Subject: (urth) reservoir tipped

From: Dan Parmenter <dan at lec.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 09:54:47 +0000

>                       The blade is inspired by an actual "weapons" (tool
>is more like it), the rounded tip is from French executioners blades (as
>used on Ann Boleyn--sp?). The internal reservoir filled with mercury comes
>from Chinese BCE era executioners swords. Both apparently worked quite well
>for their respective tasks. 

Mike, didn't you once tell me (off-list) that Wolfe had at one point
cited a specific reference work on an actual family of medieval
executioners?  I'm spacing on anything useful like a name or an
author. 

From: "Kieran Cleary" <kierannwn at tinet.ie>

>isn't the tip of TE flat?  Interesting about the Chinese swords.

Yes, another of the many "Chinese" features of the series.

I always found it interesting that Wolfe used the canonical
torturer/executioner image (bare-chested, hooded, sometimes cloaked)
but eschewed the customary axe.  Or am I mistaken?  Is the "canonical"
torturer just as likely to be equiped with a sword as an axe?

Where did this image originate?

Dan, who is still actually trying to come up with a good "Whorl"
name.  Currently toying with "Shellac" (made from the excretions of
the Laccifer lacca, and thus, seemingly as valid as "Silk").

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

---

From: Mark Millman <mark_millman at hmco.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 13:39:13 +0000

On 22 October 1998 at 4:55 pm GMT,
Dan Parmenter wrote:

> I always found it interesting that Wolfe
> used the canonical torturer/executioner
> image (bare-chested, hooded, some-
> times cloaked) but eschewed the cus-
> tomary axe.  Or am I mistaken?  Is the
> "canonical" torturer just as likely to be
> equiped with a sword as an axe?

In England (and in the Germanic countries generally,
to a lesser extent) the axe was favored; on the Con-
tinent (and especially in the Romance countries) the
sword was preferred.

The sword, of course, carries better symbolic freight
for Wolfe's purposes, even leaving aside the South
American (thus Spanish) cultural heritage of the
Commonwealth.

> Where did this image originate?

I leave this for others to answer.  (I think it may be an
idealization of the actual appearance of executioners,
but I'm far from sure).

> Dan, who is still actually trying to come
> up with a good "Whorl" name.  Currently
> toying with "Shellac" (made from the
> excretions of the Laccifer lacca, and thus,
> seemingly as valid as "Silk").

Mark Millman
(who would be using "Nacre" as a nom-de-Verticille
if he were posting to the Whorl, and so supports
Dan's "Shellac" without reservation)