“...inexpertly repaired...”
In Galactic Pot-Healer, Glimmung takes on multiple shapes, from the human form to a bird-like creature among others, they are accessed to be that of creatures from planets that he either viewed or directly visited over the course of his life and travels.
His true form, which the novel hints as such, is shown during the convening of the members he had recuited, including Fernwright and Mali Yojez, on Plowman’s Planet. There, he appears as a “huge mass of fluttering extremities, the whipping, writhing arms which flung themselves at every spot...”1
This description bears more than a passing resemblance to his ultimate adversary, the printers, as they are described in the previous chapter. The “pseudopodia,” the tentacle-like limbs, of the biltong in Pay for the Printer are also in alignment in appearance.2 But the similarities go further.
Earlier in Galactic Pot-Healer, Glimmung speaks of his abilities to which he says “‘I could of course manufacture life, light and activity around me, but they would be extensions of myself alone.’”3 This is very much like a printer’s ability to create things by extracting a piece of itself. But it goes just a little further.
When Fernwright is first brought into contact with Glimmung, Fernwright accuses him of being “‘broke,’” meaning stingy with his abilities, to which Glimmung responds “‘That’s a calumny, I am merely parsimonious. It is an inherited characteristic of my order...I...am still on the free enterprise plan...’”4
This puts forth the notion that Glimmung is either a printer himself or more likely something similar to one, just as the Neanderthals were similar to Homo sapiens on prehistoric Earth. The Book of the Kalends suggest this as it refers to Glimmung as not a printer but “‘a Glimmung.’”5
The outro speculations may serve possible explanations for what this signifies in this bitter conflict between the two.
“...a record gone wrong.”
In Galactic Pot-Healer, when Fernwright first encounters Glimmung, the only way the latter speaks to the former is by Fernwright cranking a victrola from which the record miraculously speaks Glimmung’s words and replies to Fernwright’s questions.6
“...he became hollow.”
Glimmung has had One Summer Day for so long that life without it is akin to one losing one’s sight or hearing. Its knowledge has aided in his plans for millennia, telling him the threats his enemies pose, the usefulness of allies, and who will ultimately betray him.
“...the final page in the book.”
Rather impressive that a book with such vast knowledge is only forty-five pages long. If it has never been longer, then it must be like a revolving door of information, replacing less relevant articles with more relevant ones and vague passages with ones more detailed and specific the closer the events foretold come closer to occurring.
Another thing to note as another possible miraculous attribute is that the book more than likely changes its language to whomever is reading it as the chances that Glimmung’s native tongue matches Nick’s is very unlikely.
“‘“...he will never end.”’”
It was probably this passage that has given Glimmung the confidence that he will win the war.
“‘Glimmung is hurt!’”
This wound that has been inflicted upon him may serve as an explanation as to why Glimmung in Galactic Pot-Healer is in need of assistance in his undertaking. More on that in the speculation outro.
“‘...he forgot his enemy.’”
Glimmung’s blinding desire for One Summer Day was so strong that he was willing to risk what a printer could do to him if he got vulnerably near one.
“‘...he will not be the same as before.’”
Unless the spear in Glimmung’s wound is somehow removed by an outside party. Its possible the werjes, father-things, and trobes might not have the medical skills or materials necessarily to do this.
One key thing to keep in mind is that One Summer Day specifies that Glimmung can be wounded and can “be made powerless” and not will be.7 Meaning that the wound he has been given was not inevitable and thus becoming withered is also not inevitable. If the right circumstances are in place, there is an implication that he can be healed.
“‘You have saved us all.’”
Due to his actions against Glimmung, the denizens of Plowman’s Planet will see and remember Nick as a great hero, a figure who changed the course of Plowman’s Planet’s history.
“‘...in his mountains, in his high places...’”
Presuming the officer’s statement is correct, the mountains Nick and the spiddles passed in the last chapter must have been Glimmung’s base of operations all this time, unreachable to the Grand Four and possibly even Glimmung’s allies.
1) Galactic Pot-Healer (Vintage Books, 1994), pg. 82
2) The Philip K. Dick Reader (Citadel Press, 1997) pg. 247
3) Galactic Pot-Healer (Vintage Books, 1994), pgs. 85-86
4) Ibid, pgs. 42-43
5) Ibid, pgs. 76-77
6) Ibid, pg. 42
7) Nick and the Glimmung (Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1988) pg. 127
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