The River Has Roots

Wordplay is the first and most prevalent motif in the novella, abounding throughout in the prose, dialogue, and songs: It is the foundation of the theme of The Power of Language and one of the primary focal points of the narrative as a whole. The wordplay begins in the very first sentences, which describe grammar as both the rules that govern human language and a kind of magic. This hinges on the etymology of the word “grammar,” which comes from the Latin and Old French “grammaire,” meaning both the rules or art of language and the magic of incantations and spells. Similarly, the novella uses the word “conjugation,” the transformation of a verb by person and number, to reference the literal and concrete transformation of objects as well.

Such double meanings appear everywhere. For instance, the standing stones that mark the boundary between the Modal Lands and Arcadia are called the Refrain, which is both a “regularly recurring phrase or verse especially at the end of each stanza or division of a poem or song” and a verb that means “to keep oneself from doing, feeling, or indulging in something” (“