Subject: (urth) Mind the Doors, Please

From: Peter Westlake <peter at harlequin.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 19:05:16 +0000

I've been reading my Lexicon Urthus Additions and Errata III,
which turned up in the post a couple of days ago - thank you
very much, mantis! - and noticed something about the footsteps
in the mine at Saltus. Severian is reminded of them by the
footsteps of the mastodon, Mamillian, and this biological
association makes mantis think the Deep One must be biological
too. He goes on to say that mention chess imagery: "that Mamillian
is a cross between an elephant and a tower means that it is a Rook,
which in some chess sets is represented as an elephant with a small
wooden tower on its back." So near, O mantis, and yet so far!
A Rook is also called a Castle. So, not elephant and tower, but ...
... Elephant and Castle. Is the London Underground sufficiently
suggestive of subterranean engines for you?

Spectacled Bear, who has accidentally almost convinced himself
that Wolfe intended this :-)

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

---

From: Kevin J. Maroney <kmaroney at crossover.com>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 14:29:29 +0000

At 07:05 PM 11/18/98 +0000, Spectacled Bear wrote:
>"that Mamillian
>wooden tower on its back." 

The Elephant is a piece in the Chinese member of the _Chess_ family, _Xiang
Qi_. It is the direct ancestor of the Bishop; it moves two spaces
diagonally. This piece was probably present in the ur-game from which all
modern _Chess_ games derive. In fact, if I understand correctly, _Xiang Qi_
means "The Elephant Game". 

(Note on orthography: I italicize the names of all games, including sports
and traditional or folk games. This is an idiosyncracy.)

>So near, O mantis, and yet so far!

<rolling on the floor, clutching abdomen in odd mixture of laughter,
surprise, and pain.>

Wombat, a.k.a. Kevin Maroney kmaroney at crossover.com
Kitchen Staff Supervisor, New York Review of Science Fiction
http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/olp/nyrsf/nyrsf.html