Thursday 27 April 2017

Ancient Tales

SM Stirling, The Sunrise Lands (New York, 2008), Chapter Three, p. 39.

In Raven House, weavings show the ancient tales:

Niall of the Nine Hostages and the Lady of Tara;
Ishtar's descent into the Underworld;
Odin grasping runes beneath the World Tree.

Are Niall and the Lady one tale or two?

Relevance to Poul Anderson? Like total:

Niall destroys Ys which is named after Isis who was identified with Ishtar! (see here);
Odin hangs himself from the Tree to gain the runes in War Of The Gods.

My soul, drawn into the texts, wanders in a multi-dimensional wasteland between the Emberverse and the Technic History.

5 comments:

S.M. Stirling said...

The bit about the Lady is a subset of the cycle of stories about Niall of the Nine Hostages. It specifies how he lay with the Lady of Tara (the female embodiment of sovereignty) in disguise as part of becoming the High King.

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Thank you. That claifies that! Only three ancient tales are mentioned here so they do not correspond to the Quarters, also mentioned.

S.M. Stirling said...

Yeah, you can't specify everything; you have to give bits, so as to convey the general flavor.

S.M. Stirling said...

Incidentally, Nial's meeting and lying with the Lady of Tara is mentioned in the "King of Ys" series, as an allegory of his assuming the sovereign function.

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Brilliant.