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Symbols
The sacred ash, the most important symbol in the Fjerdans’ religion, represents how people can use and interpret belief systems and religious stories to serve their own purposes. The Fjerdans, for instance, see the tree, which stands at the center of the Ice Court on the White Island, as the vehicle through which they can get close to their god, Djel: legend holds that if a person stands close to the tree’s roots, they can hear Djel’s voice. Getting close to the tree, however, is a privilege primarily reserved for drüskelle soldiers, those whose entire purpose it is to hunt and kill Grisha. This suggests their righteousness to those who believe, as the drüskelle soldiers do, that the Grisha are unnatural abominations and insults to Djel.
Kaz, however, looks beyond what the Fjerdans have to say about the ash, digging deeper into the lore—he and Nina both note at various points that almost all legends (and in this case, religious stories) have some grain of truth to them. Thus, he correctly deduces that it’s not Djel’s voice that people can hear coming from the tree: it’s the great underground river that waters the tree and feeds the Ice Court’s moats and water features. Toppling the tree and escaping the Ice Court via the underground river symbolically suggests that the Fjerdans’ belief system isn’t as righteous or true as Matthias, for instance, believes it is. Indeed, it implies that the belief that Djel condones persecuting Grisha and shows favor to the drüskelle is a convenient spin on some pretty mundane truths: that water is powerful and noisy, and that even the biggest trees can fall.
The Sacred Ash Quotes in Six of Crows
The Six of Crows quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Sacred Ash. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 14: Nina
Quotes
“Do you want to know the best way to find Grisha who don’t want to be found?”
Jesper scrubbed the back of his neck, touched his hands to his guns, returned to his neck. He always seemed to be in motion. “Never gave it much thought,” he said.
“Look for miracles and listen to bedtime stories.” Follow the tales of witches and goblins, and unexplained happenings. Sometimes they were just superstition. But often there was truth at the heart of local legends—people who had been born with gifts that their countries didn’t understand.
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Chapter 34: Nina
Quotes
Looking at Brum, she knew she didn’t just blame him for the things he’d done to her people; it was what he’d done to Matthias as well. He’d taken a brave, miserable boy and fed him on hate. He’d silenced Matthias’ conscience with prejudice and the promise of a divine calling that was probably nothing more than the wind moving through the branches of an ancient tree.
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Chapter 38: Kaz
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The voice of God. There was always truth in legend. Kaz had spent enough time building his own myth to know. He’d wondered where the water that fed the Ice Court’s moat and fountains came from, why the river gorge was so very deep and wide. As soon as Nina had described the drüskelle initiation ritual, he’d known: the Fjerdan stronghold hadn’t been built around a great tree but around a spring. Djel, the wellspring, who fed the seas and rains, and the roots of the sacred ash.
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The Sacred Ash Symbol Timeline in Six of Crows
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Sacred Ash appears in Six of Crows. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 21: Inej
...with the many foreigners visiting for Hringkälla tomorrow. Matthias and Nina explain that all the ash wreaths are to honor Djel, Fjerda’s main god. There’s a big, sacred ash tree in...
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Chapter 34: Nina
...They’re in a courtyard, and Nina recognizes the huge tree in the middle: the sacred ash. Brum briefly describes the drüskelles’ initiation ceremony to Nina, and Nina realizes she blames Brum...
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Chapter 37: Nina
...Then, they run to get Yul-Bayur out of the vault; they’ll meet Kaz by the ash later, and hopefully they’ll survive his wrath. Inside the vault is a massive chemistry setup...
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...Just as they decide to take cover in a hedge and then head for the ash, drüskelle guards appear and chase them. The lab exploding throws them all to their feet,...
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...drops the whip and another drüskelle picks it up as popping sounds come from the ash; Nina recognizes the sound as that of the salt concentrate Wylan used to bring the...
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Chapter 38: Kaz
...Now, they’re all falling through the darkness. Kaz realized earlier that what watered the sacred ash and fed the Ice Court’s moat was an underground spring—the voice of Djel—and the river...
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Chapter 40: Nina
...her away, coughs up water, and gasps. Ignoring Matthias’s snarls that Kaz destroyed the sacred ash, Kaz gets up and leads the group out of the gorge to the road, asking...
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