The Name Of The Wind

The Name of the Wind, also called The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day One, is a fantasy novel written by American author Patrick Rothfuss. It is the first book in a series called The Kingkiller Chronicle and followed by The Wise Man's Fear. It was published on March 27, 2007 by DAW Books.

Plot

At the very beginning, the reader hears an old story-teller speaking of a famous old wizard called Taborlin the Great, who was captured by evil beings called the Chandrian. Escaping them, Taborlin fell from a great height - but since he knew the Name of the Wind, he called it and the Wind came and set him down safely. In later parts of the book, characters are often skeptical of such stories. Some kinds of magic are taught in The University as an academic discipline and have daily life applications (those who can afford it could buy magical lamps, much better than the candles used by poorer people). However, it is doubted that magicians can truly call upon The Wind, and the Chandrian - whose appearance is supposedly heralded by flames turning blue - are often dismissed as mythical bogeymen.
The story begins in the rural town of Newarre, introducing the innkeeper Kote and his assistant Bast, revealing that Kote is the renowned Kvothe: an unequaled sword fighter, magician, and musician, rumored to have killed a king and caused the present war. His assistant and student Bast is a prince of the Fae. Kvothe saves Chronicler, a traveling scribe, from spider-like creatures called Scrael, whereupon Chronicler asks to record Kvothe's story. Upon consenting, Kvothe tells Chronicler that this will take three days (corresponding to the planned trilogy of novels).
Kvothe begins his story during his childhood amongst a troupe of Edema Ruh, highly-reputed traveling performers. He spends a happy childhood, his loving parents training him from a young age as an actor, singer and lute player - and he does extremely well in all of these as in every other field to which he turns his hand. The troupe acquire the scholar and Arcanist 'Abenthy', who trains Kvothe in science and "sympathy": a discipline of causing changes using a link in one object which allows manipulation in another (a system drawing equally from modern thermodynamics, quantum entanglement, and voodoo dolls). Kvothe also witnesses Abenthy calling the wind to fend off suspicious townspeople and vows to discover the titular "Name of the Wind", permitting this control.
Kvothe's father, the famous bard Arliden, starts composing what was to be the greatest of his works - a ballad of the ancient tragic hero Lanre. For this composition, Arliden starts collecting all the various tales of the mythical "Chandrian" and trying to get at the kernel of truth behind them - without explaining how this is related to Lanre. This inquiry turns out to have fatal consequences. When the troupe makes a halt, Kvothe's mother sends him to gather sage in the surrounding woods. Upon returning, he finds his parents and all members of the troupe dead, and the all too real Chandrian seated around the campfire which had turned blue. Evidently, they disliked Arliden's researches and came to silence him and everybody else with whom he might have shared his findings. The twelve-year-old Kvothe is on the point of being killed by the Chandrian named Cinder when their leader, Lord Haliax, pressures them to depart due to the approach of some mysterious enemies of theirs.
The heavily traumatized Kvothe, alive but all alone, spends three years in the slums of the city of Tarbean as a beggar and pickpocket. He is nudged out of this life by hearing a story-teller recount a story of how the hero Lanre became a renegade after the death of his beloved wife, went over to the evil forces he had fought and destroyed the cities with whose protection he was charged - and then changed his name and became himself the fearsome Lord Haliax of the Chandrian. Before Kvothe could ask more, the story-teller is arrested by the dominant Church, on charges of heresy. (This world has a religion similar - though not identical - to Medieval Christianity).
In order to find more, Kvothe is determined to get into The University (there seems to be only one in this world) whose vast Archives include all kinds of accumulated knowledge - including, presumably, also on the Chandrian. Having with great effort obtained some minimal funds for clothing and travelling, he sets out. En route Kvothe becomes enamored of a talented young woman known as Denna, who is a musician like Kvothe. Kvothe enters the University despite his lack of tuition funds, and performs admirably as a student, but faces continuous poverty and rivalries with the wealthy student Ambrose and the arrogant Master Hemme. A trick by Ambrose causes Kvothe to be banished from the Archives, hampering his research on the Chandrian - though he does very well in other fields of study, advancing extremely fast in academic degrees and gaining some loyal friends. Kvothe buys a lute despite his poverty, and performs brilliantly at a famous musical tavern to earn money, where he also befriends Denna again.
Hearing reports of blue fire and murder at a rural wedding, he suspects the Chandrian, and visits the site. There, Kvothe and Denna meet a local farmer who reported blue fire, and later as they are searching for the Chandrian, they encounter a draccus, which nearly destroys the local town before it is slain by Kvothe. He does succeed in discovering the reason why the Chandrian murdered all participants at the wedding: the bride's father had dug in the earth and discovered an old pot on which were paintings of all seven Chandrian; they came to recover the pot and kill anyone who may have seen it.
Back at the University, Ambrose taunts Kvothe, who breaks Ambrose's arm by summoning the wind; whereupon Master Namer Elodin accepts Kvothe as an advanced student of his own.
In the inn in the present day, a mercenary possessed by a demonic force attacks the patrons and kills one of them before he is killed by a young patron. The first day ends when Kvothe finishes the first chapter of his story and the town settles down for the night. At night, Bast breaks into Chronicler's room and urges him to focus Kvothe on the more heroic aspects of his story, in the hope that Kvothe will abandon his apathy.

Plot Summary 

The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day One) is a fantasy novel in the grand tradition. Author Patrick Rothfuss places an emphasis on world building seldom seen even in fantasy epics.
Set in an indeterminate time, Chronicler, a traveling scribe, is traversing the country collecting stories. After being attacked by arachnid monsters called Scrael, Chronicler is saved by an innkeeper named Kote. The innkeeper soon reveals that he is actually Kvothe, a person of legendary import. He is an elite swordsman, but is also highly skilled in magic and musicianship. There have been claims that once Kvothe killed a king, and that act is what produced the war in which the land now finds itself embroiled. After Kvothe reveals himself, Chronicler asks for the honor of recording his story for posterity. Kvothe agrees, with one minor caveat: his is a long tale, and will take three days to relate.
In his youth, Kvothe apprenticed with a traveling group of actors, similar to the troupe in Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. They go by the name of the Edema Ruh. When a scholar named Abenthy joins them, Kvothe learns that magic is a reality. Abenthy practices a mélange of disciplines that, conjointly, are known as “sympathy.” Of all the startling abilities that Kvothe witnesses, it is the eponymous skill, The Name of the Wind, that he is most desperate to master. Anyone who learns The Name of the Wind can summon it to his aid.
The Edema Ruh are soon slaughtered by the Chandrian, a group of seven evil beings who were supposedly mythical. Kvothe is the only survivor. The experience has badly damaged his psyche, and he spends the next three years in a city as a beggar, slowly recovering. Eventually, having saved every cent he earns, he makes his way to an institution of arcane learning known as the country’s “university.” On the way he meets a young woman named Denna, and becomes enamored of her.
Kvothe tests well and is able to enter the university, where he learns magic, history, and more. He becomes embroiled in bitter rivalries with a student named Ambrose, at the root of which lay Kvothe’s poverty, intellect, and unwillingness to back away from altercations. It is in the depths of the university’s sprawling library archives that he begins his research into the Chandrian. Soon his antics get him banned from the archives, halting his studies.
In order to earn money, Kvothe buys a lute and begins performing at a local tavern. He encounters Denna again, and their relationship grows. In the tavern, Kvothe hears rumors of a tragic wedding. The slaughter of the guests shares similarities with the attack on the Edema Ruh. In Kvothe’s subsequent investigation of the site, he encounters a savage beast, a Draccus. It nearly manages to obliterate the town before he is able to kill it.
When he returns to the University, Kvothe gets into a fight with Ambrose. During the conflict he is able to summon the wind, breaking Ambrose’s arm. Professor Elodin, who is responsible for teaching the most advanced magic, and who rarely takes on students, takes Kvothe as one of his pupils. At this point, the novel reverts to present day, where Kvothe has finished telling the first installment of his story.
The Name of the Wind is heavily rooted in themes of education – what is “true” learning and what is mere bookishness – duty, history, the nobility in the pursuit of knowledge, and perhaps most importantly, apathy. Throughout the telling, Kvothe aggressively downplays his importance. The reader knows that Kvothe is a vaunted figure, as do the Chronicler and Bast, Kvothe’s assistant and student. And yet, it is impossible not to wonder what he has seen, and done, that have rendered him insensate to his own legend. Indeed, after the day is over, Bast intrudes into Chronicler’s room and insists that, on the following day’s story, he prod Kvothe into discussing the heroic aspects of his history. This, Bast hopes, will break Kvothe out of his cynicism and disdain for much of what he has lived.
This is a big novel, which is typically the case when an author has audaciously set out to build an entire world within a book. Rothfuss is known for his meticulous editing and for completing many drafts of his works before publishing. It shows. The Name of the Wind has an incredible sense of verisimilitude, as if Rothfuss lived for a great deal of time in his fictional country before recording it. It is impossible to come away not having truly come to know the characters. Praise for The Name of the Wind has been very positive, and Rothfuss received the prestigious Quill Award for the novel in 2007.
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