"'They are variously known on the worlds as Ancients, Elders, Others - many names - The mysterious civilization that flourished in the galaxy - apparently through far more of it than this fraction of a single spiral arm which we have somewhat explored - vanishing millions of years ago, leaving scanty, glorious fragments of their works -'"
-Poul Anderson, The Game Of Empire IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 189-453 AT CHAPTER ONE, pp. 206-207.
One Aenean name is "Old Shen" and Aycharaych the Chereionite claims that they were his people.
We note that Axor repeats the phrase about the fraction of a single spiral arm that we have somewhat explored. I know that Homer reused phrases but I think that this one of Anderson's gets a bit worn.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I think it was the trauma caused by the Time of Troubles which made so many people in the Terran Empire to become seemingly obsessed by how little, really, they knew of the Galaxy and the universe. The Troubles brought home to the Technic peoples how huge and dangerous the universe is. Of how they knew only a small part of one spiral arm.
And, of course, this is another of Anderson's recurring leitmotifs!
Sean
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