Hyam Kinch and Almen Bunt

[Kalessin]

I'm doing a re-read of the WoT, and am getting stuck into tEotW, tacking our dynamic duo Rand and Mat all the way into Caemlyn. In Ch 39, Weaving of the Web, Rand thinks "Hyam Kinch had talked about strange shapes, and surely enough there had been a Fade back there."

 

Except that I've gone through all the mentions of Hyam Kinch in tEotW, and he never mentions strange shapes, The Fade they almost run into, is in the last town before Caemlyn, talking to an innkeeper called Raimun Holdwin, before Almen Bunt talks to Rand and offers them a ride during the night, all the way to Caemlyn. And he mentions strange shapes in the night. "Things creeping about in the night. [...] Fellows around like that friend of Holdwin, scaring people."

 

I don't know if it's been mentioned before, but this is one case where Homer nods.

[HeavyHalfMoonBlade]

Every time I read that section, I have the feeling that it is not sequential. I've never sat down and tried to plot it all out (which is odd considering how often I have read tEotW) but I always get the feeling that they get dropped off by a farmer before he picks them up. It could just be the use of flash backs, or it could be deliberate to give an impression of the delirium that Mat and Rand are going through. Or I could just be imagining things. 

 

But this could have been a deliberate misquote, either to show how confused Rand was, or to show warped our journey with the boys were. I should go back and look, it is a silly thing to be unsure about.

[Elgee]

I've also found that section to be quite confusing, time-wise. Unfortunately my Book 1 is lying at my office so can't check 😞

[Kalessin]

It isn't sequential. RJ uses the flashback technique at least twice, and we only get back into sequential narrative when they get to Caemlyn. I hadn't thought of it in connection to the stress they were under, with Mat steadily losing ground to the Shadar Logoth dagger, and Rand experiencing the after-effects of touching the One Power. But it does make sense.

[HeavyHalfMoonBlade]

I'll check tonight. The bit that always sticks out for me is when they are given the scarves by the farmer for the dust that were his sons'. It always jars as it happens at the beginning of the section and the end, but it doesn't seem like it is the same event, or the same person, and they don't say ah no it is OK we already have some. 

 

Maybe I just couldn't keep up with the narrative, but I'm convinced there is something off. Though without checking, I must be feeling confident to just claim that outright, lol.