This is part of Warrens series and follows The Waystone Brothers. In Packs will discuss Tinkers in general, and then dive deeper in Promises and gentle handle broken glass as we try to see what the flickering light can tell us.
A tinker’s debt is always paid
Once for any simple trade.
Twice for freely-given aid.
Thrice for any insult made. ~ Kote
Abenthy claimed to be more than one. Felurian's description suggests their Faen and their universally respected. Except for when they're not, crazy Martin rightfully punched one for getting handsy with a child. We know how reputations can escape the truth, and theirs is written down in a song older than God: "Tinker Tanner". Which by the few additional pieces we get, "in the tehlin's cassock" and a story a voyeur, is now a patchwork of obscene and raunchy stories.
Tinkers seem to sell everything to anyone from anywhere even in Newarre. But among their more common fares are rare items such as the loden-stone that proved invaluable to Kvothe. They have goods from places that appear on no map "polished horn from Aerueh". Which is only a letter away from an ancient word, "Aeruh" meaning air. And though you might be tempted to use the items origins (Tarbean, Tinue, Aerueh) to help narrow down where Newarre is, evidence suggests they can use Waystones to fast travel. Which would explain why they, like Master Elodin and Auri, have items from far off.
As to their other occupation, We have yet to see them making leather from animal hides or selling it. Though lots of people in the story end up dead as leather. I'm left wondering if the name tanner hints at a historical mutation of glammer, a connection to their Faen origins. The inspiration for another famous song about making them leave the town.
Tinker's could be Thinkers, old Knowers, which would fit given they seem to have a knack for having what our young hero needs that would make the Cthaeh jealous. Offered at prices always conspicuously within reach, as if what matters aren't the prices but then pushing events in the right direction.
“But I’ll need a new pack animal to carry my gear....” ~ Tinker to Kvothe
Kvothe is the new pack animal~donkey~jackass~lacklass, moving the items to their proper place. Much like Auri does in the Underthing, which she knows as well as a Tinker's packs. As Denna says, he would have been better of listening to their hints. Kote now, in remorse or anticipation, makes sure to always keep a bottle of Avennish fruit wine on hand. The Tinkers are rather forward about their precognition abilities:
If you need no mending, and nothing needs tending
A wise man will still see the right time for spending.
Enjoy the sunshine,
But though you might feel fine,
If you don’t stop now, you’ll be filled with regret.
It’s better to simply pay,
And prepare for a rainy day ~ Tinker To Kvothe
And then offering Kvothe boot wax. Which later, his boats soaked through, he regrets not buying. Tinkers are a rare breed indeed, and though we don't fully understand their motivations or ways, it's worth taking note of them and listening carefully to their advice and offers. And of course, it always pays to be considerate.
Is it possible our laden friends tinker, like Abenthy, in dark arts better left alone? They certainly seem to run into troubled young men quite often: Jax, Taborline, and Kvothe. Which, if our previous guess is correct, means Jax managed to offend Knowing, Seeing, and Listening in his pursuit of the moon. Nearly everyone on one side of the Creation War.
Hespe's story of the boy who stole the moon is rich with hidden meaning, some of it later confirmed by Felurian. It starts off with Jax getting a visit from a Tinker, which is something of a surprise as he lives at the end of a "broken road" and he was rather unlucky~luckless~lackless?
The Tinker wages his packs he can make Jax happy with something inside them. A bet he deems safe given their contents, which will now give some consideration to. First off there "A gear solider that marched if you wound him" which we can speculate to be Cinder, if the Chandrian are under Jax's influence.
The Tinkers Spectacles let Jax see the moon, though the seeing along doesn't make him happy. Spectacle, similar to expect shares a root with see and so see-er. If legends overlap, it's worth considering Lanre possibly gaining new sight, through clever trickery, binding Selitos, known for his vision, too his will. Or Selitos counter-intuitively becoming less blind by removing an eye with a gagged shard of mountain glass. A shard that very well could be a loden stone, another item in the Tinkers pacts, a "piece of Iron that fell from the sky" it's other names drawstone/star-iron. Felurian called Jax "the sharper of the dark and changing eye", which seems to imply both ancient lords. Maybe, less of a person, X is like a decease that can jump from person to person. Penthe, reminiscent of Selitos, did say she would "shout from the top of a cliff" if one were to infect her. Is it possible Lanre's walk through the mountain pass with Selitos was actually a discussion of the Lethani and they both fell of the edge?
And if X's sight is inherited power symbolically tied to glass, then attention should be paid to all the broken glass in the story. Bast, Auri, Kvothe and the shadow from the Fae are full of it. Kvothe says it won't go out of it's way to hurt you, unless you handle it carelessly and finally, the hooded figure on the Vase is featured standing above it, it must be hard to get a sense of who you are using a broken mirror especially if your face is cloaked in shadow. Has something happened to shatter~break~confound Jax's vision~mind?
Back to Hespe's tale, upon Jax's declaration that only possessing the moon will him happy, the Tinker knows he has lost the wager. Jax rudely denies the Tinker his own hat, and loses the Tinkers help in searching for the moon in return. Though he graciously does leave the broken house to mend, which we assume to be the in the four corners or the four corners themselves, given all the work they seem to be doing here. So Jax leaves his mansion and makes his goodbyes, like the Lady in Old Holly, stick in hand to travel. Leaving the Tinker and Old holly behind. We know jax travels a long road and eventually builds new fold (west saxon "fealdan"), meaning to bend~shape~weave from whole cloth, which I believe to be the Fae. But if as Felurian says, Jax was then shut beyond the doors of stone... would that put him back in the four corners? That would put us in quite the theoretical Jax-in-box, wouldn't it? I wouldn't pay it much mind. We don't have the Book of Secrets, which the Tinker lost to Jax, to consult for the truth.
It's a theory as cracked as Jax's clay cup... or was it a mug? Either way, broken....
Tinker
Rumble, ramble, thistle caught
Can you mend this torn shoe, like new bought?
Finder, Grinder
Stone stabbed, kicked and knaed
Can you restore this rusty blade, sharp bright lite before?
Knower, Seer, Listener
Hated, hopeless, bloodless and betrayed
Can you heal this broken heart, make music beat sweet once more?
Tinkers might be scheming, maneuvering Kvothe to there own grand means... or just trying to turn a profit based on their unusually good sight. Jax left them the broken house to mend, and they might be doing just that. Though they aren't the only ones as were about to see when we pick up with Auri as she tends to the Underthing.
