Theoryland Chronicles

Members :Uno : The Old Blood

Introduction

What is the old blood? There are several theories on the nature of the old blood:

Development

• The old blood comes from a previous incarnation.
  
  At first glance this seems reasonable enough, and some have suggested that Mat's blabbering in the old tongue, before he was in Rhuiedan, comes from a past incarnation as king of Manetheren. However, isn't everyone in WOT and incarnation of someone else? And if everyone isn't, Rand surely is, and he doesn't seem to "suffer" from the Old Blood.
  
  
• The Old Blood manifests itself when there has been only a short interval between person's incarnations.
  
  Interesting idea, but what does "short time" mean? Centuries have gone since anyone actually spoke the Old Tongue daily. Also, why is the Old Blood so strong in the Two Rivers, and especially in Emonds Field? Is there any reason to believe that the time between incarantions should be determined by geography?
  
  
• The old blood appears in populations isolated from the rest of the world. The Old Blood actually comes from inbreeding.
  
  I agree; the Old Blood does seem to have something to do with isolation and little contact with the rest of the world. This is not the whole explanation, however: if it were, the whole of the Two Rivers would be babbling the Old Tongue all the time, especially the Coplins and the Congars.

Conclusion

The Old Blood does not come from memories of past lives, nor does it come strictly from inbreeding. The Old Blood seems to be a collective hereditary memory. In Ch. "What Might Be" in tGH, when the Two Rivers folks were preparing a defence against the invading Trollocs, some of the remarked that they felt like they had done this before; obviously a reference to the last hopeless defence of Manetheren. The Old Blood is a collective hereditary memory triggered by stress. It surfaces in critical situations and some people seem to be more disposed to it than others: perhaps Mat, and not Perrin, because he is the more excitable. Egwene has also remarked that she almost understood the Old Tongue. The Old Blood is probably caused by dramatic experiences by the ancestors; the words in the Old Tongue seem to be mainly war cries. The Old Blood strong where people have multiple descent from few, or relatively few, valiant ancestors.