(urth) Wounds (was: Re: Corundum of the Claw)

[Jane Delawney]

On 23/06/10 12:38, Lee Berman wrote:
> There has been some debate in the past whether Severian is a "Christian figure"
> or a "Christ figure". A recent article in Ultan's Library reminds us Severian
> was marked by stigmata on the forehead after viewing Tzadkiel in the book. Now
> we are reminded that Severian was also pierced by a thorn. There is the desert
> garden and some other stuff that would seem to relate directly to Jesus and not
> just Christianity in general. 	

By the end of BOTNS / UOTNS Sev has acquired at least two of the 
orthodox Wounds of Christ and also a couple more long-term injuries 
which have Christian or semi-Christian mythic associations.

First there is the chest injury from an avern-leaf (I haven't the book 
in front of me at the moment but I think I remember this wound being 
described as 'the size and shape of a willow leaf' or something like, 
rather like the wound that would be made by the blade of a Roman spear); 
this injury is later reopened and presumably made more obvious in the 
throne-room scene at the end of Citadel where the resurrected assassin 
kills Valeria and injures Severian. Sev tells us that the knife reopens 
the avern-wound.

Then there is the 'crown of thorns' stigma which appears when he looks 
into the face of Tzadkiel in the Mirror-book. It's actually described as 
a kind of 'sweating of blood' (there are no tears in the skin or later 
scars), though clearly in one specific area ie. the forehead, thus 
combining suggestions of the crown of thorns with the Garden of 
Gethsemane episode.

The lameness, the thigh injury from an energy weapon which Sev acquires 
in battle and which is later first healed and then reopened, seems to 
relate to the Judean kingship ritual Robert Graves postulates in his 
novel King Jesus (Graves proposes that the accession ritual for the 
Kings of Judea included a ritual combat recapitulating Jacob's 
contention with an angel, during which he was lamed; the whole idea of 
this ritual is, as far as I know, Graves's own invention, and is not 
supported by biblical scholarship, but it seems to be echoed in 
Severian's thigh-wound).

There's also much emphasis on Severian's facial scarring from Agia's 
weapon. It's clear that before this happened he was a good-looking young 
man, yet after this injury his face is for quite some time a horror to 
look upon; one might say 'there is no form or comeliness in him', as in 
the Isiac prophecy. Perhaps this one is a bit of a stretch! But I'm hard 
pressed to imagine why else so much space is give to this injury and its 
after-effects.

I can't remember any hand or foot injuries, nor any scarring from a 
whipping (though given Severian's background, it would not be surprising 
if he had a few such scars); but that's perhaps as well. The whole 
subject is spooky enough already.

regards

JD