The Bolt of Tash

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Shield Maiden
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The Bolt of Tash

Post by Shield Maiden » Sat Mar 19, 2016 3:33 am

So I'm reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and there's this quote:

"I had feelings of affection, and they were required by detestation and scorn. Man, you may hate; but beware! Your hours will pass in dread and misery, and soon the bolt will fall which must ravage you from your happiness for ever. Are you to be happy, while I grovel in the intensity of my wretchedness?"

Further down reads this:

"Devil, cease; and do not poison the air with these sounds if malice. I have declared by resolution to you, and I am no coward to bend beneath words. Leave me; I am inexorable."

So of course my first thought was to "the bolt of Tash falls from above" and "Tash the inexorable."
From this I conclude that a bolt is some sort of revenge or punishment on a human scale.

Thoughts?

(Plus the language between the Calormens and the characters in Frankenstein is remarkably similar. This is also similar to the language used in other classic novels from prior to that time period. I'm wondering if Lewis modelled the Calormen speech after classic literature, or if this is just a coincidence.)
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Lily of Archenland
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Re: The Bolt of Tash

Post by Lily of Archenland » Wed Apr 13, 2016 4:30 am

I always thought of bolt in the sense of a lightning-bolt - but I think it's also a sort weapon fired from a distance, as in crossbow-bolts? Maybe that's where the name for lightning-bolts came from, as well - a weapon of fire and light thrown from the sky. <3

As for the linguistic similarities, they seem to make sense. :) The Calormens are old-fashioned/traditionalists, and also have flowery proverbs for poetry. And Frankenstein was written in an older time than Lewis's, while still recent enough for the language to be recognizable, and was written by somebody who hung out with poets and some scholars suspect was stylistically influenced by her poet-husband.
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Re: The Bolt of Tash

Post by HermitoftheNorthernMarch » Tue Apr 19, 2016 12:37 am

Maybe, C. S. Lewis did read many books.

(I always thought of the Bolt of Tash being like a lightning bolt, but it could also be a reference to that he's a sort of bird man. Maybe they think he's supposed to drop out of the sky like a seagull diving into the waves to catch fish.)
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Re: The Bolt of Tash

Post by Swanwhite » Tue May 03, 2016 12:13 am

I think the connection is chiefly the idea of a sudden vengeance. As in everything may look good for you now, but all of a sudden you're going to be in trouble and then you'll regret messing with me.
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