Is it possible that Olver is Gaidal Cain reborn?

[Zeymere]

Gaidal Cain:

He is swarthy. (TGH,Ch47) He is dark and strongly muscled. His face is wide and flat. His heavy nose is too big and his mouth is a too broad gash. He is shorter than Birgitte. He has a harsh voice. (TSR,Ch54)

 

Olver:

He is gaunt and sullen-looking. He is ugly with a squashed nose, a mouth too wide for his face and ears too big that stick out besides. He looks six but claims to be nine. (LoC,Ch5) He is short and skinny with huge ears, nose and mouth. He looks ten. (ACoS,Ch28)

 

Discuss...

[AnthonyJamesEnglish]

no. he is too old, and besides that im sure it has been stated by either author that he is not Gaidal.

[Zeymere]

no. he is too old, and besides that im sure it has been stated by either author that he is not Gaidal.

 

To old I cannot fathom. Time is relative in Tel'aran'rhiod. But if there is "proof" of an author saying that he isn't then I could concede the obvious coincidences that he may not be.

[Shard]

Copied from WotFaq for your convineance.

 

Many explanations were proposed to explain this, but none of them were really consistent with the other information we have about the Heroes of the Horn and T'A'R. And anyway, RJ made the question moot at a post-COT signing in Dayton, OH [report by Tim Kington]:

 

Q: Is Olver Gaidal Cain?

RJ: No. I didn't really think that this would last as long as it has. The timing is wrong. He has another reason for being there besides being a red herring, though.

Q: He's too old.

RJ: Yes. Time in T'A'R and the real world run at different rates, but it never runs backwards. You may spend an hour in T'A'R, and a day has passed when you get back, or you may spend a day, and an hour has passed when you get back, but you'll never go in on Tuesday and come back on Monday.

 

Q: Is the difference in time constant?

RJ: No. It's fairly random. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes the same as real time.

 

Q: It's different for different people, then?

RJ: Yes. Unless they're together in T'A'R. Then the same amount of time passes for them obviously.

 

[Zeymere]

Copied from WotFaq for your convineance.

 

Many explanations were proposed to explain this, but none of them were really consistent with the other information we have about the Heroes of the Horn and T'A'R. And anyway, RJ made the question moot at a post-COT signing in Dayton, OH [report by Tim Kington]:

 

Q: Is Olver Gaidal Cain?

RJ: No. I didn't really think that this would last as long as it has. The timing is wrong. He has another reason for being there besides being a red herring, though.

Q: He's too old.

RJ: Yes. Time in T'A'R and the real world run at different rates, but it never runs backwards. You may spend an hour in T'A'R, and a day has passed when you get back, or you may spend a day, and an hour has passed when you get back, but you'll never go in on Tuesday and come back on Monday.

 

Q: Is the difference in time constant?

RJ: No. It's fairly random. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes the same as real time.

 

Q: It's different for different people, then?

RJ: Yes. Unless they're together in T'A'R. Then the same amount of time passes for them obviously.

 

 

 

Thank you very much for responding, and the linkage/quotes!

Z.

[FarShainMael]

A lot of us connect Olver to Gaidal Cain - I certainly did, at first - so many that it would be almost forgiveable to wish that RJ had 'made it so'.

 

Regarding the timeline question, as the quote from WoTFAQ says, Olver is too old. When we first see him, he 'looks 6 but claims to be 9'. Only, we saw GC in T'A'R no more than two years ago, at Falme; and RJ tells us that time may be compressed or dilated in T'A'R, but it does not run backwards.

 

http://encyclopaedia-wot.org/characters/op/olver.html

 

http://encyclopaedia-wot.org/characters/hist/gaidal_cain.html

 

We can only hope that Birgitte may be reunited with a reborn GC soon.

[didymos]

Only, we saw GC in T'A'R no more than two years ago, at Falme; and RJ tells us that time may be compressed or dilated in T'A'R, but it does not run backwards.

 

Well, that was actually outside of T'A'R. He's last seen in T'A'R towards the end of tSR, when he rags on Birgitte for talking to Nynaeve, right before Nynaeve discovers the Domination Band. That was more than 6 months after Falme.

[FarShainMael]

Only, we saw GC in T'A'R no more than two years ago, at Falme; and RJ tells us that time may be compressed or dilated in T'A'R, but it does not run backwards.

 

Well, that was actually outside of T'A'R. He's last seen in T'A'R towards the end of tSR, when he rags on Birgitte for talking to Nynaeve, right before Nynaeve discovers the Domination Band. That was more than 6 months after Falme.

 

Interesting point. Were the HotH in T'a'R, in the real world, or in some in-between realm? Could they have been killed, and if so, would it have been permanent?