The Arrow Of Time In Wells And Anderson II

Carl Farness meets Jorith in 300 and leaves their surviving great-grandson, Alawin, in 372. So far, this is a linear chronological sequence although Carl has been back and forth to the twentieth century and once to the twenty-fourth century between his experiences in 300 and 372. Only once must he reverse the arrow of time, in the period 366-372. Arriving and enquiring after his grandson, Tharasmund, Carl is stunned to be "reminded" that he had attended Tharasmund's grave-ale...

Manse Everard and Janne Floris follow Veleda back through time:

in 70 AD, Veleda's companion, Heidhin, tells Everard that she and he are of the Alvarings;

in 60 AD, Everard and Janne hear Veleda preach;

in 49 AD, Time Patrol ethnographer Jens Ulstrup tells Everard and Janne that Veleda had arrived by ship on the Baltic littoral five or six years earlier;

in 43 AD, Everard and Janne, hovering on timecycles, scan ships until they see one bearing a woman, jump forward to see where that ship will land and jump back so that Everard, disguised, can meet the ship;

the captain, Vagnio of the Alvarings, tells Everard that his people hold half of an island off the Geatish coast and Janne easily identifies the island as Oland;

tracing Vagnio's journey back to his departure from Oland, the Patrol agents learn that a boy and a girl had walked to his home from a village further south;

making an aerial survey through several months, they leap through a precalculated space-time grid on separate timecycles until they see and become part of the event that had launched Veleda on her vengeful mission against the Romans.

We have come a long way from Mrs Watchett proceeding backwards through the Time Traveller's laboratory.