In
Robert Jordan's
epic fantasy series
The Wheel of Time, "blood and ashes!" is a common
profanity. It's something one says to indicate strong
anger,
frustration,
distress, etc. If it were
transplanted to modern
Western culture, you could say "blood and ashes!" on
late-night television, or to your
friends, without creating much of a
stir. But you wouldn't say it around your
mother, or loudly in the middle of the street. It's on a level with "
crap!" The origins of the term are unclear, but it's probably related to "
burn me!" which is a similar but less
offensive expression from the same
universe. One possible source for this expression is the near-universal fear people in the Wheel of Time have of
The Dark One, who is analogous to
the Devil except that he has been known to directly and
incontrovertibly intervene in human affairs.
I have chosen to
node this because after a week of doing almost nothing but reading these entertaining
novels, I find myself appropriating the language. And I suspect I'm not the only one. I'm probably also not the only one making comparisons to
crack.