Alexey: As to King Alfin, I
think B. Boyd in his book links him in to Alphina, the youngest of Judge
Goldsworth's four daughters.
JM: If King Alfin is related to Alphina, then the
indication must lead us somewhere else, perhaps to "first born" (alpha) or
to "infinity" ( "Alf" - as used in the original "A Thousand nights and
One night"). Unfortunately I tend to grow attached to one interpretation ( river
Alph, and something vaguely related to Hamlet, Oedipous and bad
uncles),so I find myself prejudiced against the others*...
..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
* Someone sent me a message with the image of an old lady typing away in
her laptop with a warning about recent researches which show that
laptops have been sucking up grannies into cyberspace.
It was sent in German: V O R S I C H T
!!!!!! In letzter Zeit wurden vermehrt
Personen "über 40"
plötzlich vom PC verschluckt! Im nachhinein hat man festgestellt, dass sie die
Tasten
"ALT" und "ENTFERNEN" gleichzeitig gedrückt
haben!
It means that after turning 40 (how kind) one should
never press ALT ( meaning OLD) and "Entgernen" (meaning DELETE). I thought
the word for Delete, in German, was so curious because it suggests "alienation,
setting at a distance, rremoving." When I checked in the google I discovered
that it's been distinguished by Heidegger from
"Abstand". "Delete" now would correspond to the English "Deseverance"
(
Martin
Heidegger, Martin
Heidegger - 1978 -