59 pages • 1 hour read
Sarah J. MaasThe Assassin's Blade
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Lord of the North
The Lord of the North is a constellation crowned with a star that guides the people of Terrasen and represents survival in The Assassin’s Blade. When Celaena is in the Red Desert with Ansel, camping after their theft of the Asterion mares, she describes the purpose of the Lord of the North, telling Ansel it exists “so the people of Terrasen will always know how to find their way home. So they can look up at the sky, no matter where they are, and know Terrasen is forever with them” (179-80).
The Lord of the North is important to Celaena because it is emblematic of the past that she lost. She is from Terrasen and is truly Aelin Galathynius, the heir to the throne of Terrasen. She cannot follow the star home because there is no home for her to return to under the rule of the King of Adarlan. He destroyed Terrasen and even sought to hunt to extinction the sacred white stags that represent the presence of the Lord of the North. The king’s conquest of Celaena’s homeland means that her relationship with her Terrasen roots is complicated, but her past still motivates her in hopes that Terrasen can rise again.
Each time Celaena sees the Lord of the North is a moment when she needs a reminder to keep going, to fight to survive. When she sees the Lord of the North in Skull’s Bay, she’s wrestling with her conscience versus her loyalty to Arobynn eventually decides to risk her life to save the enslaved people. When she sees the Lord of the North in the Red Desert, Celaena is in the midst of attempting to understand the impact of Arobynn’s abuse and the traumatic upbringing she experienced in the Assassins’ Keep. She sees the Lord of the North for the last time on her way to Endovier, culminating in her sighting of the white stag. Even as the guards ready to shoot it, she notices, “The stag, her Lord of the North, her beacon, didn’t move” (431). The Lord does not waver in the face of possible death, instead choosing to stay steady and stare at Celaena, to remind her even as she goes into a place that she refers to as Hell, she can and must survive.
Asterion Horses
The Asterion horses are symbolic of freedom in The Assassin’s Blade. The horses first make their appearance during Ansel and Celaena’s journey to Xandria. The horses are the property of Lord Berick, kept in his stable until he gives them away as a bribe or “lets them languish [there] for the rest of their lives” (172). The horses are imprisoned with no hope for freedom when Celaena finds them.
After she and Ansel steal them, the horses live a more fulfilled life in the fortress of the Silent Assassins. Celaena and Ansel take good care of them, and in the end, take both with them when they depart. Celaena lets Ansel live after her betrayal of the Mute Master, and it is symbolic that Ansel rides away astride Hisli, one of the Asterion horses. Ansel is free to return to the Flatlands, to find a different way to retake her homeland.
Celaena takes her Asterion mare, Kasida, home with her to Rifthold. However, she sacrifices Kasida, selling her to Leighfer Bardingdale in exchange for enough money to buy Sam’s freedom. This freedom comes at a price, as Celaena chides herself for feeling “so stupidly relieved that Kasida was going to a good woman like Bardingale” (330), after she discovers the truth of Arobynn and Leighfer’s deceit. Kasida being sold to a woman who is a proponent of enslavement foreshadows the loss of Celaena’s own freedom to enslavement in Endovier. When Kasida is gone, so too is Celaena’s freedom.
The Terrasen Breeze
The Terrasen breeze and the scent of pine are symbolic of Celaena’s connection to her true Terrasen identity. The breeze appears in moments when Celaena needs to remember who she truly is—Aelin Galathynius, the heir of Mala Fire-Bringer (the goddess of fire) and the rightful ruler of Terrasen. Celaena senses the breeze in moments of difficulty. For example, the breeze blows through Skull’s Bay when Celaena struggles with the decision to free the enslaved people and betray Arobynn: “Slowly, Celaena turned north, toward the source of the breeze, which smelled of a faraway land she hadn’t seen in eight years. Pine and snow—a city still in winter’s grasp” (44). Though she’s spent half her life with Arobynn in Rifthold, learning to maim and kill, she still remembers her home in Orynth, the cool winters in Terrasen. The memory of Terrasen and the people she lost to Adarlan’s cruelty inspires Celaena to free the enslaved people, people who were put in shackles for daring to fight against the aforementioned cruelty.
The breeze appears again when Celaena is in the wagon to Endovier, feeling broken by the loss of Sam and her fear of enslavement: “[A] breeze filled the wagon, […]. Her trembling paused for a heartbeat. She knew that breeze. She knew the chill bite beneath it, knew it carried the hint of pine and snow, knew the mountains from which it hailed” (434). The breeze reminds her who she is and that her identity is significant. She cannot be broken by loss and enslavement; she is the hope for Terrasen’s future. After smelling the breeze, she holds herself together and walks with strength into Endovier.
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By Sarah J. Maas
