It is possible to learn something of the customs and conventions of warfare by reading Poul Anderson's fictional accounts of battles and invasions. The problem for the Barommians is that the Rogaviki do not recognize any such conventions. They kill a herald under his flag of truce.
The herald had offered good terms:
"'We'd take them to a reservation, provide them the necessities, leave them a couple of hostages till they trusted us.'" (p. 135)
Does this mean that the Barommians would leave two of their own men as hostages among the prisoners? Surely this is neither usual nor wise? Or have I misunderstood?
When the Barommians, besieging a group of Rogaviki men, women and children, offer to let them go free as an act of good will, the Rogaviki accept the offer, march out, then attack and fight until the last child has been killed. Captain General Sidir approaches the conclusion that they are all mad and must be exterminated.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
The Rahidians/Barommians had offered to leave two of THEIR people with the Rogaviki till the latter were confident all the terms of the agreement offered had been fulfilled. And this kind of offering hostages has been done many times by civilized nations, as a guarantee that the terms of an agreement would be carried out. The last time that happened was in 1748 when the Earl of Suffolk and Baron Cathcart were handed over by the British to the French at the conclusion of the War of the Austrian Succession by the Treaty of Aachen. These men were hostages till the British returned Cape Breton to France.
Even allowing for the Rogaviki being no longer human and finding human concepts such as the laws of war and diplomacy "unnatural" and beyond their understanding, this murder of the herald shows how they were not even using their INTELLIGENCE in rational ways. Else they would have tried for a meeting of minds.
Sean
Sean,
OK. This is a detail of military history that I was unfamiliar with.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I had not known myself till I became interested in the LEGAL use of hostages, as opposed to the more familiar (these days) CRIMINAL use or taking of hostages.
Sean
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