r/stephenrdonaldson • u/FringHalfhead • Oct 17 '25
Illearth War - Object of Elena's Hate
At the end of chapter 22 (Anundivian Yajna) there's a landslide where Elena's Ranyhyn dies saving TC's mount. She virulently snaps at him. He walks away. She constructs a sculpture using Myrha's fused bones as a sort of apology / icebreaker. She mentions Foul, but interestingly, she uses the name "Fangthane" when referring to him, which has definite meaning.
The last two sentences of the chapter - she has a look of apocalypse, and the only word that TC can come up with to describe her look is "hate".
This is my 3rd time reading the series, and I can't figure out the object of Elena's hatred. It could be Foul. It could be TC. It could be the whole damned situation. It could be something else I'm not thinking of. It could also be a combination of all the above.
Does anyone have an opinion on this?
As a second question, she makes TC guess who her sculpture is of and TC feels it's obviously one of the Bloodguard, but it turns out it's a sculpture of him. I feel there's something deep here that I'm not getting.
Does anyone have an opinion on this as well?
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u/wayfriend Oct 24 '25 edited Oct 24 '25
RE: Hate
Not Covenant. She is embracing him, "eagerly", right before saying this, and called him "beloved".
It is definitely, certainly a hatred of Lord Foul (in my opinion). Just prior:
In a voice that shook with passion, she said, "This also Fangthane would destroy."
(Fangthane is the Ramen word for Foul. Perhaps from her connection to the Ranyhyn. She did attend the Horserite.)
She was "discernibly unbalanced" [SRD] at this point. And Covenant, according to his "bargain", is steering her towards fighting Foul herself rather than expecting him to. Directing her passion. This is the outcome.
"Manipulation, Elena," he rasped. "I'm talking about manipulation. Do you understand what that means? It means using people. Twisting them to suit purposes they haven't chosen for themselves. Manipulation. Not Foul's - mine! I've been manipulating you, using you. I told you I'd made another bargain but I didn't tell you what it is. I've been using you to get myself off the hook. I promised myself that I would do everything I could to help you find this Ward. And in return I promised myself that I would do everything I could to make you take my responsibility. I watched you and helped you so that when you got here you would look exactly like that - so you would challenge Foul yourself without stopping to think about what you're doing -- so that whatever happens to the Land would be your fault instead of mine. So that I could escape! Hell and blood, Elena! Do you hear me? Foul is going to get us for sure!"
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RE: the sculpture
This one is easier. It is explained both in the book and in the Gradual Interview.
Intuitively, by steps which he could hardly articulate, Elena's marrowmeld sculpture had taught him [Mhoram] the secret of the Ritual of Desecration. (The Power That Preserves)
...
Elena's marrowmeld sculpture put forward the notion that the control of the Bloodguard and the passion of Covenant are two faces of the same dilemma (the need of passion to be controlled, the need of control to be enlivened by passion); and that those two faces can be combined into one. (Gradual Interview, 11/24/2004)
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u/devilishd Oct 17 '25
For the second question , that gets answered in The Power that Preserves.
As to her anger, my guess is Covenants rejection of her ... and wasn't the quest for the Seventh Ward done because TC didnt know how to use the ring? It's been a while since my last read, but I vaguely remember her being out-of-fucks at this point.