The Sorcerer's House Questions (Major Spoilers)

Matthew Keeley · 19 Mar 2010, 21:42 · from 2010-March.txt.gz

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From: matthew.keeley.1 at gmail.com (Matthew Keeley)
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:42:24 -0400
Subject: (urth) The Sorcerer's House Questions (*Major Spoilers*)
Message-ID: <44fb53d11003191442y48191c3ataaac84d798b8b983 at mail.gmail.com>

Just finished reading the new book; it seems a lot clearer than AEG, but,
being Wolfe, there are quite a few unasked questions raised by my first
reading. But first I should insert spoiler space, as I will be discussing
the ending, etc.

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(spoilers commence)

1. Goldwurm's Tower ? Apparently the previous owner was named Ambrosius;
this seems likely to be a reference to Ambrose, often named as Merlin's
tutor. In other versions, Merlin is called "Merlin Ambrosius". And I believe
there's a legend that Merlin died "three times" ? broke his neck, drowned,
and something else. The information is somewhat hard to find online; later I
shall consult some of my Arthurian books.

2. Goldwurm again ? In what object did he deposit his numen?

3. I think we can all agree that George didn't really write the last letter
and that Bax is going to take his place. Winker follows "George", for one
thing. And "George" seems to know a lot about Victorian fiction, the subject
of one of Bax's degrees. So why is the real George absent? Did Bax kill him?
Or did George run off to faerie to try and take command, as he said he would
do in an earlier letter?

4. What did Ted's ghost leave Doris? Could Ted be another Zwart pseudonym?

5. Bax very quickly starts calling his putative butler "old Nick", one of
the devil's classic nicknames. He doesn't seem to notice, but maybe his
subconscious is warning him not to trust the man? Was there a "real" Nick
before he was replaced by Zwart?

6. Under what conditions can Toby and Winkle transform? Can't just be a full
moon.

7. What's Musashi ? a historical figure ? doing in faerie? Is this an
idealized archetypal Musashi as opposed to the historic one?

8. What's with the dwarf?

9. The "compiler" states that the letters may be out of order.... Are there
any that are clearly in the wrong place in the narrative?

-Matt
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