Thursday, September 23, 2021

The Great Hunt by: Robert Jordan: The Game of Houses (Chapters 30 to 34)

 

““Hurin,” Rand said patiently, “you and Loial between you have explained this Great Game to me.  If I go wherever it is they’ve invited me, the Cairhienin will read something into it and think I am part of somebody’s plot.  If I don’t go, they’ll read something into that.  If I send back an answer, they will dig for meaning in it, and the same if I don’t answer.  And since half of Cairhien apparently spies on the other half, everybody knows what I do.  I burned the first two, and I will burn these, just like all the others.”  One day there had been twelve in the pil he tossed into the common-room fireplace, seals unbroken. “Whatever they make of it, at least it’s the same for everybody.  I am not for anyone in Cairhien, and I am not against anyone.”” – The Great Hunt, p. 435.

 

The title of Chapter 30 of The Great Hunt is “Daes Dae’mar” which is the name for the Cairhienin Great Game of Houses, the carefully crafted interpretation of every act of any person of any standing in Cairhien.  It is introduced fully at this point in The Great Hunt, though is mentioned when Rand, Loial, and Hurin arrive in Cairhien, and through to Chapter 34, “The Wheel Weaves”, is all to do with the Game and how even Rand is forced to play the game in his time there.  The above quote is Rand’s attempt not to play, the idea being that the only way to really win the game is not to play.  While this could be seen as making a choice, it’s much closer to Rand putting himself at the whim of circumstance and throughout this sequence the reader can see just how poor the outcome of this inaction.  If Rand was willing to play the game once he arrived in Cairhien it is implied that the end of the chapter, where the inn he is staying in is set aflame and the Horn of Valere and ruby dagger stolen.  Rand only left the inn to inquire after Ingtar and Selene where he is directly lied to by the guard “I am sorry, my Lord.  If there was a Captain Caldevwin in the guardhouse I would know.” – The Great Hunt, p. 440.  It’s heavily implied that this captain was simply inside the guardhouse, hiding from Rand.

 

It’s not the actual theft that is what flings Rand into action, it’s the inn being set aflame.  He rushes in to immediately try and save Hurin who was waiting for him and Loial to return.  Rand is acting here in what the ideal of a lord should be, Hurin having called him Lord since the very beginning of this book, and there is a choice made here that begins the thought process of Rand actually becoming a Lord.  In the flames is the chest with the Dragon Banner and this is Rand’s thought process “Let it burn, he thought, and an answering thought came as if he had heard Moiraine say it.  Your life may depend on it.  She’s still trying to use me.  Your life may depend on it.  Aes Sedai never lie.” – The Great Hunt, p. 443.  He may attribute it to Moiraine and the fact she would never lie, but it is an important step that Rand makes the decision to take the chest out.  And of course to punctuate the tragedy of losing the Horn, it’s at this point where Ingtar’s party arrives, complete with Mat, Perrin, and Verin.  Now luckily Hurin is a sniffer and it quickly leads to Bartharnes Damodred, one of the lords who have sent Rand invitations and one of two invitations not to be thrown into the fire.  Mat at this point is still in his problem phase, but before the reveal there are two important aspects to both Verin and Perrin.  Verin is the one to know what inn they should be going to, one she has stayed in before.

 

Perrin gets a small section from his point of view after he mutters under his breath, Shadowkiller, about Rand.  It is important to note that Rand and Mat haven’t really gotten an explanation about the wolves, Mat even believing the lie of being a sniffer.  “Perrin grinned at him.  He was not the old Rand – he seemed to have grown into that fancy coat; it looked right on him, too – but he was still the boy Perrin had grown up with.  Shadowkiller.  A man the wolves hold in awe.  A man who can channel…I know about you.  It’s only fair you know my secret.  But Verin was there.  He could not say it in front of her.” – The Great Hunt, p. 450-451.  Perrin seems to understand the dark in the world, he and Rand don’t bat an eye that a lord could be a Darkfriend, while Mat does.  There is this parallel of trust, of Perrin and Rand genuinely finding each other.  Mat hasn’t quite gotten there yet (though with certain announcements about the adaptation I do wonder if that will be one of the changes).

 

With the Lord Barthanes giving Rand an invitation it means he must play the game.  Perrin, Mat, Verin, and Hurin can all enter as servants but the coat that Perrin remarked now fits Rand better means that he has to pose as a genuine lord.  Rand is forced to play the Game, all at Verin’s planning of course, she is the one who knows much more than she ever would let on.  And Rand plays the role very well, choosing just the right words like “We are who we say we are” and “I have met him” – The Great Hunt, p. 464.  The adoption of a very clipped way of speaking allows Rand the opportunity to play the game while sending the other lords into a tizzy, even when slightly thrown off balance by someone knowing things about him which shouldn’t have been mentioned, implying that much of the spies of Cairhien are everywhere, something which becomes apparent when it is revealed that the Horn and dagger have both been taken to Tomon Head, people are clearly working with Padan Fain.  Thus brings us to the point where The Great Hunt shifts towards its climax.

 

Now, that climax encompasses nearly 200 pages of the book before we reach the conclusion, but Jordan has begun moving things into place.  Rand and company are heading to the Ogier to access the Ways while Thom Merrilin has been given reason to find them.  This is because Dena has been murdered, and Barthanes is dead (Thom being able to play the Game himself to get information out of thugs sent by Galldrian, the other Lord interested in Rand that gets named).  Dena’s death is sadly one aspect of The Great Hunt which hasn’t aged well: it’s the classic case of fridgeing, that is killing a female character only to advance the plot of a male character.  Dena wasn’t a character the reader could get quite attached to and honestly it feels like Jordan didn’t quite know how he was going to integrate Thom back into the narrative (though I’d say he could easily have integrated Dena as a recurring character, at least to make the fridgeing feel less surface level).  There is also Fain, planting seeds that Rand is a Darkfriend among the Seanchan and is in control of Trollocs, something that is meant to continue Fain’s own descent into madness.  There is something inside Fain, using Machin Shin, the thing inside the Ways to terrorize our heroes.  He is playing his own game that only he and the Dark One only know the outcome.

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