Wednesday, 7 November 2012

More Details About Ys



We know of an unnamed inn in the Fish Tail slum and the more respectable Green Whale. Suddenly, we learn of three more:

" '...the Swan is the most respectable mariners' inn...' " but foreigners usually stay in " '...the Crossed Anchors or Epona's Horse.' " (Poul and Karen Anderson, Dahut (London, 1989), p. 324).

Niall, the nemesis of Ys, stays at "...the second place...," which would be Epona's Horse, where Dahut, the instrument of Ysan divine vengeance, seeks him out.

Meanwhile, we have received another prefigurement concerning Dahut. Gratillonius wonders what had possessed the two young men who had unsuccessfully challenged him for the Kingship. Unable to believe any evil of Dahut, he does not realize that he should ask who had possessed them. Corentinus, the Christian minister, believes that Dahut herself is possessed and indeed her sudden malevolence gives that impression.

Further, when dissembling to her father, Gratillonius, she clutches his hands and:

"The touch burned." (p. 311)

- like her sandcastle and the description of her rising from bed like a mermaid, here is another prefiguring symbol.

Addendum, 7 Nov '12: I have got something wrong here. All will be made clear either in a later post or in comments on this one. 

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