Subject: RE: (urth) whorl in orbit
Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 10:22:59 -0700
From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" 

> Against the "Whorl has been in orbit for thirty years"=20
> possibly in the text and possibly said by Wolfe in an=20
> interview I lay down my "longfather, culture hero of Ushas=20
> who left for the stars" entry in Lexicon Urthus p.184 - 185. =20

Okay, I don't have a copy of the Lex, so I don't know what it
says there ... but ... "longfather" is simply an antique word
for a male ancestor distant enough that you can't (or don't=20
want to bother) counting out the "greats" -- typically one who
plays a patronymic or patriarchal role in the family history;
Abraham would be "longfather" to the Jews. (Note that this does
not exclude the concept of "culture hero," but does not
require it.) The only modern use of the word I know outside of
Wolfe is -- who's surprised? -- Tolkien, who refers somewhere
to the "longfathers of the Dwarves."


> Heck, for all I know, this is some elaborate=20
> joke by Wolfe, and the real narrator of the whole 12 book=20
> series is L. Ron Hubbard.

Oh, great, now you've gone and spoilt it all ... trying to=20
lay engrams on us, eh?

--Dan'l


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