As I
always understood it, Kinbote in his role as commentator and "publisher" of
"Pale Fire" the poem is the "wergeld" in relation to the slain
Shade.
But who is paying
vira (the Russian equivalent of "kinboot") for the murdered Shade?
Nabokov himself? Curious that vira (an obsolete, yet existing, word) is
close to both "Vyra" (the name of VN's family estate) and "Vera" (the name of
his wife).
Alexey