Carl And The Teurings II

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

The West Goths or Visigoths move to the Roman frontier at the Danube. The East Goths or Ostrogoths, including the Teurings, are united under King Geberic.

Dagobert:

marries Waluburg who bears a son, Tharasmund, in the same year that Ermanaric, son of Geberic, is born;

leads the Teurings south from the Vistula to the Dnieper, partly because his occasionally visiting father, the Wanderer, had told him that "...it was the fate of the Goths..." (p. 383);

dies in a battle that drives back an alliance of the troll-like Huns;

is held, while dying, by the Wanderer who appears and descends from his metal horse on the battlefield;

is succeeded as chieftain of the Teurings by the thirteen year old Tharasmund who, later, marries Ulrica, daughter of King Athanaric of the West Goths, and names their sons Hathawulf and Solbern and their daughter Swanhild.

Carl, the Wanderer, has traveled to the fourth century to find the source of a story about two brothers, Hamther and Sorli, who were stoned to death while attacking King Jormunrek of the Goths to avenge their half-sister, Svanhild. Carl has identified Jormunrek with Ermanaric and now says that the names Hathawulf and Solbern will be elided to Hamther and Sorli as the story moves north over time. Thus, he himself is the great-grandfather of the brothers and sister.

If Carl had not intervened, then Jorith, marrying someone else, could still have borne a son who would lead the Teurings; her grandson, marrying a West Goth, could in turn have named his first son Hathawulf from his wife's kin. Thus, although Carl has inserted himself into a central position within the family that he had merely intended to study, it is not necessarily the case that he has simply caused the events in question. Nevertheless, I would have expected both him and his colleagues to be somewhat surprised and concerned about how quickly and easily he has become so entangled in the events that he is simply meant to observe.