Gratillonius' Visit Home

Roma Mater, III.

Gratillonius' widowed father, Marcus, lays on a feast:

local fish and meat

dried garden truck

pepper and cloves seasoning

wines from Bordeaux and southwestern France

served on poor quality tableware by an untrained yokel

but good talk between the two men

There are also a cook and a housekeeper.

Their books are scrolls, not modern codices. Gratillonius had enjoyed The Aeneid and Britannic songs and sagas but had failed to learn Greek, preferring boyhood pursuits, unlike his brother, Lucius, who remains a student. Marcus had let his Christian wife, Julia:

"...have a fish and Chi Ro painted on a wall." (p. 46)

This was before the days of many crosses or any crucifixes.

(Personal comment: the fish is a good symbol of life, like the yin-yang and the seated Buddha.)

Although taking this opportunity to call home, Gratillonius is travelling south on a mission and we will soon learn more about that but not tonight as I often wind up saying.

I hope that I convey that the details are worth pausing over.

Truth And Praise

Roma Mater, II.

The poet agrees that he speaks truth:

"'Never shall the hero Niall

"'Kneel to any other.

"'Witness, all You Gods, my words,

"'Aware I tell the truth.'" (p. 42)

A man should be very sure before he appeals to the highest authority that he knows of. There is such a thing as taking the names of the gods in vain. A guy that I knew at school would tell a lie and then say, "I swear to God!" All that "I swear to God!" meant was "I urge you in the strongest possible terms to accept what I am saying." Nothing more. 

Laidchenn praises Niall for:

valorous deeds;

harrying foreign coasts for huge booty;

defending a Scotic settlement in Alba;

attacking the Romans;

plundering and burning Britannic estates;

enslaving many.

Praiseworthy? 

Poets And Truth

Roma Mater, II.

The poet, Laidchen maqq Barchedo, praises King Niall in verse at a feast. Niall says afterwards:

"'What a poet says is true.'" (p. 42) (!)

What is truth?

Niall adds:

"'He may find fresh words for the clothing of truth...'" (ibid.)

In other words, a story can be told in different ways. The druid, Nemain maqq Aedo, agrees and elaborates:

"'...indeed truth is a lady who has many different garments to wear.'" (ibid.)

Are we still talking about truth?

Poets, like prophets, were regarded as inspired. We have posted about "Homer and the poets" a few times before. See here.

Imbolc

Roma Mater, II.

Imbolc means:

stock-taking;

preparation for lambing, sowing and fishing;

gathering of seaweed for the fields and of shellfish at low tide;

burying of live periwinkles or limpets for luck;

no wheel turning in case it bewilders the sun;

weaving of new talismans;

feasting;

giving of food to the Goddess or to the needy;

carrying of Her emblem across the land;

weather watching - rain good, storms or hedgehogs hiding bad.

This year, wisewomen see portents of:

"...strange doings and great changes; druids generally stayed silent." (pp. 31-32)

Readers understand that great changes are imminent.

Ireland At The Time Of Gratillonius

Poul and Karen Anderson, Roma Mater (London, 1989), II, pp. 31-43.

Chapters numbers are Roman in the text but Arabic in the Notes. Thus, II, as above, becomes 2. 

In Chapter II, four and a half informative, descriptive pages precede the first words of dialogue. 

The opening word of the chapter is:

"Imbolc..." (p. 31)

The first Note under 2 explains that Imbolc is 1 February and a pagan festival taking place about then. However, this first Note for 2 is preceded by a page-long introduction about:

"The history of Ireland..." (p. 448)

Sagas, poems and chronicles, written centuries later, contain contradictions, anachronisms and impossibilities. Medieval chroniclers misunderstood, altered and invented. Rome never ruled Ireland so Roman historians recorded nothing relevant.

I am sure that, when I was at secondary school in the Republic of Ireland, I read a legend that a famous Irish pagan hero returned from Tir na nOg and was converted by St Patrick. However, the story that I have found on line is that Oisin and another figure met Patrick (scroll down) but defended their pagan lifestyle.  

Fiction And Philosophy (Not For The First Time)

Poul Anderson expertly controlled narrative points of view (povs). For previous discussions of this issue, see here. 

I reiterate this now for two reasons. 

First, I am rereading a novelist who occasionally switches povs in mid-dialogue. This is bad.

Secondly, I think that there is a direct connection between points of view in fiction and the mind-body problem in philosophy. A novelist can present an objective account of a garden. Then he can describe the sensations and thoughts of a character who enters the garden. Readers know that these are two kinds of accounts. They reflect our experience. We live with what novelists describe and with what philosophers analyze and contemplate. My latest post on the philosophical question is here.

Meanwhile, Poul and Karen Anderson's The King Of Ys, Volume I, Roma Mater, when reread, proves, as expected, to be rich in previously unexamined details. More to follow.

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?