The Wire Epigraphs: Season 1
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The Wire Epigraphs: Season 1
epigraph’s to David Markson’s Wittgenstein’s Mistress
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Declare, if thou hast understanding.
— Job 38:4
TARNIT
Atqunarnarniqšaitchuuřuq inuuhirmi inuit tarniinnarnik niqautiqa’mata. Hapkuat anŋutikšaqqut niqautikšaqqut, hapkuaraaluit aŋuvaktaqqut tuquhaqpaktaqqut a’nuraaqaqu’luta, tarniqa’mata, uvaptut, tarniŋit tuquvaŋŋi’mata timiŋit tuqugaluaqti’lugit, ta’nai’mallu haturiaqaqtavut akinahuaquŋŋi’lugit uvapti’nik timii’nik aturapta.
—Kunuuti Rasmusan (1879-1933) qiniqtitauqatauhimali’mat Akukitchumiutaq Inuŋmik anaanalik Tainisimik ataataqaqłuni, akiani’ŋaaqtunik hivulliitchuuhimaliqłuni qimukhikkut ukiuqtaqtuup apqutiaguuqtunik.
SOULS
The greatest peril in life lies in the fact that human food consists entirely of souls. All the creatures that we have to kill and eat, all those that we have to strike down and destroy to make clothes for ourselves, have souls, like we have, souls that do not perish with the body, and which must therefore be propitiated lest they should avenge themselves on us for taking away their bodies.
—Knud Rasmussen (1879-1933) was a Danish-Inuit explorer and anthropologist, and the first European to cross the Northwest Passage via dogsled.
(—via ᐊᒡᓗ | Aglu | The Breathing Hole by Colleen Murphy with Siobhan Arnatsiaq-Murphy, Natchiliŋmiutut translation by Janet Tamalik McGrath.)
Here come my first impressions of Part 1’s epigraphs. I think they are visions of the possible future given to people as they die. Collected by a faction who owns ardents. These are my thoughts on what they mean:
The love of men is a frigid thing, a mountain stream only three steps from the ice. We are his. Oh Stormfather...we are his. It is but a thousand days, and the Everstorm comes. - They are of “the enemy” the Heralds fought against. The Everstorm will be a disaster caused by him
Ten orders. We were loved, once. Why have you forsaken us, Almighty! Shard of my soul, where have you gone? - The Knights Radiant returning to the world after millennia. But instead of abandoning humanity, they’re now abandoned by the Almighty. And they don’t have Shardplate or Shardblade. Or maybe… this is a reference to the past?
I have seen the end, and have heard it named. The Night of Sorrows, the True Desolation. The Everstorm. - Three apocalyptic events caused by “the enemy.”
I'm cold. Mother, I'm cold. Mother? Why can I still hear the rain? Will it stop? - I was confused by this at first. Still am. But since this followed the previous one, and a key part of Roshar’s climate are the highstorms, I think this refers to the Everstorm. The Everstorm bringing eternal rain
Ten people, with Shardblades alight, standing before a wall of black and white and red. - The ten Heralds standing against the Voidbringers
Three of sixteen ruled, but now the Broken One reigns. - There were once three Shards of Adonalsium active on Roshar. But now only one is active. The Broken One
Thirty-four: It is not graverobbing if it was your destiny to have that artifact, just proactive inheritance.
“I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers