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Here are two paragraphs from Clive Barker's Weaveworld.
I am really having trouble digesting two phrases.

True joy is a profound remembering; and true grief the same.

Thus it was, when the dust storm that had snatched Cal up finally died, and he opened his eyes to see the Fugue spread before him, he felt as though the few fragile moments of epiphany he'd tasted in his twenty-six years - tasted but always lost - were here redeemed and wed.

My questions are the following:

• What is the meaning and function of the phrase "Thus it was"?


• What is the meaning of "redeemed and wed"?

Literature is always difficult to explain when there may have been a whole series of prior events.

In this case "Thus it was" is pointing back to the previous statement = "so"

True joy and grief are profound remembering's
"and so"....

Also "redeemed and wed" is concluding the sentence in a summary fashion.

= all paid back at once and spliced together (= collected and married)

True joy is a profound remembering; and true grief the same.

[And it went like this:], when the dust storm that had snatched Cal up finally died, and he opened his eyes to see the Fugue spread before him, he felt as though the few fragile moments of epiphany he'd tasted in his twenty-six years - tasted but always lost - [the value redeemed pt1 of all those fragile moments returned redeemed pt2 to him now, all at oncewed]

redeem (verb): to exchange for something of value (redeem trading stamps)

wed (verb): to unite as if by marriage

"Thus is was"

could likely be rephrased and expanded as "and just the same, it happened like this..." It indicates that it will give a story to explain the abstract wisdom in the paragraph before it.

"redeemed and wed"

basically means two very different things came together in goodness and peace. It is figurative language because there is no literal wedding in the text.

Elaboration: Also, the concept of redemption and marriage/wedding could refer to the older literature of the story of Ruth and her "kinsman redeemer" Boaz, who similarly redeemed a widow from her poverty by marrying her.