Andor's White Lions

[Kalessin]

I've been puzzling about them for quite some time. The only large predatory cats on the continent that we have been informed about were the Ebou Dari leopards, who decamped on discovering that the Ebou Dari were a very aggressive mob not to be trifled with. And the cat Galina Sedai sees hunting while she is being broken by Therava and Sevanna shortly before they pass the judgement of Datsang on her.

 

So where would the inspiration for their name have come from? We've seen (from Tanchico) that Randlanders tend to disbelieve in most of the stuff of the Age of Legends. And big cats are just another of those things ...

 

Of course, before Robert Jordan woke from the dream, I intended to write him and ask, why hadn't he chosen a slightly more memorable name, such as the Pink Panthers? He's already snaffled Andor from one source, Tolkien's Akallabeth: snaffling the Pink Panthers from Inspector Clouseau's esteemed company would merely have needed the signature of President Murkin Muffley, countersigned by Dr Strangelove naturally.

[Jsbrads2]

Andor’s Lions were an ancient crest, the color is unrelated to the animal. Lions tend to be solitary creatures, often happy in mountains. Outside of Los Angeles, the mountain lions are very rarely seen if one isn’t hiking in the mountains.

There are places in the world that lions used to live and they have retreated from those areas. Not just fear from man, but harder to capture prey in one environment or another. Many factors might contribute to a lion departing. 

I don’t recall bears often being discussed, a throw away line about Valan Luca’s act with bears, anyone can see a bear in the woods. Wolves only saw so much focus because they joined with men in the past to hunt. Their future is tied to our future. Evil use their spirit to fight men, they respond by throwing an equal and opposite force to combat that evil. Balance.

[Sabio]

I'm guessing Lions were known at one time since Andor's throne is known as the Lion's throne.  Described to have huge lion paws and the end of the legs.  So at some time lions were around.  

[Thrasymachus]

I don't think we have any reason to believe that lions are extinct, though.  Even the wolves know of them, Hopper chastises Perrin for being a cub trying to fight a lion when he wants to go after Slayer.  And aren't there lions in Valan Luca's circus?  I seem to recall Mat noticing them, or one of them "coughing" at any rate.  Plus there's that time Tuon compared Mat to a lion being stuffed into a horse's stall.  Lions seem to be ubiquitous, at least, enough so that we don't need to be assured that they're still around.  And there's plenty of wilderness for them to thrive in, and has been since the Breaking.  If they were around in the Age of Legends, and if they were they were probably all in carefully managed nature preserves or zoos, there's no reason to believe they wouldn't have escaped and thrived in the Breaking (especially since lions are as comfortable as scavengers as predators), and that they wouldn't be relatively common in the Third Age.  There's just not anything special about them being around, so not much reason to draw our attention to that fact.

[Harldin]

On 7/10/2020 at 3:17 PM, Jsbrads2 said:

Andor’s Lions were an ancient crest, the color is unrelated to the animal. Lions tend to be solitary creatures, often happy in mountains. Outside of Los Angeles, the mountain lions are very rarely seen if one isn’t hiking in the mountains.

There are places in the world that lions used to live and they have retreated from those areas. Not just fear from man, but harder to capture prey in one environment or another. Many factors might contribute to a lion departing. 

I don’t recall bears often being discussed, a throw away line about Valan Luca’s act with bears, anyone can see a bear in the woods. Wolves only saw so much focus because they joined with men in the past to hunt. Their future is tied to our future. Evil use their spirit to fight men, they respond by throwing an equal and opposite force to combat that evil. Balance.

Wrong Lions, what you call Mountain Lions in North America are not true Lions, and are more correctly called Cougars or Pumas. 
 

True Lions are found in Africa and Asia and are not solitary animals, they live in Prides of 1-3 Males, 2-5 Females and several Cubs. These are the ones generally represented in Royal Crests in both the real world and in Fiction. They are significantly bigger then the American large Cats and the Mane of a Male makes them look far more spectacular, thus popular amongst fiction writers.

[Jsbrads2]

Funny parallel, no lions in the UK, but they are on the crest. 

[Harldin]

2 hours ago, Jsbrads2 said:

Funny parallel, no lions in the UK, but they are on the crest. 

The Royal Crest has a Lion with a Mane and a Unicorn on it, the Crest of England has 3 Lions with Manes on them. No there are no native Lions in England and has not been for about 10,000 years but that has not stopped the English from using them and considering that the English have known about Asian/African Lions since the days of the Roman occupation and have only known of Cougars since the early days of the Colonisation of the America’s, my money is firmly on the former. 
 

Jordan may have been referring to Mountain Lions but that would go against the norm in Fantasy Fiction as well as history.

[Kalessin]

Well, I have just remembered that when Egwene encounters her first non-Chosen Dreamwalker, Amys. Amys is reliving her Maiden of the Spear days and hunting; a lion is present.

 

So lions may have been "driven" into the mountains and survive mostly in the Aiel Waste and the Spine of the World. From which they are captured and exhibited ...