As I reach the middle of Robert Jordan’s The Shadow Rising, I just have to stop and say something: I really love Tam al’Thor.
Granted, I’ve always been a sucker for an archer. Tam is the best shot in the Two Rivers, according to Perrin, and when Perrin returned to find him hiding in the woods and living off the land (so many Robin Hood vibes!) with Abell Cauthon, holding an uneasy truce with Verin and Alanna, ready to join Perrin’s daring rescue attempt, I have to admit that I was smitten.
Then again, Tam was a fascinating character right from the start. Before there were three ta’veren in Two Rivers, before Moiraine came to visit and discovered the untapped potential of female channelers there (nevermind the Dragon Reborn), when he was no older than Rand is at the beginning of The Eye of the World, some itch or impulse led Tam al’Thor to leave his home and travel out into the larger world. That decision helped shape the destiny of the most important person of the age, the Dragon Reborn himself.
That’s quite a remarkable adventure to occur before our story even begins.
My initial impression of Tam was one of easy, stoic strength. He seemed to be a man who knew himself and knew the course he wanted for his life. His refusal to remarry even many years after the death of his wife made him a romantic, and somewhat tragic, figure. The revelation that he not only owned a sword but knew how to use it added to the mystique even before we saw Lan’s reaction to the heron mark, and the fascination it elicited everywhere Rand went with it. And then, in the beginning of The Great Hunt, we found out that not only did the sword mark Tam as a blademaster, but it is also power-wrought, an ancient treasure from the Age of Legends. Where in the Light did the man get such a special and rare possession from?
I mean, we know from his feverish ramblings after the Trolloc attack that Tam fought in the Aiel War, so he was ostensibly a soldier. I don’t know which nation he fought for, though I’m tempted to assume it wasn’t Andor—the story of man from the Two Rivers who won or was awarded a power-wrought, heron-marked sword and the title of blademaster would probably have been remembered by someone who was in attendance during Rand’s interview—Gareth Bryne perhaps.
Buy the Book
Rhythm of War
In any case, I know the broad strokes of Tam’s life but I don’t yet know how, exactly, he distinguished himself in his career, or how he met his wife, Kari. I do know that he made an impressive showing against the Trollocs on Wintersnight (in my opinion, poisoned blades are a cheap trick and don’t count) and that he was able to resist the Whitecloaks when they came to arrest him. He and Abell also have a lot to offer in Perrin’s fight to drive the invaders from his home, like safe connections with other farmers and households, and practical knowledge from scouting the Whitecloaks’ camp.
What can I say? Competence is sexy.
When Rand learns the history of the Aiel and the story of sharing water, he muses upon the complexity of the Age Lace and all the events that had to happen to lead to his being born on Dragonmount just in time to be carried off to the Two Rivers, but he never thinks of the fact that it was extraordinary for Tam to be there at all. And if Tam hadn’t been there in that battle, who knows how events would have unfolded. Perhaps Shaiel’s child would have died, and the Wheel would have had to go back to trying to spin out a new Dragon, foisting more Logains and Mazrim Taims upon the world. Or perhaps the baby would have been found by someone else—someone who had darker intentions or would raise him somewhere less isolated than the Two Rivers, resulting in the young Dragon being discovered by the Forces of the Dark long before he could be prepared to face them.
And without Tam, would Rand have ever figured out how to consciously touch saidin? It was Tam who taught him the concentration trick of the flame and the void to help Rand learn to shoot a bow. The technique has saved Rand’s life many times in swordplay as well, and most significantly it has accidentally provided Rand with a starting point in learning how to channel saidin. This is something no Aes Sedai alive could teach him, a knowledge only possessed by the male members of the Forsaken, but somehow Tam al’Thor, shepherd from the Two Rivers, was able to give Rand the key.
I have so many questions about Tam’s history, and I also have questions as to what he’s thinking or guessing about Rand’s fate (Perrin did let slip that he has seen evidence of ta’veren powers in Rand). What will he do when he learns that his adopted son is the Dragon Reborn? Certainly he must have wondered at the baby’s strange beginnings, wondered what his mother’s story was, wondered about the significance of his Aiel heritage. Perhaps Tam occasionally saw something in Rand, some flicker of greatness or power he couldn’t account for but recognized all the same. Perhaps even now something is tugging at his mind, making him wonder.
I can’t wait to see what happens when Tam learns the truth about Rand. And will the two will meet again during the series? I’d love to see Tam join Rand, following and supporting him as an advisor or trusted general. Not that there aren’t a variety of practical obstacles to reaching Rand right now, even if one could figure out where he’s gone off to. It just seems to me that Tam would want to aid his son, to recognize the growth in him and follow his lead the way he has responded to and followed Perrin. Yes, there is stigma around the Dragon, but I don’t think even the threat of taint madness would stop Tam if he thought he could help his boy.
For they say the Old Blood is strong in the Two Rivers, and there is perhaps no better example of this than Tam al’Thor.
Sylas K Barrett would also like to see Tam and Lan hang out. They are kind of similar people, and it feels like they would be buds.
It is very sad that we will never get Tam’s full story. I believe it is later established that served Illian and I suspect from something he quoted to Rand about King’s, with a smile as if remembering a shared joke, that he was friendly with King Mattin.
Everybody with half a soul loves Tam.
When Rand and Tam meet again there will be fireworks and interesting conversations.
When Tam and Lan finally meet there will be an admission of equality/respect, and strangely Tam does make a good Leader
@1 Tam was a member of the Illian Companions, their elite fighters who comprised the King’s guard. He rose to Second Captain of the Companions and was given his heron-mark sword by the King when he achieved Blademaster status. That last bit was from an RJ quote.
My memory is fuzzy, but didn’t Moiraine reveal Tam’s background when Rand met with Siuan in the beginning of The Great Hunt?
Yes, I was right! Thanks to Leigh’s reread.
We already know as much of Tam’s history as we ever will, Moiraine told Siuan about it in Shienar.
Aaah, it seems that ‘James Bond Bolton’ is about to play another scene stealer – I’m terribly disappointed we don’t seem likely to get a rematch between Mr McElhatton’s terrorist and Wonder Woman (since let’s face it, the man was one musical number away from playing a modern day Judge Claude Frollo), but it’s good to know he’s still working the circuit. (-:
Lan’s observation about Tam when he witnesses Tam holding the line is one of my favorite lines from Lan. “I had long wondered,” Lan said to Tam. “About the man who had given Rand that heron-marked blade. I wondered if he had truly earned it. Now I know.” Lan raised his own sword in salute.
I loved the bound between Tam en Rand from the very beginning!!!
Most of all because the bond between fathers and their children is a weak spot of mine. I cannot say much more about my feelings without spoiling in case you are not finished reading yet, but it’s very nice to see that I’m not the only one who loves Tam the way we do.
A surprise post! Thanks, Sylas. Tam re-enters the saga and becomes a major supporting actor (I don’t consider that an oxymoron).
I could swear to remember from somewhere that Tam actually won his blade by defeating the current blademaster. As for the concentration trick of flame and void, Lan also knew this. It appears to be part of basic training given to professional fighters in Randland. Given that Lanfear recognized it as “oneness” part of male Aes Sedai training (I would assume in Age of Legends) both male and female channelers were intimately familiar with both saidin/saidar basic lessons, I have a theory that perhaps some male Aes Sedai, before they went mad, made sure to teach that trick to regular non channeler males to make it part of their fighting training perhaps recognizing or hoping that eventually Saidin will be cleansed and spreading this basic training will help prevent male channelers from dying being unable to learn Saidin. I feel that a whole lot more female channelers died untrained in Randland than males (who lived long enough to go mad or be gentled), perhaps of this basic trick. If that thing that Moirane taught Egwene about the blooming rose was part of basic female learning, a whole lot more females might have survived not being trained.
Yes, basics are told in the Great Hunt as others have noted. You’ll see him somewhat in action later in TSR, and later in the series – especially KoD and a Memory of Light.
The dialog in the early portion of EoTW with Rand and Lan – “That’s a very fine blade you wear – does there happen to be a heron marked on it?” – is one of the first moments in the series that truly resonated with me.
If I remember correctly, Tam bought the heron-marked sword off a vendor in Illian who did not know what it truly was, nor did Tam. Tam knew what the heron mark meant, but I don’t remember if the vendor did. Neither of them knew it was power-wrought.
You know, I’ve never thought about it before, but the Flame and the Void may have been passed to Tam from a long line of Blademasters, who had it through the ages from the men who rediscovered swords as a sport…a group of male Aes Sedai that included Lews Therin Telemon.
It makes sense that Blademasters use the same technique as male Aes Sedai. Swordfighting was created (or at least rediscovered) by male Aes Sedai in the Age of Legends, and they would have used those techniques they were already familiar with to gain mastery…and then passed those techniques on.
@12:
I see you had some similar thoughts. Combine those thoughts with what Be’lal tells Rand at the end of The Dragon Reborn. Be’lal was friends with Lews Therin, and they rediscovered the ancient sport of blades. So, the very first Blademasters in the AoL were men who could channel.
Many of these thoughts and hopes will pay off, although it will be a long time coming!
A Tam prequel was one of the ones Jordan was thinking about writing, right? That could have been fascinating (and just goes to show that he likely did have some signifance Jordan wanted to expand on).
I don’t have a copy on me, but I seem to remember a conversation somewhere in the final trilogy where Tam talks about beating a blademaster. Something along the lines of, “They said since I killed him, I had earned his blade.”
TBGH @17: I remembered that, too, but it took a little searching to find it. From TGS:
In an interview, RJ said Tam had gotten his sword directly from the King of Illian, but I don’t know that’s confirmed in canon.
@14: You’re thinking of the Illianer Bayle Domon. He bough a cuendillar symbol of the Aes Sedai in Saldea right before the events of tEotW. The merchant thought he was lying when he said it was cuendillar, but Bayle recognized what the symbol meant. Neither of them knew it was a seal on the Dark Ones prison.
I always enjoyed Tam as a character and it made me sad he never got more page time. I would have loved an RJ prequel featuring his time outside the two rivers.
As it is one of the things that always struck me was when Lan told Rand that in the Boarder lands that if a man raised you, then you were their child regardless of your blood parents. There is no way that Rand would have turned out the same without him. There is the whole nature vs nurture argument in child rearing.. While I think both play a part I think nurture is the deciding factor. I have seen it in my own life.
With all the King Arthur parallels in the Wheel of Time I always have associated Tam Al’Thor with Sir Ector.
As far as whether or not he had earned the right to be a blade master, I think Lan’s comments laid that to rest. He was equal to the task and he deserved to be recognized as such. He was just a humble man who did what needed doing.. I think him and Lan would be friends in the years after the books end.. The Griffon Alliance would require ambassadors and I think they could do far worse as an ambassador for Andor to the former Boarder land Kingdoms than Tam. That could be some great FanFic..
Are there any rumblings from Brandon Sanderson on ever revisiting the wheel of time and doing more of the story?
As much as I’d love to see it (or at least see if anything existed in notes form), Sanderson definitely has his hands full with his own stuff right now, heh. And I’m pretty sure he’s sad he doesn’t intend to be writing in other authors’ universes for the time being.
@20, 21:
To add to this, in his last “State of Sanderson” post, BS half-jokingly expressed concern about being able to finish his own mega series before dying of old age. But if you do the math on the books he’s planning to write in the Cosmere, not including any room for new ideas that may crop up, and multiply that by his average speed of release of Cosmere novels (which is slower now than even when he was working on WoT), he’s going to be in his late 70s before he finishes all 34-35 books.
Tam is, honestly, probably the single most level-headed, clear-sighted, strongest-willed, and intelligent person we meet all series. I challenge anyone to name a better. :)
Hahahahaha. I don’t know what Sylas might have been thinking of, specifically, and now I wonder what might have been possible. Now I can just imagine Rand being raised in the Town like Isam, though that probably couldn’t have happened, and find the notion hilarious for some reason. Possibly because I’m at the online JordanCon and in the mood to be amused by WoT things. Or possibly because I’m evil.
You get a very brief peak of versions of Rand who were not raised by Tam in the Great Hunt when Rand uses the portal stone to travel to Falme.
I am not sure about channeling saidin, but the flame and void trick is a good way of focusing your mind, and I am not surprised that it would have been passed down as an archery and swordsman trick. I think that it is possible that in staid of male Aes Sedai teaching it to non channeling men as an attempt to preserve the concept of the oneness, they borrowed it from non channelers, and found it to be an effective way of reaching saidin. (Also, from how saidin is described, it is something that I would rather touch with a clear and focused mind anyway even if it could be touched without reaching the void first.)
Most of the scenes that drove me to strong emotion in this series involved Tam in one way or another. I could argue that Tam saved the world, due to the close relationship he shares with Rand. Rand backs off some of the more morally dubious choices by thinking about Tam.
Kari al ‘Thor was a very lucky woman.
@14 & @19: You’re both at least half-right… from EotW when Tam first shows Rand the sword (emphasis added):
Of course, Tam is referring here to whatever it cost him to become a blademaster and his wartime experiences – cf. Gawyn’s feelings (<headdesk>) after killing Hammar & Coulin to “earn” his herons.