The Typhon-Severian Family Tree

mournings glory · 25 Jun 2005, 14:56 · from 2005-June.txt.gz

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From: mourningsglory at hotmail.com (mournings glory)
Date: Sat Jun 25 14:56:43 2005
Subject: (urth) The Typhon-Severian Family Tree
Message-ID: <BAY107-F19F4F6928872DA2A600F93D8EC0 at phx.gbl>

In marshalling his various arguments about the sons of Typhon, cloned or 
otherwise, the winsome Mr. Wynn has written "there is still the fact that 
[Severian's] crypt is Typhon's family mausoleum." But is this really so? I 
for one have always found this assumption to be more than a little troubling 
and not just because it smacks of total retconning (I defy anyone to point 
out a shred of evidence in support of the linked family tree theory in 
either of the first two Sun series), but also because there's a fair amount 
of textual evidence that leads me to believe that the mausoleum Severian 
visits with Horn & company is altogether different from the one he visits in 
the early chapters of SHADOW.

Please bear with me, as I try to make my case.

First to Chapter 19 of RETURN, as Horn tells Severian:

---------------------------
"This girl was a sort of princess here on your whorl. Her name was Cilinia. 
Have you heard of her?"

The boy said he had not.

"She died here many years ago--many centuries, I believe. Now she must find 
her grave...Will you help us?"

He did, too. He took us to an old stone building where there were lots of 
coffins. They were supposed to be up on stone shelves, but most of them were 
not, and a lot were empty."
--------------------------

Now then for the necessary followup questions: why would Severian, who has 
never heard of Princess Cilinia, assume that she is buried in the little 
crypt he has so come to favor over the years? While he is tall and may 
perhaps fancy himself the son of an exultant, nowhere that I can remember 
does he fantasize about being the lost scion of some royal family. Isn't it 
therefore much more likely that he takes Horn and his group to one of the 
bigger, fancier mausoleums in the necropolis--one befitting a princess of 
some centuries past? If there's any sort of correlation with Egyptian tombs, 
we might also expect such a crypt to have been looted over time, especially 
in a country where quakes may make sealed doors problematical. Notice as 
well the rather unspecific "lots of coffins," most of which are not up on 
the stone shelves, and many of which are empty. In Chapter 2 of SHADOW, 
however, observe how Severian writes, "Neither the closed coffins nor the 
open ones constituted the attraction of the place...Rather, it was the 
smallness of the room, the thick walls of masonry, and the single, narrow 
window with its one bar, together with the faithless door that remained 
eternally ajar." Moreover, "two empty coffins lay on the floor. Three more, 
too heavy for me to shift and still intact, waited on the shelves along one 
wall." Notice the count here: five coffins total, two of which are empty and 
lay on the floor--and yet by Hoof's count,  the mausoleum visited in WHORL 
contains *lots* of coffins, *many of which* are not on the shelves, and 
*most of which* are empty. Given the size of the two respective crypts and 
the number of open and closed and shelved caskets in each, clearly they 
cannot be the same.

In addition, as I believe Marc Arimani has already pointed out, what does 
the device graved on the bronze door of Severian's crypt (the fountain, ship 
volant, and rose) have to do with Typhon the Great or his family? Nothing, 
whereas all three, as we shall see, clearly resonate with events in 
Severian's life.

So then why does Wolfe plant the suggestion that the two families may be 
related--an interesting idea in itself and one initially proposed by the 
long absent Mr. Andre-Driussi? The same reason he locates a gaint undersea 
wall on Blue and has Horn periodically abstaining from eating. For 
misdirection, which he loves--apparently as much as red herring.

I may be wrong in this (note to site administrator: the Urth search 
functions pretty much sucks in my opinion), but hasn't Wolfe written a short 
story about Typhon, yet to be published in Peter Crowther's POSTSCRIPTS, 
entitled "Comber?" Perhaps Dr. Nick Gevers could confirm or deny. If so, 
perhaps it will answer many of the questions resolving around Typhon--or 
knowing Mr. Wolfe's penchant for devilry generate hundreds more.

MSG (no relation to the Glutamates)

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