New Sun musings

[avram]

It is Gene Wolfe’s custom to not invent new words or names for his stories. All of the weird words and names in the Book of the New Sun are actual words (or derived from actual words) from other languages, or obscure corners of English, or names from various sources. I don’t own a copy of Lexicon Urthus (though I’ve just added it to my Amazon wish list, though it’s out of print and therefore likely to be expensive), so I’m stuck with what my brain and Google can do.


Severian: I seem to recall someone telling me that the Severians were a Christian heresy, with beliefs having to do with the corruption of Christ’s body. Google tells me that there was a bishop named Severian in the fourth and fifth centuries. He was involved in a political scandal that involved him being sent away from Constantinople, back to his diocese in Gabala; this may parallel how Wolfe’s Severian is sent out as a traveling journeyman because of the scandal he is involved in.

Triskele: Another word for triskelion, a three-legged figure. Triskele, Severian’s three-legged dog, is originally from the Bear Tower, abode of the people who train dangerous animals and pitch them against each other. I wonder if this is intended to be reminiscent of the Star Trek episode “The Gamesters of Triskelion”.

Father Inire: He’s only been mentioned so far. A post from the Urth mailing list cites the Lexicon Urthus as saying that inire means “to enter” or “to begin”. HyperDictionary.com says it means “inirritable” (“not irritable, incapable of being stimulated to action”), but I don’t know if I trust a dictionary that gives no etymology or pronunciation guide. I don’t remember enough about Inire to say which meaning fits better, but I’ll try to keep both in mind as I go.

Vodalus: Another name of Saint Vodoaldus, a hermit from the British Isles who traveled to France as a missionary. Supposedly a miracle worker, though I can’t find what miracles he’s supposed to have worked. Wolfe’s Vodalus uses the analept alzebo, which has an effect we’d consider miraculous.

Drotte: One of Severian’s childhood friends. According to a cryptic entry on this page on Norse mythology, this is either the name of a victim priest, or it’s a word for victim priest. Not that it explains what a victim priest is, but it sounds like it’s appropriate for an apprentice torturer.

Roche: Another friend of Severian’s. Too damn common for Google to be of any use.

Eata: Another friend of Severian’s. There’s a Saint Eata, but I don’t know if anything in his life parallels anything in the life of Wolfe’s Eata.

Valeria: “Brave” in Latin, “strong” in Italian. A character from Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Coriolanus, which I’m unfamiliar with.

Master Malrubius: Saint Malrubius was a martyred Scottish hermit, killed by Norse invaders. Wolfe probably chose this name because Malrubius is already dead when the story begins.

Master Palaemon: Greek mythological figure, a child whose mother fled over a cliff into the sea while carrying him. The gods made the two of them sea gods. They were often invoked by sailors to avert shipwreck. Palaemon was often portrayed riding a dolphin, and the Isthmian games were celebrated in his honor. Don’t know yet what any of this has to do with Wolfe’s Palaemon.

Master Gurloes: Saint Gurloes was a French Benedictine abbot. Don’t know much about him.

Nessus: The city Severian grows up in; named for a centaur from Greek mythology, a ferryman on the river Euenos. Hercules died drinking a fake love potion made from Nessus’s poisoned blood.

Gyoll: A river running through the city Nessus. From Norse mythology; a river one crosses on the way to Hel.

optimate: A nobleman or aristocrat, from Latin, says HyperDictionary.org.

Also, I noticed this odd bit at the end of Chapter IV, when Severian meets Valeria. She says to him, speaking of the dials in the Atrium of Time:

“[...] Do you like the dead languages? They have mottoes. ‘Lux dei vitae viam monstrat,’ that’s ‘The beam of the New Sun lights the way of life.’ ‘Felicibus brevis, miseris hora longa.’ ‘Men wait long for happiness.’ ‘Aspice ut aspicar.’

I doubt her translations. I don’t know much Latin, but it looks like in the first, she’s at the least substituting “New Sun” for “god”, which is appropriate, I guess; I think it’s otherwise correct. The second looks more like it ought to mean something like “Happiness is fleeting, misery lasts long.” I found a list of Latin sundial mottoes with Spanish translations which has all three phrases, and ran the Spanish through Babelfish, which confirmed my guesses. I’m lost as to the third; Babelfish translates the Spanish “Mirame para que me miren” as “Mirame so that they watch to me.” Clearly it has something to do with looking or watching or seeing, but the specifics require knowledge of grammar, not mere vocabulary.

Comments

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

I read The Shadow of the Torturer umpty-mumble years ago when it first appeared, but never followed up on the series. Now you're tempting me. Hah!

[phrotus.livejournal.com]

The mottoes are, in order, "the light of god shows the way of life," "[the hour] of happiness is short, the hour of sadness is long," and "look [at me] so that I am looked at."

Just confirmin' and ... stuff :D() I mean, come on, four and a half years of Latin, gimme the chance to do SOMETHING.

[cattitude.livejournal.com]

Heh. That Gene Wolfe, always a kidder.

I'd learned Aspice ut aspicari in Latin as a classic example of the Roman epigram. In all the times I've read The Book of the New Sun I've never noticed the misquotation.

Aspice ut aspiciar does mean "look, that I may be seen." The original advice, by the great Roman epigrammatist mumbleus, means "look [at others] in order to be seen." He was advising one to get out and around, to go and see what other people are doing and so give them the chance to see what one is doing.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

The Optimates of Rome weren't just noblemen, they were the ultraconservative political faction who fanatically opposed reforms by, successively, Gaius Marius, Marcus Livius Drusus, and Gaius Julius Caesar. All but the first of these were also noblemen; the designation was a political one rather than a class matter.

[scottscidmore.livejournal.com]

The name Valeria shows up in several instances of historical literature, Shakespeare being the heavyweight. She is a princess in Bellarion by Rafael Sabatini : Italy in the 15th century. Bellarion is en route for the priesthood but is diverted to the service of the Princess Valeria. He serves her for five years, developing in that time from a convent-bred youth to a soldier of great strength and cunning, adoptive son of Lord Facino, and the feared and hated object of all his enemies. She also shows up in a 19th century Italian novel Spartaco.

Hercules died not from drinking a fake love potion, but from putting on a shirt soaked in Nessus's blood. Nessus had attempted to rape Hercules ' bride Deianeira, Hercules mortally wounded Nessus, who told Deianeira to keep the blood from his wound, for anyone wearing a garment rubbed with it would love her forever. When Hercules started fooling around with another woman, Deianeira sent him the shirt.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

IIRC, Valeria was Coriolanus' mother, an iron Roman woman. She made him much of what he was. In one of the climactic scenes, she, and his wife -- who may be Valeria if I'm wrong about Valeria being the mother -- and his young son beg him not to destroy Rome. He finally agrees, more likely being moved by son than mother.

I missed the one day we covered this in class -- there were 2 days allocated to it. The professor was out sick the first. I was out sick the second. When I came back, my fellow students, studying frantically, said, "Um, it's all his mother's fault, and the butterfly's important." That's a butterfly he tries to catch as a child and eventually rips apart. This charming story is told by his mother.