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CHAPTER XXIII SUMMARY
CHAPTER XXIII SUMMARY
Severian is helped out of the water by Dorcas, a young woman who seems to have lost her memory. She joins Severian and Agia in their quest for an avern. Hildegrin the Badger introduces himself and ferries them across the lake. Severian realizes that this burly laborer with a skow is none other than the grave-digging henchman of Vodalus. "Excavations of all kinds," indeed.
VARIOUS AND SUNDRY DETAILS
VARIOUS AND SUNDRY DETAILS
Location - The Garden of Endless Sleep
Characters - Severian, Agia, Dorcas, Hildegrin the Badger
Words - angelus (3), Phlegethon (5), pelycosaur (37)
TERMINOLOGY
TERMINOLOGY
angelus (3) a prayer that takes about a minute and a half to recite.
Phlegethon (5) - a marathon of mucus producing coughs that exhausts you shortly after.
Phlegethon (5) - no. Seriously, it is a fabled river of fire, one of the five rivers in Hades.
pelycosaur (37) a sail-fin dinosaur.
POST READING THOUGHTS
POST READING THOUGHTS
Who among us didn't have a plastic or rubber pelycosaur among their toys as a child?
The subtext of death and boatmen is super thick in this chapter. Consider the brandy flask Hildegrin shares, shaped like a dog with a bone-shaped stopper -- like a sop for Cerebus.
There is also a subtle nod to Arthuriana here as well. The hero who is a future king, a prized sword obtained through extra-ordinary circumstances, a lady and a lake ... I could go on.
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