Kinbote is known on the campus as "the
Great Beaver." Cf. Gerald Emerald's words in reply to a secretary's question and
Kinbote's comment: "'I guess Mr Shade has already left with the Great
Beaver.' Of course, I am quite tall, and my brown beard is of a rather rich tint
and texture; the silly cognomen evidently applied to me, but was not worth
noticing..." (Pale Fire, Foreword).
Beavers do not have a beard, of course.
But, like all rodents, they do not feed on meat (and this was
probably the reason why Kinbote, a strict vegeterian,* was dubbed "the
Great Beaver"). Yet, Kinbote mentions his beard not accidentally (even
if he doesn't realize it). The Latin name of beaver is Castor. Castor =
Castro. Dr Castro (the Cuban dictator) is famous for his beard. Anagrams
are important in PF, after all!
*In his Commentary to Shade's poem (Line 171: A
great conspiracy), Kinbote explains what has made of him a vegetarian:
"When the fallen tyrant is tied, naked and
howling, to a plank in the public square and killed piecemeal by the people who
cut slices out, and eat them, and distribute his living body among themselves
(as I read when young in a story about an Italian despot, which made of me a
vegetarian for life)..."
Alexey Sklyarenko