the wheel of time - Was Lan ever really dead?

One of the key climactic scenes in A Memory of Light involves two majors characters fighting and apparently killing each other:

Lan manages to kill Demandred by "sheathing the sword", that is, allowing Demandred to land a blow in order to land one of his own. In this case, both strikes appeared to be fatal.

This death leads up to the major turning point in the battle:

As the Dark One gloats about all of the deaths, Rand "zooms in" on Lan and says something like "You're wrong about one", as we see Lan stand back up and hold Demandred's severed head over his own.

I have seen several comments on this site (and elsewhere) that assume the character in question was killed and resurrected

by Rand,

but I did not get that impression at all from the novel. That, IMO, is counter to everything else we know about how things worked. To me, it was obvious that the character in question was never dead -- the apparently fatal blow was not fatal, merely extremely severe, and he was able to push through it and keep going.

Is there any indication, other than

The Dark One's claim, which is highly suspect

that the character actually died and was resurrected?

Answer

I'd cautiously suggest that he wasn't resurrected, because others who were resurrected, such as Moridin, bore none of their prior wounds, while this character was still half-dead. Those other characters also required new bodies, while this character didn't.

It's technically possible that said potential resurrector acquired new, unexplained powers - he has before. However, in the past, his powers made a certain amount of sense in the universe, whereas power over death really isn't his vibe.

Comments

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