(urth) "My father's mounted guard"

[Mark Millman]

Dear Bennewitz,

On Wednesday 8 October 2008, you wrote:

> In Claw chap XXV, Severian is having life
> memories before he falls asleep.  while
> there is obviously the potential for Thecla
> memories to intermix here, this following
> passage is still confusing:
>
> "I played again with pebbles in the court-
> yard beside the fallen curtain wall, as
> Thecla dodged the hooves of my father's
> mounted guard."
>
> . . . Even if the memory is Thecla's why
> would she be dodging the feet of her
> father's guard?

It's because she's a small child and has gotten underfoot, as small
children do.  Presumably it depends on whether the memories are from
Severian and Thecla at the same age, or Severian and Thecla at the
same time.  (Has anybody raised this point before?  Is it even
interesting for our purposes?  Do we know how much, if at all, older
Thecla is than Severian?  I've always assumed that she is older, but
on examining that assumption I find that there's no real support for
it.  She could easily be Severian's age.)  If they're the same age,
she's probably too young to know better.  If the memories are from the
same time and she's older, she may have been acting under what in our
day is the common horse-infatuation of young girls--I imagine it still
holds with Urth girls and destriers.

Mark Millman