The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time) Book Summary
Eye of the World is the first book in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series and is about the epic journey of an unlikely group of people through an amazingly built fantasy world. I highly recommend you read the entire book (and the whole book series!) to get the full story with all the wonderful details, character development, and complicated plot lines.
Here’s a brief overview of the main points of the book to help you understand and remember before reading the book review.
Chapter 1
After a very harsh winter, Rand al’Thor and his father Tam make their way into the small village of Emond’s Field, from their farm for the annual festival of Bel Tine to celebrate the beginning of spring. In the village, Rand runs into his good friend Matrim Cauthon, and they discover they have both seen a man in a black cloak riding a black horse who suddenly disappeared in the woods surrounding the village.
Chapter 2
Rand and Mat meet a mysterious stranger, Lady Moiraine Damodred, who’s strikingly beautiful and wears fine but foreign clothes. They are mesmerized by her, and she gives them each money when they agree to help her with tasks while she’s here. Moiraine says she’s here because she’s a studier of history even though Rand believes nothing important has ever happened in this tiny, forgotten village or even in the wider Two Rivers area.
Chapter 3
A peddler, Padan Fain, comes to the village bringing news of a war in Ghealdan because the standard of the Dragon has been raised. There have been many false Dragons, but, when the real one is reborn, there will be a time of madness. As the villagers argue if this is a false Dragon reborn, the peddler tells them that this man can channel-a power none of the false dragons had.
The villagers are growing so restless with the news, the Village Council has a private meeting with the peddler. Rand and Mat meet up with their other friend Perrin Aybara who says he also saw the traveler with the black cloak.
Chapter 4
A gleeman, or traveling performer, comes out and gives them a small show to excite them for the festival tomorrow. However, he doesn’t seem pleased when suddenly Moiraine is there.
Then, Tam and the council come out to tell them that the village is starting a watch of men on patrol around Two Rivers after the festival. Tam makes Rand return to the farm that night as Tam tells him that others have seen the black rider, too.
Chapter 5
Back at their farm, Rand and Tam are attacked in their home by Trollocs- half human, half animal creatures that Rand thought were fairytales. Tam kills a few, and both him and Rand make it into the woods together. Rand goes back for supplies to get Tam to the village for his injury when Rand has to kill one of the Trollocs with his father’s sword.
Chapter 6
The Trollocs killed all their animals and destroyed everything on the farm, so Rand has to pull Tam back on blankets and boards he’s constructed. Following the path of the road in the trees, Rand has to stop once and silence Tam’s fever mutterings as the black rider followed by twenty Trollocs comes down the road toward the farm. After they’re out of sight, Rand starts again for the village when he hears his father muttering about finding a baby and naming it Rand.
Chapter 7
When Rand returns to the village, half the village is burned down, and he learns the Trollocs attacked here, too. Rand brings his father to Nynaeve al’Meara, the Wisdom-healer and reader of the wind, with the help of Egwene al’Vere, the mayors daughter. However, Nynaeve says Tam is too far gone to be saved.
Rand then tries the mayor who tells him that Lady Moiraine used magic to get rid of the Trollocs. She’s a member of the Aes Sedai- a group of female channelers of the One Power (they have magical powers) who are said to have broken the world in the last age. Rand convinces her to try to heal Tam with her magic.
Chapter 8
While Moiraine is healing Tam, her guard, Lan, tells Rand that the black rider was a Myrddraal (or Fade)-a servant of the Dark One that commands Trollocs. They only destroyed the houses of Rand, Mat, and Perrin because the three boys are the only young men in the village that are all almost exactly the same age. Moiraine tells Rand the three men have to come back to Tar Valon, the city of the Aes Sedai, to protect the village and be safe from the Dark One.
Chapter 9
Rand falls asleep and has a dream about the Dark One following him. When he wakes, he’s saying bye to Tam as Lan tells him there’s trouble. They go downstairs to find Moiraine cornered by villagers who want her to leave.
Moriane tells them the story of how this land used to be called the Land of Manetheren under King Aemon before they fought off the Dark Ones forces. They thank her for healing everyone that she did.
Chapter 10
As Mat, Perrin, and Rand are getting ready to leave with Moiraine and Lan, the gleeman, Thom Merrilin, and Egwene show up to come along. After a lot of arguing, Moiraine agrees they can come but warns it’ll be very dangerous. As they’re leaving the village, Rand spots a Draghkar, a large bat-like creature that’s a spy for the Dark One, who now knows where they are.
Chapter 11
The group make it as fast as they can on their horses to Taren Ferry. Most of their journey, they can hear the Draghkar following them, so Moiraine creates a thick fog for miles around them. Lan wakes up and pays the ferryman to take them across the river in the middle of the night.
Chapter 12
Once the ferryman and his crew have them to the other side of the river, the ferry gets broken up by a whirlpool, so no one else can be ferried across the river for awhile. Lan has created a hidden burrow for all the them to rest in for the night. Moiraine tells Egwene that she has a gift and wants to train her as an Aes Sedai.
Chapter 13
The group finally make it to the city of Baerlon without incident. The gatekeeper tells them that the Children of the Light, who hate Aes Sedai, are in the city. Lan and Moriane tell the group to stay completely under the radar as they find an inn for the night.
Chapter 14
At the inn that night, Rand has another dream about the Dark One talking to him asking if Rand’s the One. The Dark One tells Rand his name is Ba’alzamon and that Rand can’t hide from him anywhere, even in dreams. He also tells Rand that the Amyrlin Seat within the Aes Sedai will use him, and they’re just as bad as him.
Chapter 15
The next day, Rand finds out that Mat and Perrin had the same disturbing dream. In the dream, the Dark One killed a rat by breaking its back and in the inn that day are multiple dead rats with broken backs. When Rand finally does go out into the city he meets the peddler from Esmond’s Field and Min Farshaw, a woman who can see things about people’s future.
Out in the city, him and Mat run into three Children of the Light who threaten them after Mat plays a trick on them. Rand starts to feel feverish, and they head back and tell Thom about the dream. Thom tells them not to repeat anything about the dream to anyone else because it’s dangerous.
Chapter 16
Back at the inn, Nynaeve has shown up, following their trail, to convince them all to return to Two Rivers. However, all insist they’re safer with Moiraine which greatly angers Nynaeve.
When Rand is alone with Nynaeve, he tells her what his dad said about finding a baby. Nynaeve confirms that Tam left as a boy to find adventure and returned as a man with an outsider wife and a baby.
Chapter 17
As Rand is going to bed, a Fade appears in the hallway trying to kill him, but stops and says Rand belongs to the Great Lord of the Dark. Lan comes running as the Fade disappears into shadows and tells everyone they’re leaving tonight. As they try to leave the city gates, five Children of the Light soldiers try to stop them, but Moiraine grows to the size of a giant to knock them all out of the way.
Chapter 18
Three days down the road, they hear the horns of Fades with Trollocs behind and ahead of them. They run into even more as they turn North, and Lan fights off a Fade as Moiraine fights the Trollocs. Moiraine creates a wall of fire to stop more Fades and Trollocs, and the group makes it to the seemingly abandoned city of Shadar Logoth.
Chapter 19
Rand, Mat, and Perrin secretly wander to explore the city, and a man, who shouldn’t be in the abandoned city, named Mordeth shows them a room of treasure. Mordeth tries to kill them and then disappears into smoke.
When the boys get back to the others, Moiraine tells them that Mordeth was the one who originally caused the city to collapse when he tried to secretly take control from the king. Mordeth is cursed by ‘watchers’ in the shadows to never leave the abandoned city. Lan wakes them all to leave because someone has forced Fades and Trollocs into the city, even though they’re supposed to be too scared to enter.
Chapter 20
As they’re trying to leave the city, the group runs into Mashada, the evil fog of the city that will kill them if they get stuck in the fog. When Trollocs also find them, they get separated in the chase. Perrin makes it out of the city and swims to the other side of the river which Trollocs and Fades won’t cross.
Mat, Rand, and Thom end up together running into a traders boat that Trollocs attack. The boat captain gets them on the river and agrees to take them to Whitebridge.
Chapter 21
Nynaeve wakes in the forest to find Lan and Moiraine, who tells Nynaeve that she also has the One Power from the True Source like the Aes Sedai. Nynaeve tries to deny it, but Moiraine tells her that if her and Egwene don’t get trained by the Aes Sedai the connection to the True Source will kill them. Reluctantly, Nynaeve agrees to go with them downriver where Moiraine can tell the boys have gone.
Chapter 22
On the other side of the river, Perrin finds Egwene, and they set off for the city of Caemlyn, where they hope to meet up with the rest of the group. They decide to bypass Whitebridge in fear that the Trollocs and Fades will be waiting for them there.
Chapter 23
Perrin and Egwene run into a man named Elyas and his pack of wolves that he can communicate with. He tells that the wolves say Perrin also has the ability to communicate and even offers the two of them to stay and live with his wolf pack. When they politely refuse, Elyas and the wolves agree to help them find their way to Caemlyn.
Chapter 24
Rand has another dream about Ba’alzamon chasing him in a maze where he cuts his finger on a thorn. The only thing that stops Ba’alzamon is when Rand says out loud this is only a dream, but when Rand wakes up his finger is cut. Onboard the ship, they try to placate the crew as best they can, and Rand finds out Mat has a ruby-hilted dagger he took from Mordeth’s treasure.
Chapter 25
While traveling with the wolves, Perrin doesn’t have anymore bad dreams, but there’s always a wolf guarding him in his dreams. The group stumble upon a group of Tinkers who invite them to have dinner and stay the night by their wagons. The head Tinker tells them recently a warrior in the Blight told another Tinker there, as she was dying, that the Dark One was coming to slay the Great Serpent and blind the Eye of the World.
Chapter 26
Once in Whitebridge, Thom, Mat, and Rand stop by an inn to ask if Moiraine or any of the others has been through here. The innkeeper says no even though a black cloaked man and a crazy, jumpy man came asking about the others, too. In the town square, a Fade spots the three men, and Thom attacks it as Rand and Mat run out of the city towards Caemlyn on Thom’s orders.
Chapter 27
Perrin is getting impatient with the Tinkers slow travel and the possibility the Trollocs could attack these people, but Elyas convinces him they should still travel with the group of Tinkers. Then, Perrin has a dream where Ba’alzamon kills the wolf him when suddenly Elyas is waking him because they have to go and leave the Tinkers. Once they’re back on their own way, the wolves tell Perrin they can only protect him from Ba’alzamon when he fully accepts his connection to the wolves, but Perrin still tries to shut them out.
Chapter 28
Moiraine, Lan, and Nynaeve make it to Whitebridge to find some of the buildings burned down, but no one will tell them what happened. Lan can tell a Fade had been there, and Moiraine can tell two of the boys were there as well but can’t tell which way they went until she gets closer to them. Moiraine decides that they’ll find the third boy who she can still tell is just north of them.
Chapter 29
Elyas, Perrin, and Egwene are traveling south towards Caemlyn, but Elyas is making them cover their tracks and take natural paths with the landscapes. Perrin and Egwene still don’t know what they’re hiding from or what’s out there until over a ridge they see huge flocks of ravens, spies for the Dark One. With flocks behind and in front of them, they have to travel quickly between patches of trees and hills to shield themselves.
Chapter 30
When they make camp for the night, Perrin and Elyas feel the wolves sense danger and realize men on horses are coming. Perrin and Egwene try to hide, but the men, Children of the Light, find them and take them captive even though Perrin and one of the wolves try to fight back. The Children of the Light tell them they’re taking the two of them to Caemlyn and the two must repent for walking in the Dark or be killed.
Chapter 31
On the way to Caemlyn, Rand and Mat try to work a little on farms for food and a place to sleep, but most farmers chase them off with dogs. Except for one nice farmer and his many children, Mat juggles and Rand plays Thom’s flute to the delight of the family. From then on, they juggle and play the flute at inns for food and a bed.
Chapter 32
At an inn in the largest town, Four Kings, on the way to Caemlyn, a mysterious man watches Rand and Mat while they perform while they’re stuck inside because of the storm. The mysterious man comes to their room with his guards who surround them that night telling them to give in to his master, the Lord of the Dark. As Rand is desperately searching for a way out, lightning strikes into the room, killing the man and his guards.
Chapter 33
Rand and Mat sleep out in the rain until the next morning when farmers and merchants give them rides down the road. In the next two villages, a Darkfriend (a servant of the Dark Master) from each tries to corner them, but the boys slip away.
Chapter 34
Rand and Mat join the crowd of people going to Caemlyn to see the captured false Dragon, Logain, brought before Queen Morgase. They overhear there’s a bounty on their heads from the Darkfriends. A farmer lets them ride in his cart through the night, and they make it to Caemlyn.
Chapter 35
Rand and Mat make it to the Queens Blessing inn, where Thom told them to go, and the innkeeper, who’s Thom’s friend, gives them beds and foods. The innkeeper tells them that Thom was close to the Queen before he left to help his nephew who got involved with the Aes Sedai. Thom is still wanted in Caemlyn for what he said to the Queen when he had returned.
Chapter 36
In the inn’s library, Rand meets an Ogier, Loial, a giant animal-like man who reminds him of a Trolloc at first and is usually never seen by humans because they live in secluded communities, called steddings. Rand ends up telling him the whole story, and the Ogier says he wants to travel with him because this is the Wheel of Time weaving the Pattern of Ages. Rand keeps trying to convince him it’s a bad idea to travel with him.
Chapter 37
Nynaeve, Moiraine, and Lan locate the camp holding Perrin and Egwene, and Nynaeve starts cutting loose the soldiers horses in the night. Nynaeve does find Bella, Egwene’s horse, and a spare for Perrin as lightning begins to strike all around her and the camp.
Chapter 38
Where Perrin and Egwene lay in the middle of camp, suddenly Lan appears and takes out their guards. He has them put on the white cloaks to blend in as lightning starts striking. As the soldiers are too preoccupied by the lightning and getting their horses back, the three slip out and back to Moiraine who’s still waiting for Nynaeve.
Lan wants to go find Nynaeve, but Moiraine is about to leave just as Nynaeve shows up with the horses. Once they’re safely far from the camp, Nynaeve helps heal Egwene and Perrin, noting his irises have turned yellow. Lan and Moraine know it’s his connection to the wolves, but don’t tell Nynaeve.
Chapter 39
In Caemlyn, Rand joins the crowds going to see the procession of Logain, but struggles for a spot to see until he climbs an old wall near the Palace. From the top of the wall, Rand sees Logain in a cage surrounded by Aes Sedai and Warders, but Rand doesn’t think he looks defeated. Suddenly, Rand is startled by a woman’s voice and falls off the wall, hitting his head on the way down.
Chapter 40
Rand opens his eyes to meet Elayne and Gawyn, the Queen’s kids who are about his age, as Elayne tends to the gash on his head while apologizing for scarring him off the wall. Rand is enjoying talking with them until guards come and escort them all to the Queen. First, the Queen scolds them for trying to see Logain when she told them not to.
Then, the Queen asks about Rand, and her Aes Sedai, Elaida, is so suspicious of him that she wants him thrown in prison for a few weeks. However, the Queen says he really does talk like he’s from Two Rivers and lets him go.
Chapter 41
Rand makes it back to tell the innkeeper and Loial what happened with the queen, and they agree Rand has to leave Caemlyn with Loial. Then, Moiraine, Lan, Perrin, Egwene, and Nynaeve show up at the inn, to everyone’s joy, until they go up to see Mat who appears possessed. Moiraine tells them that the dagger Mat took is infecting him with the evil of Shador Logoth and makes them leave, so she can try to heal him.
Chapter 42
Moiraine and a back-to-normal Mat return to the group, but Moiraine tells them she could only temporarily heal him until they get to Tar Valon. Rand, Perrin, and Mat finally tell her about the dreams they’ve been having. Loial tells her the same story that Perrin and Egwene heard from the Tinkers about the Dark One, which the two confirm, was told to the Ogiers, too.
With this new information, Moiraine tells them they need to skip Tar Valon and go straight to the Eye of the World and The Green Man. This would normally take weeks, but an Ogier could take them through the Ways, inside the ancient tree steddings. But Loial says they’ll die that way.
Chapter 43
Loial explains the Ways are pathways between Waygates all over the world that are not of this world where time is warped, so you can get anywhere in the world much faster. Even though Loial warns them that the Ways are most likely tainted with evil because people have been disappearing or going mad, the group plans the trip through them as they’re only choice. The boys all have another dream about Ba’alzamon who tells them that there’s secretly Aes Sedai under Black Ajah that serve him.
Chapter 44
Loial leads them to the Gate under a shop in Caemlyn where they enter the Ways. It’s so dark that even though everyone has a lantern, they can only see a few feet in any direction. Loial seems to know where to go and leads them according to writings on some stonework they pass until they come to a bridge with a large gap in the middle.
Chapter 45
They have to backtrack, take a longer route, and the next day Lan tells them someone or something is following them to which Moiraine decides to ignore unless it shows itself. Within the ways, they also see signs of Trollocs which Moiraine believes is how they’ve been traveling to places like Two Rivers undetected. Towards the end of their journey, they hear the Black Wind, the stealer of souls, and Moiraine has to use magic to hold it off while they all make it through the gate out of the Ways.
Chapter 46
They make it the walled city of Fal Dara who’s getting ready to fight off the Trollocs in the nearby mountain pass coming down from the Blight after a tough winter of Trolloc raids. The Lord of Far Dala, Agelmar, implores Moiraine and Lan, who he’s very familiar with, to help them fight, but Moiraine insists they must leave in the morning for the Eye of the World in the Blight.
Guards bring in madman who the boys all recognize as the peddler, Fain, from Two Rivers, and, when the peddler starts raving, Moiraine insists only she should get close to him to interrogate him.
Chapter 47
Agelmar tells the remaining group that Lan is actually the anointed king of this land before his parents died fighting Trollocs and their land bordering the Blight was overtaken. Lan’s father’s army was weakened and overtaken by Trollocs after his brother’s wife, Breyan, lead two different coups to overthrow him and causing many soldiers to die. Breyan and her son Isam were never found, and Lan was taken as a baby to a nearby kingdom to be raised.
Moraine returns to tell them that Fain has been a Darkfriend for forty years, recently searching for the boys and bringing the Trollocs to Two Rivers. Fain was brought to Shayol Ghul in the Blight where he met the man called Ba’alzamon who told him what to do.
Chapter 48
The group makes it into the Blight where it’s extremely hot and humid with air that makes them sick, except for Lan. All the plants and water is poisonous, and there’s Dark creators hiding around. When they make camp for the night, Rand can’t sleep and overhears Lan telling Nynaeve that it will never work between the two of them because he has nothing to offer, and she deserves someone better.
Chapter 49
As they approach the Mountains of Dhoom, where the Eye and Green Man should be, trees and creatures start attacking them that they have to fight off. They don’t think they’ll make it away as they approach the foothills of the mountains, but suddenly they’re in a green meadow with the Green Man. The Green Man is made of plants, and he welcomes them all, especially Loial who he calls little brother, and Rand, who he calls Child of the Dragon.
Chapter 50
The Green Man lead them to opening of an arched corridor. Within is the Eye of the World which is an eye-shaped pool of water that Moiraine says is saidin, the male half of the One Power that is used to mend the seal on the Dark One’s prison or open it. Rand, Mat, and Perrin all seem to fear the pool, and Moiraine leads them back out.
Two Forsaken, Aginor and Balthamel, are waiting for them and say they are no longer bound in Shayol Ghul. The Green Man kills Balthamel, but also dies himself, becoming a giant oak tree. As the rest are running from Aginor, the Forsaken follows Rand.
Chapter 51
Trapped against a cliff and Aginor, Rand notices a cord of Light coming from somewhere that begins to fill him. Suddenly, he’s in a mountain pass between fighting Trollocs and humans. Rand causes lightning and fire to overwhelm the Trollocs and Fades, although he doesn’t know how he’s doing it other than he’s being powered by the cord of Light now attached to his back stretching back beyond his view. Then, a pair of stairs appears that takes him to a room with Ba’alzamon in it.
Rand notices Ba’alzamon has a thick cord of darkness running to his back. Ba’alzamon threatens Rand to bow down to him, telling Rand that he has controlled Rand’s whole life. Rand uses his sword, now a sword of Light, to cut the cord of darkness behind Ba’alzamon and pierce his heart as Ba’alzamon goes up in flames.
Chapter 52
Rand awakens back near the cliff next to the ashes of Aginor, then stumbles his way back to Moiraine, Nynaeve, and Egwene. Moiraine tells Rand that he was channeling the One Power from the Eye of the World which is now gone. Lan, Loial, Perrin, and Mat come out from where the Eye was holding a golden chest, pottery, and white cloth. Moiraine keeps her promise to Rand that she won’t tell Mat and Perrin about his ability to use the One Power.
The pottery pieces are Heartstone, unbreakable by any powers, and once one of the seven seals holding in the Dark One. The chest holds the golden Horn of Valere, to call the heroes of the Ages back from the dead to fight the Dark One. And the white cloth is the banner of the Dragon.
Chapter 53
They make it back through the Blight easily and to Fal Dara where a new spring has finally come and soldiers are talking about the miracle in the mountain pass that lead to their victory. Moiraine tells them that they dealt the Dark One a major blow that will keep the Shadow at bay for awhile, but there are still battles to come. After a week to rest, Egwene, Nynaeve, Mat and Perrin decide to go to Tar Valon, but Rand tells Egwene he’s not going with, and he’s going elsewhere without being specific.
I highly recommend reading the entire book to fully understand and get how good the story is. You can find it here.
Read the Full Book Review
Now that you’ve been reminded of the major points in the book, read the full review here. As I read through all of them, I’ll work on getting up reviews for the entire series. But this first novel is great book if you love the fantasy genre, especially books like Lord of the Rings or Name of the Wind.
