Tuesday 28 March 2023

The Sky Book Of Stormgate

In The Earth Book of Stormgate, Hloch twice refers to his mother Rennhi's earlier work, The Sky Book of Stormgate. In his general introduction, Hloch tells us that the Sky Book is the history of Stormgate Choth, covering:

the ancestors on Ythri;
the founders on Avalon;
their descendants.

In the introduction to "Wingless," he writes:

"As for the creation and history of our choth upon Avalon, that is in The Sky Book of Stormgate."
-Poul Anderson, Rise of the Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, March 2011), p. 294.

This might remind us of:

As for the other events of Baasha’s reign, what he did and his achievements, are they not written in the book of the annalsd of the kings of Israel?  (I Kings 16:5)

Readers of the Bible do not read the book of the annals just as we, who read the Earth Book, do not read the Sky Book.

The Earth Book is the story of the settlement of Avalon and of the origin of Stormgate as told not by Ythrians but by Terrans who walk the earth. Do other Avalonian choths have similar histories? Is there an Earth Book of Highsky or a Sky Book of Mistwood?

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I too have read the Books of Kings and noticed how the Biblical author referred his readers to the annals of Judah and Israel for more information about the Jewish kings. Alas, those annals and records have long, long since been lost.

I think many Ythrians, on or off Avalon, would be satisfied with THE EARTH BOOK OF STORMGATE. But I can see other choths commissioning their own histories.

Ad astra! Sean