(urth) Short Sun blog review

[Gerry Quinn]

I don't see anything in that story to suggest that Spring Wind was Typhon.  It does appear that Spring Wind is extraterrestrial.  He fought on Urth, and sometimes his armies caused devastation among humankind (and food for wolves), at least locally.  But in the long history of Urth there must have been many such.  Where is the indication that Spring Wind conquered or ruled the planet?  What characteristics, other than his being a reasonably dominant warrior/leader, and some doubtful etymology, induce you to associate him with Typhon?

- Gerry Quinn

  From: James Wynn 
Andrew Mason - 
Typhon: first, can someone point me to the evidence that he was not
born/raised on Urth? I'm not sure what the source for this is.

  For me, it is based on the story of "Spring Wind". I was rather surprised to discover that it was at all controversial that "Spring Wind" referred to Typhon. But I suppose there is little about these stories that is not controversial. If it seems reasonable to you that Spring Wind = Typhon, then the obvious implication is that he is extra-terrestrial :

  Sword of the Lictor, Chapter 19
  "On a mountain top beyond the shores of Urth there once lived a lovely woman
  named Early Summer. She was the queen of that land, but her king was a strong,
  unforgiving man, and because she was jealous of him he was jealous of her in
  turn, and killed any man he believed to be her lover.
  One day Early Summer was walking in her garden when she saw a most beautiful
  blossom of a kind wholly new to her. It was redder than any rose and more
  sweetly perfumed, but its strong stalk was thornless and smooth as ivory. She
  plucked it and carried it to a secluded spot, and as she reclined there
  contemplating it, it grew to seem to her no blossom at all but such a lover as
  she had longed for, powerful and yet as tender as a kiss. Certain of the juices
  of the plant entered her and she conceived. She told the king, however, that the
  child was his, and since she was well guarded, he believed her.
  It was a boy, and by his mother's wish he was called Spring Wind. [snip]
  Now it happened that the chances of war often brought Spring Wind to Urth, and
  there he came to know of two brothers who were kings.
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