GRADUAL INTERVIEW SPOILER WARNING!   ..........   Spoilers - The Runes of the Earth Don Richard (Rick) Stuckwisch:  Dear Mr. Donaldson, While I?m waiting and hoping for your reply to my earlier question (regarding the caesures or Falls), perhaps I may offer a few additional questions that have been in the back of my mind concerning the various Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. In The Runes of the Earth, I?m wondering why no mention has been made of the task to which Thomas Covenant urged the Haruchai toward the end of the Second Chronicles. The enterprise of the Masters could easily be understood as a construal and development of that task, yet no mention has been made to it. In fact, at one point Linden mentions that the Haruchai refused to go with Covenant when he went to face down Foul, even though, in fact, it was Covenant who insisted that they not come with him; that he wanted them to dedicate themselves to a different service -- to the Land itself -- rather than to fallible human beings like himself. Am I remembering incorrectly, or am I missing or misunderstanding something? Or was Linden mistaken in the way she perceived and remembered the events? Another question, which may be fairly simple and straightforward: Esmer and Stave both indicate that Linden dare not employ the White Gold Ring and the Staff of Law at the same time, because their powers are somewhat antithetical to each other, and the combined force of the two together would be more than any mortal could bear. That makes sense, to me, and I can likewise understand and appreciate that the White Gold was more suited to Covenant, the Staff to Linden. But I?m wondering about the time (at the end of Lord Foul?s Bane, as I recall) when Covenant took hold of the Staff of Law, to aid it with the wild magic of his White Gold, in order to call forth the Fire Lions on Mount Thunder. Was that not a use of the Ring and the Staff together? And, if so, how was it possible for Covenant to bear the use of such power, even briefly? One more thing that has had me puzzled: I kept waiting to discover, in the Second Chronicles, what the ?one word of truth? is; but I seem to have missed it. Was that indicated at some point, or is it yet to be revealed in the Last Chronicles? I?ve noticed the parallels and similarities between the Wurd of the Elohim, the Weird of the Demondim-spawn, the Worm of the World?s End, and references to Wyrd and Word, etc. I?m wondering if, in the end, something is going to be revealed about the ?one word of truth,? to which reference was made when Covenant met with his Dead in Andelain. As a theologian, I have also mused that you may be drawing on the Logos-philosophy of the ancient Stoics, and upon the even more profound Logos-theology of the Fourth Gospel. I don?t know if you?d care to comment on that. . . . I may be seeing things where there aren?t any, but I can?t help but discover and discern numerous scriptural and theological elements throughout the Chronicles (in many of the names, certainly, but also more subtle things, too). Rick Stuckwisch Sadly, your first question refer to an undeniable authorial screw-up. Of *course* Linden should have remembered Covenant’s final injunction to the Haruchai. As long as no prodecural difficulties interfere, this “inconsistency” will be corrected in the paperback version(s) of “Runes.” In regard to using white gold and the Staff of Law simultaneously: two important points. First, there is a profound psychological difference between Covenant in the first trilogy and Linden in “The Last Chronicles.” For Covenant in that story, everything associated with wild magic is absurd on its face. An inert piece of metal has power? Covenant himself can wield that power? The mere idea threatens his most fundamental notions of “reality”--and threatens as well the internal defensive structures on which he believes that his survival depends. The psychological leap required for him to actually access wild magic directly is simply too great throughout the first “Chronicles.” Hence the need for a “trigger”; for the action of some other power to, in a manner of speaking, by-pass his Unbelief. The Staff of Law on more than one occasion. The Illearth Stone itself. Linden’s internal dilemmas in “Runes” are very different. She may be hampered in some sense by her belief that the ring does not *belong* to her while the Staff *does*; but she has no resistence to the *idea* of power--and no real objection to *using* that power. Therefore for her EVerything associated with power and its use comes more readily than it did to Covenant. Putting it simply, she doesn’t need a trigger because she doesn’t doubt. Second, any use of both wild magic and the force of Law isn’t on a toggle (on/off): it’s on a rheostat (almost infinitely variable). The rheostats are controlled by the understanding and passion of the user. But the “Staff” rheostat, by its very nature, is a far more precise, subtle, and, well, user-friendly dial than the “ring” rheostat (which tends to escalate exponentially at the slightest provocation). Well, in LFB no one understands the Staff: the Lords haven’t learned how to use it yet. *It* presents no danger of incinerating levels of force. And Covenant can’t afford to believe in wild magic (see above), which seriously restricts *his* potential force. In any case, the raw power necessary to summon the Fire-Lions is trivial: it just serves to get their attention. The real issue is blood. (Remember, Berek didn’t even know that Earthpower existed when he summoned the Fire-Lions.) Linden’s position in “Runes” could hardly be more different. Her health-sense is keen; she already knows how powerful the ring can be; and she doesn’t need to learn how to use the Staff because she *created* it (everything about it is, among other things, an expression of her own identity). She could generate incinerating levels of force with frightening ease. (One corollary: by the same reasoning, I consider it axiomatic that *Berek* didn’t need to learn how to use HIS Staff; he only needed to learn how to make his Staff in the first place. In the act of making his Staff he became its master: it was an expression of him just as Linden’s Staff is an expression of her. Only Berek’s descendants needed to learn how to use the Staff. They were not its creator. QED.) Finally, “the one word of truth [or treachery]”. You need to think metaphorically here, not literally. *I* certainly did when I came up with that phrase. And with Weird, Wyrd, Wuerd, and Worm. Think “In the beginning was the Word…” and so on. I never meant “the one word of truth” to refer to a specific literal word: I meant it to refer to the issues of identity, becoming, and transcendence which characterize every phase of Covenant’s journeys (internal and external) throughout the Chronicles. <whew> (02/12/2005)