General Note to my Gentle Readers:

This blog is dedicated to an indepth look at the first two books of The Kingkiller Chronicles: "The Name of the Wind" and "A Wise Man's Fear" by Patrick Rothfuss.


If you have not yet read these books, don't read this blog. It's that simple. I will spoil it. Let the books speak to you first, then come back here and see what you might have missed, or point out what I blindly failed to see. We will not hesitate to spoil from both books and with no warning. Except this one. So now you are warned.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

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--"
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