First Post-Brisingr Interview with Christopher Paolini
Mike Macauley sat down for an exclusive interview with Christopher Paolini shortly after the release of Brisingr. All questions were submitted by Inheritance Cycle fans on Shurtugal.com.
INTERVIEW AUDIO
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Mike: I’m here with
Christopher Paolini, and he is going to sit down and answer our Brisingr
questions this week, and we’ve got a bunch from… Christopher, we had over 400
questions submitted. And that was only in a 3 day period. So…
CP: Wow!
Thanks for having me.
Mike: Oh.
Absolutely. So I think our first question we got a few times was: What
was the specific point of bringing in and then killing the Shade at the end of
the book?
CP: You
mean when was it that I actually decided to do that, or. . .
Mike: No, I think
the person means more… was there a specific point to the plot other than, you
know, to bring in another enemy to. . .
CP: Ah!
Ah!
Mike: Yeah.
CP: Yeah.
Well, part of it . . . it was a combination of two separate . . . two separate
decisions. One . . . because I had to find a . . . sort of an ending for the
book that I hadn’t actually planned on, you know, ending a book here. I needed
some events that were strong enough to hold reader interest through the ending
of the book, and that were big enough to end the book on. Also, since, I guess I
can actually talk about the spoilers now . . . now that the book is out.
Mike: [Laughs]
CP: [Laughs]
But since . . . since the point of view shifts were also shifting to Glaedr and
Oromis during Eragon’s battle, I needed something that would be, if not equally
as momentous as Glaedr and Oromis’ confrontation with Thorn and Murtagh, at
least somewhat as exciting to keep reader interest. And, on top of all that, it
seemed to me, you know, in a way, nice to have Arya confront a Shade in the way
that Eragon had in the first book, and, part of that is just wanting them both
to be on equal footing to a certain degree. But also the fact that she never
actually got to . . . to do in Durza as she certainly deserved to. So it was a
combination of different elements.
Mike: I
think what I liked about it most was how from the first book, you know, Arya and
Saphira helped Eragon defeat Durza, and now it’s a complete 180 and the other
way around so that they’re almost complimenting each other now. And it . . .
CP: Yeah.
That’s what I was trying to do. And also . . .
Mike: Right.
CP: I
wanted to show how a Shade could be brought into existence. Obviously this is .
. . this isn’t the only way, it could happen just with one sorcerer. But this .
. . this is certainly one of the ways, and I did want to show that.
Mike: That
was . . . It was definitely a really cool scene, so I was excited to see that.
Immediately once I . . . once I figured out what was going on I was very
excited. Okay. Next question: What
did the Menoa Tree want from Eragon in return for the Brightsteel? Has she
already taken it, and if so, what did she take?
CP: Oh
Boy. That’s a difficult question for me to answer without spoiling something for
the future. Let’s just say that it’s a good question, but not really one that I
can answer at the moment. And something I – sort of on a – not . . . not exactly
related to this, but this reminds me, one of the things I did in Brisingr . . .
and I think I’ve mentioned it in some earlier articles or interviews, is I’ve
threaded a few little scenes and . . . and elements and clues in this book that
are actually the set up for some other stories I may write in the future. Well .
. . Maybe people will pick that out. Maybe not.
Mike: Well,
that’s a little tease and I know that there’s going to be people who immediately
go and start, you know, start trying to figure those out.
CP: What
about this? What about that?
Mike: That
is cool to hear.
CP: No.
No. I deliberately left going back to your question, I deliberately left that
scene somewhat ambiguous for very good reasons.
Mike: Well,
I know that it’s the centre of many theories already. [CP
laughs] I’ve been really, really
keeping my eye out, ‘cause I knew we’d have to be doing an interview soon, and
that’s one of the first ones I saw, so…Good answer. I knew . . . I knew . . . I
had a feeling, but anyway. Anyway . . .
CP: Don’t
worry, some day down the road everyone’s gonna go, “Oooohhh!”
Mike: [Laughs]
Oh, quite the tease. All right, I don’t know if you’ll be able to answer this
one. There’s a few of these in here that you might not be able to answer, but we
figured, ask them anyway. It can’t hurt to ask. So that would be: Are
we finally going to get some Murtagh point-of-view in Book Four?
CP: I’m
not going to answer that specifically. But I mean we will see, I think it’s safe
to say, we will see a lot more of Murtagh in the fourth book. He’s sort of been
by the side of the story for Eldest and . . . and Brisingr. Obviously, he’s very
important, but we haven’t seen that much of him because every time he shows up
he’s trying to kill Eragon or . . . to capture Eragon or Saphira. But, he will
definitely have a much larger role in the last book. Hopefully people will enjoy
it.
Mike: Well,
that sounds good. I know . . . it’s really funny . . . I’m not sure if you’ve
ever heard of it, but there’s this giant Murtagh
following online. The, you know, the fangirls, they call themselves stuff like Murtagh
Fangirls, and it’s actually scary how dedicated these people are to one
character.
CP: Well,
I have noticed that on book tour a lot of fans and a lot of female fans have
really asked me to not kill Murtagh in the last book, and they . . . they’re
very…they’re very concerned about that. Of course, I may or may not; I’m not
going to answer that. [Mike
laughs] But, I
do have a number of surprises up my sleeve, so . . . we’ll see.
Mike: Well,
that is good. That makes me want to ask another question, but, we . . . I have
it somewhere else and I wanna try to keep them in this order that I’ve got, so
I’ll have to bite my tongue, but, you’re going to have to bear with me here, but
I’m not the greatest at pronouncing certain words, so there’s a few of them I’m
looking ahead in the question list, and I already know I’m gonna mess them up,
but I just wanted to give you a heads up that you just might have to help me a
bit. The first question that isn’t going to throw me off, is: Will
we be seeing Tenga again?
CP: Again,
these are great questions, but I can’t really answer it without spoiling
something in the story.
Mike: You’re
not going to be able to answer the next question, I’m sure, but I’m going to ask
it anyway, and this is one of the one’s I’m not going to be able to pronounce. Will
we happen to see Naegling,
I think, is that how you pronounce it? The sword of . . .
CP: Yes. [Transcriber's note: Yes in response to the pronunciation
question, not the question itself.]
Mike: Okay.
CP: I
. . . [Hesitation] Boy, these
are tough questions. I’m not sure if I wanna give anymore answers or information
about that. [Pause] No,
actually, I don’t think I will do. [Laugh] Again,
these are . . . you know you’ve asked a good question when I can’t answer it.
Mike: Right.
CP: Let’s
put it that way.
Mike: Well,
I mean . . . that’s just another one of the, you know, the theories that are
flying about, and I personally would love to see it recovered, but I was also a
big fan of Glaedr and Oromis so anything, you know, to keep them around some
more. But . . . Okay, the next question, is a good one, I think: How
could Galbatorix possess Murtagh in the Battle of Feinster?
CP: Well
actually they were at Gil’ead.
Mike: Oh.
Okay.
CP: Well,
it can be done in a number of ways. If you remember in Eldest, when Eragon was
asking Arya when they were floating on the barges toward Ellesméra, and he was
asking her about how far away she could communicate with someone with . . . with
telepathy.
Mike: Right.
CP: This
was related to why she didn’t just contact her, you know, queen Izlanzadí in
Ellesméra from a distance, which, of course, she can’t . . . no one could
because of the wards, the magical wards protecting the forest. And Arya said
something to the effect that she could from their position in the Beor
Mountains, if she wanted, she could communicate with someone all the way on the
cross . . . side of Alagaësia. Telepathy takes very little energy. It becomes
increasingly difficult to isolate and locate the mind you want at great
distances, and it . . . that’s one of the problems Eragon and Saphira have as
they . . . as they, sort of, move apart they lose contact with each other, and
that’s something they obviously don’t have as much experience with as Arya, and
I think Arya would probably use some spell to augment her communication if she
were communicating with someone- contacting someone- at that great a distance.
So there was that thought that certainly Galbatorix could do something with his
mind and probably with a spell or two. But, on top of that, if you remember
Murtagh had in his possession several of the dragon hearts – heart of hearts,
the Eldunarí, and it’s entirely possible Galbatorix is able to contact Murtagh
through those Eldunarí, using his own Eldunarí. There’s a number . . . there’s a
number of different ways he could do it and, you know, even if his own physical
strength wouldn’t be enough to do it, certainly all the strength and power and
energy he has access to from the dragon hearts would allow him to do it.
Mike: That
leads into another question actually. It’s just a small question. I’m not sure
you’ll be able to answer it, but: Do
we have any idea how many Eldunarí Galbatorix does possess?
CP: I
don’t want to give a specific figure here, but I think you would have to imagine
that he had the majority, assuming, of the dragons that were alive when he began
his insurrection. Obviously, some of those hearts he wasn’t able to get; the
dragons died and the hearts were still in their body, or the dragon destroyed
their heart before letting Galbatorix get his hands on it. But you’d have to
imagine that Galbatorix got his hands on at least a good chunk of them, uh,
perhaps ¾’s of the dragons that were alive then, so . . . it would be a
substantial number.
Mike: All
right, um… sorry, I have to actually keep muting my microphone to, uh, cough, so
I’m hoping it’s actually being muted, ‘cause I’m still sick from New York city,
but . . .
CP: [something about
Detroit and Chicago]
Mike: Well,
there was one other question that kind of followed up, that I wanted to get to
ask you, but I’m not sure, I can’t find it in this list, so we’ll just move on
and we’ll find it eventually. This is a long one. Murtlin(?)
Redbeard is or was the Earl of Thune; where is Thune and is that an old name
from before Galbatorix’s reign and it goes by another name now? This
question’s . . .
CP: Do
you want me to answer that, or is there more to the question?
Mike: Well, there’s
a little bit more, but it’s not really . . . I mean it just says like: Urû’baen
used to be called, uh, Ilirea, if so what is it called now?
CP: Right.
The Earl of Thune - area of Thune - if you will, I imagined was a district or a
section within the human empir- . . . the human kingdom that existed before
Galbatorix’s began his rise to power. It may still exist under that name. And I
imagined it was located somewhere near the . . . somewhere along the Spine,
within what is now the empire, but I haven’t actually, you know, come up with an
actual location for that. I didn’t need to at the time I was writing the story.
Mike: All
right, and there was just a small question attached to that one, which was: Also,
why did Galbatorix rename Ilirea to Urû’baen? Is there a special meaning in the
name of these cities?
CP: If
anyone is interested in this, they can, I believe this is in all the editions of
all the books. I don’t have one with me at the moment, so I can’t check this,
but I believe right at the beginning of the glossary in each of the books, I
have a brief discussion of the origin of the various names . . . the, you know,
the various names within the, uh, world of Alagaësia, and how they come from
different traditions, you know, some are elvish, some are dwarvish, some are
human, some even come from the Urgals. Urû’baen, and I discuss this in the book,
you can see this, if my memory serves me correctly, Urû’baen is a combination
of, dwarvish and elvish I believe . . . Yeah, it’s a combination of dwarvish and
elvish. The ‘baen’ part means basically ‘bad things’ and ‘doom’ and various
other things, and ‘Urû’ means actually,‘Urû’if
you’re pronouncing it absolutely correctly, means something like, ’sages’ or
‘wisemen’ or something like that – ‘wisdom’. So, essentially the name is ‘the
Downfall of the Wisemen’, and that would be a liberal translation of the
name…the name, so it’s Galbatorix thumbing his nose at the Elves and the Dwarves
and everyone else who he was trying . . . that he overthrew.
Mike: I
like that. It’s very fitting. It makes sense when you, you know, when you give
the libe-… liberal translation. I can’t talk. Liberal
translation.
CP: Yeah.
Mike: I
know, it does make sense, and I like that.
CP: A
more accurate translation . . . explanation, of this actually should be in the
back of each book, if you’re curious.
Mike: I’ll
have to take a look, which is surprising that I haven’t come across it yet. I’ll
take a look after the interview. I don’t want to take your book down now . . .
CP: And
if it’s not in the traditional, the regular version, I know it would be in the
deluxe or limited edition Eldest.
Mike: Yeah
. . . I do think it’s in the limited edition of Eldest. I’m not sure it’s in
regular Eragon, but I’ll check afterwards and we’ll see where that leads. The
next question, I can’t even do it so I’m just gonna shorten the question to not
include the word. What does the
name of Brom’s sword mean?
CP: Ah! [Pause] That…I’m
not willing to say yet.
Mike: Uh,
okay.
CP: And
actually, there . . . not all and I should . . . I should point out not all of
the names would, in the Ancient Language, actually have meaning. Brom’s sword
does. Butnot all the names actually have meanings. Sometimes they’re simply a
name.
Mike: Right.
CP: Like
‘Eragon’ himself . . . the name itself doesn’t have any meaning within the
Ancient Language. It’s simply a name.
Mike: Could
you, um by chance, pronounce the name of Brom’s sword, if you, if you can.
CP: I’m
forgetting the spelling of it now. Could you spell it for me?
Mike: It’s:
U-N-D…
CP: Oh! [pronounces
it]
Mike: Almost
quite literally how it’s written.
CP: Exactly.
Mike: Oh.
CP: That’s
the nice thing . . . as the . . . like the Lethrblaka.
Mike: Right.
CP: It
really is, uh ‘blaka’ means ‘flapper’ so it’s the ‘leather-flappers’. Same
thing. . . ’Undbitr’.
Mike: Well,
that was, that was easier than I thought. Well, I’ll have to remember that one.
Is
there anything else that Brom has told Saphira that hasn’t been revealed yet?
CP: You
don’t seriously expect me to answer that.
Mike: Ah.
No. Well, you know, I took the questions that we got the most and, you know . .
.
CP: I
believe that Saphira, and I could be wrong in my memory, again, I don’t have a
book in front of me, but I believe Saphira said after she shared the memory of
Brom with Eragon, and he asked her if there were any more secrets and she said
‘no’, or something to that effect. Or she said that after the confession of the
Eldunarí . . . the fact that she knew about the heart of hearts.
Mike: Right.
CP: So
. . . you’ll have to take Saphira’s word for that. If you doubt her, good look
to you.
Mike: Yeah.
No, I agree. All right, well that was a . . . that was a . . . I don’t think
I-I- . . . I caught that in the book. Well, I’ll have to go through it
again. I’ve only read it twice since it came out, so I’m still a bit rusty on my
facts.
CP: It’s
a . . . It’s a big book.
Mike: Oh,
it is a big book. But, no, I’m going to be going through . . . I started with a
highlighter. I did the first half of the book with a highlighter and a pen, and
so I’ve got to read through again for the second half. And go through that and
take notes and all that fun stuff for the content, but, all right, next
question: Is the flame that
surrounds Brisingr any different from an ordinary flame put around a blade with
magic? Does it have any hidden properties?
CP: No.
It’s simply a flame. I think the only unusual properties it has is that, it is
probably, I mean, one: it’s actually being sustained by magic, created by the
magic, so it’s pretty . . . it’s almost impossible to extinguish. Probably is
impossible to extinguish, and, of course, it doesn’t actually harm the blade
itself. And it can burn at a heat that would be, you know, very hard to reach
with something like a wood fire, for example. Thus, Eragon’s able to use it to
cut through the, uh, the gate . . . the timbers, the bars of the gate in
Feinster during the final battle of the book.
Mike: Right.
Okay, I really did love that whole, you know, the . . . the effect of a sword
bursting into flame, and I know that you know I used to play World of Warcraft
which exaggerates everything in fantasy in their graphics and everything . . .
and . . . and immediately when I read that line in the book, I thought . . . I
thought back to, you know, a sword bursting on fire in the games that I’ve
played, and I thought it was just the coolest thing to picture in my head and
the coolest thing to write into the books, so. . .
CP: Well,
I’ve actually seen pieces of metal with either, uh some sort of spirits on them,
like alcohol, or just . . . just, you know, uh taken right out of a fire, and
with flames around the hot metal.
Mike: Right.
CP: It’s
such an amazing sight, and I really wanted to use it the story.
Mike: I’ll
see if I can pull up a picture to link from. . . from our interview so people
can put a . . . put a picture to what they’ve been reading.
CP: Well,
you know, I . . . I’m . . . there is going to be a deluxe edition of Brisingr
coming out sometime next year. I believe Random Houseis certainly moving ahead
with that, and I’m going to be doing some . . . some, some drawings for that;
some more drawings for the deluxe edition of Brisingr, and one of them will be
of Eragon’s arm and hand holding Brisingr with flames around the blade.
Mike: That
will be a cool picture.
CP: I
hope so, if I can do it properly.
Mike: If
I could draw that would probably be one of the first things I’d draw from the
book, but I . . . my drawing skills stop at stick figures unfortunately, so
that’ll be really great to see. I think that’ll be actually amazing to see. And
it’d be cool to have in the book. I know I’d be all geeked out the minute I get
it and look at that, but . . . Oh . . . where . . . where was I? So, okay, we
just asked the sword, andhere’s another question you won’t be able to answer,
but I figured I’d just humor everyone who asked it, and I’d throw it in here. Will
we ever learn the seven words that Brom told Eragon…Brom told Saphira as he was
dying?
CP: No
comment.
Mike: I
called that one before, just for the record. But, no, we’ve . . . I mean
that’s obviously another huge theory, so we got a lot of those questions, and
you know immediately they’re the questions that are not going to be answered,
but I just wanted to humour everybody so they’d stop asking this question every
time I look for interview questions. All right, so the next one was: Will
the two women whose fortunes Angela told play more of an important role in the
next book?
CP: Oh.
Darn it. No comment.
Mike: These
are good ones then if . . .
CP: These
are all very good questions, and I’m delighted people are this interested in the
story, but again, these are things that people are just going to have to wait
for the fourth book to see how . . . if and how, they play out.
Mike: Right,
all right. Let’s see . . . I’m getting lost. It’s just this long list of
questions . . . we’re . . . we’re almost through, though. When
Eragon tells Oromis that hios sword catches on fire when he says ‘Brisingr’,
Oromis, uh, looks off into the distance and mutters, “I wonder”, what did Oromis
wonder?
CP: He
was . . . if I’m remembering the scene correctly, I believe he was wondering if
. . . if the fact that Eragon was actually involved in the forging and was sort
of the instrument that Rhunon used to forge the sword with, if Eragon’s essence,
if you will, his personality, had become really linked with the sword, and, it
was just . . . I didn’t want to get into a big explanation or theory with that,
but that’s what I was thinking of when I wrote that . . . when I wrote that
scene. Also because it actually links into some other things that I’m going to
be doing with magic in the fourth book which involves. Well, again, I don’t want
to say.
[Both Laugh]
Mike: Fair
enough.
CP: There’s
a lot in the fourth book, let’s put it that way.
Mike: Well,
I know everyone is already looking forward to it. So, that is the next question,
unfortunately, which is: How far
are you into writing Book Four?
CP: Uh,
not very far, to be honest. I didn’t have a lot of time to get started on it
before book tour . . . and when I get back, I’m going to take a week or two off
and do some drawings for the deluxe edition of Brisingr, then I’ll be . . . I’ll
be finally buckling down on the fourth book.
Mike: That
will . . . That . . . that will delight many people. I know that the first
question when the third book released was: when does the fourth book come out? I
was just . . . I was . . . you know, I was just, um, sitting there just having
read the book, and I’m like, “Who cares, you know? We’ve just got this amazing,
uh, 700 page book, or 800 page book and we’ve got 800 pages worth of stuff to
trawl through for the next year and to figure out how all these little pieces .
. . and theorize about so . . . ”
CP: I’m
just glad that people are excited enough about the series that they are looking
forward to the next book.
Mike: Right.
Well, that’s always a good thing as well, but I think people have been looking
forward to book four because everyone wants to know, you know, who dies and who
lives and who . . . who’s victorious, but, no, we’ve . . . we’ve got a lot to go
on for the next however long we have to. We’ve got a good many theories to
discuss and pages to read . . . and all that fun stuff. All right. So that first
section was all the questions from our message boards – Inheritance forums. This
next set, I think we’ve only got 5 more questions, came from the Shurtugal.com
comment board. The first question is: If
Brom’s ring, um, now Eragon’s, contained a great amount of energy stored there
by Brom himself, why didn’t he use it to heal himself when he was dying? He told
Eragon, “This is a grievous wound. It saps my strength. I have not the energy to
fight it.”
CP: Well,
if . . . if you remember . . .
Mike: Right.
CP: Brom
did not have his ring with him. He gave it to Jeod in Teirm . . .
Mike: Ahhh.
CP: .
. . to give to Ajihad, and Ajihad gave the ring to Eragon when Eragon joined the
Varden.
Mike: I
really should have fact-checked these, huh?
CP: No,
no, no. It’s a good question.
Mike: Yeah.
CP: And,
if you think back on it, and realize how valuable the ring is . . . you realize
what chance Brom was taking in the fact that he realized, you know, how
difficult it was going to be to convince Ajihad, you know, from a distance
anonymously that Brom really was back and out in the world. So it really was a
huge thing that Brom sent him that ring . . . and it . . . the reason he didn’t
use it, for example, to heal himself after Yazuac when he was injured in the arm
from fighting with the Urgals is that . . . again, one: he used it as an
opportunity to teach Eragon a lesson about not using magic to solve every
problem, and, two: the . . . the energy in the ring was really Brom’s, sort of,
emergency store so that if Durza or . . . or Galbatorix had popped up in
front of them, they might have, might
have a fighting chance to escape.
And, to be honest, I think that Brom never actually intended to actually to . .
. confront the Raz’zac with Eragon. He was using the search for the Raz’zac as
an excuse to travel with Eragon, to train him. But I’m not sure he ever actually
planned to confront the Raz’zac with Eragon and Saphira, or if he did, he
planned on doing the fighting himself and figured he could handle it pretty
well. He might have had a spell he invented in the time he was hanging out in
Carvahall that he thought could knock the Raz’zac out pretty quickly. And, also,
once you remember that, when he was wounded by the Raz’zac and then directly
afterwards he had been drugged like . . . like Eragon so that he couldn’t use
magic.
Mike: Right.
CP: If
he had to bring it with him, he couldn’t have used it. At least no-not until the
drug had worn off and, of course, by that point he was so far gone, uh, the
healing might not have worked, or he might not have been able . . . been really
coherent enough to cast such an intricate spell.
Mike: Well,
that was a good answer.
CP: I
do think of these things!
Mike: Yeah.
No, it definitely sounds like you think of these things. But of course, I . . .
immediately I saw that question I was like, “No, I have to ask it ‘cause I like
Brom and I need to know the answer,” but I hadn’t realised that the ring had
been sent off to, uh, to Ajihad at that point, and so regardless, he was in
trouble.
CP: Yeah.
It was a good question.
Mike: I’m
just gonna read the person’s question, ‘cause it’s . . . it’s . . . I don’t want
to try to reword it. I have a
question regarding the gold rings Eragon gave to Katrina and Roran as wedding
gifts. Each ring is said to have the power to alert its wearer when wearer of
one of the other rings is near death. After the wedding, both Roran and Eragon
had escapes from near-death experiences. For example, when Roran was nearly
stabbed during a raid on the supply caravan. Did the ring somehow know Roran was
not going to die, or did Katrina feel something from the ring and we just
weren’t told about it.
CP: I
think thatKatrina certainly
would have noticed . . . the ring would have alerted her both during and after
the first mission Roran was sent on, and quite possibly, several other times
during the other missions. Specifically when, during the Insurrection chapter,
when he faces off against all those soldiers and fights them pretty much
single-handedly . . . and gets . . . he got pretty badly wounded in a few
places, so she would have been aware that he was in danger and probably, she
would have been terribly concerned, but since I wasn’t writing chapters from her
point of view…and the chapters when Roran and Katrina are together are usually
after they’ve already reunited initially. We don’t really see her reactions to
that. Also, I … when I first wrote that I really was thinking also that, you
know, imminent death was actually referring to his physical condition. It
wasn’t… the ring, for example, wouldn’t alert Katrina if a sword was descending
towards Roran’s neck.
Mike: Right.
CP: It might alert
her if he’d been stabbed through the ribs and feeling very badly…and she’d
probably sense from the ring that he was in trouble
Mike: So
the ring itself . . . that’s its limits is what you’re saying.
CP: Yeah.
It’s limited . . . it’s linked . . . it’s abilities are linked to the physical
wellbeing of Roran or Katrina, so if they physically suffer that’s, and get near
death, that’s when the others . . . when they’re gonna know.
Mike: Okay,
so we’re not talking about a ring version of Elva here.
CP: No.
Mike: We’re
talking . . .
CP: We’ll
see some more about the rings in the fourth book.
Mike: Right.
No, I thought… I thought that was another cool thing . . . all these cool things
that were thrown into the book. I loved . . .
CP: What
I was thinking of actually, the rings are . . . maybe a way . . . ‘cause wedding
rings aren’t really tradition in Alagaësia, but we might be seeing the
beginnings of that tradition here.
Mike: Right.
CP: Other
brides are…and grooms are going to imitate Roran and Katrina.
Mike: All
right. Let’s see. I think this is a big question, which I didn’t really have a
chance to read up on, just to fact check, but I knew I wanted to, so . . . I
just figured you could answer it for us better than I got answer trawling
through over a 1000 pages. So, the question is: In
Eragon it says that if a Rider dies so does his dragon. In Brisingr it becomes
apparent that this is no longer the case. Why the change?
CP: Actually,
it never actually says that if a Rider or dragon dies so does the partner. What
I believe was said was that they usually die, which is the case. It was the
movie actually that said that if a Rider dies so does the dragon.
Mike: Yeah.
We had that long debate last night. A person who is . . . you met him out in New
York City . . . Chris. He and I were going through all the questions and trying
to find the good ones, and we had the debate whether or not it was the book that
said that or the movie that said that, so . . .
CP: It
was the movie, and I actually argued with them, trying to get them to change it.
Mike: Right.
CP: They
didn’t. So the way it works is if a Rider or a dragon dies, the surviving
partner will usually day either from the mental shock of losing their partner,
or simply from suicide or, you know, going mad, or throwing themselves against
the enemy that killed their partner. In any case, it would be very . . . it’s
pretty rare for either member of the partnership to survive too much longer
after one of the other dies, and it might just be something simple as just not,
you know, not eating and wasting away. Of course that doesn’t always hold true
as we know from Brom’s experience, and of course from Brisingr with Glaedr. But
a lot of it depends on the Rider or the dragon having something else to live for
past the death of their partner.
Mike: Well
that is a good answer. I’m glad we got that, you know, the movie fact and book
fact cleared up. So now we’ll . . . ‘cause again that was another one of the key
theories and key discussions, so I know that will make a lot of people happy to
hear that answer. And it’ll, you know, spark some new discussions. Let’s see,
here’s a good one which I’ve been very interested in knowing: How
much time has passed between the start of Eragon and the end of Brisingr?
CP: Not
as much as you might think, to be honest. I have . . . one . . . one of the
things that I’ve made it seem sometimes that more time has maybe passed than
actually has, but it hasn’t been quite as long as you might think.
Mike: Do
you-? Do you have-?
CP: I
do actually.
Mike: Okay, ‘cause I
think I remember, I think it was . . .
CP: One
of the reasons I’m doing that is because, even though the Elves and Dwarves
probably have, I know they have, very accurate methods of timekeeping at this
point, Eragon isn’t familiar with them. His… sort of, his knowledge of
timekeeping would come . . . would be a farmer’s knowledge, it would be more of
the seasons than knowledge of the individual days, or, you know, hours or
minutes. He doesn’t have clocks where he grew up, and that sort of how I’ve
written the point of view of the series.
Mike: That makes
sense. I do recall only . . . I think it . . . it might have been in Brisingr
once . . . it’s . . . a . . . it had been several months since the start of
everything, or something to that degree.
CP: Well
it’s been a bit more than several months, but it’s also been a bit less than you
might think.
Mike: I
just . . . I remember . . . I’m gonna have to go look it up after this, but I
remember at one point, I don’t know if it was in Brisingr or Eldest or even
Eragon, there was a mention of timeframe so I’m just throwing that bit out there
for the . . .
CP: One
of the markers we can… you can go by is the fact that Elain’s pregnancy doesn’t
show up until Eldest, and that’s the first time we know that she is pregnant,
and she’s still pregnant in Brisingr, so that obviously places that within a
nine month frame.
Mike: Right.
Well I know that immediately someone’s going to start writing a timeline, so
I’ll be… I’ll be interested in seeing that. I tried to tackle a timeline once,
but it became too difficult ‘cause, as you said, the book . . . you have
written it in more of a farmer’s, you know, a seasons type perspective timeline
instead of rather specific days.
CP: I
remember I’ve counted out all the days, the weeks a couple of times so I do know
how much time has passed, but time is, ‘specially when Eragon is . . . well,
actually I’m going to stop talking here.
[Mike laughs]
Mike: Fair
enough. Here’s a good question: When
Galbatorix stole the black dragon from its Rider, did he also steal the black
sword?
CP: Say that again.
I didn’t . . .
Mike: Okay.
When Galbatorix stole the black dragon from its Rider, did he also steal the
black sword?
CP: Ah.
We’re speaking about Shruiken, correct? Well, if you remember, actually now I’m
forgetting whether Shruiken was still in his egg or he’d already hatched when …
No, I think Shruiken was still in his egg when Galbatorix stole him, which would
mean that Shruiken never paired with another Rider.
Mike: Right.
CP: At least not
properly. As far as Galbatorix’s sword, we’re going to get to see his sword in,
well, eventually, but I’m not . . . I think it’ll make quite an impression. I
can’t say more than that.
Mike: Can
you say what the color of his original dragon was?
CP: You
know, I haven’t gotten into that yet, and again, I don’t want to . . .
Mike: Okay.
That was really two questions for that one, so here’s a good werecats question: Are
werecats born or made? Are they born human and something happens to them, being
bitten…like a werewolf or spell, or are they born part cat, part human, just as
a werecat?
CP: We
will be seeing a lot more of the werecats in the next book, but, again, I don’t
want to say much more than that. [Laugh] Werecats
are, at least within Alagaësia, they are considered a separate species, and
there are enough of them and common enough that they are known of . . .
Mike: Right.
CP: Though
they are very rare for the most part. But again, my lips are sealed.
Mike: All
right, I think this is officially the last question, and it is: There
is an injured soldier who claims to see the light. What is his importance, or
the importance of what he said? Is he really just mad?
CP: When
he was speaking of light, he was really speaking of energy. He somehow during
his injury…obviously he became . . . was he blind? Physically blind?
Mike: I’m
not positive.
CP: But
in any case, he saw the light when . . . what he was talking about, he saw the
energy of the various creatures and people around him. This somewhat analogous
to what Eragon did when he was meditating in Ellesméra and he could see the
consciousness, the spirits of, the minds of all the living things around him,
and the larger the creature, the sort of brighter that spark was. And, so what
the soldier saw when he looked at Eragon and Murtagh, when he saw Eragon and
Saphira I believe, though he was looking at Murtagh, he saw the energy from the
Eldunarí Murtagh had access to, and that’s what he was referring to.
Mike: All
right. I do understand that and . . . ‘cause I didn’t . . . I didn’t remember
this character until I . . . someone had asked the question, then of course I
flipped through to figure out what they were referencing and so that will clear
a few things up definitely. So, thank you everyone for submitting your questions
from Inheritance Forums and Shurtugal.com, and thank you very much, Christopher,
for taking the time to answer our questions.
CP: My
pleasure and I hope to look forward to speaking to you again soon.
Mike: Absolutely.
CP: All
right.
