Page 17 - GALIET THE KING AND THE CORPSE: The Four Cardinal Corners and the Quest of the Blue Cloak, the Mask and the Sword IV GALIET THE KING AND THE CORPSE: The Four Cardinal Corners and the Quest of the Blue Cloak, The Mask and the Sword

not willing to go on his own quest to fetch Vetala himself. In the end, Vetala is the spiritual sword who, like Z’otz, the vampire of the Zotzil Tribes of the Maya, becomes the “tutelary god”9 of spirits. To find Vetala is to resurrect10, is to decipher the invisible lark that will carry us to the City of Gold11, the ultimate and grandest heaven, is to find the “force that through the green fuse drives the flower,”12 the “beyondesque,” the secret passage 3⁄4 el mas alla 3⁄4 and like a cataclysm, be touched by the embrace of the giver of gifts who deciphers one’s real identity, who gives the invincible Beethovenian sword that bequeaths tears of joy that nurture the red grounds holy. In this holy ground, we become confluent estrellantes estrellos13 tessellated with light.
Somaveda not only has achieved his thematic goals through effective and immaculate characterization, but he has also made a brilliant and effective treatment of symbolism and setting that stirs images of the struggle between good and evil, knowledge and ignorance and virtue and vice by juxtaposing the blue cloak,
9 Biedermann, Hans. Dictionary of Symbolism. New York: Penguin Books and Meridian Books, 1992. 30.
10 One of the many themes explored in the stories is resurrection. I have used the word resurrect to also mean rebirth as in the cycles of reincarnation; however, the literal meaning of these words are quite different.
11 Allusion to the story of City of Gold.
12 Thomas, Dylan. Collected Poems 1934 – 1952. New York: New Directions, 1953. 10. 13 “Starried Stars” from the Spanish.
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