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----- Forwarded message from michaeldonohue@hotmail.com -----
Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 23:15:37 -0400
From: Michael Donohue <michaeldonohue@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: Michael Donohue <michaeldonohue@hotmail.com>
Subject: Steinmanns and crown jewels
---------------- Message requiring your approval (196 lines)
------------------
Dear AB and everyone else,
I suggest that the steinmanns are important because one of them is a marker
for the burial
site of the Zemblan crown jewels.
Let me explain. Forgive the long e-mail that follows.
Of all the puzzles of Pale Fire, the one that most stands out is the hunt
for the crown jewels. Kinbote constantly calls our attention to the mystery
of their hiding place. When discussing the Russian pair, Niagarin and
Andronnikov, who have been sent to find the crown jewels, Kinbote expresses,
with more than "pardonable satisfaction," that the jewels "were, and still
are, cached in a totally different--and quite unexpected--corner of Zembla"
(244). He later tells us that Graduss suitcase and raincoat are probably
still in a train station locker, "as snug as my gemmed scepter, ruby
necklace, and diamond-studded crown in--no matter, where" (276). The index
entry for Charles II begs us to look up the entry for the jewels: "q.v. by
all means" (306).
It is the loudest, most emphasized puzzle in the novel, and yet it seems to
have the least inspired solution. Everyone (Boyd, Johnson, etc.) seems to
agree that the jewels are in Kobaltana--as of course they are. But cant we
be more specific than that? (And perhaps someone has--please correct me
if I've overlooked it.)
Nabokov sort of called the jewel hunt to a halt by saying, in the 1967
interview with Appel, that the jewels were "in the ruins, sir, of some old
barracks in Kobaltana (q.v.); but do not tell it to the Russians." (Strong
Opinions, 92).
Its a disappointingly vague solution to a puzzle that calls such
extravagant attention to itself. I used to think that it was the whole
solution. But some of my students, over the past five years, have convinced
me otherwise.
Here is what weve come up with:
The crown jewels are in Kobaltana--yes. But theres more.
1) The king passes through Kobaltana, and sees the hiding place (or taynik),
during his trek over the Bera mountain range.
2)The jewels are buried under a steinmann.
3) Kinbote cannot resist the temptation to call our attention to their
precise hiding place.
Lets start from the beginning. Here is the usual solution to the puzzle.
1. Index: Andronikov and Niagarin: "Russian experts in search of buried
treasure." Conclusion: the jewels are buried.
2. Index: Niagarin and Andronikov: "Russian 'experts' still in search of
buried treasure." Note the scare quotes: now theyre not real experts.
Solution: jewels' location comes somewhere between the two entries, between
A and N.
3. The most suspicious entry in the index is the one for Kobaltana: "a once
fashionable mountain resort near the ruins of some old barracks now a cold
and desolate spot of difficult access and no importance but still remembered
in military families and forest castles, not in the text." (310) Because of
the entry, we can say that the jewels are buried in Kobaltana.
This is where everyone usually stops. But I humbly suggest that we can go
further. We can say where Kobaltana is; we can point directly to the taynik;
we can even speculate about how the jewels got there.
Here goes:
When kept captive in the palace, Charles the Beloved was moved from his
original room
because he was accused of using a "fops hand mirror" (121) to signal to
someone. This being a Nabokov novel, were inclined to suspect that the king
probably was, in fact, signalling to someone. What can be seen from his
window? Who could be receiving signals from the hand mirror?
We learn (119) that "one could make out with the help of field glasses lithe
youths diving into the swimming pool of a fairy tale sport club, and the
English ambassador in old-fashioned flannels playing tennis with the Basque
coach on a clay court as remote as paradise." With the "fops hand mirror"
he was able to signal to the tennis courts; and we just happen to know the
identity of a certain "tennis ace" named Julius Steinmann, "son of the well
known philanthropist" (153), after whom--perhaps?--the "steinmann" (Zemblan
for "cairn") was named. (Or is "steinmann" a real German term for "cairn"?)
Julius Steinmann is called "an especially brilliant impersonator of the
King" (153), which will be very important in a minute. Young Steinmann
could also have received information--and the jewels themselves--from Odon,
since we also know that "through [Odon] the king kept in touch with numerous
adherents, young nobles, artists, college athletes, gamblers, Black Rose
paladins, members of fencing clubs, and other men of fashion and adventure"
(120). The Keeper of the Treasure, one Baron Bland, "had a helper" (243),
who we might presume was Odon. Could the king have been signalling his
preferred hiding place for the jewels?
Then the King escapes. He is dropped by Odon "at the edge of the Mandevil
Forest" (139). Mandevil Forest is near Kobaltana: it is near a "once
fashionable mountain resort"--something we can deduce from the following
information. Charless English tutor once sprained his ankle during "a
picnic in
the Mandevil Forest" (124). After Odon drops the king off near the Mandevil
Forest,
Charles remembers "the times he had picnicked hereabouts--in another part of
the forest but on the same mountainside, and higher up, as a boy, on the
boulderfield where Mr. Campbell had once twisted an ankle and had to be
carried down, smoking his pipe, by two husky attendants. Rather dull
memories, on the whole. Wasnt there a hunting box nearby--just beyond
Silfhar Falls? Good capercaillie and woodcock shooting--a sport much enjoyed
by his late mother Queen Blenda, a tweedy and horsy queen" (139). Sounds
like a "mountainous resort" was nearby.
So weve found the mountainous resort. Kobaltana could be nearby. But what
about the "ruins of the old barracks"? Do we know of any military
installations in Zembla? We know that they havent had any wars during
Charless reign ("Mars never marred his record," 75) but there are a couple
of references to military activity--indeed, there are references to
Charless military service. There is one time in his life when he spends
half his time "with his regiment" (104), and when he stays in the peasant
Griffs house he sees a "a color print" of himself as "an elegant guardsman"
(141). This doesnt prove much, but it does associate the location--Mandevil
Forest, where Griff lives--with Charles in a military uniform (where he
would have made a lot of mischief in the barracks?). This is a stretch, I
know.
When the king ascends further up the mountainside (getting near the mountain
resort where he once picnicked with Campbell), he sees a "red-sweatered,
red-capped doubleganger" (143) whom he at first mistakes for his own
reflection. It would take an "especially brilliant impersonator" (153) to
give the appearance of ones own reflection; only the aforementioned Julius
Steinmann could pull it off. After the impersonator disappears, the King
shudders with "alfear (uncontrollable fear caused by elves)"; he murmurs "a
family prayer," crosses himself, and moves on.
Then he sees that "upon an adjacent ridge a steinmann (a heap of stones
erected as a memento of an ascent) had donned a cap of red wool in his
honor." The crown jewels, I think, are buried here. Why? Because immediately
after walking on, when he reaches the pass in the very next paragraph--when
he looks out and observes the beauty of the Bera mountain range--he
describes the mountains as though they were jewels in a box. Look at the
passage: he is describing a box of precious jewels:
"Northward melted the green, gray, bluish mountains--Falkberg with its hood
of snow [a pearl ring?], Mutraberg with the fan of its avalanche [isnt a
fan a common design on earrings and pendants?], Paberg (Mt. Peacock), and
others,--separated by narrow dim valleys with intercalated cotton-wool bits
of cloud that seemed placed between the receding sets of ridges to prevent
their flanks from scraping against one another [as cotton-wool separates
jewels in a box]. Beyond them, in the final blue, loomed Mt. Glitterntin
[glitter], a serrated edge of bright foil ["a thin layer of metal placed
under a gem in a closed setting to improve its color or brilliancy"
-Websters]; and southward, a tender haze enveloped more distant ridges
which led to one another in an endless array, through every grade of soft
evanescence." (144)
Later, in the index, the Bera Range is described as "glittering" (305). Note
also that Kinbote has put great emphasis on the difficulty of the
climb--meaning that the hiding place would be, as the Kobaltana entry
mandates, "a spot of difficult access." This is the Kings surreptitious
tribute to his familys jewelry.
He is calling our attention to two things at once: the jewelry-like
appearance of the mountains, and the strange phallus-like tribute of the
steinmann. Remember Disas reaction to news of their hiding place?
"Perfunctorily she inquired about the crown jewels; he revealed to her their
unusual hiding place, and she melted in girlish mirth as she had not done
for years and years." (212) "Girlish mirth"? Something is funny about their
location. Why would she laugh if they were merely hidden in some barracks?
She laughs because the crown jewels are under an erect phallus: a
"steinmann" with its "red cap" is above the--ahem--family jewels.
If the jewels are under the steinmann, its easier to explain
why, at the novels end, Kinbote puts such importance on the steinmann:
"What theme?" said Shade absently, as he leaned on my arm and gradually
recovered the use of his numb limb.
"Our blue inenubilable Zembla, and the red-capped Steinmann, and the
motorboat in the sea cave, and--" (288)
There are problems to the solution. For example, why would
Steinmann wait until the king escaped to go hide the jewels? Isn't this
solution contradicted by Nabokov himself in the 1967 interview? (Why, at
least, did Nabokov say the jewels were "in" the barracks rather than "near"
them?) Is it an absurd leap to say that the jewels are under a steinmann
just because we see a man likely to be Steinmann right before we see an
especially noteworthy steinmann, followed by a jewel-like mountain range?
There are probably many other problems. This, at least, is what I and some
high school students in Brooklyn came up with. For the few people with the
patience to read this far, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Respectfully,
Mike Donohue
----- End forwarded message -----
Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 23:15:37 -0400
From: Michael Donohue <michaeldonohue@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: Michael Donohue <michaeldonohue@hotmail.com>
Subject: Steinmanns and crown jewels
---------------- Message requiring your approval (196 lines)
------------------
Dear AB and everyone else,
I suggest that the steinmanns are important because one of them is a marker
for the burial
site of the Zemblan crown jewels.
Let me explain. Forgive the long e-mail that follows.
Of all the puzzles of Pale Fire, the one that most stands out is the hunt
for the crown jewels. Kinbote constantly calls our attention to the mystery
of their hiding place. When discussing the Russian pair, Niagarin and
Andronnikov, who have been sent to find the crown jewels, Kinbote expresses,
with more than "pardonable satisfaction," that the jewels "were, and still
are, cached in a totally different--and quite unexpected--corner of Zembla"
(244). He later tells us that Graduss suitcase and raincoat are probably
still in a train station locker, "as snug as my gemmed scepter, ruby
necklace, and diamond-studded crown in--no matter, where" (276). The index
entry for Charles II begs us to look up the entry for the jewels: "q.v. by
all means" (306).
It is the loudest, most emphasized puzzle in the novel, and yet it seems to
have the least inspired solution. Everyone (Boyd, Johnson, etc.) seems to
agree that the jewels are in Kobaltana--as of course they are. But cant we
be more specific than that? (And perhaps someone has--please correct me
if I've overlooked it.)
Nabokov sort of called the jewel hunt to a halt by saying, in the 1967
interview with Appel, that the jewels were "in the ruins, sir, of some old
barracks in Kobaltana (q.v.); but do not tell it to the Russians." (Strong
Opinions, 92).
Its a disappointingly vague solution to a puzzle that calls such
extravagant attention to itself. I used to think that it was the whole
solution. But some of my students, over the past five years, have convinced
me otherwise.
Here is what weve come up with:
The crown jewels are in Kobaltana--yes. But theres more.
1) The king passes through Kobaltana, and sees the hiding place (or taynik),
during his trek over the Bera mountain range.
2)The jewels are buried under a steinmann.
3) Kinbote cannot resist the temptation to call our attention to their
precise hiding place.
Lets start from the beginning. Here is the usual solution to the puzzle.
1. Index: Andronikov and Niagarin: "Russian experts in search of buried
treasure." Conclusion: the jewels are buried.
2. Index: Niagarin and Andronikov: "Russian 'experts' still in search of
buried treasure." Note the scare quotes: now theyre not real experts.
Solution: jewels' location comes somewhere between the two entries, between
A and N.
3. The most suspicious entry in the index is the one for Kobaltana: "a once
fashionable mountain resort near the ruins of some old barracks now a cold
and desolate spot of difficult access and no importance but still remembered
in military families and forest castles, not in the text." (310) Because of
the entry, we can say that the jewels are buried in Kobaltana.
This is where everyone usually stops. But I humbly suggest that we can go
further. We can say where Kobaltana is; we can point directly to the taynik;
we can even speculate about how the jewels got there.
Here goes:
When kept captive in the palace, Charles the Beloved was moved from his
original room
because he was accused of using a "fops hand mirror" (121) to signal to
someone. This being a Nabokov novel, were inclined to suspect that the king
probably was, in fact, signalling to someone. What can be seen from his
window? Who could be receiving signals from the hand mirror?
We learn (119) that "one could make out with the help of field glasses lithe
youths diving into the swimming pool of a fairy tale sport club, and the
English ambassador in old-fashioned flannels playing tennis with the Basque
coach on a clay court as remote as paradise." With the "fops hand mirror"
he was able to signal to the tennis courts; and we just happen to know the
identity of a certain "tennis ace" named Julius Steinmann, "son of the well
known philanthropist" (153), after whom--perhaps?--the "steinmann" (Zemblan
for "cairn") was named. (Or is "steinmann" a real German term for "cairn"?)
Julius Steinmann is called "an especially brilliant impersonator of the
King" (153), which will be very important in a minute. Young Steinmann
could also have received information--and the jewels themselves--from Odon,
since we also know that "through [Odon] the king kept in touch with numerous
adherents, young nobles, artists, college athletes, gamblers, Black Rose
paladins, members of fencing clubs, and other men of fashion and adventure"
(120). The Keeper of the Treasure, one Baron Bland, "had a helper" (243),
who we might presume was Odon. Could the king have been signalling his
preferred hiding place for the jewels?
Then the King escapes. He is dropped by Odon "at the edge of the Mandevil
Forest" (139). Mandevil Forest is near Kobaltana: it is near a "once
fashionable mountain resort"--something we can deduce from the following
information. Charless English tutor once sprained his ankle during "a
picnic in
the Mandevil Forest" (124). After Odon drops the king off near the Mandevil
Forest,
Charles remembers "the times he had picnicked hereabouts--in another part of
the forest but on the same mountainside, and higher up, as a boy, on the
boulderfield where Mr. Campbell had once twisted an ankle and had to be
carried down, smoking his pipe, by two husky attendants. Rather dull
memories, on the whole. Wasnt there a hunting box nearby--just beyond
Silfhar Falls? Good capercaillie and woodcock shooting--a sport much enjoyed
by his late mother Queen Blenda, a tweedy and horsy queen" (139). Sounds
like a "mountainous resort" was nearby.
So weve found the mountainous resort. Kobaltana could be nearby. But what
about the "ruins of the old barracks"? Do we know of any military
installations in Zembla? We know that they havent had any wars during
Charless reign ("Mars never marred his record," 75) but there are a couple
of references to military activity--indeed, there are references to
Charless military service. There is one time in his life when he spends
half his time "with his regiment" (104), and when he stays in the peasant
Griffs house he sees a "a color print" of himself as "an elegant guardsman"
(141). This doesnt prove much, but it does associate the location--Mandevil
Forest, where Griff lives--with Charles in a military uniform (where he
would have made a lot of mischief in the barracks?). This is a stretch, I
know.
When the king ascends further up the mountainside (getting near the mountain
resort where he once picnicked with Campbell), he sees a "red-sweatered,
red-capped doubleganger" (143) whom he at first mistakes for his own
reflection. It would take an "especially brilliant impersonator" (153) to
give the appearance of ones own reflection; only the aforementioned Julius
Steinmann could pull it off. After the impersonator disappears, the King
shudders with "alfear (uncontrollable fear caused by elves)"; he murmurs "a
family prayer," crosses himself, and moves on.
Then he sees that "upon an adjacent ridge a steinmann (a heap of stones
erected as a memento of an ascent) had donned a cap of red wool in his
honor." The crown jewels, I think, are buried here. Why? Because immediately
after walking on, when he reaches the pass in the very next paragraph--when
he looks out and observes the beauty of the Bera mountain range--he
describes the mountains as though they were jewels in a box. Look at the
passage: he is describing a box of precious jewels:
"Northward melted the green, gray, bluish mountains--Falkberg with its hood
of snow [a pearl ring?], Mutraberg with the fan of its avalanche [isnt a
fan a common design on earrings and pendants?], Paberg (Mt. Peacock), and
others,--separated by narrow dim valleys with intercalated cotton-wool bits
of cloud that seemed placed between the receding sets of ridges to prevent
their flanks from scraping against one another [as cotton-wool separates
jewels in a box]. Beyond them, in the final blue, loomed Mt. Glitterntin
[glitter], a serrated edge of bright foil ["a thin layer of metal placed
under a gem in a closed setting to improve its color or brilliancy"
-Websters]; and southward, a tender haze enveloped more distant ridges
which led to one another in an endless array, through every grade of soft
evanescence." (144)
Later, in the index, the Bera Range is described as "glittering" (305). Note
also that Kinbote has put great emphasis on the difficulty of the
climb--meaning that the hiding place would be, as the Kobaltana entry
mandates, "a spot of difficult access." This is the Kings surreptitious
tribute to his familys jewelry.
He is calling our attention to two things at once: the jewelry-like
appearance of the mountains, and the strange phallus-like tribute of the
steinmann. Remember Disas reaction to news of their hiding place?
"Perfunctorily she inquired about the crown jewels; he revealed to her their
unusual hiding place, and she melted in girlish mirth as she had not done
for years and years." (212) "Girlish mirth"? Something is funny about their
location. Why would she laugh if they were merely hidden in some barracks?
She laughs because the crown jewels are under an erect phallus: a
"steinmann" with its "red cap" is above the--ahem--family jewels.
If the jewels are under the steinmann, its easier to explain
why, at the novels end, Kinbote puts such importance on the steinmann:
"What theme?" said Shade absently, as he leaned on my arm and gradually
recovered the use of his numb limb.
"Our blue inenubilable Zembla, and the red-capped Steinmann, and the
motorboat in the sea cave, and--" (288)
There are problems to the solution. For example, why would
Steinmann wait until the king escaped to go hide the jewels? Isn't this
solution contradicted by Nabokov himself in the 1967 interview? (Why, at
least, did Nabokov say the jewels were "in" the barracks rather than "near"
them?) Is it an absurd leap to say that the jewels are under a steinmann
just because we see a man likely to be Steinmann right before we see an
especially noteworthy steinmann, followed by a jewel-like mountain range?
There are probably many other problems. This, at least, is what I and some
high school students in Brooklyn came up with. For the few people with the
patience to read this far, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Respectfully,
Mike Donohue
----- End forwarded message -----