Tuesday, 18 July 2023

Alas, Alas...

Dahut, XVII, 3.

Biblical references have not left us. Waking from a dream about lost Budic, Corentinus hears "'...voices weeping and wailing...'":

"'Alas, alas, that great city..." (etc) (p. 377) (see here)

He also refers to:

"'...the Woman who rides the Beast...'" (ibid.) (see here)

When Queen Forsquilis comments that the dream and the voices might have been just a nightmare, Corentinus replies that she is not familiar with the book from which those words came. But he is so it is not surprising that these words entered his dream especially in the circumstances! Nevertheless, the situation in the city of Ys is indeed dire. It is so dire that the Witch Queen and the Christian minister consult each other about their respective visions and intimations. In James Blish's The Day After Judgement, the black magician, Theron Ware, must convince the white magician, Father Domenico, that it is advisable to pool information after Armageddon. 

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Engineering the quiet murder of Dahut might have resolved the crisis in Ys. Something Rufinus, who had strong suspicions about her, might have done. Except he had been blackmailed into leaving Ys!

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

At Dahut's instigation.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Absolutely! Because Rufinus made the mistake of trying to warn Dahut to cease from those plottings he suspected her of doing.

But, even if Dahut had been eliminated, the demonic "gods" might well have sent that Sign on another of Gratillonius' daughters, persisting in trying to break him to their wills.

Ad astra! Sean