The Gift (Croggon novel)

The Naming

Australian cover of The Gift
Author	Alison Croggon
Country	Australia
Language	English
Series	Pellinor novel
Genre	Fantasy
Publisher	Penguin Books
Publication date	1 October 2002 (Australia)
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	480 (1st Australian edition)
ISBN
OCLC	52686531
Followed by	The Riddle

The Gift (aka The Naming) is 2002 fantasy novel by Alison Croggon. It is the first in her Pellinor quartet.

The Gift was first published in Australia on 1 October 2002 by Penguin Books in trade paperback format. In 2004 it was released in the United Kingdom by Walker Books and in 2005 it was released under the title of The Naming in hardback format by Candlewick Press in the United States.The Gift was a short-list nominee in both the 2002 Aurealis Award for best fantasy novel and the best horror novel but lost to Sean Williams' The Storm Weaver and the Sand and A. L. McCann's The White Body of Evening respectively.

The Gift (also published as The Naming) begins with Maerad, in "Gilman's Cot" as a slave, where she has been for many years, with few memories of her former life, her mother having died several years before. She is discovered by Cadvan, one of the great mystics known as 'Bards', who reveals to her that she, like him, possesses "the Gift" shared by all of these, by which she is able to command nature to do her will. Cadvan soon discovers that her mother was the leader of the First Circle of the destroyed School of Pellinor, of whom it was previously assumed that there were no survivors. Knowing this, Cadvan decides to help her escape, believing that it might not be by means of random chance that he came upon the only known survivor of Pellinor.

When Cadvan finds that Maerad's Gift is unusually powerful for one never formally taught, he begins to suspect of her more significance than he had before. He takes her to the School of Innail, to make the presence of a survivor from Pellinor known and to make Maerad a Minor Bard of Pellinor. During their time there, Maerad obtains knowledge of a long-forgotten prophecy concerning the 'Foretold One' who will defeat the Nameless One. This Nameless One is a corrupt political leader, formerly called Sharma, who discarded his own true name in order to become immortal. Twice has he attempted to conquer the land of Edil-Amarandh, and he has twice been vanquished. His last bid for power is the one in which the Foretold One, Elednor, will defeat him, leaving him dead or helpless forever. Maerad's own history, being coincident with that of the Foretold One, implies that she is Elednor, although Maerad does not immediately embrace the idea.