(urth) Baldanders

[Roy C. Lackey]

mourning's glory wrote:
>Says Famulimus to Severian at one point, "You know the water women, I
>believe." But how do the three Hierodules know this? Have they been
>monitoring Sev all along since his inital encounter with Juturna and the
>nenuphars? Were they present, if remotely, via long-range reconnaissance,
at
>Cephissus? Or have they just read the reports, so to speak?

Because they live counterclockwise. That meeting at the castle was supposed
to be, from their point of view, the last with Severian -- and would have
been if Wolfe hadn't written URTH. They had been his friends and counselors
during the ten years of his autarchy and had doubtless heard his life story
up to the day he left for Ushas.

It must have been pretty damn awkward for Severian to conduct a sensible
dialogue with them during those years, because each day they would know less
than the day before, from his point of view. I know it sounds goofy, but it
had to be that way. Their first meeting with him was outside his stateroom
on the Ship, and they didn't know anything about him, except possibly
whatever they had been briefed on, presumably by the Hierogrammates.

-Roy