"Conjecturally..."

Poul Anderson, The High Crusade, CHAPTER X.

Brother Parvus recounts a conversation between Sir Roger and Lady Catherine, then tells us that:

"This I did not hear myself. They rode ahead of us all..." (p. 62)

So one of them told him later, then? No:

"But I set it down here, conjecturally, in the light of the evil which followed." (ibid.)

Humor, of course, but also (I think) one aspect of how ancient historians did construct their texts.

Modern history is very clearly demarcated from historical fiction or drama. Shortly before the Saville Inquiry obliged the British government to acknowledge what had happened on Bloody Sunday, two dramatized TV documentaries presented the recorded and attested facts of the incident. An actor playing Edward Heath spoke a single sentence that Heath was on record as having said.

If those TV programs had been historical dramas, then a script writer would have composed fictional/"conjectural," although also hopefully plausible and authentic-sounding, conversations involving Heath. However, the documentary nature of the programs ruled out any such conjectures.

Parvus describes events that he witnessed and is honest when his account becomes conjectural. We can be confident that he is telling us God's own truth - in that alternative timeline.

Note: This is the time of month when there is sometimes activity on other neglected blogs, e.g.:

on Science Fiction, here, here, here and here;
on Logic of Time Travel, here.

(Still much fewer page views on those other blogs!)