Welcome back to my re-read, recap, and reaction to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. This post will only have spoilers through the current chapter.
You can find my previous chapter recaps HERE.
Chapter 2: The Butcher’s Yard
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Perrin Aybara
Before joining Rand, Perrin surveys the graves the battle of Dumai’s Wells has left behind―19 Two Rivers men, near to 100 Mayeners, more than 100 Cairhienin, 1000 Aiel―and the carnage of the Shaido dead in the valley below, with all the survivors massed around Rand, namely Asha’man, Mayeners, Cairhienin, and Maidens. Kiruna Nachiman asks Perrin what Rand is doing. Perrin knows that Rand is memorizing the faces and names of every Maiden that died. He remembers listening to Rand last night reciting the names of dead Maidens like a catechism. But Perrin doesn’t tell Kiruna that, instead he upbraids her and the others for not following orders to wait with the Wise Ones and wading into the midst of battle with Havien Nurelle and his Mayeners. Kiruna retorts that this is the only way to take part: because of the Three Oaths, if Aes Sedai want to use the Power as a weapon, they must place themselves or their Warders in mortal danger.
Rand comes up the slope. Wise Ones and Asha’man alike want to have custody of the Aes Sedai, prisoners and oath-sworn both. Rand decides that all Aes Sedai present will be supervised by the Wise Ones. Bera and Kiruna try to protest but Rand reminds them that they swore oath to obey and serve him until after the Last Battle. Rhuarc reports that the surviving Shaido are running fast eastwards and the Younglings are heading north. At the urging of Kiruna and Bera, Rand commands Healing from Alanna. Taim presses Rand into accepting an honor guard of Asha’man. Besides four Dedicated and four Soldiers, Rand chooses Corlan Dashiva at random. Perrin wonders about Rand’s scent that is changing fast enough for two men.
The Cairhienin and Mayeners are uneasy about Rand poking around among the slaughtered until Perrin bluntly tells them that Rand still is sane.
The various groups ready themselves for departure; the Asha’man Travel back to the Black Tower. Perrin tells Rand about the tensions between the factions. Min interrupts a staring match between Rand and Perrin when they talk about murdering the Aes Sedai. Rand asks Min whether she has seen something and Min explains to the startled Perrin how her Talent manifested and that the Aiel know about it and don’t look crosswise at her for it. She doesn’t see anything clear, though.
Loial asks Rand to talk to him about his book and Rand promises that they’ll talk when they’re back in Cairhien. Rand has Dashiva make a Gateway near the City of Cairhien and learns that Taim lets himself be called M’Hael, which means “Leader” in the Old Tongue.
REACTION:
The chapter begins with Perrin visiting the Dumai’s Wells battleground and struggling to deal with the death all around him, as well as the fact that it was him who gave the orders to go and fight. He’s torn because it was both horrendous and still necessary. He sees a sea of birds eating the still unburied dead bodies and some freshly dug earth where graves have been made. And it’s a horrible and unimaginable smell.
This whole scene (or something like it) should lurk in the back of one’s mind and give some pause when we think of war and war casualties in real life. In the Battle of Gettysburg, 51,000 people died. That’s just an unimaginable amount of death in three days. How long does it take to get everyone ID’d and buried after something like that? I prefer not to think about it. But I probably shouldn’t give in to that impulse not to think about it. If I vote, and my vote doesn’t consider things like that, I could grow far too casual and comfortable sending people (usually in their early 20s) to go and die. Jordan served in the military and he doesn’t ever forget to include the grim details when he writes a battle. There might be a frenzy and excitement in the moment, but there’s an awful aftermath.
Rand is walking through the bodies, looking for Maidens, trying to learn the name of every woman who died. His madness is manifesting itself in such a way that he memorizes the names of every women who he feels “died for him.” When we’re in Rand’s POV, this almost makes sense in a kind of dark way. It’s his way of not being too casual with the lives of others. But if you can imagine Rand from anyone else’s perspective, this must come across as totally unhinged. Jordan does a good job in this chapter of conveying the growing worry around him for his sanity.
Rand puts the Aes Sedai captives and those who swore an oath of fealty to him under the “care” of the Aiel Wise Ones. Taim had wanted them in the Black Tower. So the Aes Sedai should probably consider themselves insanely lucky – which is incredible when you consider where they *are* going. The problem is that the Aes Sedai are still in a state of shock and denial over the new reality of not being the biggest bully in the yard anymore.
That scene was funny though because it went abruptly from various groups of women all ready to be fighting like cats in a sack to a grand team-up to make Rand accept Aes Sedai Healing. Then quicksilver it shifts back to uneasiness as Rand accepts Healing but demands it from Alanna (going so far as to point at her to do it without looking at her, cupping her face almost romantically first, and then walking away without a thank you after) which confuses everyone except us all-knowing Readers. The women – without madness – are kind of portrayed in a unstable way, and this is played off of and paralleled with Rand’s emotions (as smelled by Perrin) being unstable, too.
Would it help everyone to understand the dynamic between Rand and Alanna if they knew that she did the equivalent (or maybe worse) of raping him? Probably not. I mean… did any Aes Sedai formally apologize to Rand for what Alanna did (despite some of them knowing?) No. They’re using that tie to him and not admitting fault for how it was made. Nobody else really understands the degree to which what they did was a violation. Would the Aes Sedai have been incandescent with rage if that had gone the opposite way? Absolutely.
Sometimes I read comments from Wheel of Time fans along the lines of Jordan writing a matriarchal / feminist book, and I wonder whether the people who say that are reading the same book that I’m reading. Nearly all women in this series are characterized as though they are instinctively unfair (toward men especially), overly emotional, unrealistic, and unwilling to accept accountability. Nynaeve might be one of my favorite characters ever, in all of fiction, and a lot of that fits her. The White Tower is poorly administered, largely hated, they’re famous for wielding power through manipulation. If anything, this series is a warning about the dangers of unchecked feminism, not an endorsement of it.
Of course, Jordan doesn’t embrace a patriarchal society, either. His ideal was presented all the way back in Emond’s Field, with their Village Council / Women’s Circle set-up. Complementary and balanced. Anyway. I digress.
Rand announces they are going back to Cairhien. I suspect that this will bode ill for Colavaere. She was the one who was being set up to be Queen when Rand was taken captive.
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