(urth) The Sorcerer's House Questions (*Major Spoilers*)

Matthew Keeley matthew.keeley.1 at gmail.com
Fri Mar 19 15:14:25 PDT 2010


Another thought, one that gives away major plot points.
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Was Ambrosius Mr. Black's son? In some legends Merlin Ambrosius is the son
of the devil (or at least a demon of some sort). One of Zwart's aliases is
"old Nick", an old name for Satan? Is Mr. Black really a devil? Or does he
just have the accoutrements of one?

-Matt

On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 5:42 PM, Matthew Keeley
<matthew.keeley.1 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Just finished reading the new book; it seems a lot clearer than AEG, but,
> being Wolfe, there are quite a few unasked questions raised by my first
> reading. But first I should insert spoiler space, as I will be discussing
> the ending, etc.
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> (spoilers commence)
>
> 1. Goldwurm's Tower – Apparently the previous owner was named Ambrosius;
> this seems likely to be a reference to Ambrose, often named as Merlin's
> tutor. In other versions, Merlin is called "Merlin Ambrosius". And I believe
> there's a legend that Merlin died "three times" – broke his neck, drowned,
> and something else. The information is somewhat hard to find online; later I
> shall consult some of my Arthurian books.
>
> 2. Goldwurm again – In what object did he deposit his numen?
>
> 3. I think we can all agree that George didn't really write the last letter
> and that Bax is going to take his place. Winker follows "George", for one
> thing. And "George" seems to know a lot about Victorian fiction, the subject
> of one of Bax's degrees. So why is the real George absent? Did Bax kill him?
> Or did George run off to faerie to try and take command, as he said he would
> do in an earlier letter?
>
> 4. What did Ted's ghost leave Doris? Could Ted be another Zwart pseudonym?
>
> 5. Bax very quickly starts calling his putative butler "old Nick", one of
> the devil's classic nicknames. He doesn't seem to notice, but maybe his
> subconscious is warning him not to trust the man? Was there a "real" Nick
> before he was replaced by Zwart?
>
> 6. Under what conditions can Toby and Winkle transform? Can't just be a
> full moon.
>
> 7. What's Musashi – a historical figure – doing in faerie? Is this an
> idealized archetypal Musashi as opposed to the historic one?
>
> 8. What's with the dwarf?
>
> 9. The "compiler" states that the letters may be out of order.... Are there
> any that are clearly in the wrong place in the narrative?
>
> -Matt
>
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