Saturday, 24 October 2015

Runes And Seid IV

(Tomorrow: long drive home; little or no posting.)

Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003), Book Two, Chapter XII, pp. 135-136. 

See here.

Gunnhild's magic does affect the weather. Spying by far-sight on Eirik's enemies, she decides to "...blind them." (p. 135) Although she is not a Gan-Finn, she is "...halfway one with the world and its weather..." (ibid.) and therefore is able to flow into the air, shape herself into water and generate a fog impenetrable even by witch-sight. The warlocks, suspecting neither that their enemies are close nor that the fog is magical, wait for it to clear but are surrounded and burnt to death. The fog even conveniently lifts as Eirik and his men move closer to the warlocks' steading.

"Gunnhild said nothing about her part." (p. 136)

She reflects that skalds do not make poems about women's achievements, like birth or magic. Thus, the historical fiction is simply that Eirik slew these enemies with the help of a convenient fog. The fantasy element, although extremely interesting, is peripheral to the plot. Gunnhild does not directly encounter any supernatural beings although such meetings do occur in other works by Anderson where the gods even become viewpoint characters.

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