Hello again, Solas fans, I thought I'd just pop in with a bit of trivia and a theory for everyone to have fun with. I was reading World of Thedas 2 again last night and the page happened to fall open on the entry "Where the Willows Wail." p.201. I'd read it before but it hadn't really sunk in. So it first refers to a human lullaby that is local to Denerim and the villages in the south which scholars had originally catalogued as a "war poem" of the Alamarri. It then goes on to say that recent excavations at the newly discovered Temple of Mythal (clearly the one in the Arbor Wilds) revealed an earlier elven connection. There is then the elven version given and the rough translation. Now this clearly shows it was about Solas and the dropping of the Veil:
"We/it lost eternity, the ruined tree of the People,
Time won't help when the land of dreams is no longer our journey.
We try to lead despite the eventual failing of our markings.
To the inevitable and troubling freedom we are committed.
When we could no longer believe, we lost glory to war.
When the wolf failed/won, we lost the People to war.
The variant on the translation in the last line is clearly because the scholars aren't sure which translation is correct but in fact either could be. The wolf did win in his battle with the Evanuris but he also failed because of what happened to the elves as a result. So how did an elven lament wind up in an Alamarri war poem? This is where it gets interesting. Andraste was allegedly born in Denerim, the location of her father's tribe but her mother Brona was from the Ciriane to the west of the Frostbacks in the area of the Dales. That would be interesting enough but then I looked back at the actual elven and saw the word: "Glandival, which is clearly the stem of the word "Glandivalis", the sword of Shartan that originally belonged to Andraste's mother. The word seems to correspond with the translated word "believe", so it is possible that Glandivalis means "keep the faith" or "keep believing", possibly in the cause of freedom, since in the poem it is clear when the people could no longer believe in their gods, as Fen'Harel taught, they were plunged into war to gain their freedom which resulted in the loss of the glory of their empire and the People as they originally were.
Last theory. What if Glandivalis was originally the sword of Fen'Harel, that he used when guardian of Mythal (may be even given by her) and which he continued to carry after her death, but was possibly lost at some point? Or may be he did cast it aside in despair at what he had done. In which case, did Andraste actually know the story of the sword, at least so far as the elven folk tale was concerned about the trickster warrior who fought against tyrants? We never were told the origins of the sword or why Andraste's mother would have had an elven sword but it is quite possible that it was found in the Dales. Could Brona have even been elf bloodied and the sword was an heirloom of the elven side of the family? Andraste certainly did have a great affinity with the elves. It is said she cried for days having spent time on Sundermount, the site of the elves last stand against Tevinter. Was giving Shartan the sword not simply a nice gesture but a significant one, considering her words are said to have been: "Take this, my champion and free our people forever." The land that was promised to the elves would have likely been held originally by Brona's people and thus in a way they were Andraste's to give. May be they did belong wholly to her family. Maferath could not betray the promise or he would have lost the allegiance of the Ciriane.
Shartan could not have been Solas since Shartan was killed, along with 100 of his fellow elves, trying to save Andraste from the stake. This act is still part of the official Chant because his identity is concealed by giving him the name the Liberator. They were struck down with arrows but their bodies were likely burnt at the site because the Dalish account in DAO states that their heroes died alongside Andraste, unmourned in the bonfires of the Imperium, so this would appear to collaborate the account. No doubt the Tevinter burned Andraste and the elves' bodies because they didn't want any likelihood of some helpful spirit resurrecting them. So Solas could not have been Shartan because he would have to have become a wisp and then found a new host body, which he categorically denies is the case. However, Glandivalis could have been his sword, There seem too many links between characters for this not to have been the case.
So, what do you think?
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