"Thule" II

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

I missed one example of experiential knowledge:

"'...that long hull would never survive the North Atlantic. My friend, you haven't seen waves or storms till you've been yonder.'" (p. 12)

Of course Pytheas has seen waves and storms, or he would not understand the words, but we also understand what Hanno means, that Atlantic weather must be experienced to be appreciated.

One of Pytheas' ships has a "...cutwater." (p. 13) The meaning is clear enough although I had not encountered the word before - except in previous readings when I did not notice it. Hanno wears a "...chlamys..." (p. 13). Pytheas tries to locate the north celestial pole with a "...goniometer..." (ibid.) Hanno, without access to ancient records, knows that the heavens change over the centuries.

Pytheas' expedition is threatened by Keltoi (p. 16). His soldiers include hoplites and peltasts (ibid.). The Keltoi turn out to be Pictones (p. 19). In narratives set on Earth in the past, Anderson always remembers seasonal weather:

"Autumn was in the wind, chill and loud. Leaves were turning yellow, brown, russet and beginning to fly away...Cloud shadows and pale sunlight sickled across immensities of sallow grass." (p. 20)

Pytheas and Hanno are shown Stonehenge. Pytheas knows that it is ignorance to say that "'...giants built it in the morning of the world.'" (p. 21) By sighting from the center of the complex, he deduces that the Sun will rise above an outer stone on Midsummer's Day but they cannot wait to verify this. Pytheas concludes:

"'I've learned as much as I can...It isn't enough! It never will be. Our lives are a million years too short.'" (p. 22)

He echoes James Blish's philosopher at the end of the universe pronouncing the epitaph for man: "We did not have time to learn everything that we wanted to know." (See the concluding section, here.)

When Anderson writes about autumn, we need no Internet but when he writes about a goniometer or a peltast, we wonder how we managed without it.