Summer Heat And Rain

The Dog And The Wolf, XI, 5.

When Evirion visits Nemeta:

"Summer weighed heavy on the land. Rainfall the day before had not eased its heat, only thickened the air. Leaves hung listless, their green dulled, beneath a stone-blue sky. New clouds were massing in the west and thunder muttered afar. Muddy smells and thin haze smoked above the river, whose purling was almost the single sound going in and out of forest shadows. Flies pestered the mount, mosquitos the man." (p. 230)

Four senses.

This is a seasonal reference that I missed in The Years After Ys  but had included much earlier in Seasons.

And I think that that concludes the blog posts for this month because I plan to return to other reading this evening. Maybe back here some time tomorrow.

Multiple Characters

The Dog And The Wolf, XI.

Multiple characters continue to interact, a potentially endless process:

the legendary Grallon or Gradlon, fictionalized as Gratillonius, and the fictional Runa find domesticity;

the names, "Grallon" and "Gradlon," both present in the legend of Ys, are explained as respectively the Ysan and Armorican versions of "Gratillonius";

the legendary Niall of the Nine Hostages and the historical Flavius Claudius Constantinus clash and negotiate;

two fictional characters, Governor Titus Scibona Glabrio and Procurator Quintus Domitius Bacca, continue to conspire against Gratillonius and will write to the historical Flavius Stilicho;

Gratillonius converses with Olath Cartagi, Apuleius, Maeloch, Vellano son of Drach and Riwal from Britannia and expects a grandchild from his daughter, Julia, all fictional;

Evirion Baltisi returns from Hivernia and visits Gratillonius' other surviving daughter, Nemeta.

"A cast of thousands" - not literally, but it feels like that.

This happens throughout literature, of course. I am about to return to reading a novel in which fictional characters converse with historical early heads of Special Branch, MI5 and MI6 and with Winston Churchill whom we remember as a guest in the Old Phoenix.

Plunder

The Dog And The Wolf.

Imagine boasting of wealth acquired only by plunder! But apparently there were societies based entirely on that.

"...Eochaid must enter not as a gangrel but as a chieftain in his own right. Proudly he walked, and behind him his men bearing gifts of Roman gold, silver, jewellery, cloth, the choicest of their plunder." (X, 7, p. 208)

What could the wealth-producing societies do but defend themselves? I have just read an account of a Scotian-Roman battle in The Dog And The Wolf, read an account of a World War I battle in John Gardner's The Secret Generations and seen the film, Oppenheimer, and meanwhile there is more than one armed conflict on Earth (see here), not just the one that we usually hear about. Is there a better way to conduct human affairs? Especially since human survival has become an issue? Sf writers can extrapolate alternative futures and should avoid cliches, e.g., that there are only two alternatives: business as usual or something worse. Business as usual is now something worse. What would Poul Anderson write if he were alive now? Some of his future histories involve recovery after a catastrophe. What recovery would he describe now? He also wrote some dystopias.

What Gratillonius Knows Of The Goths

 

The Dog And The Wolf, XI, 1.

"Their tribes were divided between  a western and an eastern branch.

"Wandering down from Germanic lands, they had settled in regions north of the Danuvius and the Euxinus.

"Later the thrust of a wholly wild and terrible breed, the Huns, caused them to seek refuge among the Romans.

"They proved to be formidable soldiers, especially as cavalrymen...

"...but untrustworthy subjects, apt to rebel.

"Most became Christian...

"...though of the Arian persuasion..." (p. 214)

I have rearranged this passage into discrete data, numbering seven. We can read about these Goths, Huns and Arians in Poul Anderson's Time Patrol story, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth."

"It was the Birthday of Mithras. Gratillonius rarely saw a calendar, but everybody knew when solstice happened, and from that he could reckon this day." (p. 216)

He and we remember when he celebrated Birthday on the Wall. His entire career as King of Ys has come and gone since then, just as we remember long periods of time when we worked in a particular place.

How many Birthdays of Mithras are mentioned in The King of Ys?

A Lion And A King

The Dog And The Wolf, IX.

Gratillonius now lacks his throne, wives, military rank and God and has no sons! - although he is a tribune. He and his men, including Rufinus, return from killing an escaped lion to be told that the procurator's new agent is Nagon Demari, an old Ysan enemy, who will certainly tax oppressively. Gratillonius must rally his followers for yet another struggle and, when addressing them, proclaims himself still the King of Ys.

Afterwards, Runa says, "'Your will be done.'" (5, p. 204) - another Biblical reference. She is the first woman that he has been with since the Queens. The power of the Ysan Gods is gone.

I was struck by the similarity between the lion and Nagon Demari.

Gratillonius And Brechdan

The Dog And The Wolf, X, 2.

"I don't send men out on hazardous duty I wouldn't take myself,' [Gratillonius] said to her." (p. 194)

"Brechdan nodded. An Ynvory did not send personnel into danger and himself stay behind without higher duties."

-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-192 AT CHAPTER THREE, p. 26.

This comparison prompts another. In Anderson's second Flandry novel, A Circus of Hells, an old female Domrath shakes her head in disbelief. So Merseians nod their heads for yes and Domrath shake their heads for disbelief. Anderson projects human gestures onto two extra-solar species. And I did not expect to arrive there having started from a remark by Gratillonius. Good night.

Sacrifice, Summer And History

Nemeta sacrifices her new born son to the Three of Ys, asking for revenge not only against the men who raped her but also against their entire families. Obviously, if such Gods really did exist, then it would be very wrong to have anything to do with them.

The Dog And The Wolf, IX, 3, begins by referring to "The feast of St Johannes..." and "...Midsummer..." (p. 182) Later in this section:

"-Midsummer noontide was warm and clear. Fragrances from the forest breathed over fields where grain ripened. A  lark carolled on high. Finches twittered near the ground. From Aquilo's eastern gate streamed and chattered Confluentians, homeward bound for festivities after the mass avowal and service at the church." (p. 186)

Thus, seasons and seasonal celebrations continue and the latter have been Christianized.

Runa wants to write a history of Ys but we know that that will not happen. That is why we read only legends and fiction. There is scope for more Tetralogies set in the earlier centuries. In fact, the entire notion that Ys was not built by Grallon but had a long earlier history is an addition by the Andersons. When authors of fiction adapt legends, they always tell us what really happened. 

(Even with a twentieth century legend, new authors tell us where Dr Watson got it wrong.)

Change, Resistance And Legend

Two processes continue to occur: first, change; secondly, individuals and groups continue to act as they did before. Thus, Rufinus and now also Maeloch spy and secretly negotiate on behalf of Gratillonius who tries to restore Armorican defences after the destruction of Ys. But Niall orders his men to dismantle and raze even the ruins of Ys while one of Gratillonius' daughters commits infanticide, thus terminating one line of descent from the last King of Ys.

A third process that is always with us is the transformation or metamorphosis of past events into enduring legends. Gratillonius' future wife, Verania, sings:

"'I remember Ys, though I have never seen her...'"

-The Dog And The Wolf, VIII, 3, p. 162.

And we remember Ys from Volumes I-III of this Tetralogy. Verania's song is a haunting echo of the legend and of its summation in this series. She, like the two co-authors, is a link between the fabulous city and present readers. 

On Easter Morning

The Dog And The Wolf, VIII, 5.

"On Easter morning, they five were well-nigh alone. Apart from a pagan man who rode watchful about the acres, everyone else had gone into town for the post-baptismal services and the festivities that would follow." (p. 166)

There is social pressure to accept what is becoming the dominant religion. In my opinion, it is wrong to convert for that reason. Tera and Maeloch stay with the old ways as they should if that is how they see things. Meanwhile, it should be possible to share cultures and celebrations while maintaining the integrity of liturgies that are open only to initiates. Our Muslim neighbours give us food at Eid although we have not fasted with them. I know that I should accept food in a Sikh or Krishna Temple but should not receive communion in a Christian Church.

There can be mutual recognition and acceptance instead of social exclusion. 

What Is Acceptable

The Dog And The Wolf, VIII, 4.

Gratillonius' daughter, Julia, is baptised by immersion:

"She drew her hair over her shoulders, tightly across her breasts, and kept her head lowered. In Ys you had not been ashamed of your body; Ys lay drowned." (p. 164)

Ys was right about that, at least. One of our neighbours, a Wiccan high priest, told me that paganism is the only religion where men and women worship together naked. When I relayed his remark to my daughter, Aileen, she retorted, "And it will continue to be the only religion where men and women worship together naked!"

What counts as appropriate is entirely a matter of which tradition we are practising in. A woman shouted something about Christ at an Anglican funeral probably because she was used to attending meetings where shouting out like that would have been an expected and acceptable response. Someone who had experience of Pure Land Buddhism was shocked, when entering our meditation hall, to see people sitting for meditation with their backs to the Buddha.

In a Jain Temple, I saw a life-size statue of an entirely unclothed man - sky-clad. However, nakedness is indeed unacceptable in most traditions.

After A Year

 

The Dog And The Wolf, VIII, 3.

"Full moon, the first after the spring equinox. More than a solar year had gone since Ys died, but the Queens had reckoned their holy times by the moon, and tonight was the lunar anniversary of the death." (p. 160)

Another seasonal reference and a definite indication of how much time has elapsed. There will be more. Somewhere later in this volume, it will have been three years. 

"Even rage against the Gods was unseemly for a man who had a man's work to do." (ibid.)

It is not quite relevant to say that some of us do not rage against the Gods because we do not believe in the Gods. We can rage against circumstances which is what is really meant here. And we have a responsibility to do what we can within the circumstances which are not of our choosing. I did not choose the education that I received but I did make sure that my daughter received a completely different one. Theists or atheists, we act.

Evirion And Rufinus On Religion

 

The Dog And The Wolf, VIII, 2.

Evirion:

"'Christ must be real, and strong. Look how He's winning everywhere. For me it's like - like being a barbarian warrior whose chief betrayed him. Another, more powerful chief offers me a berth. Very well, I'll take it with thanks, and be loyal.'" (p. 155)

This is the paradox of a pagan reason for conversion to Christianity. From a pagan perspective, Odin and Thor are powerful in Northern Europe, Christ is powerful in the Roman Empire, Someone else somewhere else etc. But Christ's territory is expanding so His power is increasing. Subsequent generations, brought up as Christians, will no longer see it that way. My sympathy is with Rufinus who would convert if it was expedient:

"'What difference? We may as well bow to one nothing as to another.'" (p. 154)

But, in my case and I think also in his, only if it was very expedient. I will never be invited to join the Freemasons but, if I were, then I would have to refuse because I cannot in honesty acknowledge a Supreme Architect of the Universe. I suppose that some Masons would say that this does not matter but, to me, it would. 

Rufinus does not recognise the possibility of spiritual practice beyond theism because those traditions have not entered Europe yet.

Winter Days

The Dog And The Wolf, VIII, 1, gives some indications of the passage of the seasons that I had missed when compiling The Years After Ys:

"Some land had been cleared during the summer..." (p. 148)

"One day [Gratillonius] happened to be the last homebound as the short period of winter light drew to an end." (ibid.)

He was King of Ys for seventeen years and several more years elapse in this concluding volume after the whelming of Ys, more years I think than would be reckoned simply by counting the seasonal references that I have quoted. Nevertheless, all the events of the Tetralogy fall well within the lifetime of a single person, provided that he survives the various conflicts and disasters that occur. All nine Queens perish with their city but the King survives because, as an angel tells Corentinus, he is needed in what happens after. Each survivor has his or her story and the narrative follows the stories to their conclusions. Volume IV completes the history of the Ysans as their city fades from memory and their language, still spoken, must sink without trace into the historically known European languages.

Dramatis Personae

The Dog And The Wolf.

When a long novel presents a large cast of characters, we enjoy each change of scene because it transitions to another interesting set of characters. At present, I am reading the Railton Family Trilogy by John Gardner and rereading the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson and the The King of Ys Tetralogy by Poul and Karen Anderson. The list of Dramatis Personae at the end of The King of Ys, Volume IV, The Dog And The Wolf, covers five pages, from Aebell to Vortivir, Flavius.

Survivors of Ys include:

Nemeta, daughter of Gratillonius and Forsquilis

Julia, daughter of Gratillonius and Lanarvilis

Evirion Baltisi, a sea captain

Cadoc Himilco, a Suffete

In VI, 1, Evirion converses with Nemeta and refers to Cadoc and Julia. In the following section, we are back with Maeloc and his crew. Some events and conversations must be simultaneous rather than successive. The characters continue to enact the consequences of the destruction of their city.

The Years After Ys

The Dog And The Wolf.

For a final time, we follow the passage of the seasons in a volume of The King of Ys.

"Most fruit trees were done with blooming, but a new loveliness dwelt in Liguria." (III, 2, p. 67)

"That was a chilly year, but towards midsummer a spell of heat set in and lasted a while." (VI, 1, p. 113)

"Mons Ferruginus and the woods beyond the Odita blazed with autumn, red, russet, yellow under the earliest sun-rays." (VII, 2, p. 137)

"...To this place came Bishop Martinus at the beginning of winter's pastoral rounds." (VII, 3, p. 145)

"The new year might be more hopeful than the last. Weather grew springlike well before the vernal equinox." (VIII, 2, p. 153)

"Easter Eve was clear." (VIII, 4, p. 163)

"On Easter morning..." (VIII, 5, p. 166)

"Immediately after Easter..." (IX, 1, p. 170)

"The feast of St Johannes had taken unto itself the ancient rites of Midsummer, but otherwise they had changed little." (IX, 3, p. 182)

"That summer was cruel to sandy Audiarna." (X, 2, p. 192)

"...Noontide brimmed with sun, warmth, and harvest odours. Bees buzzed in clover. The view over the Odita was of men, women, and animals busy across the fields, children following to glean." (X, 6, p. 205)

"Autumn blew grey from the north. Wind bit." (X, 7, p. 207)

"Midwinter's early darkness had fallen..." (XI, 1, p. 210)

"Spring cast green over the low land around Deva. Trees budded and bloomed..." (XI, 2, p. 216)

"Winter heaven hung featureless grey." (XIII, 1, p. 250)

"A light snow fell." (XIII, 4, p. 260)

"Willows had leaved, oak and chestnut were beginning to, plum trees bedecked themselves in blossom... Migratory birds were coming home." (XIII, 5, p. 262)

"The galleys dropped anchor. They had grounded on many a strand this springtime..." (XIV, 2, p. 268)

"Rain fell in serried silver. Wind dashed it against walls and windowpanes. The first breath of autumn was in it. Gloom and chill filled the bishop's house..." (XV, 5, p. 296)

"In the dark of the moon before winter solstice, Confluentes burned." (XV, 8, p. 305)

"Springtime dusk. The air was soft, odours of greening and blossoming not yet cooled out of it." (XVI, 1, p. 311)

"The men from the currach reached holy Temir a few days after Beltene." (XVI, 2, p. 317)

"Harvest brought wholeness." (XVI, 5, p. 328)

"That year Beltene in Mide was the greatest and most magnificent ever heard of since the Children of Danu held Eriu." (XVII, 3, p. 337)

"On a day in autumn when the wind went loud and sharp..." (XVIII, 3, p. 362)

"The Black Months need not be dark." (XVIII, 4, p. 365)

"Spring returned, made green the graves of winter and strewed them with flowers. Days grew longer than night. Migratory birds trekked home." (XIX, 1, p. 372)

"Autumn weather came earliest to the high midland of Armorica. First the birches grew sallow and their leaves departed on chilly winds, then red and brown and yellow rustled all over the hills." (XX, 2, p. 391)

"A sharp summer was followed by a hard winter. Snowfalls, rarely seen in Armorica, warmed air a little for a short while, then soon a ringing frost would set in." (XX, 3, p. 397)

"As the year spun down to solstice, cold deepened. The Odita and Stegir lay frozen between banks where the snow glittered rock-hard. Icicles hung from naked boughs, eaves, battlements, like spears turned downward." (XX, 4, p. 401)

"Skies hung heavy, low above old snow and skeleton trees, a world of greys and whites." (XXI, 2, p. 411)

"The sun drew nigh to midsummer. This was a beautiful year, as if to make up for last. Croplands burgeoned..." (XXI, 7, p. 427)

"...Summer brooded in majesty on ripening grain and fragrance-heavy forests. There often the only sounds were bees at work in clover and the call of a cuckoo." (XXII, 1, p. 431)

"The long day of Armorican summer wore on." (XXII, 2, p. 435)

"Rain came, not cruelly slashing as in last year but a mildness that swelled the crops to full ripening." (XXII, 4, p. 443)

"That year they kept the Feast of Lug in Armorica without their chiefs." (XXII, 6, p. 448)

"Harvest was done, the last sheaf consecrated to the Maiden, the wether chosen as Wolf of the Fold sacrificed, a branch hung with ears of grain brought into house or barn." (XXIII, 1, p. 451)

"The storks had long since departed, and now skies were full of other wings trekking south." (XXIV, 2, p. 472)

"...The first fallen leaves scrittled across the land." (XXIV, 3, p. 475)

"Equinox almost a month behind them, nights drew in fast." (XXIV, 5, p. 484)

"The day before solstice hung still and murky." (XXV, 1, p. 490)

"Snow began to fall..." (XXV, 2, p. 495)

"Midwinter nights fell early and dwelt late in Armorica, day hardly more than a glimmer between them, but this one was ice-clear." (XXV, 3, p. 497)

Fast-forwarding through the volume for these seasonal references, we notice also how much time passes for the characters. Gratillonius marries and starts a family.

Pathetic Fallacy After Ys

The Dog And The Wolf.

Apuleius in conversation with Corentinus and another clergyman:

"'...Bishop Martinus in Turonum...can't have much time left in this world. Who shall carry the light he has kindled?'

"Darkness deepened. Rain stammered on the roof." (IV, 4, p. 95)

The elements seem to answer the question!

During that same storm, Governor Glabrio, plotting with Procurator Bacca against Gratillonius and the Ysans, warns/threatens their subordinate, Nagon. Then:

"Nagon was still for a space, so still that the noise of the wind outside flew alone through the room under the stares of the saints, before he said: 'I understand.'" (V, 1, p. 100)

In a sequential art/comic strip adaptation, there would have to be a silent panel, at least one with no speech balloons, between Glabrio's threat and Nagon's assent. I am not sure how the artist would represent the noise of the wind which, of course, could be heard in a film.

A slave interrupts the meeting to announce an emissary from Martinus and is told to admit him:

"After a minute during which the wind gusted louder, a man came in." (ibid.)

The man, Sucat, the future Saint Patrick, conveys Martinus' command to Glabrio to be merciful to the Ysans. Martinus seems to have had clairvoyant knowledge of the meeting between Glabrio, Bacca and Nagon! The wind gusting louder was a suitable introduction to Sucat's tumultuous announcement.

The New City

The Dog And The Wolf, IV, 3.

Corentinus addresses Ysan survivors:

"'The city you build must be a city that avows Christ.'" (p. 92)

There is no vocal dissent and even some agreement. Corentinus' statement is not as unreasonable as it might sound. We are used to the idea that a city is a secular institution that can have different places of worship within it. One meaning of "city" has been precisely that there was a cathedral there although obviously there were cities before there were cathedrals. But, in Corentinus' time, it was probably acknowledged that a community had to acknowledge some deity and Who was left but Christ? It would not mean that everyone who lived or worked in the city had to be Christian although we also know that there would be massive social pressure to convert. Gratillonius will. Tempora mutantur nos et mutamur in illis.

Ys Was

The Dog And The Wolf, III, 3.

The tense of a verb makes an enormous difference to the meaning of a sentence. Thus: Ys is magical; Ys was magical. A woman in Eriu asks Maeloch:

"'Were you ever in Ys?... I hear it was magical. They say the Gods raised it and used to walked its lanes on moonlit nights.'" (p. 77)

Used to: Ys, the legend. That past tense alerts Maeloch:

"'What happen Ys?... How Ys? Yuh know?... I beg, tell. I give gold, silver, fine things.'" (ibid.)

The woman, Aebell, plays dumb but then rides through the night to alert Niall to men from Ys. Thus, Maeloch learns of the deed from the man who did it.

Maeloch concludes:

"'Aye, well may the memory of Ys glimmer away, for the Veil of Brennilis did ever ward her...'" (p. 80)

- but, of course, he curses Niall and only the laws of hospitality prevent immediate bloodshed. This is the book of the consequences.

Meanwhile, Rufinus

The Dog And The Wolf, III, 2.

Having started to read about Maeloch's mission to Eriu, we are reminded of another Ysan, Rufinus, who was also safely elsewhere, in his case in Italy, when Ys was inundated. No less a personage than Stilicho, dictator of the West, informs Rufinus of the catastrophe. Rufinus, still loyal to Gratillonius, must return North. His young male lover, Dion, wants to accompany him but Rufinus, with greater realism and maturity, insists that this would be inadvisable to the point of impossibility. 

In Section 3, Maeloch arrives in Eriu where he is informed of the destruction of Ys by no less a personage than Niall. At the beginning of the following chapter, we return to Drusus, one of Maximus' veterans who had been settled in Armorica. Then Rufinus returns and is reunited with his King, Gratillonius. The narrative remains multi-layered and multi-charactered despite the loss of Ys.

Maeloch

his crew

Niall

others in Eriu

Rufinus

Dion

Stilicho

Drusus

Gratillonius

etc

"I Am The King."

The Dog And The Wolf, III, 1.

Gratillonius:

"'They who remain of Ys are my subjects... I am the King. I broke the Scoti, I broke the Franks, and I slew every challenger who sought me in the Wood. If the Gods of Ys have forsaken my people, I have not.'" (p. 66)

Right on. I m not a royalist but Gratillonius is correct in his place and time. He leads. He maintains his course without the Gods as at the end of the Ring Cycle, as I understand it. Dominic Flandry continues to struggle despite the imminent Fall of the Terran Empire. Manse Everard guards human history through every conflict towards eventual transcendence. Gratillonius is a forerunner of Flandry and Everard across the twisting timelines.

Meaning

The Dog And The Wolf, III, 1.

Gratillonius reflects:

"The world was formless, colourless, empty of meaning. All Gods were gone from it. He wondered if they had ever cared, or ever existed. The question was as vain as any other." (p. 62)

If you invest all your meaning in Gods, then think that the Gods are not there, then you think that there is no meaning. But it is we who invest meaning. A full stomach means more to us than an empty one. We projected the Gods and invested meaning in them. We can find meaning in life without Gods or with Gods that we recognize as symbols and personifications. I was at school and University with a guy who was heavily into Catholicism. He said that, if it could be proved that there was no hereafter, then life would be meaningless for him. For him because he had invested all his meaning in a particular belief about a hereafter. Meanwhile, secularists manage without it.

Apuleius' wife, Rovinda, advises Gratillonius to call on Christ but then changes that to whichever God he wills, maybe the Mithras to Whom he has been faithful. She offers to tell him about an old Goddess Whom she sometimes invokes despite being a Christian. I can see a role for these figures without believing in Their literal existence. Some people report visionary and auditory experiences which I don't have. One guy visualized a seated Buddha only to see Him stand up and walk away. 

Maeloch's Mission

This is a perfectly good sub-plot. When Dahut is behaving scandalously with Niall in Ys, Queen Bodilis sends Maeloch to Eriu to gather intelligence about Niall. Thus, Maeloch and his crew are at sea when Ys is inundated. As far as I have reread so far this time, Maeloch does not yet know about that disaster. Camping on an island, they meet Eochaid, one of Niall's hostages freed by Rufinus, and Gunnung, whom Maeloch kills because he boasts of having had sex with Dahut who urged him to challenge her father. Maeloch and Eochaid establish that the Niall who is (was) with Dahut in Ys answers the description of the Hivernian High King, Niall of the Nine Hostages. Maeloch will send two men back to Ys with this information while he continues to Eriu. He is going in the wrong direction but he cannot know that yet. We await further developments with enhanced interest.

Adjustments II

The Dog And The Wolf, I, 2.

Nemeta invokes the nymph, Ahes, then the gods, Cernunnos, Epona, Sucellus and Lug, but stops short of calling on the Three of Ys. She is not sure whether, in her trance, she sees the Three. The underpriestess, Runa, counsels Nemeta first that their Gods have disowned them and secondly that it is in any case unwise to invoke those Gods while dealing with Christians. The survivors of Ys must endure, learn and avoid slavery and might even prevail. It might take until after they are dead to learn whether the Gods of the land still live. (In the new dispensation, those Gods will become either demons or saints but we must let history take its course.)

Adjustments

The Dog And The Wolf, II, 1.

After the end of Ys, Gratillonius asks:

"'Mithras, where were You when Ocean brought down Ys and her Queens, where were You when it tore Dahut from my hand?'" (p. 44)

Where was any God when all that happened? There were Christians as well as pagans and Mithraists in Ys.

Gratillonius' reflections continue:

"He knew the question was empty. A true God, the true God was wholly beyond." (ibid.)

Thus he approaches the concept of a deity too transcendent to respond to prayers. But then:

"Unless none existed, only the void. But to admit that would be to give up his hold on everything he had ever loved." (ibid.)

It would not. Human beings and their organized societies would still exist. If, beyond them, there is a void, then that is a good place to meditate. Ultimate reality is called "the clear light of the void" in some Buddhist traditions and there is an sf novel called Children Of The Void. Let's go with the void.

Next, Gratillonius' daughter, Nemeta, adjusts.

On The Beach At Ys

The Dog And The Wolf, I, 3.

Ys has been inundated and the tide has receded. In the sand, Niall discerns what had been Taranis Way, the Forum, Lir Way and the Temple of Belisama. He hears the siren that Dahut has become:

"The song strengthened. It was in and of the wind and the waves but more than they, from somewhere beyond." (p.35)

In, of and beyond wind and waves: another root of paganism. But paganism will become witchcraft in this new post-Ysan age. The King of Ys, Volume IV, is necessary to recount the world-altering aftermath.

Niall And Shadow-Truth

The Dog And The Wolf, 1, 3.

Niall of the Nine Hostages ensures that the destruction of Ys is not listed among his achievements and also that his name is not mentioned anywhere in the legend of Ys. That explains why he is the villain of the story only in a work of fiction published in the twentieth century!

Something written by Neil Gaiman is relevant both to The King of Ys and to Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest. Watching the first ever performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, before Auberon's court, Puck comments:

"This is magnificent - - and it is true!

"It never happened; yet it is still true. What magic art is this?"

-Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: Dream Country (New York, 1995), p. 75, panel 9.

Gaiman's title character, who had inspired the writing of the play, explains:

Morpheus: They shall not forget you. That was important to me: that King Auberon and Queen Titania will be remembered by mortals, until this age is gone.

Auberon: We thank you, Shaper, But this diversion, although pleasant, is not true. Things never happened thus.

Morpheus: Oh, but it IS true. Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot.

Titania: If you say so, Dream Lord. We are honored.

Titania (in the play): This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.

-Gaiman, op. cit., p. 83, panels 3-6.

Gaiman's mentor, Alan Moore, wrote:

"The battle, far too big to be contained by simple FACTS, has spawned so many different LEGENDS, each with its own adherents; as valid, if not more so, as the TRUTH.

"APOCRYPHA, IMAGINARY tales: the library at Olympus has a THOUSAND such upon its shelves."

-Alan Moore, Miracleman, No. 15 (Forestville, CA, November 1988), p. 9, panel 6.

So is there some verisimilitude to the narrative of Niall destroying Ys?

Changes In The Supernatural Realm

The Dog And The Wolf, I, 1.

The Witch-Queens of Ys have died yet the Sign of the Chosen has not appeared on any of the vestals. The Gods of Ys have withdrawn. The Christian minister, Corentinus, comments:

"'...plain is to see that we have come to the end of an Age, and everything is changed, and naught have we to cling to in this world unless it be our duty towards our fellow mortals.'" (p. 29)

In James Blish's Black Easter, succubi come only at night but, in The Day After Judgement, after Armageddon:

"'...those old rules are gone forever...'"

-James Blish, The Day After Judgement IN Blish, After Such Knowledge (London, 1991), pp. 425-522 AT p. 436.

The white magician, Father Domenico, says that:

"'Hope now is all we have.'" (p. 468)

His colleague, Father Boucher, responds:

"'In sober truth...that is not so great a change. I think it is all we ever had.'" (ibid.)

Characters in both works must cope with the effects on Earth of changes in a supernatural realm.

How To Hold The Readers' Attention

Poul and Karen Anderson, The Dog And The Wolf (London, 1989), I, 1.

How To...

End Volume III with a cataclysmic event: in this case, the flooding of Ys.

Let readers think that Volume IV will begin with the immediate aftermath.

Begin Volume IV with a contemporaneous aspect of the cataclysm.

Near the end of Volume IV, we read Gratillonius' point of view as he tries but fails to rescue his daughter, Dahut, from the Atlantic Ocean as it cascades into Ys. At the very end of that volume, he, without her, has reached the shore and the city is no more.

At the very beginning of Volume IV, The Dog And The Wolf, we read Dahut's point of view of Gratillonius' attempted rescue. In both accounts, he loses his grasp on her arm. But now we are told how she is whirled away by the water and drowned. But The King of Ys is historical fiction with an element of fantasy. After Dahut has breathed water, something else happens:

""She spun down endlessly through a whiteness that keened.

"At the bottom of that throat was not nullity. She came forth into somewhere outside all bounds. Someone waited. Transfiguration began." (p. 24)

This is the beginning of the final volume and not the end of Dahut.

In Hivernia

I have now reread as a continuous narrative the Hivernian passages in Poul and Karen Anderson's The King of Ys, Volumes I-III. Maybe the impact of these passages is diluted when they are read  - although this is how their co-authors present them - as occasional interruptions to the principal narrative about events in Ys and Armorica? Much of this secondary Hivernian narrative summarizes Irish legends and prehistory and I do not propose to summarize it even further here. However, regarding the plot of this novel: Rufinus has adventures in Hivernia/Eriu; Niall of the Nine Hostages prepares. Niall gathers intelligence, settles accounts in Eriu before returning his attention to the Continent, suffers further dishonour at the hands of Ys as represented by Rufinus, learns the Ysan language, seeks a prophetic dream - and at last is ready to undertake a one-man mission to Ys. We know the outcome.

Niall's descendants bear the surname, "O'Neill," so other outcomes of his are still with us.

A Tavern In Maia

Dahut, 1, 2.

Maia, a Roman settlement with a small garrison to the south-west of Hadrian's Wall on the Solway firth, is frequented by barbarians - Scoti, Picti, Saxons, mercenaries, scouts, spies, informers, traders and smugglers. Tallow candles gutter and stink on the tables in an impoverished, gloomy tavern used as a meeting place by two Scotians, the spy, Uail maqq Carbi, and the warring king, Niall of the Nine Hostages. Both have learned that the Romans will not attack Eriu and indeed will withdraw from Britannia. Soldiers have deserted because they do not want to fight in Europe. Now that he knows this for certain, Niall intends first to extend his power in Eriu, then to retaliate against Ys, the doomed city. The meeting in Maia is one small step towards the doom of Ys. 

Comprehensiveness

When I referred in the previous post to eighteen or so volumes set in past periods, I omitted The Boat Of A Million Years, about immortals surviving through many historical periods, then through the twentieth century and into the future, and also The Corridors of Time whose characters time travel to several past and future periods. Poul Anderson's comprehensiveness can overwhelm readers and can divert their attention from the details of particular works as it has just done. The Time Patrol series is mainly historical sf and There Will Be Time also features time travel to past and future periods, the latter including but also transcending the civilization described in his Maurai future history series. Next time back here, we should return to Hivernia in The King of Ys.

In Bowness

Dahut, I, 2.

I am backtracking to the Hivernian narrative although, in this section, Niall is in Britannia, at Maia, Bowness on the Solway Firth as opposed to Bowness on Windermere with which I am more familiar but which did not exist that far back. It is mentioned that weather is the domain of Mandanan maqq Leri. The Andersons' note explains that this sea god was later called Manannan mac Lir. This same Manannan is a character in Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword which also mentions the sunken city of Ys. "mac" means "son of." Lir, of course, is one of the Three of Ys. Poul Anderson's five Norse fantasies, starting with The Broken Sword, should be read after the The King of Ys Tetralogy; after them, Anderson's Norse historical fiction trilogy, The Last Viking, then his three novels of different genres set in the fourteenth century. Before Ys, there are three novels of different genres set BC. That makes a total of eighteen volumes set in historical or prehistorical pasts, plus enough short stories to fill a further volume. This is comparable to the seventeen or so volumes of his Technic Civilization future history series. There is nothing here that I have not said before. The subject recurs occasionally when we cite cross-references in Poul Anderson's works. I will follow Niall's narrative forward through Dahut and might also have to hark back to Volumes I and II.

Last Look

 

Dahut, XII, 3.

"They reached the heights. Gratillonius drew rein. 'Stop a moment,' he suggested. 'Take your last look at Ys.'

"Rufinus sat a long while gazing back at the city where it gleamed against heaven and Ocean." (p. 275)

When we read this passage, we suspect and, when we have read to the end of this volume, we know that this is indeed Rufinus' last look at Ys. When he returns to Armorica and stands at this point, he will see only heaven and Ocean. There will be no towers, spires or sea-wall. All of that is to pass into legend even in the life-times of those who remember it.

I have not reread Dahut entirely because I have skipped past the sections set in Hivernia. These passages should now be reread en bloc especially since they involve Rufinus.

Gratillonius is no longer King but is still centurion and prefect. The man of duty continues to work for his people.

A Sea Of Crises

Dahut, XIX, 7.

Does each of us face a permanent inner crisis whether or not we realize it? People come to see things that way when they undergo a religious conversion, for example. Our condition is variously described as:

sin;

alienation;

greed, hate and delusion.

Whether or not she realizes it, Dahut is guilty of major sins, to use that terminology. I am not morally outraged by her sex with five men - so few only merely because she is only sixteen - but her attempts first to rape, then to kill, her father are more serious matters. In any case, she is overwhelmed by an outer, and related, crisis. Ys is inundated because of her betrayal of her father.

Of course Gratillonius should try to rescue his daughter although that zealot, Corentinus, urges against it:

"'No, you fool!... Leave that bitch-devil to her fate!... Take her with you, and the weight of her sins will drag you down to your death...'" (p. 454)

Surely Dahut's salvation would have been at least possible if she had survived?

Niall ingeniously tricks Dahut into stealing the Key with which he then opens the sea-gate. Does she realize what he has done before she is transformed? Unusually in a novel, Niall observes the Shakespearean custom of reciting a speech above the sleeping Dahut before departing.

Before dying, Soren Cartagi, Speaker for Taranis, says:

"'Ocean has entered. The city dies... The Gods have ended the Pact...'" (p. 458)

Someone might make the equivalent statement in our generation.

God Of The Midnight

Dahut, XIX, 7, p. 450.

A paragraph, printed as prose, is disguised verse:

"Mithras, God of the Midnight, You have had our sacrifice.

"Here is my spirit before You, my heart beneath Your eyes.

"I call, who followed Your eagles since ever my life began:

"Mithras, also a soldier, keep now faith with Your man!"

Mithras, also a soldier, visibly fought alongside the Ysans against the Franks so I think that He is keeping faith but His time is past. Yesterday's God.

Fate

If we understand that a particular outcome is fated, then we notice with interest the many apparently random events that build toward it. If Gratillonius is destined to be the last King of Ys, then he cannot die in the Wood because, in that event, his challenger would immediately become King. Gratillonius will survive every challenge until Ys is no more. When he fights Budic, he is enraged by the latter's claim that Dahut is ready for him. This motivates Gratillonius to attack. He shouts, "Attention!," which momentarily immobilizes Budic. In an earlier fight, Carsa had climbed a tree and wielded his sling but Gratillonius threw his sword. That fight very nearly ended the wrong way.

An angel tells Corentinus that the King must live because the world will need him. The God Whom the angel serves is at last moving to supersede Mithras and the Three. A new world awaits in the following volume.

Corentinus' Hang Ups

Dahut, XVII, 3.

Corentinus refuses either to sit or to accept wine in Queen Forsquilis' house. When she says that she would accept a drink at his place, he replies:

"'It always has a welcome for those who seek its Master.'" (p. 376)

She advises him to quell his apparent hopefulness. Quite right. The man never seems to let up. Apparently, he and Gratillonius manage to have mostly amicable discussions but we don't see that. At a nursing home where my mother used to stay, one of the nuns told me, "The door is always open..." but did not add "...to those who seek Our Lord." A young man who worked at the place, driving a minibus for excursions etc, was much liked by my mother and other guests but quietly said that the religion was not for him. None of us had any problem about sitting down and eating together - although there was no alcohol on the premises!

Alas, Alas...

Dahut, XVII, 3.

Biblical references have not left us. Waking from a dream about lost Budic, Corentinus hears "'...voices weeping and wailing...'":

"'Alas, alas, that great city..." (etc) (p. 377) (see here)

He also refers to:

"'...the Woman who rides the Beast...'" (ibid.) (see here)

When Queen Forsquilis comments that the dream and the voices might have been just a nightmare, Corentinus replies that she is not familiar with the book from which those words came. But he is so it is not surprising that these words entered his dream especially in the circumstances! Nevertheless, the situation in the city of Ys is indeed dire. It is so dire that the Witch Queen and the Christian minister consult each other about their respective visions and intimations. In James Blish's The Day After Judgement, the black magician, Theron Ware, must convince the white magician, Father Domenico, that it is advisable to pool information after Armageddon. 

Death

Dahut, XVI, 1.

Before fighting Budic, Gratillonius thinks that to die will be to sleep forever. Then he remembers Mithras! People are inconsistent on this subject. A Catholic curate in the West of Ireland said that his parishioners accepted Church teaching and believed that death was an ending and retained the pagan idea that the dead descend into an underworld from where they resent and can harm the living. I will be astonished if I find myself still in conscious existence after physical death. In some ideas about survival, memory is not retained, which makes sense: the water of Lethe. Anyone born after I have died will think of himself as "I," will not remember having been me and can be affected for good or ill by my present actions. That exhausts the moral significance of karma in relation to future lives. Death is a change of scene but memory is part of the scenery.

Dahut And Belisama

Dahut.

Dahut soon becomes a very experienced young woman!:

"[Gunnung's] first lovemaking was neither exuberant and inventive like Tommaltach's nor half reverential like Carsa's." (XV, 1)

The Northern sea captain, Gunnung, is canny. He promises to challenge Gratillonius the following morning, then leaves Ys hastily while Dahut is still asleep. A wise move and what an adventure he has had in fabulous Ys but might he have defeated Gratillonius if they had fought? Another divergent timeline...

Dahut misuses the gift of Belisama. She sends men to their deaths. Paganism celebrates life. Old Maeloch is tolerant but when Budic provokes him by denouncing the Gods of Ys as blood-drinking demons, he responds:

"'...ask yourself this - when Lir sends fair winds and shoals o' fish, Taranis pours down sunlight and summer rain, Belisama brings love and bairns and hope - ask yourself, boy, what's this Christ o' yours ever done for ye?'" (XIII, 1, p. 282)

Christianity stands at the crossroads between the cyclical seasonal time of agricultural societies and the linear historical time of urban civilizations. Its resurrection is not every year but in one year, dividing history. We can still celebrate the life-giving aspect of nature in ceremonies naming the gods - or saints.

Dahut's Demon

Dahut.

In X, 8, Corentinus says that Dahut is possessed whereas Forsquilis, using Ysan terminology, responds that she is fated. Dahut lives up to Corentinus' description. She knows exactly how to manipulate several men into challenging her father. From Budic, she requests Christian instruction, then snarls and spits when he has gone. (XIV, 2) Later, when she has failed to seduce him, she stares, kicks the stool that he had used, shrills against Belisama but then laughs long and loud. (XV, 1) Lir is degenerating into a medieval demon. The King of Ys is about the transition from the Roman Empire to the Dark Ages containing the seeds of the Middle Ages. Poul Anderson's works cover many historical periods, both past and future.

In The Forum At Hunter's Moon

Dahut, XI.

Section 3 begins:

"Samain Eve was bitterly clear." (p. 246)

4 begins:

"As ever, the first evening of Hunter's Moon filled Ys with bacchanalia." (p. 251)

This is the same festival as celebrated in Hivernia/Eriu and Ys, respectively. I have been following the Ysan narrative and will have to backtrack to events in Eriu.

In the Ysan Forum:

burning oil in the Fire Fountain

crowds

gaudy costumes

musical groups on the steps of three buildings

pipes and drums

kitharas

a trumpet

women dancing with sistrums

a juggler

copulating couples

Tommaltach and Dahut, masked

In the portico of the church, women dressed as legionaries play dice at the feet of a naked man crowned with thorns, arms outstretched. Tommaltach thinks that it is unwise and ill-bred to mock anyone else's God. In this case, the God is an executed Messianic claimant whose followers interpreted his execution as the prophesied way to Messiahship, thus not an ancient mythical figure but a deified man who has joined the myths. In The King of Ys, the myths are real.

Wind And Hawks

 

Dahut, XI, 2.

Tommaltach and a hooded Dahut walk in the countryside:

"Ys sank from sight. It was as if they had the world to themselves, they and the wind and a pair of hawks wheeling high above." (p. 242)

Significances:

the omnipresent Andersonian wind;

hovering birds of prey;

Dahut beginning to lead her first young man astray.

In Chapter IX, Corentinus foreknew that:

"'If Dahut does not come to the Light, she will do such ill that it were better that she had died in her mother's womb.'" (7, p. 209)

That latter process is just beginning. It is all downhill from here.

The Gate

Dahut, X, 10.

Here is a seasonal reference that I missed. On a calm, crisp day when waves roll softly against Ys:

"Inland, autumn colours dappled the hills." (p. 232)

Gratillonius and Cothortin Rosmertai, Lord of Works, stand above the sea gate. A sample shows that the doors are sound but have become damp. Dry rot will get under the metal. The wood will be weakened within ten or fifteen years and must be replaced before then. Records show how to do it. Craftsmen and divers will have to be trained. Before that, oak from the Osismiic forests will have to be cut and seasoned. Gratillonius will shortly visit Aquilo on political business and will also ask about timber. He looks forward to being away from the Gods of Ys: Gods that can be left behind just by travelling a short distance. Think of Ys as a haunted city.

Irony: those gates will never be replaced.

The Passage Of Time, Continued

Dahut.

"Weather turned bitingly cold and clear." (XV, 3, p. 333)

"Snow returned, this time on a wind from the sea that cast it nearly level through the streets of Ys and drowned vision in whiteness." (5, p. 342)

"During the day snowfall ceased and freezing weather moved in. When day broke cloudless it saw what was rare in an Armorican winter, earth glittery white and a leafage of icicles aflash over the Wood of the King. Silence was so deep that it seemed to crackle, with any real sound barely skimming above." (XVI, 1, p. 347)

"The cold spell ended. Snow began to melt." (4, p. 366)

"Rain mingled with sleet dashed down the streets of Ys. Wind clamoured, Ocean roared. This had become a stormy year." (XVII, 1, p. 368)

"Waxing close to full in a sky gone again clear, the moon brightened dusk..." (3, p. 375)

"Clouds raced on a wild wind... The full moon seemed to flee..." (4, p. 380)

"A gale from the west drove an onslaught of rain before it." (XVIII, 3, p. 392)

"Suddenly came a quiet spell among those storms ramping over Armorica at that winter's close." (4, p. 394)

"The night when Gratillonius and his men camped at Maedraeacum was the first clear one of their homeward journey." (6, p. 406)

"Foul weather returned, and worsened." (7, p. 410)

"Still the wind mounted. By dawn it was like none that chronicles remembered. And still it mounted." (XIX, 2, p. 422)

"By sunset the wind had indeed lessened." (3, p. 428)

"By late morning, calm had fallen and the tide was out." (XX, p. 465)

This is a drama in itself but we have skipped past major events in Ys, to say the least.

The Passage Of Time in The King Of Ys, Volume III

Dahut.

As in the previous volume, chapter sections often begin with the time of day or year. Again we witness the procession of the seasons.

"Day came to birth over eastern hills..." (I, 1, p. 25)

"Rain slashed from the west. Wind hooted. Autumn was closing in, with storms and long nights." (2, p. 27)

"Among Celts, the first evening of Hunter's Moon awakened madness." (3, p. 30)

"The declaration of King Gratillonius hit the vernal Council of Suffetes like a stone from a siege engine." (II, 1, p. 33)

"Morning mist followed a night's rain." (III, 1, p. 59)

"In the dead of winter, people must rise hours before the sun if they were to carry out their duties." (IV, 1, p. 82)

"...A brief and murky day was drawing to its close." (2, p. 87)

"When the Suffetes met at vernal equinox, a thing occurred that Ys had never known before." (3, p. 90)

"One evening before midsummer, a sunset of rare beauty kindled above Ocean." (V, 4, p. 117)

"Rain had left the air humid. As the sun declined, vapours reddened its disc, but fog would not likely roll in to cool Ys before dawn." (VI, 1, p. 120)

"The long light set ablaze the gilt eagle atop the dome on the royal house." (3, p. 144)

"...night become a sunrise glow..." (VIII, 2, p. 163)

"The moon was still down..." (2, p. 164)

"Dahut arrived at the house of Fennalis while the moon was rising above the eastern hills, ruddy and enormous." (5, p. 173)

"The full moon fled through clouds." (X, 3, p. 217)

"Toward evening of the second day after full moon..." (5, p. 223)

"The moon waned towards the half. Each night was noticeably longer than the last." (8, p. 228)

"Dusk deepened. More and more stars glimmered into sight." (9, p. 231)

"It was two years since he had last seen Apuleius Vero..." (XI, 1, p. 234)

"Samain Eve was bitterly clear." (3, p. 246)

"As ever, the first evening of Hunter's Moon filled Ys with bacchanalia." (4, p. 251)

"The afternoon grew mild." (XII, 4, p. 275)

"Scarcely past full, the moon slanted whiteness through windowpanes..." (XIII, 2, p. 282)

"Snow fell in small dry flakes." (XV, 2, p. 328)

Ok. Maybe some more later. I have skipped past some opening sentences that focused only on the weather without indicating time of day or year.