SS made a remark, concerning one recent posting by Jansy: To the contrary, your idea that "black giant" in Kinbote's comment can be an allusion to the folklore of some slavic people looks to me not convincing at all - VN didn't like folklore, didn't use it as a source of allusions, not to speak of the folklore of some small slavic people, and would not use it to characterize a personage, even Kinbote.

JM: Dear Sergei, could you please tell me where did I make that remark about black giants and slavic folklore? I could not find it in my archives, nor do I remember what I might have written about it.

While "googling" to check this issue I found an old VN-posting of 1994: " Roy Johnson's book on VN's short stories: In 'The Thunderstorm' (July 1924), Nabokov took as his central idea the Russian folk belief that the Old Testament prophet Elijah rode his chariot in the sky during thunderstorms. He pushed the element of narrative ambiguity to a point which makes it difficult for the reader to understand exactly what has happened in any realistic sense. This particular type of ambiguity, and the fact that the story involves a character from the Bible, are features which Nabokov did not repeat in any of his subsequent stories...."

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.