The Legend of Xi Cygnus

Publication(s)

• First publication
  • The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 43d Anniversary issue, October/Novermber 1992
• Wolfe collection(s)
  • Innocents Aboard
• Available online at http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-legend-of-xi-cygnus/

Wolfe's comments from the Introduction to Innocents Aboard

"'The Legend of Xi Cygnus' is a dream story. Once or twice I have had a dream that sparks a story; it reveals itself as a story-dream by demanding to be written down."

Summary

A moral fable about evil dwarfs and a giant who tries to control them.

Analysis

• Sources of quotes
• Meanings of names
• References to other works
• Theories about what happens under the surface, what the narrator isn't telling us, who the narrator is and when and why s/he is telling the story, what the whole thing "means," etc.
  If there are multiple or competing theories, each one should be given a name with a three-bang (!!!) header; if the page begins to get out-of-hand from the size of these, as could happen in a few cases, they should be shuffled off to their own page(s).
• Etc.

Unresolved Questions

• Was it A or was it B, or was it X or Z?
• Was it he or was it she, or was it you or me?
• Who dunnit?
• Did the Star Child really start WWIII at the end of 2001?

< The Waif | Innocents Aboard | The Sailor Who Sailed After the Sun >
Return to Online Stories