From: "Kevin J. Maroney" <kmaroney@crossover.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Urth: Terminus Est
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1998 11:52:59 

At 06:56 AM 11/26/98 -0500, Nigel wrote:
>But surely the obvious point about Severian's sword is that it is named in
>a direct quotation of Christ's words from the cross, "It is finished!",
>which I'm pretty sure is translated in the Vulgate (Wolfe, I believe, is a
>Catholic) as "Terminus Est."  (I couldn't find my Latin Vulgate when I was
>looking just now, but if anyone has one to hand, perhaps they could check
>for me.)

John 19:30 cum ergo accepisset Iesus acetum dixit consummatum est et
                                                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 inclinato capite tradidit spiritum

("And when Jesus had received the vinegar, he said "It is finished" and
bowed his head and gave up his spirit.") 

It's always a danger to assume that words in other languages have the same
connotations and nuances that they do in English, of course. 

Otherwise, excellent rumination on grace, Christian imagery, etc.

Wombat, a.k.a. Kevin Maroney kmaroney@crossover.com
Kitchen Staff Supervisor, New York Review of Science Fiction
http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/olp/nyrsf/nyrsf.html

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/