Thursday 16 June 2016

Dark Ages

Poul Anderson acknowledges (see here) that War Of The Gods is anachronistic because it puts vikings into the fourth century - as does Hrolf Kraki's Saga. However, in another respect, ...Saga is authentic:

"Hrolf Kraki lived in the midnight of the Dark Ages. Slaughter, slavery, robbery, rape, torture, heathen rites bloody or obscene, were parts of daily life."
-Poul Anderson, Hrolf Kraki's Saga (New York, 1973), p. xix.

Loyalty was to kin, chief and friends. Everyone else was foe or prey.

"To us, their behavior seems insanely egoistic..." (p. xx)

Anderson refused to sentimentalize the characters:

"If nothing else, we today need a reminder that we must never take civilization for granted." (pp. xix-xx)

Anderson, also a science fiction writer, had another way to remind us of this. His Psychotechnic future history has a Second and a Third Dark Ages while his History of Technic Civilization has a Time of Troubles and a Long Night. Anderson refers to "...the midnight of the Dark Ages..." (above) and to a future Long Night. In such an age, we will not be able to do what we are doing now: write or read a blog over breakfast.

6 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And the dark age following the Fall of the Terran Empire in Anderson's Technic Civilization must have been incomparably worse than any earlier dark age recorded on our Earth.

Sean

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I was too fatigued at the time I wrote my first comment here to comment on it, but Poul Anderson's statement: "If nothing else, we today need a reminder that we must never take civilization for granted" RESONATED with me. There are so many things going wrong in our times, there are so many, many fanatics or crazies trying to destroy civilization, we have far too many bungling fools for leaders who persist in denying the hard facts of life, etc. The Orlando Massacre is a gruesome "reminder" of the threat we face from jihadist Islam. And that's only one of the many dangers we face!

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
A young British Member of Parliament has just been shot and stabbed to death in public by a man allegedly shouting, "Britain First!"
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

That appalling crime is another example of the dangers we face! In this case, of frustrated peoples becoming more and more polarized, of feeling ignored and driven to extremes. I don't have much hope for our times.

And I hope the murderer was caught!

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
I believe so.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Good! And I hope his trial is swift and justice is rendered to the fullest extent allowed by UK law.

Sean