With Brother Parvus as his interpreter, Sir Roger outblusters the Wersgor herald. The language difficulties probably help. Parvus thinks that:
"'...St. George - or more likely, I fear, St. Dismas, patron of thieves - must have watched over you.'" (pp. 54-55)
We welcome this reference to Nicholas van Rijn's patron saint.
Parvus thinks that the Englishmen's small numbers, antique weapons and lack of home-built spaceships must make the Wersgorix recognize their weakness soon. Sir Roger has no answer to this as yet. Neither have I. And I cannot remember how Poul Anderson managed this situation - except that more outrageous bluff was involved.
2 comments:
Paul:
Brother Parvus did some pretty competent bluffing himself. I recall with particular amusement how Sir Roger asked him, in front of some other aliens, about how long ago Earthfolk had begun experiments in space travel, and Parvus immediately cited "about thirty-five hundred years, at a place called Babel." Well, yes; a tower intended to reach Heaven could be called exploring space. Or earlier, when Parvus told the Wersgorix that Englishmen considered swords the best close-combat weapon. "Ask any survivor of the Ganturath garrison."
Kaor, DAVID!
Amusing examples, and ones I agree with and hope I would have thought of myself. I'm not a soldier but I think I can see how a combat knife or bayonet would be very useful for up close and PERSONAL, face to face fighting. At least if no one has a machine gun!
Sean
Post a Comment