Hut/Ultan's Library/Catherine

Jeff Wilson · 07 Apr 2009, 09:43 · from 2009-April.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Tue, 07 Apr 2009 04:43:38 -0500
Subject: (urth) Hut/Ultan's Library/Catherine
In-Reply-To: <D75AFBBB6BC0424FAC57BAFF1757A694@eMachinePC>
References: <COL109-W203E9E25E77526A04FB504D7870 at phx.gbl>	<883571995.20090405181338 at poczta.fm><AFEB31E805FC4A70A20D18FBF4D07BC3@eMachinePC>	<49D97045.8000800 at io.com>
	<D75AFBBB6BC0424FAC57BAFF1757A694@eMachinePC>
Message-ID: <49DB204A.2050004 at io.com>

James Wynn wrote:
> Hmmm...I searched the archives and nothing about dwarves or barrow 
> wights came up.

The catacomb part was a few months ago:

> Much of the Citadel complex is underground. In particular, the art 
> galleries run as far as the House Absolute, which is entirely 
> underground, and Hypogeum Apotropaic can be read as "underground 
> bunker". It is very likely that Severian meets Master Ultan in a tunnel, 
> possibly a stretch of catacomb repurposed to house books instead of bodies.

  the part after "also" is my current addition, reflecting on Ultan's 
appearance - there is a similar, though unfriendly encounter between 
Thor and a Dvergr in the Poetic Edda, mentioned here under "skin color 
and hair color"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_dwarves

Ultan's no dwarf, but he does share some of the creepy color scheme and 
habits of the other earth-dwellers.


> Anyway, I'll require a lot more convincing. If the catacombs lent out 
> their corpses, I'm not aware of it. 

I think that was largely reserved for relics, though numerous catacombs, 
tombs, and ossuaries have liberal browsing hours.


 > I'm sure barrow wights did not abet
> such practices. And if Ultan *were* intended to be analogous to an 
> animated ward of a grave, that would put Severian in the position of a 
> treasure hunter...not a corpse himself.

He *is* there to get some goodies, but I think it just the general 
creepiness that give him thoughts of being dead and buried; indeed the 
3rd paragraph before the end of the chapter includes "To the upper 
levels of that place I returned several times, but I never again entered 
that tomblike cellar, or ever wished to."

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
< http://www.io.com/~jwilson >

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