Adelin

Author: Atarah al'Norahn

General

Adelin is an Aiel of the Jindo Taardad (TSR, Ch. 50). She is a Maiden of the Spear (TSR, Ch. 37).

Adelin has yellow hair and a handsome but hard face with a thin white scar on one cheek (TSR, Ch. 37). She is tall, even for an Aiel woman, just a hand shorter than Rand (TSR, Ch. 50). She is somewhere around ten years older than Rand (TSR, Ch. 37).

Timeline

• Adelin was one of the Maidens in the Stone of Tear (TSR, Ch. 37).

• After doing some scouting, Adelin approaches Rhuarc. Seeing Aviendha with Rand, she gives Aviendha a quick look of curiosity and sympathy, though she ignores Rand. She tells Rhuarc that there is trouble at Imre Stand, and receives instructions to inform the Wise Ones (TSR, Ch. 37).

• Wanting to buy a gift for Aviendha, Rand looks at several gift choices. Adelin produces a wide bracelet of ivory heavily carved with roses, and Rand thinks that it is perfect. Learning that it is for Aviendha, Adelin will not let him pay for it. Rand wants to know why, hoping that it will not dishonor Aviendha, and Adelin replies that it will not. She has a gai'shain woman pour two cups of bitter tea. They drink, and she kisses him on each cheek, telling him to "remember honor". He is confused, but follows her lead. He has to repeat the ritual with all of the Maidens present. What is happening, though Rand does not know it, is the Maidens think that Rand is trying to attract Aviendha's interest, and they have approved of him (TSR, Ch. 50).

• Adelin tells Rand that the Maidens carry his honor, because his mother was a Maiden. He accepts their offer of an escort to Alcair Dal, and he, Adelin and the nine other Maidens who will go with them go through the "remember honor" ceremony again, this time with oosquai. Afterwards, they tuck him into his blankets (TSR, Ch. 57).

• Adelin and nine of the Maidens escort Rand into Alcair Dal as his honor guard. As they pass the Shaido, Adelin and the other Maidens act as if they do not exist (TSR, Ch. 57).

• Adelin nods encouragingly to Rand as he steps forward to speak to the Aiel at Alcair Dal (TSR, Ch. 57).

• When Couladin claims that he is the Car’a’carn, Adelin and the other nine Maidens heft their spears as if they expect to have to use them at any moment (TSR, Ch. 57).

• When Rand reveals that the Aiel are related to the Tuatha'an, Adelin stares at him, stricken (TSR, Ch. 57).

• When Couladin throws a spear at Rand, Adelin jumps up, catching it with her buckler. The force of it swings her around (TSR, Ch. 57).

• When Rand causes it to rain at Alcair Dal and Lanfear creates a shield around them, cutting out the others so that she can yell at him for ruining her plans, Adelin pounds her fists against the shield, trying to force her way through to him (TSR, Ch. 57).

• When Rand returns to Alcair Dal from Rhuidean and capturing Asmodean, he sees Moiraine, Egwene, Aviendha, the Wise Ones and clan chiefs, Lan and Mat. Mat is squatting a little ways away, with Adelin and the other Maidens around him. Before anyone can speak, Rand asks Adelin to send someone to stop beating Isendre, since he now knows, from Lanfear, that she is not as big of a thief as they thought her to be. She looks startled, but sends one of the other Maidens off immediately. She then hands him his coat (TSR, Ch. 58).

• Adelin and the other nine Maidens surround Rand as he leaves Alcair Dal (TSR, Ch. 58).

• After Rand meets with the clan chiefs, five Maidens, with Adelin leading them, escort Rand back to where the Maidens are staying, since that is where he stays, too. Once they arrive, they leave him to join their friends (TFoH, Ch. 3; TFoH, Ch. 4).

• When, after the Darkhound attack, Melindhra promises to keep an eye on Mat and comments that he is her little mischief maker now, Adelin tells her to "teach him to sing, spear-sister", and the other Maidens laugh. Rand tells them to let Mat rest. When they do not leave, but begin to leave on Moiraine's orders, Rand stops Adelin to ask her how he will use the Maidens in battle if they will not do what he tells them to. Adelin replies, in consternation, that in battle they will do as he says, but that, just now, he had not actually told them to go (TFoH, Ch. 6).

• Adelin is among a dozen Maidens who guard Rand's tent when they camp in Jangai Pass (TFoH, Ch. 21).

• When Shadowspawn attack the camp, Adelin and the other Maidens guarding Rand's tent run to join the fighting (TFoH, Ch. 22).

• When Adelin and the other Maidens return from the battle and learn that Rand was attacked by a Draghkar, she apologizes, saying that they should have been there to protect him. Each of the Maidens offers him a spear, and when he asks what he is supposed to do with them, Adelin tells him that he can do whatever he wishes. Rand tells them to go back to guarding his tent (TFoH, Ch. 22).

• When Rand returns from speaking to Asmodean after the battle, they all jump to their feet, telling him that Aviendha and Egwene are angry with him, and giving him lots of different advice on how to handle them. Finally, Adelin tells Rand that they must speak of what happened that night, and how the Maidens failed to protect him. Rand replies that it was nothing, and that it is forgiven and forgotten (TFoH, Ch. 22).

• The Maidens who failed to protect Rand against the Draghkar, Adelin among them, speak to Bair and Amys. Egwene later sees them clutching children's dolls, and looking more stone-faced than usual, trying to pretend that they are not holding the dolls. The dolls are supposed to remind them that they are not children (TFoH, Ch. 23).

• Adelin, Enaila and Jolien hold Isendre down and shave her head, and also beat her with nettles, because she will not stop hanging around Rand. They tell her that the next time she so much as looks at him, they'll make her wear nettles, and that they will give her to Aviendha (TFoH, Ch. 29).

• Rand comments to Sulin that he has not seen Enaila or Adelin in days. Sulin tells him that they will return when they learn to stop playing with dolls. Rand tells Sulin to tell them that they are grown women and that they ought to act it (TFoH, Ch. 30).

• When Rand returns, exhausted, from battling Sammael and the Shaido, Sulin sends Adelin and Enaila to speak to Moiraine (TFoH, Ch. 44).

Relationships

Adelin is often one of the Maidens guarding Rand (TSR, Ch. 57; TSR, Ch. 58; TFoH, Ch. 21). She is the one who tells him that, because his mother was a Maiden of the Spear, the Maidens carry his honor (TSR, Ch. 57). When Rand announces publicly that Far Dareis Mai carries his honor, Adelin and the others grin widely (TSR, Ch. 57).

Adelin seems to approve of Rand buying a gift for Aviendha, and she will not let him pay for it. The Maidens think that he is interested in Aviendha, and have approved of him pursing her (TSR, Ch. 50).

She is one of the Maidens who taught Mat how to play Maiden's Kiss (TFoH, Ch. 3).

Adelin and Enaila are almost rude when they tell Egwene that the business of Far Dareis Mai is no business of hers (TFoH, Ch. 7).

Adelin is one of the Maidens who punishes Isendre for not leaving Rand alone. One time when Isendre appears in Rand's rooms with wine, Aviendha says that Adelin thought the last time would have taught her. They finally shave her hair off and beat her with nettles (TFoH, Ch. 4).

Quotes

"You have no society, Adelin had told him when he suggested some other than the Maidens of the Spear might provide his escort. Each chief, whether of clan or sept, would be accompanied by men from the society he had belonged to before becoming chief. You have no society, but your mother was a Maiden. The yellow-haired woman and the other nine had not looked at Aviendha, a few steps away in the entry hall to Lian's roof; they had not looked intently. For countless years Maidens who would not give up the spear have given their babes for the Wise Ones to hand to other women, none knowing where the child went or even whether boy or girl. Now a Maiden's son has come back to us, and we know him. We will go to Alcair Dal for your honor, son of Shaiel, a Maiden of the Chumai Taardad. Her face was so set -- all of their faces were, including Aviendha's -- that he thought they might offer to dance the spears if he refused." (Rand about Adelin; The Shadow Rising, Chapter 57)

"Taking a deep breath, Adelin held out one of her spears, horizontally in front of him, rock-steady. The others did the same, one spear each. 'We -- I -- failed,' Adelin said. 'We should have been here when the Draghkar came. Instead we ran like children to dance the spears.'" (Adelin to Rand; The Fires of Heaven, Chapter 22)