Subject: (urth) Mary Bugs Names

From: m.driussi <m.driussi at genie.com>
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 1997 22:28:00 +0000

[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]

Reply:  Item #3567343 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET03#

Ron Crown,

Uh, wouldn't "Mariolatry" be more connected to daughter Mary rather
than mama?  (Or is mama's name also Mary?  If true, this would spanner
the works a bit.)

Re: grasshopper, well it certainly is a biblical critter renowned in
the sf world by PKDick, and plausible that there is a Buddhist tale,
too.  Though what a grasshopper stands for, aside from agent of
famine and destruction, or lazy schemer compared to wage-slave ant, I
don't know offhand.

Re: meaning of Ernie Cotha.  I don't know.  "Sincere Disease"?
(Gosh, put that together with the sinister grasshopper and you are
halfway to the Four Horsemen!)

But on the topic of names, switch over to Urth.  Given twin names
Agilus/Agia (AGI+), Severian/Severa (SEVER+).  Can we hazard a
guess at familial naming conventions, at least for the upper classes?
Thea and Thecla, half-sisters: it seems that they are named after
their commonheld parent (THE+).  Valeria, armigette, is possibly
named after ancestor (VALOR) or (VAL+).  Vodalus (VODA+).

Are ethnic roots of names reflected in their bearers?  Abdiesus,
archon of Thrax, is assumed to be an exultant because of his role as
archon, and he might be as Persian as the saint he is named after.
But is blonde little Dorcas as Semitic as Tabitha?  Oh wait, "Dorcas"
is the Greek form of Aramaic Tabitha (gazelle), so okay, she's a
golden haired Achaean.  Well, if =that's= true, then "Abdiesus" is
also likely Greek, no?

Roche is French.  Merryn is a boy's name.  Malrubius is Latinized
Irish "Maelrubba" (and has a sense of "red"); Palaemon is Greek (with
a sense of "white"); Gurloes is French?.  Vodalus is Latinized
Scottish.

Back to families:
Becan (Irish) + Casdoe (Persian?) = Severa/Severian.
Ouen (Welsh) + Catherine (Greek) = Severian/Merryn
("Severity"/"Mercy," or so I like to think).

Quick--who is the armiger formerly buried in Severian's mausoleum
(early chapters of SHADOW)?

Just for fun, let's say he is VALOR.  Note that the tomb has =five=
coffins, two of which are empty (presumed looted, suggesting that
they were the parents).  One or more of the three offspring form a
family which ends in Valeria, the last of her line.

"Catherine" the fallen pelerine seems related to Thea/Thecla.  But
how?  Maybe she is the khaibit of their mother.  Kept young in the
Atrium of Time.

But I ramble.

=mantis=