Cyndane and Rand...

[driedraspberry]

Is anyone familiar with Inanna? Basically she's a Sumerian goddess, Gilgamesh's sister. We were discussing her in class today and it struck me how much resemblance she bares Lanfear, and some parts of her tale could possibly allude to the latter's role in aMoL.

 

Anyways, she's a selfish (wouldn't share her tree with animals) power hungry (outright seeks and gains power) young goddess who becomes lovers with a shepherd, who leaves her after seven days of perpetual love making. She later descends into the underworld in a misguided attempt to attain more power, and dies and is reborn. Sound familiar? However, the price of her escape from the underworld is to sacrifice another. When she returns and sees her shepherd lover sitting on her throne, not mourning her, she hands him over to be imprisoned in her place in the underworld.

 

So we have the dark prophecy from tGH:

 

Daughter of the Night, she walks again. The ancient war, she yet fights. Her new lover she seeks, who shall serve her and die, yet serve still.

 

So I'm thinking, if Moridin plays the part of Ereshkigal, ruler of the underworld, perhaps the price of Cyndane's mindtrap is Rand's capture/death. Hence the trap. And Rand's capture leading to death in this way could serve her.

[GB]

cool parallel :p

[herid]

@driedraspberry Never heard of Inanna but this does sound very interesting. I have a theory which I've written up recently that the events will proceed more or less as you suggest.

edit: What source are you using for the myths about Inanna? I've been reading about her online but the version of the myth described there is somewhat different from the one you described. this is not at all unusual of course.

[driedraspberry]

My information on the myth is solely based on class discussion. I'll have to ask my prof for the name of the text she was using (kinda hoping to borrow it tbh).

 

Anyways, I love it. That's a lot of captivity for Rand (real world and then TAR), but it does seem reasonable. The part from aMoL chap. 1 practically screamed false interpretation on Egwene's part. Interesting that she would join Perrin's efforts on saving HotH Rand-soul, as in Inanna's myth (as I've been lectured on) the shepherd's sister begs Inanna to be taken captive in place of him. The sister and the shepherd end up doing 6months each in the underworld, much like Persephone.

 

Basically, I believe that they will succeed in capturing Rand and turning him to the shadow against his will in some way. Not literally, like via 13x13 but in some other fashion. How exactly I don't really know. Could be because of merging with Moridin which results in Rand loosing control of his body or something of that sort. Could be that Rand's use of TP will give Shaidar Haran some power over Rand. SH definitely has powers over those sworn to the shadow. He can prevent them from channeling for example. Could be some trap laid by Cyndane. Could be a mindtrap as terez suggested recently. That involves the use of blood. Rand's blood is supposed to be spilled to bring the Shadow and this sounds like a good plan to do it. Could be something else altogether that I can't think of.

 

Ticking time bomb. I kind of assume one (or more) of these have to occur. Although, I never thought of Dragon's blood at SG being used for mindtrap. I love it. And it totally does work with the myth, substituting Rand's captivity for Cyndane's. Assuming of course she gets bonus points/freedom for her part in luring him. I do think she'll play an important role in Rand's downfall, especially if he is the broken wolf.

[Suttree]

The part from aMoL chap. 1 practically screamed false interpretation on Egwene's part.

 

What it screamed was retcon.

[TristanWebb]

How can you retcon what is supposed to be the final third of a book when you have 10 000 pages of notes?

[Suttree]

How can you retcon what is supposed to be the final third of a book when you have 10 000 pages of notes?

 

?

 

I thought he was referring specifically to Egwene's change of heart in relation to the seals I and was making a quick quip, nothing more. Just read it quick and reponded did I misunderstand?

[herid]

@Suttree no, driedraspberry was talking about the part of my theory about Egwene's interpretation of the prophecy "and still the captive rails". Egwene and Elayne think it refers to the DO but I think it refers to Rand being kept prisoner in TAR by Lanfear. Chapter 1 of AMOL has a LOT of retcons but this is not one of them.

[Suttree]

@Suttree no, driedraspberry was talking about the part of my theory about Egwene's interpretation of the prophecy "and still the captive rails". Egwene and Elayne think it refers to the DO but I think it refers to Rand being kept prisoner in TAR by Lanfear. Chapter 1 of AMOL has a LOT of retcons but this is not one of them.

 

Ahh thanks for clearing that up Herid. I obviously hadn't followed the topic closely. My bad, will have to dive into that theory.

[SylvanFox]

I think I found a version of the Inanna story here: http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr141.htm ... I'm reading it now. It's very interesting.

[driedraspberry]

Thanks for the link. :)

 

I love this line:

 

"My daughter craved the great heaven and she craved the great below as well. Inana craved the great heaven and she craved the great below as well. The divine powers of the underworld are divine powers which should not be craved, for whoever gets them must remain in the underworld. Who, having got to that place, could then expect to come up again?"

 

It not only alludes to death, but the shadow in general. I'm gonna turn up calling Lanfear's return to the light. Not to go too crazy on the comparison or anything. lol

[herid]

I wouldn't get carried away with the return to the light analogy. not everything in the myths RJ used has in-book parallels. also this one might be parallel to Lanfears journey to the Finn world and return from there, not her journey to the Shadow and back. we still don't know what if any gifts Lanfear got from the Eelfinn. She should have gotten something from them - everybody else who went through the Rhuidean doorway did. Perhaps that's the "divine powers" the myth speaks of.

[driedraspberry]

It's more wishful thinking on my part more than anything. :) But yup, the Finns works too.

[pamela]

I like that! Hard to believe that Linda from the 13th Depository missed this particular parallel, good job! :)