Elodin

From The Kingkiller Chronicle Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

How about this? If you catch him larking around again, I'll let you cut off his thumbs. That should set an example, don't you think?

– Elodin to Lorren[2]

Elodin is the eccentric Master Namer at the University. He previously served as Chancellor.

Description

Elodin was an exceptionally brilliant student and was the youngest to have ever been admitted to the University, at the age of fourteen. By the time he turned eighteen, he had become an arcanist and began working as a giller. He continued on to become Master Namer and, eventually, Chancellor of the University, though the latter was short lived.

He is at least a dozen years younger than the rest of the Masters in the University and is described as an average looking clean-shaven man. His dark eyes are often depicted as his most striking feature. He is well-known for his eccentric personality and erratic antics. This causes some in the University to look down upon him; nevertheless, as befits his position as a Master, he demonstrates an understanding of his respective field of study that few in the modern world can equal.

Elodin is best known for his committal and ensuing escape from Haven.

In the Chronicle

Kvothe meets Elodin at his first admissions interview and subsequently learns a collection of bizarre rumors about the Master. Most notable of these is the story of his abdication from the position of Chancellor and subsequent escape from Haven, which Elodin personally narrates to Kvothe to match the epic cadence of the popular folk stories about Taborlin the Great.

Elodin is a fairly minor character in The Name of the Wind, entering primarily to offer Kvothe cryptic lessons while displaying a somewhat unbalanced demeanor. Elodin becomes a much more prominent character in the The Wise Man's Fear. He begins a Naming class which piques Kvothe's interest in working with him. Elodin also demonstrates a much more conspicuous resentment for the Master Jasom Hemme.

On one particular occasion, Elodin goes as far as to deceive Kvothe into breaking into a Master's rooms and uses this as an example of why he is reluctant to take Kvothe on as a student of Naming. Ultimately, however, after finding out his relationship with Auri, Elodin agrees to take Kvothe on as his student. He is then instrumental in Kvothe's early readmittance into the Archives.

Elodin's lectures throughout the story range from unorthodox to (seemingly) totally pointless, much to the dismay and frustration of several students. He is notoriously unreliable and lacking any sense of punctuality, usually arriving late to his own classes and sometimes not coming at all. Despite this, Elodin communicates quite effectively the core aspects of Naming to his students and has some success with Fela.

After Kvothe's trial in The Wise Man's Fear, Elodin encourages Kvothe to take a semester off and explains the old tradition of chasing the wind.

References

  1. The Wise Man's Fear, Chapter 124, "Of Names"
  2. The Wise Man's Fear, Chapter 11, "Haven"