We are told, on p. 21, that "the Queen of the Adriatic" offers fights or frolics in rich variety to those who explore her byways.
Venice has been known as "La Dominante", "La Serenissima", "Queen of the Adriatic", "City of Water", "City of Masks", "City of Bridges", "The Floating City", and "City of Canals"
-copied from here.
When Manse Everard of the Time Patrol enters Tyre in 950 B.C.:
"'Well, Eborix,' said Captain Mago genially, 'there you have her, queen of the sea like I told you she is, eh? What d'you think of my town?'"
-Poul Anderson, "Ivory, And Apes, And Peacocks" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 229-331 at p. 230.
Anderson's descriptions of Tyre and particularly of its Egyptian Harbor more than match up to Mago's description. These two passages resonated across the centuries.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And I recall reading in one of JRR Tolkien's letters of what he thought of Venice after visiting it. There was much about Venice that pleased him, and how it fitted in whit what Tolkien conceived Pelargir, the ancient Numenorean city at the delta of the Anduin River, to be like.
The ancient city of Arvanneth, in THE WINTER OF THE WORLD, also comes to mind.
Ad astra! Sean
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