Subject: (urth) Gilling's killer

From: Seth Lombardi <sethlombardi at hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 05:31:33 +0000

> >What would be Sir Garvaon's motive for killing Gilling? (Rhyme
> >unintentional) And why would Wolfe conceal this for so long?
>
>Jealousy.  Garvaon loved Idnn, and was obviously a more worthy suitor than
>either the monstrous Gilling or the cowardly Svon.
>
>It wasn't concealed for very long, as Wolfe's puzzles go.
>
> >For this and other reasons, I am fairly certain that Iddn is the 
>murderer.
>
>When Able says that the killer cannot be punished, Garvaon is dead, but
>Idnn is still alive.

I'm still uncertain about all this... Gilling gets stabbed twice... right? 
Is it the same person both times? Seems unlike Wolfe. Is that really Gilling 
on that flying horse? I'm not sure.

> >She agreed to marry Gilling to achieve power, which she maintains with 
>her
> >army of giantesses, but killed him because sexual congress would mean her
> >death either in coitus or in giving birth to a giant, as Wolfe makes
> >gruesomely explicit.
>
>I wondered about that, since I don't remember another mention of the
>mothers of the Mice having difficult births.

He underlines it multiple times. See Idnn's breakdown to Able in _The 
Knight_ and the witch's illusion show to Toug in _The Wizard._

seth

*****************************
Seth Lombardi
sethlombardi at hotmail.com
sethopopotropolis: http://pages.prodigy.net/nlom/blogg.html
AIM: melombardi
"Two faces are alike; neither is funny by itself, but side by side their 
likeness makes us laugh" -Pascal

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---

From: David Lebling <dlebling at hyraxes.com>
Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 06:08:16 +0000

> Knight_ and the witch's illusion show to Toug in _The Wizard._

Isn't there also a segment in _The Knight_ where Gerda (not sure if it was
her) describes having borne multiple children to the giant on whose farm she
was a slave? She comments that after the first birth they could have normal
sex together, implying a vaginal birth rather than a c-section. I don't
believe her owner was one of the Mice, but an actual giant.

This story seems to contradict the others.

-- Dave, aka Vizcacha

---

From: Andrew Bollen <abollen at internode.on.net>
Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 06:30:35 +0000

> This story seems to contradict the others.

I'm really not sure why ummm the witch-ghost put on her repulsive little 
giant-human sex show for Toug. What gives with that? The only reason I can 
see for her doing it is to (unsuccessfully) attempt to induce Toug to kill 
Gilling, but why does she want to do that? She has some kind of agenda 
amongst the giants, perhaps just in aid of Idnn (who is nice to her cat) 
and/or Able (who was nice to her bones) - but it's totally unclear to me 
what's going on. And why does Beel think that Toug did try to kill Gilling?

There may be some kind of Wolfean hidden story in the long 
Toug-amongst-the-Giants part of the book.

But back to the witch-ghost's nasty little vision of giant-human conubials: 
it could well be completely false, and designed just to incite and/or 
disgust Toug. As somebody else mentioned, if that's the way giants and 
humans really do it, there doesn't seem to  be any reason why pregnancy 
should have to ensue, if the woman doesn't want it.

---

From: harlekin at earthlink.net <harlekin at earthlink.net>
Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 10:51:11 +0000

Gilling is a particularly large giant, so this may have something to do with it as well.
Don

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