(urth) Frog and Fish

[Lee Berman]

>Andrew Mason:  So, why Fish? Well, if they are trying to combine one version of the
>story in which the hero has a twin, and another in which he is called Frog, they need 
>to find a name for his twin which fits 'Frog'. 'Fish'looks suitable.. That may be all 
>there is to it, though for all I know it is also a reference to another legend we haven't 
>spotted yet.
 
 
Ah well, at the risk of being repetitive, I think there is a volume of evidence which 
points to a watery, fishy origin for the gods/demons of Urth, references including
Abaia, Fomalhaut, Jurupari, undines, kelpies, etc. I don't know if that idea came first
or the idea of using "Fish" as a pairing for Frog, but I think they are related. Wolfe
provides some bolstering for this connection in that giant fish from Scylla's lake and the 
very fishy relationship between The Mother and Seawrack.
 
I was just reading the section where Severian is swimming around in the ocean after the
flood and he sees shadows of a school of fish as big as ships. Those are some awfully big
fishes. I am thinking he is really seeing the "pelagic argosy" (open ocean flotilla). 
Meaning they are the undines. Not yet ship-sized, Juturna is probably the smallest of them 
(not counting Idas) and thus she was picked to seduce Severian.