Mapping the Palace: Part II

<< Go back to: Mapping the Palace: Part I

Palace or Castle?

Before we go any farther, I will address what I find to be a somewhat bizarre phenomenon. Beginning in the Merlin Chronicles, Zelazny starts to use the term "Castle" to describe the palace in Amber. This stands in contrast to the long-established use of "palace" to describe the building of the royal residence, which begins in Nine Princes in Amber ("...a hiding place I knew of within the palace") and continues throughout the Corwin chronicles, as well as the first few Merlin books. Indeed, the word "palace" is used 14 times in NPIA, 5 times in TGOA, 13 times in SOTU, 9 times in THOO, and once in TCOC. So central is the word to our understanding of the palace, that in SOTU and TCOC "palace" is used by Zelazny in the opening paragraphs of both books. Conversely, the word "castle" is not used a single time in NPIA, is used twice in TGOA to refer specifically to the Keep of Ganelon (creating, in fact, a contrast to the palace in Amber), and it is never used in the remaining three Corwin books.

Even well into the Merlin books, the word "palace" continues to be the label of choice; it is used 4 times in TOD, even though most of the book's action takes place outside Amber. Across BOA and SOC, in which Merlin spends many chapters in Amber, Zelazny uses "palace" to describe Amber's royal home a total of 17 times across these two books. 

The phrase "Amber Castle" is first introduced in Trumps of Doom, just once, as BIll Roth says, 

However, Merlin continues to refer to it as "palace" for two more books, leaving us to wonder whether Bill's status as an Earthling and an Amber newbie causes him to say "castle". It is not until SOC Ch. 3 that Merlin says "The castle came awake about me as I worked", marking the first time in either series that the protagonist uses "castle" to describe the palace in Amber. Even still, Merlin will go on to refer to the building as the "palace" throughout the remainder of SOC.

Then finally, in Knight of Shadows Ch. 3, Merlin invokes the phrase "Castle Amber" when he meets the Pattern-ghost of Oberon ("We had never met, but I had seen his likeness in many places in Castle Amber"). Again, in Ch. 7, he says: "These are amazingly like a section of caverns in Kolvir beneath Amber Castle", and then in Ch. 11: "One of Castle Amber's intriguing anomalies, the Corridor of Mirrors." Although "palace" will continue to be used a few times in KOS -- most notably by Random when he says "-ucking Lord of Chaos blowing up my palace!" (KOS, Ch. 10) -- there is no getting over the fact that the phrase "Castle Amber" (or, "Amber Castle") has been irrevocably introduced in this ninth book of the official Amber series.

So what gives? Taking a look at the publication timeline of the books...

1987 Sign of Chaos
1988 Neil Randall's Visual Guide to Castle Amber
1989 Knight of Shadows
1991 Prince of Chaos

The timing of this introduction of the term "castle" can hardly be a coincidence. Did the Neil Randall book influence Zelazny's writing? Zelazny was working on KOS at the time of his meetings with Randall and the other contributors to Visual Guide. And though they were allowed to read an unpublished draft of SOC as part of their research, the only Zelazny use of "Castle Amber" that Randall would have know about was the one Bill Roth line from TOD. Did that line influence the title of the Randall book?

Another factor worth considering is that the Palace in Kashfa comes onto the scene in KOS, perhaps creating a need for differentiation that led Zelazny to lean more on "Castle Amber" when referring to the palace in Amber. But this is speculation.

Finally, there is this one last reference to the palace in Amber in the final book, Prince of Chaos:

This is the first and only time "Amber Palace" is used with this capitalization and phrasing.

So, stepping back, what is the difference between a palace and a castle? Oxford tells us that a palace is "the official residence of a sovereign, archbishop, bishop, or other exalted person", while a castle is "a large building, typically of the medieval period, fortified against attack with thick walls, battlements, towers, and in many cases a moat." Which is to say, a palace is defined by being the home of a sovereign, whereas a castle may (or may not) be occupied by a sovereign. In this sense, a palace is usually a "higher order" of building versus a castle. And why would not the royal residence of Oberon and his princes and princesses be the highest, most exalted building in Amber? 

Put another way, if Oberon's home is merely a castle, then there can be no palaces in Amber. So the adoption of "Castle Amber" in KOS feels a bit like a downgrade.

In the end, I am not able to represent the inner workings of Zelazny's mind on this topic. But we can note this very obvious shift, and we can think about the meaning of these words. And ultimately, I can only conclude the following: (a) "palace" was Zelazny's original impulse, (b) "palace" is used way more often, on the whole, than "castle", (c) "palace" is used by King Random as late as Knight of Shadows, and (d) therefore "palace" should be considered the more useful term to use when trying to conceptualize and visualize this structure of "perfection" that lives in the hearts and minds of Amber fans.

Visual Guide: Context 

For context, we can start with Neil Randall's version: "We invaded his house. It's as simple as that. For four days we occupied the peak hours of Roger Zelazny's day... [we] peppered him with question after interminable question about Castle Amber... To Roger Zelazny, our greatest thanks. For his help, for his hospitality, and for letting us watch him uncover the world he loves." This, from the introduction to Visual Guide, leaves little room for doubt that Zelazny supported this endeavor.

The writer Warren Lapine, who knew Zelazny, says:

This is corroborated by Zelazny himself, who said:

And this makes sense; Visual Guide was published ahead of a an already-written Sign of Chaos, and while Zelazny was presumably still working on Knight of Shadows. The palace explosion in KOS is essentially the Amber "send off", since Prince of Chaos takes place almost entirely in The Courts of Chaos. And Zelazny had plans to revisit the Amber series with further books. (In an interview with Theodore Krulik, Zelazny said, “I have enough material about Amber to write three more Amber novels after the tenth one, but I’ll do it somewhere down the road rather than very soon.")

Regardless of how onboard he was with the project, how much Zelazny agreed with the final vision of "Castle Amber" in Visual Guide remains unclear. Did he destroy it only because he did not want to be constrained in the future? Or did it not fully align with his vision for the Amber universe? This remains an open question for me.

Visual Guide: Content

And so what of the content in the book? 

On the one hand, many of the details pertaining to the layout of the palace (or "Castle") align exactly with the text-based descriptions shared in this article. This is especially true of anything coming around or after the publication of Visual Guide. For example, the arrangement of the living apartments of many of the princes and princesses of Amber, on the 2nd floor, is so accurate that I suspect Zelazny even referred direclty to Visual Guide as he completed Knight of Shadows. The descriptions of Merlin's foot traffic across the 2nd floor, leading up to the explosion in Ch. 10, are particularly spot on in terms of corridors, corners, and doors.

On the other hand, there are a number of liberties, contradictions, and outright mistakes. Chief among the liberties is the idea that palace started out as a simple motte-and-bailey, and was built up over time to become the palace that we first see in NPIA. Given that Amber is the first of Shadows, cast by the Primal Pattern, the essence of Order, and given that Shadows are the stuff of infinite possibility, there is every reason to imagine a range of scenarios here -- including one in which the very first instantiation of Amber included a fully formed and magnificent palace. We do not need to necessarily imagine Oberon starting his family in semi-meager conditions, and building toward the immortal city. Like other Shadows, Amber sprung into existence from Dworkin's imagination, forged "by lightening, blood, and lyre," and there certainly could have been a fully formed city and palace when he finished creating the Pattern.

Related to this, the architectural style proposed in Visual Guide is quite liberal, and both builds upon a potentially flimsy premise (started as motte-and-bailey, and grew from there), while standing in contradiction to some key mental images that Zelazny's original text conjures. Chief among these is this sequence from SOTU:

This tower Corwin visits is not four stories high, or even five or six. To have a view of the entire city, all the way to the sea, with people appearing as "tiny" and "discountable", this would need to be a very tall tower indeed. If we add to this these two additional phrases -- "There were buildings, all of them fragile and most of them high" (NPIA, Ch. 5) and "thy green and golden spires" (NPIA, Ch. 5) -- then we can round out this picture of a more fantastical and vertical architecture that what is presented in Visual Guide.

Finally, the renderings in Visual Guide are simply quite basic and medieval in nature. The brick exterior reminds us of the original construction of Henry VIII's Hampton Court, but far less impressive. Is this a majestic palace, or just a very large fort?

And the interiors are extremely basic. The rendering of the library, for example, feels like the simplest of wood and stone construction from the Dark Ages. 

All in all, the imagery stands in opposition to what Corwin describes as "the magnificence that lay all about me", as he is dragged through the palace in NPIA. Are we to believe this glorified medieval fort is a place so "perfect" that you cannot even judge it?

The Treatment of the Princes & Princesses

One area of tremendous liberty taken involves the private rooms of the individual princes and princesses. In these descriptions, Visual Guide invents backstories for a number of Amberites that involve histories on Shadow Earth. We are to believe that Gerard played football for Alabama's Crimson Tide, that Caine owns the ship wheel from the Pinta, that Eric collected the works of John Locke, that Deirdre lived in the Dakota and was the first person to comfort Yoko Ono following John Lennon's assassination, and more.

All of this business with Amberites on Shadow Earth stands in contrast to how Zelazny presents the royal family's relationship to Shadow Earth. In Eric's letter-to-Corwin in TGOA, he calls Earth a "squalid Shadow". Brand, speaking of Flora, remarks upon "that Shadow Earth she pretended so to enjoy." And Fiona refers to Shadow Earth as "that funny little place." The sense we all had on the first read of NPIA was that Eric had dumped Corwin in a small, insignificant, and plague-ridden corner of the Shadow-verse, hoping he would never be found. The magic of the book is that this "funny little place" turns out to be our (the readers') "real world", even though for Amberites it is just one more meaningless variation on a theme somewhere in the infinitude of possibility. The fact that Flora stumbles upon it 200 Earth years after Corwin's exile is mere coincidence, bolstered by the heavily implied (if not almost explicit) idea that Corwin's presence would have "strengthened" the Shadow, making it more likely Flora would find this particular version of Earth. Not until Merlin and Rinaldo are we led to believe than any Amberites besides Corwin and Flora (and occasional relatives visiting Flora) have any real relationship to Shadow Earth.

So for Shadow Earth to then suddenly take on this role of importance -- even in ways that pre-date Corwin's exile (the Pinta sailed 100 Earth years before Corwin's arrival in plague-stricken London) -- would just change the whole tenor and premise of Shadow Earth in a way that I cannot find palatable.

Other Mistakes

Finally, there are some outright mistakes made in Visual Guide that merit highlighting:

• The "Great Hall" is cast in Visual Guide as both the Dining Hall (the one that leads to the Dungeons) and the Throne Room -- "This is the room where the guards led Corwin, during the ceremony in which Eric was crowned king" (VGTCA, p. 31) --but we know there is clearly a separate Throne Room on the ground floor, which is described multiple times in the Corwin chronicles. Notably, Corwin is dragged from the Dining Hall to the Throne Room, in a "procession" that described as "all the way to the throne room" (NPIA). Therefore the Dining Hall cannot be where the throne is.

• "The Great Hall... it was here that Random brought Vialle, for a feast in her honor, after she returned with him from Rebma as his wife." (VGTCA, p. 30) This cannot have been the case, as Random was in prison (after having attempted to assassinate Eric) when Vialle came to Amber; she joined Random in prison ("up the hall" from Corwin's cell), where they stayed for at least two years. (NPIA, Ch. 9)

• On p. 109 of VGTCA, there is a map of the City of Amber and surrounding region. The Forest of Arden is misplaced to the south of the city, bumping up against the Harbor and the beach. This should be labeled Valley of Garnath.

• There are no balconies depicted on the exterior of the castle visuals in VGTCA, despite these being described on both the rear and northern (or eastern, for Merlin) faces of the building (SOTU).

Given all of the above, I stand by my opinion that Visual Guide is a peculiarity, but not a source, despite having been Zelazny-approved in the moment. And as such, I am not bringing any original content from Visual Guide into this analysis (though I have used it as reference to reinforce conviction in some areas of the palace map where the text itself is also fairly clear). Whether the peculiarity of Visual Guide is a fun one (as it was/is for many fans), or a disappointing one (as it clearly was/is for others), may ultimately be in the eye of the beholder. We can all agree that passion for Zelazny's Amber is a good thing!

Next up: Mapping the Palace: Part III >>