He will heal "wounds of madness and cutting of hope."

[Lacanos]

In TDR Chapter 6, this is quoted by Moiraine as one of the things Rand is meant to do.

 

Now, on wot.wikia, this is hyperlinked as referring to the Cleansing of Saidin, however I'm not entirely convinced by this.

 

Why not?

 

Because the cleansing did not heal any wounds of madness. Indeed, specific reference is made to this by "Lews Therin" in a conversation with Rand : [i think it's in Chapter 20 of KoD, but I don't have my copy at university, nevertheless it's true and obvious] that the cleansing did not heal what was already there.

 

Now, I think it's most likely that I'm reading too much into this: indeed, the return of "hope" has been a consistent theme with the cleansing - but I think there are alternatives.

 

Such as?

 

The obvious alternative possibility would be this "aura of gold" Nynaeve saw around Rand's brain when delving him resulting as far as we know from Veins of Gold. That would seem to have healed (or at least shielded) him from the "wound" of madness, and obviously restoring sanity to the Dragon Reborn would be the return of hope.

Further support for this theory in the context of hope comes from the prophecy Paitar Nachiman recites in ToM (p754 in my hardcover) -

"If he cannot answer then you will be lost"

where Rand states that, were it not for Veins of Gold, he wouldn't have had the memories to answer the question.

 

So, am I reading too much into it? Or is this a valid alternative?

[Roxinos]

You're probably reading too much into it.

 

The prophecy states the "healing" as something intentionally done. The result of VoG (the golden light in Rand's brain) was...entirely unintentional. In fact, we honestly have no idea what it's meant. Rand cannot be said to have "healed" any "wounds of madness" because he didn't create the golden light. At least, there's no evidence to suggest that he did at this point in time.

 

Whereas quite clearly the taint on saidin is a wound in the One Power which creates madness. And Rand healed it.

 

While it may be tenuously valid, it's pretty unlikely as the Cleansing fits better.

[Lacanos]

You're probably reading too much into it.

 

The prophecy states the "healing" as something intentionally done. The result of VoG (the golden light in Rand's brain) was...entirely unintentional. In fact, we honestly have no idea what it's meant. Rand cannot be said to have "healed" any "wounds of madness" because he didn't create the golden light. At least, there's no evidence to suggest that he did at this point in time.

 

Whereas quite clearly the taint on saidin is a wound in the One Power which creates madness. And Rand healed it.

 

While it may be tenuously valid, it's pretty unlikely as the Cleansing fits better.

 

I don't see any necessity for it to be intentional, and we know that prophecies have been fulfilled "by accident" previously in the book - first example that comes to mind is the heron branding.

 

And whatever happened at Veins of Gold, that was still Rand's action (although the mechanics of it are somewhat unclear).

 

And yeah, the taint can be portrayed as a wound which creates madness. But there's something grammatically off about that for me. "Wounds of madness" seems to scan as meaning wounds consisting of madness, not creating madness.

 

I do think I'm reading too much into it as well, but uni exams do this to me :P

[vanderwoolf]

I think the "wounds of madness" is probably referring to the Cleansing, but I had a small thought during my second read-through of tGS. When Rand comes down from Dragonmount after VoG he is decidedly different. I think we can all agree that Rand was pretty close to being totally insane by the end of tGS and the events with his father turned out to be the catalyst in his redemption. So the thought that I had was this: what if the "wounds of madness" (and possibly the "cutting of hope" as well, thought I think that's stretching it a bit too far) refers to his insanity/the madness Nynaeve saw in his brain when attempting to heal him?

 

I don't have the prophechy up to look at and frankly I'm too lazy to look it up right now so feel free to pick apart my half-assed theory. I don't know that even I think its supported by much evidence (if any), I just thought I'd share it.

[Sephie913]

^{Wounds of madness and cutting of hope? Well, Nynaeve has healed madness. Additionally, being stilled is being "severed", which I would call the cutting of hope. Intriguing that Nynaeve fits this prophecy much better than Rand does.}