Noal

[brando]

So i'm re-reading ACOS and I came to a part that interested me, " triumph and logic" falion and ispan get done killing a wise one in Ebou Dar. Right after this happens it goes to a POV of an old man, it reads

 

" Sitting on an upended barrel in the sparse coolness of a narrow, shaded alley, he studied the house across the busy street. Suddenly he realized he was touching his head again. He did not have a headache, but his head felt... peculiar... sometimes. Most often when he thought of what he could not remember. Three stories of white plaster, the house belonged to a goldsmith who supposedly was being visited by two friends she had met on a journey north some years ago. The friends had only been glimpsed on arrival and not seen since. Finding that out had been easy, finding out they were Aes Sedai only a trifle more difficult.

  A lean young man in a torn vest, whistling his way down the street with no good on his mind, paused when he glimpsed him sitting on the barrel. His coat and his location in the shadows--and the rest of him, he admitted ruefully-- probably looked temting. He reached under his coat. HIs hands no longer possessed the strength or flexibility for swordwork, but the two long knives he had carried for well over thirty years had suprised mor than one swordsman. Maybe something showed in his eyes, because the lean young man thought better of it and whistled his way on. Beside the house the gate that led back to the goldsmiths stable swung open, and two burly men appeared pushing a barrrow piled high with soiled straw and muck. What were they up to?

Arnin and Nad were hardly the lads to be mucking out stables.

 

He would stay here until dark, he decided, then see whether he could find Carridin's pretty little killer again.

 

Once again he pulled his hand down from his head. Sooner or later, he would remember. He did not have much time left, but it was all he did have. He remembered that much."

 

 

 

So I was wondering if anyone knows who this is. I personally think it is Noal, It's pretty close to the time he meets up with Mat, and he's old  and is good with knives, and in the same town. He pretty much meets the description. But what worries me is that he can't remember something that he needs to do, all he knows is he has time still. This happens shortly after Carridan meets with Saemmall and  can remember the instructions that were planted in his head in that meeting with a bunch of other darkfriends. To me it kindof ties into secret messages that a person can't even remember. What if Noal has hidden instructions or plain instructions to kill mat or something like that.

 

 

 

 

 

[singogreatest360]

Im not sure. Only because a old man that meets the description stops Mat from following the pretty Datkfriend Assassin into Carridin's property and tells Mat that it's dangerous.

 

I figured that if it was the same old man(Noal) then Mat would recognize him. But it could be and Mat was to preoccupied with the assassin ,who tried to kill him all the way from the eye of the world, to worry about a strange old man

[Beren]

Is it the same old man we see in Graendal's menagerie in the FoH Prologue? I have been wondering if that was Noal ever since I noticed it in the re-read.

[brando]

Im not sure. Only because a old man that meets the description stops Mat from following the pretty Datkfriend Assassin into Carridin's property and tells Mat that it's dangerous.

 

I figured that if it was the same old man(Noal) then Mat would recognize him. But it could be and Mat was to preoccupied with the assassin ,who tried to kill him all the way from the eye of the world, to worry about a strange old man

 

That was some of the thoughts I had but also it could be old Cully, the old guy Carridan was talking about that told mat it was dangerous

[brando]

Is it the same old man we see in Graendal's menagerie in the FoH Prologue? I have been wondering if that was Noal ever since I noticed it in the re-read.

 

 

Good catch I hadn't remembered that! That would make alot of sense. Putting the facts that she's a compulsion expert together with him showing attributes of being under the influence of it then it would make alot of sense.

[Beren]

I don't think he is ever mentioned again in any of the Forsaken POVs and he is only seen through her gateway. My guess is that this was foreshadowing on RJ's part. We know that she only collects those who are high in standing somewhere for her personal collection so my guess is that whoever that was must have a seriously important part to play for her if he is not a noble of some sort. Not to mention the fact that he is still wearing all his clothing unlike most of her "servants."

 

 

[Luckers]

It is almost certainly Noal. The descriptions are too similar for it not to be him.

 

Of the cited ideas. Old Cully has no teeth, and the barrel man has 'gaps in his teeth'--therefore meaning he has teeth. And Graendal's old man is almost certainly Alsalam, and Graendal would not want to risk him on the streets of Ebou Dar.

[brando]

It is almost certainly Noal. The descriptions are too similar for it not to be him.

 

Of the cited ideas. Old Cully has no teeth, and the barrel man has 'gaps in his teeth'--therefore meaning he has teeth. And Graendal's old man is almost certainly Alsalam, and Graendal would not want to risk him on the streets of Ebou Dar.

 

Why would you say it's Alsalam? Other than the obvious regular Graendal stuff, i;e capturing royalty and the like. I don't see RJ just throwing an old man into the prologue for no reason then having an old guy in a barrel, then Noal showing up. I understand it is'nt Cully and I agree with that, but if the compulsion queen has an old guy then another guy shows up later with signs of compulsion, then Noal shows up it makes for a good theory.

[Beren]

It is almost certainly Noal. The descriptions are too similar for it not to be him.

 

Of the cited ideas. Old Cully has no teeth, and the barrel man has 'gaps in his teeth'--therefore meaning he has teeth. And Graendal's old man is almost certainly Alsalam, and Graendal would not want to risk him on the streets of Ebou Dar.

 

I am still only partway through my re-read. Can you point me to the scenes with Graendal and Alsalam?

[brando]

It is almost certainly Noal. The descriptions are too similar for it not to be him.

 

Of the cited ideas. Old Cully has no teeth, and the barrel man has 'gaps in his teeth'--therefore meaning he has teeth. And Graendal's old man is almost certainly Alsalam, and Graendal would not want to risk him on the streets of Ebou Dar.

 

I am still only partway through my re-read. Can you point me to the scenes with Graendal and Alsalam?

 

 

Fires of heaven  prologue, all it says is she steps through a gateway and oddly there is an old man in his clothes in the background

[Beren]

It is almost certainly Noal. The descriptions are too similar for it not to be him.

 

Of the cited ideas. Old Cully has no teeth, and the barrel man has 'gaps in his teeth'--therefore meaning he has teeth. And Graendal's old man is almost certainly Alsalam, and Graendal would not want to risk him on the streets of Ebou Dar.

 

I am still only partway through my re-read. Can you point me to the scenes with Graendal and Alsalam?

 

 

Fires of heaven  prologue, all it says is she steps through a gateway and oddly there is an old man in his clothes in the background

 

Uh, that does not specify Alsalam. That is the quote I used.

 

Gonna have to do better than that to convince me.

[lordofsoup]

i think that anslam was with granedal.  i remember her telling one of the other forsaken, i believe sammael, about her pets. 

[brando]

It is almost certainly Noal. The descriptions are too similar for it not to be him.

 

Of the cited ideas. Old Cully has no teeth, and the barrel man has 'gaps in his teeth'--therefore meaning he has teeth. And Graendal's old man is almost certainly Alsalam, and Graendal would not want to risk him on the streets of Ebou Dar.

 

I am still only partway through my re-read. Can you point me to the scenes with Graendal and Alsalam?

 

 

Fires of heaven  prologue, all it says is she steps through a gateway and oddly there is an old man in his clothes in the background

 

Uh, that does not specify Alsalam. That is the quote I used.

 

Gonna have to do better than that to convince me.

 

totally agree with you, Luckers needs to show proof on that one

[Jaric Mar Tedronai]

I always thought that old man outside Carridin's palace was Noal. He is described almost exactly the same when he saves Mat from the gholam. Its obvious, then, that he was the old man who tells Mat that it actually is Carridin's palace.

[Blackhoof]

It was a few weeks between mat meeting the old guy on a barrel and meeting noal, so it is likely that mat had forgotten about him. Old guy on barrel is very likely noal.