Subject: (urth) Tomb it may concern (was: The eyes of a clone)

From: Tony Ellis <tonyellis69 at btopenworld.com>
Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2005 14:48:35 +0000

Apologies for the change of thread, but I wanted to distance this from
any discussion of clones.

It's Severian's tomb. At the end of Citadel, talking about the 'other
Severian', he says that he "became himself a walker of the corridors [of
time]. I know now the identity of the man called the Head of Day.... I
know too in whose mausoleum I tarried as a child, that little building
of stone with its rose, its fountain and its flying ship all graven. I
have disturbed my own tomb, and now I go to lie in it." Citadel XXXVIII

That last sentence pretty much says it all. 

After Severian brings the new sun he has both the ability to travel in
time and the ability to resurrect, so there's no reason why he couldn't
leave tombs all over history. And as someone who has already brought the
new sun, there's no reason why he shouldn't include a white fountain in
his coat of arms when he does so. (It would be a bizarre thing for Ymar
to do, on the other hand.)

To answer your point, Roy, about Severian in Apu-Punchau's chamber
looking so much like the figure on the funeral bronze... I think that's
just to underline the fact that Severian has now reached the age when
he's about to start his time-wanderings.

---

From: don doggett <kingwukong at yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2005 20:30:49 +0000

--- Tony Ellis <tonyellis69 at btopenworld.com> wrote:

> It's Severian's tomb. 

(followed by relevant support)

However, this doesn't preclude it being Ymar's tomb as
well.  It's a mausoleum which probably holds many
bodies.  The name Ymar can also mean ox (horn
anyone hoof, hide, sinew?) and the ox is symbolic of
the Aleph.  And Sev doesn't have to be a clone of Ymar
to -be- him.  Witness how Able and Arnthor are both
"King Arthur" in WK.  My fancy (and that's all it is)
is that they are clones of each other in the most
mundane of all ways:  they are twins, separated
through time. (though I guess being separated through
eons of time isn't so mundane after all).  Come to
think of it, if Horn is a clone of Ymar, (who is
undoubtedly, in my mind, Typhon's bastard- there is no
other way to legitimize his rule. The conciliator's
intercession was far too peripheral to support a
successful rebellion) it makes much more sense why
Silkhorn would meet Severian.  But I'm rampantly
speculating now.  I'll do that in my own head and save
you the eyestrain.

Don

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