Although Ayla lacks the Clan's ability to access ancestral memories, Iza succeeds in training her as a medicine healer. ![]() This passage may be a hint by the author of the reason for Ayla’s mother’s camp to be in such an odd location, with no other mentioned people around. Iza later surmises that Ayla was born to a medicine woman of the Others (Cro-Magnons), though Ayla has very little memory of her birth mother and knows nothing of the tribe of the Others to whom she was born. This may be further supported by Creb's first try at pronouncing her name, "Aay-rr," which could be an attempt to say "Aela." However, Auel does not explicitly state the name of Ayla's birth.Īs a child among the Clan, she is described as lucky, favored by the spirits. Auel uses the term "polysyllabic" to describe Ayla's birth name, implying it is more than two syllables long. She does have a knack for inventing things, and is credited with many innovations actually made over thousands of years of human history.Īyla earns her name during her first waking meeting with the Clan members they cannot pronounce her birth name, and their approximation, "Ayla," becomes her given name. Throughout the series, there are many references to Ayla's having great spiritual and intellectual powers, many of which actually may be simple reasoning and common sense. Upon becoming leader after the former tribal head believes he is ready, Broud orders a death curse on Ayla and forces her to leave the Clan forever, leaving her son Durc behind. These actions cause his mother's mate to question whether Broud is fit to be leader. His envy causes him to behave in a disgraceful manner while women expect to be ordered around, Broud also beats and rapes her, impregnating her at the age of eleven. She comes to think of this as a combination of male and female "essence."Īyla has a longstanding problem with Broud, the son of the leader's mate while she lives with the Clan, who is jealous of the attention she receives. Ayla suspects that this all has something to do with sex, or the "relieving of a man's needs" with a woman. Clan people believe that pregnancy and birth are a matter of spirit totems competing when a woman menstruates, it means her totem has fought off another and has won, but if a woman gets pregnant it means her totem has been overcome. One of Ayla's most important insights is the concept that men have something to do with the conception of children. Another word frequently used to describe her is 'exotic', indicating that she seems a bit foreign to everyone who meets her, and that her own people live somewhere else. Almost every male Cro-Magnon character in the series finds Ayla exceptionally beautiful, though Ayla describes herself as "big and ugly" because she was regarded by the Clan as ugly. ![]() She has been raised with Clan customs, using sign language instead of speech, and being taught not to laugh or smile or cry. Characteristics Īyla is described as tall, with blonde hair, gray-blue eyes, a well-toned body, and a strangely accented voice (actually a speech mannerism). See The Clan of the Cave Bear, The Valley of Horses, The Mammoth Hunters, The Plains of Passage, The Shelters of Stone and The Land of Painted Caves for a detailed synopsis of Ayla's life. Though neither Iza, Ayla's adoptive mother, nor Creb, the "Mog-ur" (a Shaman-like character), her adoptive father, know Ayla's age for certain, author Jean Auel places Ayla at the age of five years in the book's second paragraph, and her foster family eventually guesses her age accurately. There she is found by a group of Neanderthals, a "Clan" led by Brun, and is adopted by Iza, that Clan's medicinewoman or healer. After a day spent hiding in terror and driven by thirst, Ayla emerges from her hiding place to drink at the nearby stream and then collapses, delirious from fever and starvation. Attempting to pull Ayla out, the lion gashes open Ayla's leg, leaving four deep parallel wounds on her thigh. Wandering aimlessly, alone, frightened, hungry and helpless, Ayla eventually encounters a cave lion which chases her into a narrow crack in a rock wall. ![]() Ayla is swimming nude in the river beside the campsite when the earthquake starts and watches the tragedy in horror. The facts that no father or other family members were mentioned and the odd location of the mother’s camp suggest that the mother either chose or was forced not to live with her clan. It was mentioned a few times that the location of the camp was odd and not near known Cro-Magnon settlements. Ayla is orphaned as a young Cro-Magnon child when an earthquake opens a fissure in the ground into which the camp of her mother falls and is destroyed.
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