I am pleased to read that coffee is still drunk during the Ice Age (see Morning In Arvanneth) even though it is Terrestrial tea that spreads through the Merseian Roidhunate in Poul Anderson's Technic History.
We find yet another ogive window (scroll down):
""A sunbeam from an ogive window..." (p. 72)
Captain General Sidir describes the Rogaviki woman, Donya, as a "'...brach...'" (p. 67)
Rahidian soldiers had been lower than "sidewinders." (p. 72)
Donya denies that she is a leader but then qualifies it: "'...not the way you mean.'" (p. 74)
She is a leader of a household but not a ruler of her people.
Weekdays include Kingsday, months include Dou and the year, in the Imperial calendar, is 83 of the Thirty-First Renewal of the Divine Mandate. Maybe the Empire keeps longer term historical records but it does not divide history up into a straightforward equivalent of our B.C./A.D.
The invasion of the Northlands begins.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I think, here, we see a reason for why the Rogaviki were so different from human beings, besides being genetically hardwired to be bison hunters. Their "natural leaders" are matriarchs, and women seem to be bolder and more aggressive than men.
I recall Captain General Sidir's reflections on why soldiers were once so scorned in the Rahidian Empire. Before the Barommian conquest, the Empire was torn apart by rival warlords whose "armies" were little better than bandits. As part of their restoration of order following the conquest, the Barommians had rebuilt a true infantry army, trained and disciplined to become soldiers worthy of that name. Sidir himself regarded his Rahidian infantry with affection.
The mere fact the Empire counted the Barommian dynasty as the thirty first renewal of the Divine Mandate means it did have records of a far longer history. Because there were thirty recognized dynasties before the Barommian conquest.
I was reminded of the annals, chronicles, and histories written in China since at least THE RECORDS OF THE GRAND HISTORIAN of Ssu-ma Chien, in the early Han Dynasty. From that time onwards it became traditional for every dynasty in China to get its own history. The very last Dynasty (to date, anyway), the Ch'ing (1644-1912) was also a foreign dynasty which conquered a China which had collapsed into chaos in the late Ming era. And Ch'ing histories were written as well.
Anderson's use of "Divine Mandate" reminded me of the Confucian theories of legitimacy called the "Mandate of Heaven." So this paragraph you quoted had a very "Chinese" look.
Sean
Sean,
The Chinese Mandate of Heaven was very different from the European Divine Right of Kings.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Of course I agree, as would Anderson as well, since he was almost certainly thinking of Chinese echoes and examples.
I have read translations of parts of some Chinese histories, such as the above mentioned RECORDS OF THE GRAND HISTORIAN and Pan Ku's HISTORY OF THE FORMER HAN. Very interesting, IMO.
Sean
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