On The Edge Of One Spiral Arm

"As far as we know - but how much do we really know, in this one corner of this one galaxy which we have somewhat explored? - Avalon was the first planet whereon two different intelligent species founded a joint colony."
-Poul Anderson, "Wingless" IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 293-323 AT p. 295.

"'So many, many stars...a hundred billion in this one lonely dust-mote of a galaxy...and we on the edge, remote in a spiral arm where they thin toward emptiness...what do we know, what can we master?'"
-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 193-365 AT Chapter Three, p. 217.

"...what are we? What are four million stars, out on the fringe of one arm of the galaxy, among its hundred billion; and what is the one galaxy among so many?"
-Poul Anderson, "Outpost of Empire" IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-72 AT p. 7.

"Too big, too big. If a single planet overwhelms the intellect, what then of our entire microscopic chip of the galaxy, away off toward the edge of a spiral arm, which we imagine we have begun to be a little acquainted with?"
-Poul Anderson, The Day Of Their Return IN Captain Flandry..., pp. 74-238 AT 3, p. 89.

"There are so many, many worlds, in this tiny segment of space we have somewhat explored."
-Poul Anderson, A Stone In Heaven IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 1-188 AT VI, p. 70.

"Space is that big, that full of worlds."
Poul Anderson, "Lodestar" IN Anderson, The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1979), pp. 368-408 AT p. 377.

How often does this thought, expressed in by now familiar words and phrases, recur in Poul Anderson's Technic History? I am sure that I have not quoted every example. Are there similar interstellar civilizations of oxygen- and hydrogen-breathers at the ends of other spiral arms and in other galaxies?

The Technic History also shows us earlier periods: interplanetary exploration in "The Saturn Game" and early interstellar exploration in "Wings of Victory":

"Our part in the Grand Survey had taken us out beyond the great suns Alpha and Beta Crucis. From Earth we would have been in the constellation Lupus. But Earth was 278 light-years remote, Sol itself long dwindled to invisibility, and stars drew strange pictures across the dark."
-Poul Anderson, "Wings of Victory" IN The Earth Book..., pp. 1-22 AT p. 3.

This opening paragraph is full of significance for the later History:

the rogue planet Satan will swing around Beta Crucis;

the Terran Empire will establish a Sector Alpha Crucis;

Christopher Holm/Arinnian of Stormgate Choth will remark that, from Terra, Quetlan and Laura are in Lupus, whereas, from Avalon, Sol, 205 light-years away, is in the Maukh.

The Grand Survey ship, the Olga, is about to discover Quetlan and its inhabited planet, Ythri, and, later, Avalon in the Lauran System will belong to the Domain of Ythri.

The Technic History also shows us a later period:

"They still named [Earth] Home, but she lay in the spiral arm behind this one, and Laure had never seen her. He had never met anyone who had. None of his ancestors had, for longer than their family chronicles ran. Home was a half-remembered myth; reality was here, these stars on the fringes of this civilization."
-Poul Anderson, "Starfog" IN Flandry's Legacy, pp. 709-794 AT p. 713.

But there is still a "fringe" to the explored and civilized part of the universe.

I used to think that Anderson overdid his "What do we know at the edge of this one spiral arm that we have begun to explore?" motif. It was as if too many of his characters were thinking the same thing. However, imagine how the knowledge of the smallness of the explored part of the universe would permeate everyone's consciousness.

See also What We Know.