Mar-26-2010, 02:19 PM (UTC)
(This post was last modified: Mar-29-2010, 04:35 PM (UTC) by Farseer.)
Hi all,
I have been a long-time fan of this fantastic site and have only just now registered to finally provide some input of my own!
As a person who has never read the same book twice (outside of revisiting childhood stories now with my own children!) I must admit to having read all eleven of the Farseer, LST, Tawny Man and Rain Wild books, as well as all related short stories, far too many times than is healthy...in fact, I find myself wishing I could fight this addiction I seem to have acquired as well as Fitz manages to fight the lure of a Skill addiction!
From my interpretations, I agree that Kelsingra is most certainly the same city as visited by Verity, Fitz and then, later, Tintaglia (and as was mentioned in the writings of White Damir, and then quoted by the Fool/Kettle after Fitz had been there, "At his touch shall be wakened the dragons of the earth. The sleeping city shall tremble and waken to him." ).
In AQ, Fitz sees the lions of stone guarding the entrance steps to the city's map tower and then these two images on the exterior..."A giant of a woman gripped an immense plough behind a team of monstrous oxen. A winged creature, perhaps a dragon, took an entire wall to himself."
Later in SOD, Tintaglia sees/passes by the same stone lions and also notes the same two images on the map tower of the city she herself refers to as Kelsingra, though she provides us with more detail than Fitz, given her dragon memories of them, "Cariandra the Fecund still endlessly ploughed her fields behind her team of massive oxen, while on the adjacent wall Sessicaria spread wide his wings and trumpeted silently."
Along with Fitz, Tintaglia also notes other unique features of Kelsingra, such as the huge cleft that had divided it, and the river which had claimed the space for itself.
I'm not sure why but I have teased myself into thinking that maybe reliefs of Fitz and the Fool somehow end up being on the other two walls of the tower (we are not given any clues as to what is on these), much as I wonder about two images on a Mountain Kingdom rug mentioned in the Farseer books which sound very much like they could be them.
I also found myself hoping the whole way through DK and DH that toward the end of the story, Fitz was going to somehow surprise us all by "randomly" (I'm borrowing that word from my teenage sons!) popping up somewhere to direct the dragons and their keepers to the city...that they would get there, and Heeby was going to be the first to fly was always predictable to me, BUT I was sort of hoping that Fitz would make an appearance to ultimately save the day with his foreknowledge of the place....that he didn't, and that they all got there by themselves, in a better condition that what they were in when they left the Rain Wilds, I have to admit I thought to myself, "Poor Fitz, he went through all that he did and dragons may have ended up coming back into the world anyway...without him!" Still, will he be the one to bring it all back together in the finale?!
I believe there is a GREAT DEAL of potential plot still left in the whole tale post DK and DH, depending on how Hobb wants to tell it...I think we may well see something come more firmly out of out Chalced, possibly even something from "the land that is to the south and then the east" (it may be where the Fool is originally from and possibly also the area from where the folk of the Great Sail Fleet South hail and who call Jamaillia 'West Port' ), and I agree with the thought that the Fool and Fitz are not done yet as the Fool is the love that weaves its way in and out of Fitz's long lifeline on his right hand.
Whatever it is, Verity was the last old wise man to go to Jhaampe-town so that can't be Fitz's destiny...maybe it is that Fitz will stay at home after his long life (with hopefully a lot more input into the future of the world!) and simply face the grave rather than form a simulacra artform (dragons in the stone garden, Trehaug etc) like the rest..."No wise men go to Jhaampe-town, To Climb the hill and never come down. 'Tis wiser far and much more brave, To stay at home and face the grave."
As Hobb said in FF, "It is like the anticipation that a clever minstrel evokes when he pauses, letting silence pool before sweeping into the final refrain of his song." Hobb is the minstrel and I am looking forward to the rest of her song!
I have been a long-time fan of this fantastic site and have only just now registered to finally provide some input of my own!
As a person who has never read the same book twice (outside of revisiting childhood stories now with my own children!) I must admit to having read all eleven of the Farseer, LST, Tawny Man and Rain Wild books, as well as all related short stories, far too many times than is healthy...in fact, I find myself wishing I could fight this addiction I seem to have acquired as well as Fitz manages to fight the lure of a Skill addiction!
From my interpretations, I agree that Kelsingra is most certainly the same city as visited by Verity, Fitz and then, later, Tintaglia (and as was mentioned in the writings of White Damir, and then quoted by the Fool/Kettle after Fitz had been there, "At his touch shall be wakened the dragons of the earth. The sleeping city shall tremble and waken to him." ).
In AQ, Fitz sees the lions of stone guarding the entrance steps to the city's map tower and then these two images on the exterior..."A giant of a woman gripped an immense plough behind a team of monstrous oxen. A winged creature, perhaps a dragon, took an entire wall to himself."
Later in SOD, Tintaglia sees/passes by the same stone lions and also notes the same two images on the map tower of the city she herself refers to as Kelsingra, though she provides us with more detail than Fitz, given her dragon memories of them, "Cariandra the Fecund still endlessly ploughed her fields behind her team of massive oxen, while on the adjacent wall Sessicaria spread wide his wings and trumpeted silently."
Along with Fitz, Tintaglia also notes other unique features of Kelsingra, such as the huge cleft that had divided it, and the river which had claimed the space for itself.
I'm not sure why but I have teased myself into thinking that maybe reliefs of Fitz and the Fool somehow end up being on the other two walls of the tower (we are not given any clues as to what is on these), much as I wonder about two images on a Mountain Kingdom rug mentioned in the Farseer books which sound very much like they could be them.
I also found myself hoping the whole way through DK and DH that toward the end of the story, Fitz was going to somehow surprise us all by "randomly" (I'm borrowing that word from my teenage sons!) popping up somewhere to direct the dragons and their keepers to the city...that they would get there, and Heeby was going to be the first to fly was always predictable to me, BUT I was sort of hoping that Fitz would make an appearance to ultimately save the day with his foreknowledge of the place....that he didn't, and that they all got there by themselves, in a better condition that what they were in when they left the Rain Wilds, I have to admit I thought to myself, "Poor Fitz, he went through all that he did and dragons may have ended up coming back into the world anyway...without him!" Still, will he be the one to bring it all back together in the finale?!
I believe there is a GREAT DEAL of potential plot still left in the whole tale post DK and DH, depending on how Hobb wants to tell it...I think we may well see something come more firmly out of out Chalced, possibly even something from "the land that is to the south and then the east" (it may be where the Fool is originally from and possibly also the area from where the folk of the Great Sail Fleet South hail and who call Jamaillia 'West Port' ), and I agree with the thought that the Fool and Fitz are not done yet as the Fool is the love that weaves its way in and out of Fitz's long lifeline on his right hand.
Whatever it is, Verity was the last old wise man to go to Jhaampe-town so that can't be Fitz's destiny...maybe it is that Fitz will stay at home after his long life (with hopefully a lot more input into the future of the world!) and simply face the grave rather than form a simulacra artform (dragons in the stone garden, Trehaug etc) like the rest..."No wise men go to Jhaampe-town, To Climb the hill and never come down. 'Tis wiser far and much more brave, To stay at home and face the grave."
As Hobb said in FF, "It is like the anticipation that a clever minstrel evokes when he pauses, letting silence pool before sweeping into the final refrain of his song." Hobb is the minstrel and I am looking forward to the rest of her song!
"I am the Catalyst, and I came to change all things. Prophets become warriors, dragons hunt as wolves."
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