Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time: The Eye of the World #1

The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow. Strangers have come to the village of Emond's Field, located in Two Rivers, during the Bel Tine holiday. With theses strangers come stories of the outside world: tales of war and of a man who claims to be the Dragon Reborn, the one prophesized to save the world, and also to destroy it in his madness. For it is known that no man can channel the One Power without going horribly insane.