Etymology/meaning/onomatopoeic aspects of the word "Urth"

b sharp · 01 May 2008, 20:03 · from 2008-May.txt.gz

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From: bsharporflat at hotmail.com (b sharp)
Date: Thu, 1 May 2008 16:03:39 -0400
Subject: (urth) Etymology/meaning/onomatopoeic aspects of the word "Urth"
Message-ID: <BAY103-W4395799BFADBF3090FF3AED7DB0 at phx.gbl>

>as it goes along with Wolfe's caginess about whether we are the ancestors or the descendants of the people of Urth.<

I think Dave Lebling is closest to being on track.  There are Wolfe interviews and texual clues that make it clear
that Urth is a twin to Earth, existing in the alternate universe of Briah (I think Earth might be in Yesod). Our conception of
normal time runs in each universe, starting with Big Bang and ending with Big Gnab. But Big Gnab leads to another Big
Bang so there is a more cosmic sense of time than what we can measure with watches. Briah is the predecessor
to Yesod and thus Urth is older and more spiritually primitive than Earth. While Earth got its spiritual cleansing with the 
Biblical Flood and coming of Jesus, Urth had to wait millions of years longer for the Christ-figure Severian to arrive.The name Urth conveys this primitive, pre-Christian condition, even though in Severian's time, Urth science is far 
advanced to our own.

-bsharp
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