Subject: A Gene Wolfe glossary?

From: Frederic Bush <fbush1 at cc.swarthmore.edu>
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 05:21:16 +0000

Well, I've started the Book of the New Sun once again, this time with the
aid of a polyglot friend and an Oxford English Dictionary to catch some of
those wacky words. Unfortunately, there are still plenty of words which
even ol' Oxford doesn't have, and we can't seem to derive from Greek or
Latin.

Has anyone out there in Web-land composed a glossary/compendium of
Wolfeiana? I've seen a list of characters, but not one of terms. I wouuld
dearly like to figure out what chrisos and asimi are, among others...

Yours in nenuphars,

Fred Bush                   
Swarthmore, PA

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From: Michael P Collins <mc7f+ at andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 12:59:43 +0000

Find a copy of "Castle Of Days", and there's a collection of essays written
by Wolfe about the Book of The New Sun.  One of them is the words used in
the first book.  Beyond that, you might try _Lexicon Urthus_.

Michael Collins

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From: Raymund Eich <rfe at bioc.rice.edu>
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 15:18:46 +0000

If you can find a copy of _The Castle of the Otter_, it contains some
essays by Wolfe on various aspects of tBotNS, including a very partial
glossary.

I'm halfway through _The Claw of the Conciliator_ on my first reading, but
the language hasn't troubled me too much.  Important stuff gets defined by
Severian (e.g. fuligin), is clear enough from context (e.g.  optimates is a
generic honorific for the high-born, with exultants -> armigers/armigettes
in status; denominations of coins go chrisos -> asimi -> aes), or is meant
to be slightly vague (destriers might be warhorses, baluchthithers might be
elephants??) in keeping with the huge gap in perception between us and
Severian.

Raymund F. Eich

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From: Ethan A Merritt <merritt at u.washington.edu>
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 06:01:28 +0000

destrier = "war-horse"   this one's in the OED

baluchitherium is a large mammal from the North American ice age which
looks somewhat like a cross between a huge bear and an elephant.

Ethan A Merritt

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From: Steven H Silver <silverag at ix.netcom.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 13:10:13 +0000

_Lexicon Urthus_ was written by Michael Andre-Driussi.  It's only available
in hardcover and costs around $30 if I recall correctly.  It was published
sometime around 1992/3 and will probably have to be special ordered.

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From: Emmet O'Brien <eaobrien at ebi.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 15:11:56 +0000

Destriers are definitely not horses.. they move much faster, and they
have fangs. There's an essay in _Castle of Days_, I can't for the life of
me remember if it's in _Castle of the Otter_ or the later part of the book,
where Wolfe goes into arguments re the utility of such a cavalry force,
making them sound like scaled-up cheetahs with a speed of c. 160 km/h.

  Many of the creatures, baluchitheres among them, are anglicisations of
the names of various fossil mammals: as a kid I was heavily into pop
palaentology books with lots of artists' impressions of such animals, and
what bits of description Wolfe gives for baluchitheres, diatrymae et al. do
fit with the clear images I still have of these things. Baluchitherium was
significantly bigger than modern elephants, IIRC it was the largest land
mammal known.

Emmet

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From: Charles Dye <raster at indirect.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 1996 22:19:36 +0000

While the "Lexicon" is great for definitions and derivations, in my (highly
debatable) opinion it falls a little short in exploring Mr. Wolfe's
reasons for using specific words and names.  There's a lot of extremely
subtle wordplay in the "New Sun" saga, and it takes some real digging to
discover much of it.

To pick two points at random: At one point, Father Inire casually drops the
word "pleasance" in conversation with an attractive young girl.
Mr. Andre-Driussi correctly quotes the dictionary definition, but misses
the reference altogether.  (Inire's two fascinations are mirrors and little
girls.)  And for "Valeria", possibly the most brilliant name in the "New
Sun" books, he provides a list of saints named Valeria.  Accurately, of
course, but missing the jokes.  (To be fair, he does add in an appendix
that "Valeria is also an herb".  Unfortunately, he doesn't mention that
valeria is a heliotropic, or sun-seeking, herb.  So close ....)

"Lexicon Urthus" is a fine book, full of years of tedious research.  I
don't mean to put Mr. Andre-Driussi down here at all!  However, "Lexicon"
should be viewed as a starting point for Severianology, not the be-all and
end-all.