Tuesday 26 February 2019

The Conquest Of The Rustumite Lowlands

Poul Anderson's Rustum History comprises nine stories, including "The Queen of Air and Darkness," which is set on a different planet but in the same timeline. Like many other series by Anderson, this future history could have been extended indefinitely but then he would have written less of something else.

Numbering the nine stories, 1-9, we find the conquest of the Rustumite lowlands in three stages in 4-6:

in 4, two men rescue a child, Daniel Coffin, who has wandered down into the lowlands;

in 5, two men, including the teenage Daniel Coffin, salvage equipment from an aircraft that has crashed in the lowlands;

in 6, the adult Daniel Coffin lives in a lowlands station with pastures and grainfields and must marry someone who, like him, can live comfortably in the higher air pressure of the lowlands.

Thus, Anderson presents a systematic narrative. Environmental details originating in earlier stories provide background in 6, e.g.:

the large moon, Raksh;
the small visibly moving moon, Sohrab;
Sol, seen as a star, not as the local sun.

Other planets cast glades on the lake.

7 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And we are still seeing Poul Anderson's idiosyncratic and baffling use of "glade" in the Rustum stories. Every dictionary I've checked insists "glade" means only an open space withing a wooded area, and has nothing to do with how sun or moonlight shines on waters.

I simply don't understand how Anderson came to use "glade" like this! Surely he knew of the usual meaning of "glade." Or is there some obscure, long forgotten definition of "glade" that would justify how Anderson used the word?

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
I don't know.
Maybe so.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Maybe the OXFORD DICTIONARY includes in its undoubtedly exhaustive of the word "glad" an obscure use of that word in the sense used by Anderson?

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
He must've got it from somewhere.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Ever since you first discussed Anderson's unusual use of "glade," that word has been one of the things niggling in the back of my mind!

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
I realize that.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And I don't mind! (Smiles)

Sean