Weep for Manetheren

“We walk the footsteps of our fathers, the trail blazed by our mothers. They bought the land with their blood, long ago… long ago. Oh sing, sing of Manetheren. Oh weep, weep for the blood of Amon. Long ago… Long ago…”

I don’t know about the rest of my fellow Vocalites, but I was resoundingly disappointed with the Wheel of Time Season One. Some of it, of course, must be blamed on the globe spanning pandemic that has killed *check’s notes* blood and ashes! nearly seven million people world wide so far. In particular, I am thinking about the final battle which I could write a whole essay about.

This piece, however, is not about how much I dislike the show, or how tepid at best my anticipation for season two is, or even how I don’t actually like the Wheel of Time books very much. (I take a lot of issue with its characters and its representation of women in particular.) Instead, I want to talk about the song, Weep for Manetheren – which is certainly in my top 5 moments of the entire show – and what I think they can do with it. (I liked the Man who Can’t Forget at well, but that’s only because it gave me The Man they Call Jain vibes.)

Assuming that Amazon maintains it’s hold over Wheel of Time, they are going to have to be the ones who manage its future. I hope that Amazon studious gets its feet under it and starts to produce the wildly impressive shows that their unbelievable budgets promise. (Rings of Power I was equally disappointed with.) And one thing that I think they could do, is to create a WoT spin off about the Trolloc Wars.

For those not in the know, before direct events of the books, Robert Jordan envisioned a truly expansive and sprawling history for his books including a series of conflicts known as the Trolloc Wars. Trollocs are Wot’s answer to orcs and goblins as a generic fantasy monster that can trotted out and murdered on mass without great thought or moral questions. They are twisted hybrids of human men and animals created in truly inventive and horrible ways. They maintain no humanity and are monsters, larger and stronger than humans though almost completely without higher intelligence.

During these wars, the Trollocs descended on the human kingdoms out of the Blight – a twisted, rotting landscape in the far north where the Dark One’s influence runs rampant – and almost wiped out humanity. If I am correct in my recollection, this is the portion of history where Shadar Logoth (the haunted city and the scariest place and single monster in all of WoT) and the rise of Artur Hawkwing (a blend of Alexander the Great and King Arthur as a mythic figure) come from.

It is also where we get the song “Weep for Manetheren,” which was covered hauntingly by Hildegard von Blingin on YouTube. This version in particular claims to be translated into the Old Tongue (which I don’t think is ever so well explained as Elvish but maybe I missed something), but I wrote out the English lyrics at the top of this article. I highly recommending giving Hildegard’s version a listen.

This song references the fall of Manetheren, a kingdom in the Mountains of Mist where the main plot of WoT starts. During the two hundred-year-long stretch of the Trolloc Wars the armies of Manetheren fought at the vanguard of humanity; though when the armies of the Dark One threatened that Kingdom itself, no armies rose in its defense.

All their allies’ words were empty. The following is an excerpt from Chapter 9 or 10 of the Eye of the World by Robert Jordan:

“For three days they fought, and though the land became a butcher’s yard, no crossing of the Tarendrelle did they yield. By the third night no help had come, and no messengers, and they fought on alone. For six days. For nine. And on the tenth day Aemon knew the bitter taste of betrayal. No help was coming, and they could hold the river crossings no more.”

After this sense of defeat, the common people, the civilians and farmers and craftsmen and wives of Manetheren joined their defeated army and fought for ever inch of land. Finally, when the children and their minders had escaped what was to be the destruction of their home, the last desperate defense of the Mountain Home failed and King Aemon died.

His queen, a powerful magic user, is said to have felt him die and in her grief summoned a lethal amount of the One Power. Hurling this against the armies of evil, she scoured the land clear; destroying the kingdom of Manetheren, burning any survivors of the army, and breaking the enemy lines. The Trolloc armies routed and the land was saved, after a tragic fashion.

The children of Manetheren survived and resettled the lands that had been their parents. It later got a new name, the Two Rivers and was incorporated into different kingdoms over the centuries, but it was always fiercely independent. After all, their parents had “bought the land with their blood. Long ago… long ago.”

So, finally getting to my point, I think that this would make a (expletive deleted) amazing show!

Imagine if you will, two or three seasons (maybe movie series) of a show titled something like “the Fall of Manetheren” or something like that. Given the day and age of streaming, each season would be approximately 10 episodes of approximately an hour each. If done properly, then I firmly believe that this show could rival the quality and audience dedication of early Game of Thrones (the tv show) and surpass whatever Disney and Netflix are trying out.

The story would start with the coronation of King Aemon. Leaders from other kingdoms and city states would all be present, or their representatives if the heads of state are off fighting the Trollocs. Maybe, this could be a period of relative peace and we get to see scheming and politicking for a few episodes with undercurrents of dread – think reports from the north of villages or small town suddenly going silent, real creepy stuff. Then a neighbouring kingdom is attacked and they send out a general call for aid.

Manetheren responds, they always respond, and though their army is small, it is mighty and proves decisive in that campaign. This brings fame and renown to King Aemon and his country. The story progresses with the wars front and centre, not too front and centre for budget reasons, though the background politics are still there. Other kingdoms fear the rise of Manetheren as they might be threatened if Aemon becomes too strong or ambitious.

Finally, news reaches the army while it is away that Trollocs have marched on their home. In a fantasy feat of super-humanity, they quick time and meet the Trollocs before the river that is the boundary of their land. Aemon calls for aid along the way and is told that if his army can hold the line for three days, they will be relieved. Very battle of the Hornburg in set up.

So they make it through those three days. But no help comes. Finally, after the events I described earlier, the show ends with the children and their minders resettling the area. Others move in over time and eventually we get the Two Rivers from the books.

Since this story is a tragedy, the show runners must never allow people to forget that fact. At the conclusion of the first episode, which had no opening theme, the above mentioned Old Tongue translation of the song plays. This then becomes the opening theme, played over drawing, paintings, murals, and sketches of Manetheren.

Over the course of the seasons, these images change, growing darker and more sinister.

At the conclusion, we see the survivors create the song amongst themselves in a shot progression that is supposed to be heart wrenching. The song starts longer, a measure of oral history, but over time it is stripped down to the most important points. And in the final shot, we see a group of young actors who are supposed to represent the main group from the main books, singing it together as they walk through the woods.

Their version is the one that plays over the final end credits.

I would love to see this! I would watch the every loving Trolloc dung out of it, if done well, and as I said earlier, I don’t even like this series very much for reasons of my own.

Most die-hard fantasy fans that I know would love it too. And, as proven with GoT, the general public could fall just as much in love with this as we would. It could be another tent-pole franchise, even if it isn’t a direct adaptation of the books.

At the very least, it would provide a palette cleanser from the sheer quantity of Marvel, Starwars, GoT, and Walking Dead media we have these days.

Sadly, though I would love to see this (and love even more to get the chance to work on it) I don’t think it will ever happen. Studios are not brave enough. Nor is the developing streaming world (how many streaming services are there anyway!?) likely to allow this show to reach the audience it would need to.

So all I can do is… “sing, sing of Manetheren. Oh weep, for the blood of Amon. Long ago… Long ago…”