“Noam lifted his head and stared at them silently,
without expression. There was nothing at
all about him to suggest he was Simion’s brother – he had a chin, for one
thing, and he was a big man, with heavy shoulders – but that was not what
staggered Perrin. Noam stared at them
with burnished golden eyes. “He’d been
talking crazy almost a year, good mistress, saying he could . . . could talk
with wolves. And his eyes. . . .” Simion
darted a glance at Perrin. “Well, he’d
talk about it when he’d drunk too much.
Everybody laughed at him. Then a
month ago, he didn’t come to town. I
went out to see what was the matter and I found him – like this.”” – The
Dragon Reborn, p. 117-118.
Today’s section of The Dragon Reborn gives us
the final chapters in the first grouping of Perrin’s perspective as well as the
first of only four chapters to feature anything from Rand’s perspective. As Rand’s perspective is more a tease of
things to come (he channels a mysterious beam of light at a Darkhound and acts
determined to end things with the Dark One in Tear which is where he’s
headed). It’s Perrin’s internal conflict,
the danger of being a Wolfbrother, and a further dive into some of the world’s
magic system that drives the world. Noam
isn’t really a fully fleshed out character, but a parallel to what Perrin could
become. It’s quite clever of Jordan to
give the reader and Perrin a glimpse into a possible future without invoking
any channeling. Noam represents all of
Perrin’s fears realized, being unable to latch onto his humanity and being condemned
to the mind of a wolf. Moiraine can’t
heal him, but Perrin makes this specific plea for the man to let him go because
“He will die in here or out there…Our there, at least, he’ll be free, and as
happy as he can be. He is not your
brother anymore, but you’re the one who has to decide…You cannot cage a wolf,
Simion, not and expect it to be happy.
Or live long.” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 120. While this works, the writing is on the wall,
Noam is going to die, but it’s at least going to be calming for him as he won’t
be in the cage. There’s also the
important distinction of Perrin here that he is motivated by causing the least
amount of harm. It’s something we’ve
seen before, in The Eye of the World, where he briefly considers killing
Egwene and then himself while wandering the wilderness. He is willing to go that far when things are
that dark, something that going forward will only grow.
Another aspect of his character growing is the fear of
not being his own man. Obviously there
is the issue with him being afraid of becoming like Noam, but there is also the
shared fear of being used by the Aes Sedai.
He suggests to Moiraine use the power to shield the connection to the
wolves, something which can and does invade his dreams as he does soon after,
but that could only be done between Aes Sedai and Warder. Moiraine, interestingly, despite caring for
all of the Emond’s Field Five, wouldn’t bond him, partially because she’s of
the Blue Ajah and they only have one Warder, but also because it’s something
she wouldn’t do to anyone in these circumstances. We’ll eventually cover what led to Lan and
Moiraine being bonded, but at this point it’s already been laid out as
something they mutually agreed to it.
She does promise this “If I can keep you whole, I will. I promise you that, Perrin. But I will not endanger the struggle against
the Shadow. You must know that, too.” – The
Dragon Reborn, p. 124. She genuinely
cares, even if she can be blindsided by her fight against the Dark One, she
will keep them safe and whole.
Immediately after this, Perrin finds himself in a wolf dream where he
has his first real interaction with Hopper, the wolf he was closest to who died
in The Eye of the World, who tells him to run.
There’s also an appearance from a woman in white,
Lanfear aka Selene from The Great Hunt, but the important thing here is
Perrin’s abilities developing, like Rand’s, without a mentor. Perrin has a potential mentor in Elyas, the
Wolfbrother from The Eye of the World, who won’t reappear in the books
for several more installments, but like Rand being drawn into channeling, Perrin
is being drawn towards the wolves seemingly by the Pattern itself. This is perhaps best explained by Perrin,
Rand, and Mat all being ta’veren, the Pattern warping itself around them. The town they arrive in, Jarra, is one they
know Rand has passed through because not only have Whitecloaks come through
looking for Perrin (whom was established in the prologue to be a Darkfriend in
their eyes), but also several happy events happening in the village, mainly
several weddings and marriage proposals.
Moiraine hasn’t seen effects this Pattern warping itself around the characters,
which is essentially Robert Jordan doing an interesting job as to why the plot
happens in the way that it does. The
world literally warps itself around the characters which will lead to some
interesting implications: Rand up to this point having his motivation not being
manipulated by others although the world itself wishes to manipulate him comes to
mind especially. It’s also interesting
that only Rand, Perrin, and Mat are ta’veren, meaning that every other
character is less fixed in the Pattern, implying they have more free will to do
things differently. The next chapters
put the reader in the heads of non-ta’veren characters, mainly Egwene, putting
the reader in a time where they know the Pattern won’t warp around them.
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