McKinley: more about marsh-magic

i have some more questions about "marsh-magic," but don't worry, they won't spoil the story for those of you that haven't read it yet, and even if you haven't read it you might have an opinion on some of them since they have to do with damar, luthe, etc...

1. "There were tales,of course,of the mages who lived alone for centuries in the mountains...[but] surely a mage's powers are too dangerous to be held by anyone with more than one human lifetime's experience of the world?"(324). well, since luthe is one of those centuries old mages, does that mean part of the reason he stayed away from humanity was because he feared he might be dangerous among them,that, although he would never willingly do them harm, he might, not knowing his own strength, unwittingly harm them? is that part of the reason he secluded himself? "The magic a mage learns to handle is a trickier thing, and it does not run in the blood in the same way; the talent for it does, but not the thing itself"(335). the marsh-dwellers' magic sounds sort of like kelar, that runs in the blood, but since only the talent for magic runs in a mage's blood, does that mean luthe and other mages don't have kelar? i forget - do only those of royal blood have kelar? or does luthe ha!
 ve kelar in the blood As Well As
the mage's talent for magic, making him even more powerful?

2. there's a desert mentioned "marsh-magic" - do those of you who've read the story think this is the damarian desert of harry's time? the story seems to be set closer to aerin's time, but maybe it takes place between aerin's time and harry's? why did the damarian topography of aerin's time change so drastically from green land to desert anyway? did it start with maur's head crashing down and creating maur's plain and then spread from there?
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Received on Fri Mar 5 09:41:34 1999