Manse Everard moves backwards and forwards along a timeline where, in one direction, Jutes and Saxons worship Woden and Thunor, and, in the other direction, people in faster than light spaceships explore other planets as described in the Technic History and in many other works by Poul Anderson. We see almost nothing of the future in the Time Patrol series but then we don't need to.
"...Wulfnoth insisted on sending a boy along to guide them to the river. Everard, who didn't feel like walking that far, grinned and called down the hopper. As he and Whitcomb mounted it, he said gravely to the bulging-eyed lad: 'Know that thou hast guested Woden and Thunor, who will hereafter guard they folk from harm.'" (pp. 33-34)
When I first read that passage in the early 1960s, I thought that Everard was being unfair to the boy, making a promise that could not be kept. Now, after reading Anderson's accounts of attitudes and world-views in past times, I am less condemnatory toward Everard. How much will the boy remember of what was said? Will he even mention the incident to anyone else? In any case, he does not believe that his gods are either omniscient or omnipotent. He might continue to believe that he has earned some special favor with two of the gods and that belief might strengthen him in future.
But is the new recruit, Everard, playing fast and loose with Patrol rules? Recently, in Reality, I quoted the more experienced Everard as saying:
"'That's what a brief intervention by the gods is like in the minds of people here-now.'"
The very next sentence, which I did not then quote, was:
"'Of course, we only stage one when we absolutely must...'"
- for the reference, see the above link to the post, "Reality."
Supernatural interventions, among which I include these two, are staged in:
"Time Patrol"
"Brave To Be A King"
"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth"
"Star of the Sea"
The Shield Of Time (three)
In "Brave To Be A King," Everard remarks that Patrol agents in the Middle Mohenjodaro office often have occasion to appear in luminous robes with halos and shining wings.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I esp. like that point you made about the lad thinking it wiser to keep what he had seen to himself, to avoid possible trouble.
Ad astra! Sean
Actually, Germanic paganism was full of Gods showing up in mortal disguise -- Wotan/Odin was notorious for it, and the stories are full of it.
So everyone in that 5th-century Jutish hamlet would believe it was -possible-; not likely, or common, but certainly possible.
For that matter, it was common in Classical paganism too, from the same Indo-European roots: IIRC, there's a bit in the Bible where one of the Apostles (Paul?) comes to Greek town in Anatolia, and the locals ask if he's Zeus in disguise.
And that's in late Hellenistic/Early Roman times, when philosophical skepticism was already centuries old, and naturalistic thinking had penetrated a lot of the upper classes.
Imagine what it was like back in Archaic Greece -- which would be more like those Jutes.
So even if the kid talked, and was believed, it would be a wonder -- but a -familiar- wonder.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
You made good points and I agree with them. Yes, the Acts of the Apostles mentions where excited locals thought St. Paul and one of his companions were "gods" in disguise. And of how hard they worked to kill that idea.
Ad astra! Sean
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