The Name of the Wind

Kvothe says that he was like an automaton in the beginning, going through the motions of survival. Over time, he starts playing the lute: “It was my only solace” (127). By the third month, he starts creating songs of his own. When one of his strings breaks, he learns to play on fewer strings. After three strings break, however, he can no longer play and starts to walk.

He decides to find a town, although he’s not sure exactly where he is. It is starting to become winter, so he tries to hurry. His feet hurt, he is cold, and he avoids towns and people. One morning, he hears a wagon behind him. An old farmer calls out to him and tells him to get in if he’s going to the city. Jake and his son Seth offer some bread and butter, sing a drinking song that reminds Kvothe of others he has known, and take him to town.

Jake and Seth let Kvothe off in the city of Tarbean, where he helps them unload. The kind farmers say that they’ll be selling till sundown if he wants to return home with them and work on the farm. Kvothe loses himself in the huge place trying to find a place to buy lute strings. He encounters three boys, led by one named Pike, who attack him and destroy his lute.

When Kvothe awakens, he sees his injuries. He tries to get to the bookshop at the square to meet the old farmer and his son, but he’s too late; the cart has left. The owner of the bookshop tries to kick him away, and he curls up behind crates in an alley to sleep: “That was the first night of nearly three years I spent in Tarbean” (138).

A month later, Kvothe is struggling. He only barely survives by begging. One day he sees a boy run up to a young beggar nearby, talk to him, and hurry away. Kvothe follows, and they lead him to a basement where several children are staying, some tied to cots. In response to one making animal noises, an old man comes into the room. When the old man sees Kvothe, he offers the boy food in return for some work.

The old man’s name is Trapis. He cares for young, hopeless people that no one else bothers with—like Tanee, the boy who makes animal sounds. He also provides other children with what help he can and allows them to earn food. In Trapis, Kvothe has found someone who looks at him as a human being for the first time in a long time. Kvothe continues to stop by when he needs it—often at first, then less as time goes by: “It helped when I was out on the rooftops alone, knowing that Trapis and the basement were there. It was almost like a home you could come back to. Almost” (142).

During his first few months in Tarbean, Kvothe learns to survive in the streets. He also learns more about the city—specifically, that it has two sections, Waterside and Hillside. Hillside is the rich area, and he has the great idea to go begging there instead. He happens to do so during the last day of Midwinter Pageantry: “That day I learned two things. I learned why beggars stay Waterside, and I learned that no matter what the church might tell you, Midwinter is a time for demons” (145).

At first, his foray into begging in Hillside seems to go well, but a guard chases him and beats him up. He tries to limp back to his hiding place but ends up falling into the snow. A man dressed for the holiday in a mask depicting Encanis, the Lord of Demons, helps him up but can’t stay—his friend urges them to go before they get into trouble. The stranger leaves but gives Kvothe some gloves and a silver talent, with which Kvothe uses to buy food and a blanket at a nearby inn. He returns to his own hiding place, and the new year begins.

The following day, Kvothe slips into fever. He leaves his rooftop and somehow makes it to Trapis’s basement, where the old man nurses him back to health. Once Kvothe awakens, Tanee asks Trapis for a story.

Trapis tells a story about Tehlu the God coming to the planet as an infant borne by a pure woman, Perial. In the story, the baby Menda grew up to rid the world of all demons. After seven years of this campaign, only the demon Encanis remained. Tehlu chased him for six days while Encanis destroyed six cities. On the seventh day, Tehlu saved the seventh city, and on the eighth, Tehlu caught up to the demon and struck him with the hammer. On the ninth day, Tehlu dragged Encanis to the city of Atur and bound him to a giant iron wheel. On the tenth day, the city celebrated, and on the eleventh day, Tehlu asked Encanis to choose a side. When Encanis refused to repent, Tehlu threw the wheel into a pit. Encanis freed two hands, so Tehlu leapt upon him and kept him upon the wheel as they both perished in the flames. After hearing this, Kvothe wonders if Trapis is a Tehlin priest, but he never hears the old man tell another story.

Kvothe learns things in Tarbean: how to beg, how to pickpocket, how to run from sweet-eaters who do anything for a bit of resin, how to make shoes out of rags until his feet grow rough enough to weather anything, and how not to expect help from anyone.

One night, he is at his secret place when he hears large boys attacking a younger boy. He picks up a roof tile, ready to act, then realizes that they will overrun his safe place if he intervenes. He does not—and must try to shut out the noises of what is happening to the poor youth below.

In the present, Kote says, “If you are eager to find the reason I became the Kvothe they tell stories about, you could look there, I suppose” (168). He explains that he was unable to leave Tarbean to go to Abenthy because he didn’t know how to get to Hallowfell, hundreds of miles away, without help and still numb from grief. Habit kept him in Tarbean, as well as survivor’s guilt, which dictated he should live this life as punishment. Kvothe tells Chronicler and Bast, “I needed to be reminded of things I had forgotten. I needed a reason to leave” (169).

After three years in Tarbean, Kvothe hears about a storyteller in a café who knows every story. He goes there and asks for one about Lanre. Skarpi, the storyteller, tells of the city Myr Tariniel, ruled by Lord Selitos, who kept the peace despite the Creation War. The warrior Lanre and his wife Lyra, who knew the names of things, protected the seven other cities. When Lanre died in battle, Lyra resurrected him by calling his name. Rumors spread that someone then kidnapped or killed Lyra.

Lanre arrived to speak to Selitos—but instead, Lanre bound the lord and destroyed Myr Tariniel. He destroyed the entire empire to save them all from evil, and he learned Lyra’s power to try and save her. Lanre claimed his name is now Haliax, and with the death of Lyra, he has lost everything. Selitos then declared he would never be deceived by his eyes again, stabbing his eye with a stone with a needle point, binding and cursing Lanre in so doing: “Your own name will be turned against you, that you shall have no peace” (181). The story engulfs Kvothe, who tells Skarpi he will be back to hear more.

Kvothe steals some money and buys himself food and beer. As he’s getting ready to return the mug, he sees a Tehlin priest and decides to wait, so as not to catch the priest’s attention. The sight of this hooded man in the shadow sparks a memory—that Haliax is the name of the shadowy man behind Cinder at his parents’ fire. 

Kvothe runs to the Half-Mast to hear Skarpi tell stories. He arrives right in the middle of one that speaks to the origin of the church knights called the Amyr. The god Tehlu, Skarpi says, was among the ones who received power to better serve the world.

Someone in the room shouts that he has heard enough. Two Tehlin priests in cloaks charge the storyteller with heresy and beat him up. The storyteller nevertheless has the last word, then addresses the air and says, “You should run, Kvothe” (192). He adds that there is nothing to gain because he has friends who will help him, but there is nothing Kvothe can do. A moment of confusion follows, in which Skarpi receives another blow, so Kvothe takes the storyteller’s advice and runs.