Date: Sat, 08 Feb 2003 13:53:26 -0600
From: James Jordan 
Subject: RE: (urth) Castaway with Spoilers

I took the narrator as female, because of the "games the other guys play" 
passage. And I agree that it works thematically. Also it "felt" as if the 
narrator was especially interested in the "woman" on the planet, which 
seems in a way more appropriate for a women. (E.g. "What was this other 
woman like?") Also, the fact that the man was so interested in talking with 
the narrator, after years of talking only to another "woman," indicated to 
me that the narrator was female. He was used to talking to a woman.
         The "I love you" was said by the stranded man to the old woman, 
over and over, and seemed to comfort her.
         I speculate that Atrothers is an alpha privitive before the word 
"troth," and would mean "unmarried ones" -- another image of sterility.
         Obert means "otter."
         Yarmouth is a river's name:

For example, the river Yar was first mentioned by the ancient Greek 
geographer Ptolemy, in the second century A.D. The word is believed to stem 
from an old, pre-English, Celtic word "gar," meaning something like "shout" 
or "cry," and probably referring to the loud sounds made by rushing water 
at the Yar's mouth, when tides were changing.

- English River Names, as reviewed (scroll down a ways) at:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/cm/member-reviews/-/A2CRUETJKX1WA5/1/ref%3Dcm%5Fcr%5Fauth/103-6356536-1614238

         Interesting that both of the man's companions had water names. 
First the Otter died, and then the River died.

Anyway, what I found.

Nutria


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