Dahut's Other Dimension

For quite a while, Dahut continued to surprise us by plunging to lower levels of depravity. Now she surprises us even more by showing another side of herself.

First, despite the snarling, spitting spite to which she is reduced, her understanding of her divine vocation is quite coherent:

the first Brennilis saved Ys from Rome and the sea;

the Gods want Dahut, Their second Brennilis, to save Ys from Rome and Christ;

"'I am the destined mother of the coming Age.'"
-Poul and Karen Anderson, Dahut, Chapter XVIII, section 2, p. 389.

Since Roman rule has become Christian rule, we can see her point.

Secondly, she is capable of genuine feelings towards another human being. She set out to manipulate Niall as she did with the three previous challengers but has instead come to love him and is even prepared to go to Hivernia with him, abandoning the Ysan Gods. When Niall points out that the vengeance of the Gods would pursue them, she tells him to go alone. This is a changed Dahut. If Niall's intentions had been honorable, then he could have become a suitor acceptable to Dahut's father and Sisters. Instead, like Gunnung, he promises to challenge Gratillonius while really planning something else.