Speculative Fiction And Military Science Fiction

Because Sean has mentioned it a few times, we are ordering a copy of The Physics Of Christianity by Frank J. Tipler, which I expect to be relevant to Poul Anderson's speculative fiction. For previous blog references to Tipler, see here. (Scroll down.) I have not yet read Darrow's and Tipler's The Anthropic Cosmological Principle.

I prefer speculative fiction to military science fiction. I am learning that the latter includes a lot of accounts of military activities both on and off battlefields but that should not surprise me! Like CS Lewis and Brian Aldiss, I want to leave Earth to find the Unearthly.

I will not describe the unsanitary living conditions of the barbarian mercenaries in SM Stirling's and David Drake's The Forge but I will ask:

Would any barbarians live in such conditions?
Would it be possible to survive in such conditions?
Would regular armed forces tolerate such conditions so close to their own camps?

We have a universe to win - although not to conquer.

His Richest Text? II

See:

His Richest Text?

The Richness Of "Star Of The Sea"

Poul Anderson's "Star of the Sea" is such a rich narrative because it combines, indeed almost seamlessly blends, mythological writing not only with historical fiction but also with the dramatic presentation of a subtle time travel paradox.

In the preceding Time Patrol installment, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," Carl Farness learns that it was he himself that had appeared as Odin and betrayed his followers. Now, in "Star of the Sea," Janne Floris learns that it was she herself that had been perceived by the prophetess, Veleda, as her inspiring goddess. Traveling into the past to find the crucial event, she causes the event.

Before that (before in terms our reading order), section 1 ends when a prisoner repeats the sibyl's prophecy that the Roman Empire is doomed and section 2 begins when Manse Everard arrives in Amsterdam in "...the closing decades of the twentieth century..." (p. 477) Thanks to the wonders of time travel, Everard is coming to the rescue of the Roman Empire nearly two millennia earlier. Even in an invariable timeline, for Everard to learn millennia later of an action that he must perform millennia earlier is a possible sequence of events but this timeline is variable. Whatever the explanation, it is possible that Everard will remember having traveled into the past from one version of the twentieth century yet will return from the past into an alternative version. Can goddess-worship prevent the acceptance of Christianity in Northern Europe?

History And SF

History and sf can interact in two ways. First, an sf author's knowledge of history might inform his futuristic fiction, in particular any future history series, and secondly historical fiction and sf can be synthesized in three ways:

time travel;

past alien visits;

mutant immortals surviving through history.

(Magical immortality is fantasy. Thus, Hanno in Poul Anderson's The Boat Of A Million Years is an unaging mutant whereas Hob Gadling in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman has an agreement with personified Death. Hanno can be killed by accident or violence whereas, whatever happens to Hob, Death will not touch him unless he asks her to.)

We saw that SM Stirling's and David Drake's futuristic sf novel, The Forge, draws on Constantinople and Cromwell. This led to the observation that Anderson's Time Patrol would have to protect Cromwell's Dissolution of the Long Parliament which side-tracked us onto discussing a Time Patrol story, "Star of the Sea."

Divine Marriages

See Scattered Through History for what happens in Poul Anderson's The Corridors Of Time.

Jens Ulstrup of the Time Patrol says that:

the Wanes or Vanir were an aboriginal chthonic pantheon;

the Indo-Europeans imported their warlike sky-gods, the Ansa or Aesir;

conflict between locals and incomers is reflected in myths of a war between their pantheons (see Anderson's War Of The Gods);

the divine war was settled by negotiations and intermarriage.

Negotiations and alliances end or prevent conflicts. As Alan Moore's Miraclewoman explains: two sides can make love or war. Anderson's "Star of the Sea" shows how a god and a goddess must choose between marriage and destruction. If Frae's arrows kill the horses that pull the Sun's chariot, then the Sun will fall and boil Niaerdh's sea which will then freeze forever but that will not happen because first Niaerdh would drown Frae's land. These primeval gods seem to share Anderson's knowledge of possible ecological catastrophes.

Scholarly And Imaginative Reconstructions

A Time Patrol Specialist explains:

"'Nerthus - Naerdha - is still female. In centuries ahead, she will become male, the Eddic god Njordh, father of Freyja and Frey - who today is still her husband. Njordh will be a sea god, as Nerthus is associated with the sea, though she is also an agricultural deity.'"
-"Star of the Sea," 11, p. 566.

How does a goddess associated with the sea come to be also an agricultural deity? Poul Anderson imagines one mythological explanation. Niaerdh makes seals, whales and fish, sends rain or light across the sea, sails on an iceberg and catches ships in a net. Thus, she is a sea deity. However, Frae, who would wed her, offers her warm flesh, hot blood and "'...sway over sowing and reaping...'" (I, p. 468) Thus, she becomes an agricultural deity.

She will return to her sea every autumn but will return to Frae every spring:

"'This shall be the year and every year henceforward.'" (I, p. 469)

In Greek mythology, Proserpina returns to the underworld for half the year. One role of myths is to explain familiar features of the natural world. This happens also in Genesis - the Biblical book, not Anderson's novel of that title.

Morning And Evening Stars

"But often [Niaerdh] rose early, long before the sun, to watch over her sea. Upon her brow shone the morning star."
-"Star of the Sea,", I, p. 467.

Now we know: the morning star appears above the sea because it shines on the brow of a goddess who rises early to watch over her sea. Mythological explanations combine beauty with naivety and, in this passage, Poul Anderson imagines an earlier stage of Northern mythology.

In a prayer addressed to "Mary, mother of God...":

"Pure as yourself, your evenstar shines above the sunset. Guide us by your light."
-IV, pp. 639-640.

In this second passage, the feminine supernatural being is not only described but also addressed. Anderson's "Star of the Sea" begins with a goddess who rises early, displaying the morning star, and ends as night overtakes sailors who, seeing the evening star, invoke the Star of the Sea. Thus, Anderson's narrative transports his readers from early paganism to later Christianity.

His Richest Text?

Is the Time Patrol series Poul Anderson's richest text? It is certainly an endless source of quotations for this blog.

"By day Niaerdh roamed among the seals and whales and fish she had made."
-Poul Anderson, "Star of the Sea" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 467-640 AT I, p. 467.

"Out of the east, the morning behind them, rode the Anses into the world."
-op. cit., II, p. 557.

"Gutherius was the name of a hunter who often went hunting in the wildwood, for he was poor and his acres meager. One blustery day in autumn he set forth, armed with bow and spear."
- op. cit, III, p. 624.

"Mary, mother of God, mother of sorrows, mother of salvation, be with us now and at the hour of our death."
-op. cit., IV, p. 639.

None of these statements is true. What do I mean by that? That they are passages in a fictional text? They are but there is more to it than that. In the Time Patrol timeline, the goddess whose name Anderson here spells "Niaerdh" and the pantheon called the Anses do not exist literally as they would in a work of fantasy. Nevertheless, they have been powerful presences in human minds. Gutherius is not a historical figure and many of us do not believe that Mary is the mother of God although some of us do.

Anderson imagines an earlier stage of Northern European mythology, when the god Nerthus was still female and called "Niaerdh." Within this imaginatively reconstructed mythological framework, he then tells a story of Niaerdh's betrothal to the god Frae and narrates that story from Niaerdh's pov. Thus, this narrative, although not set within the Time Patrol timeline, is a story that would be understood and accepted by people living in a prehistorical period of that timeline. When we nowadays read a retelling of Norse mythology, we ask not "Did Odin really think this?" but "Is it plausible and authentic that Odin would have thought this?" Such is Anderson's story of Niaerdh.

Opinions And Emotional Orientation

During Manse Everard's interview for a job with the Time Patrol:

"'...would you mind grasping those knobs on the arms of your chair? Thank you. Now, how do you react to physical danger?'
"Everard bristled. 'Look here -'
"Mr. Gordon's eyes flicked to an instrument on his desk: it was merely a box with an indicator needle and a couple of dials. 'Never mind. What are your views on internationalism?'
"'Say, now -'
"'Communism? Fascism? Women? Your personal ambitions?... That's all. You don't have to answer.'
"'What the devil is this, anyway?' snapped Everard.
"'A bit of psychological testing. Forget it. I've no interest in your opinions except as they reflect basic emotional orientation.' Mr. Gordon leaned back, making a bridge of his fingers. 'Very promising so far...'"
-Poul Anderson, "Time Patrol" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-53 AT p. 3.

Notes:

(i) I try not to present lengthy quotations but sometimes they are necessary to cover the issue at hand.

(ii) Bridges symbolize transitions. Gordon makes a bridge of his fingers at this transitional moment for Everard. James Blish's "Bridge," about a bridge on Jupiter, is about the discovery of antigravity which is a bridge to the stars.

(iii) Mr. Gordon wants emotionally stable recruits but does not care whether they are nationalists, internationalists, communists, fascists, misogynists or feminists. Guarding history transcends all these disagreements.

(iv) In the combox for "Go!", Sean writes, "...however much some Time Patrol agents disliked Cromwell...," but some might like him and surely many would be neutral. The Patrol would have recruited people with every conceivable opinion. Indeed, agents sympathetic to Cromwell might be best placed to guard his Protectorate.

(v) Anderson's The Corridors Of Time presents a different scenario with two opposed time traveling groups, the Rangers supporting the Roundheads while the Wardens support the Cavaliers.

Cities And Stars II

Yesterday there were five posts but three of them were on other blogs.

Today we walked from Lancaster to Morecambe for a 1940s Revival complete with Winston Churchill lookalike and a man in a Home Guard uniform. En route, I thought of two further posts of which this is the first.

See Cities And Stars.

"Dusk climbed rapidly up the canyons of the city. Occasional lights came to life, tiny at their distance and far apart. The maintainors did not need any, only such humans as were left did. Slowly the sky also drained."
-Poul Anderson, Genesis (New York, 2001), PART ONE, VIII, p. 91.

"Twilight deepened toward night. Early stars blinked forth."
-op. cit., p. 92.

"They lay back and regarded the stars. More appeared. He knew she was trying to grasp and appreciate, down in her marrow, that intelligences dwelt yonder, that the universe was no longer meaningless.
"Time passed. The city grew blacker than the sky, for more lights glimmered aloft than below.
"'But is it our meaning?' Naia cried." (p. 93)

This is a perfect sf contrast between a darkening future city and the inhumanly populated stars but I did not think of it when I was writing the first "Cities And Stars" post.

Cities And Stars

What captures the futuristic and cosmic perspectives of sf more than cities and stars?

"[Van Rijn] glared out across the city, where it winked and glittered beneath the stars, around the curve of the planet."
-Poul Anderson, "The Master Key" IN Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, pp. 273-327 AT p. 327.

"...night fell upon the old city and the stars."
-Brian Aldiss, "Visiting Amoeba" IN Aldiss, Starswarm (London, 1979), pp. 157-188 AT p. 188.

"The faint stars of the city skies were appearing..."
-The Forge, CHAPTER ELEVEN, p. 193.

Titles
Arthur C. Clarke, The City And The Stars
Michael Moorcock, The City In The Autumn Stars
James Blish, Cities In Flight, Volume I, They Shall Have Stars; Volume II, A Life For The Stars
Brian Aldiss, "Secret Of A Mighty City"and Starswarm

- and no doubt other examples.