In The First Century

"Star of the Sea," 4.

Chapters in this work are merely numbered, not dated as in "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," "The Year of the Ransom," The Shield Of Time or "Death And The Knight." Chapter 4 begins:

"Castra Vetera, Old Camp, stood near the Rhine, about where Xanten in Germany did when Everard and Floris were born." (p. 501)

So what is happening in this text? In the first place, the opening phrase, "Castra Vetera...," suggests that Chapter 4, like 1 and 3, is set back in Roman times. But there is a discordant note here because it seems that an omniscient narrator is assuming that his audience knows whom he means by "...Everard and Floris..." On the one hand, yes, Everard and Floris did meet each other in the twentieth century in Chapter 2 and thus we read about them there. On the other hand, Andersonian passages set in the past are usually set entirely in the appropriate period. Their point of view, whether individual or collective, is that of someone alive then.

(Chapter 3 begins with a collective point of view:

("Winter brought rain..." (p. 494))

The passage proceeds to compare political geography then and two thousand years later. Germania and Gaul will split into many modern countries. The relationship between Rome and the outermost German tribes is compared to that between the British Raj and native Indian states. Again, this narration does not express a first century point of view.

Next, Julius Classicus and Burhmund converse. Floris had told Everard and thus us that these men were involved in first century events. But then Burhmund:

"...glanced at Everard." (p. 503)

At last everything is clear. The entire chapter from its opening phrase has been narrated from Everard's point of view.