Parnesius And Pertinax

Roma Mater.

As far as I can gather, the Mithraist, Parnesius, and his friend, Pertinax, are fictional characters created by Rudyard Kipling and the Andersons make them also co-religionists and friends of Gratillonius. Kipling makes Parnesius a centurion in the Thirtieth Legion but that was stationed elsewhere so the Andersons move him into the Twentieth, thus enabling him not only to be at the Wall as described by Kipling but also to meet Gratillonius there as described by them. This is one of many such details that I had not properly noticed or appreciated on three previous readings of The King Of Ys. 

I expect the current rereading to be slow - leisurely - and to focus on this kind of detail of which there will be many.

Poul Anderson's works encompass both the Roman Empire and the Terran Empire - and also a lot more than empires!

Diversity In The Roman Empire

Roma Mater.

Gratillonius worships neither Jupiter nor Christ but Mithras. That is diverse enough for me although it is not to the liking of the Roman authorities represented in Britain at that time by Magnus Clemens Maximus.

Gratillonius reflects that earthly rank counts for nothing either before Ahura-Mazda or before the Christian God. However, Christians include women. In Gratillonius' family, his father, brother and himself are Mithraists whereas his mother and sisters are Christians:

"Could that alone be why Christ was triumphing?" (p. 28)

Well, of course it is, or a major part of the reason. Those sisters will have their sons as well as their daughters baptized. In a generation or two, there will be no more Mithraists. 

If women could not be initiated into the mystery of Mithras, then maybe Mithraism could have allied itself to the mystery of Demeter, Cybele, Isis, Athena or Semele etc? In any case, a potential world religion cannot exclude half the human race. 

Mithraism would have triumphed over Christianity only by becoming more like Christianity. Maybe the story of Mithras sacrificing the Bull would have had to be historicized, happening under Caesar Augustus? The new age demanded a new historical beginning.

Diversity Now And Then

Earth during the Chaos, by which I mean now, prefigures the diversity of the later Terran Empire and Domain of Ythri. We can buy the scriptures and philosophical systems of every religious tradition in a high street bookshop. The Epic of Gilgamesh, originally carved on stone, is now a thin paperback!

In Poul Anderson's Technic History:

Adzel converts to Mahayana Buddhism while studying planetology on Earth;

Axor is converted to Jerusalem Catholicism by Galilean missionaries on Woden;

human beings join choths on Avalon;

Tabitha Falkayn says, "'Most of us keep to the Old Faith, you know.'" (See here) but also: "'God stoop on me...,'" (see Many Transitions) an expression from the New Faith;

Olaf Magnusson accepts the God of the Roidhunate;

old traditions are preserved, e.g., OrthoChristianity on Dennitza;

Aeneans include Christians but also Cosmenosists;

Altai has a Muslim-Buddhist synthesis;

there is a Sikh in the Terran Navy;

Djana, conditioned by Ydwyr, has a vision of a Merseian Christ...but this is not a positive development.

For the most part, embrace diversity.

Many Monotheisms

"The Live Coward."

"Thunsba was monotheistic. The theology was subtle and complex, the ritual emotionally satisfying, the commandments flexible enough to accommodate ordinary fleshly weaknesses. Nobody doubted the essential truth of the religion; but its Temple was another matter." (pp. 263-264)

We want to be told more about the subtle and complex theology which, however, is not necessary for the story. The abbot is a good being who:

wants Galactic technology to improve the lives of peasants;

wants to read Galactic books on astronomy;

cooperates with Wing Alak.

Other extra-solar monotheisms in Poul Anderson's works:

In The Technic History

Martin Schuster subverts Ivanhoan monotheism by introducing the Kabbala.

The Ythrian New Faith is incompatible with Christianity.

The monotheism of the Merseian Roidhunate refers to "the God." Thus, the Eriau equivalent of "deus," "god" etc has not become a name.

In "The Word to Space"

A Jesuit subverts an extra-solar theocracy but was its theology monotheistic? 

Wing Alak: Swords, Wind And Realization

"The Live Coward."

Because the decadent Terran Empire revives archaisms, Dominic Flandry is a skilled fencer and therefore is able to win a sword fight on a barbarian planet whereas:

"Not being even faintly a romantic, [Wing Alak] had never taken much interest in archaic sports." (p. 261)

Therefore, Alak must resort to trickery when challenged to a sword fight on a barbarian planet.

When he has been warned that this will happen unless he leaves:

"Alak stood for a while in silence." (p. 262)

Wind often fills the silences in Poul Anderson's works. On schedule, the text continues:

"Beyond the walls, he could hear the night wind of Ryfin's Planet." (ibid.)

Wind often carries a message. Sure enough:

"Somehow, it was a foreign wind, it had another sound from the rushing air of Terra. Blowing through different trees, across an unearthly land -" (ibid.)

Next, Alak discusses his problem with his colleague Drogs and the regular reader expects something else to happen. It does. In mid-sentence:

"Alak stopped. His jaw fell down and then snapped up again...

"[Drogs] knew the signs." (ibid.)

As do we: an Andersonian moment of realization.

Not Killing

"The Live Coward."

The Prime Directive of the Galactic League is:

"'"Under no circumstances whatsoever may the Patrol or any unit thereof kill any intelligent being."'" (p. 251)

This reminds us of Isaac Asimov's First Law of Robotics: 

"A robot may not harm a human being or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm."

-sf readers recite this from memory.

- and the unbreakable rule of James Blish's Service:

"The date of death of a sentient entity must never be mentioned in a Dirac 'cast."

-see Event Police.

Wing Alak's green, caterpillar-like colleague, Drogs the Galmathian, says that only a bloodthirsty species would need to formulate such a Prime Directive -

- which, I think, is a good place for us to end tonight. 

(In Volume III of Fleming's Bond series and also in Volume III of Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, a character commits murder, then suicide, but, as I said, let's end this now!)

The Turning Point Of The Technic History

The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire, is both a volume of a future history series and a future history in itself. It begins with the beginning of the end of the Polesotechnic League and ends with the early Terran Empire. Between these two periods are the colonization of Avalon and the Time of Troubles. 

The two-stage colonization of Avalon had been recounted in two short stories that were collected at the conclusion of The Earth Book Of Stormgate and are re-collected as the second and third of the six Technic History installments that are assembled in Rise... Thus, the publication of this future history series itself has a history to which I return periodically because it is fascinating at least to me. 

No other future history series can possibly be as intricate, detailed and complicated as the Technic History. This post has addressed only the turning point, not the entire seven-volume Saga.

Wing Alak And The Bible

Poul Anderson, "The Live Coward" IN Anderson, Kinship With The Stars (New York, October 1991), pp. 249-276.

"[Wing Alak's] Patrol uniform was as dandified as regulations allowed." (p. 251)

"[Philippe Rochefort] stretched to the limit the tolerance granted officers as regards their dress uniforms - rakishly tilted bonnet bearing the sunburst of Empire, gold-trimmed blue tunic, scarlet sash and cloak, snowy trousers tucked into low boots of authentic Terran beef-leather."

-Poul Anderson, The People Of The Wind IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, March 2011), pp. 437-662 AT IV, p. 487.

"...[Dominic Flandry's] bonnet was tilted more rakishly on his seal-brown hair than a strict interpretation of rules would have allowed; his frame was draped in a fantastic glittergold version of dress tunic and snowy trousers rucked into handmade beefleather halfboots; the cloak that fluttered behind him glowed with phosphorescent patterns through the chill dusk..."

-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, January 2010), pp. 193-365 AT CHAPTER TWO, p. 203.

Alak is in good company but in a different timeline.

He says:

"'Get thee behind me, Satan...and don't push!'" (ibid.)

When people say, "Get thee behind me...," are they knowingly quoting the Bible or just repeating an English language phrase that they have heard? Might the latter count as an indirect quotation?

Alak irreverently adds "...don't push...," foreign to the spirit of the original.

We see here a faint echo of Poul Anderson's greater works.

Economics And Some Other Issues

"Enough Rope."

Wing Alak induces an enemy ruler to think that it is a good idea to occupy a planet inhabited by a hive species that will uncomplainingly slave to manufacture all his war materials, thus bankrupting the factories on the home planet and motivating the industrialists to depose the ruler, a scheme worthy of Nicholas van Rijn. Thus ends the second Wing Alak story. We will reread the third since it immediately follows the second in this collection but we are bound to regard the Galactic League series as a backyard in a side street in a suburb of the city of Poul Anderson's creations.

Meanwhile, The King Of Ys calls.

Regarding some recent combox discussion, I think that Dominic Flandry and James Bond are too dissimilar to be comparable. Ian Fleming shows us the world that he lived in. Poul Anderson imagines other worlds. (One minor parallel between the two fictional biographies is that both characters lost both parents early in life, which has to have some effect on how they operated later. But they are very different.)

Onward and upward.

Remembrance

See Alternative Biographies.

We salute Manse Everard and James Bond as two (fictional) veterans of World War II. I used to work with WWII veterans but they retired long before I did. This year, there were only twelve veterans of that war at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday. Today, at 11:00 am, some people in Lancaster came out of their workplaces to stand for a minute's silence and others joined them. There have been too many wars since WWII.

See also War Memorials.