Re-Reading "The Dragon Reborn:" "Prologue," "Chapter 1: Waiting," and "Chapter 2: Saidin"

The third volume in The Wheel of Time starts slowly but successfully lays the foundations for the conflicts to come.

Hello, dear reader! Do you like what you read here at Omnivorous? Do you like reading fun but insightful takes on all things pop culture? Do you like supporting indie writers? If so, then please consider becoming a subscriber and get the newsletter delivered straight to your inbox. There are a number of paid options, but you can also sign up for free! Every little bit helps. Thanks for reading and now, on with the show!

---

Well, faithful readers, we’ve now come to The Dragon Reborn, the third volume in Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time. This week, I’ll be taking a look at the Prologue and the first three chapters, which give us some insight into what’s going to be happening in this book. Spoiler alert: some more meandering while Jordan figures out just how this whole plot is going to shake out in the end. I remain convinced that Jordan didn’t really figure out the plot until about halfway through the series, and even then he wasn’t sure how to bring the plane in. Nothing about the first few chapters has disabused me of this belief. 

We begin with Pedron Niall, Lord Captain Commander of the Children of the Light. Unlike so many of his brethren, who remain rather hidebound and limited in how they think about the world, he’s quite prepared to recognize and accept that the Last Battle is going to happen. However, he believes that he is the one who is going to be the one to lead the forces of the Light and that, in order to make sure that takes place, he’s willing to do some politicking to make sure he has as much power to do so. Hell, he’s even willing to let the Dragon Reborn (or, as he would have it, the False Dragon) survive so that everyone will be so terrified that they’re willing to turn to him for protection. It’s really quite brilliant, when you think about it. 

Except for one thing: he’s not nearly as in control of events as he’d like to think. 

Niall is but a pawn in a game, and it’s very clear–to the reader, at least–that Ordeith/Padan Fain is playing him like a fiddle. The truth is that Pedron has fallen under the sway of one of the most sinister and dangerous characters to have emerged from the Third Age. His tragedy is that he doesn’t even realize this man is even darker than a Darkfriend, that he has become so poisoned and foul that it’s hard to see how he can ever find his way out of the morass in which he spends every waking moment.

For that matter, it’s not as if Niall even has a very firm hold on his own Whitecloaks. Even though his appearance in these chapters is brief, we get some more insight into Jaichim Carridin, also known as the man who called himself Bors. Like Pedron, he deludes himself into believing that he has a firm control of how matters are unfolding, when the opposite is the case. His encounter with the Myrddraal is terrifying and unsettling, just as it always is with these creatures of the Dark One. Though I wouldn’t go so far as to say that we’re invited to feel sorry for Carridin, given that he’s a man who has sold his soul to the Dark One, this moment at least reveals just how dangerous it is to serve the Dark. Those who do so for their own aggrandizement soon discover that they are never in control of their own destiny.

Like many of the other prologues in The Wheel of Time, this one sets up some dramatic irony. We as readers know that there are great forces at work, but our heroes–Rand, Perrin, Mat, Egwene, and Nynaeve–are largely ignorant of these forces. Much like Pedron, they don’t have the same panoramic scope of the narratives in which they are enmeshed. Nor, for that matter, do we as readers, since only rarely do we see these characters during the main course of the novels themselves.

All of which brings us to the first two chapters, both of which are told exclusively from Perrin’s perspective. This isn’t the first time that this has happened, of course, but it’s still striking that we're now getting to that part of the series where Rand is no longer the primary focus. And, to be honest, Perrin isn’t quite as insufferable as his friend, at least not at this point (that will change once he starts his romance with Faile). And, say what you will about Perrin, but he does have his own sense of honor, much like the others who hail from Emond’s Field. 

Of particular note is his struggle with Leya, the member of the Traveling People who comes to report to Moiraine. Unsurprisingly, she believes in a totally nonviolent way of being in the world, arguing that violence only begets more violence and evil, no matter how just it might seem in the moment. It’s easy to see why Perrin would find this so abhorrent and frustrating, given that he’s seen what true evil looks like, with Trollocs rampaging through his home, killing his loved ones. At the same time, one can’t help but think that the Traveling People have a point. In this fallen world violence does indeed prove to be self-perpetuating. As so often in The Wheel of Time, there’s no real easy answer to this philosophical conundrum. The fact that Min’s vision showing this poor woman dying by violence just makes the whole thing that much more tragic.

Rand, like Perrin, finds himself in a bit of a cleft stick. It’s also becoming clear that Rand is truly coming into the full fledging of his powers as the Dragon Reborn. Given that we’re sutured into Perrin’s perspective, it’s hard not to be terrified at what he is able to do when he draws on so much of the One Power, nearly bringing the whole valley crashing down. Despite this, Perrin still feels the bonds of friendship, even if he can’t quite bring himself to see Rand as the same person as he did before. That, too, is more than a little heartbreaking.

And then there’s Moiraine. Even though we don’t see her, her presence looms large over these two chapters, reminding us of just how adept she is at pulling the strings of others and getting them to do what she wants, no matter what their own desires might be in the matter. No matter how much they might get frustrated with her, however, the truth is that Rand and Perrin are as tightly bound to her will as they are to the Wheel of Time itself. 

Speaking of the Wheel…these chapters contain a fascinating discussion of the nature of the Wheel of Time, ta’veren, and free will. After all, Rand and and his companions are both quite powerful and yet helpless when it comes to fate and their destinies to take part in the Last Battle. It’s no exaggeration to say that, in their own ways, each one of them, from Rand himself to Nynaeve, are the most powerful people of the Third Age and yet, at the same time, they are bound up in forces–including that of the narrative itself–that they can neither name nor entirely control. This is a common theme in epic storytelling, and it’s one of the things that I love the most about this series. It’s to Robert’s abiding credit that he was able to make such skillful use of this dynamic throughout the series. 

So that's it for this week’s Wheel of Time Wednesday. We’ll be back next week, as we continue to make our way through The Dragon Reborn.