(urth) This week in Google Alerts

[David Stockhoff]

On 11/6/2011 5:47 PM, Nick Lee wrote:
>
>     >Nick Lee: Dionysus/Phanes is in every book Wolfe has written.
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>
>     Now, THAT'S a statement!
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>
> And probably an incorrect one. I should have said "almost," though 
> even that is a hard sell. The Sun Books, Peace, and The Sorcerer's 
> House are easy to prove. Free Live Free is not as certain: "Liber" was 
> an epithet of Dionysus. I can make a strong case for Pandora and 
> perhaps There Are Doors. Latro is too easy. Project Ares has a kind of 
> bacchanalia at least. The others could be difficult.
>
>     Thats interesting. I dont think I have ever heard that theory
>     proposed before. Do you know of any textual evidence that would
>     support such a conclusion? It would seem to explain Inires
>     construction of the Botanic Gardens and his preservation of plant
>     life from Urths history.
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>
>
>
> Vertumnus was an Etruscan deity that became almost Protogonic. His most popular myth was that of his seduction of the nymph Pomona. She was highly sought after, including by Silvanus. Vertumnus assumed the guise of an old woman to enter Pomona's orchard. At various occasions, he appeared as a man bearing apples, a reaper, and a fisherman.
>
>
> I think it's something of a coincidence to have a "Green Man" who appears in a book with shape changers and characters in masks.
>
> Consider this: Severian glimpses Tzadkiel's true form, but we never see Inire's. When Severian must choose different paths in the Corridors of Time, he sees one with Tzadkiel and one with the green man. Ash says that the white path, Tzadkiel's?, would lead to him while the green path would lead to the green man's future. Severian chooses a third path.
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> Also look at chapter XXXVI of Citadel. In Inire's letter to Severian, he mentions Agia saving Severian. He says he has ways of "extracting information." He never mentions the green man, who was present at that encounter.
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> There's s part in UotNS where Severian mentions that he embraced Inire before boarding the ship that took him to Tzadkiel's ship. I don't think we have a record of this scene. In Citadel, the green man and Severian have been holding onto each other before the one departs and Severian boards a ship. Is it the same hierodule ship that he takes later?
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> Just some thoughts.

My first thought in response is that it is a common fairy tale happening 
for the Fool to encounter and free a prisoner who turns out to be a king 
of sorts, or a prince. The green man always struck me as a "prince." But 
he could be more.