Absent Heroes And Unwritten Sequels

Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword and his Three Hearts And Three Lions have in common that:

each implies a sequel that remains unwritten;

however, their main characters do appear briefly in later volumes, Skafloc and Mananaan in The Demon Of Scattery and Holger Danske in A Midsummer Tempest.

Three Hearts... concludes:

"...meanwhile new storms are rising. It may be that we shall need Holger Danske again."

-Poul Anderson, Three Hearts And Three Lions (London, 1977), NOTE, p. 156.

A fantasy novel can comment on the real world by highlighting the absence of a hero when one is needed. John Brunner was quoted as saying that Grendel is loose and there is no Beowulf.

Fantasy or sf - CS Lewis' Ransom Trilogy is both - can hint that its fantastic content relates to real life:

"What neither of us foresaw was the rapid march of events which was to render the book out of date before it was published. These events have already made it rather a prologue to our story than the story itself. But we must let it go as it stands. For the later stages of the adventure - well, it was Aristotle, long before Kipling, who taught us the formula, 'That is another story.'"

-CS Lewis, Out Of The Silent Planet (London, 1963), XXII, p. 180.

What rapid march of events? Out Of The Silent Planet was published in 1938.

Holger had lived through World War II, and also through the parallel conflict in the Carolingian universe, but new storms were rising.

Relaying The Story

Often in fantasy or sf, a character travels to another world or to another time and the story is somehow relayed to us as readers. Of course there are many examples.

The outer narrator relays the Time Traveller's account of his time travelling.

Poul Anderson relays Robert Anderson's accounts of Jack Havig's time travelling. (And one of Havig's fellow time travellers gave the time travel idea to Wells.)

An unnamed first person narrator relays Holger Carlsen's account of his time in the Carolingian universe.

The omniscient narrator describes Holger's later visit to the Old Phoenix inn between the universes.

We notice similarities between the introductory passages of Three Hearts And Three Lions and of There Will Be Time, e.g., physical descriptions of Holger Carlsen and of Robert Anderson.

This a quick post between preparations to travel tomorrow.

Conclusion And An Unwritten Sequel

Was the conclusion of Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword predictable: that the sword, Tryfing, would kill the Elven-Fosterling, then the Changeling? Yes, if we could think in terms of weird instead of in terms of happy endings or of any other kind of story resolution, then this double killing should have been predictable.

In which god should we place our trust? Skafloc tells us!:

"'A true friend is Mananaan. He is the only god I would trust.'" (XXVI, p. 189)

Freda winds up with Mananaan. Asking Christ to forgive her because she loves Skafloc more than Him, she goes to seek Skafloc and Mananaan sees to her welfare after Skafloc's death.

Odin speaks the sequel that Poul Anderson never wrote:

"'Skafloc must fall, and this child whom I wove my web to have begotten and given to me must one day take up the sword and bear it to the end of its weird.'" (XXVI, p. 196)

Such an early work implying such an obvious sequel - that was never written.

It is getting late here.

Summer Wanes, Wind Screams

The Broken Sword, XXV.

Pathetic fallacy highway:

"...the summer was waning at last. But so was Trollheim." (p. 183)

Valgard is drunk and despondent:

"Would the rain never end? He shuddered at the wet breath through the window. Lightning glared blue-white and his bones shook to the thunder." (ibid.)

When he enters his bedroom:

"Lightning blazed anew. Thunder sent quiverings through the floor. Wind screamed and dashed rain against glass. Tapestries fluttered and candles flickered in a cold draught." (ibid.)

We read it and want to see it on screen.

When Valgard screams that he is "'...but the shadow of Skafloc...'":

"Lightning leaped and flamed, hellfire loose in heaven. Thunder banged. Wind hooted. The rain flung itself down rivering panes. A gust within the walls blew out the candles." (p. 184)

There is an exact parallel between inner and outer turmoil.

Before even hearing their message, Valgard has killed one of the messengers that had come to tell him that the elves have landed in England and that the Sidhe from Ireland are in Scotland. Only two of a band of fifteen messengers had survived attacks by elven outlaws.

Chapter XXVI begins:

"Under cover of an autumn storm, Skafloc led the best of the elf warriors across the channel." (p. 185)

The storm both reflects Valgard's inner conflicts and works against him.

Earlier in Chapter XXV, we were told how Skafloc appears to his enemies:

"A demon on a giant horse, with a sword and a heart from hell, led the elves to victory over twice their number." (p. 180)

It can be amusing to hear how we are seen by others. In Lancaster, someone said, "One of the big leftists in town was there...," then added, "Eugene, I think he's called." Yes, I know Eugene!

Summer Past; Red And Gold

The Broken Sword.

Two more passages in Chapter XXIV:

"...the memory of Skafloc was becoming a summer that was past, recalled in a new year." (p. 179)

The narrative has combined the passage of the seasons with the feelings of the characters. Now, a past season becomes an analogy for a changed feeling. Both the text and the analogy continue:

"He warmed her heart without searing it, and her longing for him was like a still tarn whereon sun-glints had begun to dance." (ibid.)

A longing that has become still and is like dancing light - has ceased to be a longing.

Over the page:

"There came an evening when they two stood on the shore, the waters murmurous at their feet and the sunset red and gold behind them." (p. 180)

They two are Freda and her new suitor, Audun. He proposes and she accepts. But an elemental, non-human viewpoint would focus on summers and sunsets and not on human relationships!

Winter And Spring

See:

Weather And Seasons

Winter

The Structure Of Star Of The Sea

Poul Anderson's works set in historical or prehistorical periods often describe seasonal changes particularly at the beginning of a chapter or of some other discrete narrative passage.

In The Broken Sword, XXIV:

"Winter bled away under the joyous weapons of spring." (p. 176)

"As the weeks passed into months, [Freda] felt the same stirring within her that brought back the birds and called forth buds like clenched baby fists." (p. 177)

"Winter went in rain and pealing thunder. The first soft green spread over trees and meadows. The birds came home." (p. 178)

"[Freda] stood in twilight with the blossoms of an apple tree overhead, drifting down on her at each mild breeze. The winter was gone. Skafloc lived in the springtime, in cloud and shadow, dawn and sunset and high-riding moon, he spoke through the wind and laughed through the rain. There would be winter, and winter again, in the great unending ring-dance of the sun. But she bore the summer beneath her heart, and every summer to come." (ibid.)

"The days lengthened and earth burst into its fullness. Warm winds, shouting rains, birdsong and deer and fish silvery in the rivers, flowers and light nights - More and more Freda felt her baby stirring." (p. 179)

Chapter XXV begins:

"In late summer the northland weather turned rainy. For days and nights on end, wind scourged the elf-hills and veiled them in lightning-blinking grey." (p. 180)

The Earth His Work

The Broken Sword, XXIV.

Freda reflects - and this can also be our evening reflection -:

"Dreary was a church after the woodlands and hills and sounding sea. She still loved God - and was not the earth His work, and a church only man's?" (p. 177)

I essentially agree. Earth, sky and sea are our place of worship. But "God" is anthropomorphic - a person literally making everything? The reality that appears to itself as woodlands, hills and sea is THAT, not He. Or so I now think. However, no one's creed is identical with the whole truth.

A Magic Sword

The Broken Sword, XXIII.

John Carter, the self-proclaimed best swordsman of two worlds, could defeat any number of sword-wielding antagonists. He thought that he and his friend, Tars Tarkas, would have been able to fight their way across Mars killing all before them.

Some fantasy heroes are not only blessed with fighting skills but also cursed with magical swords. (I do not honestly know how many magical swords are cursed but Skafolc's is.) Shortly after he has attacked and killed six trolls, Skafolc is stalked by two more. He hews through the shield, shoulder and heart of the first and the second spits himself on the upraised sword which simultaneously gives Skafloc an "...unearthly strength..." (p. 169) enabling him to withstand the impact.

Again, two perceptions of reality: snow-devils whirl on a mountain and trolls storm an elvish fortress. Skafloc's horse leaps a ravine and gallops through the troll camp as Skafloc burns the tents. He kills three besieging trolls while his horse tramples three. He mows trolls down. They cannot touch his iron. He severs a head, opens a belly and cleaves through a helmet, skull and brain. His horse mortally kicks and bites most of the infantry.

Metal clangs and screeches. Blood steams. Snow is trampled. Corpses wallow. Trolls panic and scramble between burning tents and castle wall, recognizing a Jotun horse and a haunted sword. Skafloc rides back and forth. His mail gleams. Trolls think that he is Odin, Thor, Loki, a possessed man, Death...

Elves sally. The Erlking leads. Swords and axes rise and fall. Metal is shattered. Spears and arrows cloud the sky. Horses trample. Warriors die. Illrede leads a wedge to split the elves. Skafloc charges. Man and troll-king fight. Illrede's axe splits Skafloc's shield and dents his helmet but:

"...the uncanny strength lent by the sword kept Skafloc from swooning." (p. 173)

Axe bursts on sword. Skafloc kills Illrede.

There are nuances but this is a summary.

Before their fight, Illrede says that it was a wicked deed to bring back that sword:

"'Whatever his nature, which the Norns and not himself gave, no troll would do such a thing." (pp. 172-173)

I agree with Illrede that fate or destiny made us what we are. Although I meditate, I do not buy into the idea of previous lives. But we are responsible now for cleansing our karma. 

A Brief Andersonian Fight Scene

The Broken Sword, XXIII.

Now armed with the re-forged sword, Skafloc meets six trolls:

(i) he cleaves a helmet and skull;

(ii) he beheads another;

(iii) he cuts through an axe and a chest;

(iv) he splits one from shoulder to waist;

(v) his jotun horse rears and crunches a skull;

(vi) he throws his sword through the one that flees.

I said it was brief.

Description, then action.

A Detailed Descriptive Passage

The Broken Sword, XXIII.

When Skafloc, returned from Jotunheim, rides to the Erlking:

his horse is gaunt and hungry;

his clothes are ragged and faded;

his armour is battered and rusty;

his cloak is worn thin;

his weight is down;

great muscles lie under tight skin over big bones;

his face is lined and aged;

his fair hair is wind-tossed.

"So might Loki look, riding to Vigrid plain on the last evening of the world." (p. 167)

I think that that is an authentic touch. In the Sagas, a comparison would be made with a mythic story.

Next comes a description of nature:

air is chill;

wind is strong;

spring wind frolicks and shouts;

sky is high and blue;

sun strikes through clouds;

wet grass gleams and sparkles;

thunder rolls;

the southeast is dark;

a rainbow shines;

geese honk;

a thrush sings;

squirrels play;

warm days, light nights, green woods and nodding flowers approach;

Skafloc remembers Freda.

Don't read past. Reread.