Poul Anderson's Biblical references can be so understated as to be missed. Here is another. Plik says that:
the Nothwesterners will "'...raise the Old Serpent and bring about the end of the world.'" (p. 315);
all gods are doomed;
his companions and he will not live to understand "'...what new ones will come striding through their ashes...'" (p. 316)
Plik's drunken prophecies encompass both Armageddon (the Serpent) and Ragnarok (doomed gods), both the end of the world and the advent of new gods.
His words tell us something about him but do they also tell us something about the plot of the novel? I am not sure. At least, the world will change and not in the direction shown by There Will Be Time.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
At least such passages shows us Anderson's POETICAL turn of mind. If I recall rightly, Robert Silverberg described him as the skald of science fiction. And, after Tolkien, Anderson quotes or writes into his stories more poetry than practically all other SF and F writers.
Ad astra! Sean
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