Saturday 14 May 2016

The Fabulous Reign Of Good King Grallon

(i) Gratillonius transforms brigands or resistance fighters into forest rangers. Initially equipped by him, they:

hunt;
trade;
levy reasonable tolls;
suppress thieves;
scout;
spy;
harrass invaders;
guide city-based troops;
discourage human sacrifice;
link smallholders, serfs and resettled veterans with some towndwellers.

Rufinus, green-clad like Robin Hood, leads a band of bowmen who relieve some Franks of their arms, armor, money, shoes, a man who would have been given to Wotan and a woman who would have been gang-raped for a fertility rite. A reasonable toll, indeed.

(ii) Grallon's measures against bandits and thieves revive trade.

(iii) Land is reclaimed after he brings peace.

(iv) Thus, Ys is wealthy enough to survive a bad harvest.

(v) Grallon buys good season surpluses to be stored in royal granaries and distributed when necessary.

(vi) He sends ships to get more from Britannia and Aquitania.

(vii) In exchange for Corentinus' political support, he donates to Christian charities, thus indirectly drawing the beneficiaries towards Christ. However, he has no allegiance to the Ysan Gods and accepts that he will no longer gain many for Mithras. He and Corentinus dispassionately discuss which of their Gods will gain from their this-worldly transactions.

(viii) Helped by church and state officials, he settles discharged rebel veterans in Armorica, thus helping his former comrades and strengthening the province.

If the bad harvest is the Gods' revenge, then Gratillonius fights the Gods and wins popular support.

7 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Welcome back from your trip to Wales! I hope you had a good time.

All in all Gratillonius is my kind of political leader. A very able and mostly very admirable man. I can only wish more leaders were like him!

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
Thank you. We had an excellent time and you will read about it in upcoming posts.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I look forward to reading your comments about Wales. And I even thought of a Welsh connection to THE KING OF YS. I think the book begins with Gratillonius having recently completed his latest assignment before being sent to Ys, helping to install a chieftain friendly to Rome as lord of a Welsh tribe.

And did you see the comment I added to the combox of my article "Sandra Miesel's Chronology of Technic Civilization" in your "PA Contributor Articles"?

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
You are right about that YS connection to Wales. I have found another.
Yes, I receive email notifications of new comments even on old posts.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Hmmmm, I have a recollection of the soon to be usurper Constantine commanding a detachment of legionary troops who beat off a raid by King Niall in THE KING OF YS. Was that set in Roman Wales?

And can you think of any forgotten or obscure articles or stories by Poul Anderson I could include in my "Uncollected Works of Poul Anderson"? I meant TBAT article, not the one I wrote about Sandra Miesel's chronology.

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
I am not sure of the setting of that raid by Niall.
I think that I am only familiar with collected works by Anderson.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I'm only guessing that raid by Niall was in Wales. So, no problem.

Some collections of works by Poul Anderson contains non fiction articles I might decide should be in my "Uncollected" list. Even if the books they were in are fairly easily found. Something I need to think about.

Sean