The Claw of the Conciliator
Gene Wolfe, The Claw of the Conciliator, Timescape Books, 1981, pp.303
Page references are referred to The first half of the Book of the New Sun edition
The Tale of the Student and His Son
- [p.307]
- chapters
- the archetypical path of the hero
The Redoubt of the Magicians
- Magic is central
- could just be technology so developed that is no longer understood by people who lost their culture
- a post world-war / post apocalypse world
- could just be technology so developed that is no longer understood by people who lost their culture
The Fleshing of the Hero
Then the student dared turn himself where he sat, and he saw standing before him a youth haughty of port, wide of shoulder, and mighty of thew. Command was in his firm mouth, knowing wit in his bright eyes, and courage in all his face. Upon his brow sat that crown that is invisible to every eye, but can be seen even by the blind; the crown beyond price that draws brave men to a paladin, and makes weak men brave.
There is talk of women and serpents, the Adam and Eve myth comes to mind
“Father […] every night for many nights my sleep has been rent with the screams of women, and often I have seen, like a green serpent called by the notes of a pipe, a column of green slip down the cliff below our city to the quay.”
The Encounter with the Princess
Daughter of the Night, possibly meaning Moon
“Know that my father took my took my mother by force […] she comes to me at each day’s end.”
She then talks of giants
“[…] oh speak not of giants, for you know not what you say. […] To find my father before your last stick is burned, you need only search out the darkest water, for wherever he passes his great body raises a foul mud, and by observing it you may discover him. But each day you must begin the search at dawn, and at noon desist; otherwise yo may come upon him by twilight, and it will go evilly with you.”
Reference to the encounter with undine later in the same book
“Please. When the sun reaches this water, I must go. There may be no two books editions other chance.” […] A face looked through the water at me, the face of a woman who might have dandled Bandanders like a toy. Her eyes were scarlet, and her mouth was bondered by full lips so darkly crimson I had not first thought them lips at all. Behind them stood an army of pointed teeth; the green tendrils that framed her face were her floating hair. “I have come for you , Severian,” she said. “No, you’re not dreaming.”