The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers

ACCORDED NEUTRAL GROUND

<< < (9/9)

peregrine:

--- Quote from: Kindler on November 16, 2017, 05:28:06 PM ---Doesn't Harry say Mac looks tired or uncomfortable after saying a bunch of words all at once? It might cost him something to speak; not quite an obligation or choice, exactly, but a limitation, if that makes sense. Though it's just as likely that Harry was being snarky.

--- End quote ---
I'm pretty sure he says much the same thing when Hendricks is doing some thinking, so I'd chalk it up to snark.

It also makes it easier to write tertiary characters when they happen to be taciturn for whatever reason.

wardenferry419:

--- Quote from: Kindler on November 16, 2017, 05:28:06 PM ---Doesn't Harry say Mac looks tired or uncomfortable after saying a bunch of words all at once? It might cost him something to speak; not quite an obligation or choice, exactly, but a limitation, if that makes sense. Though it's just as likely that Harry was being snarky.

Regardless, it's an interesting question. What characters or figures in myth and legend have speech limitations? Relatedly, which are notoriously difficult to amuse? I'm rereading Cold Days, and Vaderrung was very pleased with himself when he got Mac to laugh, like it was a particular challenge.

--- End quote ---
That is an interesting question about legendary characters with speech limitations. Something I might look into.

jonas:

--- Quote from: wardenferry419 on November 16, 2017, 12:26:26 AM ---Does anyone think that Mac's lack of conversation is a choice or an obligation?

--- End quote ---
Perhaps like DR his usual voice is not what he uses to communicate, but a preplanned number of monosybllic replies?

raidem:
I think Vidar, Odin's son, had a speech issue. He becomes the one who avenges his father's death and kills Fenrir.
 A number of theories surround the figure, including theories around potential ritual silence and a Proto-Indo-European basis.

Víđarr is introduced by the enthroned figure of High as "the silent god" with a thick shoe, that he is nearly as strong as the god Thor, and that the gods rely on him in times of immense difficulties.[6]

--- Quote ---We do have that short story of the elves that hoard and/or repair shoes in the Dresden Files"
--- End quote ---

Georges Dumézil theorized that Víđarr represents a cosmic figure from an archetype derived from the Proto-Indo-Europeans.[19] Dumézil stated that he was aligned with both vertical space, due to his placement of his foot on the wolf's lower jaw and his hand on the wolf's upper jaw, and horizontal space, due to his wide step and strong shoe, and that, by killing the wolf, Víđarr keeps the wolf from destroying the cosmos, and the cosmos can thereafter be restored after the destruction resulting from Ragnarök.[19]

Kindler:

--- Quote from: raidem on November 17, 2017, 09:46:09 PM ---I think Vidar, Odin's son, had a speech issue. He becomes the one who avenges his father's death and kills Fenrir.
 A number of theories surround the figure, including theories around potential ritual silence and a Proto-Indo-European basis.

Víđarr is introduced by the enthroned figure of High as "the silent god" with a thick shoe, that he is nearly as strong as the god Thor, and that the gods rely on him in times of immense difficulties.[6]
Georges Dumézil theorized that Víđarr represents a cosmic figure from an archetype derived from the Proto-Indo-Europeans.[19] Dumézil stated that he was aligned with both vertical space, due to his placement of his foot on the wolf's lower jaw and his hand on the wolf's upper jaw, and horizontal space, due to his wide step and strong shoe, and that, by killing the wolf, Víđarr keeps the wolf from destroying the cosmos, and the cosmos can thereafter be restored after the destruction resulting from Ragnarök.[19]

--- End quote ---

Interesting. I don't peg Mac as a god or demigod, personally, but the ritual silence aspect may be relevant. "Watcher" might refer to someone watching for Ragnarok, rather than watching for Outsiders. Maybe the Outsiders previously attempted to trigger Ragnarok and failed (circa 1066, by the way), and this time they're trying to trigger the Biblical apocalypse?

Also, anyone else interpret Fenrir as a pack of wolves rather than one big one? Like, a group of Viking lycanthrope berserkers who tried to invade England and failed under the direction of King Harald, ending the Age of Vikings in the weeks leading up to Hastings in 1066 and damaging the English forces enough that they lost to William the Conqueror shortly thereafter? (I'm talking about Stamford Bridge, where legends say a single berserker held off the English army single-handed and took down several dozen of them before the English shot him down from the riverbanks with longbows.)

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page