KKC Theory Wiki

The Boy Who Stole the Moon

object · importance 58 · 2 theories

“Hespe's folktale of Jax, who caught the moon and started the Creation War”

also known as Hespe's story, Jax and Iax, Jax and the Moon, The Story of Jax

Appearance§

As an oral folktale it has no physical form; its imagery lives in the telling. Listeners picture the unlucky boy Jax at the end of a broken road, a tinker's pack spilling out gifts: a folding piece of wood that opens into a crazy, disjointed house, paints and brushes, a book of secrets, a flute, a box for holding names, and glasses through which Jax first truly sees. A hermit-listener keeps a quiet place far from people. Above it all hangs the moon, pursued and partly captured, then slipping free. The tale's preserved rhythm and meter give it its enduring texture.

Description§

'The Boy Who Stole the Moon' is a folktale Hespe tells the mercenary company in The Wise Man's Fear, recounting how a luckless boy named Jax caught the moon. Jax lives at the end of a broken road and is so unlucky he tears a hole in every new shirt he is given. A tinker gives him a series of rare gifts, among them a folding flat piece of wood that unfolds into a strange, disjointed house, a set of paints, a book of secrets, a flute, a box for holding names, and glasses through which Jax truly sees for the first time. Jax sets out to chase the moon, but resolves instead to make the moon come to him. Charming her with a flute, he traps part of her name in the box to bind her to him, keeping her in the folding house she can only partly escape; she returns to it when she leaves the mortal sky, but in the end slips away. A hermit in the tale is a listener who offers to teach Jax to listen, saying 'I listen to things to see what they have to say,' and can hear the stories of objects and name them, unfolding what had been shaped shut; Jax was not listening and refused the lesson. The story emphasizes that listening is more powerful than seeing. Preserved in verse and meter, it stands as one of the few relatively uncorrupted accounts of Iax and the origin of the Creation War.

Relationships§

  • Origin Of The Creation War — Jax unfolds an impossible house from the Stormwal, an act tied to the Creation War
  • Theme Naming — the hermit hears the stories of objects and names them; listening over seeing
  • Theme Shaping — the hermit's listening unfolds what had been shaped shut
  • Connects To The Doors of Stone — Felurian says Iax who stole the moon is now shut behind the doors of stone
  • Subject The Moon — recounts how the boy Jax catches and binds the moon, named Ludis
  • Appears In The Wise Man's Fear — the tale is told during Kvothe's mercenary time in The Wise Man's Fear
  • Account Of Iax — one of the few relatively uncorrupted accounts of Iax and the Creation War's start
  • Corroborated By Felurian — Felurian says Iax was the greatest shaper who stole the moon
  • Setting The Stormwal — Jax unfolds the impossible house from the Stormwal mountains
  • Told By Hespe — a story Hespe tells the mercenary company in The Wise Man's Fear

Established facts§

  • It is a story Hespe tells during Kvothe's time with the mercenaries in The Wise Man's Fear, about a boy named Jax who steals the moon.
  • Jax is a luckless boy who lives at the end of a broken road and tears a hole in every new shirt he is given.
  • A tinker gives Jax a series of rare gifts, including a folding house, a set of paints, a book of secrets, a flute, a box for holding names, and glasses through which he truly sees for the first time.
  • Jax decides not to chase the moon but to make the moon come to him.
  • Jax charms the moon and traps part of her name in a box to bind her to him.
  • He keeps the moon in a folding house she can only partly escape, and she returns to it when she leaves the mortal sky, but in the end she slips away.
  • Jax unfolds an impossible house from the Stormwal mountains while pursuing the moon, an act tied to the Creation War.
  • A hermit in the tale is a listener who says 'I listen to things to see what they have to say,' and can hear the stories of objects and name them.
  • The hermit offers to teach Jax to listen, but Jax was not listening and refused the lesson.
  • The story emphasizes that listening is more powerful than seeing.
  • Jax is said to carry a drop of faerie blood.
  • The moon's name in the tale is given as Ludis.
  • Preserved in verse and meter, the tale is treated as one of the few relatively uncorrupted accounts of Iax and the start of the Creation War.
  • Felurian says Iax was the greatest of the shapers, who stole the moon and is now shut behind the doors of stone.
  • The name 'Iax' is mentioned only twice in the books, by Skarpi and by Bast, and is spelled with an uppercase 'I'.

Theories§

Appears in theories§

Top contributors§

People on r/KingkillerChronicle who built the theories above.