More About Nerthus

We proceed from "The Green Thumb" to:

Poul Anderson, Virgin Planet (London, 1966) -

- where we seek further information about the planet Nerthus.

"A thousand light-years from Sol, on the edge of the known and settled by humans for barely two generations, Nerthus was the local Cordy headquarters..." (Chapter II, p. 15)

Observations

"Cordy" is an abbreviation for the Coordination Service. This Service also appears in "The Pirate" and The Peregrine. Thus, there are tight links between most of the instalments in the second half of Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History.

Virgin Planet is set two generations after "The Acolytes" and "The Green Thumb." However, in those stories, human beings had explored the Galaxy, there was a Galactic civilization and settlers on planets like Nerthus could come not only from Earth but also from other, already colonized, planets. In Virgin Planet, Nerthus is on the edge of the known... I am trying to see the Psychotechnic History as a coherent series but its background keeps shifting.

According to "AUTHOR'S NOTE" (pp. 150-156):

constellations as seen from several base planets are named;

Nerthus, a thousand light-years from Sol toward Argus, is one base planet;

one Nerthusian constellation is the Wolf's Head;

as in Terrestrial astronomy, "Delta" is the fourth brightest star in a constellation;

thus, one star as seen from Nerthus is (Ar 293) Delta Capitis Lupi;

but that is our Latin translation of the name in Basic.

(However, I do not know what the number, 293, stands for.)