Reddit mentions of Lexicon Urthus: A Dictionary for the Urth Cycle

There's a few resources out there, none perfect.

This is a short little bit by Gaiman on how to read Wolfe. Not specific to Book of the New Sun, and a little joking, but it's completely accurate. Approach Wolfe in that manner and you may get more from the books.

This is a dictionary/glossary that can be useful to link different parts of the series to eachother, and provides a lot of context as to the real world origins of words he uses. Wolfe invents a lot less words that it seems at first glance, almost every unfamiliar word is either just a really rare/archaic word, or is invented, but pulled from a real life reference. Sadly, it's a book and not freely available, but what can you do.

This is a wiki about Wolfe's works, kind of hit or miss, but the list of obscure words is useful, and some of the analysis/discussion is good.

This is the best regarded in-depth literary analysis of the series, but it's super dense and not a straightforward explanation by any means.

There's also a super long running mailing list about gene wolfe's work, but good luck digging anything useful out of it, it's just way too much with no organization.

Ha -- there's even a Gene-Wolfe-specific dictionary out there (Urth-centric, and it's awesome, if you've got the bug for his stuff).

If you are really intrigued, there is always, Lexicon Urthus and The Solar Labyrinth both of which explain many of the terms used and have a great deal of in depth analysis. Both are available as ebooks as well.

This will help a lot.

Here's a book of theories. Some are probably crazy, but some of the stuff in here is surely correct, such as how to tell if a character is human, robot, or alien from their names.

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Awesome. I hope you enjoy it.

When you take the plunge, consider picking up a copy of Lexicon Urthus, it is an encyclopedia of words, characters and terms used in the Urth Cycle.

Most of what you encounter is easy to find with a simple google search but the reference book collects it all in one place and puts things in context for you. It can be a little spoilery if you look-up characters and read the full entry but if you stick to looking-up words I think it will be a great help.

The Urth List is a valuable resource as well. When you're done (or while reading) if you have theories or questions -- as you undoubtedly will -- you can search there and find a lot of old discussions and thoughts.


Still, now that I've written all of that I am not sure...looking back some of my enjoyment was not knowing what the hell was going on half the time.

I happen to like Lexicon Urthus, which helps organize the material. I happen to hate the Solar Labyrinth, which I think is a lot of silly imagining of things that aren't there.

The truth is that there aren't a lot of straight-forward answers with Gene Wolfe. We want there to be; we want Dr. Talos's play to make perfect sense, if only we had the answer key. But Wolfe's work thrives in ambiguity, and while there are some clues hidden, I think there are far fewer clues, and far fewer real answers, than most people do. The point isn't to understand in a conventional sense; I think it's to experience a kind of wonder.

As for your spoiler question: [Spoiler](/s "The woman wasn't actually ever harmed during the festival, and there's no evidence she was a robot. Actually, this is one of the rare places where Wolfe leaves some pretty credible clues: there's good evidence that that lady is Severian's mother.")

There's an entire book dedicated to the words in The Book of the New Sun.

http://www.amazon.com/Lexicon-Urthus-Dictionary-Urth-Cycle/dp/0964279517

There are no copies with glossaries or appendices to my knowledge. However, there is something almost as good: Lexicon Urthus.


It's an entirely separate book which contains all the of places, people, and strange objects and creatures mentioned in the books.

You may have been reading about one of his other books. Book of the Long Sun and Book of the Short Sun both have character lists in the front of the book.

There are actually a couple of books that try to piece together what actually happened in The New Sun: Solar Labyrinth: Exploring Gene Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun" and Lexicon Urthus: A Dictionary for the Urth Cycle. The latter is a dictionary, but a lot of entries have observations about plot developments, as well as etymology that sheds light on the intended (hidden) meaning. For example, did you know that the character of Baldanders is borrowed from Germany myth via Jorge Luius Borges' The Book of Imaginary Beings? The dictionary also has a plot summary. Solar Labyrinth is an in-depth analysis, which among other things posits that Nessus is a future version of Buenos Aires, and that [Spoiler](/s "Father Inire is Severian's father") (if I recall correctly). Of course, you already figured out the stuff about [Spoiler](/s "Dorcas (the 'dead' girl from the lake) being Severian's grandmother").

Be sure to check out some of the volumes (yes volumes) of literary review written about A Book of the New Sun.

I recommend Lexicon Urthus and Solar Labyrinth.

The essays therein really helped me reach a new appreciation for Wolfe's work and let me enjoy them on a new level.

Enjoyment will be increased by having a copy of the Lexicon Urthus to hand.

(http://www.amazon.com/Lexicon-Urthus-Dictionary-Urth-Cycle/dp/0964279517)

I think this is a good recommendation because the Book of the New Sun is so dense, like you said. But you're cruel for not suggesting he bring the Lexicon Urthus along with.

It was deep enough that it inspired others to write their own. That does not happen too often.

There's actually a dedicated lexicon published to define the words used in that series. It's a worthwhile purchase because it also gives insight on the plot, but for that reason it can also occasionally reveal some spoiler elements.

Wolfe claims that he only uses obscure English words, but his definition of the English language is very broad. I love language and word play and really liked leafing through Lexicon Urthus, which is a dictionary that was specifically made for The Book of the New Sun. My library happened to have a copy, so I used it, but it was by no means necessary.