The time criminal, Stane, advises and influences King Hengist of Kent who turns out to have a distinguished mythological pedigree, which should not have surprised us. See Hengist and Horsa. In Tyre, Everard meets Hiram. In Kent, he does not meet Hengist but only because he does not need to. The apprehension of Stane has to be quick because other issues have to be resolved within this opening story. Stane is not the only time criminal involved.
The Roman Durovernum was at the site of Canterbury which is called "Cant-wara-byrig." (p. 31)
Everard and Whitcomb see:
half-ruined Roman walls;
Jutish repairs of earth and wood;
a crumbling Roman road;
farmers driving oxcarts to market;
vicious-looking guards, easily bribed with Roman coins;
a brawling, bustling city;
jostling Jutes;
a few disdainful Romano-Britons;
a dirty inn in a mossy, ruined town house;
trade principally in kind so coins welcome.
Vivid as ever.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
That bit, about COINS, struck me as a very realistic touch. My view is that real money can become scarce in two different scenarios: a barbaric society reduced to primitive forms of economic activity; or a nation plagued by a Weimar or Zimbabwean style hyperinflation. Both would cause gold or silver coins to be highly valued and portable stores of real wealth.
If the US ever suffers hyperinflation the economy will crash and a bankrupt gov't will be printing banknotes with face "values" of billions of dollars. Desperate people will spend worthless currency as quickly as possible to obtain bread, milk, shoes, etc., before prices skyrocket even higher. But those fortunate enough to have some gold or silver coins will find it much easier to obtain desired goods and services. Gresham's Law in action!
Ad astra! Sean
Incidentally, that vision of early Anglo-Saxon England Poul used has been in fashion, out of fashion, and is now more or less in fashion again.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I can see why, I think. Many people nowadays might well be longing for a society where life was apparently simpler, better, less complex, etc. The reality, if we actually went back to Anglo-Saxon England, would be very DISILLUSIONING. We would have to endure everything from crude housing, abominable hygiene, wretched and primitive "medicine," inadequate diet, and so on.
The people who survived the Change in your Emberverse books SEEM to do not too badly because they could draw on the painfully accumulated knowledge of the past 1000 years to take the edge off of being forced to live at a lower level of technology.
Ad astra! Sean
Ad astra! Sean
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