#78 Wed (9/7/22) - On Lönnrot and Borges

 "La muerte y la brújula" (May 1942 Sur) [here trans Anthony Kerrigan as "Death and the Compass"], whose detective protagonist is named Lönnrot after Elias Lönnrot (1802-1884), the Finnish philologist who "created" Finnish literature through his manufacture of the Kalevala (1835; exp 1849) out of fragments of folk material; both Lönnrots "create" the worlds they detect, in this case Triste-le-Roy*, an enclave whose impossible geometries must be literally (and mystically) triangulated if the detective hopes to arrive there; both Lönnrots are, in a sense, Magus figures.

From SFE 

*Triste-le-Roy is based on the Hotel Delicias in Adrogue.

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