(urth) Baptism and Confirmation: Shadow of the Torturer

[Gerry Quinn]

On 24/08/2014 15:29, marcobadie at katamail.com wrote:
> Gerry Quinn wrote:
>> I'm not convinced by the connection between Severian and the woman -
>> might she not simply be the mother of the peasant who wanted to guard
>> her corpse that night?
> Hildegrin is searching for Severian, with him are Vodalus and Thea, the leaders of the insurgency. Why Hildegrin would be interested in a peasant's woman?
> Moreover, the necropolis is organised by social rank: higher there are the masoleums of the optimates, lower the burial mounds of peasants and labourers. Severian is watching the scene behind a calcedony angel, the grave of the dark-haired woman is the grave of an armigette, at least.

         "We're the volunteers," one of the others said. "We
         come to protect our own dead."

But then of course while we saw a peasant, we did not see the man who 
was going to watch over his mother.

         A man who had not spoken before said, "I'm going to
         watch over my mother. We've wasted too much time
         already. They could have her a league off by now."

And they split up and went in several directions,  Presumably they came 
from a variety of social classes.  All seemed to fear, correctly or not, 
that their kins' graves might be robbed.  And indeed, perhaps Vodalus 
deliberately takes corpses from various walks of society.

- Gerry Quinn