The Gathering Storm - Prologue Read by Robert Jordan at JordanCon (4/18/09)

[bscuga]

Update (5/22/09):  Anyone that reads this thread, please be aware that this is not a full prologue and is in fact a small portion of the prologue that was an audio recording of Robert Jordan talking about the book prior to his death.

When (as most people suspect) and if there is an e-book version of the prologue, there will be another thread to discuss it.  As of May 22, 2009, the information found in the threads below are the most recent known information about what is actually in the The Gathering Storm.

Original Post (4/18/09):  If someone would be so kind, please someone post whatever portion of the prologue of The Gathering Storm which was supposed to be read during JordanCon.  I suspect word for word is not possible, but a synopsis will do.  Better yet, if possible, please post the video link if it was saved. 

This is greatly appreciated by the fans who could not make it to JordanCon. 

[BenTGaidin]

They asked us not to make any recordings of RJ telling the prologue, for copyright reasons, and out of respect for Harriet. (Speculation: Once the book is published and out there, they may make it available somewhere, possibly... They didn't say anything about that, but it'd be something to ask about later.)

Here's a quick synopsis:

We're in the viewpoint of a well-to-do farmer. Not rich, but doing well enough to have several farmhands working for him. He looks to the north, and sees clouds on the horizon -- black and silver clouds. Not dark grey and light grey, like people mean when they see black clouds, or silver ones, but pure black and silver. And they move oddly -- he's a farmer, and familiar with weather and those clouds are rolling forward at a good clip, they should be here in an hour or two... but they aren't coming any closer.

And there's thunder, but it doesn't seem to come from the clouds. Sometimes it sounds from the horizon, and sometimes almost right overhead, and it too moves back and forth through the sky. He looks away, and when he looks back up, the clouds are almost on him, and the thunder is still rolling through the sky.

Then he sees a friend from town coming up the road, the local blacksmith, riding on a wagon packed with belongings. There's a milk-cow following behind it, and chickens in cages, and furniture and everything. The smith stops to talk to the farmer, and tells him that there's a storm coming, they're going north. The smith starts telling the farmer where he's buried his anvil behind the forge, and where his best tools are buried, and that the smith's wife polished up the copper pots the farmer's wife liked and that they're waiting in the kitchen for her.

The farmer asks what's going on, and all the smith says is that there's a storm coming. The smith's wife is on the wagon, too, and she hands down a basket of eggs, saying that they're for the farmer's wife. They're getting ready to leave, and the smith starts giving advice -- You have a light forge for repairing stuff around the farm, right? Take your best scythe and turn it into a polearm. Not your second best, or your third best; this is the weapon you'll be using the most often. You fight a man on a horse, and you stab him with the polearm and pull him down off it. Take your second best, and third best scythe, and turn them into swords.

The farmer asks how you do that, and the smith tells him that a sword is basically a scythe-blade. Take a block of wood and put it at the end to keep your hand from slipping onto the blade. Take another block of wood, and stick it on for a handle. Then the smith tells him to kill his cows, and his goats, and turn them into meat -- there'll need the food, and there'll be men willing to pay for the meat. There's a storm coming.

As the smith is leaving, the farmer's wife comes out, and asks who that was. The farmer says that it was the smith, and that the smith's wife had a basket of eggs for her. The farmer's wife says that was nice, and starts putting the eggs from the basket into her apron, thinking that the smith's wife will be back later for the basket, or send someone around. The farmer tells her that they said a storm was coming, and that they were going north for some reason, and that the smith had buried his anvil and tools and told the farmer where they were, and that the copper pots she liked are all shined up and waiting for his wife to pick up. And he hears this crack, crack, crack, and turns to see the eggs dropping from his wife's apron as she stares in shock.

The farmer goes to his light forge, and looks at his second-best scythe. Then he stops, and takes the best scythe down, and starts taking the handle off it. He calls his hands in, and tells them to start getting things together, they're going north. The men ask what's going on, and all he can tell them is a storm coming, we're going north. He takes a hammer and starts pounding on the scythe, to take the handle off, and the strikes echo oddly around the force, ringing louder than they should, and it almost sounds like the thunder as the hammer comes down on the scythe, and in the back of his head, it's almost like he hears a voice saying with each strike, 'the storm is coming,' 'the storm is coming,' 'the storm is coming.'

[bscuga]

Thanks

[Loreina]

Sweet!

[Shard]

Guess everyone should have listened to Nynaeve when she said it first. A storm is coming.

[Charlz Guybon]

That's cool. 

[Darkmush]

Awesome, thank you.

[Vambram]

Excellent synopsis. Thank you.

[Charlz Guybon]

The possibility of serious Trolloc action has gone up significantly in my opinion.

Also, the Smith's kind of dumb running off North with his family like that. Better to stay home and help the village prepare, I'm sure he can make better polearms and swords than that random farmer. Or if he felt he had to go somewhere, he could have set off for the nearest city.

BenTGaidin, do you remember if it's mentioned what Country this took place in?

[tnsabregirl]

I don't think any country was mentioned - a village was mentioned, but it was not one I had heard of before (Oak something?). Also, at several points in the recording, R.J. said words to the effect of, "the name doesn't matter" or "we'll change that name later" in referring to the various character/place names. Probaby he had not yet made up his mind; remember, this was just him telling parts of the story to his family. I think he just wanted to give them as much information as he could, so it could be finished for all of us.

Still makes me teary-eyed. It was a very moving experience, hearing him telling the story in his own words. I feel very honored that he tried so hard to finish it for us before he died. And even more so that his family would choose to share these words with us.

[Kathana Trevalaer]

Wilson told me that recording was made 20 days before Jim's death.

Edit: I went ahead and moved this so that everyone can see Ben's summary.

[BenTGaidin]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure there wasn't a mention of a specific country in what was said; I spent a bit of time thinking about that during the reading, trying to figure out if the clouds were over the Blight (and so this would be in the Borderlands) or even if possibly this was like the weird sky inside the Bore itself, as the Dark One broke free...

As for the smith's actions -- the implication I was getting was that it was at the point where every hand was needed _now._ Better to strike out north as soon as you can, rather than have the storm roll over while you're still making weapons.

(And thanks for the move, Kathana -- I didn't know we were talking about it over here, or I'd have made a copy of it. *grins*)