Elva
From The Inheritance Encyclopedia
 | |
| About the Character | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Elva |
| Race: | Human |
| Birthdate: | Sometime During the Early Chapters of Eragon |
| Age: | Approximately Two Months, but appears to be at least four years old |
| Loyalty: | Nasuada, and Anyone Who Needs Assistance |
| Actor: | Unknown |
| Warning: This page or section is a spoiler. Information following this warning has been revealed about upcoming Inheritance information. |
Elva is a girl who works for the Varden and serves as Nasuada's protector.
Contents |
Eragon’s Blessing
Elva was one of many nameless Varden orphans, cared only for by an old woman, Greta. It was their misfortune one day to stumble across Eragon in his tour of Tronjheim. The woman “stepped forward and grasped Eragon’s foot with a fierce grip. He tried to pull away, but her hand was like an iron talon around his ankle – he could not break her tenacious hold” (428, Eragon).
She requested that he bless her, as she had no parents, and she herself was weakening. Eragon’s thoughts at that moment foreshadowed what would soon come to pass: “A blessing could easily go awry and prove to be more curse than boon – especially if it was spoken with ill intent or lack of conviction” (428, Eragon).
He soon determined what he felt would be a true blessing, spoken in the Ancient Language.
“He bend down and tugged the glove off his right hand. Laying down his palm on the babe’s brow, he intoned ‘Atra gulai un ilian tauthr ono un atra ono waise skolir fra rauthr.’ The words left him unexpectedly weak, as if he had used magic”(429, Eragon).
Saphira then made her contribution to the blessing, brushing Elva between the eyes with her snout, creating a star-shaped patch of skin as white and silvery as a gedwey ignasia on her forehead that signified an endowment of dragon magic.
Literally translated from the Ancient Language, Eragon's belssing means, "May luck and happiness follow you and may you be a shield from misfortune.", prompting Elva’s curse.
What Eragon meant to say, of course, was "May luck and happiness
follow you and may you be shielded from misfortune."
As a result, Elva may feel the current and future hurts of a person, and through the magic she is driven to protect them, at all costs, not minding her own life or her own opinion.
Family
Though she has no biological family, as an infant she was cared for by an elderly woman named Greta, and in Eldest Angela and Greta watch over her.
Physical Description
Elva appears to be three or fours years of age, with violet eyes and ‘the dragon mark bright upon [her] brow”. Her purple eyes are a result of Eragon's magic manifesting.[1] Though she seems an innocent child from a distance, her eyes tell a different story, dreadfully ancient and all-knowing.
After the Blessing
Three weeks later, Nasuada visits her within the castle, and is stunned to find a child instead of an infant. Elva reveals that Eragon was mistaken in blessing her, and offers to help Nasuada to end the war, so that it might end and she would no longer be torn between compulsions to shield people from suffering.
She quickly becomes the leader of the Varden’s self-proclaimed protector, saving her several times throughout Eldest, most notably from an assassin.
”[Nasuada] halted. ‘I am forever in your debt, Elva.’ ‘Now and forever.’… ‘Well, be that as it may, you have my gratitude for saving my life. Ask me any boon you want and I shall grant it if it is within my power.’ Elva glanced around the ornate bedroom and said, ‘Do you have any food? I’m hungry’”(520, Eldest).
Nasuada then asks her to be a personal guard for her and Orrin, a position that she accepts, if reluctantly.
Eragon
In Eragon, Elva is merely an example of how much the people of the Varden actually trust and respect Eragon, the first Rider in centuries.
Eldest
In Paolini’s second installment, Elva grows mentally and physically because of Eragon's spell. She becomes an essential part of the plot due to her visions and magic. She interferes with an attempted assaination of Nasuada, protecting the Varden. In this installment of the series, Elva takes on a characterization that is a near-perfect copy of a character, Alia--Paul's sister--from Frank Herbert's Dune series. This includes the quick growth and the wisdom well beyond her years.
