kippurbird | Eragon pt. three

ChapterPlancar Valley

Characters: Eragon, Sloan, (the butcher), Horst (the blacksmith), Katrina (the blacksmith's daughter) and Garrow, (the Uncle)
Shiny magical objects in Eragon's possession Large Blue Stone.

summary

Here we learn a bit more about the Spine, the name of the mountains that Eragon is in. Here we learn that they are clouded in misfortune and bad luck. "Few people could stay in the Spine with out suffering an accident. Eragon was one of those few - not through any particular gift, it seemed to him, but because of persistent vigilance and sharp reflexes" (page nine). What bothers me here, though it could only be me, is that Paolini is indicating that a boy is more capable than a full grown man in woodsman abilities. He is more vigilant and has sharper reflexes than, say, a trained ranger would have. (Not that there are rangers here, but if there were...) His skills are are sharper than someone who is older than him and would have had more training would be. After all he is one of the "few". He probably could have only been going out in them for maybe two or three years, not being old enough to do it before. Beginning Rangers (according to the D&D player's guide) start around age fifteen. Now, while he might have the hunting and tracking skills, but I don't think he'd have the skills needed to survive in a people eating mountain range.

Maybe all the spooky things stayed away from him.

From the mountains we go into the village of Carvahall and we meet the butcher Sloan. Sloan is supposed to be a bad person. He treats Eragon with disdain. And apparently only cares for his daughter. Eragon hopes to buy meat from him... with no money. Instead Eragon hopes to trade with the stone. Sloan has no idea how much this stone is worth and if he can sell or anything, so he offers a low price for it. It's safer for him. Of course this is horrible of him. But since Eragon needs the meat he lets it go at that low price. (Mind you he's letting the butcher have the mysterious potentially evil stone... for meat).

But when Sloan learns where the stone came from, he refuses to take it. We learn that Sloan lost his wife in the Spine. Thus he'd naturally not trust anything from the Spine. But still he's a horrible person for not letting Eargon have the meat.

Eragon is rescued by the blacksmith, Hurst. Hurst is a good guy. We know this because he generously buys Eragon all the meat he needs and then gives Eragon an apprenticeship. He also likes Eragon, which is another thing that makes him a good guy.

He goes home (and into a rather large house, if he has own bedroom, which is something that only rich people could afford to have, what with heating costs and things like that, but apparently they're poor since they can't afford to buy meat for the winter, and speaking of which, there's no way Eragon could have carried enough meat to last them the winter on his back...) and talks to his uncle. His uncle agrees with him about how Sloan was a bad person for not taking the stone.

Thus, it's set that people who like Eragon are good and people who don't like him are bad. This is a classic Mary Sue trait. One of many that he'll probably rack up as we go along.

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From:

-youngblood-.livejournal.com

"His skills are are sharper than someone who is older than him and would have had more training would be."

You'll find that this is a consistent theme throughout the book (and series).

From:

Writings of a deranged Autistic Novelist

Eragon pt. three

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