(urth) Hut/Ultan's Library/Catherine

[James Wynn]

>>> Stan: Why weird? Ultan is a Vodalarian, and has
>>>eaten part of the corpse. He is hardly a great exception.
>>
>> "...and quite suddenly I felt that he and I were dead..."
>>
>> I'm not sure I understand this explanation. At the time of this event, 
>> Severian had not eaten any corpse; so, why did he feel that he himself 
>> was dead? I suppose it is not absolutely required, but this pairing seems 
>> to imply they were "were dead" for the same reason...whatever it was.
>
> A few months ago we went over this - they meet in unlit underground 
> tunnels, essentially catacombs for books instead of bodies. Ultan is also 
> very much like the barrow wights or dwarves of the Norse epics, 
> essentially a barely animated corpse guarding grave goods and other 
> treasures.

Hmmm...I searched the archives and nothing about dwarves or barrow wights 
came up.

Anyway, I'll require a lot more convincing. If the catacombs lent out their 
corpses, I'm not aware of it. I'm sure barrow wights did not abet such 
practices. And if Ultan *were* intended to be analogous to an animated ward 
of a grave, that would put Severian in the position of a treasure 
hunter...not a corpse himself.

J.