A Time Patrol Academy instructor tells a group of recruits:
"'You'll probably never meet a Danellian. If you ever should, it will be...rather a shock. They aren't malignant - nor benevolent - they are as far beyond anything we can know or feel as we are beyond those insectivores who are going to be our ancestors. It isn't good to meet that sort of thing face to face.'"
-Poul Anderson, "Time Patrol" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-53 AT p. 11.
But one recruit, Manson Everard, does come face to face:
"He could not look at the shape which blazed before his eyes. There was a dry sobbing in his throat as he backed away."
-op. cit., p. 51.
However, Everard and Wanda Tamberly later meet a Danellian that is humanoid and benign.
A space explorer says of the Others:
"'I can easily imagine they keep out of our sight. We could be overwhelmed by their presence, crushed. But, damn it, they must be benign. They must care.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Avatar (London, 1985), XXIV, p. 207.
Later the explorers meet two of the Others who appear in the form of Irish gods but I have not reread that far yet.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Hmmm, Manse Everard once met a Danellian as he or she TRULY is in "appearance"? That is, as terrifying? And the second time the Danellian "damped down" what he actually looked like so he would not frighten Manse and Wanda? Which "appearance" is correct? If the human race can change so much can it be truly said to be still human?
Sean
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