Should Djana Serve Merseia?

(Last post for February: 215 post in 28 days.)

According to Ydwyr:

"'...centuries of effort lie ahead.'"
-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 193-365 AT Chapter Seventeen, p. 331.

He explains:

there will be no big change in Djana's lifetime;
the goal is Merseian liberation;
Merseia welcomes partners;
"'...our endeavor is, ultimately, to impose Will on blind Nature and Chance.'" (ibid.)

Observations So Far
(i) Djana inwardly adds Junior partners but then, given her current view of Merseian superiority and human inferiority, does not see this as bad.
(ii) In Anderson's The Shield Of Time, a Danellian explains:

"'In a reality forever liable to chaos, the Patrol is the stabilizing element, holding time to a single course.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), p. 435.

And:

"'In truth, left untended, events would inevitably move toward the worse. A cosmos of random changes must be senseless, ultimately self-destructive. In it could be no freedom.'" (ibid.)

I am not sure about this: Dominic Flandry prolongs the Terran Empire because generations can live peacefully within it but the Time Patrol preserves a history in which some generations live peacefully whereas others experience events like the Holocaust. However, the main point here is that the Patrol does impose Will on blind Chance.

What would Djana's life as a spy for Merseia be like?

Ydwyr thinks:

mostly unremarkable;
though with "'....a good share of glamour and luxury.'" (Young Flandry, p. 332);
possibly as the mistress or wife of a Terran official;
only infrequently in contact with her organization;
fewer risks than in her previous life;
considerable material rewards;
the real reward in the service itself;
her name in the Secret Prayers of the Vach Urdiolch;
fully alive with a purpose beyond herself;
"'I am sure you realize the spectacular escapades of fiction are simply fiction.'" (ibid.)

Anderson must have intended that last quoted remark to be read as ironic in view of the spectacular stunts that Flandry is pulling even as Ydwyr speaks.

At any time, various possible futures stretch ahead. This novel tantalizes its readers with several possibilities:

Flandry remaining in Ydwyr's service;
Djana spying for Merseia;
later, Djana working for Terran Intelligence;
Djana, reconciled with Flandry, not putting her curse on him...;
Djana's vision of the Merseian Christ leading Merseians and human beings, including a descendant of Dominic;
Flandry's speculation about the Domrath breaking out of their hibernation cycle and going interstellar;
Ydwyr's hope that a joint Merseian-Terran scientific base on Talwin will have good consequences longer term...

Last post so I am trying to make it a long one.

I take possession of my new car tomorrow but, in view of the current icy conditions, might ask the garage to drive it here. What happened to those air cars in the twenty first century?

I will continue to reread and take notes from Young Flandry. I expect that we will meet again here tomorrow. Meanwhile, I might post on other blogs, e.g., see Talwin And Beringia and Cosmic Dawn.

Hands And Heads

The Merseian, Ydwyr, comments on the Terran Empire:

"'The breakdown of legitimate authority into weakness or oppression - which are two aspects of the same thing, the change of Hands into Heads - is a late stage of the fatal disease.'"
-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 193-365 AT Chapter Seventeen, p. 331.

See:

"Political Legitimacy In The Thought Of Poul Anderson" by Sean M. Brooks here;
Reasons For The Fall

Flandry asks Desai whether he thinks that the Merseians are familiar with his analysis of Technic civilization. It seems that Ydwyr is aware of at least some aspects of it. Maybe the wrong decision for the Merseians of the Roidhunate was their attempt to subordinate all other intelligent species? When the attempt fails, their collective confidence is destroyed.

No Chattering In The Airbus

"Mainly the passengers sat mute, preparing their kits or thinking their thoughts. Merseians never chattered like humans."
-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 193-365 AT Chapter Thirteen, p. 286.

How different is that? Maybe I would be able to get along with these Merseian guys. As long as Anderson continued to write about an alien species, he was able to keep adding new details like this one. Merseians are not descended from chattering apes.

How different are Merseian brains? In human brains, thoughts arise unbidden. I imagine that neurons continually interact below the level of consciousness, then some of the interactions become conscious - maybe at random? In a particular Buddhist tradition, we call the unbidden thoughts "natural." There are two possible responses to natural thought:

start to think about it - "natural" thought has become "deliberate";
let it arise and pass - you are practicing zazen, just sitting meditation.

Do some Merseians meditate?

Anderson And Tolkien

See recent posts.

Does Poul Anderson tell us as much about Ythrians and Merseians as J.R.R. Tolkien does about dwarfs and elves? No, because Anderson did not devote his entire fiction writing career to the History of Technic Civilization. Would it have been good if he had done? The Technic History could certainly have been expanded endlessly. But I would want at least the Time Patrol and the King of Ys to be expanded equally.

Middle Earth is a fictional history;
the Technic History is a future history;
the Time Patrol series is history with time travel;
Ys is several historical turning points.

Of Anderson's series, I think that I value these three more than any others.

Cnif Hu Vanden

(I return to a warm house from a picket line with a brazier in the snow.)

On Talwin:

"...the banners of those Vachs and regions that had members here whipped on their staffs."
-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 193-365 AT Chapter Twelve, p. 277.

Cultural unification has not gone as far on Merseia as on Terra. In Falkayn's time, the Vachs did not yet dominate and Chee Lan met Olgor hu Freylin, Warmaster of the Republic of Lafdigu in the southern hemisphere. Flandry meets Cnif hu Vanden who:

is yellowish and flat-faced;
belongs to no Vach;
is descended from Lafdiguans;
belongs to a community that maintains cultural peculiarities, its old language and many old laws;
was born on a colony planet;
visited Merseia only for advanced education;
found many of its ways strange.

Merseian xenologists, including Ydwyr and Cnif, have named one of the Talwinian intelligent species "Ruadrath" after "...nocturnal supernatural beings in a Merseian mythology - 'elves.'" (p. 278)

Anderson writes not "Merseian mythology" but "...a Merseian mytholgy...," recognizing that an entire inhabited planet would have many mythologies. In Doctor Who, when a planet was identified to the Doctor by a number, he asked for its  name and was told, "Skaro" - home planet of Thals and Daleks. Of course, his informant should have said something like, "Its name, in the principal language of its dominant species through much of its history, was Skaro..." In any case, the Doctor and informed viewers immediately think, "Daleks!"

Green Aliens

One ERBian Martian species.
The DC Comics Martian Manhunter who is a metamorph and sometimes invisible and therefore need not appear green.
Dan Dare's Treens from Venus.
Poul Anderon's Merseians.
The HHGTTG Vogons.
Daleks inside their machines.
Vulcan blood, if not skin, has a green tinge.

That is all unless, of course, you know better. See combox. (There is nothing in it yet but there will be.)

Addendum: C.S. Lewis' Venerian Adam and Eve are humanoid but green. Unlike a computer, the human brain does not instantly recall all relevant data.

We have:

two kinds of Martians;
two kinds of Venerians;
six extra-solar races;
two references to Star Trek - for the second, see combox.

Why Ydwyr Wants Flandry

Merseian astronomers noticed an unusual, old and nearly extinct pulsar in no-man's-land near the Terran border. A team of physicists went to investigate. Taking routine observations on their return, they also investigated the unusual orbits around Siekh. When Ydwyr heard of the unusual Talwinians, he decided that they must be studied. This was agreed only on condition that Talwin also become an advanced base.

Ydwyr also wants to study human beings. Flandry is not only human but also an intelligence agent who should know some xenology and should therefore be able to help with the study of the Talwinians. He is also intriguing because Ydwyr, through his exalted family, has heard something of Flandry's role in the Starkad affair. Ydwyr, a scientist who investigates psychic phenomena, thinks that there might be a destiny in Flandry and he uses an obscure, probably archaic, term for "destiny." This reminds me of Manse Everard thinking that the time stream is bearing Veleda along.

Flandry, of course, will escape but what Ydwyr says suggests another story possibility about a human scientist who, captured and unable to escape, makes a fulfilling career out of working for a Merseian like Ydwyr.

The Merseians Know Their Enemies

When the Merseian cruiser Brythioch called at Talwin, her chief intelligence officer informed Qanryf  Morioch that, when the ship had visited the Terran frontier post, Irumclaw, Mei Tachwyr met Junior Lieutenant Dominic Flandry whom he had previously met on Merseia where Flandry was at that time an associate of the troublemaker, Max Abrams, who had somehow thwarted Brechdan Ironrede, Protector of the Roidhun's Council.

The chief intelligence officer instructed the Merseian agents on Irumclaw to watch Flandry. They in their turn discovered that Flandry was illegally scouting the valuable lost planet, Wayland, for the criminal, Leon Ammon, and, acting on their own initiative, which should be rewarded, they apprehended Flandry for the Merseians through the agency of Djana.

Morioch relates this to Ydwyr who has heard of Flandry. Morioch thinks that it is too big a coincidence that Flandry of all people went to the lost planet whereas Ydwyr thinks that it was in character for him to do so. Morioch wants to interrogate Flandry but Ydwyr takes Flandry and Djana into his custody. The plot thickens.

Eriau Pronunciation

(I am going to address Eriau pronunciation but I am starting a long way back.)

Poul Anderson's Time Patrol agents speak Temporal and calculate with post-Arabic numerals. See here.

Anderson's Nicholas van Rijn refers to Anglic language, Arabic numerals and metric units. See here.

We use Roman letters, derived from Greek letters which were derived from Phoenician. See here.

It is a safe bet that the Anglic language in Anderson's Technic History uses Roman letters or some close approximation.

Dominic Flandry, Anglic speaker, reflects that, in the Eriau word, "qanryf," the first letter represents, approximately, k followed by dh where dh is pronounced th. However, Merseians do not use Roman letters so why not say just that k is followed by th and write the word as kthanryf? James Blish makes exactly the same kind of points about the spelling and pronunciation of Lithian in the beginning of A Case Of Conscience. In the first Superman film, Supes tells Lois that his home planet is Krypton, spelled K-Y-R..., not C-R-I..., although there cannot possibly be a correct spelling of "Krypton" in Roman letters as yet.

With Flandry, I think that the answer must be that some Terran scholar has transliterated Eriau letters into the Roman alphabet but that his efforts were inadequate and therefore have to be modified further just as the Chinese word written as "Tao" in English is pronounced "Dao."

Three Terrestroid Planets In The Technic History

All three of these terrestroid planets have a large ocean with many islands:

Avalon has one small continent and a few large and many small islands;
Starkad has no continents;
Talwin has one.

Starkad is inhabited by two intelligent species, land-dwellers and sea-dwellers;

Talwin has two intelligent species alternating as land-dwellers - one hibernates whereas the other estivates as sea animals;

Avalon, with one native species possibly becoming intelligent, is colonized by two species from different planets, walkers and fliers, respectively.

We notice some parallels and several dissimilarities.

More Merseian Titles

Merseians have imported Terran tea into their Roidhunate but at least one of them has never heard of coffee! (In our meditation group, I suffer tea once a week.)

A Circus Of Hells, Chapter Twelve, first paragraph, is narrated from the pov of Djana who does not understand the Eriau conversation between Ydwyr the Seeker and Morioch Sun-in-eye whereas the second paragraph switches to the pov of Flandry who does understand Eriau and recognizes Morioch's rank of qanryf  but puzzles over Ydwyr's title, datholch, although it must be a high one because Morioch uses the aristocratic-deferential form of address whereas Ydwyr's reply is merely polite.

After dismissing Morioch, Ydwyr explains that a datholch is an aristocrat heading an enterprise to expand the Race's frontier and that he himself is not only of the Vach Urdiolch but also a nephew of the Roidhun. Flandry immediately stands, pulls Djana to her feet and tells her to salute like him. If you serve one Empire, then you must respect the customs of another. It turns out that the frontier expanded by Ydwyr is scientific, not military. He is kindly but nevertheless an ingrained racist, wanting friendship but only on the basis of Merseian superiority.

Intelligence Bases

The star, Siekh, like Mimir, is furiously white with leaping prominences but must be much older because it is not surrounded by a nebula. Flandry is able to make such deductions when his Merseian captors allow him to observe the approach and landing on the planet Talwin. Like David Falkayn and Coya Conyon, he is also able to deduce approximately where he is in space by:

straining out the less bright stars;
finding landmarks like the Magellanic Clouds;
estimating the distance of the giant Betelgeuse by its magnitude.

Also, Siekh is uncommon enough that not many of its type will exist in any volume of space.

Siekh and Talwin are in no-man's-land but near the Imperial border. The Merseian base on Talwin is:

a watchpost;
a depot;
a receiving station for reports from agents like Rax on the Imperial planet, Irumclaw.

Of his spy ring, only Rax will know the coordinates of Siekh. The ring will have concealed courier torpedoes with preset targets. The Merseians will convey orders to Rax's dope shop by ordinary mail. Flandry wonders whether Terran Intelligence has a base like Talwin near the Roidhunate but thinks not. Later in his career, he will establish an advance Naval base within the Roidhunate and wonder whether the Merseians have done the same within the Empire.

We know of three occasions when Flandry enters the Roidhunate:

his visit to Merseia as an ensign;
his establishment of the advance base;
his raid on Chereion.

Of the Merseian agents, few would have known the coordinates of Chereion. However, hypnoprobing extracted them from the brain of Flandry's son, Dominic Hazeltine.

Spaceships

Human And Merseian Spaceships

In Common
layout
enclosing metal narrowness
drone
vibration
warm oily gusts from ventilators
duties

Differences
allowance for variations in -
size
shape
language
and culture -
- of the crew.

Merseians are:
big;
green;
hairless;
with ridged spines;
tailed;
clad in black;
each with a knuckle-duster-handled war knife at the belt;
practicing ritual deferences by word and gesture;
displaying abstract, austere tastes in pictures and souvenirs;
with sharp, dry body odors;
with no whites in the dark eyes.

Could you get used to being in close proximity with these guys? Flandry, like van Rijn and Falkayn before him, copes with any variation in body size or shape. He knows how to say not "Thank you" but "'I thank the broch,'" with salute of gratitude, in Eriau.

To Talwin

After Wayland, Flandry and Djana are captured by Merseians who take them to Talwin:

Another star passing near Siekh skews its planets' orbits. The planet Talwin's distance from Siekh varies from 0.87 to 2.62 astronomical units. Huge ice caps form and melt each twice Terran year. There are floods and rain storms. One intelligent race hibernates in caves. Another estivates at sea. They do not meet.
-copied from here.

Talwin is described in more detail here. It is one of several planets to have an equivalent of grass. See here. (Starkad, recently revisited, has been added to this list.) Flandry revisits Talwin more than once. See here.

Talwin is one planet where Flandry briefly works with Merseians to study a third intelligent species. The universe is big enough that there are places in it where human beings and Merseians can coexist without being involved in the machinations of their respective imperialisms. But Flandry has to get back to where he belongs.

Talwin becomes nominally a joint scientific base, in practice a place where high ranking representatives of the two realms are able to meet for discrete negotiations, especially during the Terran civil war when the Merseians need to sound out which of the rival claimants is likely to become the new Emperor.

Untold Tales Of The Technic History II

Continued from here.

(xiii) The Chaos, the transition to Technic Civilization and the origin of the Jerusalem Catholic Church.

(xiv) More about the Breakup and the Grand Surveys.

(xv) The early careers both of Nicholas van Rijn and of Max Abrams.

(xvi) Everyday life on Earth in the Solar Commonwealth, then in the Terran Empire.

(xvii) The fates of various planetary populations, both human and nonhuman, after the Fall of the Empire.

(xviii) On Dennitza, tales of the Merseian fisherfolk of the Obala and of human devotees of St. Kossara.

Do you get the impression that, long and dense though it is, the Technic History series merely scratches the surface? However, if we are invited to contemplate the lives of populations for millenia, then it can only be like this.

Untold Tales Of The Technic History

(i) Martian Minerals' exploitation of Mimir as narrated to Flandry by the computer. Thus, a Polesotechnic League story narrated during the Imperial period.

(ii) Incidents during the period after Coya Conyon had married David Falkayn and joined his trade pioneer crew.

(iii) David's and Coya's early days on Avalon.

(iv) Nicholas van Rijn's last expedition outside known space.

(v) Elder statesman Admiral Flandry advising young Emperor Karl.

(vi) What did happen to Aycharaych?

(vii) And to Merseia?

(viii) Diana Crowfeather's career.

(ix) The later history of Avalon.

(x) More about Manuel Argos, Roan Tom and Daven Laure.

(xi) The period of vast interstellar wealth following the exploitation of the "Cloud Universe."

(xii) The later Galactic period.

Early Mistakes

In A Circus Of Hells:

Flandry does not check the equipment provided by Leon Ammon and therefore learns too late that it does not include gravity impellers;

when captured by the Merseians, he displays his knowledge of their early history rather than let them underestimate him;

when Ydwyr mentions Aycharaych, Flandry reveals that he does not recognize the name instead of feigning knowledge and letting Ydwyr disclose more.

Flandry is learning.

In haste, folks.

Wind And Stars

After the lack of radio response (see previous post), Flandry comments:

"'The circumstances could be more promising. The big computer should've responded instantly to a distress call.'"
-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 193-365 AT Chapter Seven, p. 244.

And what happens next? After such a speech, it is almost automatic that the elements should somehow underline the seriousness of the circumstances and, sure enough, the following two sentences are:

"He sighed. The wind blew, the stars jeered." (ibid.)

Wind blowing signifies nature at best indifferent to human concerns, at worst hostile, even threatening. We have heard much of the wind before. On one occasion, it even whips Dahut and almost becomes a character but I cannot find that post among all the others about the wind.

The stars do not literally jeer although a character in an extreme situation can come to think that they do. The idea that the stars, remote and (apparently) unchanging, mock our mundanity and mortality appears, e.g., in Olaf Stapledon's works.

Cosmic Energies

On Wayland, Flandry:

"...called on the standard band. 'Two humans, shipwrecked, in need of assistance. Respond.' And again. And again. Nothing answered but the fire-crackle of cosmic energies.
"He tried on the robots' band. The digital code chattered with no alteration that he could detect.
"He tried other frequencies.
"After an hour or more, he unplugged and rose."
-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 193-365 AT Chapter Seven, p. 243.

Three sounds:

Flandry's Anglic distress call, translated into American English for our benefit;
the chatter of the digital code, meaningful although not understood by Flandry;
meaningless noise.

And yet another description of cosmic radio noise. See Seethe And Crackle.

Noise And Meaning

See Seethe And Crackle.

The coincidence of quoting a description of cosmic static before meditating prompted philosophical reflection. I think that the following proposition is valid although it is philosophically disputed. Radio waves detectable as static existed before there were any conscious beings to detect them whereas, in the phrase, "mental quiet and chatter," the word "mental" presupposes consciousness despite the acknowledged paradox of unconscious mental processes. Organic processes and many neuronic interactions are unconscious although some neuronic interactions somehow generate consciousness.

These propositions accord with empirical science and with philosophical materialism. However, theists and philosophical idealists claim that consciousness is not generated by any material process but instead exists independently of such processes. This theory can now be regarded as outmoded. Conscious processes differ qualitatively from unconscious processes and can seem to occur independently of them. However, empirically, consciousness occurs only in organisms and was specifically generated by the kind of organism-environment interactions that caused the evolution of central nervous systems.

Hissing and crackle are meaningless whereas mental chatter is verbal, words have meanings and meanings exist only because some conscious beings use certain sounds and signs in specific ways. Thus, there is no inherent meaning in marks on paper that look like "To be or not to be" or "1+1=2." Such marks could arbitrarily have been given alternative meanings or have remained meaningless.

Why make an issue of the difference between meaningless outer crackle and meaningful inner chatter? Because, while many people accept empirical science, they also continue to accept philosophical idealism, believing in the independence or immaterialty of consciousness.

Seethe And Crackle

On Wayland, Flandry's spacesuit radio detects a robotic code on a single wavelength. However:

"The rest of the available radio spectrum was silent, except for the the seethe and crackle of cosmic static."
-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 193-365 AT Chapter Six, p. 233.

Thus, "...seethe and crackle..." joins earlier descriptions of cosmic radio noise. See other descriptive phrases here.

It is time for me to attend the meditation group where I will inwardly hear not cosmic crackle but alternating mental quiet and chatter. We will continue this discussion later.

The Young Flandry Heroines

By "the Young Flandry heroines," we mean not the four on the cover (see here) but one in each of the three novels.

Persis d'Io:

was not Dominic's first although she thought she was;
saved the day for him twice during their escapade;
became the mother of his son.

Djana:

would be above a junior lieutenant's price range;
but is assigned to Flandry as part of a clandestine deal;
refines her psychic power under Merseian tutelage;
curses Flandry never to have the woman that he really wants.

Kathyrn McCormac:

is the wife of the Imperial pretender, Hugh McCormac;
is Flandry's traveling companion, although not his sexual partner, on Dido (see image);
is the first of the two women that Flandry really wants...

A Robotic Ecology

"'I can imagine a robotic ecology, based on self-reproducing solar-cell units that'd perform the equivalent of photosynthesis,' Flandry said. 'I seem to recall it was actually experimented with once.'"
-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 193-365 AT Chapter Seven, pp. 240-241.

Is he referring to the events of "Epilogue," which was published in Analog in 1962, eight years before A Circus Of Hells, and was collected in Poul Anderson, Explorations (New York, 1981), pp. 177-240?

See:

Epilogue
How Robotic Evolution Began
Fighting Robots
Epilogue: Conclusion
Epilogue And Strange Bedfellows
Madness And Divinity

Djana

Djana is:

a turning point figure for Dominic Flandry (see Djana's Curse);

yet another Catholic in the Technic History.

When Flandry and Djana are in danger, she recites the Catholic prayer, the Hail Mary;

influenced by Ydwyr the Seeker, she imagines a Merseian Christ (see also Life Details);

her psychic power, to influence the actions of other conscious beings, is focused through prayer. See here.

Maybe we should have met Djana again - and also the conscious computer on Wayland, which Flandry compares to the Creator that Djana believes in?

Mimir And The Milky Way

The blue star, Mimir, four times as bright as Sol, is surrounded by a miniature nebula;

one of Mimir's planets, Regin, is more massive than Jupiter although its gravity has condensed it to a smaller size;

Regin's moons include the Luna-sized, metal-rich Wayland;

beyond, "...the Milky Way foamed around heaven."
-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 193-365 AT Chapter Four, p. 221.

Norse mythological nomenclature:

Mimir
Regin
Wayland

- and another description of the Milky Way. 

Djana And Rax

If we got used to dealing with non-humanoid intelligent species, how would we respond to them? Djana, a young human prostitute, having received a phone call and gone to the specified address, nearly screams when she sees the being that awaits:

"...a lumpy gray body on four thin legs...the head at its middle about level with her waist."
-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 193-365 AT Chapter Three, p. 213.

The lower beak buzzes and whistles but the boneless fingers of one tentacle hold a vocalizer, skillfully used to generate Anglic in an ingratiating tone. Djana thinks that sex with xenos is wrong but Rax proposes something else. Since this chapter is narrated from Djana's point of view, it must be she that is able to reason as follows:

"Rax edged closer yet, with an awkwardness that suggested weight on its original planet was significantly lower than Irumclaw's 0.96 g. Did it keep a field generator at home... if it had any concept akin to 'home'?"
-op. cit., p. 214.

Djana also knows that:

the Terran Empire is a globe with a diameter of 400 light years;
the globe contains about four million stars, most with planets;
perhaps half have been visited at least once;
even a single visit might have resulted in casual native recruitment;
a hundred thousand planets have often sporadic contact with the Empire and owe it often nominal allegiance;
so Rax could be from anywhere.

Every installment of the Technic History set during the Imperial period must impart these facts to the reader. Here, we receive them from Djana's reflections on meeting Rax. She cannot interpret his facial expressions.

Old Town

Poul Anderson excels at raucous street scenes. In Old Town on Irumclaw:

native beehive-shaped adobes adapted for other life forms;

glimmering glowsigns above twisting streets and lanes;

noises including raucous music, a hundred languages, screams and bellows;

body odors, garbage, smoke, incense and dope;

human beings, native Irumclagians and several species of spacefarers;

an Irumclagian chanting in Anglic through a vocalizer to advertise a joyhouse offering sophisticated entertainment, gambling, food, drink, stimulants, narcotics, hallucinogens, emphasizers and sex with seventeen species.

Decades later, Flandry's daughter surveys a multi-species market on Imhotep. See:

Imhotep
Market Places

And the overarching theme of all of Poul Anderson's fiction is Life.

For Old Town in Ys, see here.
For Zorkagrad Old Town, see here.
For an earlier post about Old Town on Irumclaw, see here.

Phosphorescent Cloak

After sunset on Irumclaw, Flandry leaves the Naval base and walks downhill to Old Town:

"Flandry sauntered in elegance."
-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 193-365 AT Chapter Two, p. 203.

A paragraph describes his elegance:

comets gleaming on shoulders;
rakishly tilted bonnet;
glittergold dress tunic;
snowy trousers;
handmade beefleather boots;
fluttering cloak glowing in phosphorescent patterns.

(Perfect for an sf con costume parade.)

"It made good cover for the fact that he was not out for pleasure."
-op. cit., p. 204.

Why not out for pleasure? He is on his own time, is not acting under orders and is a fun-loving guy but he also acts on initiative and always has longer term aims in view. On this occasion, the longer term aim seems to be to enrich himself by accepting a clandestine job from a local boss. Does this explain why Flandry is so well placed later in his career? Partly but as always there is more to it even than that. If, with Flandry's help, the local boss becomes richer, then he will pressure to the Empire to continue defending this Betelgeusean frontier and therefore not to abandon Irumclaw.

Flandry is unique in his ability to serve himself and the cause of civilization by criminal activity which he is clever enough to keep from the attention of his superiors. Lord Hauksberg had said:

"'You are shameless! Will go far indeed, if no one shoots you first.'"
-Ensign Flandry IN Young Flandry, Chapter Eighteen, p. 187.

And Max Abrams had said:

"''...once you hit your stride, Lord help the opposition!'"
-op. cit., p. 192.

The Next Stage Of A Career

In Ensign Flandry, the nineteen year old Ensign Dominic Flandry was electro-crammed in Eriau before a visit to Merseia. In A Circus Of Hells, the twenty one year old Lieutenant (j.g.) Dominic Flandry is able to interpret between Eriau and Anglic when the Merseian cruiser Brythioch makes a good will visit to the Terran Naval base on Irumclaw.

Flandry meets Afal Ymen whose rank corresponds approximately to commander. I said here that "Fodaich" was perhaps "Commander" because I thought that Fodaich Runei had been referred to as a commander but in fact he was introduced as "Commandant Runei."

Flandry re-meets Tachwyr the Dark whose rank has not changed from mei, approximately lieutenant (j.g.). Since they met on Merseia, both Flandry and Tachwyr have gone into Intelligence. Meanwhile, Max Abrams, Flandry's mentor, has been promoted from commander to captain.

Abrams is another character that we would like to have seen again although he does make one brief appearance in a reminiscence of his daughter, Miriam.

The Young Flandry Trilogy presents a systematic account of three stages of Flandry's early career, taking him from ensign to commander. Thus, the next stage is captain which is what he was when first seen in the earlier published "Tiger By The Tail."

Finishing Ensign Flandry Again

Ensign Flandry has a second description of the Milky Way:

"...the specter arch of the Milky Way."
-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-192 AT Chapter Seventeen, p. 180.

In Chapter Seventeen, the point of view wanders. The chapter is mainly narrated from Flandry's pov. However, on p. 181, the omniscient narrator directly informs the reader about what has been happening in the space battle with the Terran ships, Umbriel, Murdoch's Land, Antarctica, New Brazil and Sabik and with a damaged Merseian destroyer. The captain of the destroyer decides to attack the remnant of the Sabik while his engineers sweat to repair a hyperdrive alternator. On p. 182, we are back with Flandry on the Sabik noticing that the destroyer retreats under gravitics, wondering why she doesn't go hyper and thinking maybe she can't.

Commander Ranjit Singh, the highest ranking survivor on the Sabik, not only takes command of that ship but also commands the battered, depleted fleet that at last confirms the existence of the approaching rogue planet. No one of higher rank has survived.

Time Patrol
After "Time Patrol," Manse Everard will begin Unattached training.
After "Ivory, And Apes, And Peacocks," Pummairam (Pum) will begin Time Patrol training.
After "The Year of the Ransom," Wanda Tamberly will begin Patrol training.

Technic History
After "Esau," Emil Dalmady will begin entrepreneur training.
After Ensign Flandry, Flandry will begin Intelligence training.
After The Game Of Empire, Diana, Flandry's daughter, and Targovi, Dragoika's son, (for both, see image) will begin training in trade, exploration, science, art or Intelligence, whichever they want, at Flandry's expense.

Endings and beginnings: more of them than I had expected.

Flandry asks Diana and Targovi to think hard about they really want. For how I failed to do this, see here and follow the links.

Whem Pum offers to guide Everard in ancient Tyre, he says to a competitor:

"''...I saw him first...'"
-Poul Anderson, "Ivory, And Apes, And Peacocks" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 229-331 AT p. 237.

Before Diana offers to guide the Wodenite, Axor, on the planet Imhotep, she announces in Anglic and Toborko to any possible competitor:

"'I saw him first!'"
-Poul Anderson, The Game Of Empire IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riversale, NY, 2012), pp. 189-453 AT Chapter One, p. 199.

Something Important

"He told her.
"She stood long silent."
-Poul Anderson, Mirkheim IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 1-291 AT Chapter XVII, p. 238.

"Flandry told him.
"Enriques was still for a long moment."
-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-192 AT Chapter Sixteen, p. 167.

A couple of times before, I have found very similar passages in different texts and quoted them side by side.

In Mirkheim, David Falkayn tells Sandra Tamarin that Benoni Strang is Bayard Story. In Ensign Flandry, Dominic Flandry tells Admiral Enriques that a rogue planet is on a collision course with the star, Saxo. In both cases:

this single new datum explains much that had previously puzzled the characters;

however, the author does not want the reader to know what the new datum is until later in the narrative;

hence, "He told her" and "Flandry told him."

What would be the best way to film such scenes while preventing the audience from gaining the crucial information too soon? For discussion of the Mirkheim example, see "How To Film Mirkheim?" here. In particular:

(iii) Sandra shows van Rijn's agent, David Falkayn, a tape of her recent conversation with Strang. We should not see the screen. Falkayn yells, asks whether Strang has a twin brother or a double, then explains. While he explains, the camera should pull back so that we do not hear what he is saying.

I go further and suggest that the camera should pull back through the window so that we see the New Keep, where the characters converse, from the outside, then further back so that we see more of the Hermetian city of Starfall. We know that something important is being imparted while we are being shown the Palomino River, Daybreak Bay, Olympic Avenue, Pilgrim Hill, the Old and New Keeps and Signal Station.

In Ensign Flandry, the camera pulling back through a window of Dragoika's house would show us armed Kursovikians filling Shiv Alley and spilling into the Street Where They Fought. We would see that something important was happening while Flandry continued to answer Enriques' questions.

See also Filming Poul Anderson.

Dragoika

Dragoika is:

an inhabitant of the planet Starkad of the star, Saxo;

a member of the land-dwelling intelligent species, the Toborko or Tigeries;

captain of the Archer, a merchant ship belonging to the Sisterhood of Kursoviki;

share-holder and captain-director in a fleet-owning kin-corporation, the Janjevar va-Radovik;

speaker for the corporation among the Sisterhood.

She insists on accompanying her friend, Dominic Flandry, on the Terran expedition to confirm whether a rogue planet is on collision course with Saxo. Captain Einarson of the Sabik appoints Flandry as "liaison officer" and tells him to keep his xeno VIP/pet savage out of the way. However, Flandry pretends that the VIP needs to be informed of developments, thus gaining communication from the bridge. Thus also, the reader sees the space battle from Flandry's pov. Otherwise, it would have had to have been from some other character's pov with Flandry kept in the dark until later.

Lieutenant (j.g.) Sergei Karamzin appreciates Dragoika's female build and movements and asks Flandry how she is. Flandry has not had intimate relations with Dragoika but could have had and the next novel, A Circus Of Hells, informs us that, on Irumclaw, it is possible to buy sex with individuals from seventeen intelligent species.

Falkayns And Flandry

If not the David Falkayn Trilogy, we might call The Technic Civilization Saga, Volumes I-III, the Falkayn Trilogy because Vol III, Rise Of The Terran Empire, features not only David but also his son, Nicholas, his grandson, Nathaniel (Nat), and a descendant, Tabitha, all with the same surname. Tabitha appears in the last Technic History installment to be collected in Vol III and quotes her ancestor, David, Founder of the Avalonian colony.

Also in that installment, the High Wyvan of Avalon addresses the Greath Khruath of the planet from outside David Falkayn's house on First Island in the Hesperian Sea. The colonists settled on the islands before moving to the Coronan continent and Nat grew up on First Island. We remember his visit to the Weathermaker Choth on an Ythrian-settled island and, before that, the exploration of the many islands of the as yet unnamed planet by an Ythrian expedition with human employees. (Inter-species relationships can be harmonious as well as hostile.)

The Flandry series presents not remote descendants but at least a son and a daughter of Dominic Flandry. However, despite the attached book cover, they have different surnames, being illegitimate.

Battle In Space Revisited

Poul Anderson's Ensign Flandry, Chapter Seventeen, describes a space battle. See:

Battle In Space
Battle In Space II
A Singh In Space

My present task is to reread this chapter to extract any interesting information that was not included in earlier posts. After that, Chapter Eighteen concludes this novel and the following novel in the Flandry sequence of the Technic History is A Circus Of Hells.

In A Circus..., Flandry again demonstrates his ability not just to "work here" or to do the job but to take elaborate pains and risks for longer term goals that transcend - although they do not exclude! - self-aggrandizement. Over the course of three novels, the Young Flandry Trilogy, our hero becomes the Captain Flandry who had first appeared in "Tiger By The Tail" in 1951 when I was two years old. Nicholas van Rijn first appeared four years later in 1956 when I began to attend a boarding school in Scotland. Clearly, at that stage, there was not yet any thought of a History of Technic Civilization with van Rijn living centuries before Flandry...

A Moral Nonequivalence

"'By the Covenant of Alfzar, Merseia confirmed her acceptance of the rules of war and diplomacy which evolved on Terra.'"
-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-192 AT Chapter Fourteen, p. 142.

These rules evolved and are accepted because they work. However, according to the rules, civilized powers may not:

torture prisoners;
massacre civilians;
use diplomacy as a cover for espionage.

Yet, those same powers:

do not maintain torture chambers;
do not allow their troops to massacre or loot;
assume that their adversaries use diplomacy as a cover for espionage and would regard themselves as criminally negligent if they did not do likewise.

A caught spy takes the consequences but does not believe that he has done anything wrong.

On Merseia, Max Abrams used Dwyr the Hook to spy on Brechdan Ironrede. But Brechdan had used Dwyr to spy on Abrams. Thus, these two "offenses" cancel out. Dwyr's loyalty happened to be to Terra. This did not just "happen" but Abrams can cheerfully lie about it. Both powers can agree to say that Dwyr and Flandry acted impulsively without Abrams' knowledge. Thus, they agree to cover up that Brechdan spied on Abrams and vice versa. Abrams still supports Flandry but cannot help him by acknowledging that Flandry acted on his orders because the Ensign is by now out of communication range and in flight for his life in any case. Abrams invents a formula that at least saves himself by saving face for both empires.

Two Trilogies And A Sequel

I would like it if the seven volume The Technic Civilization Saga were rearranged so that Dominic Flandry was not in Volume VII. If this were to be done, then:

Vols I-III would be united by the figure of David Falkayn;

Vols IV-VI would be united by the figure of Dominic Flandry;

Vol VII would succeed both.

The difference would be that, whereas Vol I begins long before Falkayn's birth and Vol III ends long after his death, Flandry is alive throughout Vols IV-VI. Nevertheless, Falkayn is present in all of the first three volumes. Furthermore, the consequences of his actions continue and are still explicitly acknowledged by other characters until the end of Vol III.

Thus, the series would comprise a Falkayn trilogy and a Flandry trilogy followed by a one-volume sequel. The Technic History is long and complicated but this formula summarizes it to some extent.

Sunset And Sunrise On Merseia

"Ahead, on the ocean's rim, smoldered a remnant of sunset."
-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-192 AT Chapter Twelve, p. 116.

When a spaceship rises from the planetary surface:

"Korych flamed over the edge of the world. That sunrise was gold and amethyst, beneath a million stars."
-op. cit., Chapter Thirteen, p. 137.

The Sun rises and sets every day. Poul Anderson regularly celebrates the diurnal process in appropriately colorful language. Don't just follow the flight of the spaceship. Pause to appreciate the gold and amethyst of flaming Korych.

In the spaceship, Flandry says again:

"'I only work here.'" (ibid.) (See here.)

He does more than work for his living. He could have done his job as an ensign simply by accepting that he was under arrest. Instead, he escapes into space and is hunted by the forces of two interstellar empires but this turns out to have been the best thing to do. Anderson imagines remarkably capable heroes.

Further observations:

space is the realm beyond sunrises and sunsets;

the diurnal process symbolizes historical beginnings and endings, e.g., the period after the end of Empire is called the Long Night.

Flandry's Judgment Day

Eriau (Merseian) numbers are duodecimal and Dominic Flandry is trained to remember a sequence of numbers even though:

they are in an alien language;
he hears them only once;
he does not yet understand their significance.

Flandry now has the secret of Starkad in his head. He must keep that head intact and out of the reach of Merseians and hostile Terrans.

"Flandry stood over Dwyr, in a private Judgment Day."
-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-192 AT Chapter Thirteen, p. 133.

Dwyr, the cyborg spy "turned" by Abrams, is dying. Every day is Judgment Day if we can see it. Inner issues, called "sin" in Biblical terminology and "karma" in Buddhist terminology, are always present although we are not always aware of them. Flandry is becoming aware:

"Seeing the anguish upon her, Flandry knew in full what it mean to make an implement of a sentient being."
-op. cit., p. 131.

From The Lavishly Stocked Terran Embassy Larder

We have not had a food post since 27 Jan so we will now list what Flandry and Persis consume in the principal guest suite in the Terran Embassy in Ardaig on Merseia. Persis orders food and drink 'chuted from the lavishly stocked larder and also knows how to program the small meal-preparing server. They consume:

eggs Benedict;
caviar;
akvavit;
champagne;
Perigordian duck with trimmings;
Bordeaux.

Like his first experience of espionage, this meal is an important part of Flandry's "origin story." Flandry has never eaten like this before but Persis believes that she has launched him on the new career of gourmet first class. See Is Dominic Flandry A Gourmet? By spending hours with Persis, Flandry is not goofing off from his job but doing precisely what Abrams has ordered him to do. Flandry caught in flagrante and immediately sent Home in disgrace should be able to smuggle out information before Brechdan realizes that that information has been stolen.

Flandry Proves Himself

(i) Flandry successfully conceals his affair with Persis d'Io from everyone but Max Abrams who is chief of Intelligence and has close access to Flandry.

(ii) Abrams tells Flandry that he has a direct pipeline to Brechdan Ironrede's ultrasecret file;

Flandry deduces that this pipeline had not been developed in advance because, if it had, then Abrams would not have had to come to Merseia;

it can only be a contact that he acquired on Starkad and has not yet been able to pass on to anyone else;

such a good source would have given Abrams advance warning of the Seatroll submarine attack on Ujanka (see Battle On Golden Bay) yet Abrams did nothing in advance to defend Ujanka.

While commending Flandry's deductive skills, Abrams must instruct him in the principles of not compromising sources and of saving more lives - on all sides - in the long run.

Next, Flandry must accept Abrams' plan to use the affair with Persis as a cover for smuggling intelligence off Merseia:

"'No!' Flandry raged."
-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-192 AT Chapter Eleven, p. 114.

Young Flandry is becoming mature Flandry.

Something Monstrous And An Oncoming Machine

This is not quite the Pathetic Fallacy:

"Brechdan Ironrede and his Grand Council...had put something monstrous in motion. Wind and surfbeat sounded all at once like the noise of an oncoming machine."
-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-192 AT Chapter Eleven, p. 108.

In the Pathetic Fallacy properly so called:

Flandry would realize that something monstrous was in motion;

then the narrator would emphasize this for the reader by describing, e.g., the sound of an oncoming storm or the cry of a beast of prey;

thus, an external process would exactly parallel Flandry's inner reflections.

In Anderson's prose, such parallels sometimes seem as integral to the text as its grammar. In this case, p. 106 had already described booming breakers and a wind smelling of cinnamon - three senses: heard breakers; felt wind; smelled cinnamon. The sounds do not change but Flandry himself suddenly hears them differently. The concluding sentence of a paragraph often comments and completes in this way.

...Surnames And Secrecy

See Merseian Scenery.

Tachwyr the Dark addresses Lannawar Belgis as "Yqan Belgis." Since "Yqan" is a rank, it is a safe bet that "Belgis" is a provincial surname and we learn one other: Belgis refers to his friend from training days, Ralgo Tamuar.

Touring with the young Merseians, Flandry is learning how to play a role while gathering intel: not fatuous on this occasion because he needs their respect although he will deserve Oscars for the fatuousness act in his later career. His current role is:

naive;
wide-eyed;
impressed by Mersia;
eager to serve Mother Terra.

Not really a role, as he acknowledges to himself.

(Poul and Karen Anderson's Gratillonius serves "Roma Mater.")

Flandry learns that Runei the Wanderer had explored far but had not been involved in the discovery of Starkad although he was deployed there as Intelligence chief when a base was established. Tachwyr steers Belgis away from this subject. There is some secret about Starkad, known to very few Merseians.

Flandry also recognizes that:

"The Merseians were not the antlike monsters which Terran propaganda depicted."
-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-192 AT Chapter Eleven, p. 107.

Popular fiction within the Empire might show characters like Flandry fighting propagandistic Merseians.

Merseian Names, Ranks And Titles

"'Well met, Arlech Dwyr. At ease.'
"'The Hand of the Vach Ynvory desired my presence?'
"'Yes, yes.' Brechdan waved impatiently. 'Let us have no more etiquette. I'm fed to the occiput with it.'"
-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-192 AT Chapter Ten, pp. 98-99.

Brechdan has just come from a welcoming festival at the Terran Embassy: enough etiquette, foreseer!

"Arleh Dwyer" is not a given name followed by a surname. The given name is "Dwyer" and this individual is nicknamed "the Hook," although he was once "the Merry." Arlech must be a Merseian rank that I admit to being unfamiliar with. Dwyr had:

"'...worked on the staff of Fodaich Runei's Intelligence corps...'" (p. 99)

- on Starkad.

"Fodaich" is perhaps "Commander" and Runei is nicknamed "the Wanderer." (Chapter Seven, p. 63)

We could expound on Vachs and Hands but have done so before and no doubt will again. See Merseians.

The End Of The Polesotechnic League

We are comparing, or contrasting, the Polesotechnic League and Avalon with the Round Table and Avilion. See The End Of Camelot.

Both the Table and the League dissolve - but so does every human institution, says you. Both Tennyson and Anderson convey the sense of the good old days that are gone. Anderson's series, being a fictional history, shows beginnings as well as endings. He quotes Shelley, "The world's great age begins anew..." See here.

Arthur says that God fulfills Himself through successive social orders whereas the Ythrian Hirharouk sees God's shadow over van Rijn's way of life.

Falkayn's granddaughter named the planet Avalon from Arthurian myth. Arthur's account of "Avilion," as also his inner cloud of doubt, reflects the hopes and skepticisms of many. Anderson's characters include Christians and agnostics. Van Rijn, a Catholic, hopes for Heaven but also plans an active retirement on the long road between the stars. Generations of freedom on Avalon were perhaps the best that Falkayn was able to hope for so the planet was named appropriately.

The End Of Camelot

We quoted from Idylls Of The King here.

Other lines from the same poem bear comparison with Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization, e.g.:

For now I see the true old times are dead,

 But now the whole Round Table is dissolv’d

“The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfils himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.

 And, as an expression of aspiration:

But now farewell. I am going a long way
With these thou seëst—if indeed I go	65
(For all my mind is clouded with a doubt)—
To the island-valley of Avilion;
Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,
Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies
Deep-meadow’d, happy, fair with orchard lawns	70
And bowery hollows crown’d with summer sea,
Where I will heal me of my grievous wound.”

The Milky Way From The Dronning Margrete

We began to collect together Poul Anderson's descriptions of the Milky Way in The Milky Way and then started to add to the list in Mirkheim Miscellany. Here is another:

"...the Milky Way was a shining smoke..."
-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-192 AT Chapter Nine, p. 85.

The characters have left Starkad but not yet reached Merseia so Chapter Nine recounts two conversations in the spaceship, the Dronning Margrete. Hauksberg and Abrams drink wine while Hauksberg's butler goes to bed and Flandry and Persis look at the stars while no one else is in the officers' lounge...

Dronning Margrete means "Queen Margaret." The ship belongs to Ny (New) Kalmar and is used as a yacht by the current viscount, who is currently Hauksberg.

 Chapter Ten is set in Ardaig on Merseia.