To the River! Wheel of Time review chapters 17 - 22
A continuation of a book/film review of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, in collaboration with my reading partner Gwen Whiting, whose post I will reblog as soon as it's up.
There are spoilers galore in these reviews so if you haven't read the books, you might want to pass. Some of what I cover is not in the TV series and I think it is well worth mentioning these scenes. It's a shame some of them didn't make the screen.
Thom Merrilin, the gleeman, is an integral part of Robert Jordan's story, especially in Eye of the World. Granted he's not seen enough in the TV series. But in the books, not only is he a strong right-hand man for the boys but he's got an amusing personality and brings a bit of comic relief to otherwise tense situations. I'm thinking in particular when Rand and Mat meet up with him at the river as they escape the hair-raising experience of Shadar Logoth, are first separated from Moraine and Lan, and again from Egwene and Perrin. Rand, Mat charge on. It's every man (woman and Aes Sedai) for themselves when they meet Thom unexpectantly at the river just as the trollocs are about to massacre them.
They jump on Captain Domon's boat. The poor crewmen are awoken at night, stepped on, and threatened by the two-horned monsters, having to hack away at their lines to get them to deep waters. There's no time to go back, and Rand mourns that he might have left Egwene to her death.
The captain is angry at these three vagabonds jumping his boat, the trollocs destroying his ship, and strangers seeking passage with no money. Of course, he asks who they are, where they come from, and where they're going. Rand and Mat (especially Mat) are so shaken up over Domon's threat to throw them overboard that they are just about to spill the beans of a very secret course when good old Thom interrupts with a tip of his gleeman's hat preventing some vital information from being leaked.
"Now that is a story..." Thom says and begins to unfold the most colorful tall tale ever you did hear! A complete yarn, co-starring Rand and Mat as gleeman apprentices looking for buried treasure that belongs to the dark lord.
"The way Thom told it (the danger) seemed to be aimed at him personally, and to have been handled by him with the greatest adroitness. With much derring-do mostly by Thom..." Wheel of Time, Eye of the World Robert Jordan.
Even Rand and Mat listen with mouths open. Thom ends by assuring Domon any treasure they made away with remained with the horses that took off before they came aboard the ship.
Enough to calm everyone's nerves and get a chuckle from the reader. Who can't love the gleeman?
This is the storytelling that I love. And though the TV series is well and fun, there is so much more.
Here's Captain Domon by Seamassketches.blogspot.com
