Praise for THE WHEEL OF TIME®
Book Four
THE SHADOW RISING
“Robert Jordan has come to dominate the world Tolkien began to reveal.”
—The New York Times
“The fourth volume of the most ambitious American fantasy saga continues to suggest that The Wheel of Time will also be the finest … . This volume, indeed the whole saga, surpasses all but a few of its peers and is highly recommended for all collections.”
—ALA Booklist
“Jordan’s multivolume epic continues to live up to its high ambitions … a feast for fantasy aficionados. Expect demand for this.”
—Library Journal
“A work of genuine and often stirring imagination.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“This fully imagined saga threatens to burst the seams of its steadily more intricate design … . The sheer force of [Jordan’s] invention develops a momentum that [is] hard to resist.”
—Publishers Weekly
“This series is so complex, I can’t recommend starting anywhere but at the beginning [The Eye of the World], but the volumes only get richer as they go along.”
—Locus
And when the blood was sprinkled on ground where nothing could grow, the Children of the Dragon did spring up, the People of the Dragon, armed to dance with death. And he did call them forth from the wasted lands, and they did shake the world with battle.
—from The Wheel of Time
by Sulamein so Bhagad
Chief Historian at the Court of the Sun,
the Fourth Age
The End of the Fourth Book of The Wheel of Time
GLOSSARY
A Note on Dates in This Glossary. The Toman Calendar (devised by Toma dur Ahmid) was adopted approximately two centuries after the death of the last male Aes Sedai, recording years After the Breaking of the World (AB). So many records were destroyed in the Trolloc Wars that at their end there was argument about the exact year under the old system. A new calendar, proposed by Tiam of Gazar, celebrated freedom from the Trolloc threat and recorded each year as a Free Year (FY). The Gazaran Calendar gained wide acceptance within twenty years after the Wars’ end. Artur Hawkwing attempted to establish a new calendar based on the founding of his empire (FF, From the Founding), but only historians now refer to it. After the death and destruction of the War of the Hundred Years, a third calendar was devised by Uren din Jubai Soaring Gull, a scholar of the Sea Folk, and promulgated by the Panarch Farede of Tarabon. The Farede Calendar, dating from the arbitrarily decided end of the War of the Hundred Years and recording years of the New Era (NE), is currently in use.
Accepted, the: Young women in training to be Aes Sedai who have reached a certain level of power and passed certain tests. It normally takes five to ten years to be raised from novice to the Accepted. Accepted are somewhat less confined by rules than novices, and are allowed to choose their own areas of study, within limits. Accepted wear a Great Serpent ring, but only on the third finger of the left hand. When an Accepted is raised Aes Sedai, she chooses her Ajah, gains the right to wear the shawl, and may wear the ring on any finger or not at all if circumstances warrant. See also Aes Sedai.
a’dam (AYE-dam): A Seanchan device for controlling a woman who can channel, consisting of a collar and bracelet linked by a leash, all of silvery metal. It has no effect on a woman who cannot channel. See also damane; Seanchan; sul’dam.
Adelin (AD-ehl-ihn): A woman of the Jindo sept of the Taardad Aiel. A Maiden of the Spear who came to the Stone of Tear.
Aes Sedai (EYEZ seh-DEYE): Wielders of the One Power. Since the Time of Madness, all surviving Aes Sedai are women. Widely distrusted and feared, even hated. Blamed by many for the Breaking of the World, and thought to meddle in the affairs of nations. At the same time, few rulers are without an Aes Sedai advisor, even in lands where such a connection must be kept secret. After some years of channeling the One Power, Aes Sedai take on an ageless quality, so that one old enough to be a grandmother may show no signs of age except perhaps a few gray hairs. See also Ajah; Amyrlin Seat; Time of Madness.
Age Lace: Alternative name for the Pattern. See Pattern of an Age.
Age of Legends: Age ended by the War of the Shadow and the Breaking of the World. A time when Aes Sedai performed wonders now only dreamed of. See also Wheel of Time, the; Breaking of the World, the; War of the Shadow.
Aiel (eye-EEL): The people of the Aiel Waste. Fierce and hardy. Veil their faces before they kill, giving rise to the saying “acting like a black-veiled Aiel” to describe someone being violent. Deadly warriors with weapons or with bare hands, they will not touch a sword. Their pipers play them into battle with the music of dances. Aiel call battle “the dance,” and “the dance of spears.” See also Aiel warrior societies; Aiel Waste.