Unfettered Ones are individuals who went through the rites of the Loresraat but decided to devote themselves to a single mystery of the earth, rather than becoming a Lord. Once given the Rites of Unfettering they were freed from all responsibilities of Lordship and allowed to carry out their devotion alone. Due to their solitude many rumors have grown concerning them.
Some say that some of the Unfettered have learnt the secrets of dreams, others great healing arts, others can talk to animals and call them when in need.
Those who wish to become an Unfettered One must undergo the Rites of Unfettering, the lyrics go as follows:
- Free
- Unfettered
- Shriven
- Free -
- Dream that what is dreamed will be:
- Old eyes clasped shut until they see,
- And sing the silent prophecy -
- And be -
- Unfettered
- Shriven
- Free.
Role in the Covenant Series[]
Lord Foul's Bane[]
One comes to the aid of Thomas Covenant and the Wraiths of Andelain. He fights a group of Ur-Viles giving the Wraiths, Covenant and Atiaran time to flee. He is killed in the process and is later said to have been a studier of the small beasts of the world.
An Unfetterered One, a healer located a few leagues away, attempts to heal Pietten’s mind after the battle of Soaring Woodhelven.
The Illearth War[]
An Unfettered one, the interpreter of dreams, meets Covenant and High Lord Elena at Glimmermere to investigate the Unbelievers notion of reality.
The Power That Preserves[]
Near Mithel Stonedown, once Triock and Saltheart Foamfollower retrieve Thomas Covenant to the Land, while determining how to send a message to Lord Mhoram at Revelstone using Lomillialor, Triock announces that another “lives in the mountains which protect the South Plains from Garroting Deep”. The Unfettered One studies the rock walls in his cave to read the long history of the Land. (Is this the same cave as the one that linden Avery follow Anele to in The Runes of Earth?)
In Morinmoss, a healer treats the illnesses the Unbeliever suffered from the effects of Lord Foul’s winter. (Is this the same one that healed Pietten seven and forty years ago? - there is a clue in this passage:
“Still hesitating, she unwrapped from her belongings one of her few prized possessions—a long, cunningly woven white robe, made of a fabric both light and tough, easy to wear and full of warmth. It had been given to her decades ago by a great weaver from Soaring Woodhelven, whose life she had saved at severe cost to herself. The memory of his gratitude was precious to her, and she held the robe for a long time in hands that trembled agedly.”)
The Wounded Land[]
When Covenant returns after three or four thousand years to the Land with Avery, they meet a descendent of an Unfettered One who foresaw the Unbeliever’s return. He had built a place of welcome and healing for the return of the Unbeliever, that generation after generation of his family maintained near by the base of Kevin’s Watch.