uhm... girovafando su The Tirteenth Depository ho trovato una spiegazione della mutilazione di rand, con riferimenti alla mitologia nordica:

Fenrir

The Norse gods were warned that the giant wolf Fenrir was one of their most dangerous enemies and they had dwarfs make an unbreakable ribbon-like chain with which to restrain him. They challenged Fenrir to see if he could break the chain, and, suspecting they might be trying to trap him, Fenrir agreed to try if one of the gods would put their hand in his mouth. Only Tyr would do so; accepting the consequences. The gods wrapped Fenrir in the chain and the more the wolf tried to break it, the tighter the chain became. Fenrir realised that it was a trap and bit off Tyr’s right hand.

Jordan said at a booksigning that he deliberately made Rand like Tyr. When Rand sought a truce with the Seanchan so that they can combine forces for the Last Battle, Semirhage planned to trap him. Rand and his aides came to the parley better prepared than Semirhage thought (Knife of Dreams, A Plain Wooden Box). Semirhage burned off Rand’s left hand, which he sacrificed to protect Min from Semirhage’s attack, and she was captured by Rand’s companions.

Inoltre,

spoiler libro XII

The Dark One freed Semirhage and gave her access to the cuendillar Domination Band, an equivalent of the dwarfs’ chain, with which to restrain and enslave Rand. She could not resist toying with Rand and the more Rand struggled, the worse she made his confinement. Finally Rand broke free of the trap using the True Power.