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2.6.2: The Severed Hand

The "Severed Hand" controversy centers around several of Min's visions. For Elayne, she has seen: 1) A severed hand, not hers [TGH: 24, New Friends and Old Enemies, 305], 2) A red-hot iron and an axe [TGH: 43, A Plan, 511]. For Rand, we have: A bloody hand and a white hot iron [TEOTW: 15, Strangers and Friends, 181]. Here are the ideas:

1. Elayne gets captured and leashed by the Seanchan. Rand, or somebody else, is somehow forced to wear the bracelet (recall that little Seanchan game?) [TGH: 40, Damane, 484]). Somebody then chops off Rand's hand (with an axe) to save the two of them. The wound is then cauterized with a hot iron that happens to be lying around. [Judy G, Arthur Bernard Byrne, John Novak]

2. Joe Shaw has suggested: During Rand's battle with Ba'alzamon at the end of TGH, we have "Rand screamed as he felt [Ba'alzamon's staff] pierce his side, burning like a white-hot poker." At the same time, he gets a second heron branded onto his hand [TGH: 47, The Grave Is No Bar To My Call, 564]. I still think this was the fulfillment of Min's viewing about Rand, and that Elayne's similar viewing is completely unrelated.

3. In [TFOH: 16, An Unexpected Offer, 224] we learned that the punishment for stealing in Amadicia is: First Offense--branding (with a red-hot iron?) Second Offense--Right hand chopped off. Scenario: somebody Elayne knows gets accused of stealing in Amadicia (Morgase? Galad? Lini?) and is branded. The person gets into more trouble, and has their hand chopped off. Rand has nothing to do with it. His bloody hand is something else. Problem with this theory is that Amadicia is now under Seanchan control, and old Amadician laws probably don't apply any more.

4. Galad's hand gets chopped for having stolen the boat in Samara from the loony Prophet (according to the Prophet's new law, thieves get their hands chopped). Problem: I see this having more to do with Ny than with El, since she was the one who told both Galad and the Prophet to get a boat for them. [Judy G.]

RJ said, at a signing, that he deliberately made Rand like Tew, the Norse god of strife, who lost a hand.

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