I read TSK a week ago, and I recall a part where Elspeth was on the dreamtrails where she saw a little girl playing with Maruman when he was a kitten and called him (Miryim? I forget, I don't have my copy here with me).
Then,
When in the stone chamber (the fifth sign) the program refers to Miryim(sp?) and Elspeth wonders why it didn't refer to Maruman instead.
This is why I believe that Maruman belongs to Cassy Duprey.
Your thoughts?
I think the name was merimyn. But he was a kitten with the little girl, and going on Cassy's life, she was grown up when the great white came (which Maruman may have seen or know of) so he would have been up to 15 years old at the time, plus the 5+ years that he's spent with Elspeth.
What's the average life span of a cat? I know Maruman is old, but how old could he get?
Average life span of a cat is usually no more than 20 years lol - so either Maruman is a phenomenon or his is directly descended from that kitten...
So even If Maruman Travelled through time, it may be a bit of a stretch that he is alive as both Cassy's childhood companion and Elspeth's
Wanderer Ward
16 years ago
Wanderer Ward
Mage
Maybe, it is both Maruman, and his ancestor.
Ok, before you think I am crazy, let me explain a bit more...
We know that with the Agyllians, they pass down knowledge through each subsequent
Elder, so maybe there is a similar thing with Maruman. He is himself, but also contains the memories of his ancestors. That could explain when, in Obernewtyn (I think) Elspeth wonders about the way Maruman talks about the Beforetime as if he was actually there, maybe he wasn't, but he had memories of it, passed down to him.
It could also explain how/why Maruman is refered to as selgia (I don't think I spelt that right, and I dont have my book here) anyway, selgia/behind because he has those memories of the past, and they somehow affect him mentally...
Mystic Ward
16 years ago
Mystic Ward
Twentyfamilies Gypsy
The Agyllians where cloned in the beforetime which is why they share a memory. This could be the case with Maruman, but I like the idea of it being the same kitten who has travelled through time somehow. I had thought the little girl who was playing with the kitten was either Hannah's daughter or granddaughter, who Cassie took with her to the RQL and not Cassie herself, which would mean that Maruman could be a lot younger than 20.
Seeing as the beforetimers had technology superior even to ours, it could be possible that
A) The average lifespan of an average household cat had been genetically increased.
B) Perhaps the little girl on the dreamtrails wasn't Cassy, and Cassy found Maruman at the Sentinel complex as a test subject for another project. (TSK speaks of there being a lot of different projects being run in the complex.
C) I recall that the lady that Cassy probed in Elspeth's dream was found to be working on a cryogenics project in the complex. Perhaps they were testing if a cat could be cryogenically frozen - and Maruman was that cat?? This would explain why IC would even bother include that truedream?
I know, my theories are weird. xD
I agree with Deb, I thought he was with Hannah's daughter- From memory I thought Elspeth described the girl as looking like the girl in the statue at Stonehill that looked like Hannah-
So if Maruman was with Hannah's daughter Cassy would know him- or maybe she just forsaw that Marumans 'voice' would be needed, but didn't know he would be called Maruman.... speaking of which how did his name change? Did he change it?
Well what if we say Maruman is not really a cat, buit just a Beforetimer in a cat's body? I think this is one of Min's theories and I also believe it to be so. So perhaps Maruman was someone who knew Hannah's daughter at that time, but his form was that of a cat because he wanted to protect his identity, or his altered mind had forgotten who he was in The Beforetime.
16 years ago
Fri Apr 18 2008, 05:15pm
I thought that the cat was maruman because he said he dreamed of elspeth when she saw him on the dream trails (or was it a dream?). Maybe the cat had been frozen? that might be why marumans mind is messed up or what ever it is
16 years ago
Fri Apr 18 2008, 05:16pm
im trying to get my head around that theory Kaylan- so are you saying that in that 'memory' the little girl was playing with a cat, but that if were to really to go back and see that point in time the girl would be playing with a human (and thus the memory/image has been tampered with)...or is it that the beforetimer was actually able to put his mind into that of a cat (ie. it took the cat's body)? ???
sorry if i sound at all skeptical (i dont mean to), im just trying to understand the gist of the theory... o_O
Expanding on some of the other ideas people have posted and drawing on some of the impressions I have formed reading TSK, I wonder if many of the key players in the beforetime dreams were cryogenically frozen.
This could be a possible spoiler - highlight to read
**We know now that Cassy is Kasanda and the first D'rekta of the Twenty Families. It is more than likely that she was frozen during the Age of Chaos after the great white, and remained out of action for a period of time that allowed societies to rebuild and reform. I wonder if the first twenty families group were also frozen with her and was made up of the original beforetimer misfits captured by the goverment, AND Hannah Seraphim's daughter (the little girl) AND Maruman. We know that twenty families gypsies have the governmen symbol tattooed on their arms - and in previous books we could only guess as to why - TSK revealed that some of the before time misfits had similar genetic traits to the "current" twenty families gypsies... However the real gypsies seem to lack the same abilities (except for future telling) as the ober misfits do...**
Maybe???
Katala: That may quite be possible. :D
Hey Katala - reading parts about Cassy and Kasanda in TSK, I got the same idea about Cassy being cryogenically frozen, esp when Cassy said she had defied time.
Mystic Ward
16 years ago
Mystic Ward
Twentyfamilies Gypsy
Rereading TSK, or rather skimming it, I read the passage as a woman with meriman on the dreamtrails, not a little girl. But that is beside the point I guess.
I don't think that Maruman existed in the Beforetime with Cassy and was frozen. Because who would have unfrozen him to be alive at the time of Elf's existence?
Instead, i think the little girl is Hannah's daughter's descendant - Rushton's Grandmother. If that were the case, Merimyn would have picked up his hatred of the moon from Grandma, since she used to glare up at the moon too.
The little girl/Grandma was also in contact with Twentyfamilies gypsies - I think this was due to the cultivation and preservation of friendship between Cassy's descendants and Hannah's descendants.
I haven't read TSK yet because I don't have a copy of it yet but.. "For one who has the courage to look beyond the darkness to come... and hope." That was the inscription on the statue under Tor. I had thought that "to look beyond the darkness to come" meant to foresee or futuretell the nuclear holocaust. But maybe it meant she would live through it or maybe it meant both.
