On the hunt for the Horn, Ingtar’s party meets an Aielman named Urien. After a brief talk about prophecies and lore, they discover he is searching for the messianic “He Who Comes With the Dawn,” a man who sounds a lot like Rand.
Back in the mountains, Ingtar is still leading his men with Perrin’s input. The wolves are impressed by a certain “Shadowkiller” who came through this way and slaughtered Trollocs. Before they can dissect this information, an Aiel warrior approaches and introduces himself as Urien. Uh– yeah. That is not a typo.
You see, Robert Jordan has a penchant for creatively naming his characters. It’s a stylistic choice that he generally treats with solemnity, but I’m growing convinced that every Wheel of Time book has one character whose name is so ridiculous that Jordan is clearly testing his editors to see what he can get away with. In New Spring it was Caniedrin. In The Eye of the World it was Gelb. And now? Ladies and gentlemen, The Great Hunt would like to introduce: Urien. It takes effort to ignore muscle memory and not type urine. My spell checker hates me and desperately wants to autocorrect. Urien, you poor son of a bitch. What did your parents name the other kid — Fecse?
After we get past some very poorly-disguised Aiel lore dumping, we finally learn that Urine is here on this side of the Spine because he is searching for a man known as “He Who Comes With the Dawn.” The way Urine describes this man, he sounds awfully messianic, and a lot like Rand. Not that they’re going to share intel with a guy who has a name like that, right? So Verin hands him one of those classic Aes Sedai utterances that isn’t quite a lie, and they send him on his way. Onward to Cairhien!