Rereading a novel, we realize the significance of its earlier passages. Infant Dahut sees the sea as:
"...the forever changing boundlessness that she had not known was within herself." (p. 22)
When she falls into it, she feels:
"neither chill nor fear, merely surprise, a sense of homecoming." (p. 24)
A seal holds her up, then her father rescues her. The seals are reincarnated Gallicenae (Witch-Queens of Ys). This one is probably Dahilis, Dahut's mother, Gratillonius' deceased wife.
If we have read this Tetralogy before, then we remember first the later relationship between Dahut and her father and secondly how she wound up: in the sea - one of the last pagan presences to be exorcised...
(This week, I will be in London from Thursday afternoon to Sunday evening so there will be no new posts in that period.)
8 comments:
I think Poul noted that the Christianity in the Ys series is based on folk-beliefs in later Catholic Europe.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: Falling behind again, trying to catch up.
Mr. Stirling: You probably have PA's introductory note for THE MERMAN'S CHILDREN in mind. Anderson wrote there that the Catholicism seen there was the naive faith, sometimes alloyed with superstitions, of peasants and fishers. Not the scholarly, nuanced faith of educated people like St. Thomas Aquinas.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: yup, that was it.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I thought so! And this reminded me of the similar prefatory note written by Anderson for HROLF KRAKI'S SAGA, where what he said about Scandinavian paganism made it plain he had no illusions about it.
Ad astra! Sean
I think folk-religion of all sorts indicates that human beings are 'instinctive animists'.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That's what primitive human societies started at, but, unlike Anderson's Tigeries in ENSIGN FLANDRY, who had little interest in such questions, humans began seeking more satisfactory answers to the ultimate questions.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: humans have been around for about 300,000 years. Animism reigned supreme until sometime in the Neolithic, which is by contrast a mere eyeblink.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, but that desire for seeking better answers to the ultimate questions, did eventually start. So we eventually got the wisdom literature of Mesopotamia and Egypt, the Amon hymns of the XIX Dynasty of Egypt, and the revelation of God to the Patriarchs, Prophets, and Sages of Israel. And then the philosophers of Greece and the Far East, such as Confucius.
Ad astra! Sean
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