Rhymes And Recriminations

We have got used to looking out for verse concealed in Poul Anderson's prose. As noted in an earlier post, in Poul and Karen Anderson's Dahut (London, 1989), Chapter VIII, section 2, what looks like prose turns out to be several stanzas with a regular rhyming scheme.

Again, on page 450, Gratillonius' prayer can be re-punctuated:

"Mithras, God of the Midnight, You have had our sacrifice.
"Here is my spirit before You, my heart beneath Your eyes.
"I call, who followed Your eagles since ever my life began:
"Mithras, also a soldier, keep now faith with Your man!"

In this milieu, Gods Who break faith with Their worshipers may be reviled. In the sequel to Dahut, The Dog And The Wolf (London, 1989), an officer has to tell three of his men to stop doing this as if they were merely being disrespectful to absent human superiors (p. 27).

Gratillonius says, "...the Gods of Ys are dead...They brought Their city down on Themselves..." (pp. 30-31).

Have they died or merely ceased to interact with mankind? Have they instead withdrawn to another realm? Or, indeed, is death itself simply another realm? We are given some information about the differing post-mortem fates of three of the human characters, Dahilis, Budic and Dahut, but what becomes of departed Gods remains a greater mystery.