On Fri, 6 Sep 2002, Claire Rojstaczer wrote: >> >>Unless.... What if whatever blocked the power of Faerie in "Brokedown >>Palace" is actually something that can be repeated; and in fact *has* >>been repeated throughout the history of the Dragaeran Empire? Maybe >>the Easterners can win because somebody out there - whatever the >>Taltos horse really is, or the River really is, or the Tree really is >>- likes them? We know that Bolk has been manifesting cyclically, and >>for that matter, we've seen Bolk resist Sandor's use of sorcery >>against him. Hmm. Definitely food for thought. > >I always assumed Bolk was what Dragaerans might call a God, given his >tendency, shared to my knowledge only by the Demon Goddess, to speak >differently to everyone listening. Also, he requires a master, which >seems to fit in with some of what Sethra says in Issola about Gods >gaining power from worshipers. > >Thoughts? I have not yet made up my own mind as to whether Bolk was a God or in fact a Demon (that is, according to Sethra's definitions of same). But he was definitely *something* highly unusual. >Of course, Taltos could be an entirely different category of beings, >represented by Bolk and Vlad (whom Verra addresses as Taltos Vlad at >several points -- I've never been able to decide if her inversion of >names has meaning or not). I think it's been mention that the normal way of using full names in Hungarian is in "<family name> <personal name>" order. Verra might have been showing off that she knew more about his origins than he did. This page (Hungarian Names 101) suggests that it actually depends on circumstances - in Hungary, that is the common practice, but a Hungarian who goes outside the country will use the form standard to the current locale. And apparently when transcribing names in Latin documents, the non-Hungarian name order was used as well. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/1336/magyarnames101.html Now, looking at the above page's explanations of such things as the patronymic, I have to wonder if "Taltos" is his family name or his father's name or his byname (specifically, the occupational :-) ). I'm pretty sure it's the family name, but it's interesting that there are other possibilities. There might have been a reason for Verra's inversion beyond the obvious Hungarian-customary one... > I don't think it matters much if Vlad is Taltos, however, since (as >best as I can tell from Steve's other books) one of the requirements >for actually using Taltos powers is not eating. Given the choice >between superhuman abilities and a good meal at Valabar's, I think we >all know which Vlad would choose ;-). > If there was some imporatant reason for him to use those powers, I can see him fasting for as long as necessary, and *then* going to Valabars to celebrate after he's done whatever needed to be done. Not only would the food taste good for being prepared at Valabars, it would taste 10 times better because he's so hungry. :-) Which reminds me, it's time for lunch.