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Trapis's Patched Cloak Is a Literary Hint That He Is a Hero Figure

fringe symbolism · popularity 82 · 1 source thread

Trapis's heavily patched cloak echoes Taborlin's cloak of no particular color, framing him as a hidden hero with possible Tehlin ties.

About: Trapis, Taborlin the Great

Also involves: The Tehlin Church, Kvothe

The theory§

Trapis, the gentle man who nurses sick and crippled children in the basement beneath Tarbean and who feeds the destitute, owns a single garment so heavily patched and mended that its original color and shape cannot be guessed. This theory reads that garment as a deliberate echo of Taborlin the Great's legendary cloak of no particular color, a parallel that quietly frames Trapis as a hidden hero figure in Kvothe's life. The connection draws on a moment in the tales of the Eld where, asked to picture Taborlin's cloak, listeners each imagine a different color, and one settles on a patched cloak whose many colors resolve into 'no particular color' at all. Trapis's secrecy and his apparent severance from the Tehlin church are taken as the reason his clothing is so worn, casting him as a fallen or hidden holy man. The same reasoning notes that Trapis always recognizes Kvothe beneath the filth, the mark of someone who sees the child rather than the rags.

Evidence§

  • Trapis is described to wear a cloak, which is heavily patched. Now, Taborlin the great also has a cloak, which is described to be of no particular color.
    OP's core observation: parallel between Trapis's patched cloak and Taborlin's cloak. — u/rubberbandshooter13
  • At some point in the book, they discuss what a cloak of no particular color would look like, and someone mentions that it could be a patched up cloak.
    Textual basis: patched cloak equated with 'no particular color' in the tales. — u/rubberbandshooter13
  • I think this is a small literary trick to establish Trapis as a hero figure for Kvothe. Trapis is probably hiding his ties to the Thelu church and that's why the cloak is patched up
    OP's thesis: literary device marking Trapis as hero, hiding Tehlin ties. — u/rubberbandshooter13
  • I remember what you’re talking about! It is in the Eld, someone is telling a story about Taborlin and someone else asks what each of them pictured the cloak to look like and they each had a different answer and I think it was Kvothe who said he thought it was all patched up so it had no particular color.
    Comment confirms the source scene, attributing the patched-cloak image to Kvothe. — u/scorpiogf
  • I love how Trapis can see beyond the child's clothes and see the child beneath. He always recognizes Kvothe, filthy or clean, he knows.
    Adds evidence: Trapis sees the child beneath the rags, a hero's trait. — u/Silent-Regard
  • I was under the impression Trapis and Marten are part of a heretical group that splintered off from the tehlin church proper.
    Refines OP's Tehlin-ties claim toward a heretical splinter group. — u/Middle-Corgi3918
  • in the interest of accuracy, Trapis wears a robe and not a cloak.
    CounterCounter: textual correction—Trapis owns a patched robe, not a cloak. — u/Shartriloquist
  • What the meaning is is debatable, but it's definitely an intentional motif
    Context: affirms the patching is a deliberate motif while leaving meaning open. — u/SuchUse9191

Book refs: NOTW, NOTW ch 21

Tier reasoning§

tier downgraded: speculative parallel undercut by in-text correction (robe not cloak)

Contributors§

Source threads§