Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 23:04:18 -0800
From: Dan Rabin 
Subject: (urth) Severian's ancestry

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 
Dorcas and the elderly boatman in the Botanic Garden are the parents 
of Severian's father Ouen.  It's Severian's mother and her parentage 
that we know little about, save that she was an ex-Pelerine (only 
implied, actually--she had "run off from some order of monials") 
named Catherine.

   -- Dan Rabin

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