Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

LOC Signing Report - Erica Sadun (Paraphrased)

Tam and Rand: Originally same character—the soldier comes home to a small town. He is not Farstrider. He is a blademaster and Second Captain in Illian.

tam, rand, farstrider, blademasters, illian,

LOC Signing Report - Erica Sadun (Paraphrased)

Tam's sword: Given to him by the King of Illian. (Please ask for more details about this.)

tam, mattin stepaneos, blademasters, illian,

Twitter 2009-2010 (WoT) (Verbatim)

Who is the best swordsman in WoT right now? Lan, Galad, or Gawyn?

Lan. Then Galad. Then Gawyn. Gawyn is luckier than he thinks he is.

blademasters, lan, galad, gawyn,

DragonCon SciFi Channel Chat (Verbatim)

Would Rand technically be a blademaster since he killed the Seanchan blademaster in The Great Hunt? Or is there more to being a blademaster than that?

There's more to it than that.

rand, blademasters, the great hunt,

SciFi.com Chat (Verbatim)

I don't think this'll come up at all in the series, so hopefully it won't be a RAFO. ;) Just how 'organized' is the institution of blademastery, if we can call it that? I believe you hinted before that there's more to blademastery than beating a blademaster and taking his sword. And, how many blademasters do you imagine exist in Randland at the time of the books? Just how rare is it?

First off...rarity. Fewer than 100 men in the nations that are spoken of in the books. It is a semi-formal thing that is normally one is chosen to become a blademaster by other blademasters. There's no real organization. IF you want to become a blademaster, you have to find other blademasters who are willing to acknowledge you as an equal.

blademasters,

Letter to Paul Ward (Verbatim)

Possible question: Someone found a "Master Knifemaker" Herron. Was he the inspiration for heron-mark blades?

No... I am not familiar with him at all.

wot influences, blademasters,

Barnes and Noble Chat (Verbatim)

Who would win in a sword fight between Lan and Galad? My money's on Lan.

(laughs) Unless you can find someone else to bet with, use your money to buy yourself some beer.

lan, galad, blademasters, lol,

SciFi.com Chat (Verbatim)

What was Lews Therin's age at the time of the sealng of the Bore, and was his prowess with the sword (and Sammael's) comparable to modern blademasters?

Read and find out!

lews therin, the bore, blademasters, sammael,

Dromen and Demonen Chat (Verbatim)

Mr. Jordan, why did you choose a heron as a mark for the Dragon Reborn (and swordmasters)?

I chose the heron because that is a quick, supple, and to its prey, very deadly bird. The perfect avian simile for a swordsman.

rand, blademasters,

Dromen and Demonen Chat (Verbatim)

Is the material of a true heron blade altered the same way as a ter'angreal?

The material of a true heron mark blade is altered. It is not simple steel anymore.

blademasters, power-wrought weapons,

ComicCon Reports (Paraphrased)

Blademasters vary by style. The most famous Japanese sword fighter developed his form in the Philippines fighting what he considered the deadliest fighters in the world, Spanish fighting with rapier and dagger.

blademasters, wot influences,

ComicCon Report - Diomedes (Paraphrased)

RJ was asked a few questions about swords and fighting styles.

Lan and Rand's swords are loosely based on the katana, and another style of sword I had never heard of before (sooba? something like that anyway. SilverWarder might know) and that others were based on medieval European styles. He said that blademasters don't follow one particular historical style of fighting, but that different blademasters have different styles depending on their culture of origin.

At this point he went off on a little tangent about Miyamoto Musashi, a reknowned Japanese swordsman that developed a two-sword style of fighting that was revolutionary at the time. He related that Musashi developed his fighting style after fighting in the Philippines against fighters (Dutch? Portuguese? I didn't write their nationality down, but somebody here might know) that were using swords and dirks in a two-handed fighting style. In any case, I think his point was to demonstrate how fighting styles, like other knowledge, disseminates from culture to culture, but is changed and adapted into something unique in each locale.

blademasters, wot influences, lan, rand, power-wrought weapons, sword forms,

TGS Signing Report - Ted Herman (Paraphrased)

About Gawyn's duel with Sleete, and the usage of real swords, she said she would have to look into that, since I had believed that normally practice swords are used. She said that perhaps sometimes they have to use real swords to keep their edge, so to speak, but will look into that.

MARIA SIMONS (VIA LUCKERS)

With novice swordsmen, the practice sword is very good because they can swing away with abandon and be swung at and at worse get a bruise. But there comes a time when a person must practice with a real sword, and not just shadow fencing. How does a sword feel when it hits another sword? How quickly can you come back from that? Practice with the weapon you are going to use in real combat is necessary. This is especially true if you are with an army in the field; you’re not playing at keeping in shape, you’re trying to make sure that you are at your absolute top form to keep from being killed when you come up against someone else with a pointy blade. These Warders are very, very good; they trust themselves to fight with real swords without damaging each other.

So, often they practiced with practice swords, but sometimes they practiced with real swords. There is a type of practice with real swords in the books. We see it in New Spring: the Novel, where Bukama “took the other two a little distance away with talk of some game called “sevens.” A strange game it seemed to be, and more than dangerous in the failing daylight. Lan and Ryne sat cross-legged facing one another, their swords sheathed, then without warning drew, each blade flashing toward the other man’s throat, stopping just short of flesh. The older man pointed to Ryne, they sheathed swords, and then did it again. For as long as she watched, that was how it went. Perhaps Ryne had not been so over-confident as he seemed.”

It’s not the same as when Gawyn faced Sleete and Marlesh, but it is experienced swordsmen practicing with real swords.

the gathering storm, gawyn, weapons, blademasters, warders, errors, mafo,

Pat's Fantasy Hotlist: Interview with Brandon Sanderson (Verbatim)

Rodel Ituralde and especially Gareth Bryne being blademasters seemed a surprise. Do we know why this information didn't come up before? In addition, Bryne mentions only being an under-captain during the Aiel War when The Eye of the World states he was Captain-General back to Queen Modrellen's day. But then the Big White Book also says that Andor had a different Captain-General during the Aiel War. A case of Robert Jordan changing his mind?

Number one, let's talk about the blademaster issue. I'm not at liberty right now to say what's in the notes and what isn't, but I can tell you I'm drawing from the notes when I'm writing. I don't know why certain things weren't mentioned before in the series.

Maintaining the Wheel of Time continuity is an enormous task. There are so many questions like "What was Bryne's rank during the Aiel war?" where I ask Maria and Alan and just trust their instincts. There are other ones where they're not even sure.

Much of the time, when we run into issues like this, it's just me making a mistake. I do apologize for that. I promise you, I have read these books a number of times, but I don't have the type of mind that memorizes facts and repeats them back offhandedly. I have to do a lot of reading each time I write a chapter, and I often make mistakes. A lot of the time, these mistakes come because I HAVE been reading the series for so long. I've got these long-seated impressions of characters and events in my head that go back all the way to my teenage days. And they're not always right. (I didn't learn to pronounce some character names until I was well into my 20s.) Sometimes, I just assume I know something when I've been wrong about it all along. Those are the dangerous ones, since I don't think to look up items like that.

Anyway, with every printing of the books, Maria goes back in and fixes continuity. It happened when Robert Jordan was writing the books (though not nearly as often as it will when I'm writing them, I suspect). So what can I say about that? Well, Harriet is putting together a comprehensive encyclopedia that will become the definitive answer to these sorts of questions. Until then, I'm letting Team Jordan handle it.

errors, blademasters, ituralde, bryne, andor, aiel war, maria, alan, harriet, encyclopedia,

Driving Mr. Sanderson - Terez (Verbatim)

When did Lan first become a blademaster?

(reading) When did Lan (LAHN) first become...oh, Lan (rhymes with pan), sorry. I hear all these names at JordanCon, and half of them pronounce them one way, and half of them the other way, and I end up getting bad habits.

Terez

Yeah. I don’t care.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, but Robert Jordan cared, so I try to care.

Terez

So is it Lahn or Lan?

Brandon Sanderson

It’s Lan.

Terez

Okay, good, because that’s how I pronounce it.

Brandon Sanderson

As far as I know—someone could correct me—it’s Lan, but Lan was one of those ones that—I believe—some major source had wrong. I could be completely wrong on this. I know Tar Valon (Tar va-LAHN), one major source had wrong, meaning an audiobook reader, or an original typo in one of the glossaries, or something, which really itched at Jim as I understand because he really wanted it to be Tar va-LAHN and not Tar VA-lun. So...when did Lan first become a blademaster? Well...between New Spring and The Eye of the World.

Terez

(laughs) Okay.

Brandon Sanderson

Wait, didn't he...he wasn't a blademaster in New Spring, was he? No...

Terez

Not that I'm aware of. And Ryne was better than him then at that time, so...

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. So, somewhere in between those two. I suspect that was one of the things that Jim wanted to do in the prequel.

Terez

Right. Because there was definitely not a big deal made of it when he killed Toram Riatin.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah.

Maria Simons

Okay, the notes say that Lan became a blademaster before he turned 20, which would have been before New Spring. My thoughts on this are that Lan got his sword at an early age, and worked really hard with it, and was judged a blademaster by five blademasters sometime pretty early on. It's not mentioned specifically that I can find in New Spring, but it makes sense to me.

blademasters, lan, new spring, maria, pronunciation, rj's notes,

AMOL Signing Report - J. Dauro (Verbatim)

Dalinar and Lan, who wins in a swordfight? Both full Shardbearers.

Both full Shardbearers. Lan probably wins, I would guess. Lan is more pure swordsman than Dalinar. Dalinar spent a lot of time on things like battlefield tactics.

lan, dalinar, blademasters,

Reddit AMA 2013 (Verbatim)

I'm also wondering about the several duel with Demandred. Isn't Gawyn a bit too weak in this book? From the previous books, Gawyn was said to be able to easily take down other Warders and even win in a practice against two Warders together. Then with a single Bloodknife ring, the wearer is supposed to have superhuman strength/speed that can't really be matched, and he was using not one but three rings. While Galad has been established throughout the series to be better than Gawyn, I find it strange that Galad was able to hurt Demandred with nothing but a imperfect foxhead medallion copy, while Gawyn with three Bloodknives rings and Warder bond didn't remotely stand a chance against Demandred?

Gawyn is good, but not really, really good. In addition, he has an inflated sense of HOW good he is. He doesn't have the inner control and understanding to be a fully capable swordsman. Beyond that, he mistakes power for ability, and lets himself grow too reckless. Finally, having enhanced abilities, such as the rings grant him, doesn't immediately give you the skill to make full use of those abilities. Gawyn tried, and deserves credit for that, but in the end he had not spent years preparing himself properly to win that particular contest.

a memory of light, blademasters, gawyn, demandred, warder bond, bloodknives, ter'angreal,

Waygate Foundation Q&A (Verbatim)

How did Tam come to have a heron-mark sword?

It was given to him by the King of Illian during Tam’s service with the Illianer Companions. We do not know what he did to become a blademaster.

What Maria says here is what RJ said (reported by Erica Sadun in 1994). In The Gathering Storm Chapter 47, Tam tells Rand that he became a blademaster by killing a blademaster in front of witnesses. The general fan explanation is that Tam refused to take his sword, but was essentially forced to take it by the King of Illian.

blademasters, tam, the gathering storm,

Reddit: If you had a make-a-wish and for some reason chose Brandon Sanderson to answer one question, what would your question be? (Verbatim)

Who did Tam kill to earn the heron blade?

Afraid that, while this might be buried in the notes somewhere, I couldn't find it.

tam, blademasters,