-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), PART SIX, 1245alpha, p. 395.
"Let him know one woman well and learn to hold her dear - as well and dear as time allowed - and take the riches away in his memory."
-Starfarers, 8, p. 61.
1245alpha is one year in a divergent medieval timeline of Anderson's Time Patrol series whereas Starfarers is one of the author's several future histories. Thus, these two narratives could not possibly be further apart, temporally speaking. However, that phrase, "time allows," unites them as aspects of Poul Anderson's imagination. Time is the dominant theme in his works.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And of course hardened readers of Poul Anderson must soon take note of how he tended to have favorite words. One example being his frequent use of "trod," including times when I thought "walked" or "stepped" a bit more natural. Another would be his use of "Hold" to mean "Wait" or "Stop."
And of course there was Anderson's baffling use of "glade" in terms like "moon-glades." And, I am not really objecting, all writers have favorite words!
Ad astra! Sean
James Elroy Flecker (author of ‘The Golden Road to Samarkand’ and ‘Hassan’ once wrote a self-parody in which every second word was ‘gold’ or ‘golden’.
I think in Poul’s case he was translating, consciously or not, from the sagas and other old literature. That can be tricky. For example, at one point a character refers to Odin as ‘him Gangerli’, which is a half translation, while elsewhere he translates the phrase as ‘the Wanderer’, which is as good as any for the ‘kenning’, the standardized epithet.
But what gangerli -literally- means is something like ‘walker/hiker’ or ‘one who goes afoot’.
Also, Poul was subtly pointing out that Frederick had a 'prematurely Modern' worldview, one that saw the universe in more impersonal, de-sacrilized terms.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I would not be surprised if that was the case, Poul Anderson being so deeply influenced by the Norse sagas that it influenced how he wrote in English.
Ad astra! Sean
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