Old Tongue - History

History

The Old Tongue was spoken during and shortly after the Age of Legends. Due to the ensuing turmoil of the Breaking of the World, the Trolloc Wars, and the War of the Hundred Years, the records of this time period are generally fragmentary at best; however, it seems that a sufficient knowledge of the language itself has survived for those who wish to learn it to do so. Many nobles, for example, are expected to learn at least a few phrases of the Old Tongue, though few do so; a fair number of Aes Sedai seem to have some knowledge of it as well, probably taught in the Tower, to say nothing of the scholars to whom such things are of great interest.

But though it has long since passed out of use, its importance should not be underestimated. It is the language of such great figures as Artur Hawkwing, Lews Therin Telamon and the Hundred Companions, as well as that of the Forsaken. It was spoken by a society that was, by all remaining accounts, quite advanced in most respects, and it was the language of those who struggled to mend their shattered societies in the aftermath of the Breaking. It did nothing less than survive a minor armageddon, and usher in the dawn of a new world.

At present, the Old Tongue can still be seen through names of places (e.g. Manetheren or Aridhol, or even Alcair Dal), things (e.g. names of Aiel warrior societies), inscriptions (e.g. "Tia mi aven Moridin isainde vadin"), and in certain phrases used in conversation, especially by Matrim Cauthon, who inherited fluency in the language from the memories he received from the Eelfinn, but even before that knew the language piecemeal.

Read more about this topic:  Old Tongue

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    The history of our era is the nauseating and repulsive history of the crucifixion of the procreative body for the glorification of the spirit.
    —D.H. (David Herbert)

    All history attests that man has subjected woman to his will, used her as a means to promote his selfish gratification, to minister to his sensual pleasures, to be instrumental in promoting his comfort; but never has he desired to elevate her to that rank she was created to fill. He has done all he could to debase and enslave her mind; and now he looks triumphantly on the ruin he has wrought, and say, the being he has thus deeply injured is his inferior.
    Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)

    No cause is left but the most ancient of all, the one, in fact, that from the beginning of our history has determined the very existence of politics, the cause of freedom versus tyranny.
    Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)