The Wizard

Daniel Petersen · 28 Feb 2012, 10:11 · from 2012-February.txt.gz

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From: danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com (Daniel Petersen)
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2012 10:11:49 +0000
Subject: (urth) The Wizard
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Sorry, I should clarify that I didn't detect any overt Judeo-Christian
elements (especially compared to other major Wolfe works) except Michael.
But, yes, as has been mentioned, the very concept of a Most High God is
lifted straight from Old Testament scripture (and other ancient
Mesopotamian texts?).  And yes, Michael's position to the Oden figure is
surely significant (symbolised by size-proportion to tingling effect, I
thought).  And yes, I was trying to say that I suspected Wolfe wove his
Catholic worldview deeply into the fabric of Wizard-Knight through various
means other than (what seems to me the mostly absent) way of direct
allusion.  I can't remember the ending of The Wizard, but the way The
Knight ended seemed fairly Christian 'eternal reward'/'heaven'-ish (and
again probably subsuming other myths of afterlife).

I guess I'm fairly shocked not to detect a eucharistic element, which
usually seems central to Wolfe's epic works.  But maybe that's the point?

-DOJP
On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 8:21 AM, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com> wrote:

> IIRC when things go to hell, the Most Low God turns and runs away. We see
> his back, so we know he was lying about the worlds being circular. And
> surely the Most Low God must always lie.
>
> >"I didn't detect any Judeo-Christian element except for the (pretty
> amazing) appearance of
> > Michael the Archangel."
>
>
> The ending of The Wizard was as close to straight allegory (Christian
> allegory) as Wolfe gets.
> As for why the connection between Alfather and Michael, well I believe it
> has to do with the fact that in Germany the chapels to St. Michael  (that
> is, the angel) were built over sites of worship to Woden.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C5%8Ddanaz#Medieval_reception
>
> Michael consumed all the all nobel aspects of Woden (Odin, All-father). Or
> perhaps as Wolfe sees it, Michael is a *higher form* of Allfather.
>
> J.
>
>
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