Evidence That The Two Books Are About Elriel
Warning: Long Post Ahead. Calls Back to Scenes in the Earlier Books. Synthesis of Readers’ posts and my own interpretations and theories.
First: the titles. “A Court of Splintered Harmony” and “A Court of Forgotten Melody”
Both are related to music (harmony and melody). Azriel, the ShadowSINGER, canonically can sing, as SJM stated. His title is more literal than symbolic. Now, I’d argue that this music-related titles are a double-edged sword since Gwyn can also sing or that her power is theorized to be related to singing. Which could be intentional for marketing purposes.
BUT. We must remember what the Book of Breathings tells Feyre. “Hello, sweet thing. Hello, lady of night, princess of decay. Hello, fanged beast and trembling fawn. Love me, touch me, sing me.” Now, if we cut these sentences into phrases, each part actually pertains to a specific Archeron sister.
“Hello, lady of night” addresses Feyre who became the High Lady of the Night Court. “Love me.” Love is an integral part of Feyre’s story. Love was the answer to Amarantha’s riddle in Under the Mountains. Love was an important component for the freedom of Prythian under Amarantha’s clutches. Because Tamlin needed Feyre, a human who hated Faes with all her heart, to fall in love with him.
“Princess of Decay” and “Touch me” relates to Nesta whose power is related to Death and relationship with Cassian was intensely physical. Decay is a part of Death’s process.
Now, it is curious that Elain is describe by two opposing images. “Fanged Beast” and “Trembling Fawn.” The Fawn imagery has been connected to Elain since Feyre imagined that visual painting of Elain and Azriel when Azriel gave her Truth-Teller, his treasured dagger.
Fawn symbolizes innocence, gentleness, vulnerability, and new beginnings, all can be seen in Elain. However, a fawn is also a prey, a weak little thing. But to contrast it to a predator, a Fanged Beast, it makes me wonder if Elain has another side to her that we have yet to see.
Now, her relation to the music-themed book titles. The part “Sing Me” is the only thing we have yet to encounter in ACOTAR. Logically, we can conclude that this phrase pertaining to Elain is plausible.
Second: the subtitle “the Valkyrie Cycle” could be related to Wagner’s The Valkyrie Cycle as some readers theorize.
Essentially, the story tells about the forbidden love story of Siegmund and Sieglinde. Their love story is forbidden because of two things: first because Sieglinde is married to her cruel husband, Hunding, and because Siegmund is actually her twin brother who was separated from at birth which makes their relationship incest.
The forbidden aspect of this story correlates to Elain and Azriel’s anticipated love story because Elain is already bonded to Lucien, though unwanted, and Azriel and, let’s be honest, Elain’s feelings is a threat to an already precarious political situation in Prythian, as Rhys emphasized in the BC, and could incite further problems between Courts, specifically between Night Court and Autumn Court, and possibly Day Court (?).
It is also important to note that Siegmund, in the story, wields a magical sword called Nothung which could translate to “need” or “necessity.” (Similar to Azriel’s Truth Teller which Elain wielded when Nesta was in need in ACOWAR.)
In the story, the two run away together, resulting to a duel between Sigmund and Hunding. This mirrors the Blood Duel Rhys mentioned in the BC that Lucien or the Autumn Court could invoke if Azriel challenges Elain and Lucien’s Bond which could result to a political war and the further destabilization of Prythian Courts.
Where does the Valkyrie come in the story? Wotan, a god, send his beloved daughter and a Valkyrie, Brunnhilde, to protect Sigmund in the duel. However, this angered Wotan’s wife, Fricka, the guardian of marriage, and demands that Wotan punish Siegmund and Sieglinde for their forbidden relationship. Wotan submits to his wife’s demands and tells Brunnhilde that Hunding must win the fight.
However, seeing Siegmund’s pure love for Sieglinde, Brunnhilde saves Siegmund instead. This is where the story takes a tragic turn because Wotan shatters Siegmund’s sword and Hunding kills Siegmund. Sieglinde flees with Brunnhilde and gave birth to her son with Siegmund, naming him Siegfried. Wotan, in the end, punishes his daughter, Brunnhilde.
Third: This part in the blurb “But hope can be spun from the darkest of shadows…”
This line is a direct callback to a specific scene in A Court of Frost and Starlight, chapter 15, where only Feyre and Elain were shopping for Holiday gifts for the IC (if I’m not mistaken.)
In that chapter, a tapestry catches Feyre’s eye. “| stared and stared at the black fabric that was like peering into a pit of hell. And then stared at the iridescent, living silver thread that cut through it, bright despite the darkness that devoured all other light and color.”
Elain asks further questions about the tapestry to the weaver, Aranea. (I’ll comeback to the importance of that name later.) She asked what is the silver thread on the tapestry called and the weaver answered her by saying “I call it Hope. I made it after I mastered Void.” Hope can only be created after one mastered the darkest of dark or in this case, the shadows.
And who mastered the shadows? The only Shadowsinger, Azriel, who grew up in complete darkness but ultimately escaped in the end. “For the eleven years that Azriel lived in his father’s keep, she saw to it he was kept in a cell with no window, no light.”
Edit: As a commenter mentioned below, Azriel and Elain are the two characters that are heavily associated with Hope. This can be seen in Rhys’s speech to Azriel in ACOWAR: “If I had not met a shadowsinger, I would not have known that it is the family you make, not the one you are born into, that matters. I would not have known what it is to truly hope, even when the world tells you to despair.” And in Feyre’s POV in ACOTAR, she states “She [Elain]* had looked at it that cottage with *hope; I had looked at it with nothing but hatred. And I knew which one of us had been stronger*.”*
Now, back to the weaver’s name. Aranea, as a reader pointed out, is a Latin word which directly translates to “Spider” or “Cobweb.” The relevance of this translation is connected to my fourth and final point/evidence.
Fourth: The book cover of A Court of Forgotten Memory depicts a Spider with a thread.
The spider, a reader points out, often symbolizes the ultimate seer, mystic, or weaver of fate. It could represent Elain who is the only known Seer in Prythian (as far as I know). Also, going back to the names or moniker gave to Elain, assuming it is pertaining to Elain, this representation of Elain could solidify her as Fanged Beast as spiders have fangs.
I’d also argue that Elain is a weaver of fate, or at least her fate, as she desires to follow her own choice and heart. To choose true love in the end and not a fated mate.
Note: I’ve rewritten this four times because reddit keeps deleting my progress.
References:
https://www.tumblr.com/pagemasters/825219289040683008/love-me-touch-me-sing-me