The Rooster Crown (spoilers all RotE books)

[Lady Persephone]

Ah, my favourite of all 'things' in the Realm of the Elderlings books - the Rooster Crown.

I have lots to throw at you but I'm going to start out small and toward the end rather than the beginning! To set the scene, Fitz and Fool are near the market plaza beyond the Mountain Kingdom. Fitz has the completed crown in his hands and Fool is dead beside him...

"For a moment, my eyes lingered on the softened carvings of roosters' heads that ringed the crown....Tiny gems still winked in two of the carved eyes; the others were blank and empty."

We know that within the crown, there were five minstrels - a freckled girl/young woman, a bull-throated man, a toothless crone, a young man and a calm, husky-voiced woman. The gems can't represent them or else five gems would wink, wouldn't they, and not just two?

As an aside, the runes in the Aslevjal map tower which winked and "seemed to glow with an inner light...some bright, some dull" represented Skill-pillars.

So, what (or who !) do these gems represent? Why do only two wink and the rest do not? I have some thoughts...what are yours?!

I've thought about this a lot . . I think it's one of the most profound, intriguing mysteries in all of RotE!  The Rooster Crown.  This quote: "For a moment, my eyes lingered on the softened carvings of roosters' heads that ringed the crown....Tiny gems still winked in two of the carved eyes; the others were blank and empty."  Earlier it was only one that still seemed to wink, wasn't it?  Before the Fool died.  Because of this I feel that the two winking gems signifies the presence of the Fool in the crown via his blood . . blood, after all, remembers.  I do think the winking of the gems in a wizardwood crown does have a relation to the winking of the memory stones on the Aslevjal map.  It just has to mean something.  It's too huge a coincidence to not have a larger significance.  

Reincarnation . . yes.  I agree with Farseer that it does exist in this realm.  I've ordered the Legends II book now!    I'm mixed on whether or not Realder = Fitz and the female WP of yore = Fool, but the fact that she winked at him, and we know Fool recognised himself in this WP with the rooster crown . . she did know Fitz, I'm certain of it.  I don't think Fitz is Realder . . I don't believe that was Realder she was winking at . .

When Fool and Fitz were at the plaza, Fitz saw a girl walking with a crown of vine leaves on her head (AQ Chapter Twenty-Nine - The Rooster Crown): "A girl crowned with a twist of green vine came through the crowd, glancing back over her shoulder at someone. I swear she caught my eye and winked at me."

We don't really know how the memory stone really affects the WP.  There's something to the WP anatomy . . almost akin to dragons.  They shed, they are long-lived, they have special foresight not unlike the 'prophet' false eyes on Maulkin, the Fool could live for ages with the silver on his hand, WP's have glamour not unlike dragons . . there are way too many similarities here.  

Who was this woman? Why could she not only appear to see Fitz but be familiar enough with him to wink?

It was Beloved/Fool.  He/she could take on this former WP and I think could affect or change their actions at will, unlike humans and Elderlings (i.e. Thymara and Rapskal), who could not.  The wink was to let Fitz know it was Fool, like a little knowing gesture to let him know it's him/her and he should follow.  At this point in the story Fool is very much a teenager, like Fitz, and the familial gesture is so like him/her.  I must buy the Farseer trilogy (borrowed it from my co-worker when I read them) and I'd love to go back and compare/contrast with all the knowledge I have all having read nearly all of RotE trilogies.  I recall that Fool brazenly admitted his/her unabashed love for Fitz and kissed him at one point much to Fitz's confusion (that boy wouldn't know real love if it struck him as a bolt of lightening!).  But I digress . . 

I do think reincarnation is real in this realm and in the Fool's case, this was probably him/herself in a former life.  As for Fitz, again, I don't think this was himself as Realder.  That's not to say there wasn't 'someone else' there in the crowd, say, an Elderling . . perhaps the Elderling known as Farseer if such a person existed, and I think they did, probably one of those adept in the skill of 'healing' as we find out in RWC that it was one of the lost skills of the ancient race.