Unstable Reality

What I Am Doing:
reading Stieg Larsson's second Millennium novel;
waiting for Eon by Greg Bear, which is "print on request";
always finding something else to post about Poul Anderson's time travel, like -

The Time Patrol concentrates on guarding Palestine, 69-70 AD, because:

fanatics or freebooters want to change the course of the Jewish War;
many researchers crowd into that small volume of space and time;
the War has many causes and consequences.

The Patrol must prevent deliberate changes by criminals and accidental changes by researchers in a situation where accidents are all too possible. Although Everard does not understand the physics, he is taught and accepts that the continuum is vulnerable around such moments and therefore that reality is unstable as far away as Germany where the Patrol, preoccupied with Palestine, does not concentrate any resources - and "'...a ripple of change...'" is starting among German barbarians (Time Patrol, p. 493).

This is a question for physicists? Then neither logic nor historical knowledge is sufficient to enable us to discuss it. Everard and his colleague investigating the disturbance in Germany find that they have caused it but this is possible because unstable reality has generated the oddity of a pagan prophetess with the potential to found a Northern Goddess-monotheism that will resist Christianity although, thanks to Patrol intervention, the goddess' star of the sea becomes instead associated with the Virgin Mary. Anderson combines time travel not only with history but also with mythology.

Diffraction

 Poul Anderson's understanding of what the Time Patrol has to guard against became more subtle. Originally, it was simply that well established science fiction time travel scenario: can time travelers change the past? In later formulations, the time travelers do not seem to matter:

"...reality is conditional. It is like a wave pattern on a sea. Let the waves - the probability-waves of ultimate underlying quantum chaos - change their rhythm, and abruptly that tracery of ripples and foam-swirls will be gone, transformed into another."
-Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006), p. 671.

In this case, Anderson does go on to say that, although twentieth century physicists already had a glimmering of quantum chaos, it was time travel that made it impact on human lives. However:

"...all the life that pulsed in the city today and in past and future, everything that begot and nourished it...he knew their whole reality for a spectral flickering, diffraction rings across abstract, unstable space-time, a manifold brightness that at any instant could not only cease to be but cease ever having been.

"The cloud-capp'd towers..." (p. 480)

I have problems with the phrase "...cease ever having been..." but my point here is that in this passage time travel is not mentioned.

A Danellian confirms:

"'Think, if you wish, of diffraction, waves reinforcing here and canceling there to make rainbow rings. It is incessant, but normally on the human level it is imperceptible. When it chanced to converge powerfully on Lorenzo de Conti, yes, then that became like a kind of fate.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), p. 434.

Diffraction is mentioned again. And, this time, although the Patrol needs time travel to fix de Conti, no time travel was involved in the convergence on de Conti.

"'In a reality forever liable to chaos, the Patrol is the stabilizing element, holding time to a single course...left untended, events would inevitably move toward the worse. A cosmos of random changes must be senseless, ultimately self-destructive. In it could be no freedom.'" (p. 435)

And this is "'...the meaning...'" (ibid.) The Patrol was founded not to catch criminals but to counteract chaos.

Amsterdam II

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

I have eaten two fried eggs and three crumpets and am drinking coffee so now feel able to delve deeper into Poul Anderson's Amsterdam.

Janne Floris' apartment building is "...one of a row on a quiet street, handsome relics from around 1910." (p. 481)

1910: we immediately think of decades of history and also, in this context, of time travel. A directory states Janne's name, floor and profession. Standard practice in Amsterdam? (Cover profession, of course.)

(While speaking to Janne, Everard thinks, "With half a million years or more to guard, the Patrol's forever undermanned..." (p. 485) Only half a million? Has the timeline changed without anyone noticing?)

On returning from horrors at the Roman old Camp, Everard:

"...walked the Amsterdam streets for hours on end, bathing in the decency of the twentieth-century Netherlands." (p. 521)

This next venue reads to me very much like a place where Poul and Karen Anderson had been while holidaying in the Netherlands: the Ambrosia, a Surinam-Caribbean restaurant is on Stadthouderskade and also on a canal in a quiet neighborhood near the Museumplein. The black cook discusses Manse's and Janne's meal with them in fluent English.

They leave the restaurant into mild air smelling of spring after cleansing rain and see a canal boat with a glistening wake.

"They turned from the water and passed between old facades." (p 522)

Walking home, Janne describes her parents. Her father was in the Dutch navy and her mother in the resistance as a schoolgirl during the War. After that, they settled in Amsterdam where she taught Dutch history! Janne also describes her fifteen years among the Frisii, from 22 to 37 AD, and how much she appreciated hot baths, electric lights etc on her return.

Another cyclist passes. Those are the main details about Amsterdam.

Amsterdam

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

The most fully realized setting in Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series is Amsterdam in "Star Of The Sea."

Everard remembers a visit thirty four years previously - longer for a time traveler - and is not disappointed on his return:

scruffy youth but no trouble from the Dam to the Central Station;
side-walk cafes off the Damrak;
small bars with large beer selections;
extraordinary bookstores;
sleaze shops far apart;
a canal tour;
dignified centuried houses concealing the red light district in the old part of town;
a friendly little place serving eel for lunch;
two Museums;
Vondelpark - water, leaves, grass, sunlight, a young couple in a canoe and an old couple under the trees, a band of bicyclists -

- and I need some breakfast. Maybe more on Amsterdam later.

Eddies: Cerialis

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

A "...trireme..." (p. 545) is a ship with three banks of oars. 

In History

During the northern revolt, the Emperor Vespasian:

"'...dispatched an able general, Petillius Cerialis, to take charge in the North.'" (p. 489)

Under Cerialis, who had previously served in Britain during Boadicea's rebellion, the Romans wore down the uncoordinated Germans until Cerialis and the rebel leader, Burhmund, standing on opposite sides of a bridge across the Ijssel from which workmen had removed the middle, negotiated a settlement.

The Tacitus One text, describing the timeline guarded by the Time Patrol, breaks off at that point, although it is known from other sources that the rebels received a fair deal.

During the fighting, German bands, attacking a Roman camp on the Rhine, captured several ships, including the Praetorian trireme, but Cerialis, elsewhere at the time, arrived almost naked to take charge. However, his trireme, towed up the Lippe, was given to Veleda.

In Fiction

Before the meeting at the Ijssel, Everardus the Goth (Everard of the Patrol) had had preliminary discussions with Cerialis. Thus, the Patrol had found it necessary to intervene directly in order to keep events on track through an "...unstable space-time zone..." (p. 629).

Castra Vetera

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York), pp. 469-477.

"...testudines..." (p. 471), as used here, is the plural of  "testudo," meaning a movable shelter to protect soldiers engaged in a siege.

"...amphorae..." (p. 473) are a very old kind of container.

"...the praetorian gate..." (p. 474) is the main entrance to a camp - a "praetor" was one kind of Roman official.

The "...pomoerium..." (p. 476) was the sacred boundary of Rome.

As I have remarked before, Poul Anderson novels often start with an introductory or scene-setting chapter that I tend to skip on rereading. "Star Of The Sea," section 1, is one of those. Its viewpoint character is the Roman legate Munius Lupercus who will be captured and offered to Odin later in this short novel although section 1 is the only chapter narrated from his point of view.

Lupercus, the commander conversing with his orderly and staff officer, is comparable to Gratillonius in Poul and Karen Anderson's King of Ys Tetralogy. Both are Roman army officers on active duty. Section 1 is historical fiction. Although "Star Of The Sea" is science fiction because it involves time travel, this section describes only the Romans in Castra Vetera and their barbarian besiegers.

Lupercus, knowing that something has inflamed the Germans again, sees:

the shrunken Rhine, easily crossed by hostiles, where supply ships run aground and may then be captured;
blond barbarians with emblems, weapons and hair knotted, braided or dyed;
Batavi, Canninefates, Tungri, Frisii, Bructeri and mounted Tencteri;
smoke from the kettles and spits of keening women;
ants, beetles and crows eating corpses and entrails;
broken weapons and ruined testudines;
a two-story wheeled siege tower.

A crane arm captures prisoners, including one who swears by Woen, Donar and Tiw, identified by Lupercus with Mercury, Hercules and Mars. I am not sure about all of these identifications:

Wednesday, in English, is Mercredi, in French, because both Woden and Mercury lead the dead;
Thursday is Jeudi because both Thor and Jupiter wield the thunderbolt;
Tuesday is Mardi because both Tiw and Mars are gods of war.

Thus, the identification of Donar/Thor with Hercules is a surprise.

The prisoner tells Lupercus what, or rather who, has inflamed the Germans. The sibyl Veleda has called on every tribe to rise because the goddess has told her that Rome is doomed.

"The Batavian squared his shoulders. 'Do what you like to me, Roman. You're a dead man, you with your whole stinking Empire.'" (p. 477)

Lupercus is a dead man, as I said. But a threat to the Empire must be thwarted if history is to stay on track.

Section 2 begins:

"In the closing decades of the twentieth century..." (ibid.)

Surely the late twentieth century is way too late to address a threat to the Roman Empire? No, because what happens at the beginning of section 2 is that Manson Everard arrives by timecycle in the Time Patrol Amsterdam office. Everard will have much to do with Veleda.

The Complete Time Patrol Series

Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series, with its appropriately long publishing history from 1955 to 1995, is complete as one omnibus collection and one long novel.

The collection of the Time Patrol stories has expanded four times and changed its title three times - although, on the third occasion, merely by losing the definite article. Each expansion has incorporated only one or two newer works. Of these, two are shorter than the original four but another four are considerably longer. Thus, the collection has more than doubled its length both in terms of the number of items included and, even more so, in terms of word count.

There have been:

The Guardians Of Time with four stories, "Time Patrol," "Brave To Be A King," "The Only Game In Town" and "Delenda Est," all originally published in The Magazine Of Science Fiction (FSF);

The Guardians Of Time with five stories, incorporating "Gibraltar Falls," which had subsequently been published in FSF;

Annals Of The Time Patrol with seven stories, incorporating "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks" and "The Sorrow Of Odin The Goth," which had subsequently been published together as Time Patrolman;

The Time Patrol with nine stories, incorporating "The Year Of The Ransom," which had subsequently been published as a single volume, and the new "Star Of The Sea";

Time Patrol with ten stories, incorporating "Death And The Knight," which had subsequently been published in an anthology of original short stories about the Knights Templar.

Thus, The Guardians Of Time remains the complete FSF Time Patrol collection.

The novel, The Shield Of Time, is divided into six Parts. The odd numbered Parts are one brief prelude and two brief interludes whereas the even numbered Parts could each have been published as a distinct work although they also contain flashback chapters connecting them into a single narrative. Thus, the entire series has thirteen installments.

How the series needs to be tidied up:

"Death And The Knight" is a sequel to The Shield Of Time so should in future be collected at the end of the novel, not at the end of the omnibus collection;

"The Year Of The Ransom" is a prequel to "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks," which is the direct prequel to The Shield Of Time, so "Ivory..." should be moved to the end of the collection after "The Year Of The Ransom," which was placed at the end, I think, in the mistaken belief that it was the direct prequel to The Shield...;

"Gibraltar Falls" was placed in the middle of The Guardians Of Time so that "Delenda Est" would remain the climax of that volume but I think that, in the omnibus collection, "Gibraltar Falls" belongs after "Delenda Est" because its text reflects the passage of time between the publication of the original tetralogy and this new addition to the series.

Stories

(Velleda by Charles Voillemot, 19th Century.)

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

Stories entertain and explain. Sufficiently powerful and meaningful stories become generally or universally known, thus "myths."

Edh, when young, created and narrated fabulous stories, with verses, about travelers, maidens, witches, warlocks, mermaids, talking animals, faraway lands and Niaerdh, the goddess who had received a sacrifice from Edh's father in exchange for her birth and safety.

When older, Edh often wanders alone and sits by the sea. No less than five sentences describe the waves:

"Waves danced bluer than heaven...
"They ran heavy, green and grey...
"They surged, battered, bellowed...
"They laid a molten road toward her from a low sun...
"Niaerdh was in them with dread and blessing." (p. 583)

The following three sentences are Niaerdh's:

"Hers were the kelp and upcast amber...
"Hers was the quickening in the land...
"Very small amidst these things, hers was the child she had kept in this world." (pp. 583-584)

On the beach, Edh is raped by Roman merchants, then rescued, as she thinks, by Niaerdh. Edh become Wael-Edh/Veleda not only preaching hatred of Rome in the name of the goddess but also exalting this goddess above Odin, Tyr and Thor: a new myth but in a prevented timeline.

Much later, Janne Floris of the Time Patrol, enacting the goddess, persuaded Veleda to proclaim Her once again peaceful so that She became Neha Lenis, Neha the Gentle, Nehalennia, worshiped centuries later. Janne promised Edh life forever "...in the sea-home of Niaerdh" (p. 636) and feels, understandably, bad about this.

When the Patrol agents follow Veleda back through time to find out how she became the bearer of a myth, Anderson writes several evocative passages:

"Floris...gazed past the river and the forest beyond, northeasterly toward an unseen shore." (p. 570)

- little suspecting that what she will find on that shore is herself swooping down to kill Edh's attackers.

"They dared not charge blind into what might well be the source of the instability, the obscure and easily annulled event from which an entire future could spring." (pp. 574-575)

That event is their own intervention.

Tacitus Zero

(See recent posts about Poul Anderson's Time Patrol story, "Star Of The Sea.")

OK. I have envisaged an "original" Tacitus Zero timeline without any extratemporal interference in the Northern revolt:

Edh is raped and killed in her teens;
thus, she never becomes Wael-Edh/Veleda;
the Germans revolt;
the details of the revolt differ since there is no Veleda to preach war and bring more tribes into the alliance;
although maybe some other sibyl fills her vacuum?;
Romans and rebels are reconciled without any Patrol help;
Tacitus records the revolt accurately;
no "Tacitus Two" manuscript is ever found;
the Patrol has no need to investigate and continues to concentrate its resources in Palestine during that period, 69-70 AD.

Everard's account of Tactitus One and Two is inadequate:

"'Since they don't have some improbable but safe explanation, like a forgery, these two variant texts are...a warning. An early sign, a ripple of change, something that may have had consequences which caused history to flow into a different channel till at last you and I and everything around us never existed - unless we heed the warning and take steps to see that this did not happen - Oh, Lord, we had better talk Temporal.'"
- Time Patrol (New York, 2006), pp. 492-493.

Much as we enjoy Anderson's prose about ripples in time, we know that this does not happen. There was a period when the Germans might have invaded England but no one found a history text describing the invasion.

Circular Causality And Discontinuity

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

In "Star Of The Sea," the Time Patrol must:

preserve a timeline in which, as described in Tacitus One, Veleda preaches war but later peace;

prevent a timeline in which, as described in Tacitus Two, she continues to preach war.

The Patrol are in the Tacitus One timeline, which is why they preserve it. Therefore, Tacitus Two is merely a potential although it is one that might be realized unless there are effective countermeasures.

This raises two questions:

(i) why did Veleda initially preach war?
(ii) how does the Patrol know of the potential timeline?

To answer (ii) first, the Patrol acquires a Tacitus Two manuscript. How this might happen in the Tacitus One timeline is discussed in the post, "Unstable Space-Time II."

(i) Veleda preached war against Rome in the name of the goddess because, in her teens, she was raped by Roman merchants but rescued by Janne Floris of the Patrol whom she mistook for the goddess. Janne was able to witness and interrupt the rape because she was remotely observing Veleda's birthplace for any odd events. She was doing this because she had already observed Veleda, later in life, preaching war in a way that could potentially lead to Tacitus Two. And Janne observed Veleda's later life because the Patrol had found the Tacitus Two manuscript.

Thus, the discovery of the Tacitus Two manuscript is a necessary part of the Tacitus One sequence of events. There are two time travel paradoxes here: not only circular causality but also causation from a prevented timeline.

To ensure that the German rebels make peace with Rome, Manson Everard of the Patrol acts as the initial go-between. I had thought that there must have been an original timeline in which Romans and rebels made peace without any help from the Patrol. However, both the Tacitus Two manuscript and Janne's intervention in Veleda's early life are necessary for Tacitus One. Thus, Patrol efforts to prevent Tacitus Two also seem to be necessary for Tacitus One. So Everard's involvement in the peace negotiations was there from the beginning.

If Veleda's companion, Heidhin, had not killed himself but instead had remained alive and continued to argue for war, carrying Veleda with him, then the outcome would have been Tacitus Two.

Gods Of Time

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

Problems can seem major when we are experiencing them but minor later. Thus, Manson Everard, in "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth":

"'...this is no slight ripple in the time stream. This is a maelstrom abuilding. We've got to damp it out...'" (p. 450)

But later, in "Star Of The Sea":

"'...that was quite a minor eddy in the time stream, easily damped...'" (p. 566)

It is appropriate that "Star..." refers back to "...Odin..." because these are companion works. The latter immediately precedes the former in the Time Patrol sequence. In each, a Time Patroller must play the role of a Norse deity to keep the timeline on track but, otherwise, the stories differ completely.

 "Star...", originally published in the omnibus collection, is long enough, 174 pages, to count as a novel although it has never appeared as a single volume. If it did, its cover should show the goddess coming on the rainbow, but also with a Time Patrol timecycle aloft. "...Odin..." is also novel-length, 133 pages, so that the two could be published as a diptych, or as a single longer volume entitled The Gods Of Time.

Unstable Space-Time II

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

By investigating Veleda's new religious movement, the Time Patrol caused it. But why did they investigate? This could have been a simple causal circle. For example, if Jens Ulstrup, Patrol ethnographer in residence among the German barbarians, had reported a new movement that contradicted the records, then they would have had to investigate. However, Ulstrup was unaware of the new myths until Everard and Floris, already investigating, alerted him to them.

In the timeline guarded by the Patrol, Tacitus records that Veleda helped to arrange the armistice that ended the Northern revolt. Sociologists studying Rome in the early second century acquire an altered text, "Tacitus Two," according to which Veleda instead preached against peace and, with a big following, began to change German religion in a way that in turn can be expected to change European history. I think that such an altered text could only be acquired in the alternative timeline described by that same altered text. However, Everard and Floris, investigating, travel to the period of the Northern revolt from the twentieth century of the timeline guarded by the Patrol.

Arriving during the revolt, they necessarily arrive at a date earlier than the acquisition of Tacitus Two, which describes an alternative ending to the revolt. Yet they have come from a future in which Tacitus One gives the historically accurate account of the end of the revolt. This looks like a contradiction. Either timeline can exist but not both.

I suggested a solution in correspondence with Poul Anderson. As Floris tells Everard, sociologists studying Rome and wanting to consult Tacitus acquired a contemporary copy rather than "...send uptime for a data file." (p. 486) If they had simply extracted a copy of Tacitus Two from a contemporary library, then they would already have been in the altered timeline. Therefore, the twentieth century guarded by the Patrol and containing both Everard and Floris would not have existed in their future.

Instead, let us say this. The sociologists were in Rome at a time when the Tacitus One and Tacitus Two versions of events were both potential futures. Unable to enter an immediately contemporary library without being noticed by the locals, one of the sociologists instead traveled a short distance uptime to a moment when he would be able to enter a library unobserved. By doing this, he entered the potential Tacitus Two timeline. He returned with a copy to a moment when Tacitus One and Tacitus Two were still both potentials. From that moment, it was possible to communicate with the twentieth century of the Tacitus One timeline.

This idea is an addition to the physics of time travel already established in the series but it is the only way that I can account for the existence of a Tacitus Two text in a Tacitus One timeline.

New Myths

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

The Eddas have three hereafters:

Valhalla, for warriors slain in battle;

Aegir's hall, for drowned sailors;

Hel, like Hades or Sheol, not like Hell (cold and sad, not hot or bad), for everyone else, even Balder, at least until after the Ragnarok.

I imagine that, originally, Valhalla was merely endless fighting and feasting, until the mythos had to be closed. Then, at that stage, the cyclical killing and dying but rising again became instead preparation for Ragnarok. Mythology has two deaths. The first gives entry to a hereafter but the second is final. When Fenris Wolf swallowed Odin and Vidar, Odin's son, avenging his father, seized the wolf by the jaws and tore him apart, that probably released Odin in earlier versions but not in the surviving Ragnarok version.

Veleda's Niaerdh creates a fourth hereafter, for women dying in childbirth. Thus, Veleda introduces a special devotion for women which, in Northern paganism, need not be practiced in a separate mystery cult.

This Niaerdh:

receives the dead in her hall;
leads a hunt through the sky;
is a goddess of war, the destined destroyer of Rome;
commands the elements, the Moon and childbirth.

Thus, she usurps the roles of Odin, Tyr and Thor, while retaining her goddess roles. Janne says that this religion:

"'...would not become monotheistic or anything like that. But this goddess would be the supreme figure, around whom everything gathered. She would give folk as much, spiritually, or almost as much, as Christ could. Few would ever join the Church.'" (p. 568)

This in turn could become the basis of a Germanic civilization, resisting Christinanity, as Zoroastrianism did. The process that Janne describes is one of the ways that monotheism can arise from polytheism. Either all gods become one or one god becomes supreme.

Neopagans

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

Of the German goddess, Nerthus, described by Tacitus, Manson Everard of the Time Patrol thinks:

"'A pretty grim sort'...The neopagans of his home milieu did not include her in their fairy tales of a prehistoric matriarchy when everybody was nice." (p. 565)

I currently have regular contact with members of several different neopagan "denominations." Several of them are scholars of their subject. As such, they know and can expound the differences between ancient practices and attempted reconstructions and newly invented traditions and false claims of continuity with earlier traditions.

I think that prehistorical societies would have been not matriarchies, ruled by women, but anarchies, ruled by no one, as yet - maybe prearchies? - although there would have been matrilineal descent both originally before the male role in reproduction came to be recognized and even later before the institution of patriarchal monogamy made it important to identify legitimate male heirs.

The Structure Of Star Of The Sea

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006), pp. 467-640.

Large Roman numeral, I: mythological writing.
Small Arabic numerals, 1-10: the narrative.
Large Roman numeral, II: mythological writing.
Small Arabic numerals, 11-19, the narrative continued.
Large Roman numeral, III: legendary writing.
Small Arabic numeral, 20: the narrative concluded.
Large Roman numeral, IV: a Marian prayer.

I and II are imaginative reconstructions of earlier stages of Northern European mythology. In I, the sea goddess, Niaerdh, marries the agricultural god, Frae.

"'I will come to you on the rainbow,' Niaerdh plighted.
"So it was. So it is." (p. 469)

In II, they are Naerdha and Froh; and other gods and beings are involved.

Both mythological accounts explain why the divine couple are apart every winter but rejoined in spring.

In III, a hunter interacts with the sea goddess, Nehalennia, and becomes a sea trader.  

IV is a seafarers' prayer to Mary, named "Star of the Sea" after the goddess.

In later installments of the Time Patrol series, dates are used as section headings. This practice is observed for some chapters of "Star Of The Sea":
 
10    A.D. 60.
11    A.D. 49.
12    A.D. 43.
14    A.D. 43.
15    A.D. 70.

Two Patrol agents follow a trail back through time, then return to apply the knowledge they have gained.

Some chapters begin with indications of time or season:

2   "In the closing decades of the twentieth century..." (p. 477)
3   "Winter brought rain..." (p. 494)
5   "Wind rushed bitter..." (p. 518)
7   "Suddenly springtime billowed over the land." (p. 530)
9   "The months toiled on..." (p. 543)
15    "The sun was newly down..." (p. 15)
16    "Sleet hissed..." (p. 601)
17    "The early sunset smoldered..." (p. 610)
19    "New-fallen snow..." (p. 622)

Of these, 2 expresses the viewpoint of a Time Patrolman not yet embarked on a mission whereas the others reflect "...the mysteries of day and night, summer and winter..." which "...pervaded...the souls of the folk." (p. 539)

Veleda II

See here.

Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006), pp. 555-556:

"'Hear me and heed ye  highborn or lowborn,
still in your strength or  stumbling graveward,
doomed to death and  dreeing the wierd
boldly or badly.  I bid ye hearken.
When life is lost,  alone is left,
for yourself and your sons,  what is said of you.
Doughty deeds  shall never die,
but in minds of men  remain forever -
night and nothing  for the names of cravens!
No good the gods  will give to traitors,
nor aught but anger  unto the slothful.
Who fears to fight  will lose his freedom,
will cringe and crawl  to get moldy crusts,
his children chafing  in chains and shame.
Hauled into whoredom,  helplessly,
his women weep.  These woes are his.
Better a brand  should burn his home
while he, the hero  harvests foemen
till he falls defiant  and fares on skyward.

"'Hoofs in heaven  heavily ring.
Lightning leaps, blazing lances.
All the earth  resounds with anger.
Seas in surges  smite the shores.
Now will Nerha  naught more suffer.
Wrathful she rides  to bring down Rome,
the war gods with her,  the wolves and ravens.'"

This prophesy by Veleda is printed as prose but I have tried to reproduce it as the verse it is. The omniscient narrator, here conveying Everard's point of view, comments:

"...steel was in it, and winter winds." (p. 555) 

Everard comments:

"'A gift, a power - real leadership has a touch of mystery, something transhuman....But I wonder if also the time stream isn't bearing her along.'" (pp. 556-557)

Danellian physics may be relevant.

Everard must strain "...through the gloaming..." (p. 555) as Veleda addresses a tribe at night by firelight. At other times, the mystery is preserved by keeping her out of sight:

"'Best you hold aloof. Few...have seen you. There is more awesomeness in a tale than in flesh and blood.'" (p. 532)

- as we can avow, reading Anderson's tale.

Janne says that Veleda, while traveling, certainly sleeps in her elaborately carved wagon, drawn by four white oxen:

"'To preserve dignity and mystery. I suspect an image of the goddess is in there too.'" (p. 553)

My question is:

Is Veleda inspired to speak in alliterative verse or does she carefully compose such speeches before delivering them?

Sacrifice

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

Heidhin hangs a Roman legate, "'...no mere thrall but a chieftain...'" (p. 531), as an offering to the Anses (Aesir): father Woen (Odin), warrior Tiw (Tyr) and Donar of the thunder (Thor). He does this because Veleda's deity, Nerha (Niaerdh):

"'...has been taking too much of what formerly went to the sky gods.'" (ibid.)

(Niaerdh later became the god, Niord, who is incarnated in Anderson's War Of The Gods.) 

Heidhin is canny enough to know that, even if he is mistaken in this, men fearing loss of divine support will hesitate in battle whereas the news of his offering will hearten them. Indeed, ravens, the birds of Odin, perch and peck on the hanged man's shoulders.

Why do we no longer kill men for the gods? Many say simply that we no longer believe in the gods but there are other reasons. I suggest that, if the gods exist, then they cannot possibly benefit from ritual murder. And many believe that the father god has already received a perfect victim, therefore does not need any more.

Condensed History II

The image is "La Revolte de Civilis."

Continuing to summarize the condensed history:

Batavians unhappily helped Vitellius against Otho;
they defeated the Othonianists at the Po;
Otho killed himself;
Vitellius could not control his troops who ran wild in Italy;
Vespasian held Africa and Asia;
his general, landing in Italy, wrote to Civilis;
Batavians held Alpine passes against Vitellianists;
Civilis called a tribal assembly;
outraged by Vitellius' conscription, they agreed to revolt against him;
folkmoots of the Canninefates and Frisii rallied to the cause;
German auxiliaries and a Tungrian cohort defected from Vitellius to Civilis;
Civilis smashed two legions, drove them into Castra Vetera and won a battle near Bonna;
only when the defenders of Castra Vetera refused to support Vespasian did Civilis proclaim secession;
the Bructeri, Tencteri, Chamavi, other Germans and the Gauls led by Classicus joined Civilis;
Wael-Edh foretold Roman doom.

The summary suggests events building to a crescendo.

"...this segment of space-time was unstable; the less they from the future moved about in it, the better."
- Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006), p. 516.

Everard decides to interview Civilis and, if possible also Classicus, immediately after the surrender of Castra Vetera, which is still several months before a possible split in events. He and Janne cannot afford to spend years investigating but must instead visit a single point, even though they risk witnessing the slaughter of prisoners which they are forbidden to prevent.

Condensed History

The image is "The Revolt of Julius Civilis" by Rembrandt. Google has "Gaius Julius Civilis" whereas Poul Anderson in "Star Of The Sea" gives us "Claudius Civilis." I think that Anderson has invented Civilis' Germanic name, "Burhmund." (Later: Google confirms "Claudius Civilis" as name as well. Complicated.)

Anderson condenses a lot of history into a few summary passages and into a conversation between Burhmund and Everard. There are details that I have totally forgotten despite rereading "Star Of The Sea" several times.

Trying to extract some facts from the dialogue:

the Batavi rioted against Nero's tax collectors;
Civilis (Burhmund) and a brother were arrested for conspiracy;
the brother was beheaded;
Civilis was taken to Rome;
Nero was overthrown;
Galba pardoned Civilis and sent him home;
Otho overthrew Galba;
legions in Germany proclaimed Vitellius emperor;
legions in Egypt proclaimed Vespasian -

- it gets more complicated and I have to attend a book launch!

Political Geography

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

Germania, stretching from the North Sea to the Baltic, from the River Scheldt to the Vistula and south to the Danube, and encompassing the future Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands and Germany, comprises occasionally cultivated wilderness inhabited by migratory tribes.

Rome had conquered Gaul (the future France, Belgium, Luxemburg and part of the Rhineland) to the west and made some German tribes, including the Batavi, tributaries. Nero increased taxation and his overthrow led to civil war between Galba, Otho, Vitellius and Vespasian. Resisting both taxation and conscription, the Batavian noble, Burhmund (Latin name, Claudius Civilis), led his and other tribes in rebellion, nominally supporting Vespasian. Veleda, preaching against all Romans, brought the Bructeri, Tencteri and Chamavi to Buurhmund's cause.

"'Under Julius Classicus and Julius Tutor, the Gallic auxiliaries went over to Civilis, while they proclaimed their province an empire in its own right.'" (p. 489)

These background details are so complicated that it is possible to read the story without properly comprehending them. The narrative occurs on several levels:

nature and the seasons;
barbarian culture and psychology;
political boundaries and military conflicts;
mythological interpretations;
the temporal physics of the Time Patrol.