Actually, if you want references to religion in The Wheel of Time, look at the Darkfriends. And the human equivalent to the Myrdraal, the Whitecloaks. When the Whitecloaks catch some actual Darkfriends in their Citadel of Light, the Darkfriends are reciting a credo and a catechism. And they talk about The Great Day of Return - now what is one of the most "popular" religions in the US at this current moment, with televangelists understandably drawing the mockery of others - remember that 80s movie Pass the Ammo, starring Tim Curry as the hypocritical televangelist whose hand is always out for the poor folk's money? My guess is that RJ saw what was going on when he was demobilized/discharged, with books like The Late Great Planet Earth in circulation, and televangelists raking in the dough while wallowing in their depravity, and it ate at him until he turned it into a story, just to get it out of him, so he could stop thinking about it.

I always read the reference to Salya as a reference to Salyut, the Soviet space stations that orbited from 1971 to 1986.

Let's see, he's a blacksmith, so that's a start. Then he's Goldeneyed. He confesses to having a Tin Ear. We've seen him in action as Perrin the Silver Tongued, and for those who know what Chrysostom means, Golden Mouthed as well. Even his wife concedes he has a Heart of Gold, though sometimes a Head of Lead. What else can we add?

Yes, you just have to wathc out for those Jaws that bite, those Claws that catch ... very well done!

I'm wondering if anyone's yet composed melodies to go along with the songs in the Wheel of Time? I've found myself at times thinking such-and-such a melody would fit Mat's lyrics in TLoC, though I haven't got around to doing anything with my musings. And likewise, humming a melody to the plainchant spear songs of the Aiel - I learnt one Maori chant - Te Tau o Matatua - when I was learning the Maori language in the 1980s. And the Aiel battle songs seem quite like the Maori chant. |That is, it wouldn't have a wide range, and would be very rhythmic, and so on.

While reading that hilarious scene of Mat trying to make sense of the Aes Sedai at Salidar celebrating Egwene's ascent to the Amyrlin Seat, I read that bit about Mat anti-Power angreal going chilly after dancing with Halima and wandering on, and I thought, of all the things Halima is most likely to try, it's Compulsion. He's ta'veren, he's got the ear of the Dragon Reborn, he's clearly one of the linchpins of the resistance to the Dark One, and taking him out of the play and making use of him is going to get Halima major kudos from the Dark One and Chosen cohorts. What do people think?

In FoH, when we finally reach Samara on the Ghealdan side of the river, we see the animals Valan Luca has in his menagerie. RJ's slipped it in, so quietly you'd never notice, but I am re-reading the series, and this leaped out at me: I've seen them in Tidbinbilla in ACT. They're koalas. I suppose RJ may have had a visit or two to Australia, and perhaps visited Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney, or so.