Turning Point

"Star of the Sea," 18.

Burhmund and Veleda are historical figures in Tacitus' Histories. Heidhin, Veleda's companion, and of course Manse Everard of the Time Patrol are fictional characters created by Poul Anderson. Thus, several narrative strands converge when Burhmund tells Heidhin:

"'Yon Everard is an odd one. He may be able to bring something about.'" (p. 617)

That is how a time traveller intervening in historical events might appear to a participant in those events: odd but possibly effective. We value alternative viewpoints in fiction. In Anderson's Technic History, we sometimes read how van Rijn, Falkayn or Flandry appear to others.

Burhmund and Heidhin converse although neither is presented as the viewpoint character. Veleda arrives and leads Heidhin outside. We are told what Burhmund says to others who are present when the door closes, then we follow events outside the building without any break in the text. Heidhin and Veleda converse with Janne Floris/Niaerdh. As in the previous chapter, Floris hears Everard's voice internally so she, Floris, has become the viewpoint character.

This chapter is the turning point. Heidhin releases Veleda from her oath by killing himself. His death ensures the Tacitus One timeline. If Heidhin had refused to yield and had carried Veleda with him, then the Tacitus Two timeline with continued warfare and a new religion of the Goddess would have followed.

A Time Of Peace

"Star of the Sea," 17.

Janne Floris must persuade the prophetess, Veleda, that her deity, Niaerdh, has changed from a goddess of war to a goddess of peace. Is this possible? Floris quotes "olden wisdom," beginning:

"'To every thing there is a season..."

- and ending:

"'...a time of war; and a time of peace.'" (p. 613)

That does the trick with Veleda but they still have a warlike culture to contend with.

Whose is the point of view (pov) here? The opening paragraph about the smouldering sunset could have a collective pov. In the second paragraph, a hind shivers because of the weather and because he sees Wael-Edh. He reflects on her, mutters a spell and hastens home so the pov is his but then he is gone.

In the third paragraph, Edh approaches and enters her tower so the pov might be hers although only her externally observable movements and words are described. In the upper room, Janne Floris appears and the pov seems to become hers although again this might be an externally observed conversation between the two women. Finally, Floris subvocalizes and hears Everard's English language reply in her head. The pov is now definitely Floris's.

Wet Weather

"Star of the Sea," 16.

A description of miserable weather is appropriately followed by a description of miserable men!

Weather And The Environment

hissing sleet

flat, drenched land

low visibility

withered grass

wind tossing bare trees

a burned house

dankness

chill

north wind smelling of swamps, sea and approaching winter

water dripping from Everard's hood past his face

hoofs squelching in deep mud

The Men

snuffling

sneezing

comrades fevered with chattering teeth in sick bay

wretched

tarnished metal

sodden kilts

gooseflesh

sunken cheeks

short rations

gloomy atrium

slumped, staring staff

We get the point. Sometimes, if we analyse an Andersonian description and list the adjectives, they go on and on. Not a complaint. Appreciate and savour every detail.

Frederick Forsyth And Poul Anderson II

More literary parallels. First, The Devil's Alternative features a Swede called Wennerstrom. These are two parallels with Steig Larsson. Secondly, Forsyth's Wennerstrom has commissioned a supertanker and is asked what he will call it:

"'Do you remember the Sagas? We'll name her to please Niorn, the god of the sea... For Niorn controls the fire and the water, the twin enemies of a tanker captain; the explosion and the sea herself... So we will name her after the daughter of Niorn, Freya, the most beautiful of all the goddesses. We will call her the Freya.' He raised his glass. 'To the Freya.'"

-Frederick Forsyth, The Devil's Alternative (London, 1980), 4, pp. 101-102.

Niorn is a new spelling but we have recently discussed the deity, Njord/ Niaerdh/Nerthus, in relation to Poul Anderson's historical fantasy, historical time travel fiction and future history fiction:

the god Njord and his human incarnation;

the goddess Niaerdh and a Time Patrolwoman who poses as her;

a planet called Nerthus. 

Andropov And Gorbachev

I am learning more about how near future thrillers can intersect with alternative history fiction. Instead of technological innovations, such novels can involve fictional political leaders. Thus, in Frederick Forsyth's The Devil's Alternative, published in 1979 but set in 1982, Yuri Andropov has been head of the KGB but has not become Russian Premier whereas, in Forsyth's Icon, published in 1996 but set in 1999, Andropov has been Premier. Yet Sir Nigel Irvine features in both works. Novels involving Sir Nigel can be regarded as a series but with the qualification that their political background changes. They are not set in quite the same timeline.

Poul Anderson's The Shield Of Time, published in 1990, mentions Gorbachev. The Time Patrol series began in 1955. Time Patrollers must have known about Gorbachev back then and even earlier. Their milieu HQ is in 1890-1910. But they did not happen to mention Andropov or Gorbachev in any conversations recorded by Poul Anderson!

Mutable Time Theory

In "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth":

Causal loops are subtle. An incipient causal loop is dangerous because it can set up a resonance which can cause changes of history that multiply catastrophically. The loop is made safe by closing it.

In "Star of the Sea":

Causal loops often have a powerful and subtle force. It is necessary to prevent a causal loop from developing into a causal vortex.

Terminology

Causal loop:

"'The time traveler becomes a cause of the selfsame events he set out to study or otherwise deal with.'" (Time Patrol, p. 448)

"'...our investigation of a disturbance to the plenum is what brought it about.'" (p. 559)

Clear. But what are:

an incipient causal loop?

a resonance?

a causal vortex?

The changes of history multiplying catastrophically sound as if they might be a vortex.

Everard has to rely on intuition based on a lot of experience:

"'I looked deeper into your case mainly because of a hunch, an uneasy feeling that something wasn't right.'" (p. 448)

His assessment of a situation can change:

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

Yet later:

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

Again, intuition is involved:

"'This is different. I don't know how it is, but I feel it in my marrow.'" (ibid.)

Only intuition can respond to unpredictability.

Shakespeare And Ecclesiastes In The Time Patrol

"Star of the Sea," 14.

Janne Floris has killed the Romans who were raping Edh and is holding her where she is still lying on the ground:

"'What do you want of me, Niaerdh?' [Edh] whispered. 'I am yours. As I always was?'

"'Slay the Romans, all the Romans!' Heidhin bawled.'" (p. 592)

Edh, in shock, asks the goddess what she should do and hears "Slay the Romans!" Of course, it is not the goddess who bawls that but Edh is confused and trying to understand. She asks whether Niaerdh is troubled that the Romans befoul her world.

Heidhin says that he will pay with his life. He will. Unable to accept peace with Rome, he will kill himself, thus moving events towards the Tacitus One timeline.

Everard tells Floris:

"'The time is out of joint and you can't set it right today. You can't. Meddle any more, and I swear there'll never be a Tacitus One book, maybe never a Tacitus Two. We don't belong in these events, and that's why the future is in danger. Leave them be!'" (p. 593)

He quotes Shakespeare:

"The time is out of joint. O cursed spite

"That ever I was born to set it right!"

-Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5, lines 189-190.

Wanda Tamberly and Aryuk quote Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5, lines 15-20 when they stage an apparition of a ghost in Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), PART FOUR, 13,211 B. C., XII, p, 244, whereas Janne Floris quotes Ecclesiates 3: 1-8, when she stages an apparition of the goddess in "Star of the Sea," 17.

Everard is a time traveller who knows that he does not belong in these events. The time is not out of joint. He is.

Where The Time Patrol Goes

A short while ago, I summarized the contents of Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series but missed some points so here we go again:

(i) Manse Everard's early Time Patrol career, beginning with his recruitment, training, first case and promotion to Unattached status and ending with the Carthaginian crisis (four episodes);

(ii) turning points in the lives of two other Patrol agents, Tom Namura and Carl Farness (two);

(iii) "Star of the Sea" as a turning point for Manse Everard because he begins and ends a relationship with Janne Floris and will shortly meet Wanda Tamberly (one);

(iv) the four-phase War against the Exaltationists, involving Wanda Tamberly in its second phase (three);

(v) Wanda Tamberly's Time Patrol career (two);

(vi) an interruption to Everard's and Tamberly's holiday in San Francisco (one).

Comments

The Patrol could have contacted Everard after, instead of during, the holiday.

Everard and Tamberly are married in SM Stirling's "A Slip in Time."

The series goes somewhere and could have gone further.

Addendum: See revision here.

Connections

Poul Anderson's Technic History and his Time Patrol series are set in different timelines. However, either an extratemporal intervention or a quantum fluctuation could cause a Time Patrol agent to arrive in the Technic History and we know that from that timeline there is a route to the inter-universal inn, the Old Phoenix. I do not advocate inauthentic or chaotic sequels to Anderson's works. However, a sufficiently imaginative author would be able to make some connections. I cannot imagine how it would be done but then I would not have been able to imagine any of this in the first place. This post is one of my late evening thoughts before switching off the computer and turning to other reading which is always waiting.

High is heaven and holy.

Fear And Feast

"Star of the Sea," 13.

"Winter passed, rain, snow, cavernous darknesses, the night of fear before the sun turned back and the day of feast that followed, lightening skies, thaw, newborn lambs, budding boughs." (p. 585)

The point of view is collective and entirely that of people living in the past, not of time travellers passing through. The sentence introduces a paragraph that goes on to describe spring and approaching summer in almost poetic language. I was struck by the contrast between the night of fear and the day of feast. We still have the day. People in earlier times must really have feared that, this year, the sun would continue to decline and would not turn back.

In this chapter, Poul Anderson conveys all the sensations and feelings of Edh's young life up to and including the experience that changes her life forever.