Thursday, 23 April 2015

Nornagest And Starkadh

Poul Anderson, The Boat Of A Million Years (London, 1991), Chapter V.

"'...it was a nithing's trick...'" (p. 115)

"How fared those masters, those fellow chelas?" (p. 126)

In this chapter, Anderson takes two legendary Norse heroes (see here), incorporates them into his small number of fictional immortals, imagines a meeting between them, then completes their stories in this single chapter so that they do not interact with any of his other immortals.

Each has lived for so long that he has heard of the other in stories. When Starkadh claims that King Frodhi never stinted him, Gest asks:

"'Was that Frodhi Fridhleifsson in  Denmark? They say Starkadh was of his household. But he died lifetimes ago.'" (p. 116)

Later, Starkadh shudders and mumbles:

"'Gest...I remember now, in my own youth there went tales of a wayfarer who - Nornagest. Are you he? I thought he was but a story.'" (p. 123)

When told that he is a figure in stories, Gest responds:

"'Often have I left the North for hundreds of years...So folk remembered me for a while, did they?'" (ibid.)

Yes, you have a Wikipedia article and appear in a novel by Poul Anderson. Because he has wandered East, Gest knows of Christ, Mohammed, the Buddha, Brahma and other pantheons, has learned meditation and has by now surpassed his gurus through many centuries of practice.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

The chapter about Nornagest in THE BOAT OF A MILLION YEARS was very interesting and I'm sorry that's the only time we see him. Unlike most of the other immortals Nornagest seems to have been seriously interested in philosophy and theology, even becoming a Christian. How might BOAT have developed if Anderson had not chosen to show us Nornagest becoming weary and laying down his life?

Sean