Reading the start of The Eye of the World reminds me that there’s an extra person in the cover art. (More obvious in the secondary, inside piece, I think.)
In the cover of The Eye of the World there’s only Moraine, Lan, and one boy to the side. Am I looking at the wrong one?
There are two covers. One ended up on the inside flaps. The outer one wraps around, though, and I think he’s in both.
Here’s the secondary cover: http://bit.ly/hZu0Uw
HCFFs already know who that person is, but it’s a fun Easter egg to know that there’s a story behind that extra figure.
By the way, HCFF stands for “Hard Core Fan Freak” for those asking. They’re self named. It’s what many uber-wot-geeks call themselves.
Mr. Jordan wrote a large chunk of The Eye of the World with a fourth Two Rivers lad going along with Perrin, Mat, and Rand. Was to be a major character.
Harriet talked him out of it, pointing out that the fourth lad never did anything useful. @theoryland, do you guys have a good thread on him?
Nah, nothing to talk about really. But here is RJ saying that: http://bit.ly/RJ-BN2000
I’ve asked Harriet if she could dig up any of the old manuscript with the fourth ta’veren in it, but she’s not certain they have any.
She said she thinks he was Dannil, but couldn’t remember for certain. Many think he was Ewin—a good guess and a possibility.
Cover art was commissioned when he was still a main character, and it was too late to change it when he was removed.
Looks like the fourth ta’veren was Dannil, in another form: http://bit.ly/h0iDIO (Look for Liandra’s question.)
Jason from @dragonmount says: “RJ once told me that Daniell’s heroics ended up being done by the other Two Rivers boys.”
What role would the so-called ‘Fourth’ ta’veren have played if he had been written into the story? Could you elaborate?
I’d like to see the original drafts if I could. I do know RJ said his part was split among the other three.
Is the fourth boy (Dannil)’s name pronounced [dan-nil] or [daniel]?
I say the first.
Some fans think this is a BS story made up as an inside joke between RJ and Harriet about the cover art, mostly because the concept of three heroes seems to work better with the mythology that RJ used to develop them.
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