The Wild Hunters are described as anguished and damned. (p. 151) The Carolingian universe embodies a Christian judgment upon a folklore motif.
"Swiftly, swiftly, over the rime-gray wold, under the last stormclouds and the sinking moon, gallop, gallop, gallop." (p. 151)
The Hunters are in the sky, where their horses' hoofs somehow manage to be audible, whereas those who gallop across the wold are Holger, Carahue and Alianora, fleeing before the Hunt. Holger tells his horse that:
"'...we ride against striding Time, we ride against marching Chaos.'" (ibid.)
Dominic Flandry shows us that the Long Night can be delayed but not prevented.
At the end of this last chapter - which is followed by a two-page "NOTE" -, Poul Anderson steps back from his narrative about a man who remembers a life as a twentieth century engineer. When he lifts the sword Cortana, Holger Danske/Ogier le Danois sheds his magical disguise and is recognized by Carahue as he regains his memory and knows himself. Anderson relays to his readers two alternative accounts of what others say about the Defender:
"...some say he waits in timeless Avalon until France the fair is in danger...
"...some say he sleeps beneath Kronborg Castle and wakens in the hour of Denmark's need..." (p. 154)
This is true and not fiction. It is true that some have said that Ogier is in Avalon whereas others have said that he is beneath Kronborg.
This exactly corresponds to the way in which Thomas Malory concludes his account of King Arthur:
"...some men say in many parts of England that Arthur is not dead, but had by the will of our Lord Jesu into another place; and men say that he shall come again...
"...many men say that there is written upon his tomb this verse: HIC IACET ARTHURUS, REX QUONDAM REXQUE FUTURUS."
-see Grallon And Arthur.
Anderson returns to his narrative for a single sentence:
"He rode out on the wold, and it was as if dawn rode with him." (p. 154)
Thus, we step out of fiction, then back into it. Anderson's "Star of the Sea" alternates between different kinds of writing:
reimagined mythologies;
historical fiction;
science fiction;
a prayer.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I think a better way of putting it is that here we step not out of a simple fiction into the factual world, but out of legends and myths into the world, and then back into times of legend.
And besides, Grallon, Arthur, Charlemagne, and Holger Danske, we see a similar process happening with Stirling's Emberverse. Heroes and villains like the first Lord Bear, Lord Protector Norman, King Artos, etc., became no longer simply real men acting in a real history, but also figures of myth.
Yes, for the most part, Dominic Flandry believed all he could hope to do was to help postpone the Fall of the Empire. And he even mentioned to Kit in WE CLAIM THESE STARS that the Empire would someday become a fireside legend. And Sir Dominic too must have become legendary!
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment