(urth) Catherine

[Andrew Mason]

Son of Witz wrote:

> I'm of the opinion that if these puzzles don't yield real symbolic meat they aren't worth pursuing. That being said, the idea that the Katherine he symbolically beheads is is mother is Roast fucking Beef.  Severian has to destroy Mother Urth. He says this memory is the start of his reminiscing.
>

Brilliant idea; it explains, what has always puzzled me, why
Severian's mother is called Catherine. But I'm not sure it solves the
problem of who is who at the mundane level. Does it mean that the
woman who plays the part, the maid, actually is his mother? (If 'maid'
is understood in its traditional sense, of course, she can't be.) Or
does it just mean that the woman he is symbolically killing, Holy
Katharine, is somehow identified with his mother?