Good things coming...

I know it doesn't appear to be much happening on this site right now. And in a way, there's not. But there is a lot of stuff going on in the background, and when it hits here, it will be amazing. Stay tuned. You won't be dissappointed.

NotW 4: Middle of Nowhere

Two days of hard walking after being robbed, his feet blisters on blisters and no one willing to part with a horse this close to harvest, Chronicler is not yet to Newarre when nightfalls. Despairing of making it to town, he sees a fire and decides farmstead hospitality will have to do.

Except it isn't a farmstead fire. It's a bonfire, and Kvothe is tending it ready with his pig iron: he's hunting scrael. He knows the one Carter killed is not alone.

They startle each other, and Kvothe uses a few choice expletives concerning Chronicler's lack of sense and luck.

We really get to see Kvothe for the first time - with shocking, vibrant green eyes and impossibly red hair. Kvothe is alive! He is being the hero. He saves Chronicler from the scrael, the first of which goes straight for the unprepared man, who gets knocked cold in the process.

When he comes to briefly, it's all over. He's in pain. Kvothe informs him that he may have broken a few ribs saving him, but he has stitched up the cuts from the scrael. When the chronicler tries to get up to help dig a pit to bury them, he goes back down hard, this time out for the count.

Up to here, the chapter was told from Chronicler's POV. It now switches to wrap up from Kvothes. He has also been injured in the fight, but took out all 5 scrael in the process. And he still pushes forward to dig the pit.

My first question was: you know you will need a pit for them, and that you will likely be in better shape to dig it before they attack...why wait until after to dig it?

That aside, we see in this chapter a glimpse of the man they tell stories of. Deep reserves of getting it done and badasserie. He also has wit and humor, and makes an interesting comment about how surprised you'd be at the sorts of things hidden away in children's songs.

This is the second chapter we have with Chronicler, and we still have no age or physical description. We are meant to indentify with him. He is our passport into the world of Kvothe. So no details to block us from making that identification will be given until well after we have already created our own mental image of the man.

NotW 3: Kote flirts with Kvothe

We find Kote leafing through a book in the inn two days after chapter one's felling night. Graham brings a mounting board he's made of roah wood and engraved with "Folly." To Graham's eye, Kote looks sickly and hollow - noticeably less vibrant and alive than he had even a month ago. In his mind, he compares him to a wilting plant. This echos the "cut-flower" of the prologue.

When Bast becomes aware of the mounting board, he is seriously freaked out. He demands to know what Kote is thinking.

Kote's reply is very interesting: "I tend to think too much...My greatest successes came from decisions I made when I stopped thinking and simply did what felt right. Even if there was no good explanation for what I did. Even if there were very good reasons for me not to do what I did."

Hmmm.... The rest of this book will tend to show that a false notion, I suspect. I'm thinking of when he used sympathy to link the air in his lungs to the air around him with nearly fatal consequence. More on that in a few chapters.

But then, in "A Wise Man's Fear", we see him transition to Lethani driven "Spinning Leaf" state. Maybe this is what he's on about here?

Either way, after hanging the board behind the bar, Kote asks for the sword, which Bast has been keeping under his bed. From what is described, it really sounds like a sound the caliber of Caesura. Ancient but not worn. At least the handle and hilt are different. But the blade is of that caliber.

Personal thoughts: Caesura was given with the understanding that when he died, it would return to the Ademre. What if he faked his death? Would it then be returned? Or do the Ademre know the difference between a faked death and a real death? If the latter, did they alter the sword's appearance to protect him?

After hanging the sword on the mounting board, and going about the normal chores, they receive the visit of a caravan. This brings Kote a bit out of his funk, as there is much to do and the caravan reminds him of times long gone.

"For the first time in a long while there was no silence in the Waystone Inn. Or if there was, it was too faint to be noticed, or too well hidden."

As the evening progresses, there is music and singing, and then they sing "Tinker Tanner." This is the first mention of this standard, but it won't be the last. And as Kvothe had spent considerable time with his friends making up new verses for it, it is no surprise that Kote sings more verses than anyone here had ever heard before.

Unfortunately for him, this causes him to be recognized by a well-dressed and mannered sandy-haired man, who calls him "Kvothe" and "Kvothe the Bloodless" for the first time in the book. He had heard Kvothe sing in Imre. It had moved him to cry his eyes out. It had broken his heart.

More interestingly, the boy claims to have seen where he killed "him", and says that the cobblestones by the fountain where it happened are broken and cannot be mended.

Who did Kvothe kill there? Is this an exaggeration of the time he calls the wind and breaks Ambrose's arm? Could be, especially if Ambrose is the king he kills (and it really strikes me as being likely he is). Or maybe this is where he killed someone. Would this be the king (there are no kings in the commonwealth), or the Poet (remember Old Cob calls Kasura [Ceasura] the Poet-Killer)?

Nice foreshadowing either way.

Rather than deny he is Kvothe, Kote takes it as a compliment, and says that they say he looks a lot like the Kvothe. He then fakes a re-injury of the knee he says he got an arrow shot in three years ago so he can excuse himself.

He tells Bast he's been recognized and sends him to drug the sandy-haired boy to sleep. Bast spreads a false cover story for Kote's life, and sees to the caravan before they depart in the morning.

Kote has been flirting with Kvothe. He is mounting a sword that if it is recognized could mean his death in the common room. He is singing, and apparently in a voice that is clearly Kvothe to those who have heard him sing before. Is this why there is "of course" no music in the Waystone Inn?

After they are gone, Kote gets some pig iron and a used up smith's apron and forge gloves from Caleb the smith, purportedly to deal with a bramble patch. Caleb questions taking on such a task when the ground is so dry. Kote says, "In autumn everything is tired and ready to die." Wow.

He closes up early for the first time ever. Bast it worried.

Other points of interest in this chapter: The first time we hear the children chant about the Chandrian.

One of the many scars on Kvothe's body is neither smooth nor silver, but no further explanation is given.

We get to see a real tinker at work for the first time.

Tinkers

1. NotW 1: In the story of Taborline the Great, he shares what little he has to eat with a tinker, who in gratitude sells him an "amulet" (guilder or gram) to protect him for an iron penny, a copper penny and a silver penny.
2. NotW 3: A potbellied and nearly toothless tinker come to the Waystone Inn with a caravan. He offers the following services and products:
• Pot mending
• Knife grinding
• Willow-wand water-finding
• Cut cork
• Motherleaf
• Silk scarves off the city streets
• Writing paper
• Sweetmeats
• Belt leather
• Black pepper
• Fine lace
• Bright feather
• Small cloth
• Rose water
• Shears and needles
• Copper pots
• Small bottles (of?)
• Buttons
• Cinnamon
• Salt
• Limes from Tinuë
• Chocolate from Tarbean
• Polished horn from Aerueh

Animals

1. NotW 3: Bear
2. NotW 4: Cricket
3. NotW 2: Crow
4. NotW 1,2,3,4: Horses
5. NotW 3: Mule
6. NotW 1,3: Sheep
7. NotW 3: Wolves

NotW 2: A Beautiful Story

This chapter introduces us to the Chronicler, who's arrival in Kote's/Kvothe's world marks the catalyst for the book to really get started.

It is told from Chronicler's POV, and has just a few connecting bits of thread that imply the bigger story of the book. As a short little story, it would stand pretty good on its own.

Chronicler is introduced with no real physical description or age. What we do know about him from this chapter: He is cunning and wise. He is a Scribe. He is rich. He is friends with Skarpi, although we don't yet know what that means. Not just because we haven't yet met Skarpi, but because I suspect we still don't know the full impact of Skarpi on this story. Skarpi is waiting for him in Treya.

He is also likely of the Tehlin faith. Chronicler wears an iron circle on a leather rope around his neck. It is not a guilder: the ex-soldier's commander touches it without noticing cold or numbness. It appears to be a symbol of the iron wheel Tehlu sacrificed himself on while trying to do away with Encanis/Haliax.

When we meet him, Chronicler is in the process of being robbed by some fairly civilized ex-soldiers. They are mainly taking what they need, but otherwise treating him with respect and dignity. The worse part, perhaps, is the loss of his horse.

After they divide what interests them from what he will be allowed to keep, they releave him of his purse. He has the balls to ask for a penny or two back so he can get a hot meal or two while getting more scribal work to earn some more. The commander gives him "a pair for your pair." Chronicler has subtly implied that they got all his money, stopping them from even thinking of searching deeper. In reality, the purse is a decoy. A decoy he quickly refills from hidden stores of money - just enough to satisfy any further robbers - as soon as the current batch are gone.

He does repay their humanity in kind: one of the ex-soldiers took his cleaning alcohol. He informs the commander that it is wood alcohol, and it would go badly for anyone who drinks it.

Other than that, it is a beautiful autumn day, the kind that belongs in a storybook.

Trees, woods and Plants

1. NotW 4: Ash
2. NotW 3: Bramble
3. NotW 4: Elm
4. NotW 3: Motherleaf
5. NofW 2: Oak
6. NofW 2: Poplar
7. NofW 1,3: Roah
• NotW 1: Very expensive: highly prized by perfumers and alchemists
• NotW 3: Dark charcoal color with black grain
• NotW 3: Like stone under the saw, and iron for the chisel
• NotW 3: Won't burn
8. NofW 1,4: Rowan
9. NofW 2: Sumac

Chronicler

1. NotW 2: Introduction to Chronicler: no age or physical description given.
2. NotW 2: He's a scribe.
3. NotW 2: He's cunning and clever, and anticipates trouble that could happen on the road.
4. NotW 2: He's Tehlin; he has a circle of iron hung around his neck.
5. NotW 2: He's rich.
6. NotW 2: He's friends with Scarpi
7. NotW 4: Chronicler meets Kvothe/Kote
8. NotW 4: He has walked for two long days since being robbed and his feet are blisters on blisters. He could buy no horses in Abbot's Ford or Rannish and nightfell before he reached Newarre.
9. NotW 4: He carries no weapon.
10. NotW 4: Kvothe takes him for an educated man, and saves his life from the Scrael, while breaking a few ribs. During the attack, he knocked his head hard on the wall of the ruin, and harder on the ground the two times he collapsed, leaving himself unconscious.
11. NotW 4: Still no indication of age or physical description given.

Uses of Numbers

1. Ones:
• NotW 1: The times a tinker pays a simple trade
2. Twos:
• NotW 1: The times a tinker pays for freely-given aid
3. Threes:
• NotW 0: The parts of silence
• NotW 1: Taborlin's tools: Key, coin and candle
• NotW 1: The times a tinker repays any insult
• NotW 1: paying for something with an iron penny, copper penny and silver penny
• NotW 1: Demons fear: cold iron, clean fire, the holy name of God
• NotW 1: The number of languages used by Kote to mock-banish Bast as a "demon".
• NotW 1: The locks on the roah chest: one of iron, one of copper and one that cannot be seen.
• NotW 3: "Listen three times" with response "I hear you three times."
• NotW 4: On meeting Chronicler, Kvothe asks him three questions. He starts the third one with "Third time pays for all."
4. Sixes:
• NotW 1: According to Jake, the number of Chandrian: they were the first sic to refuse Tehlu's choice of the path and were cursed for it.
5. Elevens:
• NotW 1: Spans are 11 days.

NotW 1: Setting the Bones and the Frame

First time through, we don't know if this really is a place for Demons. This is my second time through the books. We now know there are no "Demons" as such are conceived by the common folks. But there are things that may as well be called that all the same.

This is a packed chapter. We are immersed in the world of the frame story (which is the future world of the narrated story) and given a lot of really good touchstones and points of reference from which to start navigating there. It does a great job of exposition without getting bogged down much.

The chapter starts with what I thought on first read was a jarring jump from the prologue. Almost like the prologue was a false start. I now know better. This is no accident. This is another Caesura. We should be watching for these.

The style is different. Less "mind of God" view. Less poetic. More folksy. All past tense.

"It was Felling night" - we know from the rest of the story that this is roughly the equivalent of a Friday or Saturday night. I favor Friday, because I do not believe it is an accident that the name starts with "F".

This time through I am paying closer attention to the days of the span and the values of money. How many days in a span? Did he say anywhere? It felt like 10 or 11 when I read it the first time. Now I see in this chapter he plainly states that two span is twenty-two days, so we know that a span is 11 days.

"Times being what they were" bookends the chapter. These are not great times. War? Famine? Pestilence? Later in the chapter we learn it's war and disorder, and maybe even demons. Bad times for sure.

Five locals types are introduced: Old Cob, Graham, Jake (Jacob Walker - I highly approve of his family name), Shep and the smith's prentice called "boy."

Old Cob, self-proclaimed storyteller of the group, relates an important story of Taborlin the Great. It's important because whether he means to or not (and I think there is some of each), Kvothe builds his reputation and story on the bones of the Taborlin stories. We also get the hint that the truth behind them may be as mundane by comparison as the truth behind some of the Kvothe stories.

Also important and right up front is this somewhat fairytale introduction to the Chandrian and the blue fire that attends them, the awe and fear that they are due, the rarity of anyone escaping them.

And how does Taborlin pull it off? With names. He "knew the names of all things, and so all things were his to command." This was magic. Real magic.

Also, pay heed: his tools were "Key, coin, and candle." For what are these the tools?

Further, Taborlin was barely scratched where stabbed, and it is credited to his amulet. This is either a gram, or an arcanist's guilder, or something on that line. Since it was "cold as ice to touch", I'm betting guilder.

And where does Cob say he got it? From a tinker. This introduces the notion of tinkers right up front. They are somewhat mythical and extremely important to the plot. Everytime Kvothe doesn't buy what they suggest to him, he would have done better to have trusted them.

Most importantly, we get a better introduction to our main character. What do we learn?

1. He's "young".
2. His name is "Kote".
3. He knows more than he should about some things, but covers it as though he doesn't really know that much. There is more to him than meets the eye.
4. He has red-hair (we already knew this).
5. He's been a lot further east ("They can't have made it this far west yet").
6. He's seen Scrael before, and we still don't know where.
7. Mountains stand between where they are from and where we are.
8. He knows the stars the way he knows his own hands.
9. He's clean and patiently efficient. Kvothe in the narrated story is rarely this patient.
10. He humms a bit while working, and if he had realized he was he would have stopped.
11. He has long graceful hands
12. He lives austerely
13. Bast calls him "Reshi" - it is almost like a nickname
14. "Anything would be nice" - He's not particularly happy.
15. Speaks Tema and other languages as well
16. Has a thrice locked Roah chest that is a sore topic for him
17. He is not sleeping well

We also meet Bast, a dark and charming young man with a quick smile and cunning eyes who calls Kote "Reshi" and moves with a strange, casual grace. That combined with Kote jokingly banishing him as a demon are hints he is also more than he seems. Whatever else he is, he is Kote's student, and is avoiding his homework in the Celum Tinture as any good student should. He also oddly uses the term "weeks" instead of "spans."

Denna manages to be present while absent - she is a bit of a Caesura in the frame, but manages to be in this chapter as part of Kote's mock attempt to banish Bast as a demon. In an unknown language, Kote repeats "Begone demon!" and it is given as "Aroi te denna-leyan!" My somewhat linguistically skilled eyes break that down as rought "go you demon!" or "out with you demon!", but the word for demon is a compound and may represent a different word that translates demon figuratively, not literally. Since Kote calls Bast a "glamour" immediately after, might "denna-leyan" be something akin to "glamour maker" or "glamour wrapped" or some other use of "glamour"?

A lot of other things important to the story are introduced in this chapter: We get our first view of money, storytelling, merchants and tinkers, unsafe roads, dark evils like Chandrian and Scrael, the Tehlin religion, cussing, languages, foods (including chocolate and coffee!), the levels of technological knowledge available, books, and the politics of the war (the Penitent King is having trouble with rebels in far off Resavek, and we've had two levy taxes and a third is likely for the first time in living history).

We also see lots of uses of the number three.

For more details on all of the above, see the pages on Characters, Places, and Things.

Foods

1. NofW 1: Barley
2. NofW 1: Beans
3. NofW 1: Bread: round loafs
4. NofW 2: Bread, Rye
5. NotW 3: Cheese
6. NofW 1: Chocolate
7. NotW 3: Chocolate (from Tarbean)
8. NofW 1: Cider (apple?)
9. NofW 1,3: Cinnamon
10. NofW 1: Coffee
11. NotW 3: Fruit
12. NofW 2: Fruit (dried)
13. NotW 3: Hay
14. NotW 3: Limes (from Tinuë)
15. NofW 2: Meat (dried)
16. NotW 3: Mutton
17. NotW 2: Oats
18. NofW 1: Pepper
19. NotW 3: Rose water
20. NofW 2: Rye
21. NofW 1,2,3: Salt
22. NofW 1: Stew (unknown contents - smells of pepper)
23. NofW 1,2: Sugar (loaf of)
24. NotW 3: Sweetmeats
25. NotW 3: Walnuts

Places

1. NofW 2,4: Abbot's Ford
2. NotW 3: Aerueh
3. NotW 3: Aryen
4. NofW 1: Baedn
5. NofW 1: Baedn-Bryt
6. NofW 1: East of here (Wherever Scrael come from)
7. NotW 3: The Eld
8. NotW 3: Imre
9. NofW 1: Melcombe
10. NotW 3: Menat
11. NotW 3: Meneras
12. NofW 1: Mountains east of here (between here and where Scrael come from)
13. NotW 4: Newarre
14. NofW 1: Oldstone Bridge
15. NotW 3: Purvis
16. NotW 3: Ralien
17. NotW 1,4: Rannish
18. NofW 1: Resavek
19. NotW 3: Tarbean
20. NotW 3: Tinuë
21. NofW 2: Treya
22. Unknown:
• NofW 1: Location of the tower Taborlin escaped from
23. NofW 0: Waystone Inn

Characters in the Frame

1. NotW 1,3: Bast: Kote's student
2. NotW 1: The Bentleys: Farmers on hard times
3. NotW 3: Caleb, the smith
4. NotW 3: Caravan that came to town:
• Two male wagoneers
• Two female wagoneers
• Three guards/mercenaries (hard eyes smelling of iron)
• Tinker (potbelly and few remaining teeth)
• A sandy-haired young man (well dressed, well spoken)
• Recognized Kvothe the Bloodless and reports having heard him sing in Imre.
• A dark-haired young man (well dressed, well spoken)
5. NotW 1: Carter: farmer who's horse Nelly was killed by a Scrael
6. NotW 1: Cob = Old Cob
7. NotW 2: Commander (Leader of ex-soldiers - ex-officer?)
8. NotW 1: Crazy Martin: planted only barley this year; has tried to dig a well inside his house for years.
9. NotW 2,4: Chronicler
10. NotW 3: Deolan, Cealdish merchant
11. NotW 1,3: Graham
12. NotW 1: Jake (Jacob Walker): Religious believer
13. NotW 2: Janns (ex-soldier highwayman)
14. NotW 1,3: Kote = Kvothe
15. NotW 3,4: Kvothe.
16. NotW 3: Kvothe the Bloodless
17. NotW 1,3: Old Cob: local farmer, bachelor, storyteller, most worldwise
18. NotW 1: The Orissons: Their sheep keep disappearing
19. NotW 3: Orrison boy
20. NotW 1: Penitent King: having trouble with rebels in Resavek (far from here).
21. NotW 1,3: Reshi = Kote/Kvothe
22. NotW 1: Shep: Had something bad happen at his place, but no one knows what
23. NotW 2: Skarpi (friend of Chronicler)
24. NotW 1: The smith = Caleb
25. NotW 1: The smith's prentice ("boy"): Big and strong. From Rannish (less than 30 miles away). Worked with the smith since age 11.
26. NotW 1: Town Priest: Tehlin?
27. NotW 2: Witkins (ex-soldier highwayman)

Groups:

1. NotW 1: Alchemists
2. NotW 1: Caravan Guards
3. NotW 3: Cealdish
4. NotW 1: Deserters
5. NotW 2: Ex-Soldiers
6. NotW 1: Farmers
7. NotW 3: Guards
8. NotW 2: King's Army
9. NotW 3: Mercenaries
10. NotW 1: Merchants
11. NotW 1: Perfumers
12. NotW 1: Rebels in Resavek
13. NotW 3: Rebels in Meneras
14. NotW 1: Soldiers
15. NotW 1,3: Tinkers
16. NotW 3: Wagoneers
17. NotW 1: Young wives and daughters in town

Languages

Verbal formula's:

1. NotW 3: "Listen three times". Correct response: "I hear you three times."

Faen:

1. NotW 1: Reshi

Temic:

1. NotW 1: "Begone demon!" = "Tehus antausa eha!"

Unknown language:

1. NotW 1: "Begone demon!" = "Aroi te denna-leyan" (Denna is part of the word for demon!)

Cussing

Props

1. Thrice locked roan chest (in frame)
• NotW 1: Made of roan, a wood prized by perfumers and alchemists, even a small piece is worth gold
• NotW 1: Sealed with an iron lock, a copper lock and a lock that cannot be seen.
• NotW 1: Smells almost imperceptibly of citrus and quenching iron.
• NotW 1: When Kote looks at it (after no longer being able to avoid do so) it is a look filled with "emptiness and ache" and "fierce longing and regret
2. Scrael:
• NotW 1: Large as a wagon wheel, black as slate with no eyes or mouth and razor-sharp feet.
• NotW 1: It is smooth and hard like stone with no blood or organs, just grey inside like a mushroom.
• NotW 1: Iron appears to burn it's body (or was Kote using sympathy?)
• NotW 1: "There's no such thing as one scraeling."
• NotW 1: "Not that swords would do much good against the scrael."
• NotW 4: "A sword wouldn't do you much good."
• NotW 1,4: After being smashed, it had to be dispatched with by
• Burning long and hot in a fire that had rowan wood in it.
• NotW 4: Ash and Rowan wood
• Being buried in its entirety in a deep pit.
• NotW 4: They are extremely fast.
• NotW 4: They beat a staccato rhythm with their feet
3. Chronicler's Satchel:
• NotW 2: Contains paper, pens and ink. There is a lucky silver talent in the ink.
4. Roah wood "Folly" mounting board:
• NotW 3: Three dark pegs set above the word "Folly"
• NotW 3: "Folly" was chiseled in, but could only be charred by burning with hot iron for two hours by the smith's prentice.
5. "Folly" sword:
• NotW 3: Bast confused and concerned that Kote plans to display "Folly" in the open.
• NotW 3: Bast had kept it under his bed.
• NotW 3: Kote refers to it as a "lady" not a "wench."
• NotW 3: Looks new - notches, rust or scratches
• NotW 3: Dull grey blade and very, very old.
• NotW 3: Not in a familiar shape
• NotW 3: Slender, graceful and deadly sharp.

Technology and Education

Jobs:

1. NotW 1,3: Alchemists
2. NotW 2: Ex-soldiers
3. NotW 1: Farmers
4. NotW 1.3: Guards
5. NotW 0,1,3: Innkeeping
6. NotW 1: Merchants
7. NotW 1: Perfumers
8. NotW 1,3: Smiths
9. NotW 1,3: Soldiers
10. NotW 1,3: Tinkers

Technologies:

1. NotW 1: Innkeeper prepares a bowl of hot water, shears, some clean linen, a few glass bottles (contents?), needle and gut to stitch up Carter
2. NotW 1: Steel is an alloy of carbon and iron...or is it coke, lime and iron?
3. NotW 2: Pens and paper
4. NotW 2: Tinderbox
5. NotW 2: Needles
6. NotW 3: Alchemists distill things in crucibles
7. NotW 3: Copper pot simmers in Inn's kitchen
8. NotW 3: Inns have baths
9. NotW 3: Oil lamps
10. NotW 3: Poultice recommended for an injury
11. NotW 3: Fireplaces have flues
12. NotW 3: Bast suggests using "Nighmane" to make a traveler sleepy
13. NotW 3: Kote tells Bast to use "Mhenka" instead
14. NotW 3: Scythe with wooden handle
15. NotW 3: Smiths use stiff leather aprons and forge gloves
16. NotW 3: Burlap sack
17. NotW 3: Things offered by the caravan tinker
• Pot mending
• Knife grinding
• Willow-wand water-finding
• Cut cork
• Motherleaf
• Silk scarves off the city streets
• Writing paper
• Sweetmeats
• Belt leather
• Black pepper
• Fine lace
• Bright feather
• Small cloth
• Rose water
• Shears and needles
• Copper pots
• Small bottles (of?)
• Buttons
• Cinnamon
• Salt
• Limes from Tinuë
• Chocolate from Tarbean
• Polished horn from Aerueh
18. NotW 4: Homespun grey shirt with buttons
19. NotW 4: Spade for digging

Books:

1. Notw 1: Celum Tinture
• Chapter 13 has numerous solvent formulae
2. NotW 3: Unknown book leafed by Kote in Inn.

Cussing

1. NotW 1: "Filthy shim" - Old Cob calls greedy merchant this (but not to his face)
2. NotW 1: "God's body" - Jake exclaims when seeing Carter's injuries
3. NotW 1: "Mother of God" - Graham when seeing Carter's injuries
4. NotW 1: "Goddammit" - Old Cob in frustration at Carter traveling alone
5. NotW 1: "Damn" - Smith's prentice; three times at the news of Carter's horse Nelly being killed by the Scrael.
6. NotW 1: "Blackened body of God" - Jake in amazement that Kote knows what a Scrael is.
7. NotW 1: "Great Tehlu" - Smith's prentice, urging the Innkeeper to leave the dead Scrael alone
8. NotW 1: "By earth and stone, I abjure you!" - Kote mock banishing Bast
9. NotW 2: "God's body" - Ex-Soldier's leader (commander) in response to Chronicler's bold request of a penny or two back so he can eat.
10. NotW 3: "Lord and Lady" - Graham to Kote about the beauty of the "Folly" mounting board.
11. NotW 4: "Charred body of God" - Kote to Chronicler when surprised by him while hunting scrael.
12. NotW 4: "Tehlu anyway" - Kote to Chronicler
13. NotW 4: "Dear God, no." - Kote to Chronicler

Tehlin Religion

1. NotW 1: Mention of Tehlu
2. NotW 1: Mention of Tehlu's choice of the path
3. NotW 1: Mention of Tehlu's angels
4. NotW 1: Tehlu broke demons in his hands
5. NotW 1: "They took it to the priest. He did all the right things for all the wrong reasons." This indicates that many of the church's approaches may work, but not the way they think or for the reasons they believe. They cannot be relied on for expansions of truth.
6. NotW 1: Temic (Tehlin church equivalent of Latin) for "Begone demon!" is "Te hus antausa eha!"
7. NotW 1: Demons fear cold iron, clean fire and the holy name of God.
8. NotW 2: Chronicler wears an iron circle on a leather rope around his neck. It is not a guilder: the ex-soldier's commander touches it without noticing cold or numbness. It appears to be a symbol of the iron wheel Tehlu sacrificed himself on while trying to do away with Encanis/Haliax.
9. NotW 4: When startled by Kvothe hunting scrael, Chronicler unconsciously clutched the circle of iron that hung around his neck. He doesn't believe in demons, but still has some superstitious sentiment.

Money

Types mentioned:

1. NotW 1: Gold Nobles
2. NotW 1: Silver Penny
3. NotW 1: Copper Penny
4. NotW 1,2: Iron Penny
5. NotW 1,2: "heavy" Silver Talents
6. NotW 1: "thin" Silver Bits
7. NotW 1: Copper Jots
8. NotW 1: Ha'pennies
9. NotW 1: Iron Drabs
10. NotW 1,3: Iron Shims

Price of things:

1. NotW 1: Half pound of salt for a penny (iron?), maybe 2 in tight times. 10 pennies is robbery
2. NotW 1: Likewise a loaf of sugar for 15 pennies is robbery
3. NotW 1: and so is a small sack of coffee for 2 silver talents
4. NotW 2: a penny or two for a couple of hot meals
5. NotW 3: Kote pays Graham 2 silver talents for his work on the "Folly" mounting board
6. NotW 3: Kote pays Caleb the smith a jot for a used up smith's leather apron and forge gloves.

Equivalences:

Characters from Stories

1. Chandrian
• NotW 1: The smith's prentice is scared of them
• NotW 1: Blue flame is a sign of them
• NotW 1: They are expected to kill first, ask questions later
• NotW 1: Jake says they are the first six people to refuse Tehlu's choice of the path and were cursed.
• NotW 1: They are a mystery: "Where do they come from? Where do they go after they've done their bloody deeds?"
• NotW 3: Signs are Blue flame, and man with eyes black as crow and a man without a face.
• NotW 3: When you see these signs you should Run and hide.
• NotW 3: They move "like ghosts" from place to place.
• NotW 3: The question is asked: What's their plan?
2. Taborlin the Great
• NotW 1: His tools are a key, a coin and a candle
• NotW 1: He knows the names of all things, and so all things are his to command
• NotW 1: Breaks stone to escape a tower prison
• NotW 1: Calls the wind to carry him safely to ground after jumping from the top of the tower
• NotW 1: Has an amulet (guilder or gram) that is cold as ice to the touch and protects him from being stabbed
• NotW 1: Called up fire and lightning to destroy demons
3. Tinker
• NotW 1: Will repay a favor freely given twice and an insult thrice.

Chandrian

Chandrian (the group):

In Stories:

1. NotW 1: The smith's prentice is scared of them
2. NotW 1: Blue flame is a sign of them
3. NotW 1: They are expected to kill first, ask questions later
4. NotW 1: Jake says they are the first six people to refuse Tehlu's choice of the path and were cursed.
5. NotW 1: They are a mystery: "Where do they come from? Where do they go after they've done their bloody deeds?"
6. NotW 3: Child sing a song and play a game:
• "When the hearthfire turns to blue,
  What to do? What to do?
  Run outside. Run and hide.
  
  "When his eyes are black as crow?
  Where to go? Where to go?
  Near and far. Here they are.
  
  See a man without a face?
  Move like ghosts from place to place.
  What's their plan? What's their plan?
  Chandrian. Chandrian.

Stories told, Songs sung

1. NotW 1: Taborlin the Great escapes from a tower and the Chandrian (as told by Old Cob in the Waystone Inn in the frame).
• His tools are a key, a coin and a candle
• Chandrian have imprisonned him. He knows it's them because of blue flames.
• He knows the names of all things, so all things are his to command. He uses this knowledge to broker an impossible escape from a tower room with no doors or windows.
• Possesses an Arcanist's Guilder or Gram which spared him from injury. It is described as an amulet that was "cold as ice to touch". He got it for a silver penny, a copper penny and an iron penny from a tinker, who sold it so cheaply due to Taborlin sharing a meal with him.
• Is said to have called up fire and lightning to destroy demons
2. NotW 1: Rhyme about how a Tinker pays (as told by Kote in the Waystone Inn in the frame):
• "A tinker's debt is always paid:
  Once for any simple trade.
  Twice for freely-given aid.
  Thrice for any insult made."
3. NotW 1: Mentions of Great Tehlu, demons, Tehlu's angels, heros and kings. These last four belong in stories, but not in the neighborhood of the frame.
4. NotW 3: Children's rhyme (and game) about the Chandrian:
• "When the hearthfire turns to blue,
  What to do? What to do?
  Run outside. Run and hide.
  
  "When his eyes are black as crow?
  Where to go? Where to go?
  Near and far. Here they are.
  
  See a man without a face?
  Move like ghosts from place to place.
  What's their plan? What's their plan?
  Chandrian. Chandrian.
5. NotW 3: Kote spreads the story through Bast that he was a city-licensed escort from Ralien who was wounded with an arrow in the right knee while successfully defending a caravan from Purvis three years ago in summer. A grateful Cealdish merchant named Deolan supposedly gave him the money to start an inn.
6. NotW 3: The caravan sings several unnamed songs
7. NotW 3: "Tinker Tanner" first mentioned
8. NotW 4: Chronicler repeats part of an unnamed children's song:
• "Let me tell you what to do.
  Dig a pit that's ten by two.
  Ash and elm and rowan too--"

Times, Days and Moons

Times

1. NotW 0: Night (again).
2. NotW 1: Felling Night.

Days

1. NotW 1: Felling: seems like our modern equivalent of a Friday.
2. NotW 1: Cendling mentioned as a day name.

Spans

1. NotW 1: 2 spans is 22 days: implication is that spans are 11 days even (if they are all the same length).

Moons

1. NotW 1: Felling night had no moon.

Months

1. NotW 0: Unknown. Autumn is evoked without being directly stipulated
2. NotW 1: Unknown month in Autumn

Seasons

1. NotW 0: Autumn is evoked without being directly stipulated
2. NotW 1: Autumn

Years

Other

Bast

1. NotW 1: Young "man", dark and charming with a quick smile and cunning eyes.
2. NotW 1: Calls Kote/Kvothe "Reshi" and is his student.
3. NotW 1: Should be studying the Celum Tinture, but is avoiding it.
4. NotW 1: Has a way with girls.
5. NotW 1: Gets a bit nervous when "Reshi" says there will be a lot of Iron around. Reshi then "banishes" him as a demon in church Temic, another language and the language they are speaking (Aturan?). Just in case we haven't yet gotten that he is of the Faen, Kote calls him a "glamour" immediately after.
6. NotW 1: Noted for his strange, casual grace.
7. NotW 1: Uses the term "weeks" instead of spans.
8. NotW 3: Freaked out that Kote plans to hang "Folly" in plain view in the Inn
9. NotW 3: Spreads the story of Kote's fabled caravan guard past to throw the caravan off the scent of Kvothe the Bloodless.
10. NotW 3: Watches Kote with worry.

Denna

1. NotW 1: Not in the frame - as present for her absence as the Amyr are in the University Archives.
2. NotW 1: In an unnamed language "Begone demon!" is "Aroi te denna-leyan!"...to this pocket linguist's eye that looks like "out with you demon" meaning "denna" is part of the word for demon in that language. Interesting. However, it may also translate as "glamour", since Kote calls Bast that right after. "Denna-leyan" could literally translate something like "glamour maker" or "glamour walker" or ...?

Kote/Kvothe

1. NotW 0: He possesses a silence more felt than heard
2. NotW 0: He is unnamed in the Prologue. It describes him as:
• NotW 0, 1: He has true-red hair like a flame
• NotW 0: He has dark and distant eyes
• NotW 0: He owns the Waystone Inn
• NotW 0, 1: He is deliberate and clean
• NotW 0: He is patiently waiting to die.
3. NotW 1: He is an innkeeper
4. NotW 1: He is young - certainly not yet thirty. Not even near thirty.
5. NotW 1: His name is Kote, or that's what he calls himself; it is a new name.
6. NotW 1: He has been here for a year or so.
7. NotW 1: He is familiar with the story of Taborlin and many other things beyond what a typical innkeeper would know: In this chapter he knows the full poem to how a tinker pays, medica and how to stitch cuts, what a scrael is, how to properly dispose of its body, the stars the way a man knows his own hands, how to speak Tema and other languages, and the importance of names.
8. NotW 1: He hummed a little while working without realizing it and would have stopped if he had.
9. NotW 1: He has long, graceful hands.
10. NotW 1: His lifestyle is austere.
11. NotW 1: Bast calls him "Reshi"; it's almost a nickname.
12. NotW 1: He says "Anything would be nice." Doesn't sound like he's very happy.
13. NotW 1: He avoids looking at the roah chest. When he finally does, he looks at it with "emptiness and ache", as well as "fierce longing and regret."
14. NotW 1: He is not sleeping well, much or easily.
15. NotW 3: He is leafing through a book in the Inn when Graham arrives - not hiding that he is literate
16. NotW 3: Graham notes:
• Kote seems sickly and hollow, like a wilting plant
• His gestures less extravagant, voice not as deep and eyes not as bright as even a month ago.
• His eyes are less sea-foam and green-grass colored and more riverweed or thick green bottle glass colored. His hair is less flame and more just red.
17. NotW 3: Kote says of himself, "I tend to think too much...My greatest successess came from decisions I made when I stopped thinking and simply did what felt right. Even if there was no good explanation for what I did. Even if there were very good reasons for me not to do what I did."
18. NotW 3: When the caravan came to town, he sang more verses of "Tinker Tanner" than anyone had ever heard before with the fire shining in his hair.
19. NotW 3: First mention of the name Kvothe in the book. A drunk sandy-haired traveler calls Kote "Kvothe the Bloodless."
20. NotW 3: He claims that he looks like the Kvothe, and feigns being proud of it before faking a reoccurence of an old arrow-to-the-knee injury from three years ago to allow him to excuse himself. That injury is what made him give up "the good life on the road."
21. NotW 3: Kvothe sang in Imre and it made the sandy-haired traveler cry his eyes out - it broke his heart.
22. NotW 3: In Imre by the fountain there are broken cobblestones that cannot be mended where Kvothe killed "him" (the king?).
23. NotW 3: Kote spreads the story through Bast that he was a city-licensed escort from Ralien who was wounded with an arrow in the right knee while successfully defending a caravan from Purvis three years ago in summer. A grateful Cealdish merchant named Deolan supposedly gave him the money to start an inn.
24. NotW 3: His body, especially back and arms, are covered in faint lines of smooth silver scars. There is one scar that is neither smoothn nor silver.
25. NotW 3: Kote says to Caleb the smith, "In autumn everything is tired and ready to die."
26. NotW 4: Cloaked and hooded with the smithing apron and forge gloves in a burned out ruin with a bonfire and something simmering that smelled like burning hair and rotting flowers in an iron pot is how Chronicler found him.
27. NotW 4: He had impossibly red hair and shocking, vibrant green eyes.
28. NotW 4: "A sword wouldn't do you much good." This being Kvothe's opinion explains why he brought pig iron to the fight instead of "Folly."
29. NotW 4: He kills 5 Scrael, but gets cut up badly in the process. He painfully digs the pit for them. (Why didn't he dig it before he lit the fire - before they came?)
30. NotW 4: Tells Chronicler "you'd be surprised at the sorts of things hidden away in children's songs." reference to the Chandrian and Lady Lockless's box?

Setting of the Frame

The Waystone Inn:

1. NotW 0: The "Waystone Inn" at night. Waystones are between major destinations, but are not one themselves. This name implies that we are in the middle of nowhere.
2. NotW 4: The Waystone Inn is in Newarre (but is the N-E-Warre like "anywhere", or Ne-Warre like "nowhere"?).
3. NotW 0: Autumn is evoked, but not directly stated as the season.
4. NotW 0: The Inn is not busy.
5. NotW 0: Of course there is no music (why of course?).
6. NotW 0: Men huddled in a corner drinking with quiet determination while avoiding serious discussions of troubling news speaks of solid, simple country folks making their way as best they can in troubled times.
7. NotW 1: The usual crowd for a moonless felling night: Old Cob, Graham, Jake, Shep and the smith's prentice "boy". They are later joined by Carter. Other townsfolk mentioned in this chapter: The Bentleys (who are on hard times), the Orissons (whose sheep keep disappearing) and Crazy Martin (who planted all barley this year). These are all good, normal English names.
8. NotW 1: "Times being what they were" bookends the chapter. Times are bad due to the war and the brigandry of opportunists and deserters on the roads. Three years ago no one locked their doors. Now they bar them too.
9. NotW 1: Rannish is less than thirty miles away. We are not far from Baedn and Baedn-Bryt (likely, but not forcibly the same place). Oldstone Bridge is within two miles. Near Melcombe and a long ways off of Resavek.
10. NotW 4: Abbot's Ford is about a day's walk away from Rannish (maybe 15 - 25 miles)
11. NotW 1: Something "bad" happened out on Shep's farm recently.
12. NotW 1: Jake is a faithful Tehlin and there is a priest in town. We are withing the range of the Tehlin church.
13. NotW 1: We are west of wherever it is that Scrael come from and there are mountains in between.
14. NotW 1: The Waystone Inn is located in a small farming community with several dozen inhabitants.
15. NotW 1: There have been two levy taxes and talk of a third - that hasn't happened in living memory.
16. NotW 1: They tell stories here, but stories don't happen here. This is not a place for demons, heros or kings.
17. NotW 3: Aryen is between three and four months away
18. NotW 3: The Caravan arrives two days after Felling
19. NotW 3: Fall is supposed to be the year's busiest time. Why?
20. NotW 4: Chronicler meets Kvothe halfway to Newarre three nights after Felling, two days since he was robbed.

Where Chronicler meets the ex-soldiers

1. NotW 2: Perfect autumn day
2. NotW 2: Within walking distance by nightfall of Abbot's Ford

Caesuras

1. NotW 0: No music at the Waystone Inn.
2. NotW 0: The silence of the third kind, the one that is more felt than heard and belongs to the unnamed man of true-red hair with dark and distant eyes to whom the Waystone Inn belongs.
3. NotW 1: The jarring gap of obvious time between the night of the prologue and the night of chapter one.
4. NotW 1: Later in the chapter the gap between Kote burning the Scrael with an iron shim and Kote closing up.
5. NotW 1: Not obvious at first, but Denna is absent from the frame.
6. NotW 3: "For the first time in a long while there was no silence in the Waystone Inn. Or if there was, it was too faint to be noticed, or too well hidden."

NotW 0: Prologue: Silence

"It was night again."

Thus begins the story. Not much more than a "It was just another day (night) in the life." Infinitely better than "It was a dark and stormy night." Nowhere near as engaging as "In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit." But now I kibitz.

The prologue is low on information, despite being presented to us as if from the mind of God himself. It teases a bit, but is mostly poetry in prose that establishes the mood and tone of the book - much like the first notes of music that come up before the titles of a movie. Remember Danny Elfman's awesomely ominous theme for Batman? Yeah, it's kind of like that.

And it works on many levels that have nothing to do with the story. It's the firm grip handshake of a deal well made that got me excited about the book.

What do we learn from it?

1. It's night.
2. We are in the "Waystone Inn."
3. Waystones are generally found on the way between destinations. The name Waystone Inn suggests we are in the middle of nowhere, and we are.
4. The number three is special in this story (as it is in many stories).
5. There is no wind (= no Denna - more on this later).
6. Autumn is evoked, though not directly stated as the season.
7. Patrick Rothfuss has the heart of a poet.
8. The Inn is not very busy.
9. Of course there is no music - we don't know yet how "off" this is for the Innkeeper we are about to meet. After reading the books, one really is brought to wonder "Why 'of course'?" 
10. The pair of men huddled in a corner and drinking with "quiet determination" while avoiding "serious discussions of troubling news" speaks of solid country folks making their way as best they can in troubled times.
11. And then our first Caesura, or jarring break in a continuum: a silence more felt than heard; that of the unnamed man of true-red hair and dark and distant eyes.
12. He is deliberate, pendantic and clean.
13. He owns the inn.
14. He is patiently waiting to die.

Can we gain anything else from this prose poem?

NotW: Overview: I Never Meta-Story I didn't like....

"The Name of the Wind" and "A Wise Man's Fear" are stories about stories that are about stories themselves. It is a Meta-meta-meta-meta-story.

I guess that makes this Blog a Meta-meta-meta-meta-meta-story.

We have a frame. In the frame, there is a certain reality that appears to be in some parts at odds with the story Kote/Kvothe is relaying. Within both the frame and Kote's/Kvothe's story, we have more stories. and some of them contain stories within the story as well. Some of the stories we meet lend their bones to the fleshing out of other stories.
These books are really an exploration of how stories start, embellish and spread. It's about the inside edges of the stories we tell. Those parts that look substantial, but are filled with unknowns.
Above all, it's a story about how mundane the original story may actually be.

The other thing this is about touches on that inside edge of the map again: It's about Caesura.
It's about the space between and throughout; the silence that jarringly breaks the poem; the unknown empty spaces on the map; the break in a story that leaves us wondering the circumstances of a shipwreck or a court case won; the stunning absence from all records of big and important things like Chandrians and Amyrs; the jarring break in the career of a hero that momentarily leaves him not fully the man of legend.
Watch for these breaks and spaces and silences. And remember that they are just as substantial to the story being told as the invisible wind.

A final thought as we head into the books proper: this book is also about the sleeping mind. Remember as you grope and grapple with what it all means that understanding it is not the grand prize. That's just the door prize. To speak the name of the Wind (or anything) you must "get" what it is completely exactly the way it is all the way down to it's core, and have that awareness land all the way down to your core. It's a wonder such a thing can be put into words at all!
So if you don't think you are understanding any of this, stop trying so hard! Stop thinking, and just try being aware. Then maybe the sleeping mind can speak it's name to you too.

Chasing "the Wind"

I had just finished reading the seven Harry Potter books again. While it was the fifth or sixth time for the first ones, and the third time for the seventh, it was the first time for all in a row at once. And there was a lot there I had missed when reading them separately.

I shared some of my insights with a friend who was duly impressed with what I had seen swimming there in the waters beneath the sunlight reflected off the surface of the story. Then he grinned a really curious grin and asked if I had ever read “The Name of the Wind”.

Read it? I’ve never even heard of it.

He recommended it highly, and said he would just love to hear what I got from it.

Such recommendations can be problematic. But I had just finished a big read, and was looking for something new … and as luck would have it, I could get a free sample on my digital reader! Fifty pages to decide if it was worth the cost of the download.

Patrick Rothfuss had me on page 1.

It was the poetic notion that a wind would have brushed silence down the road like trailing autumn leaves. Delicious. So much so, I read that line three more times before continuing.

J.K. Rowling has given the world a great gift in Harry Potter. But she is not the world’s greatest writer. And she is definitely no poet. Whenever poetry was needed in that series, if it wasn’t straight up whimsical or irreverent (a la Peeves), it came off somewhat perfunctory. Perfunctory poetry is like graceful hippos: you may find it in a far-fetched Fantasia, but even then you won’t believe it when you see it.

Rothfuss on the other hand -- here beats the heart of a poet! If this is what I could expect from this book, I was down for the ride. I immediately bought both “The Name of the Wind” and “A Wise Man’s Fear” and settled in for a good read.

What I found instead was a mixed bag. There were some truly fine moments. There were some equally frustrating ones.

Kvothe routinely made the worse possible choices. How could one so smart act so stupidly? How could a man who boast of memory above all forget so much? Why wasn’t the rest of the novel as poetic as the Prologue?

I also felt it lacked big thematic ideas and was too episodic, lacking the normal bones of story structure that most novels are built on.

I was mostly self-important and wrong.

At the end of "The Name of the Wind" I was a bit non-plussed. By a third of the way through "A Wise Man's Fear" I was a full on fan, and realized i really needed to re-read the first book again.

By the end, I knew i needed to really pick this whole thing apart. Not since reading "The Rule of Four" did I have such a solid conviction of a lot more going on than what the writer was admitting to. And while "The Rule of Four" left me with that awareness, it was shared with an equally absolute lack of interest to find out what.

This time, I do want to see what else can be seen.

So, rather than doing this on my own, I thought we could make it a party. Join me while we dig through these two books again and see what we can see!