Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).
Stories entertain and explain. Sufficiently powerful and meaningful stories become generally or universally known, thus "myths."
Edh, when young, created and narrated fabulous stories, with verses, about travelers, maidens, witches, warlocks, mermaids, talking animals, faraway lands and Niaerdh, the goddess who had received a sacrifice from Edh's father in exchange for her birth and safety.
When older, Edh often wanders alone and sits by the sea. No less than five sentences describe the waves:
"Waves danced bluer than heaven...
"They ran heavy, green and grey...
"They surged, battered, bellowed...
"They laid a molten road toward her from a low sun...
"Niaerdh was in them with dread and blessing." (p. 583)
The following three sentences are Niaerdh's:
"Hers were the kelp and upcast amber...
"Hers was the quickening in the land...
"Very small amidst these things, hers was the child she had kept in this world." (pp. 583-584)
On the beach, Edh is raped by Roman merchants, then rescued, as she thinks, by Niaerdh. Edh become Wael-Edh/Veleda not only preaching hatred of Rome in the name of the goddess but also exalting this goddess above Odin, Tyr and Thor: a new myth but in a prevented timeline.
Much later, Janne Floris of the Time Patrol, enacting the goddess, persuaded Veleda to proclaim Her once again peaceful so that She became Neha Lenis, Neha the Gentle, Nehalennia, worshiped centuries later. Janne promised Edh life forever "...in the sea-home of Niaerdh" (p. 636) and feels, understandably, bad about this.
When the Patrol agents follow Veleda back through time to find out how she became the bearer of a myth, Anderson writes several evocative passages:
"Floris...gazed past the river and the forest beyond, northeasterly toward an unseen shore." (p. 570)
- little suspecting that what she will find on that shore is herself swooping down to kill Edh's attackers.
"They dared not charge blind into what might well be the source of the instability, the obscure and easily annulled event from which an entire future could spring." (pp. 574-575)
That event is their own intervention.
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