Baldics, Gorzuni And The Commonwealth

Poul Anderson, "The Star Plunderer" IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 325-362. 

"The Star Plunderer," although not set during the Long Night, was collected in The Long Night and this cover accurately captures the story's opening scene. The first person narrator, Reeves, tells us that the Baldics have sacked Terra twice in fifteen years so we gather that a lot has happened in the Solar System since we last saw it three Technic History installments ago.

But who are the Baldics? And what internal evidence is there that this pulp magazine action story even belongs in the sophisticated Technic History? One Baldic, or at least one of Reeves' current antagonists, is a big, gray, four-armed barbarian. Does that sound familiar? Yes. Turning the page, we learn that Reeves and his companion, Kathryn, are fighting the Gorzuni. They were mercenaries in Satan's World and Supermetals Company members in Mirkheim. So, despite appearances to the contrary, the narrative remains within the same timeline as Nicholas van Rijn and David Falkayn.

On the next page, Reeves identifies Kathryn and himself as belonging to "...the broken Commonwealth navy..." (p. 329) Van Rijn had taught us to regard the government of the Solar Commonwealth as an enemy but now we sympathize with two of its employees.

We will learn that the Baldic League is an alliance of human and non-human barbarians and I have posted more than enough for this month!

From 1973 To 1952

Poul Anderson wrote "The Star Plunderer" as pulp magazine sf in 1952 (see image) and "Rescue on Avalon" as juvenile sf in 1973 (see recent posts), yet, in the fictional chronology of Anderson's Technic History, we turn directly from "Rescue on Avalon" to "The Star Plunderer." A century or two is supposed to have elapsed between the two stories.

Two fictional historians address us between the end of the 1973 story and the beginning of the 1952 story. First, Hloch, editor of The Earth Book Of Stormgate, signs off. Hloch has previously told us that the peripatetic historical writer, A. A. Craig, visiting Avalon during a pause in the Troubles, interviewed the aged Jack Birnam, then wrote "Rescue on Avalon" as an essentially accurate, although fictionalized, account of Jack's rescue of the Ythrian, Ayan. A "fictionalized" account means, e.g., that the conversations were not recorded at the time and have had to be imaginatively reconstructed.

Directly following Hloch, at least as the stories are presented in The Technic Civilization Saga, Donvar Ayeghen of the Galactic Archaeological Society tells us that the Memoirs of Rear Admiral John Henry Reeves, Imperial Solar Navy, might be "...pure fiction..." (Rise Of The Terran Empire, p. 325) But, even in that case, the author lived at the time and tried to present "...a true picture..." (ibid.) of the Imperial Founder who had, like Nicholas van Rijn, become a legend in his lifetime.

We feel that there is a real history of Avalon and the Terran Empire but that, in these installments at least, that history is mediated through fictionalized accounts and is not directly accessible to the reader.

Galemate

"Rescue on Avalon."

In the hospital where they both recover, Ayan, having previously addressed Jack as "'...human...'" (see here), now instead calls him "'...galemate...'" (p. 322) Having meanwhile studied Stormgate usages, Jaack knows what an honor this form of address is.

Human beings had been excluded from the Weathermother when Stormgate took possession. Ayan, as Wyvan, now declares that Jack and any guests of his will always be welcome there. He goes further:

"'Indeed, the time is over-past for our two kinds to intermingle freely.'" (ibid.)

The only qualification would be that free intermingling does not include intruding or trespassing in places set aside for specific or private use. For example, Ythrians are territorial because each family needs to hold country where it can hunt. Nevertheless, Ayan's declaration seems to mark the end of the second stage of colonization (see Three Stages) and to open the way to the more integrated planetary culture that we see in The People Of The Wind.

Writing at the beginning of The Earth Book Of Stormgate but after the events of The People Of The Wind, Hloch tells us that his parents:

"...held the country around Spearhead Lake... [They] were guest-free and would house whoever pleased them for days in line, giving these leave to roam and hunt."
-Poul Anderson, The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1979), p. 1.

Ayan solves the final problem. Jack's allergy to Ythrians would prevent him from entering their territory. However, Stormgate will pay to send him off-planet for a complete cure.

In "Wingless":

Thuriak learns that it is good that strengths be different so that they can be shared;
Nat learns to pity Ythrians because they cannot swim.

In "Rescue on Avalon":

Ayan learns that his choth needs the closeness of people like Jack "'...who would not abandon even an enemy.'" (p. 322);
Jack learns that he is proud to call Ayan his friend.

Let us hope that this will be the pattern for human-alien relations.

Rescuers On Avalon

In "Wingless," Nat Falkayn is twelve years Terrestrial, seventeen Avalonian, whereas, in "Rescue on Avalon," Jack Birnam is seventeen Terrestrial, twenty-four Avalonian. I have written the Terrestrial numbers first whereas, of course, the Avalonians think in terms of Avalonian years. Each rescues an injured Ythrian. Nat rescues his contemporary, Keshchyi, whereas Jack rescues Ayan, Wyvan of Stormgate Choth, a VIP. A balancing story might be of an Ythrian rescuing a human being.

To rescue Keshchyi, Nat essentially has to do no more than swim - Ythrians cannot do this - whereas, to rescue Ayan, Jack must endure his allergy to Ythrians.

Ayan, in his distress, addresses Jack as "'...human...'" ("Rescue on Avalon," p. 320) Imagine being able to respond to an alien being appealing to you in this way.

I have summarized the following scene before but it bears repetition. The window of Ayan's hospital room opens onto:

a lawn;
tall trees - Avalonian king's crown, Ythrian windnest, Terrestrial oak;
distant snowpeaks;
light that spills from heaven;
singing air.

Ayan looks out wistfully.

There is a peaceful evening recuperation scene near the end of Anderson's "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth." At a Time Patrol resort in Hawaii before the Polynesians arrived:

"We sat on a deck which abutted the building. Dusk gathered cool and blue in the garden, across the flowering forest beyond. Eastward, land dropped steeply to where the sea glimmered quicksilver; westward, the evening star trembled above Mauna Kea. A brook chimed. Here was the peace that heals."
-Poul Anderson, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 1991), pp. 207-289 AT p. 286.

Familiarity with the Technic History and the Time Patrol enables the reader to find many resonances between them.

Avalon And Diomedes

Look at this book cover. You might be thinking that those flying beings do not look like Ythrians and that this picture does not look like any scene on either Ythri or Avalon. You would be right.

The Earth Book Of Stormgate collects eleven stories and one novel. Therefore, its contents could be redivided between:

a collection, say five stories;
the novel in a single volume;
another collection of the remaining stories.

This was done. Volume II comprised the single novel, The Man Who Counts, set entirely on the planet Diomedes where the flying natives do indeed have bat-like, not feathered, wings and fight at sea. Thus, this cover image makes sense.

It seems appropriate that, among all the disparate volumes carrying parts of Poul Anderson's Technic History, one book has "Stormgate" in its title and Diomedes on its cover.

In his introduction to the novel, the Avalonian Ythrian historian, Hloch of Stormgate Choth, writes:

"...winged sophonts have a special interest for us, rare as they are. In addition, Diomedes, freak among planets, helps remind of the awesome unforeseeability of the universe, a fact before which starfaring races must humble their very deathpride."
-Poul Anderson, The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1979), p. 146.

Differences Between Species

"Rescue on Avalon."

One of Ayan's wings is injured. Therefore, he can neither fly nor walk. By flapping the good wing, he kept himself warm at night. Flapping also pumps oxygen into the blood. His alien face is unreadable to Jack.

Ythrians are physically shorter than human beings. Staring is more offensive to carnivores than to omnivores. As Sean said recently in the combox, spoken Planha sounds abrupt because much Ythrian communication is by changing patterns in the feathers.

"Planha was in fact not as laconic as its verbal conventions made it seem."
-Poul Anderson, The People Of The Wind IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 437-662 AT p. 459.

Human-alien interactions can be a major part of sf. See Water And Wind.

Separate Ecologies And POVs

"Rescue on Avalon."

In Three Stages, I mentioned division of territories and mixed menus on Avalon. Here is more relevant information:

"While men and Ythrians could eat many of the same things, each diet lacked certain essentials of the other. For that matter, native Avalonian life did not hold adequate nutrition for either colonizing race. The need to maintain separate ecologies was a major reason why they tended to live apart." (pp. 318-319)

From the tower of Weathermaker Choth, Nat Falkayn saw native susin beyond the area cultivated with Terrestrial grass and Ythrian starbell. See Environmental Details.

When Jack seeks the injured Ayan, he is guided by the latter's occasional hunting calls. At the beginning of this passage, we are told that:

"...Ayan had shut his mind to pain while he waited for rescue or death." (p. 316)

This reads like Ayan's pov. However, when Jack arrives:

"Far down a steep slope, the Ythrian sprawled..." (p. 316)

This is Jack's pov. Ayan's pov would have been about seeing a young man arrive at the top of the slope. That the narrative has remained with Jack's pov is confirmed when we are told that Jack knew that it was idiotic but asked Ayan how he was, addressing him as "'...sir...'" (p. 317)

The narrator recounts Jack's experience in the third person but also has some information about Ayan's condition before Jack's arrival. Hloch tells us that this story was written by A. A. Craig in his Tales of the Great Frontier, as was "Margin of Profit," introducing van Rijn.

Sources

In In The Hesperian Islands, I referred to the original publications of the two juvenile Avalon stories, "Wingless" and "Rescue on Avalon." Then I corrected what I had written. Then I noticed a discrepancy.

I refer to:

Poul Anderson, The Earth Book Of Stormgate (Berkley Books, New York, 1979);

Poul Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011).

In the Earth Book, p. v is "ACKNOWLEDGMENTS"; pp. ix-xii are "A CHRONOLOGY OF TECHNIC CIVILIZATION."

According to the Acknowledgments:

"Wingless" (as "Wingless on Avalon"), Children of Infinity, Roger Elwood, ed., Franklin Watts, 1973. Copyright 1973 by Franklin Watts, Inc.

"Rescue on Avalon," Boy's Life, July 1973. Copyright 1973 by The Boy Scouts of America.

According to the Chronology:

"Wingless on Avalon," Boy's Life, July, 1973.

"Rescue on Avalon," in Children of Infinity, ed. Roger Elwood, Franklin Watts, 1973.

Rise Of The Terran Empire:

includes both these stories;

presents "Acknowledgements" on p. V and "CHRONOLOGY OF TECHNIC CIVILIZATION COMPILED BY SANDRA MIESEL" on pp. 663-672;

reproduces the discrepancy.

Three Stages

There are three stages in the colonization of Avalon.

To avoid possible friction at the beginning, human beings and Ythrians settle on different islands in the Hesperian archipelago. Thus, Nat Falkayn sees Ythrians rarely and then only because they have business with his father or grandfather.

When the two races move to the Coronan continent, they divide up the territories between them. Ythrians live by hunting and ranching, not by farming - so, when the Stormgate Choth grows, it exchanges prairie for the Andromedas/Weathermother. Such deals are arranged between the Parliament of Man and the Great Khruath of the Ythrians. It is good to read juvenile sf where such matters are decided peacefully instead of by invasion and conquest. Jack Birnam's family, sea ranchers living on the coast five hundred kilometers west of the Andromedas, rarely see an Ythrian and might be unfamiliar with the details of choth organization, like the role of a "Wyvan." When Stormgate holds the Weathermother, human beings will no longer have free access to the Andromeda mountains, not because of any inter-species segregation but simply because land allocated for habitation, hunting and ranching cannot simultaneously be used for unrestricted hiking, camping, climbing etc. At this early stage, the two races do not overlap much because they are too busy adapting themselves to the new world.

The third stage, planetary integration, is shown in The People Of The Wind. Choths receive human beings into membership. The tallest building in the human city of Centauri is the Nest, a tavern for ornithoids, with a gravshaft to the roof for human beings who have not brought flying gear. Both species eat from mixed menus.

In The Weathermother

Poul Anderson, "Rescue on Avalon" IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 307-322.

Avalon's rapid spin causes sudden storms. Alone in the Andromeda Range, which the Ythrians call the Weathermother, Jack Birnam, caught in such a storm, is safe for several hours in his sleeping bag and shelter.

When, with the storm ended and night fallen, he emerges, we look for a description of the Milky Way but:

"Morgana, the moon, was full, so radiant that it crowded most stars out of view." (p. 311)

We are not disappointed when we look for appeals to several of the senses:

snowfields glitter;
the sky is blue-black;
boulders and bushes shine like silver;
a mercurial stream chuckles;
a cataract booms;
stillness after the storm seems holy;
the air is chill;
Jack smells trefoil, livewell and janie;
trefoil is sharp and livewell is sweet but janie is undescribed;
he plans a fire, snack and coffee but is interrupted...

Five senses if we count the coffee.

The Technic History incorporates narratives of every length from single short stories to series of stories to a trilogy of novels. A large number of short stories gives a future history body.

There were Falkayns in the previous story, there is a Holm in this story and a Holm will marry a Falkayn further down the line.

Endings That Are Also Beginnings

"Wingless" and "Rescue on Avalon" are the last works in The Earth Book Of Stormgate but the beginning of the colonization of Avalon and are fulfilled in The People Of The Wind.

The Game Of Empire is the last work in the Flandry period but the beginning of Diana Crowfeather's career. "Starfog" is the last work in the Technic History but the beginning of a new period of unprecedented wealth. Neither of these beginnings is fulfilled in any later works.

However, the end of the Technic History was the beginning of new works of speculative fiction by Poul Anderson, including two further future histories. In particular, Genesis will not date for a very long time.

Currently immersed in the Technic History, I do wish that this series had been even longer. However, its forty three installments retain their sense of dynamism, diversity and new beginnings.

Historical Records

In Poul Anderson's The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire:

p. 323 is an "AFTERWORD," signed by Hloch of the Stormgate Choth, The Earth Book Of Stormgate;

p. 324 is blank, which I dislike and consider unaesthetic;

p. 325 is an "INTRODUCTION," signed by Donver Ayeghen, President of the Galactic Archaeological Society.

Although I dislike the blank p. 324, I appreciate pp. 323 and 325 because they generate the impression that the Saga is compiled from diverse future historical sources. The Earth Book is published shortly after the Terran War on Avalon whereas the Galactic Archaelogical Society exists in a period long after the Terran Empire and possibly after several such empires since Ayeghen uses the phrase, "the First Empire." Who has researched all these sources and compiled the Saga?

Earth Book Reading Orders

In Poul Anderson, The Earth Book Of Stormgate (Berkley Books, New York, 1979), the three stories fictionally written by Judith Lundgren/Dalmady are presented in this order:

"Esau"
"The Season of Forgiveness"
"Wingless"

Thus, when introducing "Esau," Hloch tells us who Judith is whereas, when introducing the remaining two stories, he assumes that we know who she is.

In The Technic Civilization Saga, the order of these stories, separated of course by others, is changed to:

"The Season of Forgiveness" in Vol I;
"Esau" in Vol I (not II);
"Wingless" in Vol III.

However, Hloch's introductions are reproduced unchanged. Thus, Judith is first referred to as if we know who she is, then later introduced as if she had not been mentioned yet.

Similarly, in the Earth Book, the three stories either written or co-written by Arinnian were presented in this order:

"A Little Knowledge"
"Day of Burning"
"Lodestar"

Hloch tells us who Arinnian is when introducing "A Little Knowledge," then assumes that we know who he is when introducing the remaining two stories.

In The Technic Civilization Saga, the order is changed to:

"Day of Burning"
"A Little Knowledge"
"Lodestar"

This time, they are all in Vol II. The same remarks apply about the introductions.

The Moral

"Wingless."

Continued from Four Senses On Avalon.

Ythrians cannot swim. Nat dives into the water, lets it carry him to Keshchyi and treads water while disentangling the atlantis weed from the Ythrian's wing. However, Keshchyi, injured and with feathers soaked, is unable to rise. Nat and Thuriak raise him, each clutching one arm, and carry him to the shore.

Nat's full name, Nathaniel Falkayn, is spoken only once in the story during a ceremony of the Weathermaker Choth. Keshchyi honors Nathaniel Falkayn and his choth assents.

"Wingless" is a juvenile adventure short story but more happens than the defeat of a villain. The moral is spelled out. It is good:

"'...that strengths be different, so that they may be shared.'" (p. 306)

That was the point of this joint colony. Nat, who had envied Ythrian flight, now pities Ythrians who cannot swim.

Four Senses On Avalon

"Wingless."

"Hunkered in the bottom - there were no thwarts - Nat saw the waters swirl, heard them hiss, felt a shiver of speed and tasted salt on his lips." (p. 303)

Only smell is not mentioned but that would be present.

The boat is fast and surf is high and loud on the reefs ahead but all three can fly if necessary so that lifejackets are unnecessary. Nevertheless, Nat dislike it, just as I would, when Thuriak steers toward a narrow opening. Atlantis weed catches the rudder. Riptide and wind smash the ship into a reef. Nat and Thuriak fly but Keshchyi is caught by the weed which pulls him under and sweeps him against the reef. Now it is good to have someone along who can swim.

Water And Wind

"Wingless."

Nat goes sailing with friendly Thuriak and contemptuous Keshchyi. He has learned Planha although they have not properly learned Anglic. While learning the language, he has come to understand some of the signs and symbols expressed by rippling plumage although, of course, he is not able to communicate in that way just as, centuries later, Dominic Flandry speaks Eriau but cannot touch tails with a Merseian.

Because they have neither keel nor centerboard, Nat wonders how they will tack. However, Thuriak shows him complexly curved boards that interact with the wind without water drag. Nat is impressed. I was surprised to read that his pleasure soared when Keshchyi commented but I had misread:

"His pleasure soured when Keshchyi said in a patronizing tone: 'Well, of course, knowledge of the ways of air comes natural to us.'" (p. 303)

Sf writers can imagine endless details of human-alien interactions. Some of this even gets into Star Trek. Vulcans can be considerably more than just a simplistic logic-emotion dichotomy. But Anderson's intelligent winged carnivores are at the top of the list - and Anderson wrote all of their stories in little more than a year.

Hloch's New Narratives

"Hloch's introductions add a new narrative layer..."
-see here.

James Ching narrates "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson," where he is last seen about to accept an apprenticeship with a Master Merchant of the Polesotechnic League, having been recommended by Adzel. Hloch tells us that:

Jim became a spaceman;

"How To Be Ethnic..." is an extract from his life-long reminiscences;

he settled in Catawrayannis;

his descendants kept his notebooks and made them available to Rennhi, Hloch's mother.

Nicholas van Rijn promotes Emil Dalmady to entrepreneur in "Esau." Hloch tells us that:

Dalmady soared high for many years;

some of his children came to Avalon with Falkayn;

his daughter Judith wrote "Esau," which was published in a magazine named Morgana after the Avalonian moon;

Dalmady got the story of "The Season of Forgiveness" from one of the persons concerned and relayed it to Judith who wrote it also for Morgana;

in her old age, Judith Dalmady/Lundgren wrote "Wingless" about Nat Falkayn, also published in Morgana.

Hloch rescues "Arinnian of Stormgate Choth, whose human name is Christopher Holm..." (David Falkayn: Star Trader, pp. 599-600) from being a single-novel character.

Arinnian wrote "A Little Knowledge" for the Earth Book;

Hloch and Arinnian wrote "Day of Burning" and "Lodestar," again directly for the Earth Book which also includes texts from other sources.

Thus, between them, Jim Ching, Dalmady's daughter and Arinnian account for seven of the twelve works included in the Earth Book.

No Ythrian

In this image, we see the Ythrian's "...gill-like antlibranch slits...'biological superchargers'..."
-"Wingless," p. 300.

Remember that, on land, he stands on claws at the joints of his wings. The apparent, and indeed former, legs and feet, are now instead used as arms and hands.

"An Ythrian in flight burned more food and air than a human; they said he was more alive.
"But I am no Ythrian, Nat thought. Tears stung him. He wiped them away, angrily, with the back of a wrist, and sought the controls of his gravbelt.
"It encircled his coveralls at the waist. On his back were the two cylinders of its powerpack. He could rise, he could fly for hours. But how wretched a crutch this was!" (ibid.)

(If they are more alive when flying, then maybe this is what gives them the idea of God the Hunter.)

I try to keep quotations short. Otherwise, I could just wind up transcribing an entire Poul Anderson text. However, in this case, I had to keep going till I reached "...how wretched a crutch this was!" That is what Nat thinks. Of course he is going to learn better.

Generations later, Christopher Holm:

joins Stormgate Choth;
takes the Ythrian name, Arinnian;
speaks Anglic with an Ythrian intonation;
translates Planha works into Anglic;
contributes to the Earth Book;
is promiscuous with "orthohuman" women but expects "bird" women to emulate (what he sees as) Ythrian purity - a double standard;
argues that he is:

"...widening and purifying his humanity."
-Poul Anderson, The People Of The Wind IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 437-662 AT p. 438.

A far cry from Nat resenting that he is no Ythrian. Holm's contemporary, Tabitha Falkayn, is Hrill of Highsky Choth and calls herself "Ythrian" because Avalon is in the Domain of Ythri but she does not deny her humanity in the way that Holm effectively does despite his talk of widening and purifying.

Environmental Details

The Technic Civilization Saga, Volumes I-III, incorporates The Earth Book Of Stormgate in its entirety. Hloch's first introduction precedes the first of the eleven works collected in Vol I and his concluding passage comes at the exact mid-point of Vol III. Thus, the two parts of the Polesotechnic League series, the original Tetralogy and the eight further works that had been collected as the Earth Book, whether in one or in three volumes, are fitted together into their chronological order, e.g., with "Lodestar" earlier than Mirkheim. 

Anderson's attention to detail is never more evident than when he shows us the merging of three ecologies on Avalon. From the tall stone tower of the Weathermaker Choth, Nat Falkayn sees:

Terrestrial grass, clover, oak and pine;
Ythrian starbell, wry, braidbark and copperwood;
beyond the cultivated area, native susin, chasuble bush and janie;
in flight, native draculas and a young Ythrian;
on the nearby meadow, grazing meat animals - from where?

Colors: susin is red; chasuble is intense green; janie is delicate blue.

Of course, there are other details in the scene:

paved courtyard;
rambling wooden buildings;
the rising golden sun, Laura;
distant ocean;
clouds;
the sinking moon, Morgana.

As with many of Anderson's fictional places - other Technic planets and the legendary city of Ys - we feel that we have been there.

In The Hesperian Islands

"Wingless."

The opening two pages of "Wingless" turn a new page in the Technic History:

human beings and Ythrians have settled on different islands in the Hesperian archipelago on Avalon;

the Falkayns live in Chartertown on First Island whereas the chief Ythrian abode is Trauvay/Wingland;

David, then Nicholas, Falkayn speak Planha to their occasional Ythrian dinner guests;

growing up in such a household, Nat Falkayn becomes strongly motivated to learn Planha at school;

(Nat's body holds scarcely a single Terrestrial atom);

in Nat's twelfth Terrestrial/seventeenth Avalonian year, the island settlements have grown large enough for their leaders to consider beginning the colonization of the Coronan continent;

when Nicholas Falkayn, engineer, joins a bi-species research and development team at Trauvay, his family accompanies him there for several moon cycles;

the Weathermaker Choth invites Nat to stay with them for Freedom Week.

We have now come as far away as we might readily imagine from the Babur War and its aftermath. "Wingless" was written for an original juvenile sf anthology in 1973. Instead of contributing a non-series, one-off story, Anderson took the opportunity to add a juvenile perspective to the Technic History. The successor story, written for Boy's Life, also in 1973, describes a single human-Ythrian interaction in the early days of the Coronan colonization whereas the next installment after that, "The Star Plunderer," published in a pulp sf magazine in 1952, describes Terrestrials rebelling against alien slavers. That story fits into the Technic History because its central character founds the Terran Empire, the successor state of the Solar Commonwealth. My point here is that this single fictional history is woven together from different kinds of narratives published in very different places decades apart.

Another Avalonian Family

"Wingless" is the last story:

"...that Judith Dalmady/Lundgren wrote for Morgana.  Though she was then in her high old age, the memories upon which she was drawing were fresh.
"-Hloch of the Stormgate Choth
"The Earth Book of Stormgate"
-Poul Anderson, "Wingless" IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 293-306 AT p. 294.

I asked here how this passage connected with another about the Baburites. The answer is that the SSL factor who outwitted the Baburites was Emil Dalmady, the father of Judith. She and other children of Dalmady moved to Avalon with the Falkayns.

Thus, we know of Falkayns, Holms and, by implication at least, maybe more Avalonian lineages - Lundgrens and any other Dalmady descendants. Hloch's introductions add a new narrative layer, linking Dalmadies to Avalon and James Ching to Catawrayannis.  

The Technic Civilization Saga, Volumes I-III

These three volumes collect twenty four works. Of these, at least sixteen are set during the lifetime of Nicholas van Rijn. Can he still be alive at the time of "Wingless" when his great-great-grandson, Nat Falkayn, is twelve years old Terrestrial, seventeen Avalonian, on the colony planet of Avalon?

Thus, Volumes I-III constitute a future history series, as against just a futuristic series, by virtue of including the first three installments in Vol I and either four or five of the six installments in Vol III. The pre- and post-van Rijn installments are indeed set centuries apart. "Wingless" is a good transitional narrative.

Van Rijn and David Falkayn are introduced in Vol I;
van Rijn's granddaughter, Coya, is introduced in the last installment of Vol II;
Falkayn's and Coya's son, Nicholas, is born near the end of the first installment in Vol III;
Nicholas Falkayn speaks to his twelve year old son, Nat, in "Wingless," which is the second installment of Vol III;
after "Wingless," we are embarked on the future history of Avalon, then of Earth and other planets, and we meet one more Falkayn, many generations later, in the last installment of Vol III.

Not Their Last Farewell

The best farewell is one that is not really a farewell. Let us review Adzel's and Chee Lan's careers:

David Falkayn, Master Merchant Polesotechnic League, Adzel, planetologist, and Chee Lan, xenobiologist, were Nicholas van Rijn's first trade pioneer crew;

eventually, Coya Conyon, astrophysicist, married Falkayn and joined the team;

however, when Coya had their first child, the Falkayns stopped pioneering and lived on Earth;

then Chee Lan joined another trade pioneer crew whereas Adzel became a lay brother in a Buddhist monastery in the Andes;

van Rijn responded to the Mirkheim crisis by reconvening the original team minus Coya who was by now pregnant for the second time;

after the resolution of the Mirkheim crisis, Adzel and Chee Lan will at last retire to their home planets, Woden and Cynthia, respectively;

however, they will occasionally rendezvous to talk about old times;

they will also plan how to prepare their home planets for the bad times ahead.

The Constitution Of Hermes

There has been combox discussion of Hermetian politics here. I had previously summarized information about Hermes here. This paragraph summarized the Hermetian constitution:

When Hermes declared independence from Terra, its new constitution recognized the Kindred as the Thousand Families controlling the "domains": either landed estates or corporations. The presidents of the domains elect the Duke or Duchess of Hermes from the Tamarin family which must not own a domain. Ancestors of Kindred and Tamarins were the first to arrive from Earth but, instead of founding a corporation, the Tamarins free lanced as scientists etc. "Followers," holding entailed shares, are junior partners in domains, each holding a single vote in domain affairs whereas Kindred have ten. "Travers," hirelings or unaffiliated business people, descended from latecomers, are not taxed and have no vote. The Liberation Front demands full rights for Travers who, as a result of "Libby" campaigns, gain a vote in choosing municipal officers. Travers bow to the Duchess, Followers salute, Kindred shake hands.

The following paragraph describes how one Follower negotiated with Travers:

The Asmundsens, Followers of the Runebergs and tenants on the Brightwater estate, manage the Runeberg's copper industry. A younger Asmundsen, who explores and develops other planets in the Maian system, is obliged by custom to give preferential promotions to fellow Followers but acknowledges that his strike-threatening Traver employees have legitimate grievances which he tries to address by negotiating in person with their leaders and offering compensations like extra vacations

I wrote that, after the Babur War, Hermes:

became an ordinary crowned republic while remaining nominally a Grand Duchy

At least, that is what was expected to happen. However, during the Troubles, Hermes:

developed a military-oriented society with authority concentrated in the executive and rule by whoever commanded the greatest armed force;

When Hans Molitor seized the Imperial Throne, Hermes:

rioted against forced demilitarization under Molitor and was pacified by the Marines;
prospered under Grand Duke Edwin Cairncross who reclaimed the interior with canals, landscaping, imported species, urbanization, commerce and a castle on an extinct volcano.

And that is as much as we know about Hermes.  

Mirkheim, The Last Chapter, Continued II

Mirkheim, XXI.

(ii) Adzel's and Chee Lan's concluding conversation sums up everything but I have discussed it before. See here.

Anderson describes a Hermetian stream shining and swirling among boulders and gnarly trees beneath cold moist air and upland summer odors;

Adzel describes wind-swept Wodenite plains, bright and open, with endless horizons and flowers underfoot;

Chee Lan describes Cynthian light on leaves above mysterious shapes, colorful wings and petals and a rill in a glen.

The ends were in the beginning:

"Wings of Victory" not only introduced the winged Ythrians but also mentioned Hermes, Woden and Cynthia;

"The Problem of Pain" introduced not only Avalon and the Ythrian New Faith but also a Christian man from Aeneas, a planet whose millenarianism becomes important later in the History;

"How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" not only introduced  Adzel and the Polesotechnic League but also mentioned:

"...treetop highways under the golden-red sun of Cynthia!"
-Poul Anderson, "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 175-197 AT p. 183.

No future history series could possibly be more integrated.

Mirkheim, The Last Chapter, Continued

Mirkheim, XXI.

(ii) Van Rijn and Sandra are on the terrace at Windy Rim:

"Above bulks of trees and hilltops reached a sky full of stars, Milky Way, glimmer of a nebula and of a sister galaxy." (p. 283)

For completeness, we should also note that van Rijn "...looked off into the Milky Way..." (p. 279) at the end of XX.

Sandra will remain Grand Duchess of Hermes and van Rijn will travel around in Muddlin' Through, trying to hold the divided Polesotechnic League together for a short while longer. After that, he might lead an expedition outside known space and she might join him.

Constitutional demands continue. Sandra thinks that Hermes will eventually become a republic and that this might be for the best. Benoni Strang, dying in Adzel's arms, said:

"'There will be other days.'" (XX, p. 276)

He was right. Social progress continues despite his attempt to hasten it by force. Anderson captures the dynamism and complexity of real historical changes in the twentieth century in fiction about a future century.

Immediate blog agenda:

finish discussing Mirkheim, XXI;

summarize and discuss the constitution of the Grand Duchy of Hermes;

pull back from the lives of van Rijn etc to view The Technic Civilization Saga, Volumes I-III as a future history. (There are also Volumes IV-VII but, for the time being, I-III suffice.)

Never the end - at least, not yet.

Mirkheim, The Last Chapter

Mirkheim, XXI.

(i) Eric and Falkayn, pp. 280-283.
(ii) Van Rijn and Sandra, pp. 283-288.
(iii) Adzel and Chee Lan, 288-291.

(i) Cool air, fragrance, river sound, whisky:

"...a taste of peat smoke from the birthworld of their race." (p. 280)

"Birthworld" is an Anderson coinage.

Eric will be Hermetian special envoy to the Solar Commonwealth. Falkayn will run SSL in van Rijn's absence, then "'...look for a place to begin afresh.'" (p. 282)

"'The wound to the old order of things is too deep...'" (ibid.)

See here.

To be continued.

Chill And Bitter

Mirkheim.

David and Coya Falkayn's second child, Nicholas, has just been born. Recently, David left to go to Babur. Then he went to Hermes. Now he goes to wage war against the Seven in Space. After that he promises never to leave again. However, Coya says that they will not stay on Earth. He responds:

"'Hermes -' He was mute for a while. 'Maybe. We'll see. It's a big universe.'" (XIX, p. 262)

Since Mirkheim was published in 1977 whereas The People Of The Wind had been published in 1973, fans who read Poul Anderson's works in the order of publication already knew that the Falkayns would lead the colonization of Avalon. If you read the Polesotechnic League Tetralogy followed by the two Avalonian volumes, then Mirkheim is Volume IV of the Tetralogy and The People Of The Wind is the first Avalonian volume. If instead you read The Technic Civilization Saga, then you find that Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire, collects:

Mirkheim;
"Wingless";
"Rescue on Avalon";
"The Star Plunderer";
"Sagrasso of Lost Starships";
The People Of The Wind.

This, finally, places these works in chronological order of fictitious events.

In Rise Of The Terran Empire, "'It's a big universe.'" is printed at the bottom of p. 262 and the next chapter, XX, begins on p. 264. P. 263 has just two sentences printed in two lines:

"The wind whistled cold. Chill also, and bitter, was spindrift cast off the booming waters."

In Anderson's works, the weather in general and the wind in particular comments on the action and dialogue. The Falkayns face a war and an Earth that they want to leave. Nothing could be more appropriate than cold wind, chill and bitter spindrift or booming waters. We turn the page to read of war.

Van Rijn's Words

Mirkheim.

Van Rijn talks to Coya while she nurses the newly born Nicholas:

"'He has the family looks, I see - never mind which family, Adam's maybe, they are all crumpled red worms at this age.'" (XVIII, p. 248)

We are sons of Adam and daughters of Eve in CS Lewis' The Chronicles Of Narnia.

Speaking about someone else:

"'...he was threatened with bankrupture.'" (ibid.)

A little bit of bankruptcy and a little bit of rupture.

"'If we do not stand together, we will have to stand for anything.'" (ibid.)

"'Ach, my apologetics,' van Rijn said." (p. 249)

There are apologetics but they are not apologies.

"'We got many paradoxes and no paradoctors.'" (p. 250)

And this is not a word from van Rijn but a rare, maybe once in a lifetime, experience. Van Rijn's executive secretary calls that the Grand Duchess has arrived as the Hermetian government in exile:

"'...and - and David Falkayn is with her!'
"Glory exploded in the room." (p. 251)

However the chapter cannot end on such a note. Instead:

"Later came grimness, as they who were there got to wondering." (ibid.)  

Leaving Hermes

Mirkheim.

"An early snow decked the land when the yacht Castle Catherine lifted from Williams Field." (XVII, p. 241)

For the possible symbolism of  snow in this passage, see the concluding paragraph of Alliterative Prose.

Purity is possibly suggested again two sentences later:

"Above, heaven was unutterably blue." (ibid.)

The imagery of snow is deployed again when:

"Soon engines hummed, negagravity took hold, the hull rose like a snowflake on a breeze, until it was so high that it gleamed like a star and then blinked out." (ibid.)

Imagine if spaceships really could take off like that. Such ships would not have noisy takeoffs. See Eric Wace.

"The sun dwindled, the Milky Way beckoned." (ibid.)

Lady Sandra goes into exile. David Falkayn, accompanying her, has paid a very short but fruitful visit to Hermes.

An Ax

Mirkheim.

Nicholas van Rijn, Sandra Tamarin and Eric Wace struggled, suffered and survived together on the planet, Diomedes. Shortly after that, Sandra bore van Rijn's son, Eric Tamarin. Wace drops out of the picture but is remembered in a name.

Sandra's conference chamber on Hermes displays a "...Diomedean battle-ax." (XVII, p. 233)

"When at last [David Falkayn] stopped and regarded her, it was strangely right that he stood beneath the ax." (p. 238)

Very right. The unity of action between the first van Rijn novel, The Man Who Counts, and this concluding van Rijn-Falkayn novel, Mirkheim, is being affirmed. If we approach the Technic History in chronological order, then we have read The Man Who Counts long before reaching Mirkheim whereas, in the original order, we read Mirkheim as the culmination of the Polesotechnic League Tetralogy, then, two volumes later, encounter The Man Who Counts as part of the Avalonian history, The Earth Book Of Stormgate.

In this chapter, we appreciate some weather. The storm makes the conference chamber a gloomy cave but:

"Freshness blew in, though, loud and raw. Rain struck the garden like spears and hid sight of the world beyond its wall. Lightning flared, making every bare twig on the shrubs leap forth under a sheet-metal sky; thunder rolled across unending reaches while murk returned." (p. 233)

"Wind whooped, rain rushed, thunder went like enormous wheels. Winter was on its way to Starfall." (p. 239)

See also Alliterative Prose.

Thunder Resounded

Mirkheim.

Thunder in a pathetic fallacy usually means threat or menace, I think. This time it is different. Benoni Strang, the Baburites' High Commissioner on Hermes calls Grand Duchess Sandra to tell her to cancel all public celebrations on the planetary day, Elvander's Birthday. Initially, he merely states that his call is about the Birthday. At first, Sandra is too weary to respond:

"Then thunder resounded outside, she heard anew the trumpet of wind and march of rain, as if Pete rode by. She straightened in her chair and replied coldly, 'What of it?..." (XVII, p. 232)

Perhaps this is not a pathetic fallacy? The thunder does not merely parallel or echo Strang's call. Instead, it influences, and even heartens, Sandra. Thunder resounds, wind trumpets and rain marches as if her dead husband rides by. The Hermetian elements resist the oppressor.

At Hornbeck

I missed "Ymir" in "References To Norse Myths In The Technic History," here.

At the ancestral Falkayn home, Hornbeck, there is brown soil, cool air and scrunching of boots on gravel: three senses.

"Far overhead a steelwing hovered, alert for prey."
-Mirkheim, XVI, p. 215.

See also The End Of A Stone In Heaven.

Falkayn says of Benoni Strang:

"'...he's taking his chance to get revenge. Or to right old wrongs, he'd say. Same thing.'" (p. 223)

Not the same thing, although an aristocrat might think so. If every righting of a wrong were mere reprehensible revenge-taking, then it would follow that no wrong should ever be righted. Falkayn did much to right several wrongs in that earlier, shorter Polesotechnic League culmination, "Lodestar." I remembered that while writing this.

Summary And Details

OK. I might just possibly have encapsulated the intricate structure of Poul Anderson's Technic History here. To summarize:

I. League.
II. Ythrians, including an Ythrian history of the League.
III. The Flandry period.
IV. Three post-Technic periods.

What is remarkable is that any one of these four subsidiarity series, like the initial Polesotechnic League Tetralogy or the (originally) nine-volume Flandry period, would have comprised a major sf series in its own right. I find scriptural comparisons inevitable. The Samaritans accept only the Law (Torah), not also the Prophets and Writings, let alone the New Testament or the Book of Mormon, as canonical. There might be someone who has read the League Tetralogy but does not know about the rest of the History.

Apart from its grand historical sweep, the mega-series presents many detailed individual scenes like the trader team's arrival in a Hermetian forest (see Yet Another Realization) where we are informed about native trees like stonebark and rainroof. (Mirkheim, XV, p. 210) We appreciate each individual work and their interconnections.

Yet Another Realization

Mirkheim.

The trader team has landed clandestinely on the occupied planet, Hermes, but their descending craft was detected and they are now being sought by men flying with "'...impellers.'" (XV, p. 211) Adzel offers to decoy them but:

"Intelligence slammed back into Falkayn like sword into sheath. 'Sunblaze!' he cried. 'Turn that notion inside out.'" (p. 212)

He orders Adzel to stay and Chee to come with him and says that he will explain as they run. Here are all the ingredients of an Andersonian moment of realization:

a practical problem;
a sudden realization of the solution;
deferment of the explanation until after the event.

"...sword into sheath..." is an apt comparison.

Before that, Falkayn wonders whether Hermes is still his home or whether he has roamed away from it too much. With the benefit of having already read the whole series, we know that Falkayn's career comprises:

a good upbringing on Hermes;
a lot of interstellar roaming for Nicholas van Rijn;
eventually, making a new home on the planet, Avalon.

Enviable.

In The Future On Titan: More

See In The Future On Titan and combox.

For more on the black hole vacuum beings (Holont), see The Holont: Second Potentiality.

For "In Memoriam," see here and also Cosmic Perspectives.

For "Kyrie," see here.

For Earth affected by the expanding sun in Poul Anderson's Genesis, see  Future Geography.

In The Future On Titan

When the Sun expands, as it does in The Time Machine, the inner planets will be destroyed but the outer satellites, including Titan, which has ice and complex chemistry, will be warmed. Poul Anderson's Twilight World, Epilogue, describes the far future terraforming of Ganymede but could there be another series set in an even further future about intelligent beings that have naturally evolved on Titan and that know nothing of any earlier periods of the Solar System?

Olaf Stapledon's Neptunians, who had re-evolved from animality, learned of earlier Venerian and Terrestrial humanities by mental time travel but let us make the conservative assumption that this means of knowledge is not accessible to our future Titanians!

Poul Anderson wrote that one of the aims of his Polesotechnic League series was to:

"...explore a few of the possible facets of this endlessly marvelous universe..."
-Poul Anderson, AFTERWORD IN Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 679-680 AT p. 680.

Imagining unusual environments for intelligence must count as part of such a project and, indeed, Anderson imagines life on a neutron star (see the 4th Jump) and in the vacuum near a black hole.

OK: Wells, Stapledon and Anderson in one post and it is nearly midnight. I am out of here.

Multiple Reality

From where I am sitting now, I can see:

objects in the room;

open books by Poul Anderson and Stieg Larsson that I am currently rereading;

the street and the sky through the window;

this computer screen;

a TV screen showing a Brian Cox program about discoveries made by probes to Mercury, Venus and Mars.

It is thought that Mercury was formed near the orbit of Mars but that something moved it closer to the Sun. Apparently, Venus was an oceanic planet before its greenhouse effect took over. Now it is hotter than Mercury. Poul Anderson, while alive, would have watched such a program to update his background knowledge. Can an sf writer keep a series consistent throughout his career despite changing scientific information? Ingenuity can save the appearances to a certain extent.

Yerb On Yardangs

Mirkheim.

In the desert interior of the single Hermetian continent of Greatland, yerb grows on yardangs. (XV, p. 207) (That Wikipedia article on yerb is in some strange variant of English.) I no longer routinely google unfamiliar terminology in Poul Anderson's texts because I figure everyone can google and terms that are unfamiliar to me will be familiar to others. However, I thought that "yardangs" immediately followed by "yerb" warranted some attention.

The trader team clandestinely approaches Falkayn's occupied home planet, Hermes. I know what is going to happen so I am in no hurry and can pause on unusual items like "yardangs," which I do not remember having read before although I must have done, in this novel. If we notice such a word only once in our lives, then there is no way to know in advance what it means and we did not always have a dictionary to hand in pre-internet days.

Where did Poul Anderson get his extensive vocabulary from?

The Uniqueness Of Poul Anderson's Technic History

Maybe now I can characterize this uniqueness?

(i) The Technic History is many time longer than either of its direct predecessors, Heinlein's Future History or Anderson's Psychotechnic History.

(ii) This second Andersonian future history comprises not one but four distinct, and equally substantial, series.

(iii) Series I is the major sf series about Nicholas van Rijn, David Falkayn and the Polesotechnic League.

(iii) Series III is the equally major, and even longer, sf series about Dominic Flandry and the Terran Empire.

(iv) Series II and IV each comprises a future history in its own right.

(v) Series I is continued as a major narrative-within-the-narrative of Series II.

(vi) In the original order of publication, we read six stories and two novels about the Polesotechnic League in four volumes, then found another seven stories and one novel about the PL embedded in the second Avalonian volume.

No other future history has such a structure. We read about the League, then about Ythrians, then an Ythrian's history of the League, then about two further phases of the Technic History. Or, more accurately, Series IV covers three periods of post-Technic history.

TV Dramatizations

(An Ythrian should not resemble a large bird.)

Would it be possible to adapt Poul Anderson's Technic History as a TV serial? Yes, but it would need:

CGI;
high production values;
authentic adaptations;
an indefinite number of seasons and episodes stretching all the way from "The Saturn Game" to "Starfog."

I do not argue that such a program would be currently marketable, necessarily.

How have other novels or series adapted to TV?

Game Of Thrones
I understand that there is outrage!

Neil Gaiman's American Gods
Audiovisually spectacular but of questionable coherence.

Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy
Authentic in theme and characters but differing in many details and uni-dimensional by contrast with the novels.

BBC Pride And Prejudice And Aldous Huxley's Eyeless In Gaza
Excellent, proving that it can be done.

Linear And Non-Linear

There still is something that I have not quite managed to articulate about Poul Anderson's Technic History which is why I keep returning to it.

Robert Heinlein's Future History is a linear narrative from  "Life-Line" at the beginning of Volume I to "Common Sense" at the end of Volume V;

Anderson's Psychotechnic History is a linear narrative from "Marius" either to "The Chapter Ends" or to The Peregrine, depending on whether we accept "The Chapter Ends" as part of the series;

Anderson's Technic History is a linear narrative from "The Saturn Game" at the beginning of The Technic Civilization, Volume I, to "Starfog" at the end of Volume VII.

However, the Technic History was originally published in a different order:

the Polesotechnic League Tetralogy was two short trilogies and two novels, thus eight PL narratives;

the Avalonian volumes were one novel and one collection, thus thirteen narratives, covering -

Ythrians settled on Avalon;
Ythrians on Ythri;
Ythrians exploring Gray/Avalon;
eight PL narratives as recorded by an Avalonian Ythrian, Hloch;
Ythrians settling Avalonian islands;
Ythrians settling an Avalonian continent.

Thus, the second Avalonian volume incorporated a second set of eight PL narratives. In fact, Hloch records all but the first of the thirteen narratives. The principle characters of the PL Tetralogy reappear in Hloch's accounts.

In fictional chronological order:

the earliest story in the PL Tetralogy is "The Three-Cornered Wheel" and the last is Mirkheim;

the earliest stories in the second PL set are "Margin of Profit" and "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" and the last is "Lodestar."

"Lodestar," about the discovery of Mirkheim, was originally conceived as the conclusion of the PL series but fortunately was followed by the more substantial culmination, Mirkheim. Thus, everything was coherent if not chronological.

An Ending

I have posted a few times about endings, e.g., see:

South Pacific Sunset.

Sometimes we do something for the last time knowing that it is the last time. On this occasion:

Poul Anderson knew that he was writing the last Polesotechnic League narrative;
we know that we are reading the last PL narrative;
Adzel knows that the team is about to embark on its last adventure.

That is a lot of knowledge of endings. We have known Adzel since the trader team's first expedition and, before that, since his student days on Earth.

I recently referred to Coronation Street. When two women who had run the corner shop for a long time were about to retire and go their separate ways, one asked, "How many years has it been?" The question was ironic or metafictional since that TV series is a real time drama. Thus, it had been exactly as many years for the actors as for the characters. We do not share the same time frame as Adzel. Anderson had had to skip over decades of missions in order to give us a beginning, a middle and an end for the story of van Rijn's first trade pioneer crew. This sub-series of the Technic History ends here with a sense of completion and closure.

The Populace

Mirkheim.

Benoni Strang, High Commissioner for the Baburite occupation of Hermes, to the Hermetian Grand Duchess Sandra Tamarin:

"'Production can no longer be divided among domains. It has to be integrated on a global scale. So do distribution, courts, police, education, welfare, everything. For this, the domains have to be dissolved. In their place, we need the entire populace.'" (XIV, p. 195)

Me to Strang:

Then campaign for these reforms among "the entire populace." Don't impose the "reforms" under threat of nuclear bombardment by alien invaders. Travers have won a vote in choosing municipal officers and the Liberation Front continues to grow. Social changes will continue after the invasion has been defeated.

I share Strang's opposition to the social conditions during his early life on Hermes:

Travers children crowded into public schools while Kindred children received individual tuition;
domain control of land, resources and businesses;
his girlfriend's parents preventing her from marrying a Traver.

I am pleased to say that, despite the historical social divisions in these islands, my father was from the North of England, my mother was from the West of Ireland, my wife is from the North of Ireland, our son-in-law is Jewish, our granddaughter knows about her Jewish heritage and even has a "right of return" to Israel (!) and finally many of our neighbors are Muslim. However, social stratification like that in the Grand Duchy of Hermes ceased in Britain before our births.