Rand's Weapons

[tiolis]

Hi this is my first post so bear with me. I haven't reread the books for about a year and so I am a bit fuzzy on the details. But I have searched the forums and I couldn't find any discussion of the ornate mysterious sword that Rand is now "using" (lack of his hand is obviously affecting this). Does anyone have any thoughts as to the significance of this? I seem to remember a reference to it belonging to LTT. Anyways it would be interesting to hear your thoughts. Every description has been somewhat vague, even as to how he acquired it.

[Suttree]

Hi this is my first post so bear with me. I haven't reread the books for about a year and so I am a bit fuzzy on the details. But I have searched the forums and I couldn't find any discussion of the ornate mysterious sword that Rand is now "using" (lack of his hand is obviously affecting this). Does anyone have any thoughts as to the significance of this? I seem to remember a reference to it belonging to LTT. Anyways it would be interesting to hear your thoughts. Every description has been somewhat vague, even as to how he acquired it.

 

It is Artur Hawkwings sword "Justice". That is why he recognized it from his own memories, he saw the sword at Falme when the HotH appeared. Some diggers found it submerged under a statue and presented it to him.

[tiolis]

Ahh ok thanks, do you figure that the fact that he is carrying the historical emperor's sword has implications towards a new empire? And perhaps connotations towards influence over the Seanchan because of their relationship to that empire? Also if you could refresh my memory as to where the diggers found it I would appreciate it.

[rand4747]

This is the only mention of justice int he prophecies, I am fairly certain it does mean the sword it doesn't reveal much, just most people did figure the sword will turn up when they read this.

These are more poems though and so are probably fairly twisted from the prophecies they came from.

 

"And men cried out to the Creator, praying, O Light of the Heavens, Light of the World, let the Promised One be born of the mountain, according to the Prophecies, as he was in Ages past and will be in Ages to come. Let the Prince of the Morning sing to the land that green things will grow and the valleys give forth lambs. Let the arm of the Lord of the Dawn shelter us from the Dark, and the great sword of justice defend us. Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time."

[Suttree]

Also if you could refresh my memory as to where the diggers found it I would appreciate it.

 

IIRC most people think it was found under the statue where Perrin and Egwene confronted the Whitecloaks.

[bobarose]

this ones for you discwolders.

THERE IS NO JUSTICE,THERE IS JUST US.........

Rand knows where his sword comes from he will

hold it high in the last battle.

[bsmnt23]

I'm willing to bet he trades it to Fortuona to secure the Dragon's peace. There was that line of...either it was prophecy or Fortelling that he would divide the land with sword of justice by uniting the east with the north and the south with the west. That kind of relic from their patriarch would be a great gift indeed, great enough to make up for their last disasterous meeting. I asked BS at a signing in Alexderia, VA if it had significance and of course he said RAFO, but he did confirm that it wasnt an angreal or connected to the power in any way beyond its construction.

[FarShainMael]

Also if you could refresh my memory as to where the diggers found it I would appreciate it.

 

IIRC most people think it was found under the statue where Perrin and Egwene confronted the Whitecloaks.

 

Unlikely. The sword was found beneath a submerged statue:

 

Rand put on his boots, then did up their buckles.

 

He stood, reaching for the sword which leaned against his clothing chest. The black scabbard, with its lacquered red and gold dragon, sparkled in the light. Such a strange weapon those scholars had found beneath the submerged statue. The sword felt so old. Was Rand wearing it today as a symbol of something? A sign, perhaps, that he was riding to battle?

 

The statue Perrin found in EotW was (mostly) above ground, and the pool was shallow enough to see the bottom:

 

Huge boulders began to dot the low hills, irregular lumps of gray, lichen-coated stone half buried in the ground, some as big as a house. Brambles webbed them, and low brush half hid most. Here and there amid the desiccated brown of brambles and brush a lone green shoot announced that this was a special place. Whatever wounded the land beyond its borders hurt it, too, but here the wound did not go quite as deep.

 

Eventually they straggled over one more rise, and at the base of this hill lay a pool of water. Any of them could have waded across it in two strides, but it was clear and clean enough to show the sandy bottom like a sheet of glass. Even Elyas hurried eagerly down the slope.

 

...

 

For once Elyas had broken his rule about fires. There were no trees, but he had snapped dead branches from the brush and built his fire against a huge chunk of rock sticking out of the hillside. From the layers of soot staining the stone, Perrin thought the site must have been used by generation after generation of travelers.

 

What showed above ground of the big rock was rounded somewhat, with a sharp break on one side where moss, old and brown, covered the ragged surface. The grooves and hollows eroded in the rounded part looked odd to Perrin, but he was too absorbed in gloom to wonder about it. Egwene, though, studied it as she ate.

 

“That,” she said finally, “looks like an eye.” Perrin blinked; it did look like an eye, under all that soot.

 

“It is,” Elyas said. He sat with his back to the fire and the rock, studying the land around them while he chewed a strip of dried meat almost as tough as leather. “Artur Hawkwing’s eye. The eye of the High King himself. This is what his power and glory came to, in the end.” He said it absently. Even his chewing was absentminded; his eyes and his attention were on the hills.

 

...

 

The pool was lost to sight behind them. He could still pick out boulders — fragments of Artur Hawkwing’s statue — in the deepening twilight, but not to tell which was the stone where the fire had been.

 

There is a large lake in the Mountains of Mist, above the Two Rivers, that might be the one:

 

http://www.blacktower.net/map.htm

[jnabers]

The statue was in Bandar Evan if I remember properly, and Hawkwing's sword justice-wasn't referred to as a great sword when he is called by the horn of valere in the TGH? That usually implies that it's big, two handed broadsword.

 

I see it as a symbol to be passed down to Narishma, as he's the one who pulled callandor out of the heart of the stone and therefore is the one ot "follow after" Al'thor. I can't see Tuon wanting a sword that has the Dragon's emblem on the side of it.

[Suttree]

Unlikely. The sword was found beneath a submerged statue:

 

The Hawkwing statue was partially submerged, could be wrong but I find this suggestive...

 

tEotW

He glanced up at the step-like top of the stone, towering over his head like a huge lean-to. Fingers. We'll shelter in Artur Hawkwing's hand. Maybe some of his justice is left here.

 

The statue was in Bandar Evan if I remember properly

 

Quote?

 

and Hawkwing's sword justice-wasn't referred to as a great sword when he is called by the horn of valere in the TGH? That usually implies that it's big, two handed broadsword.

 

Not sure what you mean here? Are you saying it isn't his sword because that has been confirmed...

 

I see it as a symbol to be passed down to Narishma, as he's the one who pulled callandor out of the heart of the stone and therefore is the one ot "follow after" Al'thor. I can't see Tuon wanting a sword that has the Dragon's emblem on the side of it.

 

Tuon would do just about anything for Hawkwing's sword, the dragon emblem matters little when compared to how they view their ancestry.

[Cybertrolloc]

The statue was in Bandar Evan if I remember properly

Quote?

Chapter 1 tGS is in Arad Doman, but it's not clear that it was the Domani that gave it to him, though I read it as implied. There's other bits about the sword in tGS, not much in ToM iirc, but it was a question asked during tGS tour, so you can supply a quote from there but that's subject to change.

[FarShainMael]

The statue was in Bandar Evan if I remember properly

Quote?

Chapter 1 tGS is in Arad Doman, but it's not clear that it was the Domani that gave it to him, though I read it as implied. There's other bits about the sword in tGS, not much in ToM iirc, but it was a question asked during tGS tour, so you can supply a quote from there but that's subject to change.

 

The lake I mentioned is on the edge of Arad Doman.

[Cybertrolloc]

There's a hint of something in the Rand meets Tuon chapter also, but cagily written (sort of the trademark think around the important bits of the subject at hand RJ stuff, but without coming out and saying that it's Hawkwing's. Also I wouldn't want to try to use a katana from horseback.)

 

Glanced at interviews, he's being cagey, and hopefully that's just to red herring as opposed to it being an omg important mystery to solve.

[Sharaman]

Just two sets of references in TGS IIRC. One is Rand's PoV and memories where the submerged status business is mentioned. Another is from Min's PoV when she recalls it as very old and that Rand told her it was a power wrought blade.

BTW it's unlikely to be a two-hander because Hawkwing used it from horseback and Rand obviously thinks of it as a weapon he might use (one-handed is the implication) if he's pushed. May be a bastard, I guess - Rand is a tall guy with largeish hands so, he could be comfy using a 1.5 hander entirely one-handed.

[AltonJakeStorey]

There's a hint of something in the Rand meets Tuon chapter also, but cagily written (sort of the trademark think around the important bits of the subject at hand RJ stuff, but without coming out and saying that it's Hawkwing's. Also I wouldn't want to try to use a katana from horseback.)

 

Glanced at interviews, he's being cagey, and hopefully that's just to red herring as opposed to it being an omg important mystery to solve.

 

Why wouldn't you wan't to use a Katana from horseback? Samurai usually went to battle on horseback. The weapon most like katana in europe, the swedish saber, was made for use from horseback. I would probably prefer a blade like that if I were on horseback.

[Cybertrolloc]

Too short and usually too sharp.

[MikeRiley]

I took the sword's significance as merely a point to increase Rand's already bloated ego. He viewed the finding of the sword as a sign and acted very arrogant towards the Seanchan in their first meeting. The whole meeting seemed to serve as a point to say "this is just a sword, no more, no less." Rand certainly found that out by the end of the book.

[Vels]

What happened to the sword Avi gave him? Laman's sword? I would have thought that would have more significance to him.