“The Wall Of Night” Character Series: Andrew Robins Features Rowan Birchmoon
Introduction:
Over the past few weeks I’ve been hosting a guest post series in which The Wall Of Night series readers feature a favourite character in the series. Each post has been wonderfully different, so when Andrew asked if he could contribute a post as well, how could I say no?
So here it is, our bonus Character feature: enjoy!
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Character Feature: Rowan Birchmoon, the Winter Woman
A Guest Post by Andrew Robins
I was inspired to write this addition to “The Wall of Night” Character Series when I read Paul Weimer’s great post on Myr, AKA the Lady Mouse.
Paul portrayed Myr as a woman who was out of her place, and in an environment where her differences from those around her meant that she was forced to deal with daily hostility and constant suspicion.
This description reminded me of another character who incidentally was one of my favourites from the first book in the series: Rowan Birchmoon – the Winter Woman.
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Like Myr, Rowan is out of her place. She is consort to the Earl of Night, and living amongst a people who are alien to her. Some of the Derai she deals with day to day value her, but to most she is and always will be an outsider whom they suffer to live amongst them only out of respect for their Earl.
Rowan is also a person who is not obviously strong, or powerful. As it happens she can fight, and she is brave, but she is not someone you would describe as a warrior.
In some ways it would be easy to see Rowan as a woman who is defined by the love that she has for Tasarion, the Earl of Night. This love is real and living, and it shines through the first half of The Heir of Night. But if you have read the first book, you know there is much more to Rowan, and her role on the Wall than her love for the Earl.
Rowan has strength of the kind that allows her to remain warm, human and engaged even as she struggles with hard choices and great responsibilities. She is also a character who despite appearing to be at times passive, is definitely following her own path and remaining true to herself and her people.
Hopefully readers of this post will agree that these ladies, Winter and Mouse, are pivotal characters in the series — perhaps unexpectedly so in the case of Rowan Birchmoon.
Both are also strong in ways we don’t necessarily expect – at least when we first meet them. And both are characters who are defined by strength of Character – which they show in abundance when the chips are down. Which as readers know is a regular occurrence on the Wall of Night.
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About Andrew Robins:
Andrew is a long time reader – and sometime reviewer – of science fiction, fantasy and history. People pay him to test stuff, which most of the time is more fun than it has any right to be.
To check out Andrew’s book reviews, see “Book Reviews for ‘on Anything, Really” in the right-hand side bar. To read the Game Log, 58 Eridani, you can find all the entries here.
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Thank you, Andrew, for providing a fine concluding post to this Character mini-series. 🙂
Readers, if you have questions or want to talk with Andrew about the post, you can do so by leaving a comment below.
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To read the three preceding posts, click on:
I’m so glad you featured Rowan Birchmoon because she is one of my favorite characters too.
I’m interested you see her as being like Myr because that comparison never occurred to me before. One of the many things I really like about Rowan in The Heir Of Night is her confidence in herself, which seems the opposite of Myr really. Rowan knows exactly who she is and what she is about, even if she is quiet about it. She tells the heralds to butt out of her business early on, even if it’s in a nice way, and she challenges the Earl about the divisions in the Derai.
On reread I’m mainly taking issue with you calling her “passive” and the comparison with Myr since I read them as very distinct personalities. Otherwise it’s a mighty post. Great bonus effort.
Hi Chris
Thanks for the post!
I agree with you that Rowan is far from passive 🙂
Which is why I said “appears passive”. Rowan is smart enough to know how badly an open challenge would undermine the Earl she loves. So challenge him she does, but mostly in private.
Her role in Malians escape showed us a great deal about her strength of character. And that she was in no way passive.
🙂