Pynchon's Swedish: A Footnote

Considering the surveying difficulties, the clearing of land and the fixing of boundaries in Mason & Dixon, it is probably not a coincidence that the Swedish protagonist, the lumberjack, the Axman, is called Stig. Stig is not only a common Swedish given name; stig also means the same as the English "path," and the Swedish stigfinnare the same as the English" pathfinder." It is difficult to discover this double-edged Stig if you don't speak Swedish. Pynchon is well informed, as usual.