Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0010608, Sat, 20 Nov 2004 16:33:34 -0800

Subject
Re: Fwd: TT-23 Russ. "more" & Eng, Immemorial
Date
Body
Mary,
I´ve been wondering, with Akiko, why did VN name the sea in Russian (
"more" ). There is a connection bt. the old German word for "soul" (
"Seele"), and its mythological conception from the "sea" ( in German, "See",
I think ) but could not find my source. I know it came from Bruno
Bettelheim´s criticism about careless translations of Freud into English.
Apparently the souls of the dead arose from lakes and oceans, and this would
explain the link with See and Seele. And, who knows, with VN´s water
voices and even dorophones...
I agree with you concerning the feeling that brings up the Rumpelstitzschen
story (" who can discover my name?") .
Immemorial and even Lammerspitz bring up the significant "mère/mer" ( mother
and sea in French ).

Spitz and Stein point again to the mountainous Alps.
( I don´ t think VN would be familiar with psychologist Renée Spitz )
Jansy
---------------------------------------------------
EDCOMMENT. The usual Russian word for "sea" is "more". I suppose VN introduced
it as a sonic and sense rhyme with the "mor" in "immemorial." Or perhaps vice
versa.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2004 2:18 PM
Subject: Re: Fwd: TT-23 Introductory Notes


> At 06:33 PM 11/19/04 -0800, you [Akiko] wrote:
>
> >90.21, 22: Lammerspitz, Rimperstein: La mer (we have just seen the
> >"immemorial *more*") + spitz? We will be seeing a spitz in Ch. 26. Any
ideas
> >for Rimperstein?
>
> "Rimperstein" (perhaps especially after "--spitz") brings to my mind the
> unguessable name "Rumpelstiltzchen" from Grimm's Fairy-Tales, but so far
as
> I can find "rimper" is not a German word. It suggests wrinkly and rumpled.
>
> Again, Akiko's notes and others' additions and comments add tremendously
to
> my reading of TT.
>
> Mary Krimmel
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
>

----- End forwarded message -----