Egwene's dreams
From A Wheel of Time Wiki
Egwene al'Vere's ability to discern aspects of the future from interpretation of her dreams has led to a wealth of foreshadowing as to what could happen next. Below is a collected list of Egwene's prophetic dreams, both fulfilled and as yet unresolved.
Contents |
[edit] Fulfilled
[edit] The Great Hunt
“Rand sleeping on the ground, wrapped in a cloak. A woman had been standing over him, looking down. Her face was in shadow, but her eyes seemed to shine like the moon, and Egwene had known she was evil. Then there was a flash of light, and they were gone. Both of them. And behind it all, almost like another thing altogether, was the feel of danger, as if a trap was just beginning to snap shut on an unsuspecting lamb, a trap with many jaws.”
- Appears to apply to Lanfear and her attempt to control Rand during their excursion into the world accessed via the Portal Stone.
[edit] The Dragon Reborn
“And the dream about Whitecloaks binding her father's hands.”
- The Whitecloaks decended upon the Two Rivers, and Bran al'Vere could do nothing to stop them.
“There had been a dream of Rand, reaching for a sword that seemed to be made of crystal, never seeing the fine net dropping over him.”
- Rand drew Callandor from the Stone of Tear, but did not see the trap left for him by Be'lal[1].
“[Rand] kneeling in a chamber where a parched wind blew dust across the floor, and creatures like the one on the Dragon banner, but much smaller, floated on the wind, and settled into his skin.”
“[Rand] confronting Seanchan”
- Rand has had a number of such confrontations now, notably the large scale battle at Altara on the south coast.
“Perrin with a falcon on his shoulder, and Perrin with a hawk. Only the hawk held a leash in her talons--Egwene was somehow convinced both the hawk and falcon were female--and the hawk was trying to fasten it around Perrin's neck.”
- The two birds are Faile and Berelain respectively. The leash may indicate Berelain's desire to control Perrin or have him do her bidding, in contrast to Faile's desire to see Perrin achieve greatness through his own actions and her support.
“Perrin--with a beard!--leading a huge pack of wolves that stretched as far as the eye could see.”
- Perrin has indeed grown out his beard and has firmly established his position as a Wolfbrother, leading the wolves to Rand's aid at Dumai's Wells and to Faile's against the Shaido.
“Mat, hanging by his neck from a tree limb.”
- Mat's release from the Aelfinn did not go entirely as he expected; Rand saved him from hanging, almost dead, before the two returned from Rhuidean[3].
“Just like the one about Mat speaking the Old Tongue.”
- Mat's been speaking snatches of the Old Tongue ever since he left the Two Rivers[4]; his understanding has certainly increased with the addition of the ancient memories supplied by the Aelfinn[5].
“She had dreamed of Perrin with a wolf, and with a falcon, and a hawk -- and the hawk and falcon fighting.”
- A generic reference to Perrin as a Wolfbrother, and to the battle for him between Faile and Berelain.
“Perrin running from someone deadly,”
- Likely a reference to Perrin's encounters with Slayer in Tel'aran'rhiod.
“There had been one dream of an Aiel, and she thought that had to do with Perrin, too, but she was not sure.”
- Likely refers to Perrin's release of Gaul.
“And a dream of Min, springing a steel trap but somehow walking through it without so much as seeing it.”
- Min's return to the White Tower raised suspicions in Elaida over Siuan Sanche's activities, which directly led to the disposition of Siuan and Elaida's coup. Min remained unaware of this throughout her stay until the takeover actually happenned, and managed to escape the Tower unharmed.
“Mat with dice spinning 'round him”
- An interestingly literal depiction of the "dice" Mat seems to carry around in his head and, more vaguely, refers to his uncommonly good luck.
“Mat being followed by a man who was not there ... or maybe more than one, but in some way there was no one there”
“Mat riding desperately toward something unseen in the distance that he had to reach”
- Mat came to the rescue of Egwene, Nyneave and Elayne, freeing them from captivity in Tear.
“Mat with a woman who seemed to be tossing fireworks about. An Illuminator, she assumed, but that made no more sense than anything else.”
- Clearly Aludra and Mat's involvement with her.
“Men and women breaking out of a cage, then putting on crowns.”
- A warning that the Forsaken have broken free of their prison, and have begun to build their power bases.
“Whitecloaks ravaging the Two Rivers.”
- No interpretation needed here.
“A Whitecloak putting Master Luhhan in the middle of a huge, toothed trap for bait”
- After their invasion of the Two Rivers, the Whitecloaks used the Luhhans and Cauthons to bait Perrin into a confrontation.
“Why should Perrin have a falcon on his shoulder, and what was important about him choosing between that axe he wore now and a blacksmith's hammer?”
- Again the falcon is Faile. The choice between the tools represents Perrin's position of having to kill, but wanting to create; the choice between war and peace.
“What did it mean that Mat was dicing with the Dark One, and why did he keep shouting "I am coming!" and why did she think in the dream that he was shouting at her?”
- In Caemlyn Mat assured Lord Gaebril that he would protect Egwene, Elayne and Nynaeve from an assassin.
“[Rand] had been sneaking through utter darkness toward Callandor, while all around him six men and five women walked, some hunting him and some ignoring him, some trying to guide him toward the shining crystal sword and some trying to stop him from reaching it, appearing not to know where he was, or only to see him in flashes. One of the men had eyes of flame, and he wanted Rand dead with a desperation she could nearly taste”
- The men and women match the number of Forsaken still alive and loose in the world, all playing out their machinations upon Rand. The dream pays particular attention to Ishamael, usually depicted with fiery features, and his intentions at this point.
“Rand in that dry, dusty chamber again, with those small creatures settling into his skin.”
- A reinforcement of Rand's embodiment as the Aiel's Car'a'carn.
“Rand confronting a horde of Seanchan.”
- A reinforcement of the earlier dream, perhaps indicating the subsequent battles to come.
[edit] The Shadow Rising
“Rand as tall as a mountain, walking through cities, crushing buildings beneath his feet, with screaming people like ants fleeing from him.”
- Discounting the unlikely event of this dream being literal, this would tend to reference the inevitable consequences of Rand's revelation as the genuine Dragon Reborn and the spreading knowledge of the approach of Tarmon Gai'don.
“Rand in chains, and it was he who was screaming.”
- Rand was captured and bound by the Tower Aes Sedai.
“Rand building a wall with him on one side and her on the other, her and Elayne and others she could not make out. "It has to be done," he was saying as he piled up stones. "I'll not let you stop me now."”
- Rand stubbornly insists on isolating himself from all friends and associates for their own protection.
“Aiel fighting each other, killing each other, even throwing away their weapons and running as if they had gone mad”
- Quite a literal interpretation of the events following Rand's revelations of the true history of the Aiel
“Mat wrestling with a Seanchan woman who tied an invisible leash to him”
- Not the usual kind of Seanchan leash, but more likely The Daughter of the Nine Moons and her impending marriage to Mat.
“A wolf-- she was sure it was Perrin, though-- fighting a man whose face kept changing.”
- More reinforcement of Perrin's affinity to the wolves, and his confrontation with the Slayer duality.
“Galad wrapping himself in white as though putting on his own shroud”
- Galad took the seemingly righteous path and joined the Children of the Light.
“Gawyn with eyes full of pain and hatred.”
- Gawyn certainly did not receive the news that Rand had killed his mother Morgase too well, unaware as he was that it was not true.
“[Egwene's] mother weeping.”
- A reference to the Whitecloaks' invasion of the Two Rivers and intimidation of the people of Emond's Field.
[edit] The Fires of Heaven
“Rand sitting down in a chair, and somehow she knew that the chair's owner would be murderously angry at having her chair taken”
“Perrin, lounging with Faile on his lap, kissing her while she played with the short-cut beard that he wore in the dream. Behind them two banners waved, a red wolf's head and a crimson eagle. A man in a bright yellow coat stood near to Perrin's shoulder, a sword strapped to his back; in some way she knew that he was a Tinker, though no Tinker would ever touch a sword. And every bit of it except the beard seemed important. The banners, Faile kissing Perrin, even the Tinker. Every time he moved closer to Perrin it was if a chill of doom shot through everything.”
Literal explanations, one of Rand Seizing Caemlyn and the second the expansion of the Two Rivers and Perrin's place as a Lord. Aram turning from The Way of the Leaf caused him to grow progressively more violent. Finally, Masema convinced Aram that Perrin was Shadowspawn, and Aram then tried to murder Perrin to protect Faile.
[edit] Lord of Chaos
“Elayne and Min and Aviendha, sitting in a silent circle around [Rand], each in turn reaching out to lay a hand on him.”
Explanation of Min, Aviendha, and Elayne's desires to love Rand, and their mutual bonding of him as warder. (and possibly a future prediction of their marriages to him)
[edit] A Crown of Swords
“On bare feet, Gawyn walked [toward her] across a floor of broken glass, shards breaking at every slow step....she could see the trail of blood left by his slashed feet.”
The prediction of Gawyn shows the path he is currently on, a path that leaves nothing but blood behind.
“Mat sat on a night-shrouded hilltop, watching a grand Illuminator's display of fireworks, and suddenly his hand shot up, seized one of those bursting lights in the sky. Arrows of fire flashed from his clenched fist, and a sense of dread filled her. Men would die because of this. The world would change.”
Mat's using Aludra's Idea of 'Dragons' as a mass weapon (first appearance of the cannon).
“A dark young man held an object in his hand that shone so brightly she could not see what it was.”
Possibly an appearance of Moridin, or more likely Jahar Narishma's retrieval of Callandor.
[edit] The Path of Daggers
“Perrin and a Tinker, frenziedly hacking their way through brambles with axe and sword, unaware of the cliff that lay just ahead. And the brambles screamed with human voices they did not hear.”
Perrin and Aram's increasing desperation to defeat the Shaido and find Faile.
[edit] Crossroads of Twilight
“Mat stood on a village green, playing at bowls [...] he was sharp and clear, dressed in a fine green coat and that wide-brimmed black hat [...] Rubbing the ball between his hands, he took a short run and casually rolled it across the smooth grass. All nine pins fell, scattered as if they had been kicked. Mat turned and picked up another ball, and the pins were back upright. No, there was a fresh set of pins. The old still lay where they had fallen. He hurled the ball again, a lazy underhanded bowl. And Egwene wanted to scream. The pins were not turned pieces of wood. They were men. [...] there were more new pins, new men, standing in orderly formation among the men lying sprawled on the ground as if dead. No, they were dead. Unconcerned, Mat bowled [...] Every one of those human pins had represented thousands of men. Of that she was certain. And an Illuminator was part of it [...] Still, it was only a possible future.”
Maybe something to do with Mat leading an army, with the lives of thousands depending on his decisions? Also, the reference to the Illuminator (Aludra) and Mat's idea of 'Dragons' (cannons). The Cannon could be represented as Mat bowling, and the pins (representing a thousand men each) could be the mass destruction which the 'Dragons' created.
[edit] Unresolved
[edit] The Dragon Reborn
“She had dreamed of Seanchan, too, of women in dresses with lightning bolts woven on their breasts, collaring a long line of women who wore Great Serpent rings, forcing them to call lightning against the White Tower.”
- Partially fulfilled, but the Seanchan have yet to turn captive Aes Sedai against the White Tower.
“There had been a dream of him walking down into a great hole in a black mountain, a hole filled with a reddish glare as from vast fires below”
Possibly Rand's descent into Shayol Ghul.
“Mat, placing his own left eye on a balance scale.”
Mat losing an eye in rescuing Moiraine?
“There had been a dream of Mat and Seanchan, too, but she was willing to dismiss that as a nightmare.”
Perhaps Mat's connection with Tuon; The Daughter of the Nine Moons.
“Perrin stepping willingly over the edge of a towering cliff while saying, "It must be done. I must learn to fly before I reach the bottom."”
- Maybe this is a reference to Hopper and his dreams of flying? Also possibly a reference to Perrin's rescue of Faile from Tel'aran'rhiod, where he leaps into the dream to rescue her, and learns a slight form of control over the dream from Hopper in order to rescue her.
“A woman playing with puppets, and another dream where the strings on puppets led to the hands of larger puppets, and their strings led to still greater puppets, on and on until the last strings vanished into unimaginable heights.”
Perhaps a reference to Lanfear?
“Rand confronting her, and the women with her, and one of them was a Seanchan.”
A reference to Rand and Alivia?
[edit] The Fires of Heaven
“Mat throwing dice with blood streaming down his face, the wide brim of his hat pulled down low so she could not see his wound”
“Thom Merrilin put his hand into a fire to draw out the small blue stone that now dangled on Moiraine's forehead.”
Thom has to go with Mat to save Moiraine.
“Or a dream of a storm, great dark clouds rolling without wind or rain while forked lightning bolts, every one identical, rent the earth.”
[edit] Lord of Chaos
“Twice, right atop one another, she dreamed of taking [Gawyn] by the shoulders and trying to turn him to face the other way against his will. Once he brushed her hands away roughly; the other time she was somehow stronger than he. The two blended together hazily.”
“[Gawyn] swinging a door closed on her, and she knew if that narrowing gap of light vanished, she was dead.”
“Perrin came and stood before her, a wolf lying at his feet, a hawk and a falcon perched on his shoulders glaring at each other over his head. Seemingly unaware of them, he kept trying to throw away that axe of his until finally he ran, the axe floating through the air chasing him.”
- A hint to Perrin's attempts of leading a peaceful life with Faile; yet events tie him to Berelain as well and make him fight in spite of himself.
“Perrin; he turned away from a Tinker and ran, faster and faster though she called for him to come back.”
“Mat spoke words she almost understood - the Old Tongue, she thought - and two ravens alighted on his shoulders, claws sinking through his coat into the flesh beneath. He seemed no more aware of them that Perrin had been of the hawk and the falcon, yet the defiance passed across his face, and then grim acceptance.”
- A reference to Mat's foretelling by the Aelfinn to marry the Daughter of the Nine Moons, which he first ignores, then defies, and finally, having met Tuon, accepts.
“A woman, face shrouded in shadow, beckoned [Mat] toward great danger; Egwene did not know what, only that it was monstrous.”
- Maybe also a hint towards Mat's journey with Tuon, and the danger lying in marrying her. Possibly a Darkfriend among the females in Mat's party.
“Elayne, forcing [Rand] to his knees with one hand.”
“[Rand] walking toward a burning mountain, something crunching beneath his boots. She stirred and whimpered; the crunching things were the seals on the Dark One's prison, shattering with his every step.”
- Maybe a reference to Rand going to Shayol Ghul, and as he goes, the Dark One comes closer to breaking free (since the Last Battle is approaching). Possibly also his plan to break the great seals before the pattern unravels.
[edit] A Crown of Swords
“...that [Egwene] would bond [Gawyn], she knew from interpreting her dreams”
“...a man riding on a black stallion. Gawyn. Then she was standing in the road in front of him, and he reined in. Not because he saw her...but the road that had been straight now forked right where she stood, running over tall hills so no one could see what lay beyond. She knew, though. Down one fork was his violent death, down the other, a long life and a death in bed. On one path, he would marry her, on the other, not. She knew what lay ahead, but not which way led to which. Suddenly he did see her, or seemed to, and smiled, and turned his horse along one of the forks...”
“She stood before an immense wall, clawing at it, trying to tear it down with her bare hands. It was not made of brick or stone, but countless thousands of discs, each half white and half black, the ancient symbol of the Aes Sedai, like the seven seals that had once held the DO's prison shut...the wall stood strong however she beat at it. She could not tear it down. Maybe it was the symbol that was important. Maybe it was the AS she was trying to tear down, the White Tower. Maybe....”
“Straps at waist and shoulder held her tightly to the block, and the headsman's axe descended, but she knew that somewhere someone was running, and if they ran fast enough, the axe would stop.”
“Logain, laughing, stepped across something on the ground and mounted a black stone; when she looked down, she thought it was Rand's body he had stepped over, laid out on a funeral bier with his hands crossed at his breast, but when she touched his face, it broke apart like a paper puppet.”
“A golden hawk stretched out its wing and touched [Egwene], and she and the hawk were tied together somehow; all she knew was that the hawk was female.”
This paragraph seems to indicate Egwene's inevitable link to the Seanchan (specifically a woman) even after her capture.
“A man lay dying in a narrow bed, and it was important that he not die, yet outside a funeral pyre was being built, and voices raised songs of joy and sadness.”
[edit] The Path of Daggers
“Rand, wearing different masks, until suddenly one of those false faces was no longer a mask, but him.”
(Possibly a reference to what he feels the Dragon Reborn should be like.)
“Mat, weighing two Aes Sedai on a huge set of balance scales, and on his decision depended....She could not say what; something vast; the world, perhaps.”
“Recently, all of her dreams about Mat were pale and full of pain, like shadows cast by nightmares, almost as though Mat himself were not quite real.”
- Given that the foxhead medallion is known to shield the wearer's dreams[6], it may also shield the wearer from Egwene's prophetic dreams.
- Alternatively her sensation of Mat may have becomes blurred after he was given dead men's memories by the Eelfinn.
- Additionally could be related to the building that dropped on his head, causing him to spend most of his time unconscious, and in pain.
[edit] Crossroads of Twilight
“She was struggling up a narrow, rocky path along the face of a towering cliff. Clouds surrounded her, hiding the ground below and the crest above, yet she knew that both were very far away. [...] Abruptly, the ledge dropped away from under her with the crack of crumbling stone, and she caught frantically at the cliff, fingers scrabbling to find a hold. [...] Suddenly a woman appeared, clambering down the sheer side of the cliff out of the clouds, making her way as deftly as if she were walking down stairs. There was a sword strapped to her back. Her face wavered, never settling clearly, but the sword seemed as solid as the stone. The woman reached Egwene's level and held out one hand. "We can reach the top together," she said in a familiar drawling accent.”
- Egeanin is a Seanchan. But she has recently renounced all her claims to her people and has taken to carrying a sword strapped to her back. She could be the one who would help Egwene. She is now called Leilwin Shipless.
“A small white plinth stood centered in that circle, supporting an oil-lamp made of clear glass. The flame on that lamp burned bright and steady, without flickering. It was white too. Suddenly a pair of birds flashed out of the mist, two ravens black as night. Streaking across the spire-top, they struck the lamp and flew on without so much as a pause. The lamp spun and wobbled, dancing around atop the plinth, flinging off droplets of oil. Some of those drops caught fire in midair and vanished. Others fell around the short column, each supporting a tiny, flickering white flame. And the lamp continued to wobble on the edge of falling.”
- A future attack on the white tower by Seanchan.
[edit] Notes
- ↑ The Dragon Reborn, Chapter 55
- ↑ The Shadow Rising, Chapter 34
- ↑ The Shadow Rising, Chapter 26
- ↑ The Eye of the World, Chapter 18
- ↑ The Shadow Rising, Chapter 15
- ↑ http://www.tor.com/jordan/questions.html week7
"Q:How have Mat's dreams been protected since the first half of the series?
A: A side effect of his foxhead medallion, though he doesn't know it."
[edit] See also
- Min's viewings
- Karaethon Cycle, or the Prophecies of the Dragon
