Thursday 27 April 2017

Wine, Ale And Soma

"I have drunk wine..."
-SM Stirling, The Sunrise Lands (New York, 2008), Chapter One, p. 3.

"I have drunk ale from the Country of the Young..." (see here)

(I misremembered this line as referring to wine, not ale.)

"Have I not drunk Soma?" (see here)

Three drinks late at night because I cannot sleep. And what do Poul Anderson's Merseians drink? See here.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

To me, "soma" always brings to mind the hallucinogenic drug used by the World State in Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD to keep the masses stupefied and quiescent.

And Poul Anderson's Merseians are fond of drinking strong, bitter, but tasty ale. As we see in "Day Of Burning" and other stories.

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
The Huxleyan reference is correct. The original "soma" was an uinidentified drink praised in the Vedas.
I dod not include the Eriau word, "telloch," in the post title because it is fictional.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I clicked on the link and saw the reference to the RIG-VEDA. I assume "soma" was whatever alcoholic drink was available to the invading Aryans in India some 3000 or more years ago.

But, fictional or not, I should have used the Eriau word for the Merseian beer!

Sean