Brisingr Part Twenty Nine

==Gifts of Gold pt.3==
Last we left off Eragon learns that his mother was EVUL. So, he rationalizes it away. As for Jeod’s accounts of her misdeeds, Eragon chose to believe that Morzan had perverted her essentially good nature. For the sake of his own sanity, Eragon could not accept that both his parents had been evil. He's very good at rationalization and this could be a very good character flaw except that it never sticks. He rationalizes it and then he forgets about it. He never has trouble convincing himself after this moment. And while I admit that thinking both of your parents were evil - I believe a lot of children who's parents were Nazis had this problem - it again never sticks. He doesn't do things and then think is this what my father would have done? He has done inherently evil things but it doesn't come off like that in his mind. So the fact that he has to pretend like one of his parents isn't evil rings false. 
Eragon then starts to wonder some reasonable questions. 
A host of questions bedeviled him, but he knew that Jeod could not answer them
and it was unlikely anyone else could either: Why had Brom hidden himself in Carvahall? To keep watch over Eragon, the son of his most hated foe? Had it been some cruel joke giving Eragon Zar’roc, his father’s blade? And why had Brom not told him the truth about his parentage? He tightened his grip on the mug and, without meaning to, shattered the clay. 
I imagine some of these will be revisited later, if only so Eragon can learn that no he's not evil. 
After his mess is cleaned up, Jeod has a present for him. In Eragon Jeod possessed a book called "the Dominance of Fate" which is a complete history of Alagaësia written by Heslant
the Monk. It was a special book because it was special looking. It was forbidden to have in the Empire for ... some reason or another. Eragon is awed by the book and the neat rows of runes within. I do not believe runes is the word that Paolini is looking for. Runes, according to Dictionary.com are either of Germanic descent or letters that are considered to have magical significance. I know he doesn't mean the former and from what we know about the book it's most certainly not magical. It sounds good though, even if it doesn't make any sense in context. Runes would indicate that he doesn't understand the letters and likely that they're not used for writing. However he does know how to read and the letters are most definitely common, so using the word "runes" is down right wrong. 
It turns out that Jeod is giving Eragon the book because in Sudra everyone seems to have a copy. Six people have already given him one. This, I think, is to show how better Sudra is because they value knowledge enough to make a rare book common. 
Eragon asks what Heslant was a monk of and it turns out he was a History Monk, dedicated to preserving all knowledge because they believe a great catastrophe would be fall Alagaësia and destroy all civilizations. It doesn't quite feel like a religion to me, but okay. It seems like, so far, that the only people who actually worship gods or use it as a way to describe how the world came to be are the dwarves. The human religions -the Evil Mountain Worshipers and these monks- seem to have random ideas that have no basis in, for lack of a better term, reality. 
There's no what made these people believe there was a catastrophe coming? What made them decided they needed to worship a mountain. There is no reasons for doing this no "If I don't I won't get into the good place". At least none that I've seen. 
After this Eragon gives Helen one of the gold balls. He does this because Helen and Jeod has sacrificed much for helping the Varden. He says she should use this to help restart her merchant business here in the camps. She says that she'll be able to do a lot and then she hugs Eragon. Obviously she's no longer going to hate him. He sort of bribed her into liking him. 
For Jeod he then gives him the offer of a ride on Saphira because he wanted to give him something of equal value to what he gave Helen. He's not happy about it, not wanting to share Saphira, but he wants to be fair. I think then he should have presented the gold to both of them and not just Helen. After all it was Jeod who went bankrupt not Helen. 
They are both grateful to him for this and Eragon is grateful for his new book. 
The next chapter is called "I need a sword." 
No, really?
Category:Brisingr
Category:Inheritance Cycle