The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is a series of ten high fantasy novels written by American author Stephen R. Donaldson.
The main character of the stories is Thomas Covenant, an embittered and cynical writer, afflicted with leprosy and shunned by society but fated to become the heroic savior of the Land, an alternate world.
In ten novels, published between 1977 and 2013, he struggles against Lord Foul, "the Despiser", who intends to escape the bondage of the physical universe and wreak revenge upon his arch-enemy, "the Creator".
According to the author's foreword, Gilden-Fire was originally part of a larger, planned section of The Illearth War that followed the mission to the Giants in "real time", but was cut due to space restrictions as well as point-of-view inconsistency with the rest of the Chronicles.
They are described as having "long, scrawny limbs, hands as huge and heavy as shovels," plus "a thin, hunched torso, and a head shaped like a battering ram."
He can, however, manifest himself in the "real" world—he appears to Covenant and Linden as an old man in an ochre robe—and guides those who attempt to make contact between the universes.
Although other people are welcome to visit and even stay in Elmesnedene, time flows quickly there and even the long-lived Giants grow rapidly old and die.
In their own perspective the Elohim constitute the animating principle of the Earth and the history of the Land is the manifestation of events in their own consciousness.
His name was Caer-Caveral, though he was originally Hile Troy, a man from Covenant's world who had once been Warmark (commander-in-chief) of the Lords' army.
Giants are known for their stone lore (similar to but not identical with that of the Stonedownors), their skill at seamanship, their good humour and their love of story-telling.
In return for a favor performed for the mysterious Elohim long ago, the entire race of Giants are endowed with an innate ability to speak and understand all languages.
It is revealed on several occasions that the Haruchai are a deeply passionate race, capable of swearing a lifetime's worth of service if sufficiently moved.
These skills are called the Sword and the Staff respectively, and together form the First Ward of Kevin's Lore, an ancient repository of knowledge.
The Lords carry special staffs that allow them to channel their power, and are easily identified by their sky blue robes.
His desire to bring suffering to the earth and the Land in particular is manifested by his extremely well orchestrated and even cautious long-term plans throughout the chronicles.
The fact that the Lords of Revelstone and the Bloodguard often ride the great horses is a major point of contention, but the Ramen tolerate this in deference to the Ranyhyn, who choose to give their service.
When defending the Ranyhyn from Kresh (large wolves in service to the Despiser) or other predators, the Ramen frequently use ropes as garottes to break the attackers' necks.
In the early books these horses live on the Plains of Ra, though in the age of the Sunbane they leave the Land altogether.
The Ranyhyn can be ridden by individuals they deem worthy, but a person who seeks such a mount must travel to the Plains of Ra and offer himself to the horses for consideration.
There are only three Ravers, ancient brothers who each have many names but are commonly called Turiya Herem, Samadhi Sheol, and Moksha Jehannum.
Their greatest hatred is reserved for the trees of the One Forest of old, and their loathing of the Earthpower and all good things has led them to become Lord Foul's willing servants.
During the Second Chronicles, their leaders are known as Gravellers, and sacrifice members of their village to use the blood to call forth the power of the Sunbane.
Ur-viles are blind yet highly magical creatures of jet black color and are constructs of an extinct race named the Demondim.
However, they do not share their cousins' self-hatred, and have dedicated themselves to serving the Land and the Earthpower according to their own peculiar ethical system, the Weird of the Waynhim.
In the Second Chronicles it is explained that the Giants received "the gift of tongues" from the Elohim as a reward for the telling of a simple tale, and the Bhrathair, a people who live on the edge of the Great Desert, also speak their own language, which is described only as sounding "brackish".
When Covenant attempts to sever a branch of the One Tree by using the power of the white gold, he risks rousing the Worm (which is not fully asleep, but merely resting) and thus destroying the Earth.
In the Thomas Covenant stories, Donaldson takes several terms from Sanskrit that are significant in Hinduism and Buddhism and reassigns them meanings in the Land.
For example, the term moksha, which in Sanskrit refers to liberation from the cycle of sorrow, is given as the original name for a creature of depravity and evil called a Raver.
"[4] In 2009, James Nicoll said that Thomas Covenant would win a "special lifetime achievement award" for the "most unlikeable supposedly sympathetic protagonist".
[5] In 2013, Tom Shippey, writing in The Wall Street Journal, declared that, "in time "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" will be seen as one of the self-defining works of the third millennium, our equivalent in scope and ambition of earlier epics and fantasies, from Virgil's "Aeneid" to Tennyson's "Arthurian Idylls" and Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings".
