Chronicles of Thomas Covenant/Headscratchers

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Why doesn't Foul just get a white gold object from his minons?

We know Foul has followers in our world. Why doesn't he just have one of them buy or steal something made of white gold and just give it to him? We know he can pull people into The Land. So they get him white gold, they deliver it to him, he uses it to break shit, PROFIT!

  • While people within the Land can occasionally summon people from our world, it seems like the Creator has some influence over exactly who they get; he was the one who chose Covenant to be sent over, not Lord Foul or Drool Rockworm.

Fridge Brilliance: Why would a former English teacher give characters in his first novel goofy, awkward names like Lord Foul and Drool Rockworm? The opening chapters of LFB imply that, before contracting leprosy, Covenant was a hack fantasy author. (Indeed, he was also famous enough for Hollywood to make a movie out of one of his stories, according to the words of Troy in TIW.) Since Donaldson repeatedly insists on his website that the most reasonable explanation for the Land is that it is simply Covenant and Linden's delusion, it makes utter sense that a writer's imaginary friends (and enemies) would be limited by his own ability to write. Doesn't stop Drool, Foul, and Kevin from being dorky names, though.

  • I believe I've seen a quote from Donaldson where he said that if he was writing the First Chronicles now, he'd have given Foul a Bilingual Bonus name like he did with the Ravers, rather than the flat-out Obviously Evil Meaningful Name he actually ended up with.
    • "As for Lord Foul: as I've said before, I was young and unpublished, had nothing to lose, and saw no reason not to be overt about my archtypal intentions. If I were starting the whole project today, I would probably want to be more subtle. However (he said ruefully), the name I most wish I could change is 'krill'. When I picked that name for Loric's dagger, I had no idea that it was a real word--or that its real meaning isn't even remotely useful for my intentions. <sigh> And the second worst name, from my perspective, is 'Elemesnedene,' for the simple reason that the spelling encourages a grating mispronunciation. Who would guess from that spelling that I meant 'ele-main-DEAN'?"