Many Myths

"Star of the Sea," 20.

"'The future was creating the past.'" (p. 633)

Janne Floris guides Veleda in building the cult of Nehalennia:

"'...I know that many stories people live by are myths, and many myths were manufactured.'" (p. 637)

Many myths manufactured? A "myth" is either a falsehood or a meaningful story. The Crucifixion was a historical event and has been invested with meaning. The Resurrection is an alleged historical event, also invested with meaning. The American, French, Glorious and other Revolutions were historical events which attract meaning and also falsehoods. (I believe that it is a falsehood, for example, that revolutions always fail but this is controversial.)

Alan Moore once said to me that "religions are higher fictions." How true, in one way. Fiction requires willing suspension of disbelief. Some religions require willing belief. This is a difference of degree, not of kind. If this sense, if one religion is true, then the others are either falsehoods or (higher) fictions.

I want always to know the difference between truth, falsity and fiction and never to live by a falsehood.

Heidhin's House

Copied from Poul Anderson's Cosmic Environments:

(Heidhin is Veleda's foremost man but, since he is entirely fictional, we stay with images of Veleda.)

"Star of the Sea," 18.

The fire in a trench down the middle of the floor scarcely warms the house, its smoke hazes the air and its red light does not penetrate the darkness between pillars and beams yet, despite all this, Heidhin's house is "...as grand as many a royal hall"! (p. 616)

The historical Burhmund and the fictional Heidhin discuss a political intervention by Everard whom we but not they know to be a Time Patrolman. At this stage, we read pure historical fiction. However, before long, Veleda arrives mysteriously, having been borne on the timecycle/holy bull. The diverse genres blend seamlessly.

(Addendum, 3 Sept 2020: When I say "the historical Burhmund," we are referring to the German with the Latin name, Claudius Civilis. The Patrol has learned that his name at home is Burhmund.)

Veleda's tower and Heidhin's house deserve our attention as well-realized fictional settings.

Veleda's Dwelling II

Copied from Poul Anderson's Cosmic Environments:

(I have just returned from an evening meal in the White Cross with two beautiful former work colleagues, Rachel and Caz.)

See Veleda's Dwelling.

Veleda, on her high stool, wraps her cloak around her, hood up, against the chill. Heidhin, visiting, sits on the floor with his back against the shut-bed. Veleda's breath is visible when she speaks.

On a later visit, they walk around her grounds between respectful field workers and the dark holy grove. She will withdraw into her tower to think, brew witchcraft and call the goddess while Heidhin carries her word to the tribes.

Later again, when the war goes badly, she walks alone, broods under a tree and returns from the halidom to her tower where she sits on the three-legged witch-seat, cloak tight, peering into the shifting shadows. Gloom makes objects look like trolls. The floor groans and light shines as the goddess arrives...

Veleda's Dwelling

Copied from Poul Anderson's Cosmic Environments:

(A statue of Veleda.)

"Star of the Sea."

Let us stretch the scope of the phrase, "Cosmic Environments." It is usual to contrast the cosmic with the mundane but, of course, this world (mundus) is part of the cosmos. In this sense, perhaps, everything is cosmic, especially when it is given some transcendent significance. An organism's environment is everything surrounding it, whether natural or artificial, thus including human dwellings.

Veleda dwells in a tower:

"...heavy-timbered, iron-bound, raised for her to dwell in alone with her dreams." (3, p. 497)

It is guarded by a man with a spear. Servants abide in the single chamber on the ground floor. Veleda dwells in the loft-room approached by a ladder. She sits on a high stool while a lamp casts wavering shadows among beams, chests, pelts, hides and instruments of witchcraft. Perhaps there is a cosmic connection?

Going out for the evening. To be continued...

Three Traditions

Copied from Religion and Philosophy:

Paganism, Christianity and Buddhism are issues in Poul Anderson's works, e.g.:

Veleda, a sibyl of the goddess;

Axor, a Wodenite convert to Jerusalem Catholicism;

Adzel, a Wodenite convert to Mahayana Buddhism -

- so it is appropriate to say what we think about these traditions.

Paganism/Hinduism
While ritually celebrating seasons, solstices and life-stages, we can refer to gods and recognize them as personifications, not as persons. A skeptical philosopher can share a ritual with a hard polytheist. Neither attempts to interrogate or excommunicate the other. That is a whole 'nother tradition.

Christianity And Other Prophetic Monotheisms
Christianity is part of the conceptual transition between ancient and modern civilizations. In fact, monotheisms in general are transitional between polytheism and atheism although these different world-views coexist and interact. They do not mechanically succeed each other according to any conceptual scheme.

Buddhism
The Buddha identified and addressed an inner cause of suffering, tanha, variously translated as "grasping" etc. Each of us can practice meditation between now and death. Spiritually, that suffices. It is not necessary to believe either that rebirth occurs or that the purpose of meditation is to end rebirth. If that were true, then the Buddhahood of all living beings would mean the end of all life on Earth. I want to see the opposite: abundant life, consciousness, understanding and creativity. This accords with Poul Anderson's preferred future for humanity: freedom and diversity.

Making Peace

"Star of the Sea," 19, less than two pages of text, is merely a fictional account of a historical event. Civilis and Cerialis negotiate while standing at opposite ends of a bridge with its middle removed. Everardus has had preliminary talks with Cerialis but does not need to be present at the bridge.

Section 19 is followed by III, an account of a hunter's encounter with the peaceful goddess, Nehalennia. It ends:

"Hers are the well-being of mortals and peace among them." (p. 628)

In 20, Everard and Janne Floris end their relationship. Later that same year, Everard meets Wanda Tamberly. The concluding section, IV, just three paragraphs, is a prayer to Mary. Its third paragraph is just three words:

"Ave Stella Maris!" (p. 640)

We have progressed through history, mythology and the characters' lives. "Star of the Sea" is the capstone of the series, although not its concluding installment.

I expect to be busy with two or three other activities tomorrow. Since this is the 220th post for August, it might also be the last post for this month. We are very far from being finished with the Time Patrol series. It is a great privilege to be able to discuss Poul Anderson's many works at such length.

Addendum: Meanwhile, see Three Traditions and Veleda's Dwelling.

From War To Peace

"Star of the Sea."

See What The Goddess Said.

Everard hypothesizes:

"'...with Heidhim talking to her, over and over, full of male revengefulness - in terms of her culture, it would make sense. She was appointed to bring about the destruction of Rome.'" (15, p. 599)

Thus, if Everard is right, Heidhin would have reinforced that original "Slay the Romans...," which he had shouted in the presence of the goddess.

Veleda sees Janne Floris' timecycle as:

"...the bull of Frae, cast in iron, and on it rode the goddess who had claimed it from him." (17, p. 611)

See Tiw's Beast.

I have reread this story innumerable times but never before noticed how the timecycle is incorporated into the myth.

In "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," the turning point is the moment when the Wanderer appears and betrays his followers. In "Star of the Sea," it is when Heidhin kills himself to free Veleda from her oath never to make peace with Rome. The next mythical passage is about peace, not conflict.

A Time Of Peace

"Star of the Sea," 17.

Time Patrol agent, Janne Floris, posing as the goddess, Niaerdh, quotes Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 to the sibyl, Veleda, and tells her that:

"'It is olden wisdom...'" (p. 613)

- the punch-line being:

"'...a time of war, and a time of peace.'" (ibid.)

- because Veleda, having promoted war and prophesied victory, must now preach peace.

Yet another Biblical quotation.

Similarly, in The Shield Of Time, Wanda Tamberly, staging a ghostly apparition, uses lines from the Ghost in Hamlet.

What The Author Says

It is a truism that the views of a character are not necessarily those of the author. To my surprise, Mikael Blomkvist rarely even votes whereas Stieg Larsson was active in a Fourth International (orthodox Trotskyist) organization.

However, there are times when we know enough about an author to recognize his views in those of some of his characters. Again, approaching the question from the opposite direction, when an author clearly approves of a character, it is at least plausible, although by no means certain, that their views are similar.

Anderson wrote in the SFWA Bulletin, Fall 1979, that income tax undermines liberty and privacy. Shalten addresses Everard on the assumption that the latter dislikes/disagrees with/disapproves of taxation.

In his Afterword to The Psychotechnic League, Anderson writes that he used to be "a flaming liberal" and that this is probably obvious in "Un-Man." It was not obvious to me but then I did not read the story on the assumption that it expressed its author's politics!

Accusing Janne Floris of guilt tripping, Everard asks her in disgust whether she is:

"'...some kind of a liberal or something?'"
-"Star of the Sea," 15, p. 597.

I found that a bit strong. Here is the familiar American conservative disdain for that protean enemy, "liberalism." In the light of everything else, I interpreted Everard's attitude as expressing the author's perspective, here presented a bit more strongly than usual.

The last word on this subject has to be: Poul Anderson, like CS Lewis and Alan Moore, was able to present every kind of character with every kind of belief. He understood people that he strongly disagreed with - which we need to do.

What The Goddess Said

"Star of the Sea."

Theists claim that their life is a dialogue with a deity but how do they know what S/He says?

Veleda admits to Heidhin when they are alone that her talk of wrecking Rome is rant, is not what the goddess said, instead is what she, Veleda, has told herself but must be repeated to satisfy her audience. (3, p. 500)

For once, we are able to check for ourselves who said what when the goddess appeared. When Roman sailors tied up Heidhin and raped Edh (Veleda), Janne Floris swooped down and killed the sailors.

"'What do you want of me, Niaerdh?' [Edh] whispered. 'I am yours. As I always was?'
"'Slay the Romans, all the Romans!' Heidhin bawled." (14, p. 592)

Janne says only:

"'I want only your well-being, only your gladness... I love you.'" (p. 593)

Then, when Edh asks what troubles her and whether it is the Romans:

"'It...is....your woe, my dear...
"'Fare you well. Fare you bravely, free from fear and sorrow. We shall meet again.'" (ibid.)

"Slay the Romans..." was said but not by the goddess.

Always The Wind

"Star of the Sea," 12.

Heidhin to Everard concerning Veleda:

"'Whoso offends her shall suffer worse than death. She is the chosen of a goddess.'
"Did the wind really blow keener all at once?" (p. 575)

Of course the wind blows keener. The goddess passes. Or rather, she, Janne Floris, hovers above on a timecycle and converses with Everard, inaudibly to Heidhin.

Heidhin believes that greater forces are present and at work. He is right. But the reality is not what he thinks. That is true also of us.

"The gods themselves fought the first war..."

See The Aryans and here. (Scroll down.)

"Thus did the gods war on each other..."
-"Star of the Sea," II, p. 557.

"'Dim memories of the conflict between cultures survived in myths of a war between the two divine races, which was finally settled by negotiations and intermarriage.'"
-11, pp. 565-566.

Poul Anderson presents first a version of the myth, then, secondly, a conversation between historians, who are also Time Patrol agents, about the origins of the myth.

First, the gods are real agents, then they are evolving ideas. Fiction looks at them both ways although not usually in a single narrative. "Star of the Sea" is the most comprehensive of the Time Patrol stories.

Characters In "Star Of The Sea"

"Star of the Sea."

Tacitus
Claudius Civilis
Julius Classicus
Julius Tutor (see previous link)
Petillius Cerialus
Veleda
Galba
Otho
Vitellius
Vespasian
Fabius Valens
Nero
Munius Lupercus
Boiocalus
Julius Briganticus

The Milky Way In The First Century

"Star of the Sea," 8.

"The Milky Way stretched hoar above them in the north. Higher gleamed the Great Bear, which men here knew as the Wain of the Sky Father." (p. 539)

I seem to have missed this reference to the Milky Way before. Of course, the Milky Way can be seen in space, on Earth, in the past, present or future.

The reference to the Wain connects this story with the concluding section of "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth." Ermanaric, committing suicide, sees the Wain and something white - a cloud or Swanhild following the Wanderer? Another Pagan perception of nature.

Timeline Complications

I argue (see here), that a divergent timeline succeeds the original timeline along the second temporal dimension but that this does not contradict the fact that the entire four-dimensional continuum of the original timeline does exist/did exist (new tense needed) at an earlier moment of the second temporal dimension. If this is so, then why is the Time Patrol needed? My answer is that the Danellians want to ensure that, if, having traveled into the far past, they set out to return to their present, then they do not arrive in an altered version of that present as happens to Everard and Van Sarawak in "Delenda Est."

In "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," Everard, in 1935, tells Farness that:

it must have been Farness himself who appeared in the role of Wodan/Odin and betrayed his followers in 372;

if this betrayal had not happened, then a specific story about Hamther and Sorli would not have existed, the texts of some Eddic poems and sagas would have differed from the way scholars know them to be and Ermanaric would have died earlier and in different circumstances than is recorded.

However, Everard addresses Farness in the 1935 of a timeline where the story about Hamther and Sorli did exist, the Eddas and sagas were as Farness and his colleagues know them to have been and Ermanaric did die not in battle in 372 but of a self-inflicted wound in 374. It follows that Everard's and Farness' conversation occurs in a timeline where the betrayal did occur, therefore in a timeline where Farness did appear in the guise of Wodan to make the betrayal. If Farness in 1935 refuses to travel to 372 to betray his followers, then this refusal will not prevent Farness from having appeared in 372 and betrayed his followers.

But the Farness who made the betrayal will travel to 1935 to find it already occupied by the Farness who had refused to make the betrayal. Farness would have duplicated himself, an unacceptable outcome.

Nerha's Gift

"Star of the Sea," 5.

I like the stories of the Norse gods but not the idea that they want human sacrifice. I am used to the idea that they protect human beings from the giants. Their stories have been retold by Christians like Roger Lancelyn Green. Poul Anderson does not Christianize the myths. (Nor does he super-hero-ize them: another kind of modern adaptation.)

When Heidhin, Veleda's foremost man, hangs a captured Roman legate, he assures Father Woen, warrior Tiw and thunderer Donar, that:

this offering is the goddess Nerha's gift to them;

although men have recently given her much, she receives everything on behalf of all the gods.

Therefore, he asks the mighty ones to:

"'Stand again at her side...'" (p. 520)

Meanwhile, unknown to Heidhin, other barbarians have slaughtered a captured Roman garrison and destroyed all its wealth as an offering to the gods.

How much should be given to different gods? Christianity solves this problem:

there is only one god;
He is satisfied with one perfect sacrifice;
He has already received it.

If he converts, Heidhin need no longer be concerned about jealousies or conflicts between the Aesir and Nerha.

Tiw's Beast

First, a real animal exists. Then, it is mythologized. In scriptures and works of fantasy, the myth comes first.

In "Star of the Sea," I, the god Frae rides the bull, Earthshaker, whose bellow makes wells spout and wakes dead kings. Because the bull's might scatters the foe and fructifies the earth, possession of Earthshaker is part of the marriage negotiations between Frae and Niaerdh.

Next, we see a real bull in a historical context but are also told what is believed about it:

"They walked by a paddock where a bull stood, Tiw's beast, his horns mighty beneath the sun."
-7, p. 533.

An incarnation of Earthshaker. He belongs to a different god. Mythology changes. "Star of the Sea" chronicles the changes from Niaerdh, on whose brow shines the morning star, to "Mary, mother of God..." (IV, p. 639), Stella Maris, Star of the Sea. Poul Anderson understands and imaginatively enters each stage of this development.

This Segment Of Space-Time...

"Star of the Sea," 4.

I have quoted this curious passage before:

"...this segment of space-time was unstable; the less they from the future moved about in it, the better." (p. 516)

What will happen if they move about too much? One of them will:

unintentionally initiate a divergent timeline;

continue living in that timeline;

therefore, disappear from the original timeline.

What will happen to most people in the original timeline? As far as I can see, they will continue to exist in their timeline. That entire timeline will have ceased to exist from another point of view but not from their point of view. At most, they will notice that one or two individuals have mysteriously disappeared.

This is my interpretation which differs from the way the issue is expressed in the series. My interpretation depends on two temporal dimensions at right angles to each other. If we draw a diagram, then a straight line representing the original timeline continues to extend up the page even though a second straight line representing a divergent timeline has been drawn parallel to it. A point of view moving across the page from left to right sees first one line, then the other, whereas a point of view moving up the page along the first line continues to see that line.

An Answer To A Prayer

"Star of the Sea," 3.

Should the rebels sacrifice a Roman prisoner?

Veleda (see image):

"'I have spent this while mutely calling on Niaerdh. Does she want yon blood or no? She has given me no sign. I believe that means no.'" (p. 500)

I agree. If we pray, then it is down to us to interpret the answer, if any. Mormon missionaries told me their way to learn the truth about religious matters: ask God in the name of His Son. So I did, one evening before meditating. There was no visible or audible response. This means either that there was no answer or that the answer was, "Continue as you are, at least for the time being."

I have been as honest as I could with a couple of Mormons. (I usually find that they are willing to listen. Presumably, their missionary activity is a learning experience, bringing them directly into contact with every other world-view.)

It may seem strange to jump from first-century Pagans to twenty-first century Mormons but we must each respond to life and to our fellow human beings as we find them here and now.

A Golden Summer And An Always Shining Sun

"Star of the Sea," 2.

"Had that summer really been so golden...?" (p. 479)

I have quoted this line several times before. See here. Scroll down.

There is a similar line in an Ian Fleming novel:

"In my memory of those days the sun is always shining..."
-Ian Fleming, The Spy Who Loved Me (London, 1980), three, p. 34.

Fleming's narrator acknowledges that it must have rained but she cannot remember it.

Although "Star of the Sea" is an installment of the Time Patrol series and The Spy Who Loved Me is a James Bond novel, these lines reflect a universal human experience, transcending fictional genres. Like Shakespeare's sonnets, they address memory and time.

From Niaerdh To Manse Everard

"Star of the Sea," 1.

Like "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," "Star of the Sea" deserves to have been read in a volume where we did not know from the outset that it was a new Time Patrol story. After Section I (Roman numeral), about the mythology of Niaerdh, Section 1 (Arabic numeral) presents historical fiction as Germans led by Claudius Civilis, besiege a Roman camp on the Rhine. This section ends as a barbarian prisoner prophesies that Rome is doomed because the goddess has announced its destruction through her sibyl, Veleda. The barbarian threat is a problem for the Romans at the time but why should it be a problem for anyone else centuries later? Because this is a time travel story. Section 2 begins by informing us that Manse Everard's timecycle appears in the Amsterdam office of the Time Patrol near the end of the twentieth century. At last the narrative becomes science fiction.

So It Was. So It Is.

"Star of the Sea."

Some myths explain origins, e.g., in the Book of Genesis. Section 1 of "Star of the Sea" presents a few origin stories. Niaerdh made seals, whales, fish, gulls and spindrift. Her song brings rain or light. She tells Frae:

"'Each autumn I will leave you and go back to my sea. But in spring I will come again. This shall be the year and every year henceforward." (p. 469)

- and:

"'I will come to you on the rainbow,' Niaerdh plighted.' So it was. So it is." (ibid.)

Beginnings also contain or foreshadow endings. In Norse mythology, Surtr awaits the Ragnarok even before the creation. Similarly, Niaerdh says, of the Frae's bull, Earthshaker:

"'...mine he shall be, and in the end I will call him to me forever.'" (ibid.)

Poul Anderson imagines earlier celebrations of beginnings and endings.

Niaerdh

Poul Anderson, "Star of the Sea" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 467-640.

"Star of the Sea" presents mythology, history and fiction. More specifically:

imaginatively reconstructed earlier stages of mythology;

both historical fiction and summarized history;

time travel fiction with both historical and contemporary settings;

a concluding prayer.

The text begins:

"By day Niaerdh roamed among the seals and whales and fish she had made." (I, p. 467)

Niaerdh is a goddess who will be identified with an agent of the Time Patrol. The masculine form of the deity, Njord, (scroll down) appears in Anderson's War Of The Gods. We have also read "Nerthus" (scroll down) as the name of a planet in Anderson's Psychotechnic History.

The Time Traveler Causes The Events That He Observes

Manse Everard causes the singular contents to be placed in the ancient British barrow.

Keith Denison becomes Cyrus the Great - in a deleted timeline.

Everard and Denison prevent the murder of the infant Cyrus in the Danellian timeline.

Everard and John Sandoval prevent the Mongol invasion of North America.

Carl Farness is the Wodan who betrays his followers.

Janne Floris is the goddess who inspires Veleda.

Wanda Tamberly is the reason why the Asian invaders pass through Beringia into North America.

Hugh Marlow is the reason why the Templar fleet escaped when the Order was suppressed.

So how much history does the Time Patrol cause?

Partings II

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," 366-372.

Swanhild asks the Wanderer when they will see him again. He falters, says that she is like Jorith, embraces her, kisses her, hurries off and is heard to weep.

When Swanhild lays the widow's curse on Ermanaric and invokes Wodan the Wanderer, the king's advisor, Sibicho, says:

"'She calls on her witchy ancestor? Suffer her not to live!'" (p. 445)

Exodus 22:18.

Yet another Biblical quotation embedded in an Anderson text.

Partings

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth."

We see someone for the last time either knowingly or unknowingly.

"The last sight Tharasmund had of [the Wanderer] was his hat, cloak, and spear, away down the winter road."
-366-372, p. 426.

"At the edge of sight, where the road swung around a shaw, [Tharasmund] turned about to wave at [Erlieva].
"She saw him again that eventide, but then he was a reddened lich." (p. 427)

When the Wanderer's great-great-grandson asks if they will never see him again, he replies that he must go:

"'Yes, best I go at once. Farewell. Fare ever well.'
"He strode through the shadows, out the door, into the rain and the wind."
-372, p. 459.

Thus ends the seventy two year long story of the Wanderer.

Experience And Memory

If we go with the single discontinuous timeline idea, then it follows that several passages in Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series describe not events that did occur but events that would have occurred if they had not been prevented.

At time t2, a time traveler experiences an event  and thus knows that it is occurring;

at t3, later along the same timeline, he remembers the event at t2 and thus knows that it occurred (at least I think he does, see below);

at t1, having appeared at an earlier time, he does not know whether his memories of t2 and t3 are valid.

In fact, if we rearrange this list into chronological order, with t1 first, then we do not know what to write at t2 or t3.

Might my memories of yesterday or of the last half hour be illusory? A written record of past events might be false. However, remembering an event is not like consulting a present, possibly false, record of that event. Remembering feels like direct acquaintance with a past event, as suggested in CS Lewis' "The Dark Tower." And memory must be involved even in immediate present experience because to forget an event as soon as we experience it would not be to experience it.

Color And Contrast

The Time Machine and "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" are contrasting, but equally colorful, accounts of journeys to other periods.

In AD 802,701, the Time Traveler meets Eloi who are threatened by Morlocks whereas, in AD 300-372, Carl Farness visits Goths who are threatened by Vandals and Huns.

Each of these texts also describes other periods:

Wells
dinner parties in the late nineteenth century
the future flashing past the Time Machine
the Further Vision

Anderson
New York in the 1930s
Everard''s apartment in 1980
Berlin in 1858
Hawaii in 43

Anderson elaborates the paradoxes that Wells merely implies. Read Wells, then Anderson.

Many Changes

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," 337-344.

"...in those days, many changes went through the world." (p. 396)

That sounds familiar. There have been many periods of change.

Changes In The Fourth Century
Rome is at peace.
Constantine has divided the Empire.
He has "...declared Christ the single god of the state." (ibid.)
Missionaries convert some Goths.
A wooden church is small but the marble temples are emptying.
The Goths factionalize.

Comments
As I understand it, Constantine did not make Christ the single state god but he paved the way for those who did.

A state should acknowledge all gods or none.

"One state, one god" made sense to a lot of people but a state should protect everyone within its borders.

A God On A Battlefield

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," 337.

Huns attack Goths. Every word that Poul Anderson has ever used to describe a battle is here. Carrion fowl wheel in the blood-red sunset. Later, Ravens circle low.

The Goths win but Dagobert falls and the timecycle appears. The Wanderer cannot intervene in the battle but will attend his son's death. Dagobert believes that Wodan has come to take him to Valhalla. Carl has neither confirmed nor encouraged this belief but what else will the Goths think when a guy looking like him appears on a battlefield? Carl has begun something that he will have to finish.

Poorly Chronicled Myths

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goths," 1980.

Carl Farness says that Celtic and Slavic myths are poorly chronicled but adds:

"'Eventually, my service will -'" (p. 390)

We question the appropriateness of the words, "Eventually..." and "...will -," in this context. Either the service chronicles these myths or it does not. If it does, then these chronicles are available to the Patrol throughout its history. Although the compilers of the chronicles must be kept from consulting the completed chronicles while they are still compiling them, their colleagues, who may be working in the same office, should have access to the complete chronicles from the earlier moment of their induction into the Patrol.

There should be no implication that, during the earlier part of a Patrolman's career, the chronicles were not available in the twentieth century whereas, in the later part of his career, the chronicles were available in the twentieth century. A century is a period, not a place. Either the chronicles are available in the twentieth century or they are not.

Time Travelers And The Gods

In Bronze Age Britain, Malcolm Lockridge persuades the farmers that manslaughter does not please the gods. They speak of erecting a great temple on Salisbury Plain... In Scandinavia, Lockridge intends to build a sanctuary:

"...to the worship of Her Who one day will be called Mary."
-Poul Anderson, The Corridors Of Time (Frogmore, St Albans, Herts, 1975), CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE, pp. 203-204.

At the halidom for Jorith:

"...the Wanderer forbade bloodshed. Only first fruits of the earth might be offered. The story arose that apples cast in the fire before the stone became the Apples of Life."
-"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," 302-330, p. 382.

Another Time Patrol agent, Janne Floris, plays the role of a goddess whose imagery will be  incorporated into that of "...Her Who will one day be called Mary."

When Dagobert, son of the Wanderer and Jorith, leads his people south, his grandparents, Jorith's parents, stay behind and:

"When the wagons had creaked away, the Wanderer sought those two out, one last time; and was kind to them, for the sake of what had been and of her who slept by the River Vistula." (p. 384)

That phrase, "...what had been...," expresses all human life. In this case, thanks to the Wanderer's supernatural interventions:

"What mattered was that for a half-score years, the Goths along the upper Vistula knew peace."
-300-302, p. 369.

That is what had been.

In The Cosmos

Sf should show us our place in the cosmos. Interstellar travel is only one way to do this.

In Larry Niven's Known Space future history, Terrestrial human beings are mutated Pak breeder colonists of a former Slaver food planet.

In Poul Anderson's Brain Wave, intelligence increases because Earth moves out of a galactic radiation field that had dampened intelligence.

In Anderson's "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," Jorith dies in Gothland in AD 302. Almost immediately afterwards, in terms of his own experience, Carl is on the Moon in 2319. Earth is nearly full and:

"I lost myself in the sight of that glorious white-swirled blueness. Jorith had lost herself there, two thousand years ago."
-"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," 2319, p. 375.

What better way to see a single death in its cosmic perspective?

The Good Old Time Travel Paradoxes III

3. A Discontinuous Timeline

If causality is violated, then the prevented cause, e.g. the time traveller’s departure, simply does not occur, although it is ‘remembered’ by the appearing time traveller, and the effect, i.e. his appearance, is uncaused, therefore not really an effect. Events are discontinuous, as in quantum mechanics. This seems to be logically possible but is extremely paradoxical in the sense of apparently contradictory:

a traveller appearing now could be from the past, from the future or from no time;
anyone leaving the present to kidnap Hitler will still fail because Hitler was not kidnapped but travellers from possible futures could prevent those futures;
some past events could have been caused by arbitrarily appearing time travellers that we do not know about;
a traveller arriving in what he regards as the past does not know whether he remembers a real future or a prevented one;
in fact, before leaving the present, a traveller knows that his memories are valid but, on arriving in the past, he does not know this!

Time travellers in this discontinuous timeline would almost certainly think in terms of divergent or multiple timelines even if time travel theory denied them.

The causal principle can be partly salvaged with the following diagram:

A

C

(B)

ABC is the usual causal order but here B is the time traveller’s departure and C is his arrival which prevents B. A is an earlier event, like the invention of a time machine, which would have caused B. Thus, A occurs and would have caused B which would have caused C which, however, occurs and prevents B. Thus, indirectly, A causes C. C would not have occurred without A although, to a casual observer, AC looks like a causality violation.
-copied from here.

The Good Old Time Travel Paradoxes II

(ii) If a time traveler departs from midday on 12 December 2066 and arrives at 1:00 AM on 1 January 1066, then he will think, "I was in 2066. Now I am in 1066." However, his "was" and "now" refer to the order of his subjective experiences, not to any objective temporal relationships. Objectively, his arrival precedes his departure by nearly 1001 years.

(iii) If he is in the Time Patrol universe and if, having arrived in 1066, he prevents the Norman Conquest of England in that year, then he will think, "First the Normans conquered England but now they did not." His "first" and "now" do not refer to any temporal relationship within a single timeline. He remembers a timeline with a Norman Conquest. He has generated a timeline without a Norman Conquest. Thus, his "first" and "now" refer to a temporal relationship between those two timelines.

(iv) There is another way to account for the time traveler's experience in 1066.

We could say that:

there is only one timeline but its events are discontinuous;
thus, a time traveler with false memories appears ex nihilo in 1066;
he prevents a Norman Conquest;
no time traveler departs from 2066;
in that year, history has always recorded a failed Norman invasion of England;
no time traveler has ever had reason to travel to 1066 in order to cause that failure.

If we go with the single discontinuous timeline account, then, to remain consistent, we should avoid saying anything like that the time traveler was in an original version of 2066 or that he is now in an altered version of history etc. I think that discussion sometimes oscillates inconsistently between a single timeline and multiple timelines.

The Good Old Time Travel Paradoxes

To regular readers of this blog:

Please skip past any posts when you find that their contents have become repetitive. I reiterate points about Poul Anderson's Technic History, about other future histories and about time travel etc, because I find these subjects ever-fresh but I know that not everyone will! The present post is occasioned by discussions of Anderson's Time Patrol series and will as ever be an attempt to make the issues slightly clearer although they never do become clear.

(i) Think about two places, e.g., London and New York, and you think about time passing in both places. While half an hour elapses in New York, the same short interval elapses in London. We have learned that simultaneity can be relative but not between two places on Earth.

Think about two finite periods in a single timeline, e.g., the years 1066 and 2066. Within each year, time passes from the beginning to the end of the year. However, the two years do not coexist in such a way that time passes simultaneously in both of them. We cannot say that, while the Normans are conquering England in 1066, an expedition is landing on Mars in 2066. Although this is obvious when stated, I think that, when people imagine time travel, they do think of different times as different places existing at the same time.

A Danellian tells Everard that his appeal, made in 1944, was considered ages before he was born (in 1924). Do we unreflectingly think that the appeal was considered - ages ago - in the Danellian Era which begins over a million years after the twentieth century? If we forget the significance of "a million years after" and vaguely think of the Danellian Era not as an era but as a place, then, yes, we might think that the appeal was considered ages ago in that "Era."

A friend who read "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" did not understand why Carl did not remember that he had attended Tharasmund's grave-ale. He was seen there! The event was past for some of those who had attended it so it must be past for everyone who had attended it, right? Wrong. Carl had not attended it yet.

Time And Wind

The Emperor Frederick says, "...if time allows...," not, "...if God allows." Winnithar the Goth proposes to gather as many men as time allows. They say more than they know. Both are in the presence of a Time Patrol agent.

When Carl agrees to help the Goths against a Vandal attack but in his own way:

"Nobody cheered. A sound like the wind passed down the shadowy length of the hall."
-"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," 300-302, p. 368.

The shadowy length is life. The sound that is not the wind is the passage of time. Carl sets in motion a myth that he will have to complete.

Future Reports

(A picture of Ambleside, where we were yesterday.)

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," 1980.

Farness to Everard:

"'...all you need do is read the reports I'll have filed in my own personal future. If the early accounts show me bungling, why, just tell me to stay home and become a book researcher. The outfit needs those too, doesn't it?'" (p. 355)

But would the Patrol do that? I thought that they preserved everything that happened, including events within their own organization?

At one point in The Shield of Time, they deliberately perform an action, then delete it. And in "The Year of the Ransom," they change an event that had resulted from Exaltationist intervention. The Patrol must be able to calculate, using advanced physics and mathematics, the precise extent to which a minor alteration that can be made without disturbing other events that must remain unchanged.

CIA

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," 1980.

"...we left the impression that my vaguely described new position was a cover for a post in the CIA." (p. 351)

It is, kind of. Behind the scenes, the CIA pulls stunts which either succeed or fail. Behind those scenes, the Time Patrol ensures, whenever an external input becomes necessary, that those stunts do

either succeed or fail. Within the Patrol, agents like Guion work to ensure a satisfactory long-term outcome. And, beyond the Patrol, are the Danellians. No one in Langley suspects that some of the events that concern them might have been ordered in Danellian HQ over a million years later - unless, of course, some of the Langley staff are Patrol agents. Everard has a list of contemporary agents, some in military intelligence. And their loyalty is to the future, not to the immediate strategic interests of whichever nation-state they nominally serve.

Logic And Myth

See Continuing A Combox Discussion.

The idea that someone can both experience an event and set out to bring it about that that event has never occurred in any sense whatsoever is part of the mythology of time travel and we need to appreciate the power of the myth while questioning its logic.

One of the sources of Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series was L. Sprague de Camp's Lest Darkness Fall. In that novel, other people had disappeared into the past before Martin Padway, who initiates a divergent timeline. Maybe some previous time travelers had also caused such alternative timelines and maybe some of those travelers had thought that, by creating these divergent realities, they had prevented their original timeline from ever having existed. However, it did exist when they departed from it and still existed later when Padway departed from it. There is plenty of room for the original and alternative histories either to coexist or to succeed each other if we assume more than the four dimensions of spacetime.

I Like That

Mr. Gordon to Manse Everard while recruiting him to the Time Patrol:

"'Independent spirit... I like that.'"
-Time Patrol, p. 2.

Everard to Carl Farness when interviewing him about his proposed mission to the Goths:

"'A responsible attitude. I like that.'"
-Time Patrol, p. 354.

Does "I like that" sound patronizing? Maybe not in the US? I think that it is more of an Americanism than an Anglicism.

It is a measure of Everard's progress within the Patrol that he goes from being interviewed to interviewing. He is becoming like an elder statesman and even a legend to lower ranks and to more recent recruits. His peers, the Middle Command, find that they must treat him with respect and should even accord him some "special consideration." Where is this said? (Presenting the quotation as a quiz question saves me the trouble of typing in the reference here and now.)

I might get back to rereading "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" consecutively some time this evening.

Gods Of Time

We, editorially speaking, are rereading Poul Anderson's Time Patrol and recently began "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth." However, today, we, matrimonially speaking, traveled to Ambleside and back. While traveling, I reflected on one issue in the next story, "Star of the Sea." These two stories could be packaged as Gods Of Time.

Janne Floris is guilt-stricken because, posing as a goddess, she promised a hereafter to her sibyl, Veleda. I would consider it dishonest to promise a hereafter in which I did not believe.

A guy that I knew said that the best way to die would be in confidence of a happy hereafter, even if in truth there were no hereafter. I disagree. Surely continued inquiry and acknowledgment of ignorance is of greater value than any illusion?

Many people address a deity that they expect to join in a hereafter. I address whatever deities may be, meditate and do not expect a hereafter. It is possible to be inspired by:

Indra releasing rain
Prometheus stealing fire
Gautama seeking the Way
the Buddha teaching meditation
Krishna teaching karma yoga
Jesus preaching the kingdom

- without believing that any of them still exist - except in myths, scriptures and the religious imagination.

Continuing A Combox Discussion II

In the combox for Destabilizing The Time-Stream, S.M. Stiring comments:

"...something always 'happens' to keep you from changing the past. You stumble and break your neck before assassinating Hitler, or whatever."

- the point being that this is implausibly improbable. Indeed. I will try to copy a relevant passage from a post on the "Logic of Time Travel" blog:

Possible Solutions to the Causality Violation Paradox

1. The Logical Impossibility of Causality Violation in a Single Timeline
 Hitler was not killed or kidnapped in childhood. Therefore, either no-one tried to do this or someone tried and failed, even if we do not know the precise reason for failure: accident, apprehension, arrest etc and even if the person who tried had foreknowledge of Hitler’s career and had wanted to prevent it. This remains true even if the source of foreknowledge was time travel from Hitler’s future. In fact, introducing time travel increases the number of possible reasons for failure. It would not be easy for a time traveller from a later period to find the best time and place at which to intervene in order to interrupt Hitler’s early life, which might even be protected by pro-Nazi time travellers. Therefore, causality violation is logically impossible because it cannot be true that something happened when it is already known that it did not happen. More specifically, it cannot be true that someone performed a task when it is already known that it was not performed, thus that, if anyone tried, they failed.

Unfortunately, if time travel became common, then the number of adverse circumstances and accidents necessary to prevent causality violation would become statistically impossible. Therefore, there has to be some reason either why time travel does not occur (e.g. because it is impossible or because it is so difficult that no-one ever finds out how to do it in the whole history of the universe) or why its use is extremely limited (e.g. because it requires too much energy or because the theory is valid which stipulates that any time journey would also have to be a long space journey, thus precluding effortless disappearance and reappearance on Earth’s surface in recent historical periods).


(Added on 21 April 2006: Thanks to Colin G. Mackay for pointing out that there is no such thing as a "statistical impossibility". My argument should be re-phrased: Something must happen to prevent a logical contradiction but, by definition, it is extremely improbable that an extremely improbable event will always occur just in time to prevent any logical contradiction.)
-copied from here.

Continuing A Combox Discussion

I wanted to continue a discussion in the combox for Upstairs Of The Turning Point but my combox comment would have become a lengthy one so why not make it a post instead?

Discussing time travel paradoxes in Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series, S.M. Stirling comments:

"...if you prevent your parents from meeting, as long as you're there in the past prior to the change, you continue to exist, but the chain of events that resulted in you is gone.

"It's sort of... disturbing..."

A single discontinuous timeline in which a time traveler can arrive from a prevented future and in which some events are remembered even though they never did happen and never will happen is disturbing and counter-intuitive but logically possible because not self-contradictory. However, there is a contradiction in the Time Patrol series:

at one stage, Manse Everard is in the timeline where Keith Denison is Cyrus the Great;

therefore, that timeline exists;

however, Everard, while in that timeline, says that it might be brought about that that timeline does not exist;

this is a contradiction;

we can, without self-contradiction, believe that "remembered" events did not happen, i.e., that the "memories" are false, but we cannot, without self-contradiction, believe that an event that IS now happening might be caused NOT to happen.

My way of making logical sense of this story, "Brave To Be A King," is as follows. At the end of the story, the entire timeline in which Denison was Cyrus is in the past of the second temporal dimension. Each moment of the first temporal dimension contains a three-dimensional universe. Each moment of the second temporal dimension contains a four-dimensional spacetime continuum. At the end of the story, it is true to say that Denison never was Cyrus in the past of the current timeline but it would not be true to say that he had never been Cyrus in any previous timeline. In this context, "current" and "previous" refer to temporal relationships within the second, not the first, temporal dimension. The Temporal language has appropriate tenses and terminology.

"Back To Reality"

Every fictional series has its familiar characters and settings:

Baker Street;
the bridge of the Enterprise;
Gotham City;
etc.

Sheila starts watching a TV mystery series. We witness a murder. Then the theme music starts or the detective appears and I know which series it is: Poirot; Marple; Fr Brown; etc.

A TV drama showed familiar actors, Shatner, Nimoy etc, in 1930s New York scenes. My sister kept saying, "He's in Star Trek, he's in Star Trek...," then the scene changed to the bridge of the Enterprise.... My mother said, "Back to reality!" (Which it is anything but.)

In "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," that "back to reality" moment arrives when the second section, headed 1935, refers to "space-time" and "a Patrol base." (p. 341) The story deserves to have been read for the first time in a collection where we did not know in advance that it was going to be a Time Patrol story.

In 1935, the viewpoint character:

is in the Patrol;
is not Everard;
was the Wanderer in 372;
is a first person narrator.

This is new territory for the Time Patrol series. Everard will appear but neither as the main character nor as a viewpoint character.

Onward.

Resonances

The opening section of "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" is headed 372 because it is set in that year although it also resonates with some of Anderson's works set in other times and places.

"'...the Huns prowl the marches...'" (p. 337)

- like the barbarians in spaceships just outside the Terran Empire in the Dominic Flandry series.

In fact:

Huns are barbarians;

barbarians, barbari, were so called because, speaking neither of the civilized languages, Greek or Latin, they seemed to be saying, "Bah, bah, bah," babbling;

Flandry thinks, of a barbarian spaceship, "Probably not one aboard knows Anglic!" (Young Flandry, p. 438)

Also in 372, the Wanderer enters the hall. This is a man, indeed a time traveler, mistaken for Wodan. But we remember that that god is a character in some of Anderson's heroic fantasies.

These works seem several surfaces of a single solid.

Individual Initiative

"Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks."

"Pum was gone. Feet flying, kaftan flapping, the purple wharf rat sped to the destiny he would make for himself." (p. 331)

Pum is an Andersonian hero. Like Nicholas van Rijn, he alone makes his destiny. On the one hand, Pum cannot make a Time Patrol agent arrive in Tyre. On the other hand, he can begin to take advantage of a situation as soon as it arises and even before he knows what the situation is:

"'Master, it pleases you to pose as a rude tribesman, but from the very first I had a feeling there was far more to you. Of course you would not confide in a chance-met guttersnipe. So, without knowledge of you, how could I tell what use I might be?'" (p. 311)

So are the following propositions an adequate account of society? -

A minority of alert and active individuals, like van Rijn and Pum, makes things happen;

the initiative-lacking majority benefits from the leadership of that gifted minority;

social friction and dissatisfaction arise only from misplaced resentment of the successful and affluent minority, e.g., Eric Wace's hostility to van Rijn in The Man Who Counts.

No, that is a gross oversimplification. Social and economic systems are infinitely more complicated. For just two points, not every possessor of great wealth has acquired that wealth entirely by his own initiative and there is not always a level playing field for new initiatives. Poul Anderson shows us several causes of conflict in "Lodestar," "A Little Knowledge" and Mirkheim. In fact, he presents a considerably more detailed and plausible account of the decline of an interstellar civilization than does Isaac Asimov in his Foundation series.

Van Rijn and Falkayn operate correctly, in Anderson's view, but, at the historical turning point, there is conflict even between them.