merryn and severian

maa32 · 19 Jul 2003, 20:05 · from urth-v0307.mbox · original

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From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Subject: (urth) merryn and severian
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2003 13:05:02 -0700
Message-ID: <urth-v0307-3699 at digest.urth.net>
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It was stated that "when [Merryn and Severian] meet in Sword, they meet as=20
strangers."  I don't think that's right.  The first recorded confrontation=20
should be at the end of Claw of the Conciliator during the Miracle of Apu=20
Punchau, right?   On Page 399 of Shadow and Claw (Chapter XXX: The Badger=20
Again)Severian describes how he met the old woman as an apprentice, and she=20
had with her an aide who was the same as Merryn, but that the face of neith=
er=20
had changed over time, so that there may be only two witches in the world. =
 So=20
it appears as though Merryn doesn't change much in this account given in Cl=
aw,=20
or it is a different girl who looks exactly like Merryn.  The odd thing is=20
that he says that the young one may not be alive anymore: "The young one (i=
f=20
she is still living)" (P 400) And I was sure that somewhere Sev and Merryn=20
indicated that they knew each other from before, but that it wasn't in=20
Severian's manuscript. =20
I think it is one of those scenes that Gene cut out in revising New Sun, fo=
r=20
he claims that the bulk of his revision of the work was in trimming out exc=
ess=20
stuff.  I don't know.  Why is Merryn the same age since Severian's youth?  =
Is=20
the one showing up in Return to the Whorl a little girl?

Marc Aramini

--=20

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