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.