Character Names: M

By Linda

Mabriam en Shareed/Shereed: Aes Sedai of the Grey Ajah and Queen of Aramaelle. Queen Mabriam may allude to Queen Mab, the fairy queen of English folklore described in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as a tiny fairy who visits sleeping people and compels them with her magic to have wish-fulfilment dreams. Aes Sedai have elements in common with fairies (Sidhe) as well as witches and nuns. Queen Mabriam was an Aes Sedai who was ta’veren (The World of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time) and was able to use this influence to form the Compact of Ten Nations.

Shareed Town is in Liberia.

Machir: Domani noble. Machir is a personal name in the Bible and means “selling, bartered". In the Old Testament, Machir, descendant of Joseph, gave shelter to King David when he was a fugitive (2 Sam, 17:27). The Domani Machir has not sheltered anyone yet.

Madel: One of the three foolish kings in Mara and the Three Foolish Kings. Madel is a place in Chad and in Mauritania.

Madic: Altaran Darkfriend see Names of the Shadow article.

Maenadrin: Aes Sedai of Brown Ajah. The name alludes to maenads, the violent female followers of the Ancient Greek god Dionysus (and a parallel of Balthamel). Maenads usually have a negative connotation in the books, since a group of maenads killed Orpheus (a parallel of Rand, see Rand essay), so Maenadrin might have been Black Ajah.

Maerion: One of the many lives of Birgitte. Marion and Marian are personal names. Maid Marian is a famous figure in English folklore associated with archery. Originally a character in May games celebrations (a time to celebrate the fertility of the Land and hold contests of skills, including archery, of the type that the Two Rivers holds), she became linked with Robin Hood, who is a parallel of her buddy Mat (see Mat essay), and also associated with archery and the wild forest. In some tales she is Saxon, in others Norman gentry, and in yet others she is conflated with the Goddess Diana and portrayed as a skilled archer. Birgitte remembers leading a band of thieves out of Braem Wood and robbing the unpopular Queen of Aldeshar (A Memory of Light, The Use of Dragons) and this may have been when she was Maerion.

Maighdin Dorlain: Alias of Morgase. Maighdin/Maighdine is Gaelic for maiden. Dorlain is similar to real-world place names.

Manel Rochaid: Darkfriend Asha'man see Names of the Shadow article.

Mangin: Aiel hanged for killing a Cairhienin who had a dragon tattoo. Mangin is a place in Myanmar and a surname. It may commemorate Charles Mangin (1866–1925), a French general during World War I, named “the Butcher” by his own troops, who won victories at Charleroi, Verdun and the Second Battle of the Marne.

Mara: the hero who revealed the shortcomings of the kings in the folktale “Mara and the Three Foolish Kings” (The Dragon Reborn, The Woman of Tanchico). Mara is a personal name and more importantly, the demon in Buddhism who tempted Buddha with illusions (see photo), which puts a different light on the folktale. Mara personifies unskilfulness, distraction from the spiritual life, and also death in the ceaseless cycle of birth and death. It is interesting, in the light of her subsequent activities, that Siuan Sanche adopted this alias upon fleeing the Tower (The Fires of Heaven, Fanning the Sparks).

Marigan: Moghedien see Names of the Shadow article.


Marillin Gemalphin: Black Ajah see Names of the Shadow article.

Marin al'Vere: Two Rivers. Marin is a personal name similar to the names Marina and Marian, a place name and a surname.

Vere is a town in Congo and in Norway, and Alavere is a town in Estonia. There is also an historic parallel to al’Vere. The Vere family is a noted English family that held the hereditary office of lord great chamberlain from 1133 to 1779 and the earldom of Oxford from 1142 to 1703. Over the centuries, many members of the family have commanded English troops in wars. The al’Vere family holds important positions in the Two Rivers.

Marris Thornhill: Black Ajah see Names of the Shadow article.

Masema Dagar: Shienaran. Masema is a town in Congo. However, the name also alludes to two real-world figures: Mastema and Massena. Mastema is the apocryphal name for Satan as chief accuser, and means enmity or opposition. Mastema is in the Book of Jubilees of the Pseudepigrapha and leads other spirits in roaming the earth luring people away from righteousness. He is the chief of the demons engendered by the fallen Angels (equivalent to the Forsaken) with women. Masema was indeed under the influence of, or ‘created’ by, a Forsaken.

Mastema is a force of evil whose power is less than God’s and who is answerable to God:

When Mastema, the leader of the spirits, came, he said: 'Lord creator, leave some of them before me; let them listen to me and do everything that I tell them, because if none of them is left for me I shall not be able to exercise the authority of my will among mankind. For they are meant for (the purposes of) destroying and misleading before my punishment because the evil of mankind is great.' Then he said that a tenth of them should be left before him, while he would make nine parts descend to the place of judgment.

- Jubilees 10: 8‒9

Mastema is subservient to God and his task is simply to tempt men to sin and if they do, he accuses them before the Throne of God. He does not initiate the process of sin, but Mastema and his spirits then lead them on to greater wrongdoing:

And they made for themselves molten images, and they worshipped each the idol, the molten image which they had made for themselves, and they began to make graven images and unclean simulacra, and malignant spirits assisted and seduced (them) into committing transgression and uncleanness. And the prince Mastema exerted himself to do all this, and he sent forth other spirits, those which were put under his hand, to do all manner of wrong and sin, and all manner of transgression, to corrupt and destroy and to shed blood upon the earth.

- Jubilees 11:4‒6

For all his preaching of following Rand and the Light, he led people to commit evil actions and abandon the Light. Masema’s rabid Dragonsworn could be likened to Mastema’s malign spirits.

The term Mastema is sometimes used in the plural, which indicates that there was a class of 'the Mastema' as well as one prince, Mastema, just as the book of Enoch has the chief Satan and his class of Satans. Masema had his Dragonsworn.

The portrayal of Mastema is not always consistent; he is sometimes presented as an accuser and sometimes as the incarnate of evil, but always as a destroyer and as one who hates Israel. Likewise, Masema was corrupted by a Forsaken into doing evil while trying to do good; and he and his Dragonsworn were very destructive. Masema hates the Aiel (who have parallels with Israel, see The Age of Legends essay) and the Aes Sedai.

Andre Massena (1758‒1817) was a leading French general of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. He campaigned successfully in Italy, Switzerland and Austria, but was defeated by Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, a parallel of Rand, (see Sammael essay) in the Iberian Peninsula in a terrible campaign:

Massena's men suffered enough throughout the winter, but they suffered still more when, after grimly hanging on for more than four months—and only getting enough food by ill-treating the local peasants to such an extent that their hidden food supplies were handed over—he ordered the retreat to Spain in March 1811...The whole affair was terrible from start to finish...Every conceivable horror accompanied it. It was a tale of death, destruction, starvation, pitiless revenge and cruelty, the wounded untended, the dying left to be set on by dogs driven to such brutishness by their Portuguese masters, baggage mules and asses hamstrung and left to starve, fearful atrocities committed by French soldiers on the natives, including burning women and children in their houses, pointless vandalism, wanton smashing of homes and goods.

- John Strawson, The Duke and The Emperor

This is how Masema’s followers behaved in the countryside as Perrin saw in The Path of Daggers. Interestingly, Massena took no part in the Hundred Days of Napoleon (Napoleon being a parallel of Sammael, see Sammael essay), but supported the restoration of King Louis XVIII to the French throne (Encyclopaedia Britannica). It wasn’t Sammael who set Masema up; but probably Lanfear, visiting him in his dreams to take advantage of Masema’s hatred of Aiel to incite the Dragonsworn to fight the Shaido and to kill Perrin to cause more chaos.

Dagar is a surname and place name and also has connotations of dagger.

Master Underhill: alias of Karldin Manfor and a reference to Frodo’s alias when he left the Shire in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

Materese: Mother of the wondrous Ind in a folktale (The Eye of the World, The Gleeman). Materese is a surname, but the name probably refers to Mother Teresa, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, (1910–1997), an Albanian Roman Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity in India and worked among the poor of Calcutta.

Mathena: a woman Birgitte remembers, who had nothing to do with men until Zheres stole a kiss from her. After that, she could not leave him alone (The Fires of Heaven, The Price of a Ship). While Mathena is a surname, the name probably refers to Athena, the virgin Greek goddess of wisdom, war, the arts, industry, justice and skill, and the favourite child of Zeus. Athena was usually portrayed wearing body armour and a helmet; emphasising her unapproachability and sexual unavailability.

In one myth Hephaestus attempted to rape Athena but was unsuccessful. His semen fell on the ground, and Erichthonius was born from the Earth, Gaia. Athena then raised the baby as a foster mother. Athena was also surprised by Tiresias while bathing naked and she blinded him. When begged to undo her curse, she could not do so, but gave him the gift of prophecy instead. Zheres appears to be a combination of the names Tiresias and Zeus.

Matrim Cauthon: Mat Cauthon is a combination name, as quite a few of the main characters’ names are. While Mat is similar to the personal name Matt, it probably refers to Math, the Welsh god of wealth and increase, which his appropriate, since Mat is very concerned with these. Math was unable to exist unless his feet lay in the lap of a maiden, except when he went to war, again two pastimes associated with Mat.

Mat’s full name of Matrim is a few letters short of the word matrimony, the thing Mat has been dreading all this time and the fate that was hanging over his head until Knife of Dreams.

Cauthon is similar to two surnames, one associated with horses, the other with social equality. Steve Cauthen is a highly successful jockey—he was the youngest jockey ever to win the US Triple Crown and was England’s champion jockey three times. He was inducted into the US Racing Hall of Fame. Georges Couthon was the poor people’s advocate during the Reign of Terror in revolutionary France in the 18th century:

In 1791 Couthon went to Paris as a deputy to the Revolution's Legislative Assembly and in 1792 was elected to the National Convention, where he joined the majority in voting for the death of King Louis XVI (January 1793). He bitterly denounced the moderate Girondin deputies before the Convention, and he introduced the motion that led to the arrest of the leading Girondins on June 2. The Jacobins, in alliance with the Parisian lower classes, then took control of the Revolution.

Meanwhile, Couthon and four other men had been added to the Committee of Public Safety on May 30, 1793. They drafted a new constitution, which was submitted to the Convention on June 10, and Couthon remained on the committee when it was reorganized a month later. On August 21 he was sent to direct the military operations against the counterrevolutionary stronghold of Lyon. Lyon surrendered on October 9, but Couthon had himself relieved of his command so that he would not have to carry out the Convention's order to destroy the city. Nevertheless, in speeches before the Convention he called for the extermination of enemies of the republic. In March‒April 1794 he helped Robespierre and Saint-Just bring about the downfall of factions led by the radical democrat Jacques Hébert and the moderate Georges Danton. Couthon then secured passage of the Law of 22 Prairial (June 10, 1794), which speeded up the work of the Revolutionary Tribunal and unleashed the Reign of Terror. The Robespierrist leaders, however, were facing growing resistance, and on July 27, 1794 Couthon, Robespierre, and Saint-Just were arrested by a group of their opponents. They were guillotined, along with 19 other Robespierrists, the next day.

- Encyclopaedia Britannica

Mat’s anti-noble stance is well known. He encouraged the Altarans to revolt against the Seanchan and was in turn appalled by the destruction he unleashed. When Fortuona was tempted to break her pact with Rand on the grounds that as an absolute monarch she could do what she wished, Mat pressed her—almost shamed her—into keeping her word. In future, he will probably make the Seanchan nobility more accountable, and Seanchan society fairer.

Mat’s attitude to the One Power (a parallel of witchcraft and magic) is as negative as that of a real-world figure with a similar, although reversed, name: Cotton Mather (1663‒1728), the US Congregational minister who participated in the trials of alleged witches in Salem and also led a revolt against the British Crown’s governor of New England.

For more information on Mat's real-life parallels see Mat essay.

Mazrim Taim: False Dragon and Darkfriend see Names of the Shadow article.

Meidani: Aes Sedai of the Grey Ajah. Meidani is the name of a real-world figure: the socialist Rexhep Meidani (1944‒) who succeeded Berisha (the name of another Grey Aes Sedai) to the Albanian presidency in 1997. Berisha and Meidani were two Greys on opposite sides of the Aes Sedai conflict, just as Berisha and Meidani are opponents in Albania.

Melaine: Wise One. Melaine is a personal name similar to Melanie. Melaina (the Black One) is an epithet applied to Demeter (goddess of Agriculture and a divinity of the underworld, see right) in Arcadia and stresses the darker side of her character.

Melaina is also the name of one of the three prophetic Thriae, nature goddesses who were able to see the future by interpreting natural signs and omens. In art, they were old, winged and silver-haired. Melaine is a Dreamwalker, interpreting dreams and the signs she reads in Tel’aran’rhiod to predict the future. She is also a tough character. Two of the three remaining Dreamwalkers have silver hair; Bair because she is old, and Amys because it is naturally silvery.

Melindhra: Far Dareis Mai Darkfriend see Names of the Shadow article.

Melitene: Der'sul'dam. Melitene was a base camp in Turkey for the Roman legions in Ancient Roman times—a link with the military, appropriate in a high-ranking sul’dam, since damane are used for war.

Melvara: Black Ajah see Names of the Shadow article.

Menuki Nachiman: Arafellin Queen. Menuki are Japanese sword fittings that were traditionally secured to the hilt of a samurai sword to improve the grip but are now mostly decorative (a selection is shown in the photo right). Delicately fashioned flowers, animals and mythological figures were common motifs. Arafellin kings rely on their queens for counsel (The Path of Daggers, Deceptive Appearances), so it is appropriate that Menuki has a name referring to a weapon as well as to beauty.

Nachiman may refer to Hachiman, one of the most popular Shinto deities of Japan (see left). Often regarded as the god of war, he is the patron deity of the Minamoto clan and of warriors in general. This is an appropriate name for a royal Borderlander House.

Merana Ambrey: Aes Sedai of the Grey Ajah. Merano is a place in Italy. Ambrey is a surname.

Merean Redhill: Black Ajah see Names of the Shadow article.

Merk:Merk was a giant who fought with Mosk with spears of fire in folk history (The Shadow Rising, Winds Rising). While Merk is a place in Hungary, the name probably refers to America and more specifically to the US and the Cold War with the USSR (Mosk, see below).

Mesaana: Forsaken see Names of the Shadow article.

Mestra: Black Ajah see Names of the Shadow article.

Mezar Kurin: Asha’man turned to the Shadow see Names of the Shadow article.

Mierin Eronaile: Lanfear see Names of the Shadow article.

Mikel of the Pure Heart: Hero of the Horn. Mikel is a variant spelling of Michael, meaning "Who is like God", and a place in Germany. It probably refers to St. Michael, one of the archangels and the warrior and leader of the heavenly hosts, who will rise up at the end of the world and stand for the children of the people (Daniel 12) and will also fight with the Dragon (Revelation 12: 7). The Heroes of the Horn exist to fight the Shadow and did so at the Last Battle.

Mili Skane: Andoran Darkfriend see Names of the Shadow article.

Milla al'Azar: Two Rivers Wisdom. Milla is a personal name and a place in the US and Venezuela. Al-Azhar University in Egypt is the oldest operating university in the world. In contrast, Millar al’Azar is the youngest of the Two Rivers Wisdoms and struggled to cope with the position in the troubled days at the end of the Age (Lord of Chaos, Prologue).

Min (Elmindreda) Farshaw: Andoran. Elmindreda is similar to old-fashioned names such as Eldreda (which means old counsel, sage; just as Min advises Rand), Etheldreda or Ermintrude. No wonder Min hates it. Breaking the name into two parts, Elmina is a shortened form of Wilhelmina, meaning determined protector. Dreda is a diminutive form of Etheldreda, which means noble strength. It also has connotations of dread, and many of Min’s viewings fill people with dread. Min saved Fortuona from the Sharans and the Shadow and, in turn, the Empress was impressed with Min’s strength of will and probity.

Min means smart or bold and is similar to the personal names Minn and Minnie. Min was one of the earliest Ancient Egyptian gods. He was a god of fertility and sexuality and was shown as a human male with an erect penis (see photo left). Min was also a moon god. He was worshipped by the men who worked the mines and the men who quarried the stone at Hammamat as "Min, the Male of the Mountain”. At times, some Egyptian goddesses were depicted with the body of Min. Min is the girlfriend Rand has had sex with most often—quite often, in fact. She was brought up in the mines in the mountains of Andor and dressed as a boy. Lunar gods tend to be associated with prophecy and dreams, and Min sees auras around people that show their futures. The Seanchan have some parallels with Ancient Egypt, notably their clothing, particularly that of their slaves.

Farshaw is possibly derived from Florence Farr, actress and lover of George Bernard Shaw (Farr-Shaw). Florence Farr was considered shockingly "modern", having left her first husband because he insisted she stay at home, and she wore her dark curly hair very short. Min had very short dark curly hair at first and was horrified to find that she was prepared to toss aside her life for a man. Shaw wanted to mould Farr into his own vision of the "Modern Woman" and have her become the great actress for his plays. He was inspired by Farr to write the play Pygmalion (better know as My Fair Lady) in which a man tries to turn a lower class young woman into a proper lady. Similarly, Min was forced to abandon her boy’s clothes and act the part of the feminine and dainty Elmindreda. Shaw also wrote Arms And The Man, in which Farr acted the lively maid servant, Louka, who steals the hero from the play's female lead. Laras encouraged Min to be ‘lively’. Min, like Elayne, was happy to attract Rand’s attention from Egwene.

Farr also inspired another writer, W. B. Yeats. In Yeats' The Countess Catherine, she played Aleel, a bard and seer who could see into the spirit realm. Min is a seeress who sees auras, not spirits.

Florence Farr studied esoteric philosophy and was a prominent member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. She summoned visions to gain hermetic knowledge or revelations, was a medium, and made invocations. Among the articles she wrote was Travelling in the Spirit Vision. Another member was William Butler Yeats, who was very interested in Celtic folklore. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is a tradition of occultism, magic, philosophy, metaphysics and spiritual development. It was influenced by Freemasonry and Jordan stated on his blog that he is a Mason. In contrast to Masonry, women were allowed to participate in the Order in equality with men. Min became Rand's lover in a city named "The Hill of the Golden Dawn". As well as being a seeress, she has been studying, and being entranced by, Herid Fel’s books on philosophy.

For information on Min’s Arthurian parallels see Arthurian Who's Who essay).

Mintel: Sharan. Mintel is a market intelligence corporation.

Mishael: Sea Folk. Mishael is a person in the Bible, one of Daniel’s companions who was put in the fire for refusing to worship the golden idol of King Nebuchadnezzar. He survived unscathed. So far all we know of Mishael is that he is Shalon’s husband.

Mistress Cinchonine: Andoran innkeeper who was peeved because nobody in The Crown of Roses was ordering drinks (Lord of Chaos, The Mirror of Mists). Cinchonine and quinine are two of the alkaloids in cinchona bark, a bark which was made into a bitter drink to treat malaria. Quinine has also been used as a flavouring, and it provides the bitter taste in tonic water, used in mixed drinks.

Miyasi: Black Ajah see Names of the Shadow article.



Moghedien: Forsaken see Names of the Shadow article.

Moiraine Damodred: Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah. Moiraine is similar to Moraine, a place in the US and Canada. It is also similar to the personal name Moira and refers to the Moirae or Moirai, the three Fates of Greek mythology, who allotted to every person their destiny, and directed their steps along the path from birth to death. Their dictates could only be circumvented with great difficulty. From the beginning, Moiraine tried to control the three ta’veren, Egwene, and, to a lesser extent, Nynaeve, and direct their development and deeds. Each had to circumvent her control and found this difficult. It was important for them to do so, however, since ironically Moiraine had assigned their fates wrongly.

Moiraine also is similar to a name from Arthurian myth—Morgaine/Morgan le Fay, the sorceress or fairy witch. Morgan le Fay was the daughter of King Gorlois of Cornwall and Igraine, the half-sister of King Arthur, and the sister of Morgause and Elaine. In later tales, Morgan was the wife of King Urien and mother of the hero Owain. Tiny Moiraine is the half-sister-in-law of Morgase and the aunt of Elayne (see family tree in The Noble Houses of Cairhien article). (She is not related by blood to Rand (a parallel of Arthur) but is the sister of the first husband of Rand’s mother Tigraine—a relationship as tangled as any in Arthurian myth!) Owyn was the nephew of Moiraine’s love, Thom.

Morgan was one of the queens of Avalon and was said to have learned her magic from Merlin. She was a healer, and could change her appearance to resemble anyone or anything. When King Arthur was dying, Morgan and three other ladies—the Queen of the Northgales, the Queen of the Wasteland (Aviendha) and the Lady of the Lake (a parallel of Nynaeve, see Character Names N article)—arrived in a black ship and took him to Avalon, to be healed of his wounds. Moiraine is a high-standing Aes Sedai in Tar Valon and a good friend of the Amyrlin (Merlin). She is a skilled Healer, having often Healed Rand (King Arthur) and has also used Illusion. Rand and three women are destined to go by boat somewhere, but it is not likely that Moiraine is one of them (see Foretellings article).

In later tales Morgan le Fay’s character was dark and malign and she was an enemy of Arthur and Guinevere. Moiraine has her dark and sinister side: she was ruthless in her war against the Shadow and prepared to kill any of the three ta’veren to keep them from the Shadow (The Dragon Reborn, A Hunter’s Oath).

In Malory's Morte d'Arthur, Morgan was in love with Lancelot, and imprisoned him to try and force him to become her lover, but he refused and managed to escape. She and three other queens kidnapped Lancelot. Moiraine bonded Lan as her Warder, but was not in love with him. She forcibly transferred Lan’s bond on to Myrelle and wanted her to pass the bond on to Nynaeve.

For more information on Moiraine’s Arthurian parallels see Arthurian Who's Who essay).

As well as being a reference to Mordred/Modred, Damodred is also a combination of Damocles and dread. Damocles was:

a courtier of Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse, in Sicily, tyrant from 405 to 367 BC. The courtier is known to history through the legend of the “Sword of Damocles.”

According to the legend, when Damocles spoke in extravagant terms of his sovereign's happiness, Dionysus invited him to a sumptuous banquet and seated him beneath a naked sword that was suspended from the ceiling by a single thread. Thus did the tyrant demonstrate that the fortunes of men who hold power are as precarious as the predicament in which he had placed his guest. The story is related in Cicero's Tusculanae disputationes, 5.61.

- Encyclopaedia Britannica

This is basically the history of House Damodred in a nutshell—great power wielded with little appreciation of the consequences of arrogant actions. The dread in the name merely emphasises the deservedly bad reputation of most of the members of this House. Moiraine rejected ruling the House (and Cairhien) because she was not prepared to be so ruthless.

Mordeth: Darkfriend and wild card, see Names of the Shadow article.

Morgase Trakand: Andoran Noble. Morgase is similar to Morgause of Arthurian myth. Morgause was the eldest daughter of Igraine and King Gorlois of Cornwall, the half-sister of King Arthur, and the sister of Elaine and Morgan le Fay. She was married to King Lot and was the mother of Gawain, Agravain, Gaheris and Gareth. She was also the mother of Mordred/Modred when Arthur, who was brought up by his foster father Sir Ector and never knew he had a sister, unwittingly committed incest with Morgause. Morgase succeeded to the throne of Andor instead of Tigraine, Rand’s mother. She married Taringail (who could have been King of Cairhien if he was not married to an Andoran Queen), Tigraine’s husband, and had two children, Gawyn and Elayne and a step-son Galad Damodred (Da-Modred), a positive Modred analogue (see Arthurian Who's Who). Morgase is the half-sister-in-law of Moiraine (a parallel of Morgan le Fay). Gareth was her Captain and later lover. Rand, a parallel of King Arthur, was very worried that he might be closely related by blood to Elayne, but he is not (see family tree of The Noble Houses of Andor article). Mordeth and Demandred, both negative analogues of Modred, are not linked to Morgase.

Gawain and his brothers were mortal enemies of Sir Lamorak, because Lamorak's father, Pellinor, had killed their own father, Lot. Sir Lamorak loved Morgause, who was a great beauty, and when Sir Gaheris found them making love, he was so outraged that his mother was making love to his mortal enemy that he beheaded her. Morgase is very beautiful and Jordan has developed the tale of her love life fully. While queen, she had three lovers: Thom and Gareth, neither of whom aroused great hostility in her children, and Rahvin. Thom murdered Morgase’s husband Taringail (equivalent to King Lot) because he was going to kill her. Rand discovered that Rahvin had made Morgase his pet and killed him. Gawyn believed Rand killed Morgase and wanted him dead. Gareth said that if Rand killed Morgase, he did Andorans a favour because she had brought about the ruination of the kingdom while under Gaebril’s spell (The Gathering Storm, A New Commitment). (Literally, since she was under Compulsion, though Bryne didn’t know that.)

For more information on Morgase’s Arthurian parallels see Arthurian Who's Who essay).

Trakand is similar to real-world place names.

Moria Karentanis: Black Ajah see Names of the Shadow article.

Moridin: Ishamael see Names of the Shadow article.

Mosk: the giant who had a lance of fire that reached around the world. He fought the giant Merk with spears of fire (The Shadow Rising, Winds Rising), and warred with Elsbet, the Queen of All (The Eye of the World, The Gleeman). While Mosk is a place in Afghanistan, Mosk probably refers to Moskva, the Russian spelling of Moscow, and to the Cold War of the USSR with the US (Merk, see above) and Great Britain (Elsbet, see Character Names E article).

Murellin: Darkfriend see Names of the Shadow article.

Myrdin Paendrag Maregore: Artur Paendrag’s father. Myrdin is similar to Myrddin/Merlin, the advisor of King Arthur Pendragon (see right). Jordan has changed the relationship between Myrddin and Arthur a little here from mentor and protegee to father and son.

Maregor is a surname.




Myrelle Berengari: Aes Sedai of the Green Ajah. Myrell is a personal name and a surname. Berengari is a surname and a personal name on a list of Welsh names in Robert Jordan’s notes that he compiled. The name may refer to Queen Berengaria (died 1230), the wife of Richard I of England, who joined him, and was joined in matrimony with him, while he was on the Third Crusade. She had a long and difficult journey to catch up with him. When Richard was captured, she remained in Europe, attempting to raise money for his ransom. Known as the only queen of the English never to set foot in England (and Richard the Lionheart was himself largely an absentee king), it is also possible that her marriage to Richard was never consummated.

Lion-hearted Lan is a king in exile. Lan's bond transferred to Myrelle and he had a long and difficult journey to join her in Salidar. There is perhaps some question as to whether Myrelle made love with Lan as part of saving him; certainly, she never married him as she did her other Warders.


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Written by Linda, January 2005 and updated November 2013

Contributor: Dominic