Saturday 7 October 2023

Ivar Frederiksen With The Riverfolk

The Day Of Their Return, 12.

To reinforce two earlier points:

"Herding on the Flone was an ideal task, [Ivar Frederiksen] thought. Exertion and alertness kept a person fully alive, while nevertheless letting him enter into that peace, beauty, majesty which was the river." (p. 168)

Remembering life among the tinerans, Ivar:

"...could summon a memory for inspection, and understand how the reality had never come near being as gorgeous as it seemed, and pity the wanderers and vow to bring them aid when he became able." (p. 169)

The two earlier points were first that the life of the Riverfolk is attractive and peaceful and secondly that, despite having been cheated by two of the tinerans, Ivar, having learned the real cause of their psychological instability, will try to help them if and when he inherits political power.

Ivar has been helped to regain his sanity by:

Riverfolk gaiety and ceremoniousness;
the small towns where they stop;
the green stretches between;
Erannath's harsh wisdom;
the chaplain's serene wisdom;
the captain's pragmatic wisdom;
friendliness and friendship.

(That's a lot of wisdom.)

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Well, Ivar needed that help. He was starting to get unwittingly addicted to those nasty little telepathic beasts.

I recall Erannath commenting similar creatures had been found on planets settled by Ythrians, and affected them more drastically than with humans. Once that was understood the Ythrians exterminated those "lucks" from every planet where they found them.

Ad astra! Sean