How old is Jain Farstrider

[rageofwar1978]

I never thought about this until recent events outlined in the last book but the impression given in previous books were that The Travels of Jain Farstrider was a book written close to a hundred years previously. to the best of my knowledge he is not bound to the horn and he is not a channeler that ive ever seen hinted at but he has talked of malkier as if he was there and other things which led me to think he must be very very old. im currently rereading the series in the hopes that i will find an answer but thought i would ask and see if anyone else had noticed this.

 

also if memory serves he speaks to mat of jain as a distant long since dead relative at some point if my memory serves me.

[Luckers]

I never thought about this until recent events outlined in the last book but the impression given in previous books were that The Travels of Jain Farstrider was a book written close to a hundred years previously. to the best of my knowledge he is not bound to the horn and he is not a channeler that ive ever seen hinted at but he has talked of malkier as if he was there and other things which led me to think he must be very very old. im currently rereading the series in the hopes that i will find an answer but thought i would ask and see if anyone else had noticed this.

 

also if memory serves he speaks to mat of jain as a distant long since dead relative at some point if my memory serves me.

 

The Travels of Jain Farstrider were published in 968, roughly 30 years prior to the beginning of the story. Jain captured Cowin Fairheart in 955, his earliest known exploit, and was taken by Ishamael in 981.

 

He was probably around 60.

[Naked~Frog]

That's awesome... I had wondered that too, thank you for sharing this information.

[SylvanFox]

I never thought about this until recent events outlined in the last book but the impression given in previous books were that The Travels of Jain Farstrider was a book written close to a hundred years previously. to the best of my knowledge he is not bound to the horn and he is not a channeler that ive ever seen hinted at but he has talked of malkier as if he was there and other things which led me to think he must be very very old. im currently rereading the series in the hopes that i will find an answer but thought i would ask and see if anyone else had noticed this.

 

also if memory serves he speaks to mat of jain as a distant long since dead relative at some point if my memory serves me.

 

The Travels of Jain Farstrider were published in 968, roughly 30 years prior to the beginning of the story. Jain captured Cowin Fairheart in 955, his earliest known exploit, and was taken by Ishamael in 981.

 

He was probably around 60.

 

Taken by Ishamael? I don't remember that. Is that in the BWB? *runs off to check*

[rageofwar1978]

not in the bwb that i know of. i remember something of him being taken by ishy but ive also wondered what if anything that accomplished. my apologies i had thought that the tales was a good deal older. now it kind of makes me wonder if there is a link of some kind between the slayer/Isam and Jain. since Isam went to the blight with his ma very near to the same time iirc. not saying Jain and Isam are one in the same just pondering the possible connections. so much happened in that time period that is not clearly documented that it is hard to determine some things easily without a great deal of re-reading. thank you for the clarification on dates btw i do appreciate it.

[GYLD]

It's not really clear what Ishamael did to Jain. Ishamael while posing as Ba'alzamon claims he painted Jain a fool then sent him to the Ogier thinking himself free of Ishamael. Loial, I think it is, tells his own story earlier on of a man who came to a sledding around the same time and claimed the Dark One intended to blind the Eye of the World. Then Jain himself says something along the lines being used before his last stand. That's about all we know.

 

It doesn't look like we'll ever find out what happened to him now though. Myself, I think he had compulsion placed on him that would only trigger when certain conditions were met. We see something like that with Bors, who was given commands by Ishamael at the dark friend social, when he sees Mat in Ebou Dar.

[Luckers]

Yeah, basically Jain went into the Blasted lands in a mission that 'some say took him all the way to Shayol Ghoul' [Glossary], though how anyone would know that remains a mystery. What we do know was on his mission in the Blasted Lands he disapeared. Next a man rocks up at Stedding Shangtai, messed up by the Power and talking about the Dark One blinding the Eye of the World, and Ishamael states ''Jain Farstrider, a hero... whom I painted like a fool and sent to the Ogier thinking he was free of me.'"

 

Finally we have Noal's memory problems which date to around that time, and it tells a pretty clear tale, Ishamael captured Jain in the Blasted Lands and messed with him, before he either escaped in truth (and Ishamael was lying to cover the shame of the escape) or, Ishamael genuinely did send Jain to the Ogier... it's been suggested that the whole thing of the threat to the Eye was faked by Ishamael and Aginor and Balthemel sacrificed in order to bring Rand into the game, similar to what happened later with Semirhage.

[ironisles]

Yeah, basically Jain went into the Blasted lands in a mission that 'some say took him all the way to Shayol Ghoul' [Glossary], though how anyone would know that remains a mystery. What we do know was on his mission in the Blasted Lands he disapeared. Next a man rocks up at Stedding Shangtai, messed up by the Power and talking about the Dark One blinding the Eye of the World, and Ishamael states ''Jain Farstrider, a hero... whom I painted like a fool and sent to the Ogier thinking he was free of me.'"

 

Finally we have Noal's memory problems which date to around that time, and it tells a pretty clear tale, Ishamael captured Jain in the Blasted Lands and messed with him, before he either escaped in truth (and Ishamael was lying to cover the shame of the escape) or, Ishamael genuinely did send Jain to the Ogier... it's been suggested that the whole thing of the threat to the Eye was faked by Ishamael and Aginor and Balthemel sacrificed in order to bring Rand into the game, similar to what happened later with Semirhage.

 

The Bad guys can't win because they are too busy killing each other.

[Winespring Patron]

You can make an approximate guess of Noal's age by reviewing Agelmar's tale of Lan in tEotW. He must have been in his early 20's, "a young Jain Farstrider" when Lan was an infant. He appears older then his actual age because of the hardships he has endured and possibly being tortured. Based on Mat's description of his hands, he must have broken them (or fingers) at some point because he was no longer able to do sword forms but had to rely on daggers as his chief defense, although he did use a short iron sword in ToG (exception?).

[rand4747]

what was told to the Ogier and also that Aiel surviving to tell the tinkers would have been intentionally set up to lure the dragon to the eye of the world. That may have been what the compulsion was, was just to get them to spill that "secret" of the shadow.

[Taryn]

Wow, thanks for this info. I don't know how, but up until recently, I also thought Farstrider was much much older, as in a hundred years dead. This obviously skewed some things in my reading as I couldn't figure out what was up with Noal, being that there was no way he could be Farstrider, even though that was the most likely explanation. *facepalm*

 

Oh well, all is well that ends well. I do wonder why some of us came away without knowing the correct approximate age of Jain. Maybe I just wasn't paying close enough attention ;)

 

He is quite epic, i wish we could read his book....

[Cheyboygan]

On 8/3/2011 at 9:21 PM, Winespring Patron said:

You can make an approximate guess of Noal's age by reviewing Agelmar's tale of Lan in tEotW. He must have been in his early 20's, "a young Jain Farstrider" when Lan was an infant. He appears older then his actual age because of the hardships he has endured and possibly being tortured. Based on Mat's description of his hands, he must have broken them (or fingers) at some point because he was no longer able to do sword forms but had to rely on daggers as his chief defense, although he did use a short iron sword in ToG (exception?).

If he was in in mid-20's when Lan was an infant he must be *at least* in his mid 60's by the time he appears in the stories.  Lan is in his 40's.  So he kind of looks his age.  He is unusually vigorous for an elderly man though.  Likewise Thom must be in his 50s, but remains a man of significant physical ability.  Unlikely perhaps, particularly in such a primitive age, but not that unlikely given everything else we must accept to make this world believable.

[Sabio]

Companion states he was born 925NE.  So was about 75 when he died.  Shortly after the Aiel war he appeared in an Ogier Stedding.  In 981 NE he disappeared Noth of the Blasted lands.  He started using the name Noal after he became disillusioned when his wife died and discovering Ishy had used him.  Graendal found him and knew he was really Jain so she captured him thinking his fame would make up for his lack of looks.  She grew bored of him so used some compulsion on him and sent him to Ebou Dar to search for the angreal cache that Graendal didn't really believe existed.  Sadly nowhere is it ever said how Ishy used him.

[Denver Steve]

Jain is an interesting topic.

he says:

”Mat, if you ever see a Malkierie, you tell him Jain died clean”

That line always had me wondering, if Jain was the guardian for Lan’s brother Isam/Luc, and he failed in protecting Isam/Luc, Leaving him in that twisted town in the blight to grow up as a child and become Slayer.  That town would be a logical place for Ishy to capture Jain.

 

Lan had Bakuma to raise, teach, and protect him and Luc had Jain. But Jain failed cause he was captured early in Luc’s life.