Severian's family tree

Matthew DeLuca · 22 Aug 2006, 06:08 · from 2006-August.txt.gz

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From: straylightrise at gmail.com (Matthew DeLuca)
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 02:08:33 -0400
Subject: (urth) Severian's family tree
In-Reply-To: <000c01c6c5ae$88e92540$9d3ec6d8 at rclackey.stic.net>
References: <000c01c6c5ae$88e92540$9d3ec6d8 at rclackey.stic.net>
Message-ID: <15D76379-572D-4F8D-8F9C-32CF83E3CFDF at gmail.com>

Was it ever established that Catherine was Thecla's mother? I'm not  
saying your wrong but I'm just trying to catch up on established  
theories and the archive system is so confusing and unwieldy to use.

On Aug 22, 2006, at 1:47 AM, Roy C. Lackey wrote:

> My old _Webster's_ defines "chatelaine" this way: "1. the lady of a  
> castle;
> mistress of a chateau." "Chateau" is defined as: "1. a French  
> feudal castle.
> 2. a large country house, especially one in France."
>
> b sharp wrote:
>> Thecla talks about her time  up at the northern villa before she  
>> became a
>> concubine.  Now a villa is the secondary, country estate of a  
>> noble family.
>> Her primary estate is never mentioned, but twice, after Severian  
>> shares her
>> memories, it is hinted she had an early childhood being raised in the
>> Citadel.  So maybe the Citadel is the primary estate and her  
>> parents are
>> Catherine and the Castellan.
>
> In chapter VIII of SHADOW, the Chatelaine Thecla spoke to Severian  
> about
> Gurloes having allegedly sent some people to the House Absolute to  
> fetch her
> some more clothes:
>
> "I already have, and he says he sent some people to the House  
> Absolute to
> fetch them for me, but they were unable to find it, which means  
> that the
> House Absolute is trying to pretend I don't exist. Anyway, it's  
> possible all
> my clothes have been sent to our chateau in the north, or one of  
> the villas.
> He's going to have his secretary write them for me."
>
> This statement makes several things clear. One is that Thecla's  
> "primary
> estate" is not there in the Citadel. Her family had more than one  
> villa, and
> their primary estate seems to be a northern chateau.
>
> Thecla's family apparently had a villa in the area of Thrax. Severian
> confirmed something Cyriaca had said near the end of their  
> conversation
> together (SWORD, chapter XII) by calling up a memory of Thecla's  
> dealing
> with a "country villa -- half manor and half fort". Forts -- to say  
> nothing
> of castles -- usually have defenders.
>
> The memory "as Thecla dodged the hooves of my father's mounted  
> guard" could
> easily apply to mounted guards at a family villa or at the chateau.
>
> But this is all secondary. The one insurmountable problem of the  
> Castellan
> being Thecla's father is the fact that the Castellan was alive and  
> Thecla's
> father was dead. One of Thecla's surfaced memories: "my father had  
> given a
> ball for me each year until his death". (CITADEL, chapter XXIII, last
> paragraph)
>
> -Roy
>
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