[alison]

But when it comes to Cadvan and Nerili, a totally different story. What was going on there? Care to enlighten us, Alison?

Erhrrm. (I have to put on my scholarly voice here...) The records aren't exactly forthcoming about Cadvan's private life; but it seems pretty clear from the Naraudh Lar Chane that Nerili and Cadvan had some kind of important relationship, and that Cadvan left, driven most likely by his sense of duty, or his inability to remain in any School. This is clearly years before the events in The Riddle, and Nerili still rather stings about it. Which is no more than any reader will know, I know. I'll have to do some more research and see if there are any documents which throw light on the question... :)

Cadvan is, however, a fairly typical Bard, in that during the course of their long lives, Bards will often have "many loves". With Cadvan, we know of at least two - Nerili and Ceredin. It was not considered at all inevitable among Bards that they would end up in a couple; many did (like Silvia and Malgorn) but many remained unattached, and this was not considered, by them or anyone else, to be a problem. As I mention in the Appendices of The Gift, the Bards had a sophisticated erotic culture, and The Way of the Heart (I think Dernhil refers to it) was considered central to the Knowing. The Way of the Heart is a little like Sufi mysticism, where love is a means of enlightenment, and its end is not marriage but Knowing.

[alison]

BUT she might not actualy live... "but wait a minute" i hear you cry "she has to write the book with Cadvan!"..... no she doesn't, somewhere in the appendicies (pg 456, to be precise) of the Riddle, it says that some reserchers (in the land of Faerie where this actualy happened) think that Cadvan may not have written the Naraudh Lar-Chane, it could have been written by someone else (Saliman, Hem/ Cai etc) and filed it under their names for whatever reason.... so, just because it says they wrote it that is no guarantee that either of them might live..............
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Well spotted, Gemini! Yes, much is doubtful in the ancient records of Faerie, so there are no guarantees, obviously.

Hem insists on being called Hem, by the way, even if his "proper" name is Cai.

[Gemini]

I think that there is one character who will appear later and is a possible partner for Maerad and that is Nim the Jussack. Is it just me or does anyone else agree? By the way I hope she goes with Cadvan in the end. :)
HEY, you're right, i had completely forgotten about him, interesting thought.

i bet you've read the Old Kingdom trilogy by Garth Nix (Actualy, the Maerad on the American cover is more how I would have pictured Lirael.)

[Gemini]

HEY i just had an epiphany.... (REALLY truly DO NOT read this until after you've read The Riddle, when you have, by all means come back and tell me if you agree) You know when Cadvan and Maerad are talking on the boat as i've mentioned before. Maerad thinks that Cadvan actualy means someone else when he says she looked like Ardina... well, he could have meant Ceredin (was that her name?)... hmmm and so the plot thickens it was probably obvious to everyone else..... meh.

i need to get a life :p..................(30 posts...WEEEE)

[Mrs. Cadvan]

HEY i just had an epiphany.... (REALLY truly DO NOT read this until after you've read The Riddle, when you have, by all means come back and tell me if you agree) You know when Cadvan and Maerad are talking on the boat as i've mentioned before. Maerad thinks that Cadvan actualy means someone else when he says she looked like Ardina... well, he could have meant Ceredin (was that her name?)... hmmm and so the plot thickens it was probably obvious to everyone else..... meh.

Yeah, I agree. At the end of the first book, when Maerad scries Cadvan, she sees Ceredin, doesn't she? She thinks that Ceredin looked like Milana. And we know that Maerad looks like her mother.
So I reckon Cadvan must be feeling some confused emotions when he sees Maerad- she looks like his old lover, after all.

[Gemini]

So I reckon Cadvan must be feeling some confused emotions when he sees Maerad- she looks like his old lover, after all. My guess is that things are going to get very complicated between them, especially because of the way Maerad reacts to any show of affection towards her from men. Also that seperation between them (i found it sort of boring when she was by herself i was used to her and Cadvan travelling together! It was much better when she started travelling with Dharin, oh Dharin... :( )
was necessary, because it made her realise how she felt about Cadvan, AND it gave her more idependence. Maerad said herself that Cadvan was always the one to deal with strangers and solve situations and she also said something like she couldn't walk into the Nameless's tower all by herself, or something.... So as heartrending and sometimes boring and stressful as i found that seperation to be, it was necessary really, to give Maerad more idependene etc. Maerad's poor old hand... hey, more parallels! Beren one-hand , Frodo of the nine fingers :D lol.

~15 days!~

[Merenwen]

I'm really lookin forward to the crow (ahhhhhh 2006) but dont know if i can handle a whole book with no word from Maerad and Cadvan ahhhh i really think they should get together. all i can say is that i hope the 4th book is long.

[Gemini]

I'm really lookin forward to the crow (ahhhhhh 2006) but dont know if i can handle a whole book with no word from Maerad and Cadvan ahhhh i really think they should get together. all i can say is that i hope the 4th book is long.
If you can't wait until 2006, then you must join in our little rebellion and kidnap alison with us :D *for now try to imagine that that is an evil grin*... the intimate details of those oh-so-evil plans can be found in another thread... I guess by now you've figured out that everybody here are Maerad- Cadvan shippers :D . So alison better watch out, else she'll have an online riot on her hands if we don't get our way, that brings us back to a certain plan involving a cartain basement on the island of forgetting ;).

Another thing, that 4th book (The Singing is a nice name) better be long and it better be satisfying :D ;) . Though, i don't mind reading about Hem for a while, i'm going to find the whole dual story line interesting (Tolkien got me hooked on the dual storyline thing. Though thankfully he had a timeline at the end, it really helped when i was trying to figure out what everyone was doing at a certain time, though... sigh.. i gave the ending away for myself damn it. I was perusing the timeline and i 'accidently' looked over and saw the heart rending phrase "Gollum seises the Ring and falls into the cracks of doom"... so i knew the end i was only half way through RotK... oh well
:( )... oh no :eek: ... i'm going off topic, again, slap me next time :D . I will find it fun to think "oh, while Hem is ****, Maerad probably was having that cosy little chat with Cadvan on the boat..."

[Merenwen]

Yeah i suppose it wont be too bad readin bout hem and saliman (slight understatement - it'll be way better than "not too bad") but still 2006 ahhhh i'd rather it came out in aus first then at least i could order it over the net ahhh well *sigh*.

[alison]

Another thing, that 4th book (The Singing is a nice name) better be long and it better be satisfying

Undercover Firebreathing Possum here.... I'll do my best, I assure you, wicked kidnapping plots or not. :eek: But I'll let you in on a secret - each book gets harder! The Crow has been definitely the hardest so far (sob weep, I can see you all feeling sorry for me)...and I have no doubt that Book 4 will be the hardest of the lot.

And the whole thing of the parallel storyline IS interesting to do. You should be able to track what Maerad and Hem are doing, as I've worked it out fairly carefully - with one of those plastic calendars that you write on with marker pen, seeing as I use earth years!