Ahira's Hangar

I actually read this chapter a couple of days ago, but have lacked time to get anything typed up. Again, like chapter three, there is so much going on, and so many important things covered, that it is really hard to try to summarize it in a few words...

And since I do not have much time again today (right now I should be heading into Ann Arbor with my older son, who is home for "fall break" from his university), I do not know if I can get through everything I would like to say about this truly awesome chapter in one or even two (maybe even three) sitttings/postings.

So if anyone would like to jump in and start talking about things I have not gotten to yet, that would be fine. There is a huge amount of stuff to talk about here! Just remember to not spoiler for any chapters after chapter eight, if you are further along in the book.


and here we go!!








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I suppose I could start with meeting Berek and Damelon, and how very cool both men are, despite the differences in their personalities and outlooks. But that would be too easy.

Linden has made it past the scouts, and is now riding into the camp. She can feel the pain and suffering coming from the hospital tents.

Now, in chapter seven, the Theomach told Linden that Berek is actually trying to give care to the sick and wounded from both armies. The Raver led army dumps their sick and wounded and dead, and Berek stops to pick them up and do his best to take care of them...another reason to love Berek.

But it means that Linden must be truly feeling and carrying a world's weight of misery on her shoulders through her health sense.

Berek's soldiers challenge Linden - they have undoubtedly seen magic - particularly of the evil variety before. But Berek has not yet come into his knowledge of the Earth Power, so they are unfamiliar with Lord's staffs and Lord's fire....

Linden manages to get through the warriors by more or less begging to be allowed through to help the wounded, and by telling them to let her pass or kill her. She also throws Berek's name around.

The hospital tent itself sounds like one of the levels of hell...or something out of old wars in our world, before people realized what miracles hygiene and basic cleanliness can create. I have read accounts of wars 100 or more years ago, where the hospital areas sound a lot like this one - where more patients die from nosocumial or camp bourne infections than die from battle or wounds. About the only thing Donaldson misses here are rotting frost bitten hands and feet, which surely would have occurred in Lord Foul's nuclear winter, which he has created in support of the Raver King.

[begin side ramble]
A historical side note: nursing became a true profession out of hellish field hospitals like this one. A handful of brave and caring women in American and British field hospitals in war zones led the crusade for cleanliness and hygiene, and their standards and practices led not only to a revolution in the entire field of medicine, but led to the establishment of nursing as an accepted and honorable profession. We still remember some of the names of these brave leaders - such as Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton. May their memories always be honored in the names of all of the saved lives their changes led to, and all of the expressions of love and comfort and decency and care that have come to the sick and wounded of the world since then.
[/ side ramble]

Linden first heals one of the healers, and he in turn saves her life when the warriors try to cut her down. They are not malicious - they are just ignorant of what she is doing, and believe they are protecting the wounded from the mysterious and dangerous stranger...

When Linden is about to drop from exhaustion, Berek arrives. I find it interesting that, even now - long before he is a Lord - the Earthpower is so strong in him that he is compared to Anele - and we already know that Anele is so strong that his reflection can be seen in Glimmermere. Berek is...wonderful. Just wonderful!

And I think I will stop at this point.

To be continued.


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continuation:







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And so Linden - and we - meet one of the greatest men who will ever grace the Earth of the Land.

quote:

There was Earthpower in him, that was obvious; as potent as Anele's inheritence, but closer to the surface, more readily accessible. However, his numinous energy was not what caused him to stand out from his escort of warriors as if he were somehow more real than they, more signifciant and substantial.

Nor did his vividness, his particular intensity, arise from his physical presence. He was little more than half a head taller than Linden: a stocky man, broad of shoulder and girth; prematurely bald, with deep eyes, a short cropped beard the color of old iron, and a nose that had been dented by a blow. His hands looked as heavy as truncheons, and they had seen hard use in spite of the loss of two of his fingers; the same two which has been amputated from Covenant. The slashed and battered condition of his cuirass and vambraces procalimed that he did not remain aloof from battle. He was a powerful man, familiar with fighting for his life. Yet that did not account for his obvious dominance, his air of unmistakable authority. Most of the men and women in his escort were muscular and injured, marked by an interminable series of fierce engagemants.

No, it was his emotional aura that made him more distinct, more necessary, than the people with him. Covenant had said "He's charismatic as all hell", but Linden saw more. With her full senses, she discerned that he was haunted by death; that loss and despair had been carved into the bedrock of his nature. And the sheer depth of his bereavements had taught him a desperate compassion. She loathed war, but her abhorrence lacked the intimacy of his, the hideously prolonged exposure to that which rent his heart. Now he grieved for his foes as much as for his own forces. When he slew them, he did so as if he were weeping; as if his strokes were sobs. He fought - and fought endlessly, season after season, battle upon battle - only because the darkness which drove his enemies left him no choice. And because he had given his oath to the Land.

Berek has the endless compassion we have only previously seen from Pitchwife. He has the heart of a Giant.

I have always felt that when facing a life filled with horrors - as Berek's must have been in service to a King dominated by a Raver, then in endless warfare against that Raver, in a nuclear winter engendered by Lord Foul - you have two choices.

You can embrace the darkness in a confirmation that evil is the way of the world, and justify everything that has happened to you.

Or you can learn from it, try to make your life and the lives of those around you better. Live a life filled with compassion and service and reject the evil that others have committed in your life.

Berek has chosen a life of service (as did Linden herself, something I will always give her every break for doing). And yet - even after his experience at Mount Thunder - even as he has been filled with Earthpower and his very senses have been changed - he remains woefully ignorant.

The exhausted Linden explains Hurtloam to him.

And he sends his Hand and son, Damelon, to go gather a crew to get Hurtloam for the sick and wounded.

Damelon - another legend from the past of the Land - here as young as Liand, though very much more experienced. I wonder if this is a little dig by Donaldson at the Masters - that even very young men (and women) can learn to be extraordinary, if given opportunities?

And Linden returns to her duties towards to wounded and sick, watched over now by Berek himself, and tended in her labors by the tent's healers.

When the hurtloam comes, her labors are eased, as she teachers others how to use it - and as those who use it are also healed from their wounds and diseases. And so much Hurtloam - Linden thinks that the Earth itself has provided a huge gift in response to Berek's oath of service.

And while still working, she hears Covenant start to yell...

A large officer, the Warhaft Inbull, has begun to mistreat her three companions, despite Damelon's orders to desist. And then the officer strikes Damelon, himself.

And Linden sees and senses that Inbull is a traitor to Berek, and he is trying to deliberately make trouble in the camp by atatcking Covenant and Jeremiah.

Berek, whom Covenant had said was too powerful - like Linden herself - tto touch him or Jeremiah without "making them disappear" - reaches out to steady Covenant - and not only does Covenant not disappear - but Berek acts as if his hand has been burned.

This is just further confirmation to me that Covenant and Jeremiah are liars of the first degree, and that Covenant is in the service of Kastenessen, who is Anele's fiery possessor.

When Linden is about to enter the fray, the Theomach stops her. He tells her that there is much going on that she does not yet understand, and she must be quiet and good so that things will work out. He cautions her to say as little to Berek as she possibly can, and to leave as many answers to the Theomach as she can.

We see a little more of Damelon now, as he escorts Linden and her three companions to his father's tent. He is a man able to control his anger, as he shows in the manner in which he deals with being hit by Inbull. He is a courteous young man. And despite a life filled with warfare and battle - he lacks his father's pain. His father's despair has taught him confidence and a conviction in a positive future. While he shows no signs yet of his father's power, you can tell that the future of the Land will be in good hands one day, when he leads. From the twilight of the world of a cruel monarchy that his father grew up in, building on his father's dawn, he will lead the Land into a bright morning and high noon, a world made anew and filled with promise.

Linden's heart aches anew when she cannot treat her own son for his injuries from Inbull. He still refuses her touch (but why????). The Theomach bathes his eye socket.

And Damelon - though he shows no other signs of his great coming power - senses Berek's Earthpowerful approch at the same time as Linden.

Berek explains to Linden that he uses the traitor Inbull to spread false information to the enemy, though it is obvious that using someone in such a way hurts Berek greatly.

When Berek asks what the foursome want, he is told that Linden, Covenant , and Jeremiah only want to leave, and help to make their journey easier (horses, supplies, warm clothing , etc.)--- but the Theomach!

The Theomach of the Insequent wants to stay with Berek. He is a seeker of knowledge, and a mighty warrior, and perhaps most inportantly he wishes to

teach

Berek.

And after Covenant (drinking again) and Jeremaih depart to get even with Inbull (and when would the REAL Covenant ever look for vengeance??? ), as a pledge of good faith, and a teaching demonstration, the Theomach teaches both Berek and Linden the Seven Words of Power.

And, after some debate about the meaning of life, Berek finally accepts the Theomach, as companion and teacher.

Linden then gets her turn alone with Berek, and teaches him about basic hygiene, in an effort to save further lives after her departure from the camp. She begs him to not allow her story to ever be passed onward forward into time. And she names her staff and white gold ring to him.

Berek grants her all of the aid in her coming travels that he can provide.

And Linden wishes with all of her heart that Covenant could be honest with her...

And of course - this chapter might have just solved one of the greatest mysteries of the Second Chronicles -who was the former Guardian of the One Tree before Brinn? The Theomach, possibly immortal and a great and renowned warrior in the service of Berek? Could he have led Berek to the Tree using his mage powers, instructed Berek on how to make a staff like Linden's, and then become the Guardian?


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At this point in the book, I have to pinch myself. We're meeting Berek Halfhand? And on top of that, his son Damelon? This is so wild. Brings me back to what danlo reported SRD saying in 2003 about the Last Chronicles: that "we will go back...before the Old Lords...the whole history of the Land will become relevant to the present." And here we are! SRD wasn't kidding!

If this is the only time that we meet Berek in the Last Chronicles, then this chapter will be talked about for a long time by fans. I'm wildly speculating that SRD might have us meet Damelon again when he has matured into his High Lordship. Okay, I admit, it's more like I hope we meet him again. I mean, here, Damelon is barely out of his youth! It makes you wonder to what great age he will live. Berek himself will doubtless live beyond whatever the normal mortal lifespan is in the Land, due to the Earthpower latent in him. We should remember that, according to established canon, the coming of the Unhomed Giants to the Land occurred during Damelon's reign. That event seems so far ahead in the future, and yet already here he is in the flesh. So he has many, many years left in him.

I'm glad that SRD has fleshed out (as much as he is willing to) the details of Berek's ongoing battle with the remnants of the King/Raver's army. Clearly, SRD feels it's important to let us know that it wasn't just a cakewalk for Berek after the summoning of the Fire-Lions. The Legend of Berek Halfhand, as told by Atiaran in LFB, gave the impression that victory was a foregone conclusion for Berek after the Fire-Lions. But the "real" story is obviously messier. Instead of a grand march to victory, it's a dirty slugfest all the way to the finish line. There is still much chaos, suffering and death (and treachery in the form of Warhaft Inbull) to be endured before Berek can claim victory for his Queen and the Land. (Where is the Queen anyway? I wonder. Is she still alive at this point in the war? Did she witness the Fire-Lions? Or is Berek fighting the great fight in memory of the Queen?)

The other thing about this chapter that totally captivated me was, of course, Linden's healing of Berek's wounded with the Staff of Law. Her Staff. It belongs to her, more than it did to Sunder and Hollian (even though they wrought great healing with it), and more than it does to Anele (though his purpose is still a mystery). The new Staff is utterly an instrument of Linden's will. What a great and selfless deed she has done! Once again, Linden the Healer has risen to the occasion.

I really had not expected this mass healing on her part - I thought she and company were just going to meet with Berek, get supplies from him and leave!

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I was completely blown away by this chapter. In a very good way, of course.

LINDEN!!!

BEREK!!!

DAMELON!!!

Wow.

And yes, it makes perfect sense that the war ground on to the last. The leader of the other side is a Raver. I have long thought that the Ravers are some sort of vampires of negative emotions. I have long believed that they somehow feed off of fear, horror, violence, and pain. Making the war as long as possible would give a Rver plenty of time and opportunity to feed...


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