Crossroads of Twilight Read-through #1: Darkhounds on the Wild Hunt

By Linda

In Crossroads of Twilight we see that the Wild Hunt is on, the Darkhounds coursing with the Dark One’s purpose driving them, even though he is not among them physically. They make a circuit of Perrin’s camp but he is not their quarry. As far as we know, no one has died of Darkhound wounds in the last three books, and the Wild Hunt is still ongoing.

The hounds make their first appearance onscreen in The Dragon Reborn when Rand balefired one. Soon after, a pack was apparently sent by Sammael to hunt Perrin and perhaps Moiraine in Illian. Darkhounds are black dogs as big as small ponies with eyes and teeth that shine like metal in the dark. We have never seen them in full daylight. They smell of brimstone (burned sulphur) – a whiff of hell – and typically come in packs of ten to twelve.

Apart from avoiding daylight, they also dislike running or falling water:

“Darkhounds like clear, moonlit nights best, blacksmith, rain the least. A good thunderstorm can keep them away completely.”

- The Dragon Reborn, Hunted

They run faster than horses and for longer.

“You can never outrun the Darkhounds, blacksmith,” Lan said, “not on the fastest horse. Always, you must face them and defeat them, or they will pull you down.”

- The Dragon Reborn, Hunted

They left no print on even the softest dirt, only on stone, and they would not stop until you faced and defeated them or put running water between you. Crossroads [or graveyards, Crossroads of Twilight, The Scent of a Dream] were supposed to be particularly dangerous places to meet them, and the time just after sunset or just before sunrise.

- The Shadow Rising, Gateways

According to Lan:

“There hasn’t been a Darkhound seen south of the Mountains of Dhoom since the Trolloc Wars.”

- The Dragon Reborn, Shadowbrothers

Hopper’s assertion that the wolves have not seen Darkhounds in a long time (The Dragon Reborn, Shadowbrothers) is consistent with this. Yet later Masuri said she had managed to cross the trails of seven different packs before Crossroads of Twilight, and presumably these were not all in the Blight.

Lan says that Darkhounds are almost as dangerous as Myrddraal, and harder to kill (The Dragon Reborn, Shadowbrothers). The danger of Darkhounds is in their lethally venomous bite, saliva and blood. Moiraine could Heal a minor quantity of Darkhound saliva on a victim, but doubts she could Heal an actual bite (The Shadow Rising, Gateways). Darkhounds are quite capable of biting through wood or metal.

In The Dragon Reborn, one Darkhound was killed by an arrow and the other nine were balefired. By The Shadow Rising, Darkhounds became much harder to kill, being able to reconstitute if killed simply.

Slowly, the dead dogs and their heads were melting, settling into pools of liquid shadow that quivered slightly, as if alive. Their blood, fanned across the floor, trembled. Suddenly the smaller pools flowed across the floor in viscous streams to merge with the larger, which oozed away from the mosaic to mound higher and higher, until the three huge black dogs stood there once more, slavering and snarling as they gathered massive haunches under them… The Darkhounds had oozed away from that sign before re-forming. Under this sign will he conquer.

- The Shadow Rising, Gateways

Possible explanations are that they were either warded by the Forsaken who sent them, or, perhaps more likely, the Dark One’s increasing access to the world enabled him to augment the Darkhounds’ powers or protection. Balefire is necessary to completely kill them.

The ancient Aes Sedai sign is symbolic of the One Power of the Creator and of the two halves and genders working together to make balance, so the Darkhounds’ ‘reaction’ to the sign may have been real. As with other constructs of the Shadow, the True Power they contain is antithetical to the One Power.

Rand speculates that Darkhounds may not breathe since he could hear the heartbeats of the ones that attacked him in Rhuidean, but not their breath (The Shadow Rising, Gateways).

After The Shadow Rising, there is no further evidence of Darkhounds until Crossroads of Twilight when they are sensed near Perrin’s camp.

Masuri, one of the Aes Sedai with Perrin, ‘happens’ to know a great deal about Darkhounds. Why does Perrin ‘need’ a Darkhound expert with him? Two experts really, since Elyas provided information from a wolves’ point of view. Considering what Masuri divulged, she is probably not Black Ajah. Masuri quotes ancient books that refer to large numbers of Darkhound packs. She has studied Darkhounds and says each pack is identifiable, having its own scent. Masuri has personally encountered eight now. Is this why she is important to Perrin?

Like all Shadowsworn, Darkhounds are contentious among themselves and two packs will attack each other if they meet rather than their quarry (The Dragon Reborn, Hunted). Perhaps this feature could be turned to advantage. When large numbers of packs were around during the Trolloc Wars and the War of Power, they must have been controlled in some way to prevent them rending each other – by Forsaken? (Myrddraal are required to make Trollocs effective fighters.)

The scent of Darkhounds, even the thought of them, induces true horror and terror in wolves and makes even Perrin’s skin crawl. This is because Darkhounds have the corrupted souls of wolves and wolves are especially vulnerable to them:

“They were wolves, once. The souls of wolves, anyway, caught and twisted by the Shadow. That was the core used to make Darkhounds, the Shadowbrothers. I think that’s why the wolves have to be at the Last Battle. Or maybe Darkhounds were made because wolves will be there, to fight them…
They avoid talking about Darkhounds, though, and they avoid Darkhounds, too. A hundred wolves could die trying to kill one Shadowbrother. Worse, if they fail, the Darkhound can eat the souls of those that aren’t quite dead yet, and in a year or so, there’d be a new pack of Shadowbrothers that didn’t remember ever being wolves. I hope they don’t remember, anyway.” Perrin reined in, though he itched to keep moving. Shadowbrothers. The wolves’ name for Darkhounds had taken on a new grimness. “Can they eat a man’s soul, Elyas? Say a man who can talk to wolves?” Elyas shrugged.

- Crossroads of Twilight, Whirlpools of Colour

Perhaps Masuri will work out a way to kill Darkhounds or protect wolves (and Perrin and Elyas) from them. Currently only balefire can kill Darkhounds and not many channellers know that weave or are willing to use it. A single channeller has to be very strong, almost as strong as Moiraine to make it work, although they can link, of course. However it is a destructive, or even sinful, weave with terrible consequences for the Pattern and Creation, so an alternative way of killing Darkhounds would be a good idea. Since Masuri is a Borderlander, she should know that wolves fight Shadowspawn and work to protect them.

Perrin and Masuri both deduced the Darkhounds checked out the camp to report on Perrin to the Shadow.

The pack that circled Perrin’s camp is unusually large – perhaps as many as fifty and extremely impatient with their hunt. Their quarry has apparently been eluding them for some time.

The Darkhounds went on in a southerly direction (Crossroads of Twilight, The Scent of a Dream), although they may not be coursing in the right direction, since we have no further news of the Hunt being successful. (Or of someone dying of Darkhound-induced wounds).

If their quarry is eluding the Darkhounds, it either Travels (or is moved by someone else's Travelling weave), or moves by boat (and thus over running water), or has side-stepped the Pattern and is almost outside it (like Fain/Mordeth has).

So who are the Hounds hunting?

• Someone not of the big Three (whose ta'veren influence can be sensed in the Pattern by some Forsaken and shouldn't need hunting as such - and anyway the Darkhounds did not attack Perrin);


• someone who doesn’t know balefire;


• someone who is hard to find, get near and survive; and


• someone the Shadow wants dead.

I think I’ll put my money on Fain/Mordeth. The Darkhounds on the Wild Hunt hunting a wild card and ex Hound of the Dark One. It seems appropriate.

The real world myths and legends behind the Darkhounds and the Wild Hunt are discussed in the Darkhounds essay originally written for the Wotmania FAQ and now released in the Reference Library.

Darkhounds

By Linda

This essay will deal with the sources I think were used to create Darkhounds.


Giant hounds derived from wolves

According to Elyas, Darkhounds:

“were wolves once. The souls of wolves, anyway, caught and twisted by the Shadow. That was the core used to make Darkhounds, the Shadowbrothers. I think that’s why wolves have to be at the Last Battle. Or maybe Darkhounds were made because wolves will be there, to fight them…A hundred wolves could die trying to kill one Shadowbrother. Worse, if they fail, the Darkhound can eat the souls of those that aren’t dead yet, and in a year or so, there’d be a new pack of Shadowbrothers that didn’t remember ever being wolves.”

- Crossroads of Twilight, Whirlpools of Colour

Wolves have interbred with dogs to form fierce large dogs throughout history. An early example was recorded by Pliny in his Natural History where he mentioned crossing dogs with wolves to breed war dogs—to put a bit of wolf ‘soul’ into the dogs, if you like. Such interbreeding also occurred naturally in the wild between wolves and feral dogs and would have provided a starting point for Robert Jordan’s ideas on Darkhounds.

Darkhounds are far more than wolves or wolf–dog crosses though, they are much more dangerous and spooky—which brings us to spectral dogs.


Spectral hounds of ill omen

Folk tales of spectral dogs, especially large black dogs, abound throughout Britain—Devon alone:

is said to harbour at least 50 black dog haunts

- Paul Devereux, Haunted Land, 2001

These dogs are reported to have various unnatural features: large or glowing eyes, no head, the ability to disappear or appear out of thin air or into and out of the ground, or the ability to change their size or appearance.

Common haunts for the spectral black dogs are roads, paths, crossroads, bridges, gates, doors, stairs and corridors. Other common haunts, especially in Wiltshire, are graveyards and barrows. Spectral dogs have also been reported in buildings, even churches.

In some tales, the dogs attack people: one tale tells of a spectral dog biting a man on the back and causing him to curl up and shrink, and another of a hound attacking people in church. There are also tales of spectral dogs that disappear in dramatic flashes, in one case burning to death a farmer, his horse and wagon.

The spectral dogs may leave claw marks on stone floors, or they may run over the tilled earth of the garden without leaving footprints. Similarly, Darkhounds leave:

no print on even the softest dirt, only on stone.

- The Fires of Heaven, Gateways

In the tales, the spectral dogs are usually omens of death—either one’s own death or the death of a family member. In The Wheel of Time series, the Darkhounds actually do the killing and, since they are difficult to kill or evade, the sight of one certainly indicates one’s doom.

Not all spectral hounds were black however. The Cwn Annwn or Hounds of Annwn (Hounds of Hell) were small, white, red-eared hounds that were chained and led by a horned figure. These were ghost dogs that appeared only at night to foretell death. They were sent from Annwn to seek out corpses and human souls and were associated with the Wild Hunt.


The Wild Hunt

The Wild Hunt is a folk myth “known throughout the world” (Encyclopaedia Britannica), but is especially prevalent in Northern Europe and Great Britain.

The basic image is of a powerful mythical figure—a god, goddess, or legendary personage—leading a hunt through the night skies that swooped to gather up the souls of the dying in its course across the countryside.

- Paul Devereux, Haunted Land, 2001

The leader may even be Satan. In Germany, Woden usually led the Wild Hunt. His Norse equivalent, Odin, riding his eight-legged horse Sleipnir, was the leader of the Wild Hunt in Scandinavia. In Celtic countries, the Wild Hunt was the hosting of the Sidhe (the fairies) and its leaders included the King or Queen of the Fairies, Gwydion, Nuada, and Herne the Hunter. The leader of the Wild Hunt has changed throughout history to include other gods and folk heroes: King Arthur, Charlemagne, Frederick Barbarossa, and Sir Francis Drake have all been claimed as leaders.

The hunter was variously said to be searching for women, sinners, the unbaptised, the dying; certainly human souls and not wild animals.

While the real-world Wild Hunt has been linked with the Otherworld or Faerie, the Wheel of Time version is obviously diabolic, with the Dark One leading:

The tales he had heard said the Darkhounds ran the night in the Wild Hunt, with the Dark One himself the hunter;

The Fires of Heaven, Gateways

The Saldeans name the leader of the Wild Hunt as Old Grim—another euphemism for Shaitan (The Dragon Reborn, Shadowbrothers). The real-world equivalent of Old Grim would be the Grim Reaper, Death. This is Shaitan/Satan in his role as Lord of the Grave (or perhaps later his captain, Moridin, Death). The Dark One did not literally run with the Darkhounds, since he was captive, but the Darkhounds certainly hunted with the Dark One’s influence and purpose (or at least those of the Forsaken) running with them.

Olver’s final blast on the Horn of Valere called the souls of Wolves gathered in the north of Tel’aran’rhiod to fight the Darkhounds under the leadership of Perrin, Wolf King and King of the Wild (A Memory of Light, To Awaken). The Light’s Last Hunt with Perrin as a Herne the Hunter type figure, was the counterbalance to the Shadow’s Wild Hunt.

Throughout our history, seeing the Wild Hunt was thought to be an omen of some catastrophe such as pestilence, death or war, or at best the death of the one who witnessed it. (This links in with the four horsemen of the Apocalypse and with Revelations.) If such a witness aided the hunt they would be given a reward that was usually cursed, if they defied the hunter they would be punished—bad news either way.

People encountering or following the Wild Hunt could be kidnapped and brought to the land of the dead. In fact, the Northern French term for the Wild Hunt, "Mesneé d'Hellequin", was named after Hel, the Norse Queen of the Dead, depicted right, a parallel of Lanfear. Her land was guarded by the great dog Garmr who will fight Tyr (a parallel of Rand, see Rand essay) at Ragnarok and they will kill each other. No Darkhounds have attacked Rand since The Fires of Heaven, but Lanfear wanted Rand dead.

There is another Queen of the Underworld closely associated with hellish dogs—Hecate.


Hecate and her black dogs

Hecate was the Greek goddess of the underworld (the dead), night, magic (witchcraft), the waning moon, and crossroads (Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology). At night during the dark moon, Hecate was believed to carry torches as she roamed the roads with her howling black dogs. Hecate and her dogs were said to journey over graves to search for souls to carry to the underworld. Offerings were made to her at crossroads, which were sacred to her (Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology).

In the Wheel of Time series, Darkhounds, graveyards and crossroads are all linked to the Dark One, the Lord of the Grave, rather than the Queen of the Dead, who is a parallel of Lanfear. Darkhounds are especially dangerous at crossroads and graveyards (The Fires of Heaven, Gateways and Crossroads of Twilight, The Scent of a Dream), because the Dark One’s power is at its strongest there. Likewise at twilight, as day dies, and dawn, as the night dies.

Liandrin explained this very well:

Twilight was a troubled time for Liandrin of late, that and dawn. At dawn, the day was born, just as twilight gave birth to night, but at dawn, night died, and at twilight, day. The Dark One’s power was rooted in death, he gained power from death, and at those times she could feel his power stirring.

- The Great Hunt, The Shadow in Shienar

Cerberus the Hellhound

In Greek mythology, Hecate’s three-headed dog Cerberus watched the entrance to Hades and was:

the guardian of Styx, the dark river separating life and death.

- Paul Devereux, Haunted Land, 2001

Cerberus was brought out of the Underworld by Hercules as his last and most difficult labour (Encyclopaedia Britannica) (see right), a parallel of Rand performing nine impossible things as was prophesied (see Foretellings article). There was a belief that while Cerberus was above ground, a highly poisonous plant called aconite was formed wherever drops of Cerberus’ poisonous saliva fell. An alternative legend had Hecate making aconite herself from the foam(ing saliva) of Cerberus (Maude Grieve, A Modern Herbal, 1931). Not surprisingly, the plant (also known as Hecateis, monkshood or wolfsbane) was sacred to Hecate. The plant was called wolfsbane because the tips of arrows were dipped in aconite extract to make them more deadly when hunting wolves.

There are a couple of parallels here. Like Cerberus, the Darkhounds have poisonous saliva:

even their saliva is poison…a drop on the skin can kill

- The Fires of Heaven, Gateways

and like aconite, Darkhounds surely are wolves’ banes:

a hundred wolves could die trying to kill one Shadowbrother.

- Crossroads of Twilight, Whirlpools of Colour

Burned sulphur scent—a whiff of brimstone from hell?

Perrin smelled a burned sulphur sort of smell when he found Darkhound footprints on stone (The Dragon Reborn, Shadowbrothers) and Rand smelled it when Darkhounds attacked him in Rhuidean (The Fires of Heaven, Gateways).

The common name for sulphur was brimstone and is used as such in the Bible. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by:

brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven

- Genesis 19: 24

as punishment. In Revelation 19: 20 there is a hellish "lake of fire burning with brimstone." The Pit of Doom where the Dark One can be sensed most strongly is similar:

[it is] a lake of molten stone, red mottled with black...[and] the black slopes of Shayol Ghul, forever shrouded in twilight,... [have] vents and tunnels... [that emit] steam and smoke and harsh vapours.

- A Crown of Swords, Mindtrap

It is a volcano, in other words, and these emit sulphurous vapours. So the smell of burned sulphur or brimstone that the Darkhounds leave is a parallel to the fires and noxious vapours of hell, rather than God’s righteous wrath.


The protection of running water

In folklore, running water is considered pure and thus a protection from evil spirits. Likewise, Darkhounds will not stop until you put running water between you and them (The Fires of Heaven, Gateways). Some malevolent spirits of myth are particularly vulnerable to running water. The best example of this is the nuchlavis or nuckelavee, a hideous Scottish sea spirit that is very malevolent towards humans. It can take any form it wishes, bleeds black blood if cut, and smells of rotten eggs and spoiled fish. However, it is easy to escape by crossing over running water such as a creek or river. The nuchlavis has some similarities with Darkhounds: they both smell bad and avoid running water, and the nuchlavis has black blood and poisonous breath while Darkhounds have poisonous blood and saliva (The Fires of Heaven, Gateways.)


Touching Hearthstones

Before the Last Battle, Perrin believed that touching hearthstones kept you safe from Darkhounds (Crossroads of Twilight, The Scent of a Dream). The hearth has been the symbol of security and normality throughout history.

In Ancient Greece, the center of life was the domestic hearth, which was also used as a sacrificial altar. Hestia, the Greek goddess of the hearth, represented warmth, happiness and safety.

Similarly, in Ancient Rome, the welfare of the whole city was believed to depend on the preservation of the sacred flame kept in the temple and attended by the Vestal Virgins, priestesses of the goddess Vesta (the Roman equivalent to Hestia).


In more modern times, the hearth is revered in the US ethos and is a prominent image in public speeches. For instance, President Lincoln in his inaugural address said:

The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone (italics mine), all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

Another U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a series of "Fireside Chats" during his terms of office in the 1930s and 1940s to reassure the populace while war and economic hardship were raging.

For Harriet Beecher Stowe, the hearth was the symbol of both family and patriotism. And Whittier’s poem on the hearth:

...food and shelter, warmth and health,
And love's contentment more than wealth

gave a whole school of American poets their name as the Fireside Poets.

Since the hearth is a powerful talisman of shelter in our psyche, it is no wonder that Robert Jordan has characters that believe that merely touching hearthstones may protect against such an evil as the Darkhounds.

_________________________________________

Written by Linda, June 2004 and updated August 2013

Nym and Green Man

By Linda

This article discusses the origins and symbolism of the Green Man, the foliate being able to make things grow with a touch.

In the Third Age of The Wheel of Time series, the Green Man was the last surviving Nym, an artificial being or ‘construct’ created in the Age of Legends. Another Nym left in the Hearttomb in Shara to guard part of Sakarnen had become a foliate head (River of Souls). Nym

were sentient beings with the ability to utilize the One Power for the benefit of plants and all growing things. As a nameless scribe in Paaren Disen wrote, “Where a Nym touched, all manner of green and growing things thrived.”

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

This is a ‘mundane’ or ‘rational’ explanation of a being who has remarkable abilities and is the subject of legend, both in the real world and the Wheel of Time world.


From Nym to Nymph

While Nym is the name of a character in Shakespeare’s Henry V and Merry Wives of Windsor, he has little in common with the tree-like Nym.

Jordan probably derived the name Nym from Nymph, the divinities in Greek mythology associated with various features of nature. They were either immortal or incredibly long-lived and could be gentle and loving or else of a wilder, more destructive nature. The nymphs most similar to the Nym are the dryads, the nymphs who tended and guarded the forest. The Nym were very long-lived, longer than even the Ogier. They were gentle most of the time, yet the Green Man was able to destroy Balthamel even when mortally wounded himself. The Green Man was guardian and nurturer of his locality, as a nymph was supposed to be.

Hamadryads were nymphs tied to a particular tree, usually an oak, and died if their tree died. When the Green Man died, an oak tree grew to mark the site.

Dryads and Nym had different appearances however: nymphs were portrayed as having (female) human form, unlike the Nym, who were far more tree-like or ent-like.


Ents

The Nym have similarities to Tolkien’s ents: their longevity, large size and tree-like appearance. The Green Man was:

a man-shape of woven vines and leaves, green and growing. His hair was grass, flowing to his shoulders; his eyes, huge hazelnuts; his fingernails, acorns. Green leaves made his tunic and trousers; seamless bark, his boots.

- The Eye of the World, The Dark One Stirs

Treebeard, the oldest of the ents, was described as:

a large Man-like, almost Troll-like, figure, at least fourteen foot high, very sturdy, with a tall head and hardly any neck. Whether it was clad in stuff like green and grey bark, or whether that was its hide, was difficult to say. At any rate the arms, at a short distance from the trunk were not wrinkled, but covered with a brown smooth skin. The large feet had seven toes each. The lower part of the long face was covered with a sweeping grey beard, bushy, almost twiggy at the roots, thin and mossy at the ends.

- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

However, the Nym had different characters to the ents and they were more proactive in their promotion of growth in vegetation—they did more magic, if you like.

The figure most associated with the mystery and magic of the life force, the cycle of life, death and rebirth and the wildness of nature is the real-world Green Man.


Green Man

The Green Man is a real-world mythological figure from Europe. He is the god of vegetation; the power of the forest and fertility made manifest. Associated with the sacred oak tree, he is the vitality of plant life in humanoid form. In art and architecture, he is depicted as a foliate head, either actually composed of leaves or with the leaves appearing to grow out of the head. As an example of the convergence of myth over time, the Nym/Green Man and the foliate head were different states of being. The Nym in Shara developed into a foliate head, perhaps due to being deprived of light and in close proximity to a type of Shadowspawn that underwent transformation naturally. (The jumara also seemed to have been affected by its long confinement with the Nym, because it developed foliage-like protruberances.)

In The Wheel of Time, the Green Man had the same description and function as that of real-world myth: to release and boost the fecundity of the land—and he was able to do this to everything he touched. He could even make the organisms associated with decay grow better, where appropriate, as we saw when the Green Man killed Balthamel.

His power was such that he could even keep the corruption of the Shadow at bay:

“Every turning of years, the Blight strives harder to come inside, and this turn the struggle to keep it out has been greater than ever since the beginning."

- The Eye of the World, The Dark One Stirs

He was almost apologetic in the extent of his Power and the extent he used it:

"All things must grow where they are, according to the Pattern," he explained over his shoulder, as if apologizing, "and face the turning of the Wheel, but the Creator will not mind if I give just a little help."

- The Eye of the World,, Meetings at the Eye.

The Green Man is legendary in our world, as he is to most people in the Wheel of Time world. A common belief, as Rand shows, is that the Green Man owns Avendesora:

Avendesora. The Tree of Life was supposed to have all sorts of miraculous qualities, but none of the stories mentioned any sapling, or any "they."
There was only the one, and that belonged to the Green Man.

- The Eye of the World, The Westwood

Yet the Green Man had not rested beneath Avendesora’s branches for two thousand years.

In our world, the Green Man was revered as the god of the seasonal cycle of plant growth and invoked to ensure all occurred in the proper season. As a being of this cycle of life, death and rebirth, the Wheel of Time Green Man would indeed ‘know an ending when it comes’ (The Eye of the World, Meetings at the Eye).

The real-world Green Man birthed a few other legendary figures, notably John Barleycorn, the Green Knight and Jack-in-the-Green. These will be discussed in turn.


John Barleycorn

John Barleycorn was a mythic figure associated with the growing of grain, and its fermented products (eg whisk(e)y and beer) as this verse from Robert Burns’ version of the ancient folk song about John Barleycorn shows:

They took a plough and plough'd him down, put clods upon his head.
And they hae sworn a solemn oath, John Barleycorn was dead.
But the cheerfu' Spring came kindly on, and show'rs began to fall,
John Barleycorn got up again, and sore surprised them all.

During seed-singing, the Nym were able to take the Da’shain Aiel’s and the Ogier’s songs and weave them to make the grain seeds sprout and grow, and give them resistance to all insects and disease. This is the waxing cycle of vegetation. The Green Man was able to boost those organisms responsible for decay (the waning cycle) to destroy Balthamel, even while fatally injured himself, and then grow an oak over his own burial site. It did surprise them all, even Aginor, to see the cycle of death and rebirth occur before their eyes.

John Barleycorn also shows the themes of death and rebirth, as does the Green Knight in the Arthurian story of Sir Gawain.


Green Knight

The Green Knight is a Christianised offshoot of the pagan Green Man myth. At midwinter, the Green Man arrives at King Arthur’s court and challenges a knight to strike off is head. In return, the knight must travel to the Green Knight’s castle in one year and a day and accept a similar blow in return. Photo at right from fairycolumbine.wordpress.com

Sir Gawain accepts the challenge and beheads the Green Knight with one blow. To their surprise, the Green Knight gets to his feet, picks up his head and rides away. A year and a day later, Sir Gawain meets the Green Knight at his castle where the Green Knight tries to behead Gawain. He makes three attempts, but they were to test Gawain’s courage, not kill him. Gawain was wearing a green girdle that he believed was magic and refused to offer to the Green Knight as was chivalric custom, but kept it to save himself from death. The Green Knight’s challenge was a test devised by Morgan le Fay.

Balthamel struck the Green Man a lethal blow from neck to head and expected him to die immediately, but he amazingly didn’t, he was able to kill his opponent first. The Dark One offered the Forsaken immortality if they would serve.

Like any fine Knight, the Green Man kept the faith and did the task assigned to him by the Aes Sedai during the Breaking—to guard the Eye of the World—though it ultimately cost him his life. The Nym has outlived all its kind while doing so, and calmly accepted his approaching death. According to Moiraine—a parallel of Morgan le Fay—he kept the faith better than most of those who gave him the charge (The Eye of the World, Meetings at the Eye).


Jack in the Green

The Jack-in-the-Green is a figure in the folk dance celebrating the spirit or god of the yearly renewal of life. Dancers decked with ribbons and tinsel and with blackened faces prance around a Jack-in-the-Green to the music of simple home-made instruments. The Jack is a man inside a leaf-covered wicker frame who peers through a small gap in the leaves, looking very like the foliate heads representing the Green Man.

Jordan has reverse-engineered (his term) an historic origin in his world for this folk dance; a realistic explanation. He ‘explains’ this May Day dance as a remnant memory of the seed-singing in the Age of Legends, where the Ogier and male Da’shain Aiel sang and the female Da’shain clapped while the Nym danced to their songs and wove them “into the soil and around the seeds.”(The Shadow Rising, The Dedicated). While the Jack-in-the-Green folk dance celebrates the god of the yearly renewal of life (Green Man), the Wheel of Time seed-singing was the actual renewing and boosting of life for the practical purpose of agriculture.

At the dance’s climax, Jack-in the-Green is 'executed' to 'renew the world'. This takes place during the Pagan festival known as Beltane (1st May) and celebrates the coming of spring and the rebirth of the earth. Similar folk customs occur all over Europe. In Jordan’s world, Beltine occurs the day after Winternight at the beginning of Spring in the northern hemisphere, March 23. In the real world, Beltane, when Jack is executed to release the spirit of the growing season, is on May 1.

The Green Man was killed by Balthamel on May 9, after being warned to mind his own business. He refused to ignore evil, however, and was able to remove one of Rand’s opponents. Thus Rand was better able to defeat Aginor, the Shadow’s army, and Ishamael each in turn. Without the Green Man’s sacrifice (and example) this renewal may not have occurred. Despite the Shadow’s efforts to wound the Land, the Light was able to restore Spring on May 9, only 8 days after May Day or real-world Beltane. It was a mighty blow against the Shadow indeed, and the Green Man fittingly played an important part in the Healing of the Land.


Green Man and Goddess

In contemporary Western paganism, the Green Man is also the symbol of male fertility in Nature and he has a close relationship with the female expression of fertility: the Goddess. As is described in the Arthurian myth essay, Moiraine is a Goddess figure, which is why she is so closely associated with the Green Man; indeed, she was the only being to find the Green Man twice. Need was the key to finding him, and Moiraine’s need the second time was the hope of the world—the hope and need for the Land to be Healed. Moiraine as Goddess and the Green Man held the Shadow at bay long enough for the Creator’s champion (Rand, the Fisher King) to do just that.

In Norse mythology, the World Tree which supported the Land, was associated with a giant, Mimir.


Mímir

Mimir, whose name in Old Norse means ‘the rememberer, the wise one’ is a giant in Norse mythology. He guards the "Well of the Highest Wisdom", situated in Jotunheim under one of the three roots of Yggdrasil, the World Tree, and has been since the beginning of time. To drink from the well, Mimir used the Gjallarhorn, a drinking horn of the same name as the musical horn which Heimdall will sound to announce the onset of Ragnarök (the Last Battle). The well contained one of Odin’s eyes, which Odin sacrificed for a drink from the Well in order to obtain wisdom.

Someshta was injured during the War of the Power, and was set guard over the Eye of the World, a well of pure saidin, over three thousand years previously, at the beginning of the Third Age. The Eye also contained the Horn of Valere, which is to be sounded to call the Heroes of the Horn to fight at the Last Battle. Far from being ‘the rememberer,’ Someshta had trouble with his memory due to his injury and the destruction of the technology and most of the constructed beings at the end of the Second Age. He is isolated from Avendesora, the Tree of Life, having:

”not rested beneath its ungentle branches in two thousand years.”

- The Eye of the World, Meetings at the Eye

The Third Age of the Wheel of Time is rife with wrongness.

The foliate head in Shara was a Nym tasked with guarding the cup portion of the sa’angreal Sakarnen (River of Souls). Did Demandred learn wisdom from his mentor Mintel, his battle with the jumara, his ablutions in the River of Souls or his fulfillment of prophecy as the Wyld? Surprisingly, he did learn some, but not the wisdom of letting go of a grudge.


Conclusion

Contrary to the popular myths in the Wheel of Time world, such as those circulating in the Two Rivers, the Green Man had been dissociated from the Tree of Life (chora trees), and his unhealed wound acquired during the Breaking reflected this. The Nym in the Hearttomb in Shara was cut off from all Light, and furthermore was cooped up with a Shadowspawn for centuries; not surprisingly it had withered into a foliate head. The other Nym died at the end of the Age of Legends, as did all chora trees except for the cuttings the Da’shain had. It is as though the Nym were like Hamadryads in being linked to the chora trees. Or perhaps the Nym needed the peace and happiness that their fellow constructs gave to all. Their co-disappearance and the Green Man’s 3,000-year battle against the Blight shows that the well-being of creatures depends on the health of the Land.


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Written by Linda, May 2005 and updated August 2013

Contributors: Dominic, Dark Diggler, NessalThor

Ogier

By Linda

Ogier are large, long-lived non-human beings (natural, not constructs) with an empathy for plant life and a talent for working with stone. Some can even make plants grow useful items without damaging themselves (sung wood). They are very sensitive to the atmosphere of a place, so much so that they have a geomantic feel for the land:

“You must shape the vision to the land, not the land to the vision.”

- The Eye of the World, Web of the Pattern

Loial spoke as if he had not heard. “Everything is linked, Rand. Whether it lives or not, whether it thinks or not, everything that is, fits together. The tree does not think, but it is part of the whole, and the whole has a—a feeling.”

- The Great Hunt, Kinslayer

Jordan combined many figures when constructing the Ogier as he revealed at a book signing:

Q: What was your inspiration for the Ogier?

A: It's really impossible to say here. The Ogier came from a dozen different sources, at least.

This essay discusses some of those sources.

First up, the name Ogier is derived from two main sources: Ogier the Dane and ‘ogre’.


Ogier the Dane

Ogier the Dane is the subject of a tale in Legends of Charlemagne, Bulfinch’s Mythology.

He was the son of the first Christian King of Denmark and was blessed by six beautiful ladies at his birth:

“She who appeared eldest took him in her arms, kissed him and laid her hand upon his heart. “I give you,” said she, “to be the bravest warrior of your times.” She delivered the infant to her sister, who said, “I give you abundant opportunities to display your valour.” “Sister,” said the third lady, “you have given him a dangerous boon; I give him that he shall never be vanquished.” The fourth sister added, as she laid her hand upon his eyes and mouth, “I give you the gift of pleasing.” The fifth said, “lest all these gifts serve only to betray, I give you sensibility to return the love you inspire.” Then spoke Morgana, the youngest and handsomest of the group, “Charming creature, I claim you for my own; and I give you not to die till you shall have come to pay me a visit in my isle of Avalon.”

- Legends of Charlemagne, Bulfinch’s Mythology

The reference to Avalon is interesting, since the name Avalon is similar to Tar Valon, a city the Ogier built and consider their finest work. The first three blessings for Ogier the Dane seem most apt for Loial, who has been drawn into battle more than most Ogier, and led them into the Last Battle, but Seanchan Ogier and Age of Legends Ogier have a fearsome reputation as fighters and police.

The Ogier were also reputed to have served among [the Age of Legends’] law enforcement. Although considered a pacific people and extremely slow to anger, some old stories say they fought alongside humans in the Trolloc Wars, and call them implacable enemies.

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

Ogier the Dane was seven feet tall and too heavy for any horse but his own. He was educated to the standard of a perfect knight. At age 16, he was sent to France as hostage to King Charlemagne, to whom his father owed homage, and left as such for 15 years. After four years, Ogier was forced to swear fidelity to Charlemagne as his liegeman. He kept his oath, saving Charlemagne in battle by his strength and valour and leading the forces requested by his father from Charlemagne, even though his father had left him a hostage for all those years at Charlemagne’s court. He was a noble character who forgave those who did dreadful wrongs to him.

On the way back from the wars, Ogier was the sole survivor of a shipwreck and was taken to Morgana’s palace at Avalon. Morgana placed a crown of flowers on his head which robbed him of his memory so that he forgot everything except his desire to stay with her. He did so for more than 100 years, aging slowly, until Morgana playfully removed the crown of flowers one day and his memory returned. He then wanted to rejoin to Charlemagne’s court. However, after such a long time, all was changed, even the language. Nevertheless, Ogier went to war again for the Capetian King, Charlemagne’s descendent. After a few years, Morgana magically transported Ogier back to live with her on Avalon, where Ogier also kept company with King Arthur there.

As well as the name Ogier, Jordan derived much of the character of Ogier from Ogier the Dane: the keeping of oaths (even those made under duress), the loyalty, the forgiving nature, great size and strength and very long life. And the magical transportation is a parallel of the Book of Translation which Ogier open to go to other worlds (Knife of Dreams, Vows). It is not known how this transportation occurs, or whether it involves the magical One Power in some way—as Morgana magically transported her beloved Ogier. The Dane then had the dilemma of whether to stay in his refuge with Morgana or return to Charlemagne’s court to do his duty to his liege lord. The Ogier had to choose whether to fight against the Shadow or flee to a place of safety.

As well as the name of a legendary figure, Ogier is also a real-world surname, and in Jordan’s home town of Charleston, South Carolina, there is an Ogier Street named after a prominent local family. Right is a photo I took of the street sign.

The second main source for the name is ‘ogre’.


Ogres

Ogres and trolls are very large humanoid creatures that occur in Northern European folklore. The ogres (related to the Latin Orcus) are a race of fierce and cruel humanoid beings that eat human flesh; they are also shy, cowardly and unintelligent, which makes it easy for men to outwit them. A female ogre is called ogress. Ogres are said to be able to change their shape at will into animals or objects, and they often dwell in marvellous palaces or castles, sometimes underground. In art, ogres are depicted with a big head, abundant hair and beard and a huge, strong body.

The physical descriptions of ogres and Ogier are pretty similar, as are a few aspects of their respective characters, notably the shyness and reluctance to fight. (The negative aspects of ogres were used to develop Trollocs.) Ogier live under mounds in the forests of stedding, like some ogres live underground, and have built marvellous buildings for humans.

In Scandinavian countries, trolls feature in folktales rather than ogres.


Trolls

Trolls are usually depicted as quite ugly gigantic beings (less often as dwarfs), with big noses, long arms, and hairy bodies. They are unintelligent, although the females may be quite cunning. They flinch at noises, because Thor used to fling his hammer at them.

In Scandinavian fairy tales, trolls generally turn to stone if exposed to sunlight. They live in the forest and in mountains and sometimes abduct children to live with them (especially princesses). Occasionally, they even steal a newborn baby, leaving their own offspring, a changeling, in return.


The character of Ogier is the opposite of trolls, being kinder and more intelligent and law-abiding. Their appearance and living places are similar though: large wide noses, big limbs and hairy bodies and forest homes. They also both dislike loud noise. Instead of turning to stone like Trolls, Ogier have great skill in working it.

Besides Ogier, ogres and trolls, many giant humanoid creatures were used to derive Ogier. These will be described in turn, starting with giants.

Giants

Giants are humanoid creatures of prodigious size and strength that appear in the tales of many different races and cultures. They are often stupid or violent and are frequently said to eat humans, especially children; others, however, are intelligent and friendly (Roald Dahl’s The BFG, for instance, or the Grabbist giant of Exmoor folktales).

Robert Jordan’s Ogier are like the intelligent and friendly giants; they are knowledgeable and cultured. Loial bravely defended children against Trollocs.

In Norse mythology, the gods promised a giant the goddess Freyja, the sun and the moon as payment for reconstructing their dwelling (see painting below). They then allowed Loki to trick the giant out of his payment, thus violating their oath. From that moment, all oaths and treaties in the world began to lose validity. This was the beginning of the decline into Ragnarok, the end of the gods. Ogier are also associated with oaths; they cannot go back on their word even if others do so to them. Late in the Third Age, Ogier abandoned their work in the cities of men because they were not being paid.

The great ferocity of Ogier in battle stunned the humans fighting with them and their foes the Trollocs too:

Loial did not stop his song, the call to blood, to death. Let them hear! Let them hear! Swing after swing. Chopping dead wood, that was all this was. Dead, rotting, horrible wood. He and Erith fell into place with Elder Haman, who—with ears laid back—looked utterly fierce. Placid Elder Haman. He felt the rage too…

He sang and fought and roared and killed, hacking at Trollocs with an axe meant for cutting wood, and never flesh. Working with wood was a reverent business. This . . . this was killing weeds. Poisonous weeds. Strangling weeds.

He continued to chop the Trollocs, losing himself in the call to blood, to death. The Trollocs began to fear. He saw terror in their beady eyes, and he loved it. They were used to fighting men, who were smaller than themselves.

Well, let the Trollocs fight someone their own size. They snarled as the Ogier line forced them back. Loial landed blow after blow, shearing through arms, hacking through torsos. He shoved his way between two bear Trollocs, laying about him with his axe, yelling in fury—fury now for what the Trollocs had done to the Ogier. They should be enjoying the peace of the stedding. They should be able to build, sing, and grow.

They could not. Because of these . . . these weeds, they could not! The Ogier were forced to kill. The Trollocs made builders into destroyers. They forced Ogier and humans to be like themselves. The call to blood, to death.

Well, the Shadow would see just how dangerous the Ogier could be. They would fight, and they would kill. And they would do it better than any human, Trolloc or Myrddraal could imagine.

By the fear Loial saw in the Trollocs—by their terrified eyes—they were beginning to understand.

*****

"Light!" Galad exclaimed, falling back from the thick of the fight. "Light!"

The Ogier attack was terrible and glorious. The creatures fought with ears drawn back, eyes wide, broad faces flat as anvils. They seemed to transform, all placidity gone. They cut through ranks of Trollocs, hacking the beasts to the ground. The second row of Ogier, made up mostly of females, sliced up Trollocs with long knives, bringing down any who made it through the first line.

Galad had thought Trollocs fearsome with their twisted mix of human and animal features, but the Ogier disturbed him more. Trollocs were simply horrible . . . but Ogier were gentle, soft-spoken, kindly. Seeing them enraged, bellowing their terrible song and attacking with axes nearly as long as men were tall . . . Light!

- A Memory of Light, A Silence Like Screaming

They are equated with their opposites the Trollocs, with whom they share some real-world sources, especially ogres, trolls and giants.

Other gigantic beings who defended against evil were the oni.


Oni (Japan)

In the earliest legends, oni were huge benevolent creatures that warded off evil and malevolent spirits and punished evil-doers. Oni are the spirits of anger, although "oni" can also be translated as ogre, demon and devil. In some later folktales, they are the bringers of misfortune and bad weather, while in others they are hunters of evildoers, including disobedient children.

The Seanchan Ogier Gardeners are, and some Age of Legends Ogier were, fearsome guards and police, similar in character and size to oni.

Two dozen Ogier Gardeners in the red-and-green made a line to either side of the doorway, great black-tasseled axes upright in front of them and grim eyes watching for any danger even here. They would not die if she [Tuon] did, but they also had asked to be in her guard, and she would rest her life in any of those huge hands without a qualm.

- Winter’s Heart, What A Veil Hides

The stedding of the Ogier ward off evil beings, so that even Darkfriends feel uncomfortable in them:

No Trolloc will enter a stedding unless driven, and even Myrddraal will do so only at the greatest need and with the greatest reluctance. It is said that Darkfriends, if truly dedicated, also feel uncomfortable and unwelcome there.

- Lord of Chaos, Glossary, and The World of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time

Ogier are slower to anger than oni, but just as fearsome once roused and also have the same strong moral sense.

The Ancient Greek giants have parallels to the Ogier’s building and agricultural side rather than their moral side.


Titans, Cyclopes and Gigantes

These are gigantic humanoids in Ancient Greek mythology with some parallels to Ogier.

The Cyclopes were one-eyed giants born to Uranus and Gaia. They moved mountains with their bare hands and became synonyms for strength and power. They helped Cronus overthrow and castrate Uranus, but Cronus then imprisoned them back in Tartarus, where they remained, guarded by Campe, until freed by Zeus. They fashioned lightning bolts for Zeus to use as a weapon and helped him overthrow Cronus and the other Titans, and also created Poseidon's trident, Artemis' bow and arrows, and the helmet that Hades gave to Perseus on his quest to kill Medusa. They were Hephaestus' helpers and are said to have built the fortifications at Tiryns and Mycenae in the Peloponnese. The noises proceeding from the heart of volcanoes were attributed to their operations.

Size, strength, skill in crafting and the ability to work stone on a large scale are what the Cyclopes have in common with Ogier. Dedicated craftsmen, the mainland Ogier are rarely rouse to fight, but use variants of their gardening tools—axes and pruning knives—when they do.

The Titans were also gigantic offspring of Uranus. One Titan with apt parallels with Ogier is Cronus.

Cronus (in Greek mythology, Saturn in Roman mythology), was the leader of the first generation of Titans. He attacked and castrated his father, Uranus, at his mother’s (Gaia’s) request, because Uranus had imprisoned the Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires (one-hundred-armed giants) within her. Uranus’ blood that fell on the earth created the Gigantes.

After dispatching Uranus, Cronus re-imprisoned the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes along with the newly-created Gigantes. He and Rhea took the throne as King and Queen of the gods. This time was called the Golden Age, as the people of the time had no need for laws or rules; everyone did right, so there was no need. Cronus was worshipped as a corn god, from his association with the Golden Age. He was a god of the harvest, grain, nature, and agriculture.

The Age of Legends, when Ogier were abundant, was a similar Golden Age. There was very little crime or strife and Ogier spent much time in agricultural jobs singing to the crops to make them strong and resistant.

In Greek mythology, the Gigantes were giants who sprang forth from the blood of the castrated Uranus. The Gigantes later attacked the gods of Mt. Olympus, trying to reach them by stacking the two mountain ranges of Thessaly on top of each other. With the help of Heracles though, the Gigantes were defeated.

This myth is reminiscent of a saying on the mainland:

Anger the Ogier, and pull the mountains down on your head.

- The Shadow Rising, Into the Ways

Like the Ogier, the Gigantes are giant beings able to move stone on a large scale.

Giants that personify natural forces were also common in the mythologies of Northern Europe.


Iotnar

In Norse and Anglo-Saxon mythology, the giants (iotnar, singular iotunn or jotun) seem to be a separate race akin to the gods, and often opposed to them. In the apocalyptic battle of Ragnarok, the frost giants will storm Asgard, home of the gods, and defeat the gods in war, bringing about the end of the world. Even though the giants are generally opposed to the gods, they parley and sometimes party or relax with them.

There isn’t much of a parallel here, except that Ogier are a separate race which played a part in Tarmon Gai’don. The jotun represent natural forces, and the Ogier have a strong empathy with and a respect for nature.

The iotnar provided the name for the ents, which have many parallels with Ogier.


Ents

The name ent is derived from iotnar (Old English "eotenas"/"entas"), but the appearance and habits of ents are not. Ents have many similarities with Ogier. Both ents and Ogier are very large and deliberate and dislike haste. Ents defend trees and now live in remnant forests. Ogier groves are largely destroyed and their stedding are in isolated places. Both ents and Ogier are good stone workers. Treebeard describes the ents’ stone-working abilities:

“You do not know, perhaps, how strong we (ents) are…We can split stone like the roots of trees, only quicker, far quicker, if our minds are roused!...We could split Isengard into splinters and crack its walls into rubble.”

- The Lord of the Rings, JR.R. Tolkien

Ogier and ents each speak a different language to the common tongues of their respective worlds, and neither language is much known by other peoples. It was the Elves who taught the ents how to speak, and much of their knowledge. The ents’ love of knowledge has been expanded by Jordan into the Ogiers’ love of books. Hidden beneath the Ogier’s bookishness is the knowledge that a book instructed them on how the travel to this world, and will do the same for the return to their homeworld. Ogier also use a different script (which may be rather ‘Elvish’ in appearance…) and, in fact have some parallels with elves.

One difference between the two races concerns their females. The ents have become separated from the entwives, whereas Ogier women are most emphatically there and have a large say in the running of Ogier families. Another major difference is in appearance: Ogier are closer in appearance to humans, whereas ents are tree-like creatures, having become like the trees that they shepherd.

Another mythological creature with empathy for plants is the dryad.


Dryads

Dryads were a type of nymph, which were a large class of inferior female divinities in Greek mythology. The nymphs were usually associated with natural features or beings; the Dryads or Hamadryads presided over forests and trees and were bonded to a specific tree. Dryads, like all nymphs, were supernaturally long-lived, but if the tree died, the dryad associated with it died as well. For that reason, any mortals who harmed trees without first propitiating the tree-nymphs were punished.

Ogier are bound to the stedding just as Dryads are bound to their tree, and if away for long, they develop an extreme form of homesickness—the Longing. The stedding is the place (stead) of the Ogier and the Great Trees—where they tend the trees. Ogier consider it a crime to feel the Great Trees:

“Cut down a Great Tree?” Loial sounded scandalized, and more than a little angry…“We never cut down one of the Great Trees, not unless it dies, and they almost never do.”

- The Great Hunt, Stedding Tsofu

The Slavic Leshy is another woodland spirit with parallels to the Ogier.


Leshy

The Leshy is a forest spirit of Slavic mythology. He is a playful spirit who enjoys tricking people, though when angered he can be treacherous. While he is seldom seen, his voice can be heard in the forest laughing, whistling, or singing.

This is reminiscent of when Perrin and Mat go to Stedding Tsofu:

More Ogier appeared now, walking among the trees. Most seemed intent on whatever they were about; though all looked at the newcomers, and even gave a friendly nod or a small bow, none stopped or spoke. They had a curious way of moving, in some manner blending a careful deliberateness with an almost childlike carefree joyfulness.

- The Great Hunt,Stedding Tsofu

While their appearance is different to the Ogier,

When the leshy is spotted, he can be easily recognized; for, though he often has the appearance of a man, his eyebrows, eyelashes, and right ear are missing, his head is somewhat pointed, and he lacks a hat and belt. In his native forest, the leshy is as tall as the trees, but, the moment he steps beyond, he shrinks to the size of grass.

- Encyclopaedia Britannica

their habits and habitat are similar—delighting in the forest where they live, and being usually cheerful, although having an implacable anger when roused. The leshy are largely tied to their place as the Ogier are, both walk tall in their dwelling place and wither outside it.

Another reclusive, mythical giant creature is Bigfoot.


Bigfoot or Sasquatch

Bigfoot is a large creature said to inhabit the remote wilderness areas of the US and southwest Canada. Most people believe them to be myths.

Ogier are large creatures living in remote areas. Many people no longer know what they are, or consider Ogier to be myths:

Ogier appearances outside the stedding are so rare that most people no longer believe in them, thinking them a fantasy.

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

In the same way, most people in our world believe that gigantic bipeds are a fantasy. Jordan has developed his Ogier to be consistent with this and to ‘explain’ the widespread belief in giant humanoids and the occasional reported sighting.

The next fantastical creature is a quadruped with a few parallels to Ogier.


Leucrota

The leucrota is part horse, lion and stag in appearance and is the result of the imaginary mating of a hyena and a lioness. Moving faster than any other animal, it makes human-like sounds. It is unique in having a mouth that opens back as far as its ears. Ogier are nothing like leucrota in appearance, but they too can run very fast: Loial out-sprinted a horse, once. We take it for granted that Ogier are a non-human race who have no trouble speaking as humans do. Both the leucrota and the Ogier have exceptionally wide mouths:

The grin on Loial's wide mouth really did almost split his huge face in two

- Lord of Chaos, The Mirror of Mists

Parallels to most of the characteristics of the Ogier have been covered. The last remaining feature to be discussed is their ears—a sign of their otherworldliness.


And Their Ears…

The Ogier have pointed (or tufted) ears covered with hair. There are a few woodland mythical creatures with pointed ears: elves, fauns, satyrs, leprechauns and the Greco-Roman nature god Pan. Of these, the elves have the most parallels with Ogier, since elves, like Ogier, are a long-lived race of creatures that live in forests or underground and have magical powers and a strong empathy with the natural world.

The Ways that were grown for the Ogier by the male Aes Sedai they helped are like fairy paths that run in straight lines to important fairy sites. Aes Sedai themselves were derived from fairies—Aes Sidhe. Fairy paths can be dangerous for humans to travel, or even block in any way, just as the originally benign ways provided the Ogier with a safe connection between their steddings, but became very dangerous to all. In some legends, the fairy realms are entered through mirrors. In The Eye of the World, The Dark Along the Ways, as the Waygate opens, Loial described how the ways originally shone like mirrors.

The negative traits of elves and fairies were used to develop the Aelfinn and Eelfinn, while the Ogier received the more positive ones. Ogier are both highly “natural” like nature spirits, but also otherworldly like fairies, to the extent that they came from another world. According to Jordan’s Ogier notes, the fairy-like Aes Sedai lost the knowledge that the Ogier were alien during the Breaking.

Their Human Side

As stone masons who are separate from the general population in havens, Ogier are like Freemasons in their lodges. Robert Jordan was a Freemason, and left touches of masonic symbols in his books (see Freemasonry and the Wheel of Time article). Often important men, masons are rarely identified as such, just as Ogier are physically conspicuous when they leave their stedding but naturally reclusive. In some areas, Ogier are so rarely seen that people have trouble identifying them, and they incite fear to the extent that some have thought these considerate faithful beings Shadowspawn. Likewise, Freemasonry also incite doubt, suspicion and fear. Ogier regard stone-working as an aside, something extra that they do. Founded as a medieval guild, actual stone-working is no longer the purpose of Freemasons. Harriet said that the character that Robert Jordan was most like is Loial.

Chinese Influences

Ogier place names are mainly Chinese in character LINK. In Robert Jordan’s Ogier notes, the Book of Translation was originally called the Book of Changes. The most famous book with this title is the I Ching, a Chinese book on divination, which is consistent with the Chinse place names. Ironically, the stedding in Shara, a land with strong Chinese parallels, are long abandoned according to Robert Jordan’s Ogier notes because no Ogier entered that continent after the Breaking and those who were already in Shara died out.

Decline from the Golden Age

Ogier were far more common and well-known in the utopian Age of Legends than in the Third Age. Like humanity, they have declined in numbers, lifespan, knowledge and technology. This has a parallel in ancient and medieval thought: many historic texts, including the Bible, believed that people were once much larger and stronger than they are now, and had degenerated after a golden age.


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Written by Linda, November 2004 and updated January 2014 and May 2019