Knight Notes: Conclusion (and Bibliography)

This is the last post of this very long blog series. If you made it all the way through, thanks for your time. I hope it was well spent.

Applying the WK to Other GW books

So what did we learn:

1. Know Your Allusion: GW is very well read, and will reference or allude to mythology, legends, literature, the Bible, etc. in his novels. If you can identify the author(s), novel or body of myth he is alluding to, that can be a key to unlock the rest of the story. It helps to know who his favorite writers are, or who he has been reading lately. He talks about them in interviews.

2. Remember the Layer Cake. There is usually more than one narrative or story being told in a GW book, all stacked atop each other.  A single character or event may have multiple meanings or embody multiple allusions. If you find yourself disagreeing with someone else’s interpretation, consider the possibility that you are both right.

3.  Word play:  GW will use partial anagrams, partial rhymes, translations, shared initials, alternative spellings, etc. to conceal his allusions or the identities of characters and place names. Sir Sabel (Ravd’s mentor) was a word play for Elisabeth, John the Baptist’s Mother (Ravd was a version of John the Baptist). All the letters in Sabel can be found in Elisabeth. An example of using initials: Arthur Ormsby’s initials were A and O.

4. Clues: GW will leave clues to his sources by including things that don’t seem to fit in the setting or story.  In the WK, GW includes a minor character, Duke Thoas. Thoas is a name from Greek myth, and had no business being in Norse/British Celidon. That was a clue that there were Greek myths hiding in the WK.  He used the “crust of bread” phrase to signal to the legend of Cupid and Psyche.

5. Color, Plant, Animal and Saint Symbolism: He uses these, relying on traditional associations.

6. Unreliable Narrator:  Able is one, but less so than some other GW protagonists.  “The High Heart” was really “The High Hart” (in my view).

7. Try Ebooks: It’s easier to do a close reading when you can search for words and phrases with a reading app.

8. Multiple readings required: The books are so dense that you can’t absorb everything in one reading. At least for me. I missed 95% of the things I have written about in the first few readings.

9. Wikipedia is your friend. Could not have done this without it, and I will be making my first donation.

What Didn’t I Talk About

I agree with Nick Gevers’ statement in the 2004 interview with GW that the WK is sort of a more “open expression” of ideas addressed in other books (particularly the Sun books), and can be used as a key or Rosetta Stone to better interpret earlier works.  I view the WK as a culmination of the story told beginning in La Befana and continued through the Sun books. A heresy for some, but the recurring themes, names, plot structures, figures of speech, etc. have satisfied me on this point.

I didn’t spend much time linking the WK to earlier books, particularly the Sun books, as most of these I have only read a few times. In particular, I have said very little about the three volume Book of the Short Sun, which was completed right before the WK. ( Some reviewers compared the WK to A Voyage to Arcturus, but I think there is more Arcturus in the Short Sun than in the WK. The message from Arcturus is rejected in both). Thematic and structural similarities between the Short Sun and the WK include, but are not limited to:

• Blue = Mythgarthr/Celidon. Celidon has a blue flag. Green = Aelfrice.  Both are heavily wooded environments.
• The Whorl is the Castle of Skai where the gods live, and which Able/Horn are trying to get to.
• Krait is described as having eyes like “yellow flame” in On Blue’s Waters, like the Aelf. The Aelf and Dragons are like the inhumi, preying on, but needing the humans/neighbors to become something greater.
• Disiri and the Inhumi both become more human after drinking our blood.
• Horn’s promise to help Krait (perhaps an allusion to Krag of Arcturus) echoes Able’s promise to Garsceg. Horn is very concerned with personal honor and promise keeping, like Able.
• In Return to Whorl, Silk/Horn describes hearing a voice that “might have almost been that of the wind in a chimney.” (Chapter 12). Chapter 38 of The Knight is titled, “The Wind in the Chimney.”

What we saw reflected, dimly, in the earlier books, is made plain in the WK.

How good is this book?

The WK is a very dense, ambitious book.  I’ve read a lot of bad science fiction and fantasy that are just a series of battles, MacGuffins, or boy meets girls pursuits.  GW does use traditional fantasy plot elements in the WK, but he ties them to larger themes he explores here and in other works. I think the WK is also GW’s commentary on the shared elements of much of our mythology and folklore.  There is cross-pollination between Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Matter of France, the Norse, the stories of Arthur, etc.  There is a whole field of study, comparative mythology, that explores this very idea.  I found it a bit uncanny how GW was able to make so many names fit multiple allusions to different myths and folklore. I am much more sympathetic to comparative mythology theories after reading this book.

I think the WK is the best of the post-Sun books, so far. And better than some of the books that preceded it. One advantage it has is that there was enough pages to fully flesh out the characters and themes. His subsequent books were much shorter, but still feature a large cast of characters.

Reviews were certainly mixed. As far as Amazon.com reviews go, it has a lower star rating than most of the Sun books, the Latro books, and a few others. Some of this may be due to the split in publication. The Utgard segment seemed too long on the first reading, and I believe many readers were expecting Able to meet Arnthor earlier. But I hope this review has shown that Utgard is central to the main themes of the book.

Some of the negative reviews are related to Able’s aggressive behavior in The Knight. I think this can be understood, in part, by imagining a boy placed in a man’s body in a “kill or be killed” environment. There is also the Sword Breaker theory. But, to each his own.

It appears not to be as “literary” as earlier works, by which I mean that it does not have a style of writing that we associate with the National Book Award.  Others better qualified than I have said that GW has tried to make his style more accessible to readers over the last 15-20 years. That doesn’t bother me, but I respect those who value the style with which an author writes as much or more as their skill as a storyteller. I lean towards storytelling over style.

While Peace and The Fifth Head of Cerberus probably have more “literary” merit, I certainly enjoyed the story of the WK more. Its one of the few, and maybe only, novels he has written that has an umambiguosuly happy ending (Unless he ever writes Soldier of Canaan and cures Latro).  I am a sucker for happy endings, and that’s my bias showing.

Despite any justified criticism,the WK is somewhat underappreciated. In my amateur opinion, its a masterpiece of intertextuality. I have a hard time imagining how difficult it was to subtly use so many myths and other works of literature in one novel.  There are probably other allusions and themes in there I never explored in any depth, particularly involving Dickens and Elizabethan England. Remember, GW was in his early 70s when he wrote this. I hope my mind is still that sharp when I am that age.

I hope the WK and GW are still read and thought of 50 or 100 years from now. That’s the main reason I put together this series. The Knight was nominated for a Nebula Award for Best Novel in 2005, but did not win. Paladin of Souls swept the Nebula, Hugo and Locus awards that year.  I have not read Paladin, and it may very well be the better book.

Awards don’t always go to the best works, and GW would likely say that awards aren’t the final verdict on measuring worth. However, I wonder if award winners are more likely to be read by future generations.  They may be more likely to be reissued by publishers, kept in libraries, appear in lists of best novels of the period, etc.  So, I hope this series helps keep the WK in circulation among future readers in some form.

Finally, the book does have a strong religious theme, and many people are not a member of any faith. There may be a natural ceiling to their enjoyment or appreciation of the WK. By way of comparison, I enjoyed Iain Banks’ science fiction novels.  The recently deceased Mr. Banks was an atheist, and this point of view was reflected in many of his novels. But I accepted it as part of the admission price to reading his books.

Up next, The Sorcerer’s House, which I view as an unofficial sequel or “companion novel” to The Wizard Knight.  It may be a while before I start that review. That will probably be the only other GW book I review in any depth on this blog.

Select Bibliography

Other than GW’s bibliography, the Bible, and the stories of Greek and Norse mythology, the texts cited to or that influenced my thinking on these posts include:

One Thousand and One Nights

Beowulf

various Child Ballads about the Robin Hood legend

Alighieri, Dante: Divine Comedy

Anderson, Poul:  Three Hearts and Three Lions, The Broken Sword

Andre-Driussi, Michael: The Wizard Knight Companion

Calasso, Robert: The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony

Dickens, Charles: Great Expectations

Dunsany, Lord (Edward Plunkett): The King of Elfland’s Daughter

Gaiman, Neil: American Gods

Kipling, Rudyard: Puck of Pook’s Hill

Lewis, C.S.: Till We Have Faces

Lindsay, David: A Voyage to Arcturus

Macpherson, James: Ossian

Malory, Sir Thomas: Le Morte D’Arthur

MacDonald, George: Phantastes

Monaghan, Patricia: Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines

Moorcock, Michael: The Eternal Champion, Corum: The Prince in the Scarlet Robe

Scott, Sir Walter: Ivanhoe, The Talisman

Spenser, Edmund: The Faerie Queene

Tennyson, Alfred: Idylls of the King, The Lady of Shallot

White, T.H.: The Once and Future King (being composed of The Sword in the Stone, The Queen of Air and Darkness, The Ill-Made Knight, and The Candle In the Wind)

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Knight Notes: WK Characters’ Biblical/Historical counterparts

GW uses all the major characters in the WK to allude to a counterpart in the Bible, Christian apocrypha, or the history of the early Church in the 1st century A.D.  I think it was quite a feat for GW  to create double and sometimes triple allusions for each WK character. Remember the Layer Cake.

I wonder if this choice was inspired by Meynard’s The Book of Knights. Meynard’s novel featured a mythical book about the lives of various knights and their adventures.  In a way, the WK is “The Book of Saints.” GW has encoded the lives of the saints into an adventure story.

I’ve identified many of these connections in other posts, so this post restates a lot of these identifications in one place.  I’ve also tried to link secondary and tertiary characters to people in the Bible.   Some of these connections are very tenuous, since the Biblical allusions were the most subtle ones in the WK.  Wikipedia’s entry on saint symbolism is helpful. Looking for help on this post especially.

The Divine

The Most High God  = God/Jesus/Holy Spirit

Parka = A version of the The Holy Spirit. The Paraclete.

Michael = Archangel Michael

Gylf = Able’s guardian angel, perhaps an echo of the Archangel Gabriel (“God is my strength”). In Kabbalah, Gabriel is identified with the Sephirot Yesod, which was alluded to with the Spiny Orange tree.

The Valfather = Skai’s version of God the Father

Tyr/Zio = Skai’s version of Jesus

The Lady of Skai = Skai’s version of the Virgin Mary

Cloud = Not sure. Skai’s representation of the Holy Spirit?

Kulili = Shekhinah, the Divine Presence in Aelfrice, also Sophia. She knits herself.

The Holy Family

Able =  Mythgarthr’s echo of Jesus

Black Berthold = Joseph

Mag = Mary

The Four Evangelists

Sir Marc = Mark.

Sir Oriel = Matthew. (One of the 12 Apostles too). An angel was his symbol, and the name Oriel is based on Uriel the archangel.

Sir Lamwell = Luke.  Luke was a doctor, one who makes the “lame well”.

Sir Wistan = John. (One of the 12 Apostles too). Many consider St. John the author of the Gospel of John. John was thought to be one of the youngest followers of Jesus, and Wistan is young. Able says Wistan requires “seasoning.” He talks at length about the value of books, and a book is one of John’s symbols.  Wistan is at the fight with Sir Loth, which is the Transfiguration event of the WK. John was one of the three Apostles at the Transfiguration. Able hugs Wistan, an allusion to him being the disciple “Jesus loved”

The Other Apostles

Pouk =  Peter. He denied Able three times before the Mountain of Fire/Golgotha.

Uns = James, Son of Zebedee.  Uns is described several times as walking with a staff, and a staff was a symbol of James. Uns was at the fight with Loth, which is the Transfiguration event of the WK. (James was there). James was an early disciple, and Uns an early follower.

Vil = Thomas. Vil touches Able’s body in Utgard, like Thomas exploring Christ’s wounds. Thomas saw and believed, and Jesus blessed those who could not see and believed. Vil cannot see, being blind. One of Thomas’s symbols is the builder’s square, and Vil was a builder of sorts, working as a smith. He also says the following sentence “Its square on my tongue.” Thomas also means “twin” and Vil’s “twin” is the Norse god Vili.

Old Man Toug= Bartholomew. The bandits were throwing knives at Old Man Toug while hanging him upside down. Bartholomew was flayed alive with knives while being hung upside down.

Sir Toug   = Matthias. Matthias’ saint symbol was an axe, and Toug inherited the axe like Sword Breaker from Able. He was a late addition to the Apostles, and Toug was made knight late in the story. The clincher is that Matthias is often confused with Nathanael.  Bartholomew (who is Old Man Toug) was thought to be Nathanael by some scholars also. Toug and Old Man Toug share the same name.

Sir Woddet = Jude Thaddeus. Woddet battled with a mace after his sword broke at the Battle of Khazneh. One of Jude Thaddeus’s symbols was a club. Like the “dd” in both names.

Sir Gerrune = James of Alphaeus. Gerrune fought Able with halberds in the tournament at Kingsdoom, and lost and was seriously injured. In some stories of James’ death, he was killed with a halberd.

Sir Smiler = Philip. His symbol is a bundle of loaves, and Smiler provided food to Able’s army. Not confident about this one.

Kerl, Captain of the Western Trader= Andrew. Andrew was the brother of Peter. Both were fisherman, and were called at the same time.  Kerl entered the story right after Pouk. Both were sailors. Andrew’s symbol was a “saltire” and Kerl sailed the salt oceans. Kerl hung a rope over the side of the ship, and a rope is also a symbol of Andrew.

Sir Leort = Simon the Zealot.  Relying on the similarity in the letters in “Zealot” and “Leort”. One of Simon’s symbols is a lance. Leort jousts with Able, and also uses his lance at the Battle of Utgard. Again, not confident about this one.

Garsceg/Garvaon = Both represent Judas Iscariot. Garsceg was the evil and Garvaon the good in him. Their fight may represent the inner conflict in every man.

Other Disciples

Sir Ravd = John the Baptist. See the post on Chapters 4-6 of The Knight.

Sir Svon = Paul. He converted on the road to Utgard. I think the young Svon might also be Saint Stephen the Martyr.  Squire Svon had “red pants” and red is the color of martyrdom. Svon was beaten unconscious by the bandits, perhaps an allusion to Saint Stephen’s stoning.

Sir Garvaon = Lazarus. Both died twice. Garvaon “died” first in the trial by combat, the the second time against Garsceg/Setr.

Bold Berthold = James the Just. James was Jesus’ brother apparently, and Berthold was Able’s brother. Both were hit in the head with a stone. I think the alliteration in both names also supports this.

Lord Escan = Nicodemus. Both were older, learned men. Escan tried to help Able with Arnthor, like Nicodemus with the Sanhedrin. Jesus tells Nicodemus he must be “born again”, and Escan is born again on the shores of Aelfrice’s ocean, with his double coming into existence.

Duke Marder = Joseph of Arimathea. Both are wealthy, older men, and followers of Able/Jesus. Joseph provided Jesus with his own tomb, Marder provided Able with Redhall.

Payne = Silas/Sylvanus.  Silas, who was thought to be the same person as Silvanus, accompanies Paul on his journeys, and they were jointly imprisoned at one point. They were then freed by an earthquake that broke their prison door.  Able’s breaking the Osterland siege of Redhall is an allusion to this escape. Payne was with Svon at Redhall, and became a Baron of Jotunhome. Svon and Payne becoming subjects of Jotunhome is an allusion to Paul and Silas’s mission to the Roman Empire. Jotunhome = Rome.  Payne was also born in the woods, and Sylvanus means “of the woods.”

Women of the Bible and the Early Church

Idnn = Mary of Bethany. Wept for Garvaon/Lazarus at least twice. Mary’s anointing of Jesus with perfume and using her hair to wipe his feet reminds me of Idnn’s ride on Cloud, when the scent of Idnn’s hair was in Able’s face.

Ulfa = Martha of Bethany. Ulfa, like Martha, was “heavily burdened”, and had to do a lot of menial work in Glennidam and Utgard.

Lynnet (Mag) = Mary Magdalene. Lynnet had a mental illness, and Mary Magdalene was apparently cured of mental illness by Jesus.  Marigold and Mary Magdalene sound a bit alike too.

Gerda =  The bleeding woman Christ healed? The infirm woman Jesus healed? Don’t have a good fit for her.

Ulfa’s Mother = The mother of Peter’s wife that Jesus healed? Peter/Pouk married Ulfa.  Both are unnamed.

Morcaine = Morcaine about to be sacrificed to Grengarm is an allusion to the stoning of the “woman taken in sin”, she is also like Herodias in her less helpful role

Gaynor = Salome, Herodias’ daughter. Both are young, beautiful and not particularly wise women.

Etela = Daughter of Jairus. The only female children with parts in the Gospels and the WK.  Etela “sleeps” in the same bed as Toug a few times.

Hela = Thecla. Both women fought off attackers. Thecla was a disciple of Paul, and Hela eventually becomes a subject of Idnn and Svon(Paul).

Nukara = Susanna, a woman who provided for the Apostles. Nukara provided Able and Pouk with food.

Mogduda= Mary of Clopas. Mary of Clopas took care of Jesus’ body after he was crucified. Mogduda attends to Able after he was beaten at Sheerwall, putting on and taking off bandages. She might also be Mary, Mother of James, or Joanna, two other women who also went to the tomb to tend to Jesus’s body.

Borda = Deborah.  A warrior of Israel. You can make Borda using the letters in Deborah.

Political Figures

These ones are pretty speculative. I think Celidon, Utgard and Osterland may be a representation of the Roman Empire and Holy Lands of the first century A.D, and the various rulers allusions to Roman Emperors and the Herodian kings.

King Arnthor = Roman Emperor Tiberius and/or Herod the Great.  Or Herod Antipas? Arnthor might be a reference to multiple leaders of the period. Tiberius was emperor at the time of the crucifixion.  And Herod Antipas also had a role in John the Baptist and Jesus’s deaths.

Herod the Great’s massacre of the innocents of Bethlehem is matched by King Arthur’s drowning of the innocents in T.H. White’s The Once and Future King and Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur. I have previously suggested that the drowning of the men of Griffinsford is an allusion to this incident from The Once and Future King and Malory.

King Uthor = Augustus Caesar? Uthor preceded Arnthor like Augustus preceded Tiberius.

King Gilling = Emperor Caligula. Both were insecure in their thrones and were stabbed to death.

Thiazi =  Emperor Claudius, Caligula’s uncle, became Emperor after him. A scholar, like Thiazi. Or Elymas the sorcerer.

The Old Caan = King Herod the Great?

The Old Caan’s sons = Herod the Great’s many sons. His Kingdom was divided among his many offspring, most of whom came to a bad end. Rome eventually absorbed their territories

The Black Caan = One of King Herod’s sons? Herod Antipas? Don’t have a good fit. Maybe no one is alluded to.

Baron Thunrolf = Pontius Pilate. See the post on the visit to the Mountain of Fire for further discussion

Baron Olof = Lucius Vitellus, Pilate’s replacement. Olof replaced Thunrolf. Olof was described favorably by Able, and Lucius apparently had a good reputation, for a Roman of the times.

Everyone Else

most low god, Lothur, Setr, Seaxneat = Versions of Satan/Lucifer on the different levels of the WK cosmology.  The most low god was a being of Kleos that was cast down to Niflheim. Lothur was his reflection in Skai. My theory is that Seaxneat was the “devil” of Mythgarthr. Seaxneat is red-bearded and “pigeon-toed”, and in folk lore the devil has been described as red colored. “Pigeon-toed devil” is an expression I have also read. Finally, you can make “Satan” using the letters in Seaxneat. Garsceg/Setr was the devil of Aelfrice and Muspel.

Masters Crol, Papounce, Egr: The Three Magi (Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh). They gave Able gifts.

Duns = The man with a withered hand healed by Jesus? Duns’ arm was almost taken off by Org

Master Agr = Annas.

Master Caspar = Caiaphas

Org = The Gerasene Demoniac. The demon said they were “Legion”, or many, and Org is described in one scene as a “swarm” of vermin. Believed to be from the village of Gergasa.

Lord Beel = Zacchaeus. Both were short tax collectors who dined with Jesus/Able.

Scaur and Sha = Zebedee (a fisherman) and his wife, Salome the Disciple

Baki = The penitent thief. She renounced Setr/Satan.

Uri = The impenitent thief. She mocked Able before his fight with Kulili.

Mani = Mani the prophet. The portrayal of Mani in the WK may be a parody of Manichaeism.  Mani was from Persia, so making him a cat might be a little joke by GW:  the Persian Cat.

Heimir = I don’t have a good fit. Could it be the deaf mute Jesus healed? Heimir didn’t say much.

Huld = Anna the Prophetess? Anna was an older woman known for fasting, and Huld was fed by Able. The Witch of Endor? Also La Befana.

Seaxneat and Disira = Seaxneat may also be part of the Ananias and Sapphira pair. Seaxneat and Disira traded with bandits, and Ananias withheld money owed to the early Church. Both killed by the Holy Spirit for lying.

Ossar = Ossar is the boy possessed by a demon that Jesus healed.  The boy could not speak and would foam at the mouth. Ossar was too young to speak, and “spit up” the blackberries that Able fed him.

Master Thope = Saint Longinus, the Roman who pierced Jesus’ side with a lance.  Master Thope jousted with Able, and knocked him off his horse with a lance a few times. According to legend, Longinus later converted. He is believed to have been martyred, and Thope was stabbed for protecting Able.

Sir Manasen = Manahen

Jer the Bandit = Barabbas?

Sir Sabel, who was Ravd’s deceased mentor= A gender switched reference to Elisabeth, mother of John the Baptist, and Zechariah, his father. Ravd said he was once beaten by Sabel for something he said or didn’t say. This is an allusion to John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, being struck dumb by the Archangel Gabriel for questioning whether his wife could bear a child.

Other

“Truthful Vil” = Veronica’s Veil. The name Veronica is believed to derive from Latin and Greek, and may have originally meant something like “true image.” And Vil = Veil.   The Veil allegedly had miraculous powers, and could cure blindness, perform healings, etc. Vil was a “conjurer”, and in his Truthful Vil role had almost magical powers, like Veronica’s Veil.

Knight Notes: Disiri

This post explores the identity of Disiri and her role in the WK’s themes.

Disiri, like most characters in the WK, is based on multiple sources. And Able’s pursuit of her has multiple meanings. GW uses mythology, legend, Kabbalah and Christianity in developing this theme.

Disiri in Arthurian Legend and Mythological Terms

Disiri’s Arthurian counterpart is the Lady of the Lake.  In some stories, the Lady took Lancelot to live in her fairy world for some time to protect him.  In the WK, Disiri takes both the Real Able and Able/Art to Aelfrice.

As MAD identified in his WKC, Disiri may be associated with the Dis of Norse mythology.

Disiri’s Celtic/British counterpart is Brigid.  Brigid was the patroness of poets, smiths and sacred wells. This fits very well with the events of the WK:

• Disiri tells Able the story of Weland the Smith and the forging of Eterne.
• Eterne is found in a deep well.
• The “names on the wind” that Able hears near the end of The Knight include many poets and writers of the medieval period.

I think Disiri’s counterpart from Greek mythology may be Eurydice. This might be another example of GW moving syllables around and tweaking spelling to hide an identity. If you move the syllables Eurydice becomes “Diceeury”, which sounds somewhat like Disiri.  Eurydice was a dryad or nymph, and linked to the legend of Orpheus. Disiri refers to herself early in The Knight as a dryad. Able is also a representation of Orpheus, and his bowstring is an allusion to the Lyre of Orpheus.  Orpheus and Eurydice end up together in the underworld, which is consistent with the ending of the WK.

Disiri as Beatrice

The WK is strongly influenced by Dante’s Divine Comedy. Art Ormsby’s wandering in the woods at the beginning of the WK is like Dante’s wandering in the wilds at the beginning of the Comedy. Able sees a the castle in the sky he wants to pursue, and gets lost. Similarly, Dante loses his way in a dark wood while trying to get to salvation at the beginning of the Inferno. The six sided castle of Skai reminds me of the seven sided Castle in Limbo where the virtuous pagans live in relative peace and comfort.

One of Dante’s guides in the Comedy is Beatrice, who was based on a woman he knew in real life. She is an idealized feminine, and helps him to achieve the Beatific vision, or union with God. Beatrice sends Dante his first guide, the poet Virgil. Disiri has a somewhat similar role in the WK as Beatrice in the Divine Comedy.  Able loves Disiri, as Dante loved Beatrice. They are the ideal feminine for both, and something that draws the characters onwards towards a resolution.

Disiri and Color, Plant and Animal Symbolism

Green, Yellow and the Language of Flowers

Disiri has green skin and hair, and yellow eyes. I think this has multiple meanings in traditional color symbolism and the Kabbalah color scheme. Green alone, and sometimes green and yellow together (depending on what Kabbalah website I read) are the colors of the Sefirot Binah. Binah is associated with the feminine and wisdom.

While green is considered a positive color, yellow often has negative associations in Western culture. Yellow can be the color of cowardice. It can be the color of deceit (“yellow journalism”).  Yellow has a negative meaning in plant symbolism and the “Language of Flowers.” Yellow roses are sometimes associated with betrayal and treachery. Yellow carnations can mean rejection. The yellow Marigold can mean pain or grief (think Lynnet). Disiri’s actions, at times, seem to represent infidelity or betrayal of Able. Morcaine questions whether Disiri is faithful to Able (at Redhall in “Morcaine and More Magic”) and Able seems to acknowledge that she is not.

The Eyes of a Leopard

Able describes Disiri as having eyes like a leopard in Chapter 7 of The Knight. A leopard was one of three beasts that threatened Dante in the opening chapters of the Inferno, and is portrayed negatively there. There are other sources that suggest that the leopard was viewed negatively in the Christian tradition, and associated with sin.

Disiri is relatively unconcerned with the lives of Able’s friends, acknowledging she cannot love them the way Able loves them. She does not come to his aid when he is imprisoned, and her affection seems fickle at times. Able describes her as “hard and dangerous” near the end of The Knight.

Disiri’s Color Transformation

At the end of the WK, Disiri drinks Able’s blood (red), and loses her yellow coloring. Her eyes change to green, and her skin takes on normal human skin tones.  The vanishing of the yellow is consistent with this being a positive transformation. The color green is associated with life and hope in the Christian tradition, and maybe that’s what her new eyes are to signify.

The Mystical Union of Kabbalah

Able and Disiri are a representation of the mystical union in the Kabbalah between YHWH and the Shekhinah. The achievement of this union is signalled by the reconciliation of the Men and Women of Celidon in the union of many of the protagonists.  This reconciliation was accomplished in a mystical way by Able’s achievement of the Holy Grail and the Golden Fleece when he entered the Room of Lost Loves. I previously associated the Spiny Orange tree with the Sefirot Yesod. Yesod’s colors in Kabbalah are understood to be orange (again, in at least some websites. There is some inconsistency).  Yesod is also associated with the sexual organs.

Disiri as the Bride of Christ

Finally, and consistent with the Christian Allegory, Able is a representation of Christ in the WK. Disiri, in turn, represents the Church, or humanity. He is the Bridegroom and she is the Bride. Like Disiri, humanity in the Christian tradition is fickle, unfaithful, and inconstant. Man must partake of Jesus’ flesh and blood to have eternal life, as Disiri must drink from Able for the Aelf to develop further in accord with the Most High God and Kulili’s plan.  And like Psyche drank ambrosia to have immortality and a true relationship with Cupid.  Able and Disiri will share this water of life with those in Aelfrice.

I will close this post with the image used to illustrate a passage from Revelation associated with the Bride. Dawn in Aelfrice?

Joseph Martin Kronheim, illustration of Revelation 22:17 (public domain).

Knight Notes: The Wizard, Chapters 38-40

This post concludes the story of the WK.

Chapter 38-40:  Dragon Soldiers, It Thirsts, The River Battle

Chapter summaries

Queen Gaynor pays Able a visit in Chapter 38, and makes him a proposition. Able and his friends then meet Prince Smiler and the Dragon soldiers.  They fight, but Able recruits the Prince to his cause. Cloud returns. The war drags on, and Able has a strange dream.

In Chapter 39, Arnthor and the Black Caan’s army approach each other near the Greenflood river. Arnthor convenes his war council, and they decide a plan for battle. Arnthor and Able then confer, and exchange swords.

In the last chapter, the battle begins. Able calls upon the Aelf, and they join the fight. The Army of Osterland is defeated, and the Black Caan slain. Arnthor is killed, and Able heals and cures many of his friends of their wounds and disabilities. The Valfather arrives, and Able makes his decision about the next phase of his life.

The Dragon Soldiers

The Lothurlings are further evidence of the dragons of Muspel’s efforts to conquer Aelfrice. Smiler and his brothers are hybrid offspring of a dragon and human women.  Michael Andre-Driussi thinks the dragon was Grengarm, and I think he is probably right. If it was Grengarm, then the talking table will stop working and their conquests may cease. Smiler later refers to Able as “Scatterer of the Dragon’s Blood”, and words similar to this were used to describe the fight with Grengarm.

The Lothurlings also give homage to Lothur, who they call the Fox. The reason for this and the connection to Lothur doesn’t seem to be explained. It may provide some evidence for the linkage between Lothur, the dragons of Muspel and the most low god.

The defeat of the Dragon Soldiers is also an allusion to the theft of Geryon’s cattle, which I discuss in more detail in the post on Heracles.  And I think Smiler is a reference to Saint Philip the Apostle. Smiler provides Able’s army with food, and Phillip’s symbol is a bundle of loaves.

I have previously suggested that Leort plays the Bishop of Hereford role in the WK, but it may actually be Prince Smiler. Smiler is far more wealthy, and provides much more food for Able/Robin and his troops.

“Honor Not Unstained”

Arnthor tells Able that his (Arnthor’s) “honor is not unstained.” Able isn’t sure what this means. I think this is an allusion to The Once and Future King. In the last volume of that work, A Candle in The Wind, we learn that Arthur had been warned that Mordred would grow up to be a threat to Camelot.  Arthur isn’t sure who Mordred is, so he orders all babies born in the same month to be drowned.

I think Arnthor’s statement is a clue to the destruction of Griffinsford. We learn in these chapters that Arnthor has the gift of prophecy. I suspect that he saw that the “Real Able” would emerge from Griffinsford, and be a threat to his  rule. Like Arthur, he arranged for this future foe to be destroyed, perhaps with the help of Setr and Grengarm. He may have even allowed/encouraged the giants to destroy the village.

The herding of the men of Griffinsford to drown in the pond is similar to Arthur’s drowning of the babies in The Once and Future King, and also in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur. In my prior post on the “Real Able”, and his death, I suggested that he died in the same pond that Berthold was put in.

Color Symbolism

The battle is at the Greenflood River. Presumably the water is blue, and red blood will stain it. Again, the three primary colors of the RBG model make an appearance.

Disiri changes when she drinks Able’s blood. Her green skin and hair apparently go away, and her yellow eyes turn green.  I am going to discuss this further in a separate post on Disiri.

The Bifrost

As Able walks towards the river, he says that sunlight “had dyed the clouds a thousand colors.” This may be an allusion to the Bifrost.

Christian Allegory

Able heals his friends before he leaves. His healing of Pouk and Uns is similar to the miraculous healings performed by Jesus in the Bible.

Disiri drinks Able’s blood, and apparently becomes human-like, an echo of Jesus’ claim that only those that drink his blood and eat his flesh will have eternal life. Disiri drinking Able’s blood is also a reference to Psyche being given ambrosia, and gaining eternal life as a result.

Able falls twice as he walks towards the Greenflood, like Christ fell on his walk to Golgotha.

The Valfather’s Shadow

When Able looks at the Valfather while wearing his magic helmet, he only sees a glowing shadow. The helmet shows things as they are. Seeing only a shadow is an act of mercy. The Valfather tells Idnn earlier in The Wizard that to look upon the face of The Most High God would mean death. Able is not ready for the full force of the Beatific Vision, and nor is the reader, as GW is implying by refusing to provide a description. Instead, a shadow is shown, as the Valfather is but a shadow of the Most High God.

The Valfather’s Offer

In early readings, the Valfather’s actions seemed puzzling to me. He allowed Able to return to Mythgarthr to regain Disiri. He even asks Idnn to help Able win Disiri. Yet he becomes “remote and severe” when the subject of her joining Able in Skai is raised.

The Valfather’s offer is the “Last Temptation” of Able.  Its the temptation of rejoining his friends in Skai, including Cloud, Gylf, the Valfather, the Lady, Garvaon, etc. Able would have the power of an Overcyn, and his body would probably be restored to its youth. Able earlier calls life in Mythgarthr a “bad dream.”  The Valfather has Wistan put the magic helmet on Able, so Able can see Disiri’s “true” form.

My view is that this is really Able’s last test. Able has accomplished his mission on Mythgarthr, but his next job is to bring reconciliation to Aelfrice as part of the Most High God and Kulili’s plan (see the post on Kulili). Disiri is the first of many who will be changed, and Able is an agent in this endeavor. Able passes the test by offering himself to Disiri, and descending with her to Aelfrice. In a way, he knows she will never love him to quite to the same degree that he loves her. He stoops to conquer.

I think the Valfather turned away so Able could not see the expression on his face (this was before Able put on the helmet). Perhaps it was sadness, because he knew he would be losing Able for quite some time.

The Death of Robin Hood

Some of the oldest stories and Child Ballads about Robin’s death involve his being bled by someone, often a female religious figure. The procedure goes wrong, and Robin dies.  Able’s departure from Mythgarthr echoes the Child Ballads, as he gives his blood to Disiri, and is greatly weakened.

Mythgarthr Post-WK: Who is the new King?

The new king is never expressly identified, and I think GW leaves it a mystery. We can narrow the possibilities.  In the last conference before the River Battle, it is said that Beel and the “the three Dukes” are present. Dukes are the level of nobility right below the king. The two named Dukes are Marder and Bahart (or Bahat, its spelled both ways in my copy of the WK).  Marder is the oldest Duke, but he is not of royal blood, and likely would not succeed Arnthor.  Marder does knight Wistan, but that’s not surprising since Wistan was Able’s squire, and therefore under Marder’s jurisdiction.

Duke Bahart (or Bahat) survives the River Battle, and helps with Arnthor’s pyre. Nothing further is said about him, except that he is the youngest Duke.

The “third Duke” is not given a name, and its not expressly stated that he survives the River Battle.  We learned earlier in the WK that Beel had an older brother and nephew, and that his brother was a Duke. Lord Beel was not a Duke before the River Battle, so either Bahart was his nephew (too young to be his older brother), or the unnamed, third Duke is Beel’s older brother or nephew (they are not given names either).

One possibility is that the “third Duke” died in the River Battle. He did not help Marder and Bahart with Arnthor’s remains, and his absence may be a sign of his death.  If the third Duke was Beel’s brother or nephew, and both are now dead, then Beel is probably the new King of Celidon. If Bahart was Beel’s nephew, then he would be the new king due to his royal blood. He would take precedence over Beel since he was the son of the older brother.  Whew! I have no idea if Bahart is an allusion to anything. MAD linked the name to to an Arabic word for pepper.

Separately, we know from earlier comments in the WK that Pouk worked for the new king, and was very important, as was Ulfa. Berthold slays King Schildstarr, which suggests a possible invasion and destruction of Utgard by Celidon. Able sort of foreshadowed this when he talked about how Utgard was good country for mounted knights and archers to operate in.

Return to Aelfrice & Farvan

Able and Disiri seem to have a very pleasant life in Aelfrice. In Chapter 30 of The Knight, Able seems to suggest he has a house of some kind. He takes a break from his letter writing, and “goes outside” to look at the “beautiful place” where he and Disiri live.

Michael eventually finds him there, as he said he would in their prior meeting. Michael has a new mission for him, for a “great lord.” Able agrees to help, and will bring Disiri with him. I have no idea if this new mission is an allusion to anything. Given the nature of time in the WK, Able and Disiri could be playing the role of some famous pair in history or mythology.

Disiri and Able living together in Aelfrice may be an allusion to the pairing of Titania and Oberon. Oberon is the fairy king in a number of stories.  White dogs with red ears, which is a match for Farvan, are mentioned in connection with various fairy dogs of legend. MAD also identifies the name Farvan as being based on a fairy dog from some Scottish stories.

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Knight Notes: Kulili

I’ve delayed an exploration of Kulili. Given that her role in the WK ends before Able gets to Kingsdoom, it seems a good place to share it. Kulili’s identity intersects with the main themes of the WK, Able’s pursuit of Disiri, and his post-WK fate.

Everything in the WK cosmology is reflected in a different form in the lower worlds.  The Valfather is Skai’s echo of the Most High God. Parka is an echo of the Holy Spirit, etc.

The name Kulili is from the Middle East, and she was a goddess whose worship was absorbed by Isthar. She has been associated with dragons in some essays I have read, which may explain the white dragon form.

Kulili is the Divine Presence of God in Aelfrice.  Specifically, she is Shekhinah. When Able and Kulili stop fighting, she changes from a dragon into a new form:

“The dragon melted as I watched, so that I might almost have thought the sea dissolved it. It had been a dragon, great and terrible. It became a cloud, white, shimmering, and ever-changing. And at last the face of Kulili.”

The shimmering white cloud is a good match for the description of Shekhinah at Wikipedia and in other sources. Shekhinah is thought of in feminine terms by some, and in Kabbalah represents the divine feminine. Kulili is given a female personality and appearance in the WK. Kulili is also white, and white is the color of the divine or holy in the WK: Parka, Michael, Cloud. In Christianity, Shekhinah is associated with the Holy Spirit.

There is a similar scene in Peace when a young Alden Dennis Weer goes to the Lorn household for the first time. There he will meet Margaret Lorn, the great love of his life:

“I noticed that directly ahead of us—rising over the cabin, which otherwise blocked my view—was a lone pillar of white cloud that seemed as summitless as the mast of Brandon’s ship. I thought it was singularly beautiful, and for a time it distracted me from my formerly urgent concern with distance, and I stared at it with the contemplation a saint might have lavished on some object in which he saw, or felt he saw, a clear manifestation of God. ”

From Peace, Part 2.  The Shekhinah has been described as a pillar of white cloud. The Lorns were a devoutly religious family, and missionaries.  Margaret Lorn represented Shekhinah-like feminine, divine grace for Weer. A grace that he did not grasp, much to his later detriment.

Kulili as Shekhinah should also associated with Hokmah or Chokmah, meaning Sophia, or the Wisdom of God.  Hokmah was described by Professor Patricia Monaghan in her Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines in the following way:

The earliest creation of YHWH, Hokmah was also his favorite. Hokmah cast her shadow on the primeval waters, stilling them. Hokmah gave consciousness to humankind, for humans crawled like worms until she endowed them with spirit.

The above quote is very much a description of Kulili’s creation of the Aelf. They are worms that have been endowed with intelligence. Morcaine also refers to them as worms.

The white statue of the beautiful woman that Able sees in Aelfrice in The Knight is a representation of Hokmah, or Sophia. Able has a powerful sexual reaction when he sees it. In a way, the WK is GW’s most sexual work. Kabbalah describes Shekhinah and YHWH as being in a marriage culminating in a mystical sexual union. The sefirot associated with Shekhinah is Malkuth, which has as its symbol the Bride. This union has a mythic counterpart in the WK in the legend of Cupid and Psyche, which is played out by Lynnet and Vil, and Able and Disiri.

In the WK, Kulili is the guardian of Aelfrice, and creator of the Aelf. The Aelf have rebelled against her and hate her, though their reasoning is a bit mysterious.  One thing we do learn is that the Aelf have no souls, and will cease to exist if physically destroyed.

In their last scene together, Kulili asks Able to accompany her to the bottom of the ocean, and he sees a mystery there he will not speak of. He says he will share it with The Most High God.

This is what I believe Able saw and learned:  Kulili intends to create real bodies and souls for the Aelf. GW uses the Aelf as a stand-in for humanity in the WK, and man’s fall from grace.  That rebellion is associated with eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and some scholars think it was related to man’s fear of mortality.  Kulili intends to reconcile the Aelf to her by giving them the opportunity for immortality.

I am saving Disiri, and how she relates to this, for a future post.

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