Tzadkiel's form

Lee · 15 Sep 2014, 14:02 · from 2014-September.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee)
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 10:02:21 -0400
Subject: (urth) Tzadkiel's form
Message-ID: <BLU175-W13C9DA60D39C5A41AEA6BCCFC80 at phx.gbl>

>Marc Aramini: There is a statue of Nox/night in the second chapter of Book of the New Sun
>after Juturna casts him out, linking that scene directly with Abaia.

I'm not fully understanding you Marc. After the scene where Severian is rescued by an undine,

a "statue of Night atop the khan (inn) on the opposite bank (of Gyoll)" is mentioned. Are you 

saying this statue is sufficient to dismiss mythology and connect "Night" to Abaia, rather than

Erebus?

Abaia and the undine are clearly aquatic creatures but the suggestion is that Erebus is associated

with an Antarctic mountain. For me, a statue atop an inn on the bank of a river is more evocative

of a mountain than water.

Moreover, of all the possible megatherians, Abaia is mentioned the most, but Erebus is a close 

second. The other candidates (Scylla, Arioch, Ouroboros, Jurpari) are generally mentioned only

once. Given this, I would expect Erebus to make some sort of appearance in the story, somewhere.

Otherwise, why would Wolfe mention this particular name so many times?

I'll note that there is an old boatman in the Severian drowning scene who asks about a woman in

the river, though Severian (perhaps pretends to) misunderstand him.

Much later in the story, there is another old boatman who tells the story of a giant ship carrying

gigantic, notably pale-skinned warriors. There are women's voices coming up from the water and

a deeper male voice also.  For me, the pale-skin and giant size  are hinting at an Antarctic mountain

 origin for these warriors. Perhaps what lies below the water represents Abaia and undines while the 

ship and warriors above water represent Erebus.

Definitely ambiguous and intended to be. But I continue to think the distinction between Erebus 

and Abaia  is not as great as the distinction between one human being and another (similar 

connection between the gigantic Mother on Blue and Great Scylla on Urth). 

For Tzadkiel, we have animal versions, human versions, angel versions, male versions, female versions,

tiny versions and cosmic-sized versions. Might this not be a clue that there are Urthly creatures who

come in gigantic oceanic versions, smaller lake and river versions, land/mountain versions, cave versions,

human sized versions and animal versions?

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