I haven’t consorted with many kings of late, Faldor. They all seem to be too busy to listen to the old tales, and a story must be told from time to time if it is not to be lost—besides, who knows these days where a king might be hiding?

Pawn of Prophecy – chapter 2

Synopsis

An itinerant storyteller, “Old Wolf,” comes to the farm. He is welcome and familiar to Pol despite being disreputable and seemingly unreliable. He stays for a stays for a while exchanging room and board for stories, of which he is extremely talented at performing. The best stories are told at dinner in the dining hall. They hear the story of the Orb of Aldur from the Book of Alorn, a story that is only told in the courts. Old Wolf and Garion have a conversation after one meal about the difference between stories and reality as the story didn’t have an end. We discover that Garion is nine.

Discussion

Possibilities exist throughout the this chapter. The foreshadowed one is the what we know will be the “Call to Adventure” or the “Chosen One” for Garion. A common fantasy trope and the starting point for the hero’s journey archetype. Garion will be like many in genre fantasy who have potential and is expected to reach it. Both Aunt Pol and Old Wolf know this for him. Both are preparing him for it in their own way, Pol through the virtues of work and community. Wolf through mischievousness and creativity.

Other possibilities exist in perceptions and choices in life. There are possibilities in being a vagabond versus rooted in one place. Lifestyles are contrasted between Pol and Wolf in this way. From what we know at this point, these appear to be conscious choices (patriarchy is certainly involved) for the two of them. But what we learn from their own place in the larger events and the longer history, they may be their preferences as well. Pol appears to enjoy quiet. She has had a vagabond life at times and doesn’t care for it. She has had an unsteady, irregular rhythm imposed on her in order to accomplish what the prophecy and political events have forced her to live through, and she would not choose it if not for Necessity. Wolf is the opposite. He enjoys a vocation that allows for wandering. There is a utility and pragmatism to not having a home or possessions that allows him to accomplish his goals, but also it suits his personality. Like any human-based culture, possibilities (or lack of) can be manipulated or projected through perceived look or status. Wolf takes advantage of this also in his choice of vocation and appearance. Pol does this as well, but we don’t see it until later chapters.

This chapter also introduces the idea of potential through having other names and identities. This is the first time that Garion is introduced to the idea that people may have other names and that he, himself, may acquire one in the future. Garion has lived so far in an isolated farm and separated from even a simple village, that idea that people have different identities is completely foreign.

Garion also, through conversation with Old Wolf, explores possibilities versus impossibilities as engagement with the physical world. Again, having limited exposure to the world and being only nine, he thinks he has a grasp of how the world functions. He is resistant to the idea that something else could be possible. He wants to retain a firm line between what he knows and concepts that are concrete to him and what is not known and mysterious to him.

But as we will come to learn when Garion becomes Belgarion, how much does possibility depend on belief? How much depends on knowledge? In Wolf’s history, we know he will study to understand the world and therefore explore what is possible versus impossible by pushing the boundary of his knowledge outward. But as will be told later, most will discover this ability not through knowledge but through emotion and then continue to use it because they believe it will work. What becomes possible simply because you believe or imagine it? Garion and others get caught up in wolf’s stories and some of his stories recount history. With no mention of an education system, it appears that belief has a strong place in their oral tradition.

Lastly, this chapter also has a layer of possibility in a future that hasn’t happened yet. The story that is told at dinner was unfinished because the “final” meeting of the Rivan King and Torak hadn’t happened. There is this mysterious entity of the embodiment of Prophecy or Necessity that drives the event to occur, but the outcomes of the event isn’t determined. It’s the outcomes that are the point.

Personal Effect

On page 31, Old Wolf says, “Don’t be too surprised if that other world someday chooses you to do something that must be done—some great and noble thing.” This is the call we all want to receive. We want to believe in possibilities and impossible things. We want to believe that things can be different and we can make them so. We want to believe that we are special or the chosen one. We want to someone believe in our possibility, to invest in us.

I think that reading this when young, I could easily step into that character. As an adult, I would still want someone to believe in my possibility, but I understand more that the belief needs to be come from within rather than from others. I’m not sure I could survive the externally imposed expectations that come with the scale of this task. I still want to belief that magic is possible and that there is more to this or any world than what we can see, however.

Blessing

Pol and all the kitchen women. Much of the story so far has set her in the kitchen, where she is certainly skilled and apparently content. This isn’t a family kitchen. It’s closer to a restaurant or industrial kitchen without modern tools. A lot of labor goes into feeding a holding of 60 people every day and it must be frustrating to have petty thieves in it for their entertainment.