Epigraphs - Predictions/Interpretations

[+hwiles He/Him]

I was reading through the epigraphs in WoK and had some predictions about what some of them might be referencing.  I don't claim to have a whole lot of ground to stand on with these, but I had some fun with them so I thought I'd share:

 

The very first epigraph in the series:

 

 

“You’ve killed me. Bastards, you’ve killed me! While the sun is still hot, I die!”

My prediction: Odium's last words; it would be poetic for the first epigraph to predict the fall of the main antagonist

 

Chapter 9:

 

 

“Ten people, with Shardblades alight, standing before a wall of black and white and red.”

My prediction: The viewpoint characters joining forces immediately prior to whatever the ultimate conclusion of the story is.  The wall could represent a literal wall, or an assembled army of voidbringers

 

Chapter 64:

 

 

“They come from the pit, two dead men, a heart in their hands, and I know that I have seen true glory.”

This kind of sounds like the end of The Wheel of Time series to me...Anyway, I'd have to guess this would be the last scene of the finale.

 

Chapter 67:

 

 

“Let me no longer hurt! Let me no longer weep! Dai-gonarthis! The Black Fisher holds my sorrow and consumes it!”

My prediction: This was Dalinar's request to the Nightwatcher

 

Let me know what you think or if you have any predictions of your own!

[Yata he/him]

I don't know if you read Words of Radiance but this:
 

“They come from the pit, two dead men, a heart in their hands, and I know that I have seen true glory.”

 

It's already happended.

Kaladin and Shallan returning from the Chasm with a Gemheart with them.

[+hwiles He/Him]

I don't know if you read Words of Radiance but this:

 

 

It's already happended.

Kaladin and Shallan returning from the Chasm with a Gemheart with them.

Thanks!  I've actually read them both a few times but never managed to put that together...

[Yata he/him]

Ah ok I was unsure if you read only WotK 

[Eki]

I'm not so sure that quote actually is about that WoR scene, since Shallan isn't a man. It might just be a red herring.

Unless it's some kind of in-world 'mistranslation' where "men" is the same as "people", or something.

[Yata he/him]

Maybe I have wrong, I read Dead men as "people believed dead" but quite every other details is pretty precise with the scene:

 

“They come from the pit (they returned from the Chasms after a fatal fall), two dead men (Kal and Shallan are believed death from the fall), a heart in their hands (kal take with him the Chasmfield's Gemheart), and I know that I have seen true glory (kal jokes with Dalinar about the Chasmfiend and the GemHeart he took back... also Gloryspren arose from his act).”

Edited June 13, 2016 by Yata

[+hwiles He/Him]

Considering that the death rattles come from people with a variety of different native languages, an improper translation seems plausible to me.  Alternatively, the dying Rickshaw puller who spoke the epigraph could have been seeing the scene from far off, or, since they were seeing the future, it could have been an imprecise vision.  It's also possible that when Sanderson wrote that particular epigraph he had intended for someone else to be trapped in the caverns with Kaladin.

 

The gem heart, the glory spren, and two "dead" people coming out of a pit just seems like too much to possibly be a coincidence.

[Magestar he/him]

 

Maybe I have wrong, I read Dead men as "people believed dead" but quite every other details is pretty precise with the scene:

 

“They come from the pit (they returned from the Chasms after a fatal fall), two dead men (Kal and Shallan are believed death from the fall), a heart in their hands (kal take with him the Chasmfield's Gemheart), and I know that I have seen true glory (kal jokes with Dalinar about the Chasmfiend and the GemHeart he took back... also Gloryspren arose from his act).”

 

This is actually a really good interpretation.  It might even be right.  Personally, I thought it would actually refer to two men.  

 

Minor WoR spoilers.

One of the men being Szeth, who 'died', but now came back, and I was thinking that maybe in the third book or something, Kaladin or someone else would be kidnapped, but thought killed, and Szeth would rescue (maybe/sorta?) them.  But the rest of my ideas do not fit nearly as well as yours, so, until I have further information, I think your explanation is the best.  Especially the bit about the heart.  That fits really well.

 

edit; Ninja'd.  Hwat Hwiles said (See what I did there?) basically covers how I feel about your theory.

Edited June 13, 2016 by Magestar

[happyman he/him]

I know that this issue has become kind of contentious recently, but there's good historical precedent that the word "man" can refer to any person, male or female.  In fact, it's more a historical accident than anything else that one word for person (man) is also the common word for members of the male sex.

So I tend towards the Kaladin/Shallan interpretation.  If we use that "old" usage, it fits perfectly.

[Oversleep]

Also, the chapter when they return from chasms is titled "True glory".

And there is a thread on this, with more analysis and information.

Edited June 13, 2016 by Oversleep

[zmunkz]

Wow, that's a great interpretation. I would agree, it is way too correlated to be coincidence.