Seawrack's Name

I was reading the Short Sun and thinking that we are invited to figure out two things when we are first introduced to Seawrack. One is her real name which is supposed to sound somthing like Seawrack. I did an archive search and could only find a 2000 post on the topic, from R. Borski, who (typically?) went overboard with name analysis I think and came up with an Irish seaweed called "screadhbhuidhe". This just isn't a satisfying answer for me. Not sure if my attempts are much better but, FWIW: One guess I had is Sirenia. It came to me because Seawrack is described as having some green algae tint in her hair and this reminded me of the undines from BotNS. The undines were several times confused with manatees and Sirenia is the scientific order name for manatees. The Mother seems to invoke an Abaia-like presence. Of course this ties in with the siren and mermaid allusions which seem to tie all these characters together. Sirenia is an animal name anyway and perhaps this is partly why it was incomprehensible to Horn for a girl's name. Perhaps his mind changed it to the plant name Seawrack, as a name he could comprehend for her. My other guess is "Shipwreck". It would qualify as wordplay meant to go directly between author and reader, somewhat by-passing the characters. I wondered if Wolfe might be hinting this her real name (or more likely her job title or duty or something) since it accurately describes her function as a Siren. She does seem embarassed when Horn first tries to prounounce her name. Perhaps because of what she was supposed to do to Horn's ship? Horn couldn't see and match the silent w found in both words but we can. Moreover, shipwreck and seawrack also do sound quite alike. -bsharp

The only similar-sounding name I can think of is Sycorax, the mother of Caliban in Shakespeare's Tempest. But that seems like a stretch. Best wishes, Jack

I've always presumed her actual name would be from the mythology of Japan, China, or Mongolia, due to her features: "sharp chin, very high cheekbones, and tilted eyes". But then her hair is gold, her skin is fairest white, and her eyes are "midnight-blue". On the OTHER other hand, if she were built from the corpse of the pirate-woman Horn killed a couple days previously, it is no surprise she is so pale, but that would not explain her golden-green hair. (but there's that golden-green color again. J

There is also the silkie, an Irish shape-changing fairy who is either seal or woman (I think). It's nothing like seawrack, but then people often end up far from the original when they are forced to pick a native word to stand for a foreign one. (Technically a "calque," I believe, although that's usually a place name, like Leghorn.) But I like bsharp's suggestion that Horn balked at Sirenia and went with Seawrack. Wolfe always follows the rules he invents.

Hmmmm. I can't really get on board any of that. Although I can understand wanting to figure it out, as rarely is something laid before us like that without some purposful reasonance. I assumed the word was in a language completely unfamiliar, and non-human. Seawrack being a bridge of sorts between to worlds, that of the mother and that of humanity. She is being passed from the mother, the non-human world, where she had a non-human name, into the world of humanity, where she has to have a human name. Why would she have a name of the language of men? I can't imagine Horn having a hard time saying any of the words people have said here. He 'pronounces' an awfuly lot of complicated nomenclature throughout his tale, so Serineia or other others don't strike me as holding any special difficulty. An alien word though, in a tongue not related to the world of man, that would be tough. That also has resonance for me. Mirrors the false mother the Mother creates to speak to Horn. It has to approximate humanity to interact with Horn, and Horn has to 'approximate' Seawracks name to relate to Seawrack.

Yes, this jibes with me much more. ~witz

This is my assumption too. "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh C'thulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."

"Seawrack" sounds *sort of * like "Shoggoth" if you're drunk. Adam

Oh my god. I think we just found the Evil Guest/Short Sun tie in.

My 2 cents: Seawrack = Syrinx Syrinx was a Naiad nympth who escaped a horny Pan through a transformation into reeds, which he cut off to make his pipes. Names sound the same, the story connects to music as Horn is always hearing Seawrack singing, and Syrinx has the nymph quality to seduce males.

That seems like cheating to me, something Mr. Wolfe doesn't do. Mr. Wolfe always leaves clues in his names, and I don't think that Seawrack is based off of something totally alien.

I'm in the middle of a very slow, hopefully thorough re-re-read of the SS series..I'll be hitting y'all up with sme thoughts & questions soon...but I agree I like the Syrex connesction but believe GW made it clear it was an unpronouncable word in a totally alien language.. ~S~ ???? Mobile — (415) 786-3624 ???? Skype? stuart.hamm myspace.com/stuhamm ? ??? stuarthamm.net --- On Mon, 3/16/09, Son of Witz <sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org> wrote:

Yes, this jibes with me much more. ~witz

For record, (although I like the choice of Syrinx on a lot of levels) a literal transcription an pronunciation of Syrinx's name would be "Surigx". Not all that different from the pronunciation of the name of the goddess Sphigx. I doubt the name, whatever it is, was intended to some made-up alien name. Its just not Wolfe's way. J

"Cybele" sounds vaguely like "Seawrack". I think the Magna Mater explanation is likely to be the right one. Adam