Mat Cauthon

Q: What went on with Egwene, Mat and Fain in the dungeon of The Great Hunt? 
A: Most of it is fairly obvious, I would think. For the rest, you'll have to read and find out.

Q: I noticed that your other pen name is Sean O'Neal. Did you draw Matt's "Band of the Red Hand" from family stories?
A: No. That came from my mind twisting certain mythologies that I had read, certain legends. 

Q: Mr. Jordan. I love your series, it is intricate and interesting. My favorite character (other than Rand) is Matt. People have speculated that Odin was the outline for this character. I see Chukullen (misspelled). Could you eleborate?
A: There are a number of characters reflected, mythological characters, reflected in each of the books because of the basic theme, if you will, of the books, that information becomes distorted over distance or time... you cannot know the truth of an event the further you get from it. These people are supposed to be the source of a great many of our legends or myths, but what they actually did bears little resemblance to the myth. that is the conceit, that time has shifted these actions to other people, perhaps compressing two people into one or dividing one into three as far as their actions go so Rand has bits of Arthur and bits of Thor and bits of other characters and so does Matt and so does Nynaeve, and so do others. And yes Matt does have some bits of Odin, but not exclusively. He has bits of Loki and bits of Coyote and of the Monkey King. 

Q: Mr. Jordan, my favorite character is Mat, and I was wondering, do you find it ironic that a Hero of the Wheel, who does not know that he is a Hero of the Wheel, blew the Horn of Valere? Also, were did you get the idea for Mat? 
A: Oh, Mat is a lot of guys. Mat is Coyote and Trickster and a lot of other characters out of myth and legend. He's the reluctant hero, he's a lot of things. He's the bad boy on the Harley. He's a lot of legends.

Q: How many crescent moons are on Mat's funky new ring? 
A: You guess.

Q: Mr. Jordan- What rough percentage is devoted to Mat and Perrin in this book? I must admit I was disappointed Mat wasn't in the Path of Daggers more.
A: In the Path of Daggers, you have to remember that Mat had a building fall on top of him. I personally don't think that Mat lying around in a bed with bandages and splints is very entertaining, and it certainly wouldn't have done anything to advance the story. Mat does have an encounter with pink ribbons that some of you might find amusing in this book.

Q: You said earlier that Mat would get 'stuck' with someone and you mentioned Pink Ribbons. Eighteen century condoms were attached with such ribbons...is it linked?
A: No.

Q: First off thanks for joining us on the chat. To settle a dispute on our mailing list I would like to know if the gholam works the same way as Mat's medallion? Can it be killed by lightning or any such thing?
A: Read and find out. The principle is the same, but it doesn't work in the same way as Mat's medallion.

Q: How does Mat's medallion damage the Gholam? Also, what significance to the Seanchan does his spear have?
A: Laughing... Read and Find out. If I tell you you get bored with the new books!

Q: Did you draw on folklore and mythologies for your books? Specifically, Mat as a paralell to Odin, with his spear that has Thought and Memory on it (Odin's raven's) and the distinct possibility that he's gonna lose an eye sometime soon?
A: I've tried to reverse engineer myths and legends as if this was a game of whispers. By the time the whispers travels around the room it changes. The legends of the world today are what the last child said. I'm trying to remember what was on the original paper. Yes, Odin, Yes Ran has Arthur in him. But the stories have changed so the legends are ultimately not at all alike

Q: Does the ashanderei come from the Age of legends?
A: yes the ashandarei comes from the aol
Q: If mat only has memorys from around the Trolloc wars how does he know how to use it?
A: mat does not have memories only from the trolloc wars. Mats memories extend all the way into the time of artur hawkwing 1000 years later

Q: why do rand, mat and perrin see colors when they think of each other?
A: the acronym is RAFO - read and find out

Q: (by someone calling himself Vanin) what did Aginor meen in tEotW when pointing towards Mat and saying sth about old history, old friend,old enemy?
A: rafo you horsethief!

Q: What exactly are Mats memories, are they from his ancestors, as they all seem to be connected to Manetheren??
A: mat' memories are NOT from his ancestors. He said I want to have the holes in his head filled but he did not specify exactly what he wanted them filled with and so he received scraps and bits and pieces of memories stolen from other men.

Reports from signings

Anyway, Mat has indeed had far and away more MPS experience than our other young heroes, and intends to get much much more. I believe the quote was something like "The world is full of beautiful women, and Mat wants to romp barefoot though them all. (or was that with them all. same thing.) He's slept with lots of women; he's slept with women old enough to be his mother..." Also, Mat makes the Aes Sedai nervous. Sigh, and if RJ had shown all of this "on-screen," y'all wouldn't be complaining about the lack of explicit sex in TWOT!!! (And the books would read like _The Fallon Blood_.)

Mat's Foxy Medallion: As we surmised, it works by blocking direct channelling of both Saidin and Saidar, and its weakness is that it doesn't protect against indirect effects, like _lightening_. When did Mat Die and Live again? He said something that implied that the Die and Live again prophecy-fulfillment was the lightening incident in TFOH, and not the hanging incident in TSR. I was always sure it was the other way around. To paraphrase the Humblest Man on the Net: Who's this guy to tell me such things? He just wrote the books.

Mat's amulet blocks both Saidin and Saidar. Jordan answered this one straight-out when asked. He pointed out that the amulet only blocks actual weavings of the One Power, not the physical effects that could be caused by a weaving. For example, Elayne was able to use the OP to hurl a rock at Mat. Rahvin was able to create a bolt of lightning which struck Mat. (Jordan noted that Mat's death by lightning and subsequent undoing of his death when Rand balefired Rahvin, fulfills a phrophecy about living, dying, and then living again.)

Somebody finally summoned the courage to asking him outright, "What happened to Mat?"  He replied, "He had a brick wall fall on him!"

At one point, he looked at me and added (with no prompting or questioning) that no, Mat is not Cyndane.  He explained that at another Signing, he had a string of ten or so people in a row ask him about Mat, and he got 
frustrated and belted out, "What if Mat is Cyndane?"  He claimed he then recanted, but couldn't tell if the guy he told that to believed that he was joking.  I admitted that I had heard the story, but it was okay-- we got the joke.  He then added that while he likes Chalker's and Varley's works, he does not intend to emulate them.  "Not at all like Balthamel becoming Aran'gar?"  I quipped.  He retorted to the effect that was one character, not a whole host of characters.

The person said something along the lines of: "My wife thinks Perrin is the sexiest man alive."
RJ responded by saying that he, himself, found Perrin kind of boring, and he didn't understand why people liked him so much. But what realy surprised him was that the most popular guy was Mat, the guy he had thought would be the most hated.
RJ then went into a minute-long tirade about how nice guys never get girls. He said that, while the girl might think she wants the good guy, she will always end up driving off with the guy in the Harley.
Yes, he said Harley.

While there I asked another quick question "Are Mat and Perrin Heroes of the Horn reborn?", which got RAFO'd, as I feared. Sorry Witte, I tried.

Raina's Hold / Thus Spake The Creator - Index