This Month in Randland: Amadaine

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Author: Atarah al'Norahn
Published: June 7 2020 Tar Valon Times Blog Link

On June 7, the Randland month of Amadaine begins. The seventh month of the year in the Farede Calendar[1], Amadaine possesses 28 days and corresponds to our own dates of June 7 – July 5.

There are four known feasts or festivals that take place during Amadaine, although little is known of two of them. On the sixth day of Amadaine (June 12), the Feast of Maia is celebrated in the nations of Altara, Andor, Ghealdan, Illian, and Murandy.[2] Just a few days later, in the nations of Amadicia, Arad Doman, Tarabon, and Tear, Bailene is celebrated on the ninth day of Amadaine (June 15).

The Feast of Teven, which is celebrated in Illian, also occurs during Amadaine, although an exact date is not known. The Feast of Teven is known for “its famed contests and prizes for gleeman,” with “the greatest prize of all, as always” being given to “the best telling of The Great Hunt of the Horn” (TGH, Ch. 7). Somewhat fortuitously, in the year 998 NE (the year in which the series proper begins), the Great Hunt for the Horn happens to be called around this time, meaning that a good portion of the book The Great Hunt occurs in Amadaine.

One final holiday occurs during Amadaine, although properly speaking, it is not actually considered to be one of the 28 days of this month. As the midsummer festival, Sunday is a day of great merriment. More information on this holiday can be found in our previous article on Sunday.

  • [1] The Farede Calendar came into use after the end of the War of the Hundred Years. There are thirteen months with twenty-eight days each.
  • [2] While The World of Robert Jordan’s ‘The Wheel of Time‘ places the Feast of Maia on the sixth day of Amadaine, there are two conflicting entries for this feastday in The Wheel of Time Companion. One entry states the sixth day; the other states the ninth. As Bailene occurs on the ninth day of Amadaine, albeit in different nations, quite possibly this is a typo.