The following is from a monthly Q&A that Shur’tugal holds. You can view it on Shur’tugal.
Mike Macauley: Hello Christopher! Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions! For those who don’t know, we’ll be doing this once a month toward the end of the month for the foreseeable future (or until we run out of questions!). We received over 200 total entries with the amount of questions coming in at close to 1000!
SS— Hey cool, a monthly source of things to comment on.
Christopher Paolini: Wow! That’s a lot of questions.
SS— This is no different than how you started your last interview. You are a published author now, you don’t have to be amazed by your popularity anymore.
Mike: Let’s jump right in. The first question: ShadeKing (among many others) asks: Is it possible that we’ll see a chapter written in Murtagh’s point of view? Keeping with the POV theme, Jack asked: Will we be reading through Saphira’s point of view again in the books or was that exclusive to Brisingr?
Christopher: Anything is possible. I will be switching points of view in Book Four, as I did in Brisingr and Eldest. When possible, I try to write from Eragon’s point of view, since he’s the main character, but if he can’t be present at some event, I use Saphira’s POV, and if she’s absent, Roran’s, then Nasuada’s, and so forth.
SS— It should be clarified, Paolini doesn’t actually write from a character’s POV. He uses third person omniscient with occasional italicized thoughts from the character he is hovering around. The switching around of “POVs” illustrates somewhat of a story telling weakness.
Typically you either stick to the perspective of a single character, or you change perspectives for dramatic purposes, telling each scene from the perspective of the character that best accentuates the importance of that scene, even if it is a minor character. When you stick to a single character, it’s because your story is strong enough to do so, and including other characters distracts from the design. When you switch characters it’s to provide outside opinions. For example, in Brisingr it’s possible you could show the scene of Eragon killing dwarves from the perspective of a dwarven bystander who is utterly terrified by this monster of a man in their midst. Maybe.
Mike: Great! Saphira’s POV was a really great addition to Brisingr.
SS— Have your opinions, if you want.
Christopher: Glad you enjoyed it.
Mike: We had lots of Eldunarí questions this time around. Gilderien asks: Will an Eldunarí from a young dragon grow along with the dragon, or will it remain the same as when it was coughed up? Keeping with the Eldunarí theme, Inheripotterfreakish asks: What is the plural of Eldunarí?
Christopher: The plural of “Eldunarí” is, in keeping with the rules of the ancient language, “Eldunarya”.
Christopher: As for whether an Eldunarí will continue to grow after being disgorged: no. And that’s another reason why dragons were reluctant to give up their heart of hearts while they were still young, before they had achieved the main part of their growth.
SS— I’d just like to note that dragons grow forever. What is the main part of infinity? Infinity? “Sorry, I don’t want to cough up my heart of hearts yet. I haven’t grown to half of infinity.” My, Immortality sure is a conundrum.
Mike: After the way it was explained in the book, giving up your Eldunarí sounded like it’s a scary decision to make. Look what happened to all of those who at one point did so and are now an unwilling source of a lot of Galbatorix’s evil.
Christopher: Yes. This is a subject that I will be exploring in greater depth in the next book.
Mike: We’re all looking forward to it. It was a great twist!
SS— By the standard of twists in Inheritance I suppose. The other twist being “Murtagh is Eragon’s brother”, which caught absolutely no one by surprise. This one was only surprising in so far as it came out of nowhere, and there is no way anyone could have predicted it.
Christopher: Thank you. I’ve had the idea for the Eldunarí since the very beginning of the series. It was frustrating knowing about them but not being able to talk about the heart of hearts for almost ten years.
SS— That must have required an incredible amount of self restraint given the way you foreshadowed everything else in your series.
Mike: Funny how it’s gone from the one thing you were burning to write about for ten years to the biggest discussion surrounding the books!
SS— My funny bone must be broken. The biggest thing you’ve been burning to write about had better be the cool thing your fans are discussing. Do you listen to yourself?
Here’s our next question – FlaimBroyld (among many others) asks: Going back to when Eragon and Saphira coaxed the Menoa tree into giving them the Brightsteel – does the momentary pain in Eragon’s stomach have anything (or everything) to do with what the Menoa tree wanted from them?
Christopher: Whatever the Menoa tree did or didn’t do, her plans are as long, intricate, and slow-moving as her consciousness.
SS— So it’s an Ent? That’s original.
Mike: Tricky answer! That’ll have us all thinking for sure.
SS— Translation: “Another non-answer. We’ll never get anything out of this guy.”
Mike: We had a lot of attention given to Brom in this round of questions. Unfortunately I was only able to pick a few questions but this one really stuck out – Gilderien asks: How did Brom defeat Morzan and his dragon? Were there other factors to Brom’s success than his quick thinking? Did he have help from his friends’ dragons’ Eldunarí? Could his sword, Undbitr, play any role in Book 4?
Christopher: Brom was a formidable opponent, due to his long study of fighting, both physical and magical. We didn’t see as much of him in the first book as I would have liked, but if Eragon were to spar with him now, he would still lose.
SS— Eragon seems kind of pointless then.
Brom was good. It’s not that he was stronger than everyone else, or faster, but that he studied how his enemies thought and behaved and then exploited their weaknesses. As for his various fights with the Forsworn, including Morzan and his dragon, I can’t do justice to them here. I would need to write an entire book about Brom to really explain how and why he prevailed over all but the Ra’zac.
SS— That won’t be necessary. Really.
Undbitr was lost during the fall of the Riders, and, as far as Eragon knows, no one in Alagaësia has found it.
SS— Either someone found it or they didn’t. I don’t see how that is interesting. Maybe interesting in that Brom didn’t know where he lost it? Why ever not? Is it ever explained whether objects can be scryed? Why can’t Brom scry his sword? And for that matter, why wasn’t Galbatorix scrying for the dragon eggs? And if you can’t scry objects, why is the magic system so damn arbitrary? I can say, “Scry for this egg” in the ancient language, so I should be able to do it. Although it’s beginning to be apparent to me that the ancient language doesn’t provide any of the rules of magic.
Mike: Faolins (among many others) asks: Eragon is Brom’s son and both were Riders; Murtagh is Morzan’s son and both were dragon Riders. Is it common for a Rider’s child to become a Rider as well?
Christopher: It wasn’t that common. Eragon and Murtagh are both fairly exceptional. Dragons like symmetry and balance, and they have a strong sense of poetic justice.
SS— Bring balance to the force and all that, right?
Choosing the son of the first Forsworn (Morzan) and the son of Morzan’s greatest enemy (Brom) would have appealed to them a great deal. It may not have been a conscious decision on the part of the baby dragons, but after being around Galbatorix and the Varden for so long, Thorn and Saphira would have acquired a strong, if general, understanding of the most important happenings in the land. This is also why Saphira sometimes seems older than she appears.
Mike: Shouldn’t Thorn have known the consequences of choosing Murtagh as his Rider?
Christopher: After over a hundred years as Galbatorix’s captive, I think that Thorn would have been overjoyed to finally come into contact with someone, anyone, who had a spark of honor and decency in him. Because, whatever else you might say about him, Murtagh, didn’t willingly choose to serve Galbatorix.
Mike: I suppose not, but even if it wasn’t his intent, Thorn hatching for Murtagh has really played right into Galbatorix’s hands (as far as we know, anyway).
Christopher: As far as we know.
Christopher: Also, Thorn was sick of just waiting in his egg for so long.
SS— You know, it used to be that dragons were willing to wait for eternity to meet just the perfect person. Saphira said things to this effect in the first book. And now this? Thorn just compromised on an okay rider? He got impatient? They’ve been eggs for hundreds of years. What’s another hundred to them? They are in suspended animation anyway.
Mike: Can’t say I’d blame him!
Christopher: He wanted to do something!
Mike: I really liked this next question… it’s definitely one that made me think! Gilderienthewise asks: In Eldest, shortly after the Blood-oath Celebration, Eragon wondered if Oromis resented the fact that the magic exacted the night before did not heal his wounds. Although Eragon “discounted the thought,” thinking that “Oromis would never be so petty,” how did Oromis actually feel?
Christopher: Oromis might have felt a twinge of resentment, but he had already made peace with his condition. Moreover, he would have agreed with the dragons that healing Eragon and giving him the strength of an elf was the best thing to do, given the ongoing struggle against Galbatorix. If the dragons had healed Oromis instead, Eragon wouldn’t have been able to fight for the Varden, because of the pain from his back, whereas Oromis could still be of some use in battle, even with his disability.
Mike: And there was simply no way for the both of them to be healed?
Christopher: To expect two such miracles at once is unrealistic.
SS— You are talking about the Deus Ex Machina ceremony here.
Also, the dragons don’t always have control of their own magic.
SS— Yes, we’ve heard this excuse before. Basically, the dragons will only kick in whenever it is convenient for the author.
They did what they could for Eragon, but it was Eragon, not Oromis, who inspired them to cast the spell they did. I’m sure that they would have helped Oromis if they could have.
Mike: All.Hail.Emperor.Murtagh asks: How can the sapphire in Aren contain so much energy? It was stated in Eldest that the perfect diamonds on the Belt of Beloth the Wise would be saturated after only several days of being given energy. How can one jewel hold so much?
Christopher: Ah, this is something that I actually discussed in Brisingr, but the section got cut during the editing process. I’m hoping to include it in Book Four instead. Suffice it to say, Aren was crafted by one of the elves’ greatest artisans and is a unique and highly valuable artifact.
SS— “Because it’d be cool.” This, again, seems inconsistent. And why can’t just cast a spell on every gem to make it hold more energy. You’ve just admitted that through some process of graft gems can be made to hold more energy. In Eldest it was shown that magic could do anything a hand done process could do (sew lace, for example) so why not just craft better gems by magic?
Mike: Well that officially kills one of my bigger theories!
Christopher: Which was?
Christopher: Oh, I remember.
Mike: That Brom’s ring was Saphira’s Eldunarí.
Christopher: If it was, Eragon would have sensed that Saphira’s consciousness when he reached into the jewel and saw the vast amount of energy stored therein.
Mike: That makes sense.
Mike: Last question—Guest123 asks: Have half-elves (human/elves or otherwise) ever existed? If so, do any exist now?
Christopher: They have existed, although most weren’t able to have children of their own. As for whether any exist now . . . let’s just say that if they do, they would have become very, very skilled at blending in with whatever race (elves or humans) they had chosen to live among. Half-elves, half-humans have much-extended life spans, but they aren’t immortal like full-blooded elves.
SS— Somehow this seems familiar.
Mike: Interesting answer!
Mike: That’s all for this round of questions! Thanks for taking everyone’s questions this month and thank you to everyone who submitted questions! We’ll see you again next month!
Christopher: I’m looking forward to it. This was fun! Thanks to everyone for such interesting questions. And as Eragon would say, “May your swords stay sharp!”
SS— Will that ever get old?