Lives of the Great Beasts

Gerry Quinn · 04 Jul 2010, 09:33 · from 2010-July.txt.gz

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From: gerryq at indigo.ie (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Sun, 4 Jul 2010 10:33:45 +0100
Subject: (urth) Lives of the Great Beasts
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From: Milton Jackson 

>I''ve always wondered. Do you guys think Erebus and Abaia actually exist, or are they perhaps some kind of boogeymen like the Green Knight dreamed up to instill fear in the land dwellers? They never actually come into the story, and the logistics of something of their size existing on Earth are rather hard to grasp. Even living entirely in water, they would be subject to the laws of gravity as we know them. Gravity on Earth would greatly restrict their movements and cause the blood pressure needed to keep all their cells nourished with necessary oxygen
to be astronomical. For these reasons, I've always wondered if Wolfe ever intended them to be legitimate characters in the story at all. 

I don't see any real reason to disbelieve it.  Typhon confirms their existence, as someone else does (the Autarch or Jonas, I'm not sure which) and one of them seems to control Ascia.  Baldanders is an aspiring sea giant, and Juturna exists too.  Perhaps Erebus and Abaia are not truly as large as mountains, but there are certainly large intelligent creatures in the sea.

- Gerry Quinn
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