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After a commentary from Chade about the decline of the Elderlings and the legendary alliance between them and the early Farseers, “Chalced” begins with Wolf-Father speaking to Bee of his being carried by the scruff of his neck as she emerges from the Skill-pillar into a hollow in the ground. Dwalia and the others–including Reppin–are crammed into the hollow with her, and Reppin finds herself pushed back into the stone as Wolf-Father helps Bee ground herself. She assesses her situation as Dwalia and the others fret and begin to panic.
Not unlike this, maybe? Photo by Ivan Xolod on Pexels.com
At Wolf-Father’s urging, Bee attempts to pass back through the Skill-pillar, to no avail; at Wolf-Father’s further urging, Bee sleeps. When she wakes, Bee assesses her situation again, and she is somewhat taken aback by Kerf’s blunt discussion of their prospects and offer to kill her rather than let her suffer through what will come. Bee demurs, and the sounds of life outside the hollow begin to reach the group. Light begins to filter into the hollow, revealing it as the result of a collapse rather than a deliberate construction, and Kerf manages to move the fallen stones enough for Bee to slip out. She hides and watches as the others emerge, and Kerf notes his recognition of their location. Bee takes advantage of the others’ distraction to hide herself better, free from them but in a strange place.
The present chapter is not the first to bear the title “Chalced”; a chapter late in Blood of Dragons does so, as well. It is tempting to read the present chapter against the earlier, the coincidence of titles alone suggesting it as a short project that might well be done; the content of the present chapter, emerging from the content of the earlier, affirms it. I’m not going to do so at this point; it is very much the thing that makes for a decent scholarly someday, perhaps a good thing to take up in a post to this webspace that is not part of the rereading series, proper. I do always need to find outlets for my desire to write, after all, and turning to something resembling literary critical practice provides them in plenty. How the rest of my life will allow for such, though, I am not sure–hence the “someday” bit.
Anyway, the present chapter is relatively brief, only some eleven pages in my copy. (Again, I really need to get a cohesive run of the Realm of the Elderlings novels to see how the page numbers all line up. I really do think there’s something to the chapter-length, although I acknowledge that that might well be me digging deeper to find something than is needful or even useful. Such is life.) It does a good job, I think, of reinforcing something that a number of prior chapters in the Realm of the Elderlings novels point up: the danger of Skill-pillars. Repeatedly throughout the works, mention is made of the perils of traveling to unknown pillars, the thought of what would happen if the destination pillar was submerged (as here), broken, or buried. Bee and her captors–save Reppin–were lucky in the event (although so much could be expected, Bee being a deuteragonist and so needing to be around for the duration), but they need not have been. And the fact of Reppin being pushed back into the pillar…there are some implications there that stand some interrogating, I think.
Perhaps another scholarly someday is in order for that.
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Following an excerpt from Bee’s dream journals, “In the Mountains” opens with Bee waking to find her efforts at escape noticed. Dwalia rebukes the others in her group and orders Bee secured more stringently, which orders are carried out with complaint. Dwalia, angry at needing to remain in place for another night, commands the others to seek out wood, and while they do, Bee finds evidence of her father’s presence and the bear attack he suffered. Dwalia also notices and retrieves some of what Fitz had carried.
The local environment is something like this, perhaps? Photo by Simon Berger on Pexels.com
Dwalia considers her findings, snapping angrily at the others in her group as she does, and Bee considers them. Wolf-Father speaks within her, offering counsel for how to proceed. In the night, she hears dissension brewing among Dwalia’s group as they lay out details of how their mission began and how Dwalia came to lead it. Bee notes not understanding all of what is said, but she takes from their conversation what she can, and not only about Clerres. At the group’s discussion of dreams, Bee considers her own, her captivity-enforced inability to record them, and the increasing urgency of the dreams as they go unrecorded. Pretending to write eases her somewhat.
More days pass, and matters among Dwalia’s party deteriorate. The one Bee had injured, Reppin, suffers the effects of the injury, and the others question Dwalia. Bee, advised by Wolf-Father, notes the nearby presence of a bear, and she finds herself confronted by Kerf, who is much taken by the Skill-visions that pervade their location. Strangely sympathetic, Kerf does offer her some ease, and she makes another attempt at escape that Dwalia violently interdicts. In the wake thereof, Kerf speaks to Bee again, and Dwalia arrives at an understanding of her location. Prompted, Kerf offers information about where he has seen one of the runes the local Skill-pillars display, although he hesitates to tender more assistance. Bee makes another unsuccessful attempt at escape, and Reppin is abandoned as Dwalia compels the group through another Skill-pillar.
The present chapter does fill in a bit of lore hinted at but not, to my recollection, presented before: the name of the Pale Woman. So far as I recall or have notes of (and I will acknowledge that my memory is not what it used to be, as well as that my notes may well not be complete), the Pale Woman was only referred to by that epithet or addressed directly previously. To have confirmation of her name as Ilistore does not necessarily change any previous reading, but it is nice to have a bit more information, a bit more depth and detail in an already well-built narrative world. It’s something I appreciate.
The present chapter also speaks to something I’ve noticed in Hobb’s work before: a focus on writing as writing. There’s a lot to say on the topic of how Hobb presents writing, even outside the present series that makes as much of both Fitz’s and Bee’s writing as it does–it’s probably another scholarly someday to trace it out. I will note, though, that there are times Hobb gets fairly heavy-handed about her thoughts about writing; Words like Coins, a minor entry in the Realm of the Elderlings corpus, and one I will eventually treat in this reread, offers an example, as I’ve noted before. Bee’s need to record her dreams, the way the dreams press upon her consciousness until she does so, seems another such comment. It’s not necessarily revelatory, admittedly; among others, Asimov quips about the demands of writing for a writer, and I, myself, have made comments about it (here and here, if not also elsewhere). But that something is not new or unique does not mean it does not merit attention; indeed, how much work done to understand literature (or any art), and how much of the enjoyment of the same, inheres in finding what a given piece pulls from and references?
I also note with some joy the ponerological thrust of the chapter (not least because I delight in the opportunity to use the word). The nature of evil has been a topic in the Realm of the Elderlings novels before, of course (here, for example), and I have written about the cartoonishness of some of the later iterations (here, here, and here, by that term). Dwalia’s readiness to abandon her companions and their plotting against her, with reference to higher-level plotting and infighting, seems to align with that, and I’m unsure how I feel about it. Part of what I like about Hobb is her nuancing of tropes; this seems less in that line than I have been used to seeing, although it may be that my reading has shifted as I have gotten older. Like I note above, my memory isn’t what it used to be.
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Commentary from Fitz regarding the Outislander concept of finblead precedes “The Silver Touch,” which opens with Fitz experiencing the onset of elfbark’s effects as administered by Lant in Kelsingra. As the drug takes effect, upset continues to surround Fitz, with Rapskal repeating his accusations against the Fool as Amber, that she stole Silver, and manhandling her as Spark tries to extricate her. Fitz rehearses recent events, realizing that the series of Skill-workings he has performed on the people of Kelsingra will have drained him in ways he cannot yet address. Malta and Reyn work to take the situation in hand, and Amber frees herself with the threat of contact with the Silver, which Thymara backs.
This seems relevant again… It’s still Silver Fingers by AlexBerkley on DeviantArt, here, and it’s still used for commentary.
Released from Rapskal’s grip but not his accusation, Amber reports that she bore Silver on her hand long before, even early in her relationship with Malta. The re-launching of the Paragon is noted, and Amber asserts that, at that point, she had marked Malta with Silvered fingers. Reyn affirms the assertion, and Amber attests to how she had come to bear the Silver that had marked Malta. Further discussion is quashed, and Fitz and his party are escorted to their rooms. There, Fitz finds that the elfbark he has taken has not fully impeded his Skill, and he inadvertently effects more healing, rejecting further assistance against the risk of yet more uncontrolled expression of power. The revelation prompts heated private conversation with the Fool, one that wearies Fitz to sleep.
Fitz partly wakes to find himself being attended and discussed; Lant evidently recalls his first experience of FitzChivalry Farseer clearly, and Perseverance had evidently paid attention to Withywoods gossip. Fitz recalls Molly amid his dozing, and Lant and Perseverance discuss the challenge looming before them of bringing Fitz home.
Slumbering more deeply, Fitz communes with a dragon in dream. The dragon, seemingly Sintara, notes displeasure with Fitz’s healings and presses him for information about his errand. Fitz admits to seeking vengeance on Clerres, and the dragon recalls an unspecified ill there. Fitz wakes in the night and begins to tend himself, assisted uneasily by Lant. The pair confer, and Lant apprises Fitz of how matters stand in Kelsingra as regards them. Lant moves off to retrieve supplies, and Amber joins Fitz, aided by Perseverance. More reports follow, and Fitz notes the peril in his continued Skill-workings in the city. He notes, too, his desire to depart, to which the rest agree, although Amber advises against a hasty exit, explaining some difficulties that would attend on such a thing. An invitation to dine with Reyn and Malta arrives, and Amber notes that bargaining will soon begin.
The prefatory comments to the chapter once again attract my attention. Here, is it because they once again look at the language of the Outislanders, something that has attracted Fitz’s attention before (for example, here). I have commented in earlier pieces about some of the ways in which Hobb uses something like early English to reflect the language of the Outislanders, something in which she mimics Tolkienian practice (yes, I know, but I also know) regarding Rohan and Gondor; the two peoples are akin, at some level, and their language shows similarities therefore. In the present case, however, the term being referenced seems much less…considered…than earlier examples; “finblead” seems a medievalist skinning rather than an earnest invocation of the medieval. It’s definitely the kind of thing that piques my interest, given my associations, so I think it will be something to which I return in some earnest.
The present chapter does a good job of demonstrating how the Fool manages to mislead without lying. As Amber, the Fool meets Rapskal’s accusation of having stolen Silver with the assertion that she had been marked by it before Rapskal was born–which is true enough; the Fool was marked by having touched Verity amid his work on his dragon. Not said is that the Fool as Amber did not go to the Silver well; she did, in fact, do so; what she says is that the magic that marks her “is the same that was accidentally gifted to [her] by King Verity” (28). But that, of course, he has from Kelsingra before. It’s honestly adept word-work, very much in keeping with the idea of the Fool as a jester (about which I’ve written before). I wonder if it’s something to which I might also return in time, yet another of my many scholarly somedays; I think I am building quite a collection of them at this point.
The present chapter also does well what the preceding chapter does: explicate the situation. As previously, the final book in a series can rightly expect (to the extent that anthropomorphizing a text is appropriate, which may well not be no extent, as I’ve gestured towards before) that its readers are broadly familiar with the series and so need not recapitulate every detail. Also as previously, any subsequent book in a series must expect that there has been some time between its release and that of its most recent predecessor, meaning that it should expect to have to do something to catch readers up on what’s going on. Too, my own readerly experience has not always been able to take in a series from its beginning; I’ve been paid to write lesson plans for many works (something I’m happy to do for you, too!), and no few of them have been later volumes in series with which I was not familiar when I took on the projects. Having explicatory passages has been helpful for me to understand what is going on well enough to write something to help other people teach it. I can easily imagine that someone else would be in a similar situation, or that a reader new to Hobb would see a copy of the present volume on a bookstore shelf and pick it up, coming in at the end and needing to know what has gone before.
If the Iliad can pick up where it does, surely later works can also do so.
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A commentary by Chade on the map-room at Aslevjal precedes “Bee Stings.” The chapter opens with Bee fleeing from Dwalia and her company after emerging from the Skill-pillar. Her situation is related, as are her surroundings, and the voice of Wolf-Father within her bids her find a place to stand and fight. She complies as pursuit continues, and she gives as good an account of herself in the ensuing fracas as can be hoped–but she is taken again and beaten unconscious.
Bee wakes restrained and assesses her injuries as she can. Within her, Wolf-Father exhorts her to work to free herself again, and she overhears her captors’ conversation about her. Bee also hears the effects the environment is having on said captors, some of whom hear voices from the Skill-stones surrounding them. Despite that, she despairs of escape, but Wolf-Father continues to urge her to work towards it regardless. He also relates the circumstances under which he came to know Fitz. Echoes through the Skill continue to beleaguer Bee’s captors, although Dwalia cannot hear them, and she orders harsh treatment for Bee.
To her credit, Bee stifles her impulse to resist, conserving her strength. Too, assisted by Wolf-Father, she catches the scent of her father, not long gone from the place where she now is. Emboldened, she returns to the work of effecting her escape again.
I do delight in the pun of the present chapter’s title. One of the great pleasures of my life has been word-play; one of the many benefits of being a father is that I have justification for it since Ms. 8 came to my wife and me. And the pun at work in the present chapter’s title bears little explication–except, perhaps, to point out where it fails. For bees tend to die after they sting, and Bee has survived inflicting hers upon her captors, even if she suffered to do it.
I note, too, that the present chapter does what first chapters are apt to do, whether of new books or of new books in existing series: explicate the situation. It is clear Hobb expects readers who pick up the book to be familiar with the Realm of the Elderlings novels that precede it; even the explications in place make reference to things not necessarily present in the text as presented. But she does remind readers of how matters stood at the end of the previous volume–and there was some span between publications, with Fool’s Quest emerging onto shelves in 2015 and Assassin’s Fate in 2017. Two years is enough time to forget quite a bit, and I do not think I am alone in appreciating a refresher after even that time. After all, even if I am rereading the novels on a fairly consistent basis, I am rereading them at this point; I did pick up my copies shortly after they hit print, so I did have the gap then that I do not now.
No, at this point, my memory has other gaps. Some of them will fill back in as I reread. Some, I can patch by looking at other things I have written, both in and out of this webspace. Some, alas, are gone forever, or are at best dimly recalled, shadows moving in the night.
I don’t think I’m afraid of the dark, though.
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An extended excerpt from Bee’s dream journals serves as a prologue for the novel. It speaks of children playing and singing while one, blindfolded, rages in snippets. Wind rises, bursting from the blindfolded child and scattering all. The blindfold remains, its painted eyes staring.
Because I remain a nerd…and I am not a photographer. Image is mine, as you might expect.
This is it, the beginning of the end…of the Fitz and the Fool trilogy. Fifty chapters remain to reread for this part of the Robin Hobb rereading series…which I seem not to have reviewed or commented on as I had earlier volumes of the Realm of the Elderlings corpus. It’s strange that such is the case, although I will note that I had some…things…going on when the novel emerged into the world and I read it. But not having gone on about the book before, I have the opportunity to approach it more nearly afresh now, and I’m grateful for that opportunity.
More firmly about the text: it is clear that one of the primary narrative foci throughout the Realm of the Elderlings corpus is foreshadowing. Beloved, in whatever guise, is easily the protagonist of the sixteen novel series culminating in the present volume, and Beloved’s core identity is as a prophet who must work to ensure that their prophecies come to pass; foreshadowing could hardly not be a focus in such a case. What is foreshadowed in the present passage, in Bee’s dark dreaming, I recall in broad strokes from my few earlier readings of the text. (What can I say other than that I’ve been busy?) Even without that recall, however, it’s clear that much is set to happen, and most of it will be unpleasant for those involved–but that’s Hobb, whose work I’ve loved across decades.
So, moving ahead…
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The final chapter of the novel, “Emergence,” is prefaced by an excerpt from Bee’s journals. It opens with Bee emerging uncertainly back into existence. She hears the voice of Wolf-Father urging her to rise, and she struggles to do so, assessing herself and her surroundings. Some who made passage through the Skill-pillar with her had not survived; others are stripped utterly of sentience. Dwalia, however, retains herself. As Wolf-Father bids Bee flee toward “one here who will help us if I can wake him” (754), and Bee complies with a remark on the changing season, Dwalia commands her pursuit.
Here, again, is Verity-as-Dragon by John Howe, from The Plenty, here, and still used for commentary
The present chapter is, as is often the case with Bee-centered chapters, brief; in the edition of the text I have, it’s pages 752-54, and it empties onto a brief author-blurb. As such a brief thing, and at the very end of the novel, it functions much as a mid-credit or after-credit scene in a movie, gesturing towards the sequel that the audience knows to expect; I want to think it’s a reaction to the prevalence of such devices in movies, although whether on the part of the author, the editor, or the publisher is not clear to me. The argument could be made that, to keep like with like, the chapter could feature early in the third volume of the trilogy…but I also think that the trilogy structure itself rather demands that Bee’s reappearance (which links back to earlier notes that travel through Skill-pillars can occasion displacement in time and that there are agents in the Skill-stream that take some interest in others, such as this) in the present chapter. The confirmation for readers of something they might well expect–Bee received a lot of narrative attention to be discarded–does occasion some shift in tone for the reader; there is hope yet, and for more than just vengeance by Fitz and what might be something like justice for the Fool.
When I next pick up this series, it will be with what is (presently) its final volume: Assassin’s Fate. After going through that novel, there are several directions I can take. There are a number of other Realm of the Elderlings pieces, including The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince and Words like Coins, as well as some few short stories. There is also the Soldier Son trilogy, which presents a different take on things; I’ve done some work on that series before, and I have had thoughts about returning to that work off and on across time. Further, there are some decidedly different pieces by Hobb of which I happen to own copies, and I’m sure there is other work that I don’t have ready access to–which is all to say that there’s a lot of rereading left for me to do.
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Commentary from Chade regarding his scrying precedes “Heroes and Thieves,” which begins with Fitz waking in darkness, coming up from the effects of the sleeping draught he had been given. Fitz assesses his experience and surroundings, finding the Fool sleeping next to him. After Fitz rises and dresses, he and the Fool confer about the previous evening, about the Fool’s own shifting personal presentation, and about their long and tumultuous friendship.
Yeah, that’ll attract attention. Photo by Tara Winstead on Pexels.com
Further talk is interrupted by the arrival of Spark, who attends to the Fool-as-Amber, and then breakfast. Over the meal, Spark notes the high regard in which Fitz is held in Kelsingra, and afterwards, they are conducted to meet with Reyn, Malta, and a number of Elderling families whose children are in need of attention. Rapskal confronts them before their meeting, accusing them and approaching taking them into custody when Reyn intervenes.
Fitz, the Fool, and Spark are joined by Lant and Perseverance at the meeting, and proceedings begin. Rapskal, present, does speak against Fitz and his party, to general disapproval. Fitz bows to the pleas of the parents around them, channeling the Skill to amend and ease the changes wrought by dragons upon the children of Kelsingra–including the child of Thymara and Tats, on whom the narrative dwells for a bit. Other healings ensue, and Amber cries out to have Fitz stopped before he expends himself utterly. The surrounding Elderlings plead for more aid, and Lant doses Fitz with elfbark while Amber puts a Silvered hand to him. And at the last, Rapskal cries aloud for their arrest for theft of Silver.
As is not unusual, the prefatory materials on the chapter attract attention. That Chade is able to scry is long established in the Realm of the Elderlings novels; I recall Fitz making mention of Chade trying him on the art, if without success. I also recall that not terribly much is made of it in terms of providing details of scrying’s workings, certainly not to the same degree as other magics at work in the series, whether or not Fitz possesses them–but I will admit that I did not pay particular attention to that aspect of the works. I suppose it becomes another scholarly someday to pore over the works and see how Hobb depicts scrying, at the beginning of the present chapter and elsewhere, and to compare that depiction to others in fantasy literature (Katharine Kerr’s Deverry novels come to mind) and in “real-world” precedents. (If someone’s already done it, please let me know; I’d love to add it to the Fedwren Project, on which I need to do more.)
In the main line of the chapter, I am again put in mind of Fitz as acting something of a Christ-figure. In my remarks on the previous chapter, I noted that healing Phron was not entirely voluntary on Fitz’s part, which, on further reflection, echoes Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:30, and Luke 8:45-46 (possibly something I should have included in my 2019 comments about medievalist religion in the Realm of the Elderlings corpus). In the present chapter, Fitz is beset by a group of whom he notes “Some pushed toward me out of hunger and need. Some strove to be first, others only to see what wonder I would next work, and some pushed to try and break through the wall of people in front of them so that they might have a chance to beg a boon of their own” (749-50), even as he continues to heal them. To my mind, as I read again, the scene rings of Luke 6:17-19 (also something I might ought to have included in my 2019 comments). I’m not sure why such passages are on my mind at the moment, though, and I’m not sufficiently skilled a theologian to unpack it further at the moment. But I do think that looking at how Hobb applies the Christ-figure here is something else worth doing–and, again, I’d love to know if someone’s already done that work.
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After in-milieu commentary about selecting Skill-couriers and their practices, “An Elderling Welcome” begins with Fitz making a decent show of diplomacy and learning that he is, indeed, confronted by Rapskal. Rapskal introduces himself brusquely as the local military leader and begrudgingly agrees to conduct Fitz, Lant, and Perseverance to Kelsingra’s rulership. Fitz finds himself somewhat affected by the prevalence of Skill-stone in the construction of Kelsingra, and he contrasts what he sees in his present situation with what he had seen in the city previously, as well as what he knows of Dutiful’s impressions of Kelsingra.
Surely, such a thing can do much good… Photo by Nihat on Pexels.com
At length, Rapskal leaves Fitz, Lant, and Perseverance to confer with his leaders, assigning a subordinate to see to them. Fitz presents himself diplomatically once again, and he and his companions are provided refreshment. After they attend to themselves, Fitz and his companions confer about next steps to take, and Fitz soon falls asleep.
Rest is interrupted by the arrival of Reyn Khuprus, who greets Fitz warmly and receives introductions as he has Fitz, Lant, and Perseverance follow him to a kinder reception than Rapskal had given them. Malta joins them there, apologizing for Rapskal’s behavior and welcoming them. She introduces Amber, attended by Spark, and Fitz finds himself taken up into the Fool’s performance as Reyn and Malta invite the rest to sit and eat with them. Fitz finds himself somewhat taken aback by the frank discussion of social structures at work in Kelsingra. Questions about Phron and their answers elicit sympathy from Fitz, and as Amber continues the conversation, Fitz is able to fill in more of his knowledge of his old friend.
After dinner, Phron joins his parents and their guests, and introductions are made. When Fitz offers to shake his hand, he is taken by the Wit and the Skill, and something like a Skill-healing is effected, although without intent. Phron is greatly eased, and Malta marvels at what has occurred. Fitz is shaken by the event, but he manages to explain at least some of the changes his magic has effected in Phron.
With gratitude, Reyn, Malta, and Phron retire, leaving Fitz, the Fool, Lant, Spark, and Perseverance to confer. Arrangements are made for the evening, and Fitz is convinced to accept a sleeping draught for which the Fool vouches.
There are several things that attract attention in the present chapter. That the Fool would present as Amber in a company composed of Traders is not to be wondered at, perhaps, nor is the ease with which Fitz fits himself to the presentation (including shifting his pronoun references to the Fool as Amber); he has had practice at it, after all. That Lant and even Perseverance adapt so readily is more noteworthy, although Fitz notes “There was something of Chade in Lant after all” (714), which comes off to my eyes as begrudgingly respectful of the younger man. In all, it is relatively impressive that the Fool’s presentation, and Amber’s narrative, would carry off so well as they do in the chapter. The writer being Hobb, however, good fortune for the protagonist is not to be trusted, especially with what the second volume of a trilogy is typically supposed to do: put the protagonist/s in a bad situation, from which they emerge in the final volume.
Comments about the social structures at work in Kelsingra also attract attention. Reyn comments to his guests that “Even after years of it, king and queen sit a bit oddly with us” [emphasis in original], adding that “After years of the Satrapy extorting money from the Bingtown Traders, we who were raised as Traders still wonder why anyone would think we preferred a monarchy. But it’s a convenient way for the outside world to see us” (714-15). I have opined, and at some length, about the social structure of the Traders, seeing in them echoes of the nascent United States (if with better reactions to some pernicious social problems), which Reyn’s commentary supports. There does still seem to be something of hereditary rule in force in Kelsingra, however; it must be recalled that the Khuprus Traders are outrageously wealthy (note this, this, and this, among others), and that wealth is, by the time of Reyn and Malta, largely inherited. While Reyn and Malta are both capable people, they had the luxury–Reyn more than Malta, admittedly–of developing their capabilities free from the brute-force concerns of “Do I have enough to eat not to die today?” that typify the lives of many of the other residents of Kelsingra before their emigration. That is to say, they began their lives with advantages that they have parlayed into prominence in Kelsingra; they had the opportunities to be first with dragons because their preexisting socioeconomic status afforded them as much. It is not entirely meritocracy at work–although, Traders being Traders, it is conceivable that the Khupruses would be shunted aside in favor of “better” merchants. It bears thought, another scholarly someday.
I note, too, the particularly Tolkienian resonance (yes, I know) of Fitz’s not-entirely-voluntary healing of Phron. I have written before (here) about the ways in which Fitz enacts the warrior-hero trope common to fantasy literature; he moves away from, but is still substantially grounded in, the Tolkienian iteration of the trope, or I understood him as being so at that point in his existence and in my own. (We ought to revise ideas and opinions as more information becomes available. It’s something with which many people struggle, clearly and unhelpfully.) Even with what I have come to believe since, I acknowledge that there is still enough to sustain such a reading, to look at Hobb as existing within the Tolkienian literary tradition although she is clearly drawing from other sources than Tolkien–or than just Tolkien, especially since she acknowledges her debt to him. In the present chapter, in addition to the martial and diplomatic aspects of the warrior-hero Fitz does not seldom deploy, there is something of “The hands of the king are the hands of a healer” (LotR V, ch. 8) about his interaction with Phron. While it is the case that Fitz has participated in Skill-healing previously, and to miraculous effect (something that edges towards Christ-referencing, as I think on it again), the present chapter, where the healing happens, and not entirely with Fitz’s approval, seems more…otherworldly than most of the examples in the Realm of the Elderlings corpus. It’s yet another thing that bears some thought and consideration, yet another scholarly someday I hope I live long enough to address.
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A brief excerpt from Bee’s dream journal precedes “Kelsingra.” The chapter opens with Fitz and the rest taking such sleep as they can. When Fitz is woken by Perseverance coming off of watch, his Wit-sense responds to the presence of a larger predator that, upon investigation, proves to be a large bear showing the initial decrepitude of age. Fitz directs his companions to minimize the danger to them and reaches out to the bear through the Wit, but the bear attacks. The Fool and Spark flee through a Skill-pillar, while the rest scramble up trees and look on in anguish as the animal destroys their provisions.
You knew it had to be… Frozen History by MeetV on DeviantArt, here, and used again for commentary.
After the bear leaves, Fitz, Lant, and Perseverance take stock of what remains and reestablish their camp as best they can. That done, they prepare to follow the Fool and Spark, Fitz speaking plainly of what might befall them. Steeling themselves, they plunge through the Skill-pillar, emerging to find the Fool and Spark before them and angry dragons in evidence. As Fitz directs Lant and Perseverance to take what little shelter there is, the dragons speak to him. As Elderlings approach, Fitz presents himself formally, beginning to defuse the situation as the arrival of additional forces makes violence an unpleasant option. Arrangements are made to conduct Fitz and his group to Kelsingra’s leadership.
The present chapter is not the first part of the Realm of the Elderlings corpus to bear the name; it follows the fourth chapter of City of Dragons in that. Correspondences between the two chapters are limited, although there are some to be found. I’m not sure that there is enough to make any claims about parallel functions; I rather doubt that there is, although I’ve not done the kind of close reading of the two texts against each other that would reveal whether or not there is in any real sense. It’s another scholarly someday, I suppose, if perhaps a winter day due to the brevity I would expect from such a thing.
There are a couple of other things of interest to me as I reread the chapter. One of them is the reinforcement of the idea, going back to the Tawny Man novels, that the dragons communicate with each other and with their Elderlings through the Skill. The implication that the Skill is some lingering trace of Elderling heritage seems clear to me, although I tend to think that it is something that has grown up as the Realm of the Elderlings corpus has extended rather than something that was planned at the outset–but I’ve made comments about that kind of thing before. And it’s not something with which I find fault; people change, and so the work that they do will also change. Nor yet is it necessary for something to be perfect before it gets going.
The other that stood out was the dragons’ inability to find the Fool, the Elderling blanket serving to conceal him from their sight (although not their sense of smell). The implications of that that emerge for me are significant. That there is a limit to the dragons’ abilities is of import; they are often shown as being super-predators and, while some fight against them seems possible, odds are never good for those who oppose them. That the Elderlings of old seem to have produced materials that thwart draconic senses is also suggestive, prompting questions of factionalism and rebellion among them. There’s not enough in the text, certainly at this point, to do more than make a vague suggestion, and I don’t expect that there is some sort of parallel to The Silmarillion waiting in Hobb’s notes for some future editor or scholar to find that would elaborate on it, but what is fantasy for if not for prompting the imagination?
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After a letter from Malta and Reyn that politely but tersely addresses what appear to be ongoing concerns between Kelsingra and the Six Duchies, “Dragons” begins with Fitz quizzing Lant and Perseverance about the passage of the Fool and Spark. They have no further answers for him, so they eat, and Fitz notes the improvements to the campsite the pair have made in his absence.
Shining brightly amid the darkness… Photo by Magda Ehlers on Pexels.com
Perseverance sits awake with Fitz for the first watch of the night and asks about the way the Fool and Spark are dressed, meeting Fitz’s answers sullenly. Later, after watches are traded, Fitz finds himself wakeful and joins Lant at watch. Lant asks his own questions of Fitz and is answered, although he is less sullen than he is whining in his receipt of those answers.
Further conversation is interrupted by the return of the Fool and Spark through the Skill-pillar. Spark is badly affected, and the Fool sports Silvered skin. Fitz directs Lant and Perseverance to attend to Spark and directs his attentions to the Fool. Managing to secure a glove over the Fool’s Skilled hand, Fitz guides his friend to where Perseverance and Lant attend Spark, and there asks for a report of events. The Fool lays out his reasoning and proceedings, and Fitz notes the uncertainty of Spark’s recovery.
At the Fool’s suggestion, Fitz looks for the camping equipment they had had together in that place after the Fool had died. With assistance from Lant, he finds it, and camp is reassembled. With that done, the Fool resumes his narrative, if with some prompting. Fitz learns that the Fool had gone to Kelsingra, navigating from echoes of draconic memories he had imbibed, finding the Skill well and touching what of the Silver he could. Doing so provoked the wrath of the Elderlings and the dragons, and the Fool and Spark fled to a ruined chamber, escaping from it only narrowly and returning to where they now sit.
The early portion of the present chapter puts Perseverance in a position not unlike that Fitz occupies with the Fool years before. Indeed, some of the boy’s phrasing in the current moment echoes that of the earlier man quite closely, and I am reminded again both of the fraughtness of gender performativity in the Realm of the Elderlings and of the need to update the Fedwren Project more than I have done. There are several scholars’ works already noted in it that speak to the issue; I have to wonder, I have to hope, that there is more current work that takes in the more recent entries in the Realm of the Elderlings corpus. It certainly presents itself plainly enough, not through what may or may not be a metaphorical treatment as some other things might or might not have been–but, as with several things, I am not the person to carry out a treatment of the matter, having neither the situated nor the invented ethos to address it.
Not entirely related: I appreciate the references to Rapskal and Heeby made in the Fool’s narrative. They are not named, and sensibly; despite who the Fool does know under the guise of Lady Amber, he would not have any reason to know, or even to know of, Rapskal and the dragon he serves. But it is entirely in keeping with their characters that they would jealously guard the Silver and move to violence before any other concern, and it is suggestive that some uses of the Skill-stone still seem to elude the Elderlings of Kelsingra at this point in the overall narrative. I find myself wondering if and how that will develop if and as Hobb presses ahead with her series (or if there is a Brian to Hobb’s Frank waiting somewhere, although a Christopher to her JRR might well be preferable).
I am somewhat struck with Fitz’s handling of matters in the present chapter. He seems to have a fairly decent handle on himself, which is…uncommon for him, even with his years and experience. So much said, it’s a good thing to see; how long it will last, though, I don’t recall. I guess I need to do more rereading…
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Elliott RWI 