Tuesday 16 August 2022

Ermanaricshafen

Superb intertextuality - John Wilkie refers to Rostov-on-Don, then corrects himself:

"'...Ermanaricshafen.'"
-Daggers In Darkness, CHAPTER TWO, p. 41.

The explanation follows immediately:

"There were quiet snorts and rolled eyes: Ermanaric had been...probably...a quasi-mythical Gothic king in the Ukraine in the fourth century AD, one who figured prominently in the Volsungasaga and the Niblelungenlied. The Germans were notorious for ransacking history and legend for ethnically suitable names to plaster on their vastly enlarged realm. The Ukraine was the East Gothic Marchland these days..." (ibid.)

If we were reading Daggers In Darkness on screen, then it might be appropriate for an ad to appear, saying: "Read Poul Anderson's excellent Time Patrol story, 'The Sorrow of Odin the Goth.'" Anderson's characters are East Goths, including Ermanaric, living in the Ukraine, and time travellers who refer to the Volsungasaga and the Nibelungenlied. Sometimes it feels as is if all of literature and fiction is one long series. 

1 comment:

S.M. Stirling said...

I had fun with that. It's just the sort of thing they'd do, too.