KKC Theory Wiki

The Lackless Box Holds the Moon's Stolen Name, Kept Dreaming

plausible identity · popularity 297 · 2 source threads

Nested inside Meluan's chests is the small iron box Jax used to catch the moon's name, kept dreaming and not sleeping.

About: The Lackless Box, The Moon

Also involves: Meluan Lackless, Iax, Naming, Selitos, The Boy Who Stole the Moon, Kvothe, Maer Lerand Alveron, Laurian, Arliden's Lanre Song

The theory§

This theory holds that the Lackless heirloom is a nested set of containers — chest within chest within box — and that its innermost vessel is the small black iron box in which Jax trapped the moon's name in Hespe's tale of the boy who stole the moon. When Maer Alveron presents the dark wooden Loeclos box, Kvothe deduces its hidden contents are 'smaller than a saltbox' and metal by the shift of its weight, a description that fits Jax's iron box. The Luckless / Loeclos / Lockless / Lackless name-chain is read as descending from the unlucky Jax, and the Lady Lackless rhyme's lines — 'a secret she's been keeping / she's been dreaming and not sleeping' — are taken to describe the moon's stolen name held dreaming inside the box across the centuries, while the song's 'road not for traveling' echoes the 'broken road' on which Jax's story opens. A natural extension notes the moon is still torn between worlds in the frame story, implying its name remains caught in the box — possibly now within Kvothe's own thrice-locked chest.

Evidence§

  • Definitely getting Matryoshka doll vibes from these boxes. And while it's a common theory that inside the box is the obsidian Selitos used to stab out his eye, it doesn't hold true to me. Why would the Lackless inherit such an object as an heirloom, something passed down by an ancestor. Instead I'd like to suggest that it could be possible that inside the 3rd box, the Lackless heirloom, is the original box Jax used to capture the moons name.
    OP's core claim: nested boxes hold Jax's moon-name box, not Selitos's obsidian. — u/Chaxum
  • Something **smaller than a saltbox**. . . ." I began. Meluan smiled, but Alveron gave the barest of frowns so I hurried on. "Something **metal**, by the way the weight shifts when I tilt it.
    Kvothe deduces the hidden contents are small and metal — fitting an iron box. — u/Chaxum
  • But all the pack held was a bent piece of wood, a stone flute, and a **small iron box.**
    Jax's tale describes a small iron box, matching the metal weight Kvothe felt. — u/Chaxum
  • He was an unlucky boy. There was no denying that.
    OP ties the name-chain Unlucky<Luckless<Loeclos<Lockless<Lackless back to Jax. — u/Chaxum
  • She leaned close and spoke warmly against his ear, "Ludis." And Jax brought out the black iron box, closing the lid and catching her name inside.
    Confirms the iron box's function: trapping the moon's name. — u/Chaxum
  • two lines really struck me: “there’s a secret she’s been keeping / she’s been dreaming and not sleeping“. Perhaps the “secret” is the name of the moon, which has been held in the box dreaming as “the dreaming moon” through the centuries.
    Second OP reads the rhyme as the moon's name kept dreaming in the box. — u/tallowylochz
  • the “road not for traveling” in the song makes me think of the first lines of Jax’s story, who lives “at the end of a broken road”.
    Links the rhyme's road line to the opening of Jax's tale. — u/tallowylochz
  • we know that the moon is still torn between the two worlds in the frame story. This means that the piece of moon (if it is in fact this) is still locked inside of the Lackless box. I posit that Kvothe stole the Lackless Box from the Maer's estate when he found out he is the Lackless heir, which means he still has it. . . And where would he keep it? The thrice-locked chest. . .
    Extension: moon's name still caught, possibly now in Kvothe's thrice-locked chest. — u/TrentBobart
  • I've always personally felt very strongly that what the lackless box actually contains is the stone that Selitos pierced his eye with to break free of and then curse Lanre.
    CounterCounter: the rival theory the box holds Selitos's stone, not the moon's name. — u/thejameswhistler
  • My current theory is that the Lackless rhyme describes an elaborate security system meant to keep Iax locked inside the Doors of Stone.
    CounterCounter: rhyme reads as a system imprisoning Iax, not the moon's name. — u/elihu

Book refs: NOTW, NOTW ch 11, WMF

Tier reasoning§

no change; distinct from the flute theory (iron name-box vs stone flute)

Contributors§

Source threads§