Circular Causality In Wells And Anderson

 

I think that the first circular causality paradox in fiction was in HG Wells' The Chronic Argonauts.

the Chronic Argonaut, the literary precursor of the Time Traveller:

moved into an empty and shunned house;

travelled a short distance into the past while remaining spatially within the house;

was attacked as an intruder by the house's then occupants, a man and his two sons;

killed the father in self-defence;

returned to his present.

In the absence of any evidence of an intruder, the two sons were prosecuted and executed for the murder of their father. Therefore, the house was empty and shunned.

In Poul Anderson's "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," the Wanderer must appear and tell Hathawulf and Solbern that their doom has come because Manse Everard has deduced that the story of Odin appearing and betraying Hamther and Sorli was based on fact but the fact that it was based on was the Wanderer appearing and pronouncing the brothers' doom.