Tuesday, 19 January 2021

Between The Narratives

On p. 290 of Poul Anderson's The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1979), a novel, The Man Who Counts, ends.

On p. 292, a short story, "A Little Knowledge," begins.

Between these two works, on p. 291, Hloch introduces "A Little Knowledge" and tries to explain why it is included in the Earth Book. Since this story involves two other planets, Paradox and Trillia, we are interested in Hloch's account of how the narrative came his way:

"The tale was brought back to Ythri lifetimes ago by the xenologist Fluoch of Mistwood." (p. 291)

So did the story travel from Trillia to Avalon via Ythri? No, Mistwood is on Avalon so that, on this point, the text seems to be in error. It continues:

"Arinnian of Stormgate, whose human name is Christopher Holm and who has rendered several Ythrian works into Anglic, prepared this version for the book you behold." (ibid.)

Observations
(i) The Ythrian language is Planha.
 
(ii) If we are reading the Earth Book after The People Of The Wind, then we are pleased to see Arinnian mentioned.

(iii) If instead we are reading the Technic History for the first time in The Technic Civilization Saga, then we have not yet read The People Of The Wind but we have seen Arinnian mentioned without explanation in Hloch's introduction to "Day of Burning" because these stories are presented in a different order.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Fluoch of Mistwood could have picked up "A Little Knowledge" at Trillia, and then left it or a copy at Ythri. That would at least "save the appearances."

Ad astra! Sean