Maruman - an enigma. Where does he come from? How does he seem to know so much? Is he really as crazy as Elspeth thinks he is?
In this theory, I hope to unravel a little of the mystery surrounding Maruman's existence.
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The most important part of this theory is that Maruman, we learn in TKP, is seliga - a beastspeech word that means "half-there" or something (in TKP Elf can't interpret it properly).
I can't remember if IC said this, or if I'm dreaming, but seliga has something to do with Maruman's constant travelling - which Elspeth assumes is to the blacklands during "fits of madness".
What I propose is that Maruman's periods of madness, his seliga-ness is the time when Maruman travels on the ashlings to Cassy's time - the Beforetime.
Which raises an interesting question - Which timeline is Maruman actually from? Cassy or Elspeth's?
I believe he's from Cassy's time.
Maruman's state of mind when he returns from his fits of madness in - I think it can be explained by remembering, if he IS seliga, than his trueform is in Cassy's time - all the time. How can this be, since he spends such long periods of time in Elspeth's timeline? The ashlings are the key - he can make himself come through and be seen in Elspeth's time.
Remember how in TKP, Maruman tells Elspeth that she won't be seen unless she wants other people to see her (on the ashlings)? Similar thing with Maruman. His body is contained somewhere in the Beforetime, perhaps at a govanmen institute where they are testing on animals with mental powers - similar to how we know they're testing on the Agyllians in Cassy's time for their mental abilities.
So, when he disappears in his times of madness, it's because his physical form is under such great peril, he needs his mind back with himself to focus on the attack.
His apparent madness, I believe, comes from travelling from timeline to timeline so frequently that he can no longer tell the differences between times, and it's all a blur. That, along with the strain he's under at the govamen institute.
Evidence of this physical toil can be seen in the very first book - one of the first times we meet Maruman. He has a fit, right in front of Elspeth, and mentally screams "the flies!", then passes out. What on earth is that all about? Why include it at all?
It's giving us a clue. Maruman's really in two places at once. His mind is with Elspeth, his body is with the govamen. At that point, I believe he's being tested/tortured. The physical and mental toll on the poor cat is too much for him, and he has to retreat to his real body to focus on the attack.
If any of this is true, it raises even more questions. What is the Agyllian's true role in all of this? We know the Agyllians, and the Eldar Atthis, existed in Cassy's time (at least in mind, we hear Atthis talk to Cassy in one of Elspeth's ashling travels). Why are they manipulating Maruman to do all their work? Can Agyllians not travel the dreamtrails? Did they pick Maruman because he's got so much mental strength?
As usual, picking a theory and running with it raises many more questions. I don't expect we'll learn the truth about Maruman for a long time...but it's interesting to speculate :)
Post TSK edit: You know, I think this theory is almost confirmed in TSK. We see a dream sequence of someone who looks like a young Hannah Seraphim (either her daughter, or Hannah herself?) playing with a kitten called Merimyn, who Elspeth recognises as Maruman.
If Maruman was born, and raised in Hannah's time, he certainly could not have survived the Great White to be in Elspeth's time. The time-travel / seliga seems all the more likely now, doesn't it? :)
it seems to tie in with things quite a bit. i gues that Maruman's role and physical whereabouts will be given in one of the other two books, hopefully. i had always wondered about him, and this fits with some of my wonderings.
wow this is an awesome theory :nod:
intresting...but i always thought Maruman travelled into the mountains to escape the emotions that the humans layed on him...but sometimes i think he did exist in the beforetime but in a different form
I have longe thought something like this. M, in his fit of madness, would possibly be remembering his life in Cassie's time. Another theary could be that it is his soul that has traveled through time. But my theory dosnt sound as good as yours. Picture this, What if you say is true, and in the new book he leads Elf to Cassie, frozen in time, possibly the same way M was. It could provide a shock, and isnt that what everyone is expecting????????? Honestly, anything can happen.
Hey, no i'm new and all but this theory may actually fit.
Has any1 read the Stone Key?
If so u should no what i mean
i agree with this theory and well done on the massive amount of thinking
Wow, you're a genius!
I had thought something like this for a long time but I was never able to put my suspicion into words or a clear theory. You've explained it so well and it really fits with everything.
Well done!
This theory is pretty much what i was thinking, but i also thought that the Sone Key revealed more along this line of thinking when it revealed two very important points. One was when Elspeth saw Maruman as Merimyn in the Beforetime. Two is something Kasanda said about defying time, " How strange it is to speak of time, when i have defied it more than once and in more than one way in my life." My guess is that Maruman, having known Cassy in the Beforetime, may have either been given the knowledge of how to live that long in Elspeth's time, or perhaps taught it.
Maruman also said in the first book, that he "remembered" the Great White, and sent pictures to Elspeth's mind of "a world in terror".
I was recently re-reading the first book, and i found a quote that seems to pretty much confirm Min's theory.
Maruman says this in one of his fits of madness;
"When the Whiteface was hidden and I was in the oldplaces, I dreamed of the red bird. He said I must follow you. It was my task."
The 'oldplaces' could be the beforetime. Perhaps Maruman is saying that when he was in Cassy's time, the Agyllians came to him in a dream and told him that his task was to follow and protect Elspeth. Perhaps he followed her into her time, by using the dreamtrails?
whoa, this is a really good theory. . . i haven't read TSK yet, and the other four still remain closed after i finished TKP two years ago - i think. To understand it more, I'll need to get myself a copy of TSK and start rereading from Obernewtyn itself . . . |;)
in TSK when elf gets her 5th sign in the crystal chamber and her and maruman's voice it says something like 'make Merimyn sing'.
i think thats a genius theory!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:
I agree with you, but I don't at the same time. I have always thought that Maruman was from the beforetime and the release of TSK confirmed that for me. Maruman is Merimyn, Cassy's companion in the beforetime. It explains his memories of the beforetime AND the Great White. So how did he come to exist in Elspeth's time? Simple, he was cyrogenically frozen. In TSK, Cassy stumbles upon a cryogenics laboratory at her father's work. My feeling is that Maruman was frozen until the time came to guide Elspeth. Who knows, maybe that explains his mysterious mind-distortions!
wow I'd never thought of this! (I thought maybe the Agyllians had kept him alive somehow)
... wow... this could lead to so much!
yeh! wow! very... different! I hadn't thought to much of maruman. too many characters! id just thought he'd been reincarnated or something like that because Merimyn and maruman are different names. And if Cassy was a beastspeaker then she would know his name right? how does that work? i love your theory and i think its the great, just finding things that don't quite work same as always. ::) So why would he change his name? if he is as you say.
Huh, interesting. Well I have a similar/related theory. I don't know about Maruman/Merimyn being from the beforetime, but that bit where in the Stone Key, Rushton talks about his great grandmother, I thought maybe Maruman was reincarnated from her?
I don't know, does that sort of still fit with the theory, given Elspeth's theory of Rushton's ancestry?
Blackrose909 reminded me of something. I had been thinking something almost completely similar. You really are a genius for managing to come up with this fitting theory, but i think that maybe, just maybe, Maruman was from the beforetime, and he did see the Great White, etc, but maybe something from the Great White, or the rotting disease or something had gotten him close to death [hence the tattered body], so when Rushton's mother died, she must have been a bit of a match, and the Agyllians put Rushton's mother's soul in with Maruman. That would explain quite a few things about Maruman. Also, the Agyllians would have been keeping Maruman alive for some period of time in the beforetime, etc. So maybe, the Agyllians took Maruman to the Agyllian's home...is it the 'Ken Agyllian Eyrie' ? during the Great White, although Maruman had already seen some of the Great White. Maybe they kept Maruman there, until it was time to go to Elspeth.
I'm not sure, this may sound like nonsense, but you never know...
I second the motion that Maruman is actually Merimyn that the Hannah figure was playing with... That would explain the comment from Cassy (well the computermachine found in the Earth temple that Cassy programmed) saying that she has defied Time more than once.
Great Theory, Many Possibilities!!! :roll:
I definately agree with Delerium, this is my theory as well.
Maruman is Merimyn and he was cyrogenically frozen.
In the crystal chamber when it asked merimyn to sing maruman did without hesitation, it helps explains cassy defying time more then once in more then one way.
I think his madness, his seliga is due to being frozen for so long and mabey something went wrong while he was frozen, like his body was frozen but not his mind?
cryogenics makes sense otherwise reincarnations of the same cat? he could just be dreaming of his ancestors they passed on the name and knowledge of the beforetime along with the hereditary mental instability - he's linked to the spirits of his ancestors through the mindstream which is why he's so scattered.
i like the poetry of the original theory that he's dreaming of elspeth and his real existence is in the beforetime but i will scream if IC ends the book with "..and it was all a dream" - but a lot of it makes sense apart from the practical matter of his corporeality.
I dearly love Maruman. He is probably my favourite characters.
After some of the stuff in the Sending (Spoilers if you haven't read it)
like analivia's visions of the girls/women playing with merymin the kitten and he sprouts wings. I think either:
They are all in cryosleep, and they all talk mentally, or
Mthey are in some kind of dream space or on the dreamtrails, to have a break from a dreary existance in a bunker similar to the Ines shelter in Oldhaven, an merymin is in cryosleep, but able to travel on the dreamtrails.
My theory is that Maruman has been in cryosleep since the Beforetime, with the possible exception of Elspeth's dream of Cassy, Maruman and Hannah talking about where the Great White has hit if that dream was after they had awoken from cryosleep, though I think it was before and that he was asleep since then. He was destined to awaken in the time of the seeker to protect and guide her. He is Merimyn who is playing on the dreamtrails with Hannah Jr, and Cassy's so called conjuring of him is actually to allow her to check in with him. If it wasn't for that dream where he is physically in the beforetime, or at least the past, I would suspect he is travelling time using the dreamtrails
