GATE OF HORN,
BOOK OF SILK
A Guide to Gene Wolfe’s
The Book of the Long Sun
and The Book of the Short Sun
MICHAEL ANDRE-DRIUSSI
with a few words by Gene Wolfe
Sirius Fiction
Albany, California
Contents
Note on Citations
“Ring Bell at Gate” by Gene Wolfe
Introduction
The Long Sun Half
Appendices
1. Languages of the Whorl
2. Typos of The Book of the Long Sun
3. Pagination of the first edition
4. Pagination of the omnibus edition
The Short Sun Half
Appendices
1. Pagination of The Book of the Short Sun
2. Typos of The Book of the Short Sun
3. Conflict between The Book of the Short Sun and The Book of the New Sun
Bibliography
Note on Citations
I = Nightside the Long Sun (first edition, hardcover)
II = Lakeside the Long Sun (first edition, hardcover)
III = Caldé of the Long Sun (first edition, hardcover)
IV = Exodus from the Long Sun (first edition, hardcover)
V = On Blue’s Waters (first edition, hardcover)
VI = In Green’s Jungles (first edition, hardcover)
VII = Return to the Whorl (first edition, hardcover)
“list” (in a citation) = the character list found at the beginning of each volume. “Not on lists” means a character is not found on any of the character lists.
Abbreviations
BLD = Bouvier’s 1856 Law Dictionary
LS Half = the Long Sun Half of this book
OED = Oxford English Dictionary
Prt1 = Eric Partridge’s A Dictionary of Historical Slang
Prt2 = Eric Partridge’s A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English
Prt8 = Eric Partridge’s A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, Eighth Edition (revised)
SS Half = the Short Sun Half of this book
Ring Bell at Gate
BY GENE WOLFE
The Ancient Greeks have clearly been on Michael Andre-Driussi’s mind, so I thought I might begin by telling you about them. They said, and perhaps believed, that dreams emerged into our world through two gates, the Gate of Ivory and the Gate of Horn. Those that entered through the Gate of Ivory were lovely, but not true and thus not useful. Those of the Gate of Horn were less lovely but true, and thus very useful indeed. In the hands of the Greeks, objects of ivory were pretty and sometimes exquisite, but they were to be admired and not to be used or trusted. Objects of horn—generally spoons, combs, and the like—were not thought pretty and not much admired; but they were put to use every day.
If you have read reviews of my books, you have been told a hundred times over that I use unreliable narrators. There is some truth in that, though not much. Oh, my readers and good friends, there is no such creature as a perfectly reliable human narrator. What Michael is telling you is less academically fashionable but much more useful. It is that Horn, who narrates Silk’s adventures and his own, is as reliable as human beings ever get.
That being the case, we may enter Silk’s world through Horn’s gate, finding there various lovely things and many more, unlovely, but useful in understanding Silk’s story.
Introduction
The overture to what has been an epic of effort is just a few simple statements: I started working on this book in 1997; I quit a few years later; I picked it up again in late 2009.
The first time I heard about additional fiction set in the New Sun universe was at a convention. I was talking with Gene Wolfe, and he told me he was writing a “book of the long sun,” to be followed by a “book of the short sun.” Then he laughed and said, “You should see your face right now!”
That must have been at the World Fantasy Con in Tucson, 1991.
He said the first series would be set on the generation starship sent out by Typhon. He said the second series would be a trilogy, which he likened to The Fifth Head of Cerberus, saying that each volume would be actually further removed from its putative subject—for example, the first one, “On Blue’s Waters,” would be written from a landlocked area; the second, “In Green’s Jungles,” would involve people not being there in the flesh; “and so on.”
The first volume of The Book of the Long Sun came out in 1993 and the final volume was published in 1996.
This book started with Alice Turner, editor at Playboy. She wasn’t buying the fiction I sent to her, but she bought my book, Lexicon Urthus (1994), and liked it enough to begin corresponding with me about Gene Wolfe’s fiction. She found the online Whorl List (now Urth List) and talked me into signing up in January 1997. At that point The Book of the Long Sun was complete (1993–96). Soon we were all re-reading the series together, sharing notes and asking questions.
I was in no mood to write another “Lexicon,” but the situation at the List was very different. I had always worked on my own, but here was a group of knowledgeable people who could make quick work of any question. Because of Lexicon Urthus, many of them knew of me already. So instead of being a hermit, I could be a chiliarch leading a veritable column of researchers.
At the time I was in the middle of a series of chapbooks (1995–98) correcting and expanding Lexicon Urthus, and being in that situation, I naturally dreamed of somehow reversing the process. I envisioned the “LS project” as growing from a series of chapbooks. The chapbooks would be rough, but easy to correct and amend. After all the material had been revised a few times, the booklets could be combined into a book.
I marshaled together the first fruits and published The Quick & Dirty Guide to the Long Sun Whorl (1997) as a fat chapbook. I planned to break it up into three chapbooks (Characters, Gods and Religion, and Maps) and add an additional chapbook of material (Languages) not covered at all in the Q&D. I began following through on this with LS-1 “Characters” (1997) and LS-2 “Languages” (1998).
I called the project “Gate of Horn, Book of Silk,” because it seemed to me that we were seeing the character of Silk through the “gate” or eyes of Horn, and it felt related to the underworld portal in classical literature called the Gate of Horn.
With that much done, things began to work against me. I found that the chapbooks were not generating further refinements among readers: they were largely inert. In addition, I had supposed that the Short Sun series would be far removed from the Long Sun series, but with On Blue’s Waters (1999) it was plain that it would be a continuation. Thus, a four-book series had jumped its banks to become a seven-book series, but in such a way as to make spoilers far too easy to make.
So instead of being the chiliarch, I was the lowest mule-skinner. My initial plan had not worked out. Nearly all of the help I got came first, and the energy I put into making the chapbooks, from layout through production to selling, did not lead to any more help. Thus it was a big waste of time and energy.
In addition, I was still selling copies from my one print run of Lexicon Urthus.
So I quit. I didn’t make any big announcement or anything. I just stopped.
Years went by. We all read The Book of the Short Sun together as it came out (1999–2001). I enjoyed it a great deal; I just didn’t take any notes. I finally sold the last of Lexicon Urthus in 2002, eight years after printing. More years went by. The technology for print on demand books matured enough that I was tempted into revising and expanding Lexicon Urthus into its second edition (2008). (This ended up being a lot more difficult than I had imagined, but that’s the learning curve for you.)
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Next I wrote The Wizard Knight Companion (2009) as a further proof of concept. That project went much more smoothly, and so at last I was ready to take up Gate of Horn again.
Part of the “problem” is that the Long Sun/Short Sun series does not require or lend itself to a “lexicon” project. With Lexicon Urthus I was taking those odd words and finding them outside. In Long Sun/Short Sun it is much less a lexicon and more a gazetteer of places and listing of characters, the latter of which gets very messy as they change through the text. So the research effort for the Long and Short Suns is much more hunting within the texts, with less of finding terms outside.
I decided that the book would have two halves, the “Long Sun Half” and the “Short Sun Half.” The “LS Half” would have an appendix that would act as a solid line between the halves.
The first step was scanning the chapbook texts and knitting them together, along with new material, for the “LS Half” of the book. The next step was to generate the “SS Half” of the book on my own, the way I had worked up The Wizard Knight Companion.
The biggest challenge was in creating the maps and the timelines. Although they are no doubt flawed, they add real value, or so I like to think.
Now, at long last, it is over. Let me give thanks to those who have helped me along the way.
Honor Roll for the Long Sun Half
Derek Bell—was the Irish language expert, and found words as names for Fliers.
Ranjit Bhatnagar—in addition to setting up and running the Urth List, looked up a number of legal terms in Bouvier’s 1856 Law Dictionary.
Gordon E. Brain—gave help on dialect and cant.
Doug Eigsti—compiled huge lists of slang, cant, and jargon used in the texts, which seeded the lion’s share of the “Languages” section.
David Langford—provided notes on Feeler and Sard.
David Lebling—was our Arabic language expert, getting us through many tough spots, and did most of the work tracking and decoding Tick talk.
Patrick O’Leary—made observations on Incus.
Wesley Parsons—found truly obscure words “mattak” and “oosik.”
Alice K. Turner—listed the theophanies, and contributed many botanical notes.
James Wynn—who, in person, explained to me the “termigant” solution to Trivigaunte, doing so with enough patience and conviction to eventually overcome my inexplicable resistance.
Honor Roll for the Short Sun Half
Roy C. Lackey—dragged me out of the swamp I don’t know how many times. Donated a tremendous amount of work on maps and timelines; read over the entire manuscript; and patiently told me when he thought I was being foolish.
Scott Wowra—conducted outside research on a number of baffling points.
THE LONG SUN HALF
A
Abanja, Colonel an officer of Trivigaunte, “Siyuf’s spymaster” (IV, list). The third to interrogate Sciathan, after Sirka and Saba (IV, chap. 12, 239). Since she has seen a Mucor-possession of Saba at dinner (IV, chap. 10, 199), she understands what had happened to Sciathan.
Arabic: anesthetic.
achates Remora, talking to Gulo, uses this word to designate an agent (“or three”) looking around town for Chenille (III, chap. 7, 179). (They don’t find her because she stays at the cenoby.)
Latin: Achates [uh-KAY-teez] was a faithful companion of Aeneas whose loyalty was so great it became proverbial.
Commentary: this is one of the hints that the Chrasmological Writings contains the Aeneid in whole or in part. See also O SOROR NEQUE . . .
Addax boy as old as Horn (I, chap. 3, 62). Not on lists.
Zoology: an ox-like antelope, allied to the Nyl-ghau and Gnu, inhabiting Northern Africa.
aedicule an opening, such as a door or window, framed by columns on either side and a pediment above (II, chap. 6, 158). From Latin aediculum, meaning “small house.”
Aer a female Flier in the team sent by Tartaros to find Auk the Prophet (IV, chap. 5, 83), she has blue eyes (85) and flaxen hair (IV, chap. 12, 235). She is “Sciathan’s lover” (IV, list). When Mucor-possessed Sciathan reaches for her, she screams. Then she is shot. Sumaire and Mear fight Trivigauntis until death (IV, chap. 5, 86). See GRIAN, MEAR, SCIATHAN, and SUMAIRE.
Irish: air; gaiety; (musical) air; tune.
Cartography: Gaelic spelling of old Scottish town of Ayr, which is also represented in the name of Mary Olivia Ayers Wolfe, mother of Gene Wolfe. See OLIVE.
agardente an alcoholic beverage in Blood’s wine cellar (II, chap. 6, 155). This is 19th century slang for a powerful drink (29% to 60% alcohol), from Portuguese aguardente and Spanish aguardiente, both meaning “firewater.”
Ah Lah “a forgotten god. (Perhaps an alternative name for the Outsider)” (III, list). “A god called Ah Lah barred Wo-man and her husband from the garden” (III, chap. 1, 20).
airship the Trivigaunti airship is a technological marvel, apparently a secret weapon designed for a surprise attack on Viron. Commanded by General Saba, with Major Hadale, 200 pterotroopers, and an unknown number of aircrew (probably around 45), it has at least six guns (probably 20 mm in caliber) and a quantity of bombs.
The airship has four gondolas (IV, chap. 14, 303). Each gondola is connected to the main body by a vertical canvas tube with a rope ladder.
The first gondola has the cockpit, followed by the officers’ sleeping quarters—Saba’s cubicle being the first (IV, chap. 15, 327), the mess room (IV, chap. 16, 350), and the chartroom (330), where the “glass” (terminal) and the rope ladder to the roof are located (346).
The second gondola has bladder-beds for 100 pterotroopers (IV, chap. 14, 302) and a gun deck below with three guns to either side. The floor between the decks is a grid of bamboo. The beds are four rows, 25 per row. If the beds are in line with the keel, then the gondola is about 175 feet long (25 x 7 feet). Or it could be a boxier 75 feet long by 25 feet wide.
The third gondola carries the other hundred pterotroopers. Its lower deck might have guns, or it could have a flight deck, a place where the wings are kept, and from where the pterotroopers launch. A flight deck would also be a perfect place for the elevator-like ’ishsh to be located.
The fourth gondola has supplies (IV, chap. 16, 349).
Auk and his gang (including Chenille, Gib, and Sciathan the Flier) are captured at the Cock tavern (IV, chap. 14, 302) as prisoners to be taken to Trivigaunte. Then the airship goes northeast to get Silk and his group of seven (Hyacinth, Marble, Incus, Remora, Spider, Horn, and Nettle) where they are held in the tents of the Trivigaunti camp (292, 301, 305). All these prisoners are held in the second gondola, with the hatch guarded by Private Matar.
Silk climbs out and sabotages the engines, where the propellers are forward-facing rather than pusher types (IV, chap. 15, 335). The airship makes an emergency landing in the desert, where Hadale leads her two platoons of pterotroopers against a caravan (IV, chap. 14, 320). While most of the Trivigaunti are thus off the ship, Silk and the other prisoners hijack the vessel. Overcome by dark emotions, Silk nearly steps off the roof of the gondola (IV, chap. 15, 329).
In their flight to Mainframe, they pass over a city with off-center buildings (IV, chap. 15, 335), followed by a forest, and then a city with buildings like chalk giants (IV, chap. 15, 340).
The airship has more than twice the occupancy of the Hindenburg, suggesting it is a large airship rather than a small one. Yet the airship is also very primitive, probably closer to the earlier zeppelin LZ 10. A few points of comparison are in order:
The Hindenburg was a luxury liner capable of non-stop flight from Germany to Brazil. The Trivigaunti airship is a military craft designed to transport 200 pterotroopers around 150 miles in a surprise attack.
The airship first travels from Trivigaunte to Viron in about 21 hours, including any prep time and loading. On the return trip, they leave at about 7 A.M. and expect to arrive at midnight (IV, chap. 14, 306), making it a 17-hour flight. Assuming that the distance between Viron
and Trivigaunte is 120 miles, the air distance across the lake is probably shorter. If it is 100 miles, this suggests a speed of 5.8 mph. The engines Silk sabotages seize up (IV, chap. 15, 346). Inspired by Tartaros, Auk repairs them and actually improves them, presumably increasing the vehicle’s speed in the process. However, the flight to and from Mainframe is by way of gale-force winds pushing the airship. (On the Beaufort wind scale, gales blow between 32 mph and 55 mph.)
Alambrera, the the city prison of Viron (I, chap. 3, 67). It is located at the intersection of Cage and Lamp streets. Mill Street forms another side. Cheese Street might form the fourth side.
The Alambrera might be rather close to the Sun Street manteion—Silk remembers hearing sounds from the pits on quiet nights (I, chap. 7, 188), but this is not necessarily from the area of the manteion. The Alambrera seems to be located west of the manteion, near the market—Marble sees pterotroopers drop to the west by the market. For map views see MARKET and PALATINE.
See also OLD ALAMBRERA, THE.
Spanish: prison.
Alameda, the an elm-lined street that acts as a ceremonial entrance to Viron for the Trivigaunti—the Trivigaunti parade comes along the Alameda (III, Epilogue, 379; IV, chap. 4, 72). It might be the road connecting Viron with Limna.
Spanish: poplar grove; public walk; avenue.
alcalde (BLD approximation of caldé) “the name of a judicial officer in Spain, and in those countries which have received the body of their laws from those of Spain” (BLD).
Ale Street the monitor talking to Silk had seen the First Battalion of the Second Brigade of the Civil Guard marching along Ale Street “not long ago,” on their way to relieve the defenders of the Alambrera (III, chap. 4, 128). That was around 11:30 in the morning on Hieraxday, 30 Nemesis.
alnico Marble’s face used to have little bits of alnico that let her smile or frown (III, chap. 10, 364). Alnico is a trade name for an alloy of aluminum, iron, nickel, plus cobalt or copper or titanium, used to make high energy permanent magnets.
Gate of Horn, Book of Silk Page 1