I was re-listening to Eye of the World tonight, and this caught my ear:

 

Quote

“Tell us about Lenn,” Egwene called. “How he flew to the moon in the belly of an eagle made of fire. Tell about his daughter Salya walking among the stars.”

And then I started wondering if this was a reference, filtered through the ages, of Neil Armstrong / Apollo 11, and Sally Ride.

Yes indeed  ... and " filtering through the Ages"  distorts the details  : as "Lenn" would seem to refer to John Glenn - who was the first American to orbit the Earth - and whose Mercury capsule seemed to him to be  enveloped in fire on re-entry due to issues with the heat shield , which thankfully survived OK  ; while of course it was Armstrong and the Eagle who landed on the Moon. There are other historical figures mentioned in gleeman's tales which I am sure you will also pick up...

 

Just another fascinating detail of RJ's world.

I always read the reference to Salya as a reference to Salyut, the Soviet space stations that orbited from 1971 to 1986.

You should read the Origins of the Wheel of Time.  It talks about all the influences, mythology, religion, world events etc... he researched and studied to come up with the Wheel of Time and the people in the Wheel of Time.  How he came up with names and such.

On 11/19/2024 at 5:13 PM, ssgcmwatson said:

I was re-listening to Eye of the World tonight, and this caught my ear:

 

And then I started wondering if this was a reference, filtered through the ages, of Neil Armstrong / Apollo 11, and Sally Ride.

And Mosk fighting Merk and Elsbet is a reference to the Cold War.  

Mosk = Moscow

Merk = America

Elsbet = Queen Elizabeth II

 

Many of the legendary references can be identified as real-world historical events (mostly 20th-century).  Many of the rest are from our own legends.

There is also the reference in TSR to Gautama Buddha and his attaining enlightenment sitting beneath the Bodhi tree   : Rand , seeing Avendesora in Rhuidean  :  "I can  believe the stories . Ghoetam , sitting beneath Avendesora for forty years to gain wisdom. Right now , I can believe".

 

More ,I am sure , even some that I haven't found yet.