The way Robin Hobb uses minstrel song to illustrate outsider perspective is brilliant. Through song we are able to glimpse the narrative of Fitzchivalry Farseer as told by Six Duchians. It rarely ever matches up with what we know to be true. It's such a fun way to show how a true fact can become twisted over time.
I NEED a song about the stone wolf.
Living in the Duchies during the return of the bastard prince must have been wild. Like, absolutely bonkers. Imagine that you are a coterie member just minding your own business, when this man you've believed to be dead for forty years just shows up. And you just have to roll with it. Not only that, but apparently, he didn't murder his grandfather like you've been led to believe and has just been partying with some elderlings for a couple of decades. Okay, sure.
But then he's gone again. Whatever.
A couple months goes by, and you get word that this man is dying. Now you've got to go watch him attempt to put himself inside a stone statue so that he can live on in the skill stream forever. Fine.
You travel to the stone quarry with Nettle, and the other skill coteries. Prince Fitzchivalry is struggling. Turns out it's not that easy to sculpt stone with your bare hands, silvered or not. who knew? The more time passes, the more it looks like the poor guy is going to die before the statue is finished. You figure that you might as well catch some zs while you wait for this nasty business to run its course. It's not like you're going to miss anything.
You're woken from your slumber by the sound of shouting and cheering. Members of your coterie barge into your tent, raving excitedly. "You missed it." They say. "He did it! Prince Fitzchivalry went into his stone wolf with Lord Chance". And all you can think to say is, "He did what with who?"
Turns out that the prince completed his statue, and you slept right through it. Your coterie recounts for you an incredibly moving scene in which Fitz's daughter encouraged Lord Chance to join her father inside the wolf. She loudly declared Fitzchivalry's love for the noble, and the crowd watched on as the two lovingly embraced before disappearing into the stone.
And all you can do is nod, because for the life of you, you cannot remember who the hell Lord Chance is.
