SPOILERS BOOK 13 Perrin's wound

[Irat]

I was reading Brandon Sanderson's Wheel of Time retrospective, and he mentioned that Perrin's wound was "mythologically significant"

thoughts?

[HeavyHalfMoonBlade]

I am not quite as conversant with the later books as the earlier ones so at the risk of sounding like a noob...

 

...what wound was that exactly?

[Irat]

54 minutes ago, HeavyHalfMoonBlade said:

...what wound was that exactly?

 

The wound he got in his leg from fighting Slayer in T'A'R

[HeavyHalfMoonBlade]

OK thanks. Will need to look into that, nothing springs to mind immediately. 

[Samt]

I hadn't thought of this before, but some quick googling of mythological leg wounds says that the Fisher King was wounded in the thigh in Arthurian legend.  Wikipedia explains/speculates that a thigh wound is actually often a euphemism for being wounded in the genitalia.  Not sure if this is related, but the Fisher King is definitely related to WoT lore, so maybe.  Of course, I think Rand is more related to the Fisher King that Perrin, so maybe not.  

 

The character that is often related to Perrin is Thor, but I don't believe that Thor is wounded in the leg.  Hephaestus, the Greek blacksmith god, (as well as his Roman counterpart, Vulcan) is lame.  This lameness is sometimes attributed to a birth defect while other times it is associated with a fall from heaven/olympus due to some type of dispute with Hera and/or Zeus.  Hephaestus is married to Aphrodite (and Vulcan to Venus), but she cheats on him with Ares (Mars).  

 

Not sure any of this is relevent, but it feels like maybe some of it is.  

[Irat]

36 minutes ago, Samt said:

The character that is often related to Perrin is Thor, but I don't believe that Thor is wounded in the leg.  Hephaestus, the Greek blacksmith god, (as well as his Roman counterpart, Vulcan) is lame.  This lameness is sometimes attributed to a birth defect while other times it is associated with a fall from heaven/olympus due to some type of dispute with Hera and/or Zeus

 

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense!

[HeavyHalfMoonBlade]

You could have a look through here. Edit: OK that thread is a bit shorter than I first thought, but it covers pretty much what we have here with a little bit more info, though not helpful for Sanderson's mythological angle.

 

Perrin certainly is a a mixture of Perun/Thor (the Slavic/Scandinavian Gods of Thunder) especially as Slavs wore Axe amulets for Perun and Scandinavians Hammer amulets for Thor. But I did not find anything about leg wounds, perhaps there is something in that mythology somewhere. 

 

I think the Hephaestus angle that Samt has brought up could well be what Sanderson was referring to. Certainly I have nothing to offer as an alternative.

Edited June 10 by HeavyHalfMoonBlade

[WheelofJuke]

A tie to Achillles, perhaps? Seems a stretch, but that's the only mythological leg wound not already mentioned that springs to mind. 

[Dan G]

In the Old Testament,  Jacob also received a leg would while battling an angel. So it might be partially related to that.

[Irat]

On 7/19/2024 at 2:56 AM, Dan G said:

In the Old Testament,  Jacob also received a leg would while battling an angel. So it might be partially related to that.

 

Ooh yes, thanks, I didn't think about that