Agia's Weapons

Lee Berman · 20 Dec 2011, 03:23 · from 2011-December.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:23:25 -0500
Subject: (urth) Agia's Weapons
Message-ID: <SNT123-W3260B174EC1DA4EE5D71FFCFA40 at phx.gbl>

>Daniel Petersen: Ha, thanks, Lee!  (You just got on my good side - let's see how long you
>can stay there, heh heh.)

Heh, yep. Who knows! People are different online than in the real world but one way I am 

similar is that I tend to mirror the speech patterns of the person I am talking to. It 

isn't fully conscious and it has led to some amusing episodes in my life. If you look at

my posts here over the last 6-7 years I think you'll see the pattern.

>The rest of your post is unfortunately beyond me.  I'm not that intimate
>with the minutiae of New Sun yet.

Hm. yep. While I am far more familiar with BotNS minutiae than any other Wolfe work. I agree

that making so much of Agia's weapons seems a stretch. But then I remember the even more 

scanty evidence of a major impending Flood in the first 4 books and I remember that Wolfe

is fully capable of hiding his mysteries in such fleeting,innocuous references.

>"What I was going to tell you was that the existence of that relic seems to
>have given some people the idea that the Conciliator used claws as weapons.
>I have sometimes doubted that he existed; but if such a person ever lived,
>I'm sure that he used his weapons largely against himself.

Great passage quote! I interpret this to coincide with the fact of Severian becoming highly

drained and exhausted each time he uses The Claw. Also the recipients of Severian's power

find the blue light to be warm (as they absorb the positive energy I guess) while 

Severian himself feels it to be cold.

It may also allude to the pains and tribulations of Jesus, Hercules, Oedipus and any other

hero Wolfe may have drawn from in creating Severian. Like Severian, these guys had the

weight of the world on their shoulders and suffered much personal injury in response.

>David Stockhoff: True. Doesn't fit the rest, but a weapon is a weapon when you need one.

>Or are you simply suggesting it came from a Pelerine, not that Agia is one?

I am suggesting Cyriaca is Agia's mother and bequeathed her twins the shop before moving

to Thrax to live with her husband. She plans to return to Nessu and the shop and sew and 

cook for her kids to escape her strangulation sentence, not knowing Agia and Agilus' fate.

So the misericorde was Cyriaca's but Agia sold it before meeting Severian.

>It's true that we are never told the identity of the assassin. We do 
>know that he is male (or so Severian assumes., not being around to find 
>out), so presumably he's not Agia, but he could be of the Vodalarii 
>(Agiarii?). Note that he was a "master swordsman."

It is hard to see past Severian's assessment of maleness. But I am willing to do so because

(iirc) there are only two poisoned blades (among many) in all five books. The pattern of

importance in Agia's weapons also nudges me in that direction. The assassin has been dead a

long time, which would be necessary if it were Agia since otherwise she'd be Valeria's age

and not likely to be very agile.

Thanks for the suggestion that it might be a Vodalarii (Agiaii? Agiaeae? heh). I'd never 

considered that possibility. I still lean toward it being Agia for the same reason I lean 

against Larry's suggestion that the assassin is Miles. 

The assassin episode takes place at the very end of the story. It seems compltely unnecessary. 

Why give Valeria such a painful death when she is about to drown anyway? But if the assassin is 

Agia it gives the scene both purpose and symmetry. In the beginning of the story, Severian takes 

the life of the person most dear to Agia. At the end of the story, Agia returns the favor.

>Better look up that hair color reference!

Heh. Well perhaps unfortuately, this part partakes in my Father Inire theory. We aren't given a

hair color for most of his disguised, ancient appearances. But I think two Inire appearances

display red hair color. Cyriaca, like Catherine, is dark haired. Dark+red= chestnut, which is

Agia and Agilus' hair color. (oh, and their bastardly father, aside from being Inire, is Cyriaca's

mysterious, cosmically knowledegeable "uncle".)

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