Ranild, the treacherous sea captain, is not mortally wounded so Tauno approaches to finish him off:
"'Let me ...confess to God...let me escape Hell.'" (p. 67)
Tauno taunts him and throws him overboard.
Observations
(i) Anyone who is about to die should be given time to pray or otherwise prepare himself. (An acquaintance who worked in an operating theater could tell the difference between those who were in some way prepared and those who were not. Apparently, another acquaintance who was, on paper at least, Catholic and was also a patient in a Hospice, freaked when he was asked if he wanted to see a priest for Last Rites. Unprepared.)
(ii) James Bond gave Scaramanga time to pray and almost lost his own life as a result.
(iii) God, if He exists as described, hears Ranild's request for time to pray and also hears any prayers that he he says or thinks while being thrown overboard. So, while Tauno was wrong to do what he did, I cannot think that it harmed Ranild's relationship with God.
2 comments:
Note that Poul said the religion described in this book is not "haut" Catholicism, but the folk-Catholicism of ordinary believers in the period. In that, sacraments were crucial, almost of magical significance.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Your comment here changed what I was about to write. While I agree with what you said about "haut" Catholicism and the naive folk-Catholicism of ordinary people of that time, I would not go quite as far as you did here. Ranild's mere request or plea to Tauno that he be given time to confess and pray to God does indicate at least him possibly understanding the need to deliberately change his internal disposition.
It would have been so easy for Anderson to have Tauno simply killing off Ranild quickly in that fight, meaning there would have been no occasion to think of such theological subtleties. But Anderson took pleasure in adding DEPTHS of that kind to his stories.
Ad astra! Sean
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