Severian's family

Geoff Alex Cohen · 30 Jun 1997, 10:16 · from urth-v0002.mbox · original

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From: Geoff Alex Cohen <gac at cs.duke.edu>
Subject: (urth) Severian's family
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 10:16:55
Message-ID: <urth-v0002-0125 at digest.urth.net>
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[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other work=
s]

> From: "Kevin McGuire" <kmcguire at itw.com>
>=20
> While I'm here, though, could someone clue me in on what pointers=20
> there are to the identity of Severian's mother and sister?

I started a rough draft of this, at=20
http://www.cs.duke.edu/~gac/Wolfe/family.html.

Overview:  we know Severian has a sister, because Severian/Severa
is a set of names you give to twins.  We know what happens to male
children who are born to prisoners; female children go to the
witches.

So Severian's sister is a witch, of his age.  My guess (and Wolfe
confirmed this in the chat) is Merryn, the Cumaean's companion at
the very end of _Claw_.

Mother:  Well, Ouen names her Katharine at the end of _Citadel_
and says she was given to the torturers (which matches our
theory for Severian's origin).  We do meet one woman in the
Guild's care named Katharine...

Geoff

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