tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983947031591926293.post5189345344485655516..comments2024-03-05T14:28:49.011-05:00Comments on Tolkien and Fantasy: Why is E.R. Eddison's Worm Ouroboros set on Mercury? Douglas A. Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844859516228160123noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983947031591926293.post-13130045027890438952022-12-17T21:36:49.327-05:002022-12-17T21:36:49.327-05:00Where Mistress of Mistresses (which I've just ...Where Mistress of Mistresses (which I've just been rereading) is carefully planned and arranged, revealing mysteries one at a time and developing its themes around Lessingham/Barganax, The Worm Ouroboros gyres at crazy speed through grand disasters and triumphs long past the point where reader and author both have forgotten all about Lessingham and the martlet. So I'm inclined to take Alec Semicognitohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06507482266305964982noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983947031591926293.post-28892736819632260032022-12-16T17:04:11.831-05:002022-12-16T17:04:11.831-05:00And of course there's a fourth red celestial o...And of course there's a fourth red celestial object, Betelgeuse in Orion.Wurmbrandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17345523517796356674noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983947031591926293.post-31101485334267201712022-12-16T16:40:35.097-05:002022-12-16T16:40:35.097-05:00There's another reason, as well as Grant's...There's another reason, as well as Grant's, why I very much like Mercury as the setting of The Worm. That reason is that, of the five planets readily observable by the naked eye, Mercury is the most elusive. I believe that Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn may be seen more or less throughout the night at some times. Venus is most readily seen as an evening or morning "star," but, as Wurmbrandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17345523517796356674noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983947031591926293.post-36569625992868649472022-12-16T14:01:11.231-05:002022-12-16T14:01:11.231-05:00Doubtless there could be many reasons why Eddison ...Doubtless there could be many reasons why Eddison chose Mercury (I've seen others). My point here is that this is the first time that I've seen Eddison make any kind of explanation.<br /><br />You might also note that the characters and events of Worm stretch back into Eddison's childhood (there are early tales and drawings by Eddison in the Bodleian, dating to his youth). Some of Douglas A. Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16844859516228160123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983947031591926293.post-45094560775843835182022-12-16T10:20:29.078-05:002022-12-16T10:20:29.078-05:00I’ve taken it to be the case that Eddison used a n...I’ve taken it to be the case that Eddison used a number of names in The Worm Ouroboros almost entirely for their connotative suggestiveness rather than a literal, denotative quality. Thus “Demonland” and “Witchland” are not inhabited, respectively, by fallen angels and a whole race of practitioners of witchcraft. The Ghouls (now extinct) should not be assumed to have been a race of gobblers of Wurmbrandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17345523517796356674noreply@blogger.com