Chapter Icon

2.2.5: Where is Gaidal Cain now?

[Pam Korda, Leigh Butler, Jeff Dougan]

In [TFOH: 14, Meetings, 194], Birgitte tells Nynaeve that Gaidal Cain hadn't been around in T'A'R for some time, and that she suspects that he's been "spun out." Since we never see him in T'A'R after that point, it is reasonable to suppose that that is the case. Min's viewing of Birgitte in WH seems to confirm this idea: "Strangely, some [images] were connected to an ugly man who was older than she, and others to an ugly man who was much younger, yet somehow Min knew they were the same man" [WH: 12, A Lily in Winter, 297].

So, of course, speculation is rife as to where and who he is. Some suggestions are (in order of ascending age):

somebody's unborn kid (e.g., Faile, Aviendha, Elayne)
a baby
Mat's lil' buddy Olver
pulled out of Tel'aran'rhiod bodily and an adult.
Mat
Uno

Well, Aviendha's not pregnant (see section 2.5.6), and there is zero evidence that Faile is, either. Elayne is preggers as of WH, but it's quite a stretch to suppose that one of her children is Gaidal when he disappeared four books earlier (not to mention supposing that any kid with Rand and Elayne for parents could end up Gaidal-ugly).

Is Olver Gaidal reborn?

One of the most popular ideas is that Olver, the little boy Mat takes under his wing in LOC, is the reincarnation of Gaidal Cain. Supporting this are the facts that he didn't like Birgitte when he first met her, but they have grown very affectionate towards each other. Olver is very ugly. These are both "trademarks" of the Birgitte-Gaidal relationship, as described in [TSR: 52, Need, 598]. Furthermore, Olver is very good at horse-riding (he races and wins regularly in Ebou Dar in ACOS), and Gaidal shows himself to be a very good rider when he appears at Falme in [TGH: 47, The Grave is No Bar to My Call, 559]: "Gaidal Cain dropped his reins and, guiding his horse with his knees, drew a sword in either hand."

In spite of the similarities, there is a big problem with the idea of Olver being Gaidal Cain. Olver is now about ten years old [WH: 18, An Offer, 375]. Gaidal was last seen in T'A'R at the end of TSR. That was, presumably, before GC was spun out. Thus, only a year or less had passed between GC's "spinning out" and Olver's appearance as a grown boy. That appearance by Gaidal is not the only one he makes during Olver's lifetime. He appears numerous times in T'A'R, as well as appearing with the other Heroes at Falme. This is a big discrepancy, and requires some explaining, if the Olver-Gaidal theory is to hold. Many explanations have been proposed, but none of them are really consistent with the other information we have about the Heroes of the Horn and T'A'R. Here they are:

The "Time Runs Differently" Theory

In [TFOH: 14, Meetings, 194], Birgitte tells Nynaeve that time runs differently for the Heroes in T'A'R than it does for living people in the real world: "Time [in T'A'R] is not like time in the waking world. I met you here last ten days gone, as it seems to me, and Elayne only a day before. What was it for you?" Ny: "Four days and three..." Birgitte: "The flow of time here can shift in larger ways, too. It might be months before I am born again, or days. Here, for me. In the waking world it could be years yet before my birth."

People have used this idea that "time runs differently" to sweep the timing problem under the rug. However, it is not explained away so easily. Sure, time runs differently, but there is no indication that it ever runs backwards, and it would have to do so in order for Gaidal to have been reborn as Olver. When Birgitte discusses the varying pace of time in T'A'R with Nynaeve, all of her examples involve time running faster or slower for the Heroes, but always running forwards. El and Ny's meetings with Birgitte occur in the same order for them as for Birgitte, even if the amount of subjective time which passes between the meetings is different.

In support of the idea, people bring up the quote by Birgitte in [TFOH: 36, A New Name, 407]: "Gaidal is out there, somewhere, an infant, or even a young boy." The "young boy" bit is taken to mean that Birgitte thinks that time CAN run backwards, and that a nine-year-old could be GC. In addition, in [TPOD: 1, To Keep the Bargain, 47] Aviendha comments that "Birgitte worried about [Olver] even more than [Aviendha], but Birgitte's breast held a strangely soft heart for small boys, especially ugly ones." This has been taken to imply that Birgitte is looking for GC, and continues to believe that GC could be a small boy.

However, this is still inconsistent with the fact that, in every other instance, time increases monotonically for Birgitte (and presumably for the other Heroes) in T'A'R. The first "small boy" comment can be explained by the fact that the pace of time does vary in T'A'R, and thus, that Birgitte, upon awaking in the real world, had no idea how long has passed (in the waking world) since Gaidal was spun out. For all she knew, it could have been several years. However, by the beginning of TPOD, she must have learned how much time had passed in the real world. So, why is she looking at ugly children? She mourns her loss of Gaidal. It's not very incredible to think that she has a soft heart for that which reminds her of him. Furthermore, she may be deluding herself out of hope that Gaidal isn't quite so young as logic says he must be.

The "GC Wasn't Born" Theory

Another proposal is that Gaidal was not born, but was somehow bodily spun out in the form of a nine-year-old boy, was adopted by his "parents," and lied/misled Mat when he told him about his past. This theory does at least attempt to get around the timing problem without resorting to time running backwards for the Heroes in T'A'R. The "small boy" comments brought up above are taken to indicate that Birgitte believes that this is a possibility.

However, this idea has its own problems. Firstly, while in T'A'R, Birgitte talks about being born (e.g. [TSR: 52, Need, 598]). Secondly, when they're incarnated, heroes are supposedly unaware of what they really are. Never being born is a pretty big hint. Thirdly, if people can normally be spun out without being born, why would GC have been spun out as a little kid? Why not make him an adult? It doesn't make much sense.

The Moggy-did-it Theory

In TSR, Birgitte told Nynaeve that, because she and Gaidal Cain fought alongside LTT, Moghedien promised to make her "weep alone for as long as the Wheel turns." So, Moggy's wanted to hurt Birgitte for a long time. Her ejection of Birgitte from T'A'R in [TFOH: 34, A Silver Arrow, 393] was probably not it -- that was a panicked, angry reaction to being shot, striking back at Birgitte and getting away as fast as she could.

Later, in [TFOH: 54, To Caemlyn, 655], she has Nynaeve and Birgitte at her mercy in T'A'R again, able to take the time to punish Birgitte properly -- and what does she do? "Birgitte was gone. A child of perhaps three or four ... stood there playing with a toy-sized silver bow." Nynaeve later forces Moggy to reverse the change, but it shows what Moggy likes in the way of punishments.

Perhaps Gaidal suffered the same fate in T'A'R as Birgitte -- he was transformed into a small child by Moghedien (she claimed to be able to make such changes permanent). He was then pushed out of T'A'R into the real world. She might have left Birgitte in the same condition if not for Nynaeve -- or maybe, if Moggy believed that the Wheel would not spin Birgitte out again unless GC was "properly" reborn first, and turning him into Olver and ejecting him from T'A'R broke his ties to the Wheel, then she might have just left Birgitte wandering T'A'R, waiting to rejoin Gaidal Cain forever.

This idea is similar to the "GC Wasn't Born" theory, but by making Olver/Gaidal a special case, it avoids the problems which would arise if this was the normal method for Heroes to be spun out. We still have the problem of Olver having parents. Perhaps they were part of the horde of refugees in that area who found him and adopted him. (The time span between Gaidal Cain vanishing from T'A'R and Mat meeting Olver is about three months.) Another problem is that when Birgitte was ripped out of T'A'R, she was dying, and needed to be immediately Bonded by Elayne to survive. If Gaidal/Olver was ejected in the same way, he would have died. Perhaps Moggy knows a different way to send a soul out of T'A'R, which doesn't cause death. Another problem is that Moghedien turned Birgitte into a child after Birgitte had been made flesh. At that point, Birgitte dreamed her way into T'A'R (via the dream ring ter'angreal) just like any other mortal. We don't know that Moggy could affect an un-spun-out soul the same way she can a living soul. Furthermore, Birgitte was vulnerable to Moggy because she "violated the precepts," as Gaidal Cain said, by helping Ny and El. Gaidal did not show any inclination to put himself in a similar situation-he disapproved of Birgitte involving herself in the affairs of the living [TSR: 52, Need, 598-599].

A final problem with this idea is that it seems like a rather obscure revenge. Moggy's idea of revenge (as evidenced by her threats to Nynaeve in T'A'R) involves humiliation and debasement. Dumping Gaidal out of T'A'R as a child might be humiliating for him, if he's aware of his situation, but it's hardly on the scale of making Birgitte "weep for as long as the Wheel turns." It seems like Moggy's ideal revenge would involve forcing Birgitte to serve her, while being separated from Gaidal. Maybe Moggy had something more extensive planned, but it was interrupted by her captivity?

The "Dreaming into TAR" Theory

A fourth attempt to explain the problem of Olver's age involves supposing that reborn Heroes can dream themselves into T'A'R in their "archetypical" form. Shayne Macfarlane explains, "Maybe, when he dreams, Olver appears as Gaidal in T'A'R. Birgitte doesn't know that he has already been born again, and only sees him when Olver is asleep. Time passes differently in T'A'R, so she hasn't realized that he has been born again - after all, a young child sleeps a lot. As Olver gets older he sleeps less, and Birgitte starts to notice his absences."

While this would indeed solve the problem, it doesn't exactly fit what we've seen happen. From the way Birgitte described Gaidal's "spinning out," she saw him on a regular basis, and then she stopped seeing him in T'A'R altogether. If the "dreaming" theory was true, we'd expect that he'd appear less and less frequently as the child grew older and developed his/her own personality; Birgitte would have noticed a gradual fading away, not an abrupt disappearance. Also, if that was the way things worked regularly, Birgitte would have known it, and explained the Reborn-Heroes business that way.

There is also an unconfirmed report from a post-WH signing that someone asked if a Hero of the Wheel that had already been spun out could still appear in T'A'R, and that RJ's answer was a point-blank "No" [Bruce Garner].

The "Soul-Bolstering" Theory

In [TEOTW: 19, Shadow's Waiting, 235], as our heroes are entering Shadar Logoth, Thom remarks that "The dead can be reborn, or take a living body, and it is not something to speak of lightly." Clearly, this is a set-up for what will later occur with Fain and Mordeth, but several people have proposed the quote as support for the Gaidal as Olver theory as well. The idea is that Olver was severely traumatized by the loss of his parents, and Gaidal's soul came in to rebuild and armor Olver's existing soul and persona - a sort of benevolent possession, so to speak [James Huckaby].

Though this theory neatly circumvents the problem of how long ago Olver was born, the idea assumes that Olver losing his family was at least partially the cause of Gaidal's spinning-out, and thus still has a timing problem. Olver lost his parents right before we met him in LOC, while Gaidal vanished from T'A'R halfway through the previous book [Philip Bowles]. Additionally, benevolent or not, the idea of possession is a little macabre; it doesn't seem very "Hero of the Wheel"-ish to essentially take someone's life away from them, however altruistic the reasons. When Thom talks about the dead taking over a living body, it's pretty clear that this is regarded as an evil, unnatural thing -certainly not something which should occur as a normal event.

Is anybody else Gaidal?

Many other characters have been suggested as Gaidal's identity. Two of the most popular are Mat and Uno. Any such suggestion has all the same timing problems as the Olver idea, but to a much greater degree. There is a further problem with the idea of Gaidal being Mat or Uno or anybody who was present at Falme. That is, Gaidal Cain's soul appeared in answer to the Horn's summons. Neither Mat or Uno passed out or exhibited any symptoms of a missing soul. Mat even conversed with Gaidal. Also, Mat is not ugly, and doesn't use one sword, let alone two.

Another suggestion is that perhaps Gaidal has not been spun out, after all. Daniel Bartlett explains, 'What if he wasn't [spun out]? Moggy promised Birgitte to "weep alone for as long as the Wheel turns?" What if she delivered on that promise and GC isn't around simply because Moggy got him? Would this explain everything, and Birgitte's looking out for all those little boys simply be wishful thinking? Much easier than explaining how Olver is Gaidal and was somehow born at age nine with the memories of father killed by the Shaido and a mother dead of an illness.'

The problem with this is Min's vision in WH of Birgitte being linked to an ugly, younger man who is also an ugly, older man. That can only be referring to the current incarnation of Gaidal Cain.

Any conclusions?

We can conclude that, of the characters we've seen so far, Olver is the most likely to be Gaidal Cain. However, there are some serious problems with Olver's age. Thus, if Olver is indeed GC, we need an explanation for how he got to be ten years old, when GC was supposedly spun out a year ago or less.

[ Previous Section | Previous | Section Contents | Next | Next Section ]

The Wheel of Time FAQ. Copyright 2002 by Leigh Butler, Pamela Korda and Erica Sadun. HTML implementation by Leigh Butler and Pamela Korda. This site maintained by Pam Korda (pam@linuxmafia.com). Comments and questions regarding the content itself should be directed to Leigh Butler (leighdb@pacbell.net).