Anson Guthrie, but he was first downloaded.
Harald Hardrada:
"The arrows sleeted down.
Harald did not feel the shaft that smote him...
"Thunder and night rolled over him.
"When their king died, the Norse were driven back."
-Poul Anderson, The Last Viking, Book #3, The Sign Of The Raven (New York, 1980), XIV, 4, p. 265.
David Falkayn's older brother:
"...Alpha Cygni had taken a warhead...
"In this wise died Michael Falkayn, older brother of David and, since their father's death a pair of years ago, head of the Falkayn domain."
-Poul Anderson, Mirkheim IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 1-291 AT X, pp. 156-157.
Edmond Beynac:
"Thus the scene where Edmond Beynac died."
-The Stars Are Also Fire, 20, p. 269.
We are told this before Beynac dies. And his wife, Dagny, had had a premonition, remembering Kipling:
"What is a woman that you forsake her,
"And the hearth-fire and the home-acre,
"To go with the old grey Widow-maker?" (18, p. 241)
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
You're right, we don't see many of the MAJOR characters created by Poul Anderson dying. And that's easy enough to understand, if you want a character like Nicholas van Rijn or Gratillonius surviving for more than one story or volume, they can't die or be killed off too soon.
We do see Skafloc, the major character of THE BROKEN SWORD, being killed in battle at the end of that novel, however.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
That's another one, then.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And perhaps we should add King Hrolf Kraki and his paladins, who were all slain by rebels near the end of HROLF KRAKI'S SAGA.
A complicating factor is that this was a piecing together of legends about King Hrolf, not material totally original from Anderson. Which means he had to stay reasonably faithful to a story which ends tragically.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
We should add them as well. And Hadding in WAR OF THE GODS but I will post no more tonight.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Dang! I forgot about King Hadding. I think he was the grandfather or great grandfather of Hrolf Kraki.
Ad astra! Sean
Note that human beings are not mostly descended from the excessively risk-averse. 10% of Asia is descended from Genghis Khan, for example.
Incidentally, his actual name — Temujin — translates into English as… Smith.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I have heard of how analogous numbers of people stemming from Europe can claim descent from that Mongol warlord!
Ha! I can see why Temujin changed his name from "Smith" to Ghenghis!
Ad astra! Sean
Genghis Khan is a title, not a name — it means “universal ruler”. Emperor more or less.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Again, I sit corrected. I should have remembered that!
Ad astra! Sean
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