(urth) Dreaming, Mag, Able and Art

[Andrew Bollen]

I think Dream is a shared realm, as Crush says. I think it is the key to Mag 
and Able/Art.

First of all my understanding of Able/Art: they have been swapped, in some 
way, by the Aelf. The original, "real" Able goes to America; Art takes 
Able's place in Mythgathr. I think this is very clear: when Art dreams of 
the ambulance, he knows in his dream that it carries the "real Able".

Mythgathr and Earth are connected though Dream. Art dreams of Able in 
America on several occasions. Dream exists on the same plane as Mythgathr, 
and must be connected to Aelfrice as well.

The Aelf have power over dreams. Baki (can't remember) bring dreams to both 
Idnn and Art. From this we can guess how the Art/Able swap happened. Art 
dreamed in the Downs and the Aelf enticed his dream-self down to Aelfrice. 
Able dreamt and had his dream-self sent back to Art's body on Earth via 
Dream. Art's dream-self replaced Able's in Able's body, which was later sent 
back to Myth via Parka's cave.

As to why the Aelf did this: I speculated earlier that the Aelf wanted an 
American, rather than a local, as their messenger.

As to why Able/Art: because they have the same mother, presumably 
facilitating the swap. We have to assume that Mag and Art's mother are in 
some sense the same person; not least because Art says he thinks Mag was 
both the mother of Berthold and Able, and of himself and Ben (p236).

But the situation is not straightforward. Mag recognizes that Art is not 
actually her son Able. Able seems to recognize that Mag is not actually his 
mother. She seems to have no memory of Art as such, but she does appear to 
remember her "girlhood in America" (p335). Although her message in the green 
glass tube opens thus: "Mag is my name *here*" (p236), implying that she has 
another name elsewhere (ie America), we cannot assume that she has simply 
travelled from America to Mythgarthr.

I think the solution to this conundrum might be suggested by what happens to 
Escan: he leaves behind in Aelfrice a copy of himself  (p424). I think the 
American-Mag dreamed of Aelfrice as a child and left a copy of herself 
there, which continued on as Myth-Mag, the eventual mother of Berthold and 
Able, while her original dream-self returned to America, to marry and bear 
Ben and Art.

I think we know that Art's mother did dream of Aelfrice. Writing of his 
descent to Aelfrice in search of Toug he says, "How far to the dream my 
mother had?" (p314)