The ending is much the same as the ending of The Wizard of Oz.
Covenant (or maybe Saltheart Foamfollower) defeats Lord Foul. Then Covenant wakes up in a hospital bed. Sigh. It was all a dream. Or was it? Or wasn’t it?
There’s no effective resolution of the question of whether the Land actually exists, or is just a delusion.
Actually there’s two things I’d like to contribute.
First, Donaldson is working on the third chronicle, from what I’ve read he’s about 600 pages into the first book of four.
Second, I seriously doubt Hollywood would ever have the balls to make a film series of Thomas Covenant (and do any justice to the story.) A character that dark and gritty doesn’t sell to the mainstream.
If they did my vote for playing the part of Thomas Covenant goes to the cop on Law and Order Special Victims Unit. I can’t remember his name- but he also played a role in Oz for a couple of seasons. The guy is real intense and I think he’d be perfect for the part.
The discussion board regarding the third chronicle can be found at
Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever in a movie? I read all the books, and came away not knowing if I would trust the character with my life.
I think the sonofabitch would revert to type and hide behind his hatred.
That’s just my opinion of the books. No doubt Hollywood would dress him in different clothes.
Quasi
Christopher Meloni? That would be awesome.
YES! Christopher Meloni! I think he’d be perfect for Thomas Covenant!
Kathy Bates as Atiaran?
The important question is - who would they get to provide the leper effects? Stan Winston?
If only TC could have taken an am radio into The Land with him and listened to Rush Limbaugh, he would’ve straightened hisself out early on I reckon.
I should have made it clear that I want to know how the sixth book ends.
whoops, I didn’t mean that to sound condescending. I’d appreciated it if someone posts the ending to the sixth book.
Lord Foul kills Covenant but then can’t destroy the world like he was planning to; Covenant’s spirit is sorta wrapped around it. It’s been a while, I can’t remember exactly how that works.
Whatshername, the doctor, remakes the Staff of Law from Vain and the Elohim, and then returns to the real world, where Covenant is also dead, killed by the mad cultists.
Spoilers ahead.
captainQuark:
It’s been a while since i read the series, but i think this is right.
The big question hanging over the second chronicles is whether Covenant will hand his ring over to Lord Foul, who will then be able to break free of the Arch of Time and will be able to destroy the Land and its Creator. At the beginning of Book 4 (The Wounded Land, which is Book 1 of the second chronicles), Lord Foul predicts that Covenant will give the white gold ring over to Foul of his own volition. This is another key aspect: the giving of the ring must be voluntary.
Anyway, by the end of the final book, Covenant has decided to go and meet Foul. Covenant’s companions, Linden Avery and the giants, try to convince him not to do this, but he insists. They fight their way to the centre of Mount Thunder, where Covenant and Avery confront Lord Foul. Covenant hands over his ring, and the first thing Foul does is use it to kill Covenant. Then he builds up the rings power and aims it upwards to break the Arch of Time and unleash himself upon the universe. But the blast of power has no effect, except to bring forth an outline - like a spectre - of Covenant. Every time Foul blasts this spectre with his power, the spectre’s outline becomes clearer and Foul’s power diminishes. But Foul’s fury and horror at his defeat is so great that he keeps blasting away until he has no power left. The ring drops to the stone floor, and Foul is gone.
Covenant’s “ghost” then tells Linden Avery that Foul is not dead, and that he can return to ravage the Land again. Covenant’s spectre can prevent Foul from breaking the Arch of Time and destroying the universe, but cannot prevent him from doing damage in the world. He then tells Linden to pick up the ring and use it in combination with the new Staff of Law (too long to explain how they got a new one) to heal the Land of all the damage that Foul had done to it.
After doing that, Linden Avery returns to “our” world, where she finds Covenant dead of a knife wound that had been inflicted just as he was transported to the Land at the beginning of book 4.
what was the ilearth stone?
The Illearth Stone was a large green stone that was a source of evil power. Drool Rockworm, the Cavewight, unearthed it in Mount Thunder at the end of Book 1. The Lord Foul took possession of it and, in Book 2, used it to create thousands of warped creatures to fight for him against the people of the Land. He also carved off small chunks of it for each of the three Giant-Ravers who led his armies; these chunks made his armies much more powerful than they would otherwise have been. Covenant destroyed the Illearth stone after his victory over Lord Foul at the end of Book 3. One of the small chunks made a return in the second chronicles, but was also destroyed by Covenant.
Here are two summaries that really say it all:
First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever
and