Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series soon.

---

The penultimate chapter of the novel, “Lies and Truths,” follows comments from Bee regarding Fitz’s friendship with the Fool. The chapter, proper, opens with Bee complaining to Nettle of those attending on Fitz’s death, and his continued deterioration is rehearsed. Nettle opines on royal responsibilities and commiserates with Bee about the demands thereof, offering advice about how to negotiate matters.

Bee’s continued attendance on her father is reported, as is a gloss of what Nettle is able to tell her of the process of stone-carving and -quickening. Bee’s continued misgivings are noted and set aside.

Fitz continues to linger, and those attending on him offer such aid as they can, giving memories to him to put into the stone. Not all succeed, and Bee watches as the Fool sorrows at proceedings. She plots to give of herself to the stone in the night, but the Fool interdicts her. She recalls her earlier lie to him about Fitz’s words and recants it. The commotion surrounding the recantation rouses the camp, as well as Fitz, who reaches out to the Fool. The Fool reciprocates, and the two go into the carved stone wolf. The carving rouses, commends Bee, and bounds into the distance, leaving Bee, Nettle, and the rest behind.

As has so often been the case, the prefatory materials in the chapter attract attention. Of note to my eye is Bee’s complaint about the Fool’s names (837): “It is a ridiculous name, but perhaps if my name were Beloved, I would consider Fool an improvement. Whatever were his parents thinking? Did they truly imagine everyone he ever encountered would wish to call him Beloved?” Some might point out some irony in a character named Bee ridiculing another’s name, there being no few ways to make cruel jokes about the name. Some might point out, too, that Bee has a bastard and a stinging plant in her immediate family, as well as a complex question for an in-law; neither “fool” nor “beloved” seem so strange against “fitz,” “nettle,” and “riddle.” Some might further point out that the propensity towards emblematic names in the Six Duchies generally and among the Farseers in particular makes Fool entirely apt for a jester and Beloved suitable for a child. (Regarding the parental comment: as a parent, I certainly find myself expecting that others will recognized the excellence of my child, and as someone who has been a teacher, I find I am far from alone in having such expectations, even if mine are more justified than others’ may be.) Perhaps some kind of translation convention is at issue; Amanda is a common enough name, she who must be loved (with an admittedly interesting set of connotations for those who know their Latin), and Tesoro, treasure or treasured, is not too unusual a surname in more than a few places. Perhaps it is a teenage girl reeling at the loss of her father and lashing out. Perhaps it is more than one thing; several fit, and there is room enough for many.

As far as the chapter itself goes, as befits being near to the end not only of a novel and not only of one trilogy, but of a multi-series narrative arc, much is resolved. There is something backhandedly messianic about it, of course, the unification and immortalization of a trinity, and it occurs to me that Freudian reading might well apply to the interactions among the principals of the chapter’s actions: Fitz, Nighteyes, and the Fool. They map reasonably neatly onto the superego, id, and ego, respectively…and it occurs to me that such a reading would, itself, make for yet another of the many scholarly somedays my rereading has pointed out. In any event, the dream voiced long ago comes true for Fitz and Nighteyes, and their story and the Fool’s is finally fully resolved, no ragged partings left for any of them as before.

But the present chapter is not the last one; there is yet another, so not all can be resolved yet–if ever, in the fiction as in life.

If you’d like me to write for you, fill out the form below!

Or you can send your support along directly!