a legendary Norse hero (see here);
a planet visited by Dominic Flandry (see here);
a character in Hrolk Kraki's Saga (see the above link);
an immortal in The Boat Of A Million Years (see here);
mentioned on p. 284 of SM Stirling's The Protector's War (New York, 2006), Chapter Ten.
Thus, this single name links:
several sagas;
a future history by Poul Anderson;
Anderson's retelling of a saga;
a historical science fiction novel by Anderson;
an alternative history novel by Stirling.
Starkad might be one of our travelers through the megamultiverse.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
What interested me was this bit from the PILOT'S MANUAL AND EPHEMERIS, CIS-BETELGEUSEAN ORIONIS SECTOR, seen at the beginning of ENSIGN FLANDRY: "Though 254 light years from Sol, the system was discovered early, in the course of the first Grand Survey. Thus the contemporary practice of bestowing literary-mythological names on humanly interesting objects was followed." I think it does make sense to think human explorers and settlers will take many names for their new planets from "literary-mythological" sources. The planet Aeneas being another example.
Sean
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