The Dragon Reborn

Despite being the title character, Rand has only a handful of viewpoint chapters. Jordan deliberately keeps him at a distance, telling the story through the friends and allies racing to reach him, so the Dragon Reborn becomes the storm everyone else is pulled toward.

Callandor is a crystal sword, sometimes called the sword that is not a sword, held in the fortress known as the Stone of Tear. Prophecy says only the Dragon Reborn can take it, so claiming it becomes public and undeniable proof of who Rand is.

In some catalogs this volume was recorded under the series name, The Wheel of Time, rather than its actual title, The Dragon Reborn. It is the third main book, first published in 1991.

Many readers point to this book as the moment the series finds its footing, with tighter plotting and a strong convergence at Tear. Its unconventional, hero-at-a-distance structure is divisive but widely admired.

The Stone is an ancient and supposedly impregnable fortress in the city of Tear that holds Callandor. Prophecy holds that the Stone will never fall until the Dragon's coming, which makes its fate a linchpin of the book.

Callandor drawn from the Stone of Tear deliberately echoes the Arthurian sword in the stone, part of Jordan's pattern of half-hidden legend. The name itself recalls Caladbolg, an Irish mythic sword linguistically tied to the roots of the name Excalibur.