerful than her beloved, Endymion. Cleopatra manipulated Caesar and enslaved Antony and contributed to their downfall. This is what Lanfear wanted, but what Moiraine sacrificed herself, and what Perrin broke her Compulsion and his reluctance to kill women, to prevent.


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Written by Linda, June 2004 and updated January 2014

Contributor: Dominic, jedi_elf_aes_sedai, Terez