(urth) The Wizard Knight Theology

Jerry Friedman jerry_friedman at yahoo.com
Fri Jul 2 14:57:59 PDT 2010



From: James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com>

I wrote:
 

And what about /The Wizard Knight/?  The Aelf could be toys in the hands of evil humans if the humans realized it, just as humans sometimes are 
>for Lothur.  (But then the whole non-Christian deism of TWK is strange.  Humans seem to be at the bottom instead of in the middle.)
>
> I think that was the point. Human degeneracy had caused them to be
enslaved by their lowest
> instincts. Humanity ought to have been seeking
to serve the ideals of Valfather and then Michael's > and then discover
the ideals that are even higher still.

I agree with that.

> Due to their enslavement to Arnthor

He's not a good ruler (although not such a bad one, in Able's judgement), but I don't see that people are enslaved to him--certainly not humanity as a whole.

> (a dragon in disguise from a realm
two levels lower),

Half-dragon?  Is that ever made clear?

> even  Aelfrice (representing lower instincts but
higher than those that had enslaved humanity) was > also enslaved by
those instincts and hence rebelled -- because humans had relinquished
the ideals
> necessary to hold the beings of Aelfrice in awe. 

> This is a picture of a man with his priorities upside down.

The Seven Worlds are a picture of a man?  Not, maybe, a society?

> TWK might
well be viewed as the most moralistic novel Wolfe has ever written.

For one thing, it's one of the few where sexual fidelity seems like it might be a good idea.

> The
following is
> a key scene: Valfather bowing before Michael, as Michael
tells Abel that to be a knight he must be
> able to command Disiri with
the same authority.

Not to be a knight, unless I'm missing something.  All I see is that Michael is answering Able's question of how to find her (TK, Ch. 44).

It's certainly a key scene, and beautifully done, but I get the feeling other scenes show humanity at the bottom.  I can't imagine that humans could impress the Overcyns and trick them into worshiping us the way the Aelf have done to some humans, or even pester Overcyns the way Uri and Baki pester Able.  Or that any human could transform an Overcyn the way Disiri transforms Able. Both the Aelf and the Overcyns have supernatural powers, but humans don't seem to have any powers that the Aelf don't have (except summoning them).  Both the Overcyns and the Aelf have special leaders, such as the Valfather or Disiri, but humanity doesn't--who is the model for Aelf fathers or kings?  Able presumably has his priorities as straight as anyone, and his feelings toward the Valfather are very different from his feelings toward Arnthor, but he treats them the same way: respect, obedience, and a little civil disobedience.

So what's going on?

Jerry Friedman



      
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