(urth) Short Story 29: Sweet Forest Maid

[Marc Aramini]

Another thing I wanted to say about this, but somehow forget to, was that at the end, Lenor has found the Sweet Forest Maid, reached the object of her quest ... and then????? she simply has nothing to say.  This approaching the goal and then not knowing what to do seems very thematically close to the way Wolfe handles some of his elisions in later works.  For example, the entrance of Able into the higher realm of the Valfather at the end of the Knight .... which leads us to expect SOMETHING about that realm, but we never really see it, it is like a chimera that we come close to and then it just fades into, if not irrelevance, at least inexplicable mystery.  
 
Because of her other inabilities to see the big picture or the implication of her actions, I doubt Lenore is going to end happily, but that sense of NOW WHAT? is pretty sublime in Wolfe.
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