What Has Been Lost An impossible task. The challenge of defeating an undefeatable king. An old-time hero is thrown into an epic journey with a younger, slightly clueless hero. “So...it starts again. However it may be, my station is unchanged” (Paolini, Eragon 98). The storyteller Brom states this when he first lays eyes upon Eragon’s dragon, Saphira, who exists in the novel Eragon by Christopher Paolini. Eragon is the main character in the story. Paolini opens the reader’s emotions to allow loyalty to lie with this character and his inseparable dragon. While this is so, the reader may feel a stronger connection with the character Brom because of his bravery and vulnerability, and his personal connection with Eragon in the third installation
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This burial would not have taken place had not Brom taught Eragon as much of the Ancient Language as he could in the short time that they had together. The fact that Brom is only buried with his staff and his sword leads to the symbolic significance of these items within the context of Brom’s past life, his seemingly dull existence in Carvahall, and his brief return to glory as he travels with Eragon. “They laid Brom inside the unfinished sandstone vault with his staff and sword” (Paolini, Eragon 276). The sword represents his days of glory before he came to Carvahall and the toil he underwent to get there. The staff holds true to the fact that he would lie dormant for a time, as a stick cut from a tree would never live again. It symbolizes the fact that his life is not going to last much longer. Härke mentions, “Multiplicity of messages and variability of meanings characterised the deposition of objects in early medieval graves” (41). These two trophies of Brom’s legacy left in his grave are there to help the reader understand how great a man he was and is before it was revealed. When all is said and done, Brom is indeed a great hero in the book Eragon. He easily fits into the role of the medieval heroic ideal in the fact that he receives a kingly burial and is brave and vulnerable. Even though Brom’s story finishes in the first book of the Inheritance Cycle, his legacy lives throughout the series as the story unfolds. In Brom’s own words, “The sands of time cannot be stopped. Years pass whether we will them or not… but we can remember. What has been lost may yet live on in memories” (Paolini, Eragon
This burial would not have taken place had not Brom taught Eragon as much of the Ancient Language as he could in the short time that they had together. The fact that Brom is only buried with his staff and his sword leads to the symbolic significance of these items within the context of Brom’s past life, his seemingly dull existence in Carvahall, and his brief return to glory as he travels with Eragon. “They laid Brom inside the unfinished sandstone vault with his staff and sword” (Paolini, Eragon 276). The sword represents his days of glory before he came to Carvahall and the toil he underwent to get there. The staff holds true to the fact that he would lie dormant for a time, as a stick cut from a tree would never live again. It symbolizes the fact that his life is not going to last much longer. Härke mentions, “Multiplicity of messages and variability of meanings characterised the deposition of objects in early medieval graves” (41). These two trophies of Brom’s legacy left in his grave are there to help the reader understand how great a man he was and is before it was revealed. When all is said and done, Brom is indeed a great hero in the book Eragon. He easily fits into the role of the medieval heroic ideal in the fact that he receives a kingly burial and is brave and vulnerable. Even though Brom’s story finishes in the first book of the Inheritance Cycle, his legacy lives throughout the series as the story unfolds. In Brom’s own words, “The sands of time cannot be stopped. Years pass whether we will them or not… but we can remember. What has been lost may yet live on in memories” (Paolini, Eragon