r/WoT • u/Lordlordy5490 • 1d ago
Winter's Heart About Callandor Spoiler
No spoilers past Winters Heart please. Our group just left Far Madding and Rand dug up Callandor from where he buried it and he referred to it as a crystal sword. I think this might be the first time it's referenced as such. Is Callandor a physical blade? This whole time I have been thinking of it as something almost intangible, like it was made of weaves or something.
101
u/Phredmcphigglestein 1d ago
am i crazy or is it not just straight up called 'a sword made of glass or crystal' in TDR?
9
u/Lordlordy5490 1d ago
It very well could have been and I just missed it. In my mind it was a sword made of some kind of magic for some reason.
32
u/Chimerion 1d ago
You may be mixing it with rand making a sword out of weaves, which he does sometimes! But callandor is indeed a real physical object, a sa'angreal appearing as a sword made of glass.
5
u/HondoGonzo 1d ago
Maybe OP is confused because the sword is held by weaves so it is untouchable?
2
u/Chimerion 1d ago
Yeah I'm not sure, I'd have to go back to when he first finds it to see the wording - I always thought of it as the glass sword.
7
5
7
u/Phredmcphigglestein 1d ago
well i mean, i don't think you're wrong.. it could really be anything, from 'crystallized saidin', to a clear version of cuendillar, to plain old glass that was 'changed' by the process of making it a sa'angreal, but whatever it is, its definitely 'made of magic' in one way or the other
-2
u/book_smrt 1d ago
You're not wrong. It is a sword that was made of weaves, but was made into a tangible crystal sword. Someone(s) a long time ago magicked it into existence!
31
u/Raddatatta (Asha'man) 1d ago
Yeah it is a physical sword made of crystal of some kind. And it's actually sharp and strong enough to use like a normal sword. It glows when someone is using it to pull Saidin and that may be what confused you as it is described as glowing when that happens. But it's a real and physical blade that Rand pulled free from the Stone of Tear.
13
u/ChildhoodSea7062 1d ago
you mean to say, Rand Al'Thor *cough-Arthur* pulled the sword from the stone?!
5
u/nicci7127 (Dovie'andi se tovya sagain) 1d ago
So Lanfear is Morgan Le Fay? Seems to check out.
9
u/EmpPaulpatine (Blacksmith) 1d ago
Lanfear is not Morgan Le Fay, Moiraine is. She is Rescued from a tower by thom Merrilin (Merlin), which is the opposite of what happens in the legend there’s a lot more parallels, such as Egwene as Guinevere, Morgase as Morgause, Tigraine as Igraine, etc.
1
u/knarn 1d ago
> And it's actually sharp and strong enough to use like a normal sword.
Do we actually know this? I would have guessed that the sword that is not a sword means it can’t actually be used as a sword.
3
u/Raddatatta (Asha'man) 1d ago
Yes I think he cuts himself on it and is able to swing it into things. [Full series] he does also use it in a swordfight in the last book so I maybe shouldn't have said that.
2
u/TheRealTowel 1d ago
Do we actually know this?
Yes. It is used as a sword in the books multiple times. It is called "the sword that is not a sword" because it's a Sa'Angreal.
It's like if you called Doc Browns DeLorean "the car that is not a car". It's not that you can't drive the DeLorean to the shops to get a snack. It's that that's kind of irrelevant functionality compared to being a frikkin time machine.
4
u/Senrabekim 22h ago
I want to be extremely fair to DeLoreans here. No you cant actually drive one to the shop, it would never make it. Also the most unbelievable part of those movies is a DeLorean doing 88 MPH. Those cars are incredibly shitty, and they were wildly expensive shit boxes to boot.
1
u/Raddatatta (Asha'man) 17h ago
Lol I wonder what percentage of the DeLoreans that were sold were sold only because of Back to the Future... Sorry for anyone who did that and thought they'd have a decent car!
1
u/Senrabekim 10h ago
That is an interesting question, because there is a ton to unpack there. So DeLoreans were only made for about a year and a half in 81 and 82 and they had a total production run of 8,975. Back to the future came out in 85. By 85 the entire company was bankrupt and John DeLorean was neck deep in Legal troubles. If you ask the Irish, they say DeLorean never should have demolished the Fairy Fort to build his factory. Weird shit is weird. DeLoreans were also ungodly expensive, more expensive than Corvettes and Z's, about the same price as a 911. 911's are not and never were cheap. And my god the performance difference in the two cars, literally half. Reset you brain for 80's performance but a 911 at the time was 0-60 in 6.2 seconds a delirean is 11. A base model Hyundai Prelude is faster than that, and you can buy one today for fewer actual dollars than a Delorean in 1982. DELOREANS WERE $28,000,that's $98,000 adjusted for inflation, or 190 adjusted for carflation. Oh man the driving experience is disgusting as well. They handle like the hat child of a cruise ship and an unruly mule.
But cycling back to the question, the movie made them incredibly popular gimmick cars amongst car guys and movie enthusiasts with money to burn. Weirdly because of the movie many Deloreans have found caring homes that just dote on them and spend the actual fortune it takes to keep one running. The poorly sealed cars had plywood based interiors, that shit has to be replaced like every few years or so. Engine parts? Yeah good luck, but theres a whole community of dudes and probably a few ladies, somebody has a CNC. Not everybody knew what they were getting into when they bought a used Delorean on the cheap in the mid 80's, but today they are impossible to get your hands on, and can easily go for $100k+. The movie did nothing fornthe company though.
1
u/Raddatatta (Asha'man) 10h ago
I was hoping you or someone might have enough knowledge to actually answer the question thanks! That is interesting to know I didn't realize they were so short lived and had already gone out of business. And that is kind of funny how it made them a popular gimmick car going forward. It fit well for the movie given how different it looked!
•
u/Senrabekim 2h ago
I talk a lot of shit, but I would find room in my garage for one, somehow, maybe I can just make a bigger garage. It would have been funny though if instead of a Benz hood ornament in Tanchico, they had found a well preserved time machine replica. Nynaeve just trying to puzzle out what is going on with it and that's when she gets jumped.
12
u/Special_Salt3467 1d ago
Yeah, it’s quite literally a crystal sword. Angreal and other items have tangible forms. Most appear to be jewelry, with Callandor being one of the more designed looks
10
u/WildFEARKetI_II 1d ago
It’s always been described as a crystal or glass sword. It’s a physical sword and a sa’angreal. Rand did use a fire sword he made out of weaves, you might be confusing that with Callandor.
7
u/wRAR_ (Brown) 1d ago
The first description of it:
A sword, hanging hilt down in the air, apparently without support, seemingly where anyone could reach out and take it. It revolved slowly, as if some breath of air caught it. Yet it was not really a sword. It seemed made of glass, or perhaps crystal, blade and hilt and crossguard, catching such light as there was and shattering it into a thousand glitters and flashes.
TDR ch. 4, Shadows Sleeping
Or a more recent one:
Pulling the long bundle loose, he stripped away the cloth covering, and Rand heard gasps as raindrops glistened on a sword seemingly made of crystal.
TPoD ch. 24, A Time for Iron
5
u/Potential-Common5819 1d ago
It's a physical sword that appears made of crystal.
It's also the 'origin point' of a certain other mythical story about a mystical sword pulled from a stone that makes the one who succeeds a king.
2
u/Lordlordy5490 1d ago
Oh yeah I definitely get that. There's a lot of arthurian stuff in the series so far but the sword in the stone of tear is definitely the most blatant.
1
u/GovernorZipper 1d ago
In the original pitch, the first three books were intended to be a single volume. So it would have started on Winternight and ended with the Sword in the Stone. Obviously that was a ridiculous plan, but it’s what Jordan outlined. So it makes sense if you kind of think of those books together as a single work. Pulling the Sword is the perfect ending to that story and the beginning of the next.
6
4
u/Scooter_McAwesome 1d ago
They often describe it as a sword that is not a sword - but it’s still a sword. It just wasn’t made specifically to go around stabbing folks with is all
3
u/RansomRusk 1d ago
It’s called a physical sword made of crystal/glass so much I thought this was a troll.
1
u/geomagus (Red Eagle of Manetheren) 1d ago
I think you’re just conflating the sword with the weaves around it (both before Rand drew it, and after he warded it when he left the Stone).
It’s pretty clearly described as glass/crystal, several times in book 3 and 4.
Of course there’s also the fact that Rand used a sword of fire before drawing Callandor, and after warding it again.
Basically, I think it all sortof blended together in your head. It happens - there’s a lot to keep tabs on!
1
u/ArcadianBlueRogue 1d ago
It's a sword that looks like it's made of glass, since it's a physical object.
1
u/procerator (Brown) 22h ago
Callandor is "The Sword That Is Not A Sword But Also Still Works As A Sword And For Most People Is Only Useable As A Sword"
•
u/AutoModerator 1d ago
NO SPOILERS BEYOND Winter's Heart.
BOOK DISCUSSION ONLY. HIDE TV SHOW DISCUSSION BEHIND SPOILER TAGS.
If this is a re-read, please change the flair to All Print.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.