New Article on Omens

By Linda



I have posted a new article on Omens in the series, whether Seanchan, Westlands or Aiel. In a way, it ties in with Min's Viewings, which were updated last week.

Warning: it contains spoilers for A Memory of Light.

Min's Viewings Updated

By Linda

The article on Min's Viewings has been updated for A Memory of Light, and booksigning info.

There is a lot of new material and it is marked in bold. The article also refers to a new article on Omens that I am currently writing.

Egwene Outfit 2

By Linda

It seems to be a week for Egwene, since here is a description of Egwene’s second outfit.

Once in Falme, Egwne’s previous clothes were burned and she was dressed as a damane in grey. Regarded as not really human, the clothes of a damane are plain, drab and serviceable. Egwene wears dark grey boiled wool shift and petticoat and grey wool jersey stockings and medium grey leather shoes (see photo below).




Her dress of dark grey wool with the neckline cut fairly high and the bodice is lined with hard-wearing black linen. She doesn’t need a belt because she has no possessions to carry. I made her a’dam from two different sized silver earrings and a silver necklace.



Such a contrast to her previous outfit, which is here.

Egwene's Dreams Updated

By Linda

The article on Egwene's Dreams has been updated for A Memory of Light, and booksigning info.

Not all her dreams were fulfilled. New material is in bold.

Egwene Outfit 1

By Linda

In The Great Hunt, the four girls left the White Tower with Liandrin to “save Rand”. Three of the girls - Egwene, Elayne and Nynaeve – wore their best silk dresses divided for riding, trying to counter their youth with the status of their clothes. The fourth, Min, was dressed as a boy servant. I have created the outfits they wore in quarter scale for four Tonner dolls and over the next few costume posts I’ll be showing them.

The Wheel of Time riding dresses are different to real world riding dresses. They are able to be worn riding astride, but are not culottes or trousers. In A Memory of Light, Friendly Fire, Min distinguishes between a riding dress and wide culottes as not the same thing:

Min couldn't tell if those were skirts that had been divided for riding, or if it was a pair of trousers with very enveloping legs.

They are not a two piece ensemble of skirt and bodice either, Elayne was able to alter dresses into a riding dress with “a little needlework” while in a boat. And the wearer can presumably go to the toilet while wearing a riding dress without much ado.

Since they are skirts, they must be open at the crotch, with the inside seams reaching about mid-thigh, or slightly lower. Think of it as a cross between a short skirt and loose culottes. I found by experiment that the skirts needed to be bulky to sit right and to cover the hips adequately while in the saddle and climbing into it. Skirt fabric width of about five times the waist circumference gave the best results. If wished, the opening on each upper thigh can be closed with buttons.

First up is Egwene. She left the Tower in a gold-embroidered green silk dress divided for riding:

Each had chosen her best dress that had a skirt divided for riding, and cloaks of fine wool rich with embroidery…
Now Egwene shifted her cloak and smoothed her own gold-embroidered, green silk dress

The Great Hunt, Flight From the White Tower

The fabric would be a strong or dark colour to hide travel dirt. Jordan did not describe the embroidery motif, but in her visit to Tel’aran’rhiod in Tear Egwene dreamed of herself in a dress with birds embroidered across the bosom :

It was the rolling hills again, as always at first, flowers and butterflies under spring sunshine, soft breezes and birds singing. She wore green silk, this time, with golden birds embroidered over her breasts, and green velvet slippers.

The Dragon Reborn, A Storm in Tear

so that is the motif I sewed. Egwene’s dress is lined with olive green China silk (see photos below).



Under the dress she wears a short white silk shift that reaches the base of her bottom (photo below right), and a natural white linen divided petticoat trimmed with linen lace (photo below left). Linen is hard-wearing and practical for travelling. Her wool jersey stockings are also practical, as are her black lace-up ankle boots. The linen petticoat is not as bulky as her divided skirts; it has a fabric width of 2.5 times her waist and has a button and loop closure.







Here is the front and back view of Egwene in her full outfit.




Her wool cloak was described as “heavily embroidered” and is a dark colour so it doesn’t show dirt. I designed it to mirror what Egwene saw each time she arrived in Tel’aran’rhiod in the early books: dreaming herself among spring flowers and butterflies before going on elsewhere. It is made of grey wool with butterflies fluttering above narcissus, hyacinths, grape hyacinths and irises embroidered in yellow, purple, blue and green wool yarns, and is closed with a gold cloak brooch.

Front and back view of the cloak.





Egwene in her cloak front and back.




And finally, Egwene sitting on my work table waiting for her second stocking and Egwene with a 'headache'. Rather amazingly, Frank posed her like that himself, without having read the books. Can't imagine how that happened. ;) From the headache picture you can get some idea of how the skirts would look seated on a horse.

Aiel Prophecy updated

By Linda

Today I updated the Aiel Prophecy article with info from A Memory of Light and booksignings and interviews. New material is marked in bold.

Other news is that I received an unexpected package from TOR this afternoon: it was Brandon Sanderson's new book The Rithmatist. Huge thanks to TOR and Brandon, it was very nice of them indeed. The Rithmatist will be my next book to read.

Prophecies of the Dragon updated

By Linda

Today the Prophecies of the Dragon article was updated with information from A Memory of Light and booksigning information. There is a lot of new information, which is marked in bold.

We now know of three collections of prophecies. And all the Karaethon Cycle prophecies known so far appear to have been fulfilled.

Shadowy Prophecy Article Updated

By Linda

Now that I have returned from JordanCon and am over the worst of my jetlag, I am back to updating articles with information from A Memory of Light. Today the Shadowy Prophecy was updated. With the fulfilment or not of dark prophecy and omens, there is quite a bit of new material and this new material is in bold.

JordanCon Art Show recap

JordanCon has had an art show since 2012. This year, the artists were Michael Whelan, Paul Bielaczyc, Dim Horizon Sturio, Lisa Burris, Sara Bielaczyc, Ariel Burgess, joe Trimarchi, Edsel Arnold, Joseph O'Hara, Roy Coker, Sara Glassman, Melissa Lindsey, Laura Jones, and myself. The entries - paintings, drawings, photos, pottery, jewellery, and textiles - were of a very high standard as well as variety.

I put two art quilts in the Jordan Con art show:




A Sudy in Scarlet is a play on the title of one of Arthur Conan Doyle's books. Scarlet "things" abound in it. Its surface is mainly applique, with small amounts of embroidery.





Four Faces of a Volcano shows the eruption, lava flow, sulphur vent and congealing pillow lava phases of a volcano. It is heavily embroidered in silk and also has beading.

The Judges' Choice award went to Edsel Arnold for Selene.

The People's Choice Award, Best Wheel of Time Art went to Joe O'Hara for The Last Battle and the People's Choice Award, Best Non-Wheel of Time Art went to Paul Bielaczyc for Counter This. All three works were amazing. To my great surprise and honour, Four Faces of a Volcano won People's Choice Award, Best 3D Art.

Sales of art yielded a donation of over $575 to the Mayo Clinic's Amyloidosis research program.

Here is the official summary on the JordanCon website.

Costume Panel at JordanCon

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR A MEMORY OF LIGHT

JordanCon this last weekend was great as always. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

On Sunday I was on a WOT costume panel with JordanCon Art Director April Moore, and the artist of the Wheel of Time playing cards, Ariel Burgess.



The topics we discussed included: what resources we have used to research WOT costumes, the new costumes described in A Memory of Light, divided skirts, and my dolls in WOT costume project.

A Memory of Light introduced us to a few more Seanchan costumes (new outfits for Fortuona, Min and Mat) and many Sharan costumes. I'll be writing these up in the WOT Costume article update. Ultimately, I hope to make some of these for the dolls, since I have dolls that match the descriptions of Mat, Min and Fortuona.

The research material I use is Racinet's Pictorial History of Western Costume and R. Turner Wilcox's various books (eg Folk and Festival Costume of the World), followed by studying portraits painted in the period.

Skirts divided for riding are sewn up to mid-thigh with the rest of the skirt left open; the divided skirts are like a cross between loose trousers and a mini-skirt. They rely on the bulk of the fabric in the skirts (five times the waist measurement) to keep everything covered for modesty and comfort.

The dolls are quarter scale dolls in realistic proportions. I have been sewing clothes for them in styles and decoration as described in the books using the correct fabrics and threads. Below left is Aviendha, who has been featured here before. Below right is Egwene in a silk riding dress with gold birds worked across her bodice and a grey wool cloak embroidered with a field of spring flowers and butterflies.



Nynaeve has two complete outfits. This one, below left, which has been written about here, and a grey silk riding dress that she wore when she left the White Tower to go with Liandrin. It will be detailed in a future article. As the heir to a prosperous monarchy, Elayne wears richer clothes again, in the photo below right. Andoran costume has an Elizabethan influence, hence the square neckline and slashed sleeves and skirts of Elayne's dress.



Min is below, in her boy's villager clothes. Her shirt is linen and her breeches are wool. Her cloak is wool lined with linen.




The final photo is of all 5 dolls.




Aviendha and Nynaeve already have a blog post on their outfits. Articles on Min's, Elayne's and Egwene's outfits and Nynaeve's second outfit are forthcoming.

Offshore Prophecy Article Updated

The updates of articles on channelling are now completed, so I've begun updating the prophecies articles with information from A Memory of Light.

First up is Off-shore Prophecy.

Incidentally, there will be a panel at JordanCon in Atlanta this Friday afternoon (the schedule is here) which will discuss the fulfillment of the prophecies. Some of them did not turn out as expected - some were even quite misleading. Even the Jendai prophecy may have been misinterpreted by the Sea Folk.

I leave for JordanCon in a couple of days.

Weaves and Talents Reference Article Updated

The Weaves and Talents article has been updated with all the new information since mid 2012.

As with the other articles about channelling I recently updated, there is quite a lot of new information: both for new weaves, and old.

There are, of course, spoilers for A Memory of Light.

Much of my time lately has been taken with organising my trip to JordanCon, which starts next week in Roswell, Georgia. It runs from April 19 to 21 and this year also hosts DeepSouthCon.

It's a great convention, and one I thoroughly recommend.

Ter'angreal Reference Articles Updated

The ter'angreal articles have been updated with all the new information since mid 2012.


There is quite a lot, and Real Life and the cumbersome new blogger interface hasn't made it any easier or faster!

Most changes were made to:

• Bowls, Cups and Vases
  
• Doorways and Arches
  
• Dream Ter’angreal
  
• Glass Columns
  
• Jewellery
  
• Knives
  
• Seals
  
• Statues and Figurines
  
• Oddments Allied to Ter'angreal
  
• Security Measures for Ter'angreal

There are a few new and interesting items in the Oddments article.

For the full posts on the ter'angreal, see Ter'angreal and Allied Items and the The Cache from Ebou Dar and Cadsuane's Ornaments articles.

There are, of course, spoilers for A Memory of Light.

A Memory of Light reference article updates begun

After writing three new long articles in the lasst couple of months, I've begun updating the reference articles with all the new information since mid 2012.

The first updated article, on Angreal and Sa'angreal, has had major additions.

Naturally it contains spoilers for A Memory of Light.

New Essay on Symbolism

By Linda

As I read A Memory of Light, I noticed that the climatic scenes had a lot of alchemical symbolism. In fact, I realised that the weaves of the One Power illustrate or act out alchemical operations.

So I've written an essay on Alchemical Symbolism throughout the series. And there's a lot of it, so it's a long essay and it contains SPOILERS for A Memory of Light. In some ways it's a whole different take on what happened in the books. Or why it happened. And it really does show why Rand is the Dragon, Sol and King, and why channelling and the Dragon go together.

And this is why I haven't posted much on the blog for the last few weeks. This essay took a while to research and write.

I've written other (shorter) essays on WOT symbolism:

It Does Add Up: Number Symbolism

Not Just the Dragon: Animal Symbolism

Now I'll be steadily updating articles for A Memory of Light and info from the booksignings.

WoT Encyclopedia Q&A with Team Jordan!

Now's your chance to learn more about the upcoming Wheel of Time Encyclopedia!

Waygate Foundation will be hosting a Q&A with Team Jordan, including editor Harriet McDougal and continuity editors Maria Simons and Alan Romanczuk, and want your questions.


Q&A Details:

- Submit your question by commenting on their Facebook post.

- See a question you want answered? Like it! We'll try to answer the most popular questions.

- Questions will be collected via Facebook until Monday, February 25 11:59 PM Eastern US time.

- Answers will be posted on Facebook beginning Monday, March 11 (subject to change based on questions received).

- We'll try to answer as many questions as we can, but be aware that some questions may not be answered due to spoilers or sheer number of questions received.



So far the most popular questions are (in their own words, not mine):

1. What are the three oaths which bind darkfriends?

2. Info about the two outriggers that won’t be published (Tam's life while he was away from The Two Rivers and what led Moiraine and Lan to the Two Rivers)

3. What were Moiraine's questions, answers and wishes to the Aelfinn and Eelfinn, and what was Rand's third question and answer? What were Lanfear's three wishes, or why didn't she get any wishes?

4. How did Tam come to have a heron-mark sword?

5. Did Hawkwing meet with Tuon and if so what words were exchanged?

6. Will there be a list of the prophecies of the dragon and the dark prophecies? Also the other prophecies from the Aiel the atha'an miere?

7. How did Rand light the pipe at the end of MOL? Is he more than a man and a Channeler?
Is he somehow connected more to the pattern than ever before?

8. Who is Nakomi?

9. Descriptions of the Old Tongue and translations?

10. Will the tinkers ever find their song?


Waygate's mission is to support and engage science fiction and fantasy authors and fans in global philanthropic endeavors. Board members include Harriet McDougal, Robert Jordan's cousin/brother Wilson Grooms, and me. Maria Simons is also a director, and the driving force behind the whole thing is Karen Campbell. Waygate's current campaign is called "A Story Begins . . ." and has a goal of raising $10,000 partially for Patrick Rothfuss's Worldbuilders charity—exactly the sort of charitable endeavor that Waygate wants to help other writers and fans become involved in. When the campaign's goal is met, Waygate will share a sneak peek at the forthcoming Wheel of Time Encyclopedia that Team Jordan is hard at work on.
 

Character Names Derived From Readers now updated

Brandon Sanderson named new characters in Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light from people who participated in two on-line charity drives. But Robert Jordan also named some characters after readers. These have all been collected in an article here, which I have greatly expanded with new entries.

New Essay on Demandred

By Linda

Want to know more about Demandred?

This essay, which was unable to be written before the latest book, or published before this last week, discusses Demandred's character development and the parallels behind his deeds. It is the 9th in the Forsaken and their Parallels series and is available here in the Thirteenth Depository Reference Library, ahead of A Memory of Light updates of the older library articles.

Demandred is an analogue of a few generals, a couple of traitors, and also some mythological figures, some monstrous, some not. And there is the odd gambler.

Warning: there are, of course, spoilers for A Memory of Light.

Here are my other essays on the Forsaken (which have NOT yet been updated for AMOL), for those interested:

The Forsaken and their Parallels

• Asmodean


• Balthamel


• Demandred


• Graendal


• Lanfear


• Mesaana


• Sammael


• Semirhage


• Three Strands Common to the Forsaken

Non Spoiler Review of A Memory of Light

By Linda

Over 20 years after I began reading the Wheel of Time series, here I am writing my review of the final book. When I started my elder son was a newborn and now he’s an adult studying IT while working full time. What a journey the wait has been – the online WOT community, wonderful WOT friends, this blog, visits to the Cons in the US! Sadly it is a journey that Jordan himself did not complete.

This is a non-spoiler review because we’ve waited so many years for the finale that I’m not going to spoil it. Likewise, no matter how much you are tempted, don’t jump ahead to the last scene, which is in RJ’s words, but arrive at it in the proper sequence. Your self-discipline will be rewarded.

Everybody makes a stand on the tatters of existence. There are few shirkers. Losses are huge and dire. There are scenes of great symbolism, and theological /philosophical as well as military crusades, and there should be enough duels to satisfy the who-would-win-in-a-fight? fans. Thankfully the plotlines are less abruptly resolved than in Towers of Midnight. Some things long anticipated pan out as fans have theorised, but others are complete surprises. Also surprising is which prophecies remain unfulfilled and what is not explained. It highlights the loss of any sequel which would perhaps have provided these. Food for discussion for a while yet, I daresay.

My favourite story lines are those of Lanfear, and Demandred, and parts of Lan, and the Black Tower. Forsaken and Dreadlords get just desserts as they are lured by character defects into going too far and paying the price of death or ironic punishment. Regarding characterisation, Perrin and Faile are excellent and the main female characters very good. Tuon is perhaps weakest of the women. Mat’s humour doesn’t wink at the reader as it did in the previous two books, but he does use the odd out-of-series word. Rand is psychologically balanced; more human, less Zen master. Only a bare handful of ‘sleeper’ Darkfriends are revealed, less than I expected, so perhaps some managed to sleep it out.

There are fewer new characters than in Towers of Midnight and some reappearances of minor characters from earlier in the series, although I would have liked more of the latter, to emphasise the ta’veren effect and the cyclic nature of time. I think that the lack of reference to a couple of characters, one important to the fight against the Shadow, the other formative to Rand, is regrettable. A positive is that there is less promoting one character by making the other characters in the scene look foolish.

The book is one of the few volumes in the series with no new chapter icon. The writing has lots of adjectives and is florid at times, but I suppose if there ever was a time for hyperbole… The POVs are switched well to keep the story line moving and maintain excitement, essential in the extremely long Last Battle chapter (truly the Two Hundred Pages War). With its great length and 72 POVs it gives a feel of the grinding battle.

Appropriately, Rand’s confrontation with the Dark One looks back to their previous battle at the end of The Eye of the World . The end of the battle also hearkens back to The Eye of the World prologue that brought so many into the series. The Wheel turns.

It’s interesting that there is reliance on weaves, especially new uses for known weaves, rather than One Power devices, whereas, in contrast, real world industrial technology features. Another point is that stewardship – caring for the people and the Land - legitimises rule, not inheritance or military might.

Many readers will feel that details or conversations should have been written differently – however, tellingly these will vary from reader to reader – but the overall Pattern is very satisfying and well done.

The ending – modestly described as an ending - is bitter-sweet and no fairy tale. Just as in the final tally of gains and losses of the Last Battle, we are reminded that we have been given so much over the last twenty odd years and in Brandon’s and Team Jordan’s great efforts to bring the series to fulfilment, but we also lost a lot too in Jordan’s untimely passing.

And so our march to Tarmon Gai’don is done. Let the Wheel turn.

***

I’ve been busy writing a new essay which incorporates quite a bit of material from A Memory of Light and it will be posted next week. A Memory of Light provides new information for the character and the myths, symbols and themes essays and a few of these essays will have major additions. However the world-building articles won’t require as much updating.

Dagger with a Shadow Warding

When I made Aviendha's costume a few months ago, I intended to make the dagger ter'angreal that wards against the Shadow that she likes so much. Last weekend I finally did so, along with rebeading her necklace with silver thread.

The dagger is described as:

Aviendha fondled something she had retrieved from her belt pouch, a small dagger with a rough hilt of deerhorn wrapped in gold wire. It was also a ter'angreal, though Elayne had not been able to puzzle out what it did before pregnancy forced a halt to such studies. She had not known her sister was carrying the thing. Aviendha's eyes were almost dreamy as she stared at it. "Why does that fascinate you so?" Elayne asked. This was not the first time she had seen the other woman absorbed in that knife. Aviendha gave a start and blinked at the dagger in her hands. The iron blade—it looked like iron, at least, and felt almost like iron—had never been sharpened so far as Elayne could tell and was little longer than her palm, though wide in proportion. Even the point was too blunt for stabbing.

Knife of Dreams, A Different Skill

Aviendha's outfit is now complete.

Christmas Eve is well advanced here, and when my son finishes work in half an hour, we shall be on our way to visit relatives.

I wish all here a safe and happy festive season, and all the best for the New Year.