Severian's ancestry

Dan Rabin · 13 Nov 2002, 07:04 · from urth-v0211.mbox · original

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From: Dan Rabin <wolfe-lists at danrabin.com>
Subject: (urth) Severian's ancestry
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 23:04:18 -0800
Message-ID: <urth-v0211-2090 at digest.urth.net>
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Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:

>We know with reasonable certainty who Severian's maternal
>grandparents are. For the paternal line, well, Wolfe
>deliberately keeps that mysterious and, though many
>speculations have been offered, none has really proven
>satisfactory. I suggest that the mystery is deliberate,
>and intended to reflect the orthodox Christian belief
>that Jesus had no human father.

Um, I think this is reversed.  _New Sun_ makes it fairly clear that=20
Dorcas and the elderly boatman in the Botanic Garden are the parents=20
of Severian's father Ouen.  It's Severian's mother and her parentage=20
that we know little about, save that she was an ex-Pelerine (only=20
implied, actually--she had "run off from some order of monials")=20
named Catherine.

   -- Dan Rabin

--=20

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