How strange it seemed, that he, Rotath of the Moonstone and the Asphodel, sorcerer and magician, should be gasping out his breath on the marble floor...'
-The Curse of the Golden Skull
asphodel.
[ˈasfəˌdel]
NOUN
asphodels (plural noun)
1. a Eurasian plant of the lily family, typically having long slender leaves and flowers borne on a spike.
2. an immortal flower said to grow in the Elysian fields.
3. this immortal flower is invoked by Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, in the Avern, a venomous flower which serves as a dueling weapon in the hands of his transcendent hero.
ORIGIN
late Middle English: via Latin from Greek asphodelos; compare with daffodil.
A Well of Heroes: Two:
Literary Impressions of the Prose and Verse of Robert E. Howard
