Noal in KoD

[Xekevrial]

Sorry if this has already been discussed, but I just joined the boards here :P and did a search without finding anything.

 

I was just rereading KoD and had a "oh yeah, Duh!" moment. At the end of chapter 6, Mat walks into Tuon's wagon where he finds Noal talking about the lands beyond the waste. Mat asks Noal if he is related to Jain Farstrider (which we all pretty much agree he is). Noal responds that he is a cousin and goes on to say "He was a foul...He let himself be made into a tool by---". We know that Jain was a DF or used by the Forsaken/DO. However, immediately after he stops speaking, "Abruptly Noal's face went blank. Staring through Mat, he rubbed at his forhead as though attempting to recall something."

 

We all know that there was some strange brain thing going on with jain/noal. However, could this be something MORE than him trying to remember something? If you remember, Morridin marks Alviarin on the forhead. At the beginning of KoD, Jordan keeps calling attention to the fact that she keeps rubbing it, even unconsciously. It seems that this was intentional and maybe done so much that we are supposed to connect this to others who may have had this mark (noal?).

 

Any thoughts on this?

 

Xekevrial

[Guest cwestervelt]

Jain was used by Ba'alzamon, but he was never a Darkfriend. One of his greatest actions, and even Noal agrees, was hunting down and capturing the person who betrayed Malkier.

 

I see nothing more in Noal's reaction that the residual of whatever Ba'alzamon did to him clamping down. Whatever was done to him, we know from Loial's account that he was almost completely broken. He's quite possibly got bigger wholes in his memory than Mat ever had. I'd guess that he suffered physical brain damage and trying to penetrate the wholes causes physical pain.

[Narg]

noal has to be a darkfreind, it would be to corny for him not to be.

[Mercer]

Hmm, I'm not remembering much about Loial talking about Jain at any point...can someone tell me what book this is gone over? KoD, I'm assuming?

[algspkr]

Hmm, I'm not remembering much about Loial talking about Jain at any point...can someone tell me what book this is gone over? KoD, I'm assuming?

It's in The Eye of the World. When they are talking in the inn. Loial asks Moiraine about something a strange traveler said. Later when Rand meets Ishameal at the Eye it is confirmed that it was Jain, with something like: Jain Charin, already called Farstrider painted a fool to bring you here." that is not an exact quote, sorry I had to throw away my copy of TEotW after my last reread, it fell apart :(.

[Thor]

Yeah, most people believe him to be Farstrider. Don't know what his role is though.