Sunday 6 December 2020

The Sky And Earth Books Of Stormgate

Rennhi wrote The Sky Book Of Stormgate which we never see. A comprehensive history of the Stormgate Choth, it covers:

the ancestors on Ythri;
the founders on Avalon;
their descendants until Rennhi's time.
 
Rennhi's son, Hloch, wrote The Earth Book Of Stormgate which we read as one volume of Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization. It covers:
 
the Discovery, i.e., first contact with Terrans;
Ythrian-human exploration of Avalon;
other pre-colonization human activities;
the World-Taking, i.e., the two-stage human-Ythrian colonization of Avalon.

Thus, Hloch's volume covers more than the history of a single choth and recounts events on several planets other than Ythri or Avalon. Some time in the past year, I examined Hloch's reasons for including each of the narratives that he chose for the Earth Book and found that they were more relevant than they seemed. 

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

But Hloch did not quite write THE EARTH BOOK. Rather, he compiled it from different sources and added some editorial/explanatory comments.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

You are right but the word "write" is used in the text so I just went with that.

Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Aw, I'm being persnickety! I know "write" can be legitimately used in broader senses as well as the more strictly literal definition.

Ad astra! Sean