A Prying Question
I work on a farm, and recently I was looking around the shop for a pry bar to tear apart an old chicken coop.
I'm sure you know exactly where my mind went, and if yours doesn't go to the same place I will be greatly disappointed in you.
When I finally found it (it was cleverly hidden right in front of me) I picked it up, and it was a comfort to have it in my hand, even though I was sure there was nothing living in the chicken coop. I was smiling at my geeky self when a sudden question hit me:
Why on earth was Pol carrying a pry bar?
Naturally, this question distracted me for the rest of the day, and I speculated and formulated theories all the time I was ripping into the coop. As soon as work was done I called my best friend (you may remember him from this story of his birthday) and we speculated and formulated theories together.
Here's what we came up with.
Pol is a soldier. He is therefore used to traveling prepared. But why would a soldier need a pry bar? Certainly not for protection, as I'm sure he is more adept with a sword, and with Gen along he probably wasn't planning on breaking in anywhere himself. Was he carrying it for Gen to use? This would make sense; the Magus probably guessed that Gen would need one. However, it seems odd that Pol would carry an awkward, heavy tool up and down a mountain on the off chance that Gen would ask for one. It made us wonder what else he was carrying just in case Gen wanted it. Wouldn't it have made sense, if you are going to haul a tool across three countries, that you would ask Gen, the well-behaved tool, what tools he would need?
Now for some photos.
The modern pry bar I was using looked like this.
We could see how a tool like this could be useful to Gen. It could be used for propping open windows or doors and finding the treasure box hidden in the bedframe. While we still could not see why Pol would happen to have such a tool, we did think that it was small enough and light enough to be plausible. However, there are some objections to this tool: first, it is not very big, and I don't think you could break a big piece of obsidian with it, even though the tool Gen had was probably iron and a lot heavier than the modern ones. And if it was heavy enough, why would Pol be carting such a heavy tool around? Second, it is very flat, and would be hard to trip over.
Here is another, larger, heavier pry bar, (looks like a crowbar but the website I found it on sells it as a pry bar, which I guess means nothing in the QT world but, well, there's no wiki article on ancient Greek pry bars,) which looks similar to the one on the cover of this edition of TT.
I think this is more likely what Gen was using. It looks like it could easily be used to break the obsidian window, and is of great enough girth to be painfully tripped over. But, even more than the last one, I cannot believe that Pol would have carried this the whole way. I have used a crowbar before and they are really freakin heavy, and the one Gen used was probably iron, and one this size would be
Another theory, which we both dismissed as preposterous, is that Gen needed something to break the glass with, and so mwt gave Pol a pry bar. Convenient pry bar is convenient. I simply cannot believe this to be true. I trust our author too much.
So I know that there must be some logical reason. What do you all think? Does our "Pol wouldn't carry such a clumsy tool without being sure it would needed" theory hold water? Can you think of any reason why Pol had one? Help!
PS Later, after he drops the pry bar and the lamp in the trap, he says " I didn't want to waste the time it would take to go back out to the magus to get another lamp and a pry bar..." What does he think Pol is, the source of neverending pry bars?
PPS I hope no one laughs at me for obsessing over a pry bar.
I'm sure you know exactly where my mind went, and if yours doesn't go to the same place I will be greatly disappointed in you.
When I finally found it (it was cleverly hidden right in front of me) I picked it up, and it was a comfort to have it in my hand, even though I was sure there was nothing living in the chicken coop. I was smiling at my geeky self when a sudden question hit me:
Why on earth was Pol carrying a pry bar?
Naturally, this question distracted me for the rest of the day, and I speculated and formulated theories all the time I was ripping into the coop. As soon as work was done I called my best friend (you may remember him from this story of his birthday) and we speculated and formulated theories together.
Here's what we came up with.
Pol is a soldier. He is therefore used to traveling prepared. But why would a soldier need a pry bar? Certainly not for protection, as I'm sure he is more adept with a sword, and with Gen along he probably wasn't planning on breaking in anywhere himself. Was he carrying it for Gen to use? This would make sense; the Magus probably guessed that Gen would need one. However, it seems odd that Pol would carry an awkward, heavy tool up and down a mountain on the off chance that Gen would ask for one. It made us wonder what else he was carrying just in case Gen wanted it. Wouldn't it have made sense, if you are going to haul a tool across three countries, that you would ask Gen, the well-behaved tool, what tools he would need?
Now for some photos.
The modern pry bar I was using looked like this.
We could see how a tool like this could be useful to Gen. It could be used for propping open windows or doors and finding the treasure box hidden in the bedframe. While we still could not see why Pol would happen to have such a tool, we did think that it was small enough and light enough to be plausible. However, there are some objections to this tool: first, it is not very big, and I don't think you could break a big piece of obsidian with it, even though the tool Gen had was probably iron and a lot heavier than the modern ones. And if it was heavy enough, why would Pol be carting such a heavy tool around? Second, it is very flat, and would be hard to trip over.
Here is another, larger, heavier pry bar, (looks like a crowbar but the website I found it on sells it as a pry bar, which I guess means nothing in the QT world but, well, there's no wiki article on ancient Greek pry bars,) which looks similar to the one on the cover of this edition of TT.
I think this is more likely what Gen was using. It looks like it could easily be used to break the obsidian window, and is of great enough girth to be painfully tripped over. But, even more than the last one, I cannot believe that Pol would have carried this the whole way. I have used a crowbar before and they are really freakin heavy, and the one Gen used was probably iron, and one this size would be
Another theory, which we both dismissed as preposterous, is that Gen needed something to break the glass with, and so mwt gave Pol a pry bar. Convenient pry bar is convenient. I simply cannot believe this to be true. I trust our author too much.
So I know that there must be some logical reason. What do you all think? Does our "Pol wouldn't carry such a clumsy tool without being sure it would needed" theory hold water? Can you think of any reason why Pol had one? Help!
PS Later, after he drops the pry bar and the lamp in the trap, he says " I didn't want to waste the time it would take to go back out to the magus to get another lamp and a pry bar..." What does he think Pol is, the source of neverending pry bars?
PPS I hope no one laughs at me for obsessing over a pry bar.