Odin and the Aesir are not mentioned although I sense their presence in the background. They were here in Northern Europe whereas it was a very different pantheon, the Olympians, that had held sway in Greece and Italy. This evening, I reread Poul Anderson's account of Odin appearing and intervening during the events of The Broken Sword, then returned to rereading Larsson's Trilogy. Sometimes it is a relief only to deal with human beings!
While Freda waits for Skafloc to return from Elfheugh with the broken sword, wind fills a paragraph and comments on the action:
"...would too likely make a noise and thus cost him the sword." (p. 130)
Skafloc reflects:
"Was Freda - was the White Christ of whom she had told a little - not right in saying that wrongs only led to more wrongs and thus at last to Ragnarok; that the time was overpast when pride and vengefulness give way to love and forgiveness, which were not unmanly but in truth the hardest things a man could undertake?" (p. 132)
The New Testament can be seen as fulfilling not only the Law and Prophets but also:
Virgil's Fourth Eclogue;
the transformation of the Furies into the Kindly Ones;
the mighty lord who comes on high, all power to hold, all lands to rule, in Voluspa 65.
A Christian missionary interviewed on British TV said that, in China, he learned of a mythological figure, the Old Grandfather, then identified this being with God the Father! You have to start somewhere.
Everything is the Old Testament if we see it that way.
"David's words with Sybil's blending..."
MARCELLUS
It faded on the crowing of the cock.
Some say that ever ’gainst that season comes
Wherein our Savior’s birth is celebrated,
This bird of dawning singeth all night long;
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallowed and so gracious is that time.
HORATIO
So have I heard and do in part believe it.
-copied from here.
Relevant phrases:
Skafloc and Freda live as outlaws:
"Dark and drear was that land, unpeopled by men or Faerie folk..." (p. 120)
"Dank and chill was the cave. Winds whittered in its mouth and surf pounded on the rocks at its foot." (ibid.)
They hunt game and kill trolls but a raven tells Skafloc that the trolls are winning the war. Despair? No, a moment of realization as Skafloc suddenly remembers the gods' gift of a sword. Freda feels him stiffen and tremble: yet another standard Andersonian moment... David Falkayn has at least two such moments (of realization) - and how many other Anderson characters also have them?
That is a fitting note on which to end for this evening. I am too head-tired for any more research and as always feel the call of other reading. Poul Anderson has to compete for attention - and always wins some of it.
Futureward.
When Freda rides out from Elfheugh:
"The wind whined around her and bit through layers of fur." (p. 112)
When she realizes that she is pursued by trolls:
"The wind of her gallop screamed about her, nigh ripping her from the saddle, forcing her to shield her eyes with an upraised arm." (p. 113)
Air hoots and bites. During the prolonged pursuit:
"Time brawled past like the wind." (ibid.)
She is captured by a troll but immediately rescued by the returning Skafloc!
Meanwhile, elven women welcome troll invaders into Elfheugh. Leea has spoken of:
"'Women's weapons...'" (p. 110)
The trolls will be put off their guard and, in the fullness of time, slaughtered.
Smiting Valgard during a sea battle, Skafloc shouts:
"'That for Freda!... I'll have you done to her.'" (p. 104)
What does that mean? There is a clue in Valgard's reply:
"'Not so ill as I think you have...'" (ibid.)
Ill? Yes. The original edition confirms:
Sometimes an author reaches a limit of what he is able to explain or account for within a given text. Discussing time travel paradoxes, Manse Everard of the Time Patrol breaks off and says:
