Mother, the “a monstrous sea-goddess of Blue” (V, list; first mentioned V, chap. 2, 67); “a sea-goddess of Blue akin to Scylla” (VI, list). The Mother’s song (V, chap. 5, 139). The Mother appears, tells Horn to help “her daughter” Seawrack aboard his sloop (V, chap. 6, 153). She looks like a cowled woman, fifteen feet tall, robed in pulsing red. The Mother probably granted immortality to the Neighbor who eventually became the CRUSTACEAN MAN THING.
M’to the surgeon who gives Pig a new eye (VII, chap. 16, 336). A tall, thin, dark-skinned man of the West Pole. His name “means a river” (336).
Swahili: river.
Mucor “a young woman possessing paranormal powers” (V, list); “Marble’s granddaughter” (VI, list). She helps Horn at the start, with the message from Silk that it would be dangerous for Silk and Hyacinth if Horn were to try to find him. She gives Babbie to Horn, and offers additional help from time to time. (See entry in LS Half.)
Botany: mold, but it is also the medical term for “mucus,” making it akin to Blood.
Commentary: in Barsoomian terms, Mucor is Thuvia, mistress of beasts. In the Long Sun Whorl there were her lynxes, including one named “Lion” (and Thuvia’s biggest helper is a Martian lion). On Blue there is Babbie, at least, and probably some fish as well (even though this gets into Siren territory).
Mura a city on Blue that has a functional lander, according to Wijzer (V, chap. 4, 115). This puts it in company with Gaon and Pajarocu.
Japanese: village.
mysteries while there are many mysteries in the text, here are a few smaller ones:
• Name of the THIEF ROBBING ITEMS FROM HORN’S BOAT AT NEW VIRON.
• CASE OF THE SERVANT GIRL CLAIMED AS DAUGHTER.
• The reason why Salica named her firstborn “Incanto” (VI, chap. 6, 108).
• The identity of the people that Mora and Inclito remind Silkhorn of. Mora’s musings on love sound somewhat like Mint: “Well, I’d rather live like that with a man who loved me, and live in a little tent of skins, then live here by myself or with a man who didn’t” (VI, chap. 10, 164), but there is no corresponding figure for Inclito. There are two daughter/father pairs that could work: Olivine and Hammerstone; Chenille and Caldé Tussah.
• The seal image of the Oreb ring stone is never revealed (VII, chap. 3, 56–57; chap. 5, 98–99; chap. 17, 337).
• The fourth explanation for Silkhorn’s warp from Hamer’s seleria to Green (VII, chap. 9, 183).
• The reply message from Nettle to Silkhorn via Oreb. Oreb returns (VII, chap. 12, 184) and goes out again (185). The next we see him is on the ship bound for New Viron (VII, chap. 15, 227).
N
Nabeanntan “a mountain town of the Long Sun Whorl” (VII, list; VII, chap. 12, 254). This is where Pig is from. It seems located in the Mountains that Look At Mountains, just west of the east pole.
Gaelic: na beanntan is “the mountains,” in Scottish Gaelic, but in Irish na beann tan is “regardless of when.”
Nadar “a madman in Sinew’s village” (VI, list; VI, chap. 24, 373).
Arabic: rarely; succulent; vow; rare; crisp; wonder.
Spanish: to swim.
Urdu: have not; intrepid.
Nadi “a river flowing past Gaon” (V, list; V, chap. 1, 45).
Hindi: river.
Namak “an officer of the horde of Gaon” (V, list; V, chap. 12, 290).
Hindi: salt.
Nat “a magnate of Dorp” (VII, list). On the road to Dorp, Silkhorn separates the four quarreling merchants, sending Nat ahead with his sixteen animals (VII, chap. 1, 29). Nat refuses, so Silkhorn has him tied up for the night. Thus begins all of Silkhorn’s trouble in Dorp.
Dutch: wet (adjective); moisture (noun).
Nauvan “an advocate” (V, list) who represents all the plaintiffs in Gaon (V, chap. 1, 25).
Hindi: ninth.
Neighbor World the place the Neighbors went to when they vanished, as termed by humans (VI, chap. 11, 270).
Neighbors “Blue’s sentient native race” (V, list). The name by which they are known on Blue’s western continent, since they are called “the Vanished People” on Main. He-pen-sheep says they kill inhumi (V, chap. 11, 263). Silkhorn writes about their unpredictable nature: “the Neighbors, who treated me with so much solemnity that night, are notorious for theirs [sense of humor]” (V, chap. 11, 276).
The Neighbors are fey creatures, somewhat like nature fairies (providing a charm to pass through impassible thickets), but also like ghostly spirits. In this phantom aspect they are analogous to the phantom bowmen of Barsoom, members of an extinct race who live on as ghosts. It seems as though the Neighbors somehow retreated to another dimension, or a world out of phase, such that they are everywhere on Blue, and yet no one can see them.
This reasoning would explain Silkhorn’s weird ability to pass through thickets as a case of invisible Neighbors opening a passage for him and him alone.
Nettle “Horn’s wife” (V, list). She resembles her father (V, chap. 1, 42). She seems to be the youngest in her family, having a number of sisters including Hop. Her mother “had hated her from the moment of conception, as the name she had given her made only too plain” (VII, chap. 1, 19). At her grandmother’s deathbed were Nettle, Horn, and Silk (VII, chap. 8, 172–73).
At the end of The Book of the Long Sun, Nettle emerges as a valuable helper to the construction of that book, but in The Book of the Short Sun her role in The Book of the Long Sun grows to co-author.
New Viron “the town on Blue founded by colonists from Viron” (V, list). Some of the colonists came from Viron, some from Limna and other villages like Endroad. When a group from a foreign city lands, they are to leave or join. But some are forced into slavery (VII, chap. 4, 76).
There are a number of factions: “eight or ten men wanted to be caldé” (VII, chap. 14, 280). The five people who visit Lizard at the beginning are heads of five factions, and Horn himself is part of a sixth faction.
Commentary: in “Five Steps toward Briah,” Nick Gevers points out how four separate genres fail to solve the crisis in The Book of the Long Sun. Here in a strong parallel we see a sequence of four cities (Gaon, Blanko, Dorp, and New Viron), each with a different approach, and how they fail.
Gaon is in a cross-cultural conflict along the lines of China versus India. Blanko is like a city-state of the Italian Renaissance, where the aggressor is from within the same culture. Dorp is held by judicial tyranny, a case of too much law. New Viron is splintering from a lack of law.
New Viron is like Dodge City of the Old West. It is burgeoning but ungoverned, and the frontier liberty has turned dark, to lawlessness. It is more industrious than Gaon, but the magic of the Rajan cannot work in New Viron unless Silkhorn is as transitory. Likewise, New Viron is not under threat of annexation, so the lessons of Blanko do not apply. New Viron is groping toward an elected executive.
“Night Chough, The” short story about Oreb on Blue during the year he was away from Silkhorn in Gaon. First published in The Crow: Shattered Lives and Broken Dreams (1998), collected in Innocents Aboard.
Oreb visits the colony of New Viron. He finds the corpse of Lily in the water. A young man named Starling comes along, searching for the corpse. He talks to the bird about how Lily was raped and murdered by Serval, Bushdog, and Marten the day before, as Moonrat and Caracal told him. He then seeks vengeance.
nittimonk creature of Blue, less intelligent than a hus, more intelligent than a dog (V, chap. 9, 217).
Novella Citta “a smaller town near Soldo” (VI, list). Founded by a colonist from Grandecitta, it has a duko (VI, chap. 1, 30). Governed by assessors, such as Legaro (VI, chap. 17, 267). One landmark structure is the “peel house” (268), which might be a fortified dwelling, or, as “peel” is also a politician, it might be a type of politicians’ house, or assembly hall. Novella Citta sends 450 troopers to aid Blanko against Soldo (VI, chap. 17, 267).
Italian: new city.
O
Odys
seus (cross reference from SCYLLA, SEAWRACK) Horn is in many ways similar to Odysseus, the long-wandering hero of Homer’s Odyssey. Odysseus had gone away to the Trojan War, and once that ten-year conflict was won, he tried to return home to Greece. One thing after another kept him from his goal, including seven years as the prisoner of a sea nymph Calypso (Book V). Odysseus took a visit to the underworld of Hades, where he met his mother who had died while he was away (Book XI). Odysseus is also famous for pushing the limits: in one case, he wanted to hear the song of the Sirens and survive the experience, so he had his men tie him to the mast as they approached the Siren shoal. He went through the exhilarating agony of the song while they went about their sailing duties, wax plugs stopping up their ears (Book XII). A relatively minor episode was navigating between Scylla and Charybdis, two terrible sea monsters (Book XII). When Odysseus finally returned home, he was disguised as an old man so nobody would recognize him.
Horn’s Siren is most certainly Seawrack. Calypso would be Gaon and the concubines he has there. Scylla is Scylla-in-Oreb, the Mother, and Great Scylla of Urth.
Old Viron see VIRON.
Olivine “a young chem of Viron” (V, list); “the handicapped daughter of Marble and Hammerstone” (VI, list). Her first mention in the text is, “Olivine, lend us your father, please” (V, chap. 12, 290).
Because Marble left the Long Sun Whorl, Olivine is only partially built, which is why she is handicapped. She lives as a “ghost” in the Caldé’s Palace. Hammerstone has been away, presumably searching for another chem woman, and Olivine has been sleeping by a storeroom window for some long time when the sight of Silkhorn seems to awaken her.
Olivine rushes to guide Silkhorn when he first arrives at the Caldé’s Palace. She seems to have experience with Patera Silk performing private sacrifices for her (VII, chap. 12, 240–49), which is how she is able to cue Silkhorn on the bread and wine ritual that is so far removed from the usual Vironese ritual of flesh, blood, and sacred fire. Silkhorn’s augury of the sacrifice reveals two travelers, a man and a woman, converging upon a woman from opposite directions (VII, chap. 12, 253). This is Hammerstone and Marble reuniting with Olivine herself.
Her sacrifice of an eye for her mother (VII, chap. 12, 254) anticipates or guides Silkhorn’s similar sacrifice for Pig.
Mineral: magnesium iron silicate, which is called peridot when in gem-quality.
Olmo “a smaller town near Soldo” (VI, list). Founded by colonists from Grandecitta, it has a duko (VI, chap. 1, 30). Its civic colors are purple and maroon. It falls to the Duko of Soldo on Mobilization Day 27 (VI, prologue).
Italian: elm.
Onorifica “the kitchen maid at Inclito’s” (VI, list; VI, chap. 1, 33). She is having sexual relations with someone in the house (VI, chap. 5, 93). She is the fourth child of seven, her father owning a smaller, poorer farm nearby. He bought three heifers from Inclito and is paying for them with three years’ labor from his daughter (94). Silkhorn initially thinks she is having sex with Inclito (100), but this turns out to be not true. The other candidates are Affito the coachman and the hired hands Perito and Sborso. See TORDA.
Italian: honorary.
Oreb “a tame night chough” (V, list); “Incanto’s pet bird” (VI, list). Oreb’s head, bill, and feet are red. He is smaller than a hen but his wings are much larger (VII, chap. 1, 15). Oreb meets up with Silkhorn shortly after the man’s arrival on the Long Sun Whorl. After both descend to Blue, Oreb flies away.
He returns to Silkhorn after more than a year, at just the time when Silkhorn is escaping Gaon (V, chap. 15, 369). He is said to have left at once (VII, chap. 16, 348), yet there are a number of quills left behind (see OREB’S QUILLS). He is said to have been gone for “close to a year” (VI, chap. 22, 322), “nearly a year” (VII, chap 7, 145; 274; chap. 16, 361), and “the better part of a year” (VII, chap. 1, 15). During this time away, Oreb has the adventure described in “The Night Chough.”
Oreb takes the message from Silkhorn in Dorp to Nettle on Lizard, but comes back without a reply. He goes again to get a reply (VII, chap. 9, 185). Oreb’s absence is noted (192). Next he is seen on the boat with the group heading to New Viron (227), but there is no mention of a reply from Nettle.
Oreb is on the ship in a storm by Lizard (259). Then he is in the tent with Silkhorn and Jahlee on the beach at New Viron (259). Silkhorn sends Oreb to tell Nettle they have arrived in New Viron (270; 274). (See entry in LS Half.)
It turns out that Oreb has been carrying a fragment of Scylla. See SCYLLA for details.
Onomastics: (Hebrew word for “raven”) name of a Midianite prince defeated by Gideon, mentioned in the Bible (Judges 7:20–25; 8:3; Psalm 83:12; Isaiah 10:26). He is usually paired with “Zeeb” (Hebrew word for “wolf”).
Oreb’s quills the Rajan of Gaon writes his book with one or more quills of Oreb.
• “Put in this pen case” (V, chap. 1, 17).
• “Only this lone black feather” (V, chap. 1, 40).
• “This new quill of Oreb” (V, chap. 8, 194).
• Chewing Oreb’s quill (V, chap. 9, 217).
• “old quill” (V, chap. 10, 246).
• “quill” (V, chap. 12, 284).
• “threw away the last of Oreb’s quills” (V, chap. 13, 313).
• after this he uses the “poor gray quill” (V, chap. 15, 367).
The “maids in Gaon” form part of the story: “I had a perch for him [Oreb] in my bedroom in Gaon; and because he left me for close to a year, I got into the habit of using his feathers, which I had picked up off the floor. I missed him, you see, and didn’t want the women who came in to sweep and dust . . . to throw them away. I kept them in my pen case, since no one would be so stupid as to throw out the feathers in a pen case even if it were open” (VI, chap. 22, 322).
Outsider “the only god trusted by Silk” (V, list); “the god of gods” (VI, list); “the god of things outside the Long Sun Whorl” (VII, list). Horn senses the Outsider at Marble’s sacrifice (V, chap. 3, 92).
Silkhorn talks to Hound about the two unknown gods, the Son of Thyone and the Outsider (VII, chap. 6, 125). Hound wonders if they are the same one (133).
Silkhorn writes, “It appears that at some time in the past people believed that the Outsider was merely another aspect of Pas. The story I just told you [about a man who prayed to the Outsider and faced a storm] was probably written to show it was not the case” (VII, chap. 12, 247).
At one point Silkhorn wonders if the Outsider “is angry at me for befriending Jahlee” (VII, chap. 5, 93).
Commentary: in the Outsider entry of the LS Half, we considered three crow gods and determined that Cronus was the best fit for the text. The Book of the Short Sun offers new points that should be addressed.
Silkhorn has distinctive traits that seem representative of the Outsider, almost like a badge or a uniform. When Horn gains his ancient, black, alien, magical sword, it seems at first like it might be a stand-in for the terrible black sickle of Cronus the harvest god. Indeed, while Horn’s chore of clearing the sewer draws an easy parallel with the Labor of Heracles in cleaning the Augean Stables, note that Horn’s job has a macabre “harvesting” action at the same time.
However, the revelation that Silkhorn has one eye, having sacrificed the other eye, is a very strong indication of Odin, one of the other crow gods. The wandering nature of Silkhorn is also a trait of Odin.
At the same time, the “corn” aspects of Silkhorn form additional bonds to Cronus.
Oxlip “one of Horn’s sisters” (VII, list). She is taking care of her mother in New Viron (VII, chap. 12, 250).
Botany: Primula elatior, closely allied to the cowslip, but it has a broader and flatter flower.
P
Pajarocu “a phantom town on Blue’s western continent” (V, list). The town with a lander and the promise to transport representatives to the Long Sun Whorl (V, prologue; VI, list; VI, chap. 1, 33).
Wijzer explains the story behind the name: Th
e Maker was painting birds. The pajarocu asked the owl if the process hurt, and the owl lied, saying yes. The Maker painted the snake-eater bird with many colors. Because this implied a great deal of pain, the pajarocu hid in fear. Since that time, the owl searches for him, saying Cu, Cu, at night. During the day the snake-eater bird searches, silent until he finds him and says “Pajarocu?” (V, chap. 4, 115–16).
When Horn gets to the town he finds that the people are ethnically the same as He-pen-sheep and She-pick-berry (V, chap. 14, 248). As Horn inspects the lander he recognizes it as Auk’s, which had gone to Green (V, chap. 14, 351). Even with this forewarning Horn and the others are taken to Green. At the end of the series, Silk sets out for Pajarocu with Marble, Seawrack, and Nettle. He intends to take the lander on a one-way trip to the Long Sun Whorl. Presumably he succeeds.
Myth: (Mexican folklore) Pajaro Cu, the Coo Bird. This bird named Cu had no feathers, and he was engaged to be married to the dove. The ground owl took up a collection and each bird donated a feather to clothe Cu. But when he was dressed he flew away. And now the dove is always calling for him: “Cu, cu.”
Palm a villager of Endroad who bought the last of the lamp oil from Hound (VII, chap. 4, 79). Possibly CORN SEED MAN (palm of hand) or CORN SEED WIFE (palm tree).
Parel “a servant girl of Dorp” (VII, list); at the house where Hide is being kept (VII, chap. 5, 99).
Dutch: pearl.
Parietal a name Smoothbone thinks might belong to Silkhorn “Parietal? Was that your name?” (VI, chap. 12, 249).
Anatomy: the upper posterior wall of the head. Parietal bones are a pair of bones of the roof of the skull between the frontal bones and the occipital bones.
Gate of Horn, Book of Silk Page 24