In Rain And Words, I did not understand the phrase:
"...wave-splintered glade..."
Sean suggested in the combox that there might be "...a rarely used meaning for 'glade.'" My Chambers Dictionary gives only:
"an open place in a wood."
Anderson uses the word again:
'"...the moon and Jupiter rose together and threw two perfect glades...'" (p. 111)
Valland and Mary are camped by a lake. Are the glades the light on the water?
Valland goes on to tell us something more important than we realize at the time:
"'We swore to each other we'd always remember our dead.'" (ibid.)
That is what Valland is doing: keeping his promise to Mary.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I don't understand this use of "glade" by Anderson! I checked THE RANDOM HOUSE DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (1973), and the only definition it gives is that of an open space within a forest. It's either a rare mistake by Anderson or a truly OBSCURE use of the word.
Sean
Light in the darkness is like a glade in a forest?
Kaor, Paul!
Hmmm, meaning Poul Anderson was thinking of the intergalactic darkness as a night time forest, with the galaxy being a glade of light? I'm doubtful, it seems too strained, too unnatural to be understood like that.
Sean
Sean,
Maybe the patch of light on the lake water is the "glade."
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I think we have to accept that this was a case where "Homer nodded." That is, Poul Anderson made a rare mistake in how he used a word. And the alternative you suggested seems as unnatural as the one I suggested re the galactic darkness.
Sean
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