Saturday 23 July 2022

Sound Effects

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth."

The carved gods, beasts and heroes seem to move in the shifting shadows while:

"Whoo-oo said the wind, a noise as cold as itself." (p. 334)

As often in Poul Anderson's works, the wind comments on the action. I do not seem to have noted this example before. However, we have heard the sound "Whoo-oo" twice before (see here) (scroll down), once as a sound in battle and once yet again as the wind become almost a protagonist. It is said to whip Dahut as she runs through the streets of Ys.

Maybe some mentions of the wind are just mentions of the wind! When the Wanderer enters the hall:

"Wind flapped the edges of his blue cloak, flung a few dead leaves in past him, whistled and chilled along the room." (p. 339)

Maybe just the wind but also appropriate for the advent of Odin.

1 comment:

S.M. Stirling said...

Aspen leaves often blew out of the cloak of Odin/Wodan -- and now we may be seeing the source of the myth!