Re: Rand himself muses in TGS about his lost hand - Edit 1
Before modification by DomA at 14/06/2010 07:42:53 PM
"Two hands. One to destroy, the other to save. Which had he lost?"
In the end of the book, one could say he "lost" the hand to destroy, namely the male Choedan Kal.
In the end of the book, one could say he "lost" the hand to destroy, namely the male Choedan Kal.
That's something like that.
Semirhage made him figuratively lose his "hand that save" in TGS (by making him try to kill Min) after she had destroyed the hand for real in KOD. Through TGS, Rand became the "hand that destroy", the male CK was merely an extension of it - all he had left was one hand, the hand that held the CK. All he cared about anymore was destruction of anyone in his path, from Cadsuane to the Seanchan, to even Tam.
On Dragonmount threw away the weapon with which he could destroy the world. He has decided that the hand he lost was the hand that destroy. He's done now with the destructive aspect of the Dragon, even made his peace with the Kinslaying too. He wouldn't call himself "a destroyer" (as LTT did once) anymore either. From now on the Dragon will sleep, Rand is Rand again. Not a dragon but a shepherd, a shepherd whose hand shelter and protect from the Shadow.
In the land, the "hand that destroy" should be, like the CK, Rand's weapon. What Rand sees as his weapon, as always seen as his weapon, is the Black Tower.
It's also the Hand that held the symbol of his earthly power, the Dragon scepter. Returning from DM, Rand will be a very different man, no longer interested in trying to rule the world or force the world to obey him. He's the war-leader, the inspirational leader, not the King.
Of course, the reason for the hand losing was to make Rand more like the Norse God Tyr.
Yes definitely, but the theme is also common to the norse/germano-celtic world in general and RJ merged it all. Rand lost a hand like Tyr, and this is reflected in the land as it happens in the celtic myth (to King Nuada, notably). The "one with the land" theme is most famously present in the Fisher-King figure of the Arthurian legend, which came from mostly celtic roots with some norse cross-over (goes back to the Vikings raids in Ireland, that's when celtic and norse mythologies started to borrow stuff from one another, eg: when the old irish hero Finn MacCool gained many details borrowed from Odin - both figures heavily inspiring aspects of Mat. Some scholars actually believe it's the other way around and Odin emerged in the norse pantheon after the wars between vikings and celtics, based on celtic "trickster gods" and Finn MacCool.)