Sunday 22 May 2016

Demonic Laughter

Dahut quite reasonably asks Budic:

"'Must Ys burn for want of knowledge?'"
-Poul and Karen Anderson, Dahut, Chapter XV, section 1, p. 322.

However, she adds:

"'Lir would only drown us.'" (ibid.)

He will.

I think that we have all heard of demonic laughter? When Dahut fails yet again to seduce Budic and he has left, she is at first annoyed but then:

"Suddenly she began to laugh. Long and loud she laughed, hands on hips, head turned to the ceiling..." (p. 323)

I had read something like that before. CS Lewis' villains, Frost and Wither, literally communicate with demons. After talking to each other for a while, they suddenly become:

"...locked in an embrace from which each seemed to be struggling to escape. And as they swayed and scrabbled with hand and nail, there arose, shrill and faint at first, a cackling noise that seemed in the end rather an animal than a senile parody of laughter."
-CS Lewis, That Hideous Strength (London, 1955), p. 147.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I looked up this bit where Dahut laughed after again failing to seduce Budic. But, first, she was angry and even exclaimed, "Belisama, where were You?" I do see your point about Dahut's laughter being demonic, but I could say it was more likely Dahut was enjoying herself, working to bend Budic to her will.

Sean