Attitudes To A Hereafter

 Poul Anderson, "The Problem of Pain" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 103-134.

Peter Berg, a Christian, thinks:

"It makes no sense that God, Who created what is because in His goodness he wished to share existence, would shape a soul only to break it and throw it away." (p. 122)

Is death a breaking and throwing away or a completion, as suggested by Aycharaych later in this same future history? I am extremely skeptical of a hereafter and Poul Anderson was agnostic but here he is able to express exactly how some people do think on this issue.

Here is another response. When the Ythrian Ehherrian's daughter has just died, he is asked whether he believes that the spirit outlives the body and snaps:

"'How could it?...Why should it?'" (ibid.)

If a private journal is destroyed, are its contents recorded elsewhere? If a flame is extinguished, does it continue to burn elsewhere?

Earlier, Berg said:

"''Way back before space travel, the Church decided Jesus had come only to Earth, to man. If other intelligent races need salvation - and obviously a lot of them do! - God will have made His suitable arrangements for them.'" (p. 110)

So how come, later, a Wodenite, Axor, is converted and ordained in the Jerusalem Catholic Church? Well, there are different branches of the Church. Also, Axor does look for evidence of divine revelation among other species.

This post has compared the attitudes of a human being, a Chereionite, an Ythrian and a Wodenite.

Characters And Their Contributions

In Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization, as in real history, many minor characters make major contributions:

Colin Scobie must have the courage to kill two fantasy characters;

Aram Turekian realizes how an intelligent species is able to fly on Ythri;

the planetologist of the Grand Survey spaceship, the Olga, writes an autobiography that contributes a chapter to The Earth Book Of Stormgate;

James Ching's notebooks preserved by his descendants also contribute to the Earth Book;

Emil Dalmady has a daughter who moves to Avalon with Falkayn and writes stories for the magazine Morgana, three becoming chapters in the Earth Book;

thus, an incident in the life of Falkayn's grandson is recorded;

Christopher Holm, a major character in one novel, The People Of The Wind, makes several additional contributions, three chapters of the Earth Book and translations from Planha to Anglic;

Captain Gray of the Olga has an enlightened attitude to women gunners;

when one of the planets discovered by the Olga is explored, the exploratory group unofficially calls it "Gray";

when the planet is jointly colonized by human beings and Ythrians and renamed "Avalon," its main city is called "Gray."

This post lists nine characters apart from the major figure Falkayn and summarizes a lot of details.

Hloch's Sources VI

In "Who Knows Of Avalon?" (here), I reread Poul Anderson's The People Of The Wind in order to summarize not the plot but the background information about the planet Avalon, which turned out to be a narrative in its own right. Similarly, rereading not the stories but just the interstitial passages in Anderson's The Earth Book Of Stormgate reveals an entire behind-the-scenes history of people and events. We learn more about James Ching, Emil Dalmady and Christopher Holm, meet Dalmady's daughter and learn about pre-Troubles precautions taken by van Rijn and Falkayn.

"Lodestar"
The records on Hermes contained a ship's log, taped conversations, data lists etc for van Rijn's journey to Mirkheim. Having identified the vessel and its captain, Rennhi contacted Wryfields Choth on Ythri. The Wyvan, Stirrok, located Captain Hirharouk's private journal and Hirharouk's descendants allowed it to be read. Hloch and Arinnian composed the narrative, "Lodestar."

"Wingless"
This story, about David Falkayn's grandson on Avalon, was "...the last that Judith Dalmedy/Lundgren wrote for Morgana." (p. 410) (For full reference, see here.) Hloch tells us that "...she was then in her high old age..." but that "...the memories upon which she was drawing were fresh." (ibid.) Presumably, these were the memories of Nat Falkayn.

"Rescue on Avalon"
A.A. Craig was a Terran who traveled widely, gathering material for historical narratives, during a pause in the Troubles. While on Avalon, he heard from an elderly man of an incident in that man's youth. Craig wrote a fictionalized but nevertheless "...substantially accurate..." (p. 421) account in his Tales Of The Great Frontier.

Old age and memories of youth are an emergent theme. The published authors whose works are reproduced by Hloch are:

Maeve Downey;
A.A. Craig (2);
Judith Dalmady/Lundgren (3) -

- and we are also told that Christopher Holm has translated several works from Planha into Anglic.

Hloch's Sources V

"A Little Knowledge"
The xenologist Fluoch of Mistwood brought this story to Avalon. Christopher Holm/Arinnian of Stormgate prepared a suitable version for the Earth Book.

"Day of Burning"
We return to Rennhi's researches. Falkayn's Avalonian descendants had a vague tradition that he had been on Merseia. Rennhi set out to find the truth. On Falkayn's home planet, Hermes, she learned that he and van Rijn had transferred data units there, placing them in the care of the Grand Ducal house and of the Falkayns. Information would be more secure on Hermes than in the Solar System where the Troubles were brewing. After the dissolution of the Polesotechnic League, there was no longer a decipherment program and the units remained almost forgotten in storage. With permission, Rennhi transferred the molecular patterns to Avalon where she began a code-breaking effort. The military helped because war with Terra was imminent.

The cracking of the cipher developed cryptography even though the records had no military value. Hloch and Arinnian made a narrative of the account of the trade pioneer crew's mission to save Merseia from the effects of the nearby supernova, Valenderay.

Hloch's Sources IV

The Man Who Counts 
This is another chapter of the Earth Book that is a previously published work, the fifth so far. Although the text is a historical novel, Hloch thinks that it is "...reasonably factual." (p. 146) (For full reference, see here.) He includes it "...partly because van Rijn is more central in it than in others..." (ibid.)
Indeed, the other two novels known to us, Satan's World and Mirkheim, are equally about van Rijn's trade pioneer crew. He adds that it was originally published "...either on Terra or Hermes; separate authors and dates are given on those two worlds, and Rennhi did not feel the matter was worth pursuing further." (ibid.) We know of one other title and that Rennhi was right not to pursue it.

"The Star Plunderer," our only source of information about Manuel Argos, Founder of the Terran Empire, is historical fiction, a "play within the play," and The Man Who Counts is presented as a historical novel. We accept them as such and recognize that someone else could have written a non-fictional account of the same events. Think about important events that you have been involved in, then imagine that those events have been dramatized in a feature film. I have seen certain British politicians, then actors presenting them on screen.

Hloch's Sources III

"Esau"
Emil Dalmady, the hero of "Esau," is, at the end of that story, about to become an entrepreneur initially trained and financed by van Rijn. Some of Dalmady's children move to Avalon with Falkayn. His daughter, Judith, recalls Emil's reminiscences when she was younger and also has a good knowledge of the conditions in his youth. In later life, she writes "Esau," which is published in the Avalonian magazine, Morgana, named after one of the planet's moons. Thus, this fifth chapter of the Earth Book is a third previously published work.

"The Season of Forgiveness"
We learn that Judith Dalmady's married name was Lundgren. While her father worked as an entrepreneur near Ivanhoe, he heard of an incident on that planet from one of the people involved. He told it to Judith who wrote it as a story in Morgana. Its setting on Ivanhoe makes this story an indirect sequel to David Falkayn's opening adventure on another continent of that planet. However, that story had been collected in The Trouble Twisters before there was an Earth Book.

These characters become quite engaging. If not for Hloch, we would have known nothing of Dalmady after the end of "Esau." Now, instead, the older Dalmady and even his daughter, Judith, in her later life, have become continuing characters in a few short interstitial passages.

We have come a long way from the psychological problems of "The Saturn Game" but that is the nature of history and of future history - and it remains a single history.

Hloch's Sources II

"How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson"
Spaceman James Ching's notebooks containing his life-long reminiscences were kept by his descendants on Catawrayannis and made available to Rennhi when she inquired about them. "How To Be Ethnic..." ends with young Ching, friend of Adzel, about to finish school in San Francisco Integrate and to begin an apprenticeship in the Polesotechnic League. Hloch is able, in a single sentence, to summarize the entire subsequent career of such a character.

"Margin of Profit"
This account of Nicholas van Rijn was published in Tales Of The Great Frontier by A.A. Craig.

So far, then, Hloch has presented two accounts taken from already published works and two that were obtained by his mother, Rennhi's, researches on Esperance and Catawrayannis, respectively.

Hloch's Sources

Poul Anderson, The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1979).

When referring just to the Earth Book, it is convenient to have a copy of that work as a single volume alongside The Technic Civilization Saga.

"Wings of Victory"
Maeve Downey, planetologist on the Grand Survey spaceship, the Olga, described first contact with Ythri in her autobiography, Far Adventure.

"The Problem of Pain"
An anonymous first person narrator worked with Peter Berg on Lucifer where Berg recounted his experience on Gray/Avalon. That narrator retold Berg's story in a correspondence that was preserved by the recipient's heirs on Earth. A visiting historian obtained a copy and transcribed it into the archives of the University of Fleurville on Esperance where Rennhi found it. Then, her son, Hloch, published the account in the Earth Book on Avalon.

These first two examples demonstrate the extent to which Hloch's Earth Book Introductions add considerable depth and detail to Anderson's History of Technic Civilization.

Aeneas And Avalon

For the purpose of this post, it is appropriate to have a book cover showing an Ythrian on Aeneas.

Peter Berg, an Aenean, tells us that Ythri is close to and similar to Aeneas. Both these planets are smaller and drier than Earth with a thinner atmosphere. All three have similar biochemistries.

Ythrians attend the University of Nova Roma on Aeneas and some Ythrians employ Peter and Olga Berg to help them to explore Gray which will later be called Avalon when it is jointly colonized by human beings and Ythrians.

Centuries later, when there is unrest on Aeneas, an Avalonian Ythrian spies on that planet on behalf both of the Terran Empire and of the Domain of Ythri.

Thus, "The Problem of Pain," about the exploration of Gray/Avalon, mentions Aeneas while The Day Of Their Return, about unrest on Aeneas, mentions Avalon. Both works were published in 1973.

Xenologist And Planetologist

In Poul Anderson's The Earthbook Of Stormgate, the second passage attributed to the Avalonian historian and editor, Hloch, serves both as an afterword to "Wings of Victory" and as the Introduction to the second Ythrian story, "The Problem of Pain." Referring back to "Wings of Victory," Hloch writes:

"This happened early in the course of starflight. The tale is in Far Adventure by Maeve Downey, the autobiography of a planetologist." (p. 103) (For full reference, see here.)

Thus, seven years (see here) after the publication of "Wings of Victory," Anderson reveals the name and profession of that story's first person narrator. As the planetologist, she would indeed have discussed the inhabitants of the new planet with Webner, the xenologist.

These two professions would be represented on any survey ship and are crucial to Nicholas van Rijn's later trade pioneer crews. Each crew comprises:

a Master Merchant, trained in cultural comparisons and trading skills;
a planetologist;
a xenobiologist.

Since the first of these crews to be organized by van Rijn is led by David Falkayn, the other two members are of different nonhuman species - different talents and, hopefully, less interpersonal conflict en route.