(urth) TSH: Ted's identity

[Craig Brewer]

People have put forward the possibility that Ted was Ambrosius, the "murdered Sorcerer." (The initials TAG would also support that: Ted/Theodore Ambrosius Griffin.)

But is it also possible that he was a werewolf who had been beaten during the fight with Lupine? Was the "something wet" a wolf skin that was removed like Lupine's? The fight did happen by the river, of course, so it could well have gotten wet in the fight, or the "Riverman" could have scalped him or some such. Then perhaps the ring was his soul that got traded away, and now Doris wants it back because she (intuitively, at least) expects that it will help him come back all the way?

Also, was Griffin his name or Doris' maiden name? I don't recall her ever saying either way. Could the "G" in TAG also stand for Goldwurm? After all, isn't a golden worm wind itself into a circle/ring, like the one Doris gives Bax?

And, not to push too far, but could Ted have been Mr. Black as well? Doris never saw Skotos/Mr. Black, and she says that Bax reminds him of her. And her description fits with what we know of Mr. Black: "He was taller and quite a bit heavier. Your hair's sort of yellow-brown, and his was almost black." (39) (Interestingly, when describing the fish, there are three "shades of black" (37) in the fish...but perhaps there are also three "shades" of Mr. Black: Mr. B/Skotos/Ted? Ted died two years before all of this, and I can't find the part where it says how long ago Skotos or Mr. Black died.

(And only vaguely related, but is the lion-headed man that Winker takes Bax to at all related to Doris? She's Griffin, a lion's body, so that lion head would complete her? Is that just grasping at straws?)