Time Patrol Investigation II

"Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks."

Everard's investigations of Bolivar's evil advisor establish that:

"This obscurely originating Blasco Lopez had to be from the future." (p. 275)

A Patrol raid on Lopez's house in Bogota collars his associate but he himself escapes on horseback into the mountains. Everard must pursue alone, also on horseback, because:

"'...we couldn't go after him on time hoppers. The search could too damn easily become too damn noticeable. Who knew what effect that might have? The conspirators had already made the time stream unstable....'" (p. 276)

How can a "time stream" be made "unstable"? The conspirators had come close to diverting history and this somehow increases the possibility that a further small change will have a big effect? There is always something just out of reach in the Time Patrol series.

(Tomorrow will be busy with a May Day March and Rally followed by a social event in the Gregson Centre, then a family evening outing to a decorated scarecrow festival in an outlying village so this might be the last post for this month.) 

Time Patrol Investigation

Poul Anderson, "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 229-331.

How does the Time Patrol get wind of extratemporal interventions? Patrol agents, monitoring South America in the 1820s, report that Simon Bolivar's behaviour is at variance with his biographies and that he has acquired a "friend," not mentioned in the biographies, who is becoming his "evil genius." (p. 275) Are these agents already in a divergent timeline where Bolivar's historical record is not as we know it and where the evil genius will be mentioned in the biographies? No, because they report to a Patrol HQ uptime where history is as it should be. Manson Everard, based in the second half of the twentieth century, arrives in 1826 to investigate. So it must be possible for the Patrol first to neutralize the evil genius and secondly to prevent Bolivar's biographers from learning either about his existence or about his temporary influence on Bolivar? (Except that in "Star of the Sea," written later, Patrol agents do spend time in a divergent timeline, then report to an unchanged twentieth century.)

Wind At A Folkmoot

War Of The Gods, XIV.

King Hadding calls a folkmoot at which he will deal with thieves. Of course:

"Wind boomed and rain showers lashed at that meeting." (p. 113)

What else are they going to do?

"The king stood before it, facing the thieves, and cried through the weather..." (ibid.)

Thus the weather reinforces his judgment. Hadding has cunningly induced the men to confess and will now honour them as he had promised - by sending them to Odin. He gains a reputation of shrewdness and hardness. It is best to follow him.

His many good deeds:

wise and kind judgments;

generous gifts to both well-born and poor;

ending feuds;

clearing wilderness;

building thorps, marts and shipyards;

openings for the lowly;

encouragement of skalds and handicrafts;

fostering of trade with Jutes, Angles and Saxons. 

Summer In Haven

War Of The Gods, XIV.

Summer:

grain ripples in the wind;

red cows graze in green paddocks;

storks stalk frogs in a fen;

a wood rustles, bright above, shadowed below;

a hawk hovers, then hurtles.

A description worth pausing at. We have listed hovering hawks and other birds of prey before (see here) and I cannot remember whether this was among them.

Natural descriptions can occur in any fiction: historical, fantasy, sf etc. Poul Anderson never forgets the natural environment.

An Oath And The Wind

War Of The Gods, XIV.

King Hadding swears an oath:

"He called on the lawmen to set out the oath-ring. Laying his hand on it, he swore to those words, so help him the Vanir and almighty Thor." (p. 111)

Almighty? (Sometimes individual gods are addressed as if they were supreme. Eventually, one god is regarded as supreme.)

By now, we know that such words cannot pass unnoticed by the elements. The passage continues:

"Wind strengthened, tossing his hair golden around his brows. It whistled. Cloud shadows hastened across the land and thunder began to growl from afar." (ibid.)

Wind strengthens, tosses hair, whistles and speeds clouds. But, also, thunder speaks - Thor.

This response of nature is not lost on Hadding's followers. The paragraph concludes:

"Men looked at each other, muttered, and left as soon as the king told them the meeting was over." (ibid.)

Introducing Individual Villains Into Series

The Time Patrol

(i) A collective villain, the Neldorians.

(ii) Merau Varagan of the Exaltationists introduced and captured in a single story.

(iii) A prequel with Varagan still at large.

(iv) A sequel with Varagan's female clone still at large.

Dominic Flandry

(i) A collective villain, the Merseians.

(ii) Aycharaych, a Chereionite working for Merseia.

(iii) Tachwyr the Dark, Flandry's opposite number among the Merseians.

Sherlock Holmes

(i) Moriarty introduced and killed in a single story.

(ii) A prequel with Moriarty still alive.

(iii) A sequel with Moriaty's chief of staff, Colonel Moran, still at large.

James Bond

(i) A collective villain, SMERSH.

(ii) SMERSH is disbanded but some of its former members join SPECTRE.

(iii) SPECTRE is destroyed but its director, Blofeld, escapes.

Doctor Who

(i) A collective villain, the Daleks.

(ii) An individual villain, the Master, another rebel Time Lord.

(iii) Davros, creator of the Daleks.

Observations

An individual villain can emerge from a collective villain.

There is a strong parallel between the Time Patrol and Sherlock Holmes.

A Giant In A Battle

War Of The Gods, XIII.

Except for one single detail, this chapter is realistic historical fiction about wars and battles between kings and their armies, something that Poul Anderson understands well. The single exception is Hadding's battlefield invocation of his foster father, the jotun Vagnhofdi. Smoke appears, whirls, whistles, thickens and solidifies as Vagnhofdi, blocking the sun, gripping axe and  club, striding forward, crunching bones, men running before him. Hadding can make this invocation only once. It is as if from now on history must take its course - although, of course, other fantastic events will still occur. In this novel, people ask whether Thor is going to intervene in the same way that we now ask whether the UN or NATO will intervene.

Mythological beings and Time Patrolmen intervene in battles and other historical events in Poul Anderson's imaginative parallel narratives.

Preferred Reading Orders II

Another Idea For The Time Patrol

After The Guardians Of Time and The Gods Of Time:

The War Against The Exaltationists (from Everard's pov)

(i) Everard's first encounter with Merau Varagan (extract from "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks")

(ii) "The Year of the Ransom"

(iii) "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks" (minus the extract)

(iv) Parts One and Two of The Shield Of Time

Time Patrolwoman (Wanda Tamberly's Patrol career)

Parts Three, Four, Five and Six of The Shield Of Time

Appendix: "Death and the Knight"

Summits

There are two kinds of future histories: Wellsian/Stapledonian and Heinleinian. Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization is a summit of Heinleinian future history writing. Anderson's Genesis is a partial synthesis of Heinleinian and Stapledonian future history models.

There are two directions of time travel, past and future, and two time travel paradoxes, circular causality and causality violation. Anderson's Time Patrol series is a summit of historical causality violation time travel fiction that also incorporates circular causality. 

Time Patrol is to the Time Patrol series what The Earth Book Of Stormgate is to the early Technic History. Time Patrol collects everything that is not in The Shield Of Time. The Earth Book collects nearly everything that was not in five previous volumes. Time Patrol and The Shield Of Time are to the Time Patrol series what the seven-volume The Technic Civilization Saga is to the Technic History, i.e., everything.

Wells' Time Traveller experiences the future of mankind and Earth. Anderson's Time Patrolmen experience real and alternative histories.

Preferred Reading Orders

Ideally, an author's complete works would be on line and we would be able to print them out in whatever order or format we preferred. Thus, Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series:

The Guardians Of Time

as is, except with "Gibraltar Falls" at the end

The Gods Of Time

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth"

"Star of the Sea"

The Thieves Of Time

"The Year of the Ransom"

"Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks"

The Shield of Time

as is, except with "Death and the Knight" at the end

But there are other options as we will see after a walk to Morecambe.

Everard's Chronology

The question of the order of the Time Patrol stories from Manse Everard's point of view came up again in the combox.

The Shield Of Time ends with Everard and Wanda Tamberly beginning a holiday in early January, 1990. In "Death and the Knight," that holiday is interrupted on 8 March, 1990.

At the beginning of The Shield Of Time, Everard has returned to New York, spring, 1987, from Phoenicia, 950 B.C. ("Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks").

"The Year of the Ransom" ends with Everard and Wanda having dinner on 25 May 1987. In spring 1987, Everard thinks:

"We've had a couple of dates. Then I went off to Phoenicia, and on my time line it's been weeks...and I've returned to the same spring when the two of us were first together in San Francisco."

-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), p. 6.

In "The Year of the Ransom," Everard and Wanda first meet on 30 October, 1986. In "Star of the Sea," Everard and Janne Floris end their relationship in Amsterdam in 1986. He does not know what he will do next although the Patrol always has problems. Also in "Star of the Sea," Everard recalls the events of "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth."

Thus, the order of these six concluding instalments is:

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth"

"Star of the Sea"

"The Year of the Ransom"

"Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks"

The Shield Of Time

"Death and the Knight"

The earliest four instalments of the series happen in the order in which they were collected in Guardians Of Time. "Gibraltar Falls," written much later, was collected at the mid-point of The Guardians Of Time so that "Delenda Est" would remain the climax. However, "Gibraltar Falls" really belongs after "Delenda Est." Everard is more experienced and interacts with younger Patrol members. 

The Details

War Of The Gods.

I appreciate the details in Poul Anderson's narratives by summarizing the narratives and therefore having to notice the details like the Finnish wizard and the Roman poet in Gardariki and the multiple realms traversed by Odin in search of wisdom. Starting from Asgard, he travels through:

Midgard

Ironwood

hell

Niflheim

the outskirts of Muspellheim

the highest mountains of Jotunheim

the hall of Farbauti and Laufey

glaciers

wastes

the sea

a wildwood

the Tree

its upper branches

death

These two chapters, XI and XII, are particularly rich and also very dissimilar, recounting Odin's search and Hadding's rise, respectively - the worlds of gods and men.

The Turning Point And A Transition From Mythological To Historical Fiction

 

War Of The Gods, XII.

This chapter begins on p. 86 when Hadding, an escaped prisoner, steals a boat and ends on 92 when he comes into his own as the Dane-king. The following chapter begins:

"That year the fields throughout Denmark bore overflowingly, kine grew fat, and fishermen filled their nets. The Danes thought this was because they had a rightful king again." (XIII, p. 92)

On pp. 86-92, there is almost no dialogue. This chapter summarizes several years of activity. Hadding gathers a following, leads a viking fleet and raids in Gardariki. They range the Eastlands for four years. Among other experiences, they hear a poet read from the steps of a temple in a Roman city. They become rich as mercenaries. Hadding buys more ships and weapons and hires more men. Meanwhile, his enemy, King Loker, has ridden into the wilds and never returned. Again Hadding wonders about Loker.

After five years, Hadding returns to Denmark with scores of ships, uniquely united by banners on their masts, and defeats King Svipdag's fleet near Gotland. Svipdag falls. Hadding is hailed.

Mixing Myths: Lodur, Loki And Loker

War Of The Gods.

Odin, Hoenir and Lodur made the first man and woman (I, p. 12) whereas, before that, Odin, Vili and Ve had slain Ymir and made Midgard from his body. (XI, p. 83) These are the same three brothers but with different versions of the second and third names. 

Odin, Honir and (mainly) Loki thwarted the giant Skrymsli. See Roger Lancelyn Green, The Saga Of Asgard (Harmondsworth, Middlesex), Chapter 4. Thus, there are two versions of Odin, Ho(e)nir and a third god with the initial, "L."

When Hadding, entertaining his guards, reaches the story of Loki, it strikes him as odd that his enemy's name, Loker, is so similar to Loki. Nothing more is made of this. Is Loki, disguised as Loker, trying to thwart Gangleri's plan for Hadding? Or, alternatively, is Loki/Loker helping that plan by putting Hadding in a position from which he will be able to escape instead of killing him outright? Can I continue to ask questions without answering them?

In Poul Anderson's invented story, Odin returns from hanging himself to find that Vili and Ve have taken over Asgard in his absence. Like Odysseus in the Odyssey and John Carter in The Gods Of Mars, he returns after an absence to find a problem.  

Myths Retold VI

War Of The Gods, Afterword.

"To some extent I have drawn on Viktor Rydberg's nineteenth-century conjecture about the captivity of Njord, Freyr, and Freyja under Hymir." (p. 303)

See Myths Retold... IV.

As noted there, there is another story about confinement on a skerry. I do not know how much the story told by Poul Anderson owes to Rydberg or how much it owes to the Eddas.

The Afterword continues:

"It is written that Odin and Loki once swore blood brotherhood, which helps explain how Loki got away with what he did for as long as he did; but we do not know why. The incident is my own invention." (ibid.)

Anderson's invented incident has Loki harassing two gods in the form of a fly. There is a story in which Loki as a gadfly stings the dwarf Brok as he works the bellows with the result that the handle of Thor's hammer, Miolnir, is slightly too short. The two gods that Loki harasses in Anderson's story are Odin's brothers, Vili and Ve, even though Anderson had previously named the brothers as Hoenir and Lodur and had recounted how Hoenir went to Vanaheim as a hostage. (See Myths Retold... II.)

Myths Retold V

War Of The Gods, XI.

Hadding recounts a myth to his guards.

During the Aesir-Vanir war and after visiting Mimir, Odin went alone through wild ways, often losing his way and finding it again. He went through Midgard, often having to fight. He went without food through Ironwood haunted by trolls and monsters. He went down into hell, through cold, dark Niflheim, past rushing rivers, swarming vipers and the dragon Nidhogg. He skirted Muspellheim and climbed the highest mountains of Jotunheim where he met Farbauti and Laufey and their sons, Byleist and Loki. (We are still at the beginning of the worlds when figures like Loki appear for the first time.)

Farbauti and Laufey had a huge hall with swart elf servants and wind forever howling outside, driving snow and ice. Loki persuaded his parents to tell Odin that the wisdom he sought was on the far side of death. With Loki as guide, Odin went down the mountains, across the glaciers and wastes and past giants' garths to the sea which they crossed in the half boat seen by sailors before they drown. Loki called a drow from his barrow to ferry them.

They passed through a wildwood inhabited only by "...the beings of water, earth, and sky..." (p. 82) and came to the Tree with the worlds at its roots, on its trunk and in its branches. The red squirrel Ratatosk carries ill will between Nidhogg at the roots and an eagle aloft. A hart grazes the leaves and a rot attacks the wood but the Tree endures. They climbed high into the Tree, along lengthy branches, through leafy caverns. From a particular branch, Odin hanged himself. Loki wounded Odin with his own spear. Odin died and hung for nine nights. He revived and fell when the rope broke. Rising, he grasped the graven runes of high magic and deep wisdom combining the lores of gods, elves, dwarves, giants and men. Because of this, the Tree is called Yggdrasil, Horse of the Terrible One, and Odin is the Lord of the Gallows. 

Alice Roberts

This evening at a packed book launch talk in Morecambe, a short distance along the Promenade from the Old Pier Bookshop, Alice Roberts said that the neolithic revolution in Britain involved a 90% genetic shift but that it is not yet known whether this was caused by violent invasion or by gradual immigration.

Professor Roberts doubted that human beings hunted many mammoths. Unless very old or ill, a mammoth was big and dangerous. People would have scavenged mammoths and mainly hunted smaller animals. She has spent time visiting modern hunters and gatherers.

Regular readers know that this is as relevant to Poul Anderson's works as any new information about exo-planets and SETI. It is also too late for me to be on the computer so good night.

(Addendum: For a correction, see the combox.)

Blue Twilight

War Of The Gods, X.

Gangleri lets Hadding recuperate in a mysterious place. They seem to be in a hall but Hadding is not sure. The ceiling is too high and the end of the building too far for him to see. Also, it is:

"...full of a blue twilight." (p. 74)

Why? I find this intriguing. The first time CS Lewis read the phrase, "The Twilight of the Gods," he thought that it meant the twilight in which the gods dwelt. Maybe there is something in that idea? In Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, Titania's realm is the Land of Summer's Twilight. The mere mention of twilight is always evocative. (Also: WB Yeats' "Celtic Twilight.")

The hall of blue twilight is like Anderson's Old Phoenix Inn in that the hero is taken there for a brief respite but must then return to the battlefield. Shortly, Hadding, captured, will recount a myth to his guards so we will return to our "Myths Retold" theme.

What Should Gods Do?

War Of The Gods.

To go in viking was to kill and plunder. Lysir Eyvindsson, chieftain in Bralund, leads a raid on Kurland to avenge his brother - because his brother was killed while attacking Kurland! This cannot be right action. Gangleri (Odin) gets Hadding (the incarnation of Njord) to join Lysir's expedition. We expect better from the gods than this.

Somewhere on this blog, I listed my favourite gods, regarding them as "higher fictions," to use Alan Moore's phrase. Here is another attempt at a list:

Indra released rain;

Prometheus stole fire;

Krishna taught karma yoga;

the Buddha (not a god but he taught them) taught meditation;

Jesus preached the kingdom;

Odin sought wisdom;

Thor killed giants.

Seven is a sacred number so maybe I should stop there?

Three Inklings And Anderson

JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis and Roger Lancelyn Green  were Inklings.

Lancelyn Green retold Greek, Norse and other myths whereas Tolkien and Poul Anderson independently adapted Norse mythology as modern fiction.

Lewis wrote The Problem Of Pain, Christian apologetics, whereas Anderson wrote "The Problem of Pain," hard sf. Lewis' fiction assumes Christian theology. Christianity is true in some of Anderson's fantasies and is the belief of some of the characters in his hard sf.

As Above, So Below?

War Of The Gods.

"When [the Vanir] drew nigh, [Odin] cast his spear over their host. So began the first war that ever was." (I, p. 11)

(The second.)

"Loker spat and ordered the man back. As he left, the king flung a spear after him, soaring over his head.

"'He learned that from his Northmen,' Lysir muttered. 'It means he'll slaughter us all for his gods.'" (IX, p. 69)

A divine action is repeated among men. That is how it happens in myths. In reality, it is the other way around. Men act and project their actions onto the heavens. Social interactions eventually generated laws and customs. No one, let alone a superhuman being, formulated any laws or customs before a society existed! 

Hadding At Sea

 See Hyperborea.

War Of The Gods, IX.

A storm delays the Viking fleet but teaches Hadding sea skills - as if to speed his success. He learns fast - unsurprising given who he is. We realize this but the chieftain, Lysir Eyvindson, spells it out anyhow:

"'It's as though you recall what you were born knowing but had forgotten...and as if our woes came on us for you to do so.'" (p. 67)

Some people learn so quickly that it is as if they recall what they had previously known. Reincarnation? Platonic pre-existence? Or just the fact that human psychophysical organisms have been naturally selected to internalize social inputs, learn language and develop practical skills, with some brains learning more efficiently than others?

It is as if I have always known that social values should be questioned whereas, for some others, it is as if they have always known that such values should be fully accepted. Society will progress - or, alternatively, regress - through contradictions.

Hadding And Gangleri

War Of The Gods.

The action has to speed up if Hadding, orphaned and raised in the wilderness, is to become a benign ruler through most of the narrative. Hardgreip is killed mysteriously. Hadding reaches the sea and laughs aloud. (He is the god of the sea.) He meets Gangleri whom we recognize:

tall

lean

wide-shouldered

blue cloak flapping in the wind

wide-brimmed, face-shadowing hat

long, wolf-gray hair and beard

long spear

empty left eye socket

cold blue right eye

two ravens flying nearby

eeriness

Hadding needs a following. Glangleri introduces him to a viking band. The rest is - not history, exactly.

Blood Red Mere

War Of The Gods, VII.

Hadding and Hardgreip seek shelter in a house where the man has just died and is laid out for burial. When Hardgreip draws Hadding back outside, the rain has stopped, the clouds have parted and a sunbeam shines through. However:

"It turned the mere blood red." (p. 50)

The signs remain bad. 

Hardgreip proposes to raise the man to foretell their immediate future. She does. He foretells imminent doom for her although not for Hadding. When the dead man has spoken and his body falls back:

"Wind howled, rain dashed." (p. 53)

We expect nothing else from them.

The following day, they bury the man they have wronged, pay his widow and ride on. Things will get worse before they get better.

Wind And War

War Of The Gods, VII.

"Next day brought clouds, a wrack like smoke flying low. Rain-showers slashed. They made mud of a road that had become a mere track. It wound among fields gone back to weeds. Wind skirled through scattered hursts, tossing their leaves like beggars' rags." (p. 48)

Does that passage have the rhythm of verse?

"Next day brought clouds,

"A wrack like smoke

"Flying low.

"Rain-showers slashed.

"They made mud of a road

"That had become a mere track.

"It wound among fields

"Gone back to weeds.

"Wind skirled through scattered hursts,

"Tossing their leaves

"Like beggars' rags." (?)

We expect rain and wind to bear bad news. Sure enough, the paragraph continues:

"Twice the wayfarers spied burnt-out farmsteads in the offing. War, a feud, or robbers from the hinterland had passed through here." (ibid.)

Times are bad. Hadding returns to set them right. The paragraph concludes:

"Hadding and Hardgreip clutched their spears and spurred their horses onward." (ibid.)

Two Frodis

War Of The Gods.

Apparently, Saxo Grammaticus wrongly identified Hrolf Kraki's great-uncle Frodi with Hadding's son of the same name. Thus:

"Saxo places Hadding three generations before Hrolf Kraki." (Afterword, p. 301)

If we accepted Saxo's chronology, then we would read Poul Anderson's War Of The Gods (1997) before his Hrolf Kraki's Saga (1973). However, the latter reads like what it is, a retold saga, whereas the former reads more like a modern, although not of course contemporary, novel.

For more on chronological links between Poul Anderson's works of historical fiction and historical fantasy, see:

Mother Of Kings II

Lineages

History, Legend And Fiction

Chronological Links

Hrolf Kraki's Saga

I have to refer to these posts to remember what all the links were.

The Giants

War Of The Gods.

The giant speaks like thunder and sighs like wind through tall pines. His wife weeps like a melting glacier. They are personifications of natural forces. Their tales and verses go back to the beginning of the worlds. Hadding learns from them some of the Old Tongue from Jotunheim. Their feasts are not those of men and remember:

the slaying of Ymir

the binding of the Hel-hound, Garm

the binding of Fenris Wolf

Utgard-Loki fooling Thor (V, p. 34)

Here, the world of the giants is called "Utgard" and their king is called "Utgard-Loki," not to be confused with Loki.

A giantess who is also a witch can make herself small enough for Hadding to have sex with. Poul Anderson's text is more consistent than the original myths. Soon Hadding will return, well-prepared, to the world of men.

Wind Hoots And Wolves Howl

War Of The Gods.

"A wind out of the north bore tidings of oncoming winter." (IV, p. 26)

In the giant's hall where a giantess nurses Hadding:

"...they all sat about the fire, in a rank gloom, while wind hooted outside and from afar sounded the howling of wolves." (p. 31)

"There were neither high seat nor benches; one sat on the ground, drank ale from bucket-big wooden cups passed hand to hand, gnawed coarse bread and roasted meat." (II, p.19)

The surface underfoot is called "the ground" even inside the hall! - although, on p. 21, it is dignified with the name "floor."

Hadding is raised in pre-human wildness.

Hadding And Cyrus

We have got drawn into rereading Poul Anderson's War Of The Gods although currently we are mainly looking for condensed summaries of Norse myths. There are some in the dialogues as well as in Chapter I. 

"We know almost nothing about the war between the Aesir and the Vanir, except that it happened. I found that with a bit of rearrangement and a few minor additions I could unify a number of fragments." (Afterword, p. 303)

That explains why Anderson's and Lancelyn Green's accounts of the Aesir-Vanir war are almost completely different but also have two specific details in common.

In Chapter II, the new-born Hadding must be hidden in the wilderness and brought up by a giant because his father, the king, has been killed and Hadding will probably be killed as well if he is found. We recognize this narrative - although the giant is a specific mythological detail.

Croseus tells Manse Everard that the new-born Cyrus, threatened with assassination at birth, grew up as a herdsman and came forth when the time was right:

"Everard lay quiet on the couch for a little. He heard autumn leaves rustle dryly in the garden, under a cold wind."

-Poul Anderson, "Brave To Be A King" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 55-112 AT 4, p. 73.

Everard has just heard a myth recounted as if it were a prosaic fact. Of course, in a Poul Anderson text, autumn leaves and cold wind underline the dialogue at such a moment:

"...Everard had heard nothing so incredible in all his Patrol career... a typical hero myth. Essentially the same yarn had been told about Moses, Romulus, Sigurd, a hundred great men. There was no reason to believe that it held any fact..." (ibid.)

But the story fits in War Of The Gods especially since Anderson makes Hadding an incarnation of a god.

Myths Retold...IV

War Of The Gods, I.

When the Vanir learned how the Aesir had risked Freyja, they cut off Mimir's head and sent it to Asgard. Urged on by Loki, the Aesir bound Njord, Freyr and Freyja and handed them over to the giant Hymir whose wife was the mother of Odin's son, Tyr. Hymir set Freyr and Freyr on a bewitched skerry and fettered Njord in his hall.

Odin, returned from wandering, reanimated Mimir's head and received wisdom from it. He ordered the release of the three hostages. Freyr and Freyja accepted redress but not Njord. Foreseeing a second divine war, Odin made plans...

We have at last reached the end of Chapter I.

In The Saga Of Asgard by Roger Lancelyn Green, the giant Suttung set two dwarves on a skerry where they would eventually drown. No doubt both stories are Eddaic. 

Myths Retold III

 

War Of The Gods, I.

Freyja taught the Aesir spells which Odin shunned although it was useful to know about them.

Because of wars in Midgard and threats from the giants and Nidhogg, the Aesir wanted stronger walls around Asgard. A man offered to build such walls in a year and a day in return for the sun, moon and Freyja. Loki persuaded the Aesir to knock the man down to half a year. He would fail but they would get part of a wall free. The man accepted provided that he could use his stallion, Svadilfari. 

Near the end of half a year, only the gateway remained to be built. The gods threatened Loki. A mare lured Svadilfari into the woods. The gateway was not completed. Odin told the man that he would receive nothing. (Surely he should have received something? But mythical beings act in extreme ways.) The man revealed himself as a foul-mouthed giant and Thor killed him. Loki, who had been the mare, returned with an eight-legged colt, Sleipnir, which he gave to Odin. 

More happens. This chapter is extremely condensed. I will stop for this evening. Tomorrow I will be on a (very) short Zen retreat from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM.

Myths Retold II

See Myths Retold...

More men turned to the Vanir, aggrieving the Aesir. Heimdall of the Aesir, calling himself Rig, travelled through Midgard, begetting thralls, yeomen and highborn. These classes worship the Aesir. Heimdall's grandsson (I think), Con, became the first king after training by Heimdall.

Gullveig, also known as Heid, the Shining One, came from Vanaheim, sowed discord in Midgard and crossed Bifrost to Asgard. When the Aesir tried but failed to kill her, she returned to Vanaheim and incited the Vanir against the Aesir. The Vanir waged war, won many battles and damaged the walls of Asgard but were beaten back. War between the gods continued for years and caused wars between men. Odin travelled to Mimir's Well under the second root of the Tree in Jotunheim and gave one eye for wisdom. Mimir accompanied Odin to Asgard and advised him to go beyond death to seek the runes, which he did. Thus enwisened, Odin made peace. Aesir and Vanir now shared offerings and lordship.

The Vanir accepted Hoenir and Mimir as hostages.(The text summarizes the myth that Odin, Hoenir and Lodur - in another version, Odin, Vili and Ve - carved the first man and woman from ash and elm logs.)

The Aesir accepted Njord, his son Freyr and his daughter Freyja as hostages -

Njord: the sea;

Freyr: earth;

Freyja: sexual love and birth.

To be continued.

Myths Retold In Poul Anderson's WAR OF THE GODS, Chapter I

War Of The Gods, I.

This chapter is already a summary so is difficult to summarize.

The Aesir

("As" is "a god." "Aesir" is plural. Asgard is the enclosure of the gods. Midgard is the middle enclosure; Utgard, outer.)

Odin and the other Aesir inhabit Asgard, the highest of the Nine Worlds in the Tree. They are gods of sky, wind, weather, sun, moon, stars, the Winterway and the northern lights. They hunt, breed horses and cattle and marry. Odin wanders between worlds to seek knowledge.

The Vanir

Despite "Aesir" meaning "gods," the Vanir are another race of gods and the meaning of their name is uncertain. (See here.) The Vanir are gods of earth, sea, harvest, fishery, plow, ship, love, birth and much that is dark and lawless. They do not marry and many female Vanir are witches. Vanaheim (not Vangard) is west of Asgard.

Lower Worlds

Men inhabit Midgard which is surrounded by the sea. Jotunheim, which is also Utgard although that name is not used here, is north beyond the sea. Jotuns/thursir are descended from Ymir who pre-existed the gods but was killed by Odin and his brothers. 

Jotuns include:

giants as large as Ymir;

smaller giants;

trolls;

monsters;

attractive, human-like beings;

mothers of gods;

bearers of wisdom from the beginning of time.

There are also elves and dwarves. The Norns, who control the lives of men, sit at a well beneath the root of the Tree that is closest to Asgard. The Aesir meet there every morning to plan for the day.

To be continued.

Beginnings

The World Ash Tree, Yggdrasil, is like a changeless Absolute despite the dragon Nidhogg gnawing at its deepest roots. The Tree survives the Ragnarok although it is not mentioned in the stories of the Ginnungagap. Mythology is neither logic nor science. (Thor sleeps in one finger of a giant's glove but later wrestles with a giant.) The Tree comes to an end in Wagner's Ring operas but that is a different version of the story.

Although most accounts of Norse myths begin with the Ginnungagap, Poul Anderson's War Of The Gods begins with:

"...the nine worlds in the Tree." (I, p. 9)

- although it also mentions the slaying of Ymir.

The text lists Asgard, Vanaheim, men, elves, dwarves and jotuns/thursirs: six, not nine. The Eddas present no definitive list. See Norse Cosmology: Nine Worlds. 

In just over six pages, pp. 9-15, Chapter I of War Of The Gods summarizes several Norse myths as a build-up to an innovative action by Odin. In the just under three pages, pp. 295-298, of the concluding Chapter XXXV, that action, an intervention in human history, has been completed. These chapters book-end Anderson's retelling of the story of Hadding.

Odin's Spear And The Walls Of Asgard

There must be something in the Eddas about the Vanir damaging the walls of Asgard (Later: It is in the Voluspa):

"Sure enough, before they had decided what to do, a great army of the Vanir came out of the clear sky and began tearing down the walls of Asgard.

"Odin advanced against them and hurled his spear at the leader."

-Roger Lancelyn Green, The Saga Of Asgard (Harmondsworth, 1960), Chapter 2, p. 38.

"[Odin] led the Aesir out to meet [the Vanir]. When they drew nigh, he cast his spear over their host...

"Helped by their black arts, the Vanir at first kept the field in most battles. They thrust up to the very walls of Asgard and broke them down."

-Poul Anderson, War Of The Gods (New York, 1999), I, p. 11.

We recognize incidents arranged in different narrative orders.  In Lancelyn Green's account, hostilities begin and end with the Vanir attacking the walls and Odin hurling his spear. Niord catches the spear and returns it with a bow. Then they negotiate and make peace. By contrast, in Anderson's account there are many battles. The Aesir drive back the Vanir from the walls but then the war continues for many years. Odin must seek wisdom before he learns how to make peace. In Lancelyn Green's account, he had already sought wisdom before the Vanir appeared and had even been advised to make peace with them before he knew that they existed.

Authors creatively adapt their sources.

The First War

"The gods themselves fought the first war that ever was."

-Poul Anderson, War Of The Gods (New York, 1999).

This statement refers to the war between Aesir and Vanir and is false. The Aesir had originally fought the giants, killed the first giant, Ymir, and made Midgard from his body.

Let's sort sources. Poul Anderson's Hrolf Kraki's Saga was published in 1973 but I did not read it till some time later. His War Of The Gods was published in 1977. Obviously, some of us knew of Norse mythology before reading of it in Anderson's works. I had read Roger Lancelyn Green's Myths Of The Norsemen, later re-entitled The Saga Of Asgard, in the 1960s and then was disappointed with the Marvel Comics Thor. Neil Gaiman tells us in the Introduction to his Norse Mythology that he read the Marvel Thor, then Lancelyn Green.

Since Lancelyn Green's book was published in 1960, it cannot be the Myths Of The Norsemen that CS Lewis mentioned in Surprised By Joy, published in 1955 and describing his earlier life. That work must have been Myths Of The Norsemen by H. A. Guerber which describes the war between Aesir and giants thus:

When these giants became aware of the existence of the god Buri, and of his son Börr (born), whom he had immediately produced, they began waging war against them, for as the gods and giants represented the opposite forces of good and evil, there was no hope of their living together in peace. The struggle continued evidently for ages, neither party gaining a decided advantage, until Börr married the giantess Bestla, daughter of Bolthorn (the thorn of evil), who bore him three powerful sons, Odin (spirit), Vili (will), and Ve (holy). These three sons immediately joined their father in his struggle against the hostile frost-giants, and finally succeeded in slaying their deadliest foe, the great Ymir. As he sank down lifeless the blood gushed from his wounds in such floods that it produced a great deluge, in which all his race perished, with the exception of Bergelmir, who escaped in a boat and went with his wife to the confines of the world.

-copied from here.

Later: The Aesir-Vanir War is described as the first in the world (see here) whereas the war between Aesir and giants was before the world.

Retellings Of Norse Myths

I have in my possession:

Hrolf Kraki's Saga by Poul Anderson

War Of The Gods by Poul Anderson

The Saga Of Asgard by Roger Lancelyn Green

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

"Then I heard a voice in the world: 'O woe for the broken troth,

"And the heavy Need of the Niblungs, and the Sorrow of Odin the Goth!"

-William Morris, Sigurd the Volsung, quoted in Poul Anderson, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 333-465 AT p. 333.

An author can either retell the myths or write a new narrative incorporating them. Poul Anderson does both and imaginatively creates earlier versions of myths in:

"Star of the Sea" IN Time Patrol, pp. 467-640.

This is our new blog topic.

The Merman's Children: Epilogue

Anderson accomplishes much in his short (little more than a page) Epilogue to The Merman's Children. 

He begins by presenting historical dates and events:

"In May of the year of Our Lord 1312 died Pavle Subitj the king-maker." (p. 257)

To paraphrase the remainder of the opening paragraph:

Mladen Subitj succeeded his father as Ban but failed either to complete the reconquest of Zadar or to curb feuds among Hrvatskan clans;

Katchitji pirates troubled Dalmatia;

the Nelipitji attacked the Subitji and Frankapani, leading to civil war in 1322;

Venice, allied with Nelipitji, took Shibenik, Trogir, Split and Nin;

"Dark were those decades." (ibid.)

The narrative has moved from fantasy into real history. When the aged Father Tomislav preaches, his congregation includes:

"...widowed, defeated, graying Captain Andrei..." (ibid.)

We must remember that Andrei had been Vanimen, mer-king of Liri, but is now a mortal man.

Tomislav thinks that God:

"'...forgave a poor little shadow and raised her to Heaven...'" (p. 258)

We know that Tomislav's daughter is happy elsewhere, magically merged with Ingeborg and living as a halfling with the last merman, Tauno. There is plenty of room for two personalities within a single human psychophysical organism.

Then Tomislav speculates that all of creation will be resurrected on the Last Day. That would include Tauno and the two parts of the composite Ingeborg. But then Tomislav concludes that what he has just said:

"'...could be heresy.'" (ibid.)

We have been reading a story. There the novel ends.

Watch The Weather

The Merman's Children.

When merfolk accept baptism, they become mortal human beings but receive a soul. When their king, Vanimen, comes, newly christened, from the church and urges his people to accept Christ, they have been waiting:

"...under budding leaves, in a hard rain." (V, p. 152)

Budding leaves mean new life. Is hard rain cleansing, like baptism?

Later, however, when Vanimen's daughter is christened, nature does not rejoice:

"The weather had turned unseasonably cold. Wind drove clouds across a wan sky and soughed in leaves that were fast changing color. Shadows came and went." (VIII, pp. 239-240)

This time, the emphasis is not on her salvation but on her permanent separation from her brother, Tauno, who stands apart and will not accept Christendom.

Always watch the weather.

Original Ideas

How often do you read an sf story and think, "That is an original idea."? I can think of six examples, three involving time travel, two of them by Poul Anderson.

Counterfeit World by Daniel Galouye

AIs inhabit a virtual reality, thinking that it is material reality. People from material reality visit the virtual. I think that there was one virtual inside another . (This was original when I read it.)

Beta Sol, James Blish

Sol is part of a binary. Its companion is a white dwarf, six light months away. Beta Sol has an inhabited planet and is reachable by 1970s technology.

Perelandra by CS Lewis

Lewis, visiting Ransom, is about to be introduced to a being in whom the distinction between extraterrestrial and supernatural breaks down. He finds it hard to articulate his disquiet.

The Goblin Reservation by Clifford Simak

A cartoon-style ghost like a white sheet has been called from the hereafter but died so long ago that it has forgotten who it was. William Shakespeare time travels to the future and meets the ghost which then remembers that it was William Shakespeare.

(This linking of ghosts and time travel ties in with Wells' The Time Machine. When the Time Traveller first glimpses a Morlock at night, he wonders whether it is a ghost, then reflects that, by 802,701 AD, there should be more ghosts because more people will have died. Ghosts appearing in old houses might also be linked with time travellers flitting through the old houses.)

There Will Be Time by Poul Anderson

Time travellers can travel into the future within slower than light interstellar spaceships and can report on the outcome of a voyage before it starts.

(I had thought of this idea. I envisaged "The Haunted Spaceship" with crew members glimpsing apparitions that are time travellers from later in the history of the ship.)

The Shield Of Time by Poul Anderson

A historical alteration is caused not by extratemporal intervention but by a quantum fluctuation in space-time-energy. Right at the end of the series, Anderson invents something new.

Poul Anderson On Hyperspace

 

Poul Anderson, Is There Life On Other Worlds? (New York, 1968), Chapter 9, pp. 166-169.

It seems that there was already some evidence for extra-solar planets when this book was first published in 1963.

A Fold In Space

An insect can step directly from one corner of a large sheet of paper to the opposite corner if someone folds the sheet. However, an insect is a three-dimensional organism walking on a two-dimensional surface whereas a spaceship is comparable to a two-dimensional picture that is part of the sheet. Such a picture cannot step from corner to corner.

Quantum Hyperspace

"It may be possible to make a very large number of small quantum jumps per second." (p. 166)

As in Anderson's Technic History.

Civilization Clusters

Several civilizations in each cluster interact but many do not. Inter-cluster contact is tenuous. Explorers, missionaries etc make occasional long trips. This scenario, in Anderson's After Doomsday, is plausible and should have been the basis of an entire series.

The Improbability Of Complex Organisms

On TV last night, we saw Brian Cox interview one of his heroes, Frank Drake, and discuss Drake's equation. 

Drake showed Cox an orchid that flowers for only two days a year. Anyone who observed that orchid on any of the wrong 363 days would miss the flowers. Communicating civilizations might be rarer than those flowers so we have to keep looking.

Cox explained that complex, multi-cellular organisms are composed of complex cells. It is thought that two simple cells fused to form the first complex cell which then reproduced as complex. However, such fusion would usually result in one cell eating the other or both dying. Fusion to complexity must be rare and is believed to have happened only once on Earth. How often elsewhere? Cox guesstimated one civilization per galaxy which would make us effectively alone and also very valuable.

This is not Poul Anderson's Technic History where sapient species are as common as snowflakes but the universe of his later future histories. Next we will recapitulate what Anderson wrote about hyperspace in Is There Life On Other Worlds?

A Silver Band And More Weather

The Merman's Children.

"On a calm night, stars filled the jet bowl above until it was well-nigh hidden, save for the silver band across it." (Book Four, I, p. 194)

"...the silver band..." is yet another description of the Milky Way which we seem to have missed before.

"...it was a sweet spring day. The common which they were crossing was vivid with new grass; in the distance, leaves made a green mist across the top of a woodlot. Against overarching blue, storks were returning, harbingers of summer, bearers of luck. The breeze was fresh, loud, full of damp odors. Hoofs thudded on drenched soil with almost unhearable softness." (V, p. 216)

Four senses: the breeze alone is felt, heard and smelled. We are beginning to notice birds as part of the pathetic fallacy. These storks harbing summer and bear luck. (I tried "harbing" as a verb but my laptop does not recognize it.)

"Rain sluiced from heaven, brawled across roofs, made rivers of streets. Lightning flared, thunder went on huge wheels, wind whooped." (p. 217)

A good time to be indoors and, sure enough, the following paragraph describes:

a stove heating the main room of a house;

candles lighting wainscot, hangings and carved furniture;

closed doors giving privacy.

As usual, weather punctuates dialogue. When Eyjan complains:

"Ingeborg watched her for a while that was silent except for the storm battering at shutters." (ibid.)

(Today has been a busy Easter Monday, combining a friend's birthday with a community activity and an evening outing. Reading time has been almost zero.)

Best SF

Andrea, whom I visit above his brother's Old Pier Bookshop, asked me what I thought was the best single work of sf that I knew of in any medium. He thought that I was finding it difficult to answer the question whereas I was pausing in order to formulate my answer. There are many good individual works like HG Wells' The Time Machine and Poul Anderson's Genesis but the work that I thought of was Anderson's The Earth Book Of Stormgate. It might be argued that that is not a single work but a collection although it is bound together into a unity by the new introductions. Far from objecting to my choice, Andrea said that he would read it. Describing the Earth Book involved describing its connection to five previous volumes and, to a lesser extent, to the subsequent Technic History volumes. But I have already summarized the Earth Book and the Technic History far too often on this blog to need to do it again.

Time Criminals

In Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series -

The Nine were the original time criminals because they aimed to prevent the births of their enemies.

Rozher Schtein, "Stane," from 2987 is a time criminal because he:

murdered a time traveller;

stole his time shuttle;

tried to change history for the better.

Phrontes and Himilco, Neldorians from the 205th millennium, are time criminals because they change history for their own aggrandisement.

Merau Varagan and his fellow Exaltationists from the 31st millennium are time criminals because they stole timecycles and tried to change history that their wills might be wholly free.

Luis Castelar is a time criminal because he uses a hijacked Neldorian timecycle to crusade through time.

Charles Whitcomb is a time criminal because he prevents his fiancee's death in an air raid.

Manson Everard is a time criminal because he helps Whitcomb.

Lorenzo de Conti is not a time criminal but a personal causal nexus.

A different motive each time.