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Help, please! I need someone with time on their hands and a copy of the books so far to hunt up a few things for me, if you would be so kind.
1> In which book (and which year of the current series–considering year one started with Oath and Kieri’s coronation) did Dorrin take on squires?
2> Did the passage talking about that say anything about the length of the squire contract? (I’m guessing two years, but am not sure. If it was tied to ending at a specific age, then it’s different for each.)
3> Somewhere, in some book, I mentioned the squires’ actual ages (or some of their actual ages) and how much the age difference was. I know Beclan is eldest, but cannot remember how much, and I need to know all three. Again, which book, and what year of the current story.
Apologies for asking y’all to work, but I’m deep in something that needs to keep rolling and if I stop to look I’ll lose the momentum. Am leaving square bracket spaces to fill in later. Thanks!
Comment by Mike G. — July 19, 2012 @ 1:25 pm
Looks like it’s in Kings of the North.
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Around page 66, there’s mention that Gwennothlin and Dorrin sign contracts in Marrakai’s office, but I don’t see mention of a term on the contracts at a quick glance…
Also around page 66 (kindle pages, that is) it’s mentioned that Daryan is 2 years younger than Beclan, but I don’t see Beclan or Gwenno’s ages listed (again, at a quick search).
Comment by Mike G. — July 19, 2012 @ 1:26 pm
(Reposting – my quote got swallowed)
Looks like it’s in Kings of the North.
—
Chapter 5: “I’m wondering wheether you’ve considered taking squires,” he (Duke Marrakai) said.
—
Around page 66, there’s mention that Gwennothlin and Dorrin sign contracts in Marrakai’s office, but I don’t see mention of a term on the contracts at a quick glance…
Also around page 66 (kindle pages, that is) it’s mentioned that Daryan is 2 years younger than Beclan, but I don’t see Beclan or Gwenno’s ages listed (again, at a quick search).
Comment by Chris in South Jersey — July 19, 2012 @ 1:31 pm
I just happen to be rereading the series right now.
1. & 2. Dorrin take squires in Kings of the North, chapter five, a day or two after Mikeli’s coronation. The contract didn’t specify a period of time, only that it spelled out the duties of each.
3. Gwenno is “to young to enter the Bells, too old to stay at home…”. She is between Aris and Juris in age. Beclan is the eldest (in chapter six when she chews him out all Dorrin says is he is the eldest). Dayan is two years younger.
I didn’t see any actual ages spelled out. Hope this helps.
Comment by Kerry aka Trouble — July 19, 2012 @ 1:40 pm
The sequence is on Pages 62-67 of Kings. No actual ages are mentioned, nor is the length of the contract, just that there is one.
Comment by Genko — July 19, 2012 @ 1:51 pm
So maybe you can make it up?
I assume Beclan’s contract would no longer be in force after he leaves his family to become Dorrin’s heir.
Comment by Kerry aka Trouble — July 19, 2012 @ 1:54 pm
Aha – In comments/reply to me back in the Kings spoiler space (comment 50 dated March 27, 2011) you said,” For instance, since Gwennothlin is not the Marrakai kirgan, her Marrakai knot(s) will identify her birth order, and her Verrakai knots will indicate the year of her service (one, two, three.) ” I think that implies that the term of a squire’s service is 3 years.
Comment by greycats — July 19, 2012 @ 2:55 pm
Kieri was crowned at the spring equinox in year 1. At midsummer of the same year, Mikeli was also crowned. Dorrin attended that coronation (but not Kieri’s ) and saved the day for Mikeli. Afterwards she received helpful information for organizing her household and offers to receive squires into it.
On page 67, KOTN, the contract for Gweno is said to be much the same as those Dorrin had seen for Kieri’s squires. It specifies the duties of lord and squire. Apparently these are specific enough to generate a list, if someone would want to do so, because Dorrin says that she hopes Gweno will be happy though being happy is not on the list .
In the following paragraph, same page, Beclan is said to be two years older than Daryan and then on page 87, Dorrin says that Beclan is the eldest, which would make him older than Gweno, and Gweno says that she is older than Daryan.
No specific age is mentioned, however. We know that Aris, Juris, and Roly are older and that Aris has been to Fin Panir. In Divided Allegiance, when Paks met him she was “nearly” 22, and had come to Fin Panir from Brewersbridge. In an interview with Pax, the Marshal-General says of the training company to which Pax is assigned, “many of them are younger than you–nobles’ youngsters from Fintha and Tsaia, mostly. They’ve been somebody’s squires, and now they’re preparing for knighthood.” [Which doesn’t say they’ll be knights at the end of the process–only that they will probably be prepared for that eventuality] Further, “some have come up from the granges and may have been yeoman-marshal somewhere for three years.”
If I were figuring back from this information, I’d estimate the knight’s training for person inexperienced at warfare or military administration to be between two and five years, depending on the person’s background and abilities. And since many were younger than 22, I’d guess that the younger age limit for admission to the school for this type of person would be around 18 years–when some degree of physical maturity is likely, but not the full strength of a trained adult which was what Paks had attained when she arrives.
And since these young noblemen had been squires beforehand–or yeomen for three years–I’d say that they were thirteen to fifteen when they became squires or yeomen, depending on maturity or other factors.
So, the best ages for Dorrin’s bunch might be something like 14,15 and 16. Any older than that and you have to ask why Beclan is so late in becoming a squire. Any younger and we’re presented with a very young Daryan out on the road with troops.
Of course when someone is said to be two years older, no one thinks two years exactly. Might be a year and 9 months or 2 years and three months–whatever. As well, there may be some reason to think that Gweno is closer to Beclan’s age than Daryan is to hers. The Marshal-General in KOTH says, referring to Beclan and Gweno,”those two will push each other into rashness if you’re not careful.” p. 76. So Gweno may actually be close to Beclan’s age, maybe even the same age (and she has a good reason for entering squire service late). But he could be a few months older.
All these events, except for those in Divided Allegiance, took place the summer after Kieri was crowned–which would be in Year 1.
Hope this helps
Comment by greycats — July 19, 2012 @ 2:55 pm
Kieri was crowned at the spring equinox in year 1. At midsummer of the same year, Mikeli was also crowned. Dorrin attended that coronation (but not Kieri’s ) and saved the day for Mikeli. Afterwards she received helpful information for organizing her household and offers to receive squires into it.
On page 67, KOTN, the contract for Gweno is said to be much the same as those Dorrin had seen for Kieri’s squires. It specifies the duties of lord and squire. Apparently these are specific enough to generate a list, if someone would want to do so, because Dorrin says that she hopes Gweno will be happy though being happy is not on the list .
In the following paragraph, same page, Beclan is said to be two years older than Daryan and then on page 87, Dorrin says that Beclan is the eldest, which would make him older than Gweno, and Gweno says that she is older than Daryan.
No specific age is mentioned, however. We know that Aris, Juris, and Roly are older and that Aris has been to Fin Panir. In Divided Allegiance, when Paks met him she was “nearly” 22, and had come to Fin Panir from Brewersbridge. In an interview with Pax, the Marshal-General says of the training company to which Pax is assigned, “many of them are younger than you–nobles’ youngsters from Fintha and Tsaia, mostly. They’ve been somebody’s squires, and now they’re preparing for knighthood.” [Which doesn’t say they’ll be knights at the end of the process–only that they will probably be prepared for that eventuality] Further, “some have come up from the granges and may have been yeoman-marshal somewhere for three years.”
If I were figuring back from this information, I’d estimate the knight’s training for person inexperienced at warfare or military administration to be between two and five years, depending on the person’s background and abilities. And since many were younger than 22, I’d guess that the younger age limit for admission to the school for this type of person would be around 18 years–when some degree of physical maturity is likely, but not the full strength of a trained adult which was what Paks had attained when she arrives.
And since these young noblemen had been squires beforehand–or yeomen for three years–I’d say that they were thirteen to fifteen when they became squires or yeomen, depending on maturity or other factors.
So, the best ages for Dorrin’s bunch might be something like 14,15 and 16. Any older than that and you have to ask why Beclan is so late in becoming a squire. Any younger and we’re presented with a very young Daryan out on the road with troops.
Of course when someone is said to be two years older, no one thinks two years exactly. Might be a year and 9 months or 2 years and three months–whatever. As well, there may be some reason to think that Gweno is closer to Beclan’s age than Daryan is to hers. The Marshal-General in KOTH says, referring to Beclan and Gweno,”those two will push each other into rashness if you’re not careful.” p. 76. So Gweno may actually be close to Beclan’s age, maybe even the same age (and she has a good reason for entering squire service late). But he could be a few months older.
All these events, except for those in Divided Allegiance, took place the summer after Kieri was crowned–which would be in Year 1.
Hope this helps
Comment by Iphinome — July 19, 2012 @ 3:38 pm
In Echoes Dorrin says that Daryan is a year too young to be required to ride into danger and that Rolyan is for or five years older… I haven’t figured out what causes some things to be measured in years and some in winters.
Comment by Iphinome — July 19, 2012 @ 3:41 pm
Gah, typos make the baby Falk cry. s/for/four
Comment by elizabeth — July 19, 2012 @ 5:57 pm
Thank you all! Big help.
Beclan’s situation is, as always, confusing. He is still Dorrin’s squire (as she makes clear) but also her kirgan. There’s nothing illegal about that, and it makes sense to all concerned. He’s not ready to inherit; he needs to be someone’s squire; he can’t go anywhere else now. So she tells him he’s to continue to do squire duty.
A fit of finger-counting here. Mikeli’s coronation is in the first year of the new story; OATH is entirely in the first year. KINGS starts at the end of OATH and ends with the early stage of the war with Pargun, still in the first year. ECHOES starts at the end of KINGS and bridges first and second year’s transition, ending early in the second year, after Kieri’s marriage, with the Lady’s death. So LIMITS starts in the second year (it does end in the third, I can tell you that much without spoilers.) FIVE will start at the end of LIMITS and continue until…the end of this arc.
Major arcs (as I see them) are beginning to show me how they’ll intertwine and form the knot. Minor arcs are still…waving around wildly.
Comment by elizabeth — July 19, 2012 @ 7:15 pm
I haven’t figured out what causes some things to be measured in years and some in winters.
The writer. (Bad-a-BING) OK, that was bad of me, but it just hung there, begging. “The Writer” is the real answer, along with the writer’s feeling that some readers can’t count in winters and you need to give them years now and then as a lifeline. Or maybe the writer needs that lifeline sometimes…this happens particularly when something really is measured in years and not winters, and is kind of like the age calculations for TB race horses, who are all assumed to be born on January 1 of the year in which they were born, for race eligibility. But whose trainers (if they have any sense) know that a colt born in February is a significantly older animal than a colt born in May when you start training them…and if Glorious Victory V (made-up name!) is too slow to race, but you notice him jumping everything in sight, you want him to be a *real* five years old, with completely mature joints, before you start eventing him. So in general terms, a child born in early spring will be “one winter” at the post-Midwinter Night half-evener, and so will a child born just before winter started. But for legal purposes (oath-taking, military conscription) real age, to the quarter, counts. Until The Writer says it doesn’t. The Writer has been nursing a headache and blech feeling for several days, and that affects Writer’s mental capacity.
Comment by Genko — July 19, 2012 @ 7:40 pm
Yes, a little like the more-or-less arbitrary September 1 date for determining age at beginning school (which can be fudged if a child is very immature or very precocious). In Head Start we used to talk about a child being a “young three” when they had a birth date in July or August, and at some point I realized that for the same reason, I was younger than most of my classmates (that is, in the last several months I realized it — never clocked it before).
Hope you feel better very soon!
Comment by elizabeth — July 19, 2012 @ 7:43 pm
Actually Aris is younger than the squires…Aris is the youngest of the Marrakai boys out in the world, and is a year or two younger (depends on the reckoning system–see comment to Iphinome) than Prince Camwyn. He was very young in Fin Panir and was sent there as a sort of last resort. (He’s not a bad kid, though in the present US school systems, he’d have carried multiple diagnoses and been medicated. He’s very intelligent, very energetic, very impulsive, very inquisitive, very VERY VERY everything the Marrakai are known for.) Fin Panir–and the experience of being around Paks–helped him learn to cope with his own abundance of energy, and he’s worked on it since. His older brother Juris, who’s Mikeli’s age, had a much easier childhood–the same characteristics but a better-functioning rheostat, so to speak. Juris went to the palace as a page at the age Aris went to Fin Panir. Aris was brought home from Fin Panir to be a page at the palace as soon as his instructors at Fin Panir said he was controllable. That’s why you see him as younger than the other boys around Prince Camwyn.
Age at becoming a squire is variable in this culture, usually determined by family’s assessment of the young person’s readiness to get along away from home…(though those who are driving the family crazy are sometimes sent to one of the few boarding facilities) and the availability of “slots” for them. “Roughly high-school age” is about right, so your guess of 14-16 fits, but could slide up a year or two, depending. Sixteen’s a cutoff legally for parental authority to make a child live at home. Kieri would not usually take squires under 18 winters (which might mean closer to 17) which is why someone like Selfer could transition from squire to junior captain to senior cohort captain so young.
Comment by elizabeth — July 19, 2012 @ 7:47 pm
The terms of a squire’s service are decided by the contracting parties…a very young squire’s family may agree to only one year. Gwennothlin’s family were confident of her ability to handle herself and thus agreed to three years. If the term were absolutely standard, there’d be no need for a knot-count.
Comment by GinnyW — July 19, 2012 @ 8:29 pm
Does the term of a squire’s service have an upper limit? I have the impression that young people become knights at about 21 or 22? I am away from home without my books. I have the impression that Mikeli was about 20 at his coronation, but I am not sure that it was stated in connection with the ceremony. It is stated when Kieri recommends that Andressat speak with Mikeli in person. His age may also be mentioned in Oath of Gold, when Paks asks to speak with him in person concerning her quest.
Also Selfer, who is probably about 20 if he was 18 during the campaign against Siniava, wants to leave the company within a year or two to enter knight’s training. That argues again for a coming of age around 21?
I hope the headache eases up, and you are not coming down with something.
Comment by Richard — July 20, 2012 @ 3:35 am
Elizabeth,
Echoes ch.7: Beclan is the oldest of the three squires by “a quarter year” (ahead of Gwenno that must be).
Echoes chapter 5: Daryan is “a year too young to be required to ride into danger” near the end of Year 1 (current books). Which I always assumed to be reckoning by winters, not to the nearest quarter.
Back in the DEED, when Calium Halveric was captured we learnt that young Aliam had nearly been brought to the war at 15. Suggesting that 16 is the key age there. So I’ve imagined Daryan to be 15 winters in Year 1, Gwenno and Beclan 16.
16 being the legal cut-off for making a child live at home explains why Daryan refusing his father’s order to return home is such a scandal.
(Going into danger, for example as a messenger in battle, is not the same thing as being expected to fight (in attack as opposed to self-defense) and kill. Paks had to be 18 winters to be recruited – the same age at which she could marry – but that meant 19 winters before her first campaign year.)
Kieri Phelan’s back story (as told in pieces by several characters in Oath of Gold) hangs together well supposing that Garris was 16 when taken to Aarenis, making Kieri 17 or 18 the year of the Hakkenarsk Pass incident (by his, Aliam’s and Estil’s best guess, his actual birthday being unknown).
Working by winters is so much easier than having to ask and remember when in the year (even if only to the nearest quarter) someone’s birthday is. Even though you’ve never mentioned what Lyonyans do, as opposed to Tsaians.
Now we know Tsaians reckon winters from the half-evener, I’m going to have to research Paks’ age again, and Mikeli’s.
Comment by Richard — July 20, 2012 @ 5:44 am
Elizabeth
From your #12, I take it a child born between Midwinter Night and the next half-evener will not be 1 winter old until after her 1st birthday. Maybe the same too for one born after the last half-evener before Midwinter.
(Paks, on our best evidence, is a winter child, or very very early spring.)
I’d forgotten the reference Greycats found (#7)making Beclan not one but two years older than Daryan. So were they (summer Year 1) 16 and 14 respectively, or 17 and 15? If the latter, why was Beclan still waiting for a slot as squire? (Was it because, him being so close to the throne, it had to be with someone of high rank?) Or 16 and 15 by winters but 16 and 14 by birthdays?
When Dorrin met Sonder it was past the half-evener that makes everyone a winter older, but when Beclan gave full oath of fealty, below the legal age, that could have been before.
Ginny,
you are right, Kieri described Mikeli as “nearly 20” on the day of the Bells’ knighting ceremony, which we now know was officially the last day of winter.
Comment by Richard — July 20, 2012 @ 6:17 am
Bother, posting too quickly: two pages (in KoN) after Daryan was “two years younger” than Beclan, we have Beclan “only a year and a half older”.
Another clue (page 64) is that Gwenno looked “a little younger than the recruits the Company accepted”, again confirming the 16-17ish (winters) general range for her.
Comment by Jenn — July 20, 2012 @ 6:30 am
Elizabeth,
You may want to tag this as background as well as there is lots of info.
I always wondered about ages of the squires and Mikeli
Comment by Richard — July 21, 2012 @ 2:48 am
This seems a good time to ask: is our old acquaintance sergeant Kefer with Gwenno’s patrol? When Arian met and travelled with them, she didn’t tell us the sergeant’s name. Echoes told us Vssik was with Beclan and one Piter Arugson with Daryan, but Kefer has been unaccounted for the last two books (no sign of him being in Valdaire with Selfer during the business with Captain Harnik).
Comment by Mollie Marshall — July 22, 2012 @ 4:05 am
According to the characters list, they are one and the same person, Kefer Vossik. It had me puzzled too, till I checked the list.
Comment by elizabeth — July 22, 2012 @ 8:42 am
Ouch. That’s a mistake in the character list then. Kefer and Vossik were two different people in _Sheepfarmer’s Daughter_. Kefer was in the north–the recruit sergeant–the year of Dwarfwatch. Dzerdya was the sergeant with the Phelani at Dwarfwatch when the Halverics took it; she died there (Stammel wasn’t there.) Kefer then served as co-sergeant with Stammel in Arcolin’s cohort during the final campaign against Siniava.
What comes of haste in trying to get names into a coherent list. Thanks for bringing it up, Mollie.
Comment by Rolv — July 22, 2012 @ 10:55 am
In Oath, Dorrin’s Sergeants are likewise called Kefer and Vossik (#15, p. 151). However, in #10, p. 98, we meet with Sergeant Bosk. A Junior Sergeant?
It could be the same as the Corporal Bosk we meet several times in Deed – if not for the fact that he was killed at Dwarfwatch. (At least, that’s my inference from Deed, #13, p. 122, and #19, p. 184.)
Comment by elizabeth — July 22, 2012 @ 1:50 pm
Your Author apologizes for errors. Clearly, the loss of the notebooks, and the having to make rapid notes to restore some (and only some) of the information in them resulted in…errors. Too many. In my Sheepfarmer’s Daughter,p.299, (first printing–really yellow now) the noncoms killed in Dorrin’s cohort at the battle to free Dwarfwatch were Juris and Kalek. Kefer had been on recruit duty. It’s from that page I inferred that Bosk was still alive (a corporal, probably with Kefer on recruit duty) and thus available to be promoted to sergeant later. If he died in Sheepfarmer’s Daughter, it would have been the following year, in the main campaign against Siniava.
Reorganization occurred after Dwarfwatch, because Arcolin’s cohort was reduced so much–they got the bulk of the recruits that year, which made them a weaker cohort in terms of experience. Thus all the veterans were assigned more than one recruit to mentor. Not only were some senior troops given battlefield promotion to noncoms to fill gaps, but noncoms were shifted around to ensure all slots were filled with solid backups.
With the relative drawdown after Kieri brought the entire Company back north, with veterans retiring and so on, what had been the standard staffing of slots changed somewhat.
But the notebooks had a year by year list of deaths, additions, etc. that kept me straight, and (excuses, excuses) I did not have time during the writing of OATH to get all the details back in order.
Comment by Richard — July 24, 2012 @ 2:31 pm
I agree with Rolv (#24). The Corporal Bosk in Sheepfarmer’s Daughter was in Arcolin’s cohort (with Stammel when they recruited Paks). The same page that named Juris and Kalek from Dorrin’s cohort, included all four of Arcolin’s non-coms in the south that year among the dead and dying (because they had all been in the Dwarfwatch garrison). From other pages we know the four were sergeants Dzerdya and one Coben, corporals Bosk and someone else (never named).
Elizabeth, not all the non-com names and changes from your notebooks made it into the published story, so you couldn’t have reconstructed everything. For example, of Cracolyna’s three sergeants the Dwarfwatch/Rotengre year we know Vona was in the north and both the others survived the battles, but we can only name the junior: Erial (a woman, who lasted right through Siniava’s War to when they went to the coast with Alured). We can also speculate that, quite apart from the non-coms rotated north from the campaign cohorts to train recruits, Captain Valichi must have had some non-coms of his own permanently north in his border patrols (until Kieri brought them south too the year after Dwarfwatch), but we don’t know how many, let alone any names. The main year of Siniava’s War, there is never a page in the book where all the sergeants in every cohort are named together, let alone the corporals.
Kefer’s returning to Dorrin’s cohort in time for Oath of Fealty is what left a slot in Arcolin’s for Devlin, still a corporal in Siniava’s War, to become junior sergeant; so when I read “Sergeant Bosk” in Fealty I mentally substitute “Vossik”.
Comment by elizabeth — July 24, 2012 @ 3:44 pm
I needed a year with you people before I wrote Oath, just to get everything straightened out again–but though I started this blog early, it wasn’t early enough.
Ah, well. Next time. (Next time I won’t lose the dranglebfabbled notebooks!!!!) And you are all forewarned, if you start writing a monster like this, to make better notes, lots of them, and have them cross-checked by your most meticulous friends for accuracy.
If you haven’t seen Nail Gaiman’s keynote speech, do watch the video. I’m going to argue that I’m merely chronologically challenged. (Brilliant speech, by the way, and not just for that.)
Comment by Rolv — July 25, 2012 @ 5:02 am
elizabeth,
I for one hungered and thirsted for more from Paksworld for years without end, so don’t worry if there are a few inconsistencies here and there. I’ve edited a few books, and know it’s virtually unavoidable. One of Agatha Christie’s short stories rely on a logical contradiction, Poirot solved the riddle through knowing the crucial fact he didn’t know. Compared to that, a mere possibly wrong surname is peanuts.
The reason I thought Bosk was killed at Dwarfwatch, was that all the corporals from Paks’ cohort were killed there, and I imagined him being one of those. But I’m quite happy to have him transferred to another cohort, or whatever might suit the plot and you. 🙂
Comment by Sarah Stapleton — July 25, 2012 @ 6:49 am
It makes sense that if you don’t like to outline going forward, you’re not going to want to have to outline the past before you can go forward. That would quash the creative impulse to go forward. I’m impressed at folks’ ability to keep all the details of Paksworld straight; you have an encyclopedic resource in this site – a slew of XOs.
Comment by Richard — July 25, 2012 @ 5:25 pm
Elizabeth,
if it hadn’t been mentioned in Oath of Fealty‘s preface, how many of us would have known about this blog site? I wouldn’t.
(I hadn’t even met Paks until the UK omnibus of the Deed came out because of the new book.)
A minor point about ages: Phelan’s recruits having to be over 18 WINTERS old to enlist, means even the youngest (those born in late autumn) would be over 18 YEARS old (and 19 winters) by the time they swore their final oaths to him at the end of their training. Which would appear to set an upper limit to Beclan’s being under age for pledging to Mikeli. That Mikeli had to wait until 20 to end the regency and become king is another matter entirely and offers no clue to the squires’ ages.
Rolv, now you’ll have me thinking again (no bad thing) whenever I reread one of the Poirot short stories.
Comment by Rolv — July 26, 2012 @ 8:30 am
Richard,
😀
Comment by Jenn — July 26, 2012 @ 8:42 am
Elizabeth,
I have just finished SD and Paks was lamenting Bosk’s death among the others. It was Devlin that went north. If it helps I always assumed that Sgt. Bosk and corporal Bosk were two different people with the same name. Your continual reuse of names made the books more realistic it may have helped that I was named Jennifer with every other girl the year I was born.
I am in the midst of DA and I am amused that the moneychanger in Brewersbridge has an assistant named Arvid.
Comment by Rolv — July 26, 2012 @ 10:24 am
Agreeing with Jenn on reuse of names.
But then, my surname is so common that my brother changed his to Smith …
Comment by Richard — July 26, 2012 @ 3:38 pm
Still, as Rolv wrote, we have Vossik and Kefer (both from SD) as Dorrin’s two sergeants in the later chapter of OF, both keen to stay with her, and no subsequent mention of “Sergeant Bosk” in that or the two later books that I recall. In EB someone else we’d not met before – no particular reason we should – has become Selfer’s new (senior) sergeant. I’m happy to write OF’s “Bosk” off as a copy-editor’s oversight.
Unless Vossik can be Bosk as surely as William in our world is Bill.
What’s more, Jenn, we now know Arvid met the moneychanger’s servant (plied him with mulled wine for information about Paks’ treasure). Since you’re at Brewersbridge, spot another Arvid-allusion there (trick question). (For fun I’ve counted up every name in SD+DA+OG but don’t plan to repeat that for the current books. Maybe I’ll get round to the Gird/Luap ones sometime.)
Comment by Rolv — July 27, 2012 @ 8:21 am
Elizaberh,
concernimng names,
I’ve always wondered if it’s a coincidence or not that Gird’s and Paks’ fathers have the same name.
Comment by elizabeth — July 27, 2012 @ 8:46 am
Rolv: It’s far enough back that I don’t remember. I don’t think I’d have done that intentionally to suggest any special relationship, so I’m guessing (but can’t prove) it was coincidence. (OTOH, I’m about to take off for a convention, so my memory is extra-blurred. I’ll think about it.)
Comment by Rolv — July 29, 2012 @ 1:17 pm
Elizabeth,
Thank you. I guessed it was a coincidence, that you just happened to like the name. But it reminded me a little of Oscar Wilde, where all heroines are surnamed Merton. 🙂
Comment by Genko — August 1, 2012 @ 2:02 pm
Richard, I stumbled on this web site looking for more by Lady Moon, and was astounded that she was continuing with the Paks novels, and delighted, since I had been reading and re-reading Deed for some years at that point. I dithered about buying OoF when it came out in hardcover, because I just don’t buy new books in hardcover, tried to school myself to wait until I could get it in the library, to no avail. I’ve given up and just bought all the subsequent ones. For a few things, it’s worth it.
Comment by Rolv — August 6, 2012 @ 1:52 am
Genko,
That was remarkably similar to my own story. 🙂