"Seen from the Taurus Mountains, Earth hung low in the southwestern sky. Its crescent was thinning with the sun's slow climb over eastern ridges. Shadows had shrunken across the bench where the Beynacs were encamped..." (p. 128)
I was puzzled by this use of the word "bench" but have found this in Chambers Dictionary:
"...a level ledge or set-back in the slope of masonry or earthwork..."
I had thought that the Beynacs were seated on:
"...a long seat..."
- and was surprised to find that they were not.
So far, in the even-numbered "Mother of the Moon" chapters, we have seen Dagny:
discussing her teenage pregnancy with her grandfather;
meeting Edmond Beynac;
dining out with Edmond;
having a miscarriage when married to Edmond;
raising genetically modified "Lunarian" children with Edmond.
She also spots two of her children surreptitiously inventing the Lunarian language:
"'ARVEN ARDEA NIO LULLUI PEYAR -'" (p. 132)
It sounds Elvish as do later Lunarian names like Rinndalir and Lilisaire.
2 comments:
Paul:
Jack London's The Call of the Wild used that meaning of "bench" in a scene where a Yukon gold miner who evidently struck it big is identified only as "a king of the Skookum Benches" and later in the abbreviated form "the Skookum Bench king." It bewildered me when I read it in childhood; I assumed it was the term for some local feature, but never realized "bench" was used elsewhere in the world, too.
Kaor, Paul and DAVID!
Paul: I know you have had difficulties trying to read John Wright's blog pieces, but your comment about how the invented language of Edmond and Dagny Beynac's genetically modified Lunarian children reminded me of one of Wright's essays. He was discussing in an article he wrote about the HARVEST OF STARS books of how ELVISH the Lunarians were, of how they reminded him of the elves we see in Anderson's THE BROKEN SWORD or Tolkien's THE SILMARILLION (unless it was LOTR he mentioned).
David: at least this use of "bench" by Poul Anderson won't cause the kind of extended discussion we had here about his use of "glade"!
Sean
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