La Befana

Publication(s)

• First publication
  • Galaxy, January 1973
• Wolfe collection(s)
  • The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories (1980)
  • Gene Wolfe’s Book of Days (1981)
  • Castle of Days (1992)
  • The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009)
• Other reprints
  • Best SF: 1973, ed. Harry Harrison & Brian W. Aldiss, G.P. Putnam’s 1974
  • The Best from Galaxy, Volume II, ed. Editors of Galaxy, Award 1974
  • The Year’s Best Science Fiction No. 7, ed. Harry Harrison & Brian W. Aldiss, Sphere 1975
  • To Follow a Star, ed. Terry Carr, Thomas Nelson 1977

Comments

• La Befana is a figure from Italian folklore who goes from home to home in search of the Christ child.

Interpretations

• Bananas says "It's like she wasn't my mother at all." With her last words in the story, the old woman reveals that this is correct; she is La Befana, here to see the Baby Jesus on this new planet so that she can finally die.

Unanswered Questions

< Alien Stones | The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories | The Hero as Werwolf >

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