(urth) symbols twisted

[Marc Aramini]

The son of witz is most interested in the religious resonance of New Sun - let me direct you to the opening of Sword of the Lictor when Sev escapes the cataract at Thrax.  Again and again water is coupled with death and healing, from the very first chapter of the book.  In the cataract Severian wants to heal the sickly, and in his escape he falls several times bearing his large deadly cross, inundated with the flow of water.  Later we get the temptation in the wilderness with Typhon and the planting of terminus est in the ground to make a true cross when sev tries to save little sev and fails.

However, these symbols and christological events in wolfe are intentionally double edged, like terminus est.  The sun coin of vodalus is false, and the avern symbolizes agia with her deadly trickery as well as the new sun.

Of all the allegorists out there, Wolfe is the trickiest because he can't resist undercutting the traditional symbols with levels of resonance - see the chapter at the end of shadow which talks of the symbolism of the floating tent of the pelerines which is ultimately a natural phenomenon.