Julius Caesar's became "Caesar," "Czar," "Kaiser" and "Kaiser-i-Hind";
King Arthur was Arthur Pendragon and CS Lewis' Elwin Ransom becomes the Pendragon of Logres;
in Poul Anderson's The Stars Are Also Fire, Dagny Ebbeson's first son was Lars Rydberg and, much later, the lodgemaster of the Fireball Trothdom is styled "the Rydberg."
Thus, Dagny's influence continues both through the Lunarians and through the Rydbergs. Although the position of lodgemaster is not held by descent, every lodgemaster does have some degree of Rydberg descent. The Trothdom is a memory or ghost of the company and, according to lodgemaster Matthias, preserves a secret "'...against a possible hour of great need.'" (9, p. 126) Arthurianism, if not Arthur Pendragon, lives.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
When it comes to the Russian forms of "Caesar," I like "Tsar" better than "Czar." The former looks and "feels" more natural than the latter. And I recall Robert K. Massie discussing in NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA that "tsar" was more correct than "czar."
The last two Emperors of Russia, Alexander III and Nicholas II, preferred the older, more Russian title of "tsar" over that of "emperor."
Sean
Scottish Clan chiefs were called "the Mackenzie" or "the Stuart" -- or "the Mackenzie himself".
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I noticed that in your Emberverse books, wherein the chief of Clan Mackenzie was often called "the Mackenzie" or "the Mackenzie himself" by his people.
Sean
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