A Hat like that

[Orderofolde]

I've seen mentions here and there and pondering and speculation on Mat's Hat. I was on the verge of falling asleep listening to the audiobook of The Shadow Rising when I heard Lanfear in disguise tell Mat "I seldom make the same offer twice" which seemed to be focused on the hat when Mat spied Kadere with it in hand and offered a gold mark for it, but I connected it with her visit to Mat in the White Tower offering him gold and glory and her offer then. She seemed to think that Mat was a shoe in already for one of the things she offered to him in the tower with her comment of something already done or something not going to be a problem for him(glory for sounding the horn or greed for gold for his dicing I thought). A darkfriend was wearing the hat (Kadere) and he did not protest her selling it. We've seen many items as Ter'Angreal, from wood and gold and silver, metal, plastics and other materials, but I wonder if the hat was significant. Was it a Ter'angreal Lanfear was using to control or to keep track of Kadere?

 

We know that Mat had a vision of betraying Rand using the portal stones with Ingtar and Verin earlier on. Could it be used to control him at some later point, at some key and crucial moment? I remember seeing some threads and speculation about maybe it blocks the Finn's ability to read him thoughts and his mind. The whole scene to me seemed to have undertones and other meanings. I hope I'm not beating a dead horse, or a mule for that matter. I've tried to follow all the boards, but I am curious as to what other people are thinking and if you guys picked up on that as well.

[Leyrann]

I understand what you mean. Not sure if I'm convinced, but it could indeed be a problem...

[Aagaard]

I think the hat is a hat. The sale of the hat was simply to sell us on Keille being someone important for the story. After that it becomes apparent that she is Lanfear.

 

Besides, wouldn't it be a little easy that Mat once again had something in his possession that was something else/more than he thought, when we don't see this happening to any of the other heroes, and Mat being the most paranoid (setting aside Darth Rand)

[FarShainMael]

It may have been to help establish the Odin parallel to Mat. Have a look at the picture here:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odin

 

"In a sacrifice to himself, the highest of the gods, he was hung from the world tree Yggdrasil for nine days and nights, pierced by his own spear, in order to learn the wisdom that would give him power in the nine worlds."

 

"Odin sacrificed his eye (which eye he sacrificed is unclear) at Mímir's spring in order to gain the Wisdom of Ages."

 

"He is also a god of war, appearing throughout Norse myth as the bringer of victory."

 

"Odin would also appear on the battle-field, sitting upon his eight-legged horse Sleipnir, with his two ravens, one on each shoulder, Hugin (Thought) and Munin (Memory)"

 

Remind you of anyone..?

[Leyrann]

Remind you of anyone..?

 

No. Who should it be?

[michael.clinton83]

It may have been to help establish the Odin parallel to Mat. Have a look at the picture here:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odin

 

"In a sacrifice to himself, the highest of the gods, he was hung from the world tree Yggdrasil for nine days and nights, pierced by his own spear, in order to learn the wisdom that would give him power in the nine worlds."

 

"Odin sacrificed his eye (which eye he sacrificed is unclear) at Mímir's spring in order to gain the Wisdom of Ages."

 

"He is also a god of war, appearing throughout Norse myth as the bringer of victory."

 

"Odin would also appear on the battle-field, sitting upon his eight-legged horse Sleipnir, with his two ravens, one on each shoulder, Hugin (Thought) and Munin (Memory)"

 

Remind you of anyone..?

 

I can definitely see some similarities between the two people, but I don't picture Odin's hat to look anything like Mat's. And in all of the fan-art/cover-art/etc I've never seen it illustrated that way.

[Red Hand Man]

It's just a bloody good hat.

[FarShainMael]

Remind you of anyone..?

 

No. Who should it be?

 

Olver, of course!

 

[nool]

I don't see what I have to do with this.

[FarShainMael]

The hat makes you look a little less.. er, a little more good-looking..

 

(sorry! couldn't resist! )

[nool]

[AviendhaDidIt]

You may be onto something there. I remember from LoC, i think, there was a long passage in the beginning from Mat's POV where he goes to inspect the camps. While he is doing this, he is thinking about all the rumors the Band are spreading. One of them is that the speculation about his disdain for armor in favor of the hat is even wilder still, and that as long as he is wearing it, he can never die.

 

I never thought that was true, but after reading your post I'm inclined to think that maybe the hat is a ter'angreal that makes him extra lucky. I've always thought that there has to be some explanation that he is so much luckier than the other two. He can even bend the laws of physics, as we saw when he picked up the cheating gambler's fixed dice in the third book. There's also a scene from one of the earlier books that describes a cache of missing ter'angreal, one of which was a set of dice. Until now, I've thought that a darkfriend used the dice on him for some reason.

 

It adds up to me. And, I think that it would be something RJ would do, especially with all the mentions of it being "just a bloody good hat!" In the next read-through, it would be worth paying attention to what happens to Mat when he's not wearing the hat (which isn't often).

[Orderofolde]

I agree. Later on in KOD I think it is, he thinks he needs to start wearing armor when he and the few Gardeners and Death Watch along with his men are fighting to give Tuon time to escape, he has two arrows slide into his coat sleeves that should have hit him. RJ was so methodical that he wouldn't have created those dice ter'angreal without a use either as a Red Herring or a Checkov's Gun. The hat has been mentioned too many times. Maybe it is a Ter'angreal or is full of weaves to make him think it is a good hat so he keeps it around. It's just like Mat's spear, it took many books to get to the reasons behind it.

[lordofsoup]

I thought Kadere was mad that she sold his hat? He didnt know that she was Lanfear, just some high ranking Darkfriend.

[SharpDressedAsha'Man]

I thought Kadere was mad that she sold his hat?

Rightly so, it was a bloody good hat.

[Random Man]

I thought Kadere was mad that she sold his hat?

Rightly so, it was a bloody good hat.

Right, and aside from it being a character quirk that Mat likes it, there hasn't been anything else special about it. Nothing changed when he got it. I mean, you wouldn't imagine Indiana Jones losing his hat, but that doesn't mean it ever had any properties beyond nostalgia.

[Guest Emu on the Loose]

Right, and aside from it being a character quirk that Mat likes it, there hasn't been anything else special about it. Nothing changed when he got it. I mean, you wouldn't imagine Indiana Jones losing his hat, but that doesn't mean it ever had any properties beyond nostalgia.

 

Ah, bit it did have a "magic" property. It served ever to remind him of the day he couldn't win but didn't have to like it. Those kinds of symbols influence our thoughts and ultimately change our behavior. In Indy's case it probably hardened his resolve! That would have made him more effective, just like an angreal.

 

Magic takes many forms!

 

I'd be keen to see something done with the hat, but Mat just had a big, hidden-purpose equipment reveal in ToM, and the Forsaken who sold it to him doesn't seem to be in a good position right now.