Two Future Species

The Shield Of Time.

Manse Everard tells Wanda Tamberly that Danellians come after human beings the way we come after apes. Tamberly asks:

"'How much could Australopithecus know for certain about us?'" (p. 29)

Olaf Stapledon answers that question. His Last Men inhabit Neptune two hundred thousand million years in our future. If one of the First Men, us, were to enter that world, then he would no more suspect the existence of the spiritual culture surrounding him:

"...than a cat in London suspects the existence of finance or literature."

-Olaf Stapledon, Last And First Men IN Stapledon, Last And First Men/Last Men In London (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1972), pp. 5-327 AT XV, p. 284.

That is one big comprehension gap. A cat knows something, how to hunt for mice and birds, but not how to invest in the stock exchange or to appreciate Jane Austen.

Danellians, one million years hence, physically time travel and organize the Time Patrol whereas Last Men, in a further future, mentally time travel, observe history and inspire Olaf Stapledon to write what he thinks is fiction. 

Toward Time Travel

The Shield Of Time, 1987 A. D., pp. 26-33.

Manse Everard speaking to Wanda Tamberly lists modern discoveries that point towards the eventual invention of space-time vehicles:

non-inertial reference frames

quantum gravity

energy from the vacuum

laboratory violation of Bell's theorem

wormholes in the continuum

Kerr metrics

Tipler machines

Anderson has T-machines in The Avatar and energy from the vacuum in Starfarers. The latter might answer Tamberly's question about where the energy comes from for time travel. There have been further developments in physics since The Shield Of Time.

Once on TV Tipler suggested that time travel would require a transmitter and a receiver. Thus, it would be as impossible to travel to a time before the construction of the first time machine as it is to telephone someone on an island where there are no telephones. But maybe a superior technology would be able to transmit a beam that caused air molecules on the island to vibrate...

Four SF Sequences

Time Travellers And Historical Battles

The Time Traveller's dinner guests discuss verifying the accepted account of the Battle of Hastings but also the danger of attracting attention as anachronisms.

A time travelling historian unintentionally alters the course and outcome of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Two time travellers deliberately change the outcome of the Battle of Ticinus.

A quantum fluctuation in space-time-energy changes the outcome of the Battle of Rignano.

Four stages culminating in two by Poul Anderson.

Future History Series

Robert Heinlein planned his Future History.

Poul Anderson modelled his Psychotechnic History on Heinlein's Future History.

Anderson's Technic History was an unplanned Heinleinian future history.

Three stages culminating in two by Anderson.

Artificial Life

Viktor Frankenstein created human life.

AIs dominate Earth.

The Terrestrial AI re-creates extinct human life.

Three stages culminating in two by Anderson.

Magic As Technology

Magic becomes a workable technology.

Magic becomes a workable technology in more detail in two novels.

Three stages culminating in two by Anderson.

Disguised Danellians

The Shield Of Time, 1987 A. D., pp. 26-33.

"'Of course, no doubt [Danellians] can disguise themselves when they want to, go among us in the form of human beings, if they ever want to. I'm not sure they do.'" (p. 29)

This answers a recent combox question. In "Time Patrol," Everard is addressed by a blazing shape with a soundless voice whereas, at the end of The Shield Of Time, he and Tamberly are addressed in a soft and melodious voice by what looks like a robed human being but of indeterminate sex and race.

It seems obvious that Danellians would be able to adjust their appearance for different purposes.  

"Some Place Mysterious And Forbidden"

The Shield Of Time, PART TWO, 1985 A. D., pp. 11-16.

I discussed the above chapter here and ended by stating that this timeline was to be deleted. According to the view expressed in the Time Patrol series, a deleted timeline simply does not exist and has never existed in any sense whatsoever. If this were the case, then it would follow that pp. 11-16 describe not events that did occur but events that would have occurred if they had not been prevented. Garshin would have seen sunlight from behind the captain's helmet making a halo as if on an angel guarding somewhere mysterious and forbidden. It is possible to describe events that did not happen: alternative history fiction. Our accounts can only be imaginative and speculative  but maybe Danellian and Patrol science can calculate alternative timelines in detail? 

However, the series contradicts itself when it asks us to accept that there are occasions when an event first occurs, then has never occurred. Everard to Denison:

"'...you're not a suicidal type. Would you actually want the you of this instant never to have existed? Think for a minute precisely what that implies.'"

-Poul Anderson, "Brave To Be A King" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 55-112 AT 9, p. 107.

Denison responds:

"'Mithras!'...'You're right. Let's not talk about it.'" (ibid.)

So they agree not to delete the timeline in which they are having this conversation. Thus, the Denison of that instant does exist and consciously thinks, "I exist now but it might nevertheless turn out to be the case that I do not exist now." That is contradictory.

Two Main Series

Technic History-Time Patrol parallels are always fruitful. In recent posts, we have had the symbolism of the third day in The Shield Of Time and The Day Of Their Return, also thank offerings in a van Rijn story, The Shield Of Time - and "Star of the Sea."

These have to be Poul Anderson's two main series. The Time Patrol is about the past but has its roots in the future. Time travel is invented in 19352 A.D., not in the nineteenth or twentieth centuries. The Technic History is about the future but has its roots in the past. The Terran Empire is based on the Roman Empire and historical cycles recur.

My two favourite sf themes, future history and time travel, are more than fulfilled. Although the Time Patrol is complete in only two long volumes whereas the Technic History fills seven, they are equal in significance.  

Two Pious Merchants

"'Hermes rates a sacrifice from me, that we arrived no later than now.'"

-The Shield Of Time, p. 23.

"For a mere space yacht, even an armed one with ultrapowered engines, to get away from three cruisers, was more than an accomplishment; it was very nearly a miracle. Van Rijn still kept four grateful candles burning before his Martian sandroot statuette of St. Dismas."

-Poul Anderson, "Hiding Place" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 555-609 AT p. 559.

Two periods; two timelines; two merchants; one impulse - to give thanks.

Subliminal Symbolism: On The Third Day

"On the third day he arose, and ascended again to the light."

-Poul Anderson, The Day of Their Return IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 74-238 AT 1, p. 75.

This opening sentence of a novel is preceded by a Biblical quotation: JOB, iv, 12-16. The sentence itself is obviously New Testament-inspired. The title, The Day Of Their (not His) Return, sounds un-Biblical. The novel features a religious movement incorporating Biblical elements. In fact, the work reads like a much better version of Dune just as Poul Anderson's Technic History reads like a much better version of Foundation.

"To Yuri Alexeievitch Garshin, the captain appeared as an angel from his grandmother's Heaven. It was on the third day since the ambush."

-The Shield Of Time, PART TWO, 1985 A. D., p. 11.

Angel, Heaven and third day. "...grandmother's Heaven..." is a recognition of generational social change.

Garshin thinks:

"Angel from Heaven indeed." (p. 14)

- when the captain, after his mysterious appearance, is helpful.

"Behind and above, the captain stood, arms folded, watching him go. When Garshin glanced rearward, a last time, he saw sunlight from behind the helmet make a kind of halo, as if on an angel who guarded some place mysterious and forbidden." (p. 16)

Halo, angel, mystery. But there is more symbolism here that we understand only in hindsight. The captain is a time traveller, a Time Patrol agent, a guardian of time. The place that he guards is mysterious and forbidden indeed because this timeline is to be deleted.

Everard and Guion III

The Shield Of Time, PART FIVE.

The second thing on Guion's mind was that Everard's and Tamberly's world lines appear to impinge on many others. Here he is onto something. In PART SIX, the Patrol learns that the non-time travelling Lorenzo de Conti's activities affect the lives of so many pivotal medieval figures that a minimal change in his career causes massive changes to history. Guion is trying to prepare for such changes even before he or anyone else has experienced them. As he had already said to Wanda Tamberly:

chaos has a basic coherence;

things and people recur;

those who have been part of great events might be so again;

this might be the case -

"...whether or not our extant records know anything of it.'"

-PART THREE, p. 136.

This is why he tries to prepare for a historical alteration by interviewing Everard and Tamberly.

(The attached image has the back cover illustration of The Shield Of Time, the title, The Boat Of A Million Years, and blurb that I cannot identify.) 

Everard And Guion II

The Shield Of Time, PART FIVE.

The second time that he interviews Everard, Guion has two things on his mind. First:

"'Monitors have observed anomalous variations in reality.'" (p. 261)

Someone visits a particular period and sees it one way, then revisits it and sees it another way?

Examples given by Guion:

Plautus' Asinaria was first performed in 213 B.C. although later scholars recorded a different date;

Stefan Nemanya, Grand Zhupan of Serbia, abdicated in 1196 A.D. although later scholars recorded a different date;

the exact text of the Asinaria differs from what is later recorded;

the exact objects depicted on a scroll by Ma Yuan differ from what is later recorded.

Just scholars' mistakes? Why refer to anomalous variations in reality?

Timeline 1, in which the Asinaria was performed in 212 B.C. and in which it was therefore later recorded that that play was performed in that year, can change into or be replaced by Timeline 2a, in which the Asinaria was performed in 213 B.C. and in which it was therefore later recorded that that play was recorded in that year, but can Timeline 1 change into or be replaced by Timeline 2b, in which the Asinaria was performed in 213 B.C. but it was nevertheless later recorded that that play was performed in 212 B.C.? How could that happen? Why should it?

Guion claims that these anomalies:

"'...indicate instability in those sections of history.'" (p. 262)

A bigger change could happen? If it did, then the only people to know about it might be some time travellers returning uptime from before the change point. I write "...might be some..." because most time travellers, e.g., all or most of the Time Patrollers returning from their training at the Academy, return uptime without experiencing any alteration. If there were an altered timeline that no time traveller ever entered, then no one would know about it or have to worry about it.

213 B.C. reminds Everard of the Second Punic War and the historical alteration that he had had to counteract. Has one change, resulting from extratemporal intervention, generated an instability, making other changes more probable even without any further intervention?

Guion says that it is impossible to answer the question: how many temporal catastrophes there have been? Why? Because some alterations will have deleted any memory of the pre-alteration state?

Ideology Versus Science

In Poul Anderson's Harvest Of Stars, Avantism is a state ideology, i.e., a set of ideas justifying and legitimizing a particular regime. Such ideologies claim philosophical credentials. However, the essence of philosophy is free inquiry, not enforced uniformity.

In Anderson's Psychotechnic History, psychotechnics is a predictive science of society. As such, it has its limits and can be and is misused. When their predictions failed, the psychotechnicians should have admitted this, not lied. Still less, after being outlawed, should they have tried to regain power with a genetically engineered army. But the science survives its misuse. And philosophy survives the political manipulation of any particular set of philosophical ideas. 

Everard And Guion

The Shield Of Time.

Can we:

"'...squeeze a few more drops of information out of...'" (p. 6)

- what Guion says to Manse Everard?

Although Everard has been thoroughly debriefed about his Phoenician mission, Guion wants to interview him while his memories are still fresh and also to get acquainted, hence the dinner invitation. Everard might have omitted some details that he thought were irrelevant although Guion does not intend to intrude on his privacy. A possible contradiction here? - but Guion only hopes to squeeze a few more drops of information out of what Everard experienced and observed. He wants to know how Everard's experiences felt to him.

Guion asks whether Everard intends to remain in touch with Wanda Tamberly. He mentions her because the events that caused Everard and Tamberly to meet involved Exaltationists. Everard has encountered this group three times. Guion asks whether that can have been coincidental. He also asks whether it was accidental that Tamberly became involved when, without knowing it, she had a relative in the Patrol. Everard begins to point out that Wanda's uncle was the reason that she became involved. This certainly makes Guion's second question seem pointless. However, Everard breaks off when he realizes that there is more going on than he understands.

Because of Everard's three encounters so far with the Exaltationists and because of Tamberly's involvement, the Patrol wants to know more about them, not to pry into their personal lives but hoping for a clue to the hypermatrix of the continuum although that is a misleading description. Such knowledge might help to track down the last Exaltationists and might also help with something beyond that. Is there something about Everard that explains why he has encountered Exaltationists three times and something about Tamberly, other than her uncle, that explains why she became involved? Everard is too preoccupied to notice Guion's hint at a meaning, direction and ending beyond the apprehension of the last Exaltationists.

Crosstemporal Crossovers

Can the Time Traveller, Manse Everard and other fictional time travellers meet?

First, no, because they inhabit mutually incompatible fictional universes such that, if one is the case, then the other is not. If mankind devolves into Morlocks and Eloi, then it does not evolve into Danellians. If time travel happens by backwards or forwards time dilation on a single, hand-built, geostationary "Time Machine," then it does not happen by subjectively instantaneous spatiotemporal jumps on millions of mass-produced, hovering, flying "timecycles."

Secondly, yes, because it is always possible for other authors to write sequels and crossovers especially since the idea of time travel lends itself to the concept of parallel timelines. But crossovers had better be done well or not at all and must not be allowed to compromise the integrity of the original narratives.

Thirdly, these characters already meet in our imaginations as in this post. We compare and contrast them so they come together in our minds. The image of the Time Traveller seated on the Time Machine confronting a Time Patrolman seated on a timecycle is irresistible and they could certainly appear like this on a book cover even if not in a text between the covers.

The Hypermatrix Of The Continuum

The space-time continuum is physical reality with every event represented by four co-ordinates.

A matrix is:

a cavity in which something is formed;

that in which something is embedded;

the bed on which something rests;

a mould;

in mathematics, a rectangular array of quantities or symbols.

"Hyper-" means "excessive" or "more than normal."

Does The Continuum Have A Matrix?

The continuum can certainly be represented by quantities and symbols.

Is it formed or embedded in something?

Does it rest on something?

Is it moulded in something?

If everything that can be represented by only four co-ordinates is part of the continuum, then the matrix in which the continuum is formed, embedded or moulded or on which it rests must have at least five dimensions and a hypermatrix would have more than five?

Patrol agents like Guion study moments in which the continuum seems to be affected by something from outside it:

individuals like Manse Everard and Wandy Tamberly whose world-lines intersect with so many others that they might be causal nexuses;

disturbances whose cause is not in our yet;

any kind of temporal anomaly.

If some FTL spaceships travel through hyperspace, might temporal vehicles travel through hypertime? In Poul Anderson's "Flight to Forever," the time projector travels through a grey void. In Doctor Who, the TARDIS travels through a time vortex where E=MCcubed. Time spent in the void or vortex must be less than the time traversed. Otherwise, there is no time travel.

What Does "Now" Mean To A Time Patrol Agent?

The Shield Of Time.

Guion points out that Everard has prevented the Exaltationists from subverting Simon Bolivar's career, then prevented them from hijacking Atahuallpa's ransom, then rescued ancient Tyre from them but now the Time Patrol must track down the last Exaltationists. However, Guion was born long after the twentieth-century-based part of Everard's career. Further, Guion can have access to the Patrol's records of its entire campaign against the Exaltationists, not just to accounts of Everard's first three encounters with that particular group of time criminals. Of course, Guion must use the word "now" because he is speaking to Everard at this point in Everard's career, between his third and fourth encounters with Exaltationists. Guion explains that he seeks knowledge that might help with the apprehension of the remaining Exaltationists. But that knowledge is not mere factual information. It is:

"'...a clue to...the hypermatrix of the continuum.'" (p. 8)

And beyond the tracking down of the Exaltationists, there might be:

"'...a larger meaning, a direction and an ending -...'" (ibid.)

What Guion seeks is:

"'...no more amenable to symbolic logic than is the concept of mutable reality.'" (p. 5)

But he is trying to cope with mutable reality. He seeks:

"'...whatever measure of comprehension is possible...'" (ibid.)

- because, at any stage in their careers, he or others might return from a journey to the past to find themselves in an altered present.

Time Patrol Organization

If (this is a fictional premise) a single nineteenth-century inventor could build and use the Time Machine, then why did the collective approach of twentieth-century science never come close to duplicating his results? Or even to asking the right questions in the first place? Is an individual approach to a problem sometimes more effective?

We learn two interesting facts about the organization of the Time Patrol. First:

"One of the hardest lessons [Everard] had had to learn, when first recruited into the Time Patrol, was that every important task does not require a vast organization. That was the characteristic twentieth-century approach; but earlier cultures, like Athenian Hellas and Kamakura Japan - and later civilizations too, here and there in history - had concentrated on the development of individual excellence. A single graduate of the Patrol Academy (equipped, to be sure, with tools and weapons of the future) could be the equivalent of a brigade.

"But it was a matter of necessity as well as aesthetics. There were all too few people to watch over all too many thousands of years."

-Poul Anderson, "The Only Game in Town" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 129-171 AT 1, p. 130.

"An Army of One" was a US Army slogan.

Secondly:

"...Guion...was at least of [Everard's] own rank. Probably higher. Above its lowest echelons, the Patrol didn't go in for organizational charts and formal hierarchies of command. By it's nature, it couldn't. The structure was much subtler and stronger than that. Quite likely none but the Danellians fully understood it."

-The Shield Of Time, p. 5.

But I think that I understand this strong, subtle structure: a team of experts/"professionals" who know what has to be done and who also know which of them can do what. Formalities and hierarchies are unnecessary.

Between Now And Then

What is between the twentieth century and the Danellian period?

Interplanetary colonization and warfare.

Interstellar civilization and economic competition.

The home periods of the Exaltationists and the Danellians.

Higher civilizations like that of Guion.

The Period of Oneness.

Observations And A Question

In the higher civilizations, the Time Patrol operates openly with public offices and can advertise for staff.

The Period of Oneness implies that the conflict which the Patrol regards as a perpetual aspect of human history is at last overcome.

Do the Danellians and the Patrol allow a period of extratemporal interventions and chaos to exist, as mentioned in "Time Patrol," or has that been deleted? (The question is whether such a period is necessary to lead to the Danellians.)

See The Time Patrol Timeline.

Reason And Emotion

In Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History, the Psychotechnic Institute wants to put reason in control of emotion. Although the Institute is outlawed, there are still psychotechnicians millennia later. 

Cosmic events bring about the control of emotions by reason in HG Wells' In The Days Of The Comet and in Anderson's Brain Wave. I think that this transformation also occurs in Anderson's Time Patrol series where the course of time:

"'...does at last take us beyond what our animal selves could have imagined.'"

-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), PART SIX, 1990 A. D., p. 435.

Wells and Anderson.

Emotions

"'An operative who had no emotions about the human beings encountered on a mission would be...defective. Worthless, or downright dangerous. As long as we don't let our feelings compromise our duties, they are, ah, nobody else's affair.'"

-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), PART ONE, 1987 A. D., p. 5.

But is it true that an emotionless Patrol agent would always be defective, worthless or even dangerous? When the Patrol has to ensure that wars, massacres or the Holocaust occur on schedule, emotionless agents would seem ideal - and malicious agents even better? Are there two or more sections of the Patrol that are never allowed to meet because they would be mutually intolerable and incomprehensible?

I do not keep track of other authors' sequels to Asimov's Foundation but I remember one logical argument:

Robots are programmed to protect specifically human beings;

the Galactic Empire exists in a humans only Galaxy;

Robots exterminated other intelligent species.

We might reach similarly distasteful conclusions about the Time Patrol.

The Time Traveller And Mr. Gordon

"The Time Traveller (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) was expounding a recondite matter to us."

-HG Wells, The Time Machine (London, 1973), 1, p. 7.

"'The work is, you understand, somewhat unusual,' said Mr. Gordon."

-Poul Anderson, "Time Patrol" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-53 AT 1, p. 1.

Thus begin two major works of time travel fiction. The Time Traveller discusses a philosophical question whereas Mr. Gordon discusses the vacancy that he is interviewing Manse Everard for. I skipped to the first line of dialogue which is preceded by the advertisement:

"MEN WANTED - 21-40, pref. single, mil. or tech. exp., good physique, for high-pay work with foreign travel. Engineering Studies Co.,305 E. 9-12 & 2-6." (ibid.)

Someone pointed out that the ad does not tell the reader how to contact Engineering Studies.

The Time Traveller has to argue that Time is a direction along which we extend, then, contradicting himself, along which we move. Mr. Gordon represents a future civilization that has solved all these problems  and that therefore is able to employ time travellers. We have come a long way from Wells' Time Traveller in London to Anderson's Mr. Gordon in New York.  

First Order And Second Order Characters

First order characters feature in fictional narratives. Sometimes second order characters, not involved in the action, present, introduce or narrate a text. In Poul Anderson's Technic History, Hloch exists only to edit and introduce The Earth Book Of Stormgate and Donvar Ayeghen exists only to introduce an extract from a first order character's memoirs. Arinnian, whose human name is Christopher Holm, is a first order character in The People Of The Wind but also, behind the scenes, a co-author of the Earth Book.

In Anderson's Time Patrol series, Guion does come on stage but only briefly and only in order to interview Manse Everard and Wanda Tamberly between operations, not to take part in any of the operations. Niaerdh exists only in the collective imagination of Northern Europeans and particularly in the creative imagination of her devotee, Veleda.

In "Star of the Sea," Chapter II, the gods wage war. In Chapter 11, Jens Ulstrup explains in conversation that the myth of divine war reflected a cultural conflict. In Chapter III, Gutherius raises an altar to Nehalennia and makes generous offerings to thank the goddess for successful trading voyages to Britain. In Chapter 20, Janne Floris describes Latin inscriptions that are thank offerings for safe voyages to Britain and back. Thus, the mythical chapters with Latin numerals provide background for the historical chapters with Arabic numerals. Deities and legendary figures like Gutherius are second order characters.

Anderson And Moore

Anderson's "Star of the Sea" contains:

mythological writing;

historical fiction;

science fiction with historical and contemporary settings

- and ends with what reads like a heartfelt prayer to "Mary, mother of God..." (IV, p. 639)

This list encapsulates most of the genres to be found in Anderson's works. The mythological writing is fantasy. His detective novels and passages in some other works have contemporary settings. The prayer is matched by one at the end of his sf novel, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows.

Another multi-talented, multi-genre author, Alan Moore, has written:

superhero deconstruction;

fantasy;

fictional political propaganda;

fictional advertisements;

pornography (I am less keen on this but he has done it).

Both lists are creatively diverse and are almost completely different from each other. As I always say, read both.

Antithanatics

"The antithanatic treatment that our organization provides will arrest the aging process but not reverse its effects."

-Poul Anderson, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 333-465 AT 1935, p. 345.

I took "arrest...aging" to mean that Time Patrollers have indefinitely prolonged lifespans. However, Janne Floris thinks that she will be worth most in the field:

"'...until I am too old and feeble.'"

-"Star of the Sea," 20, p. 538.

So how long do they live?

This does solve one problem for me. Although some Patrol agents die by accident or violence, others do not so that I had become concerned about a world overpopulated with perpetually young or middle-aged agents.

Unstable Space-Time

"Star of the Sea," 20.

"...you must watch over events; make certain they continued on the Tacitus One course; no doubt intervene, most carefully, now and then, here and there; till at last they were out of the unstable space-time zone and could safely be left to themselves." (p. 629)

Danellian and Time Patrol mathematics and their Temporal language describe spatiotemporal instability. Maybe we cannot cope just with English.

We must not think of "events" as literally moving through a "zone." Space-time is a four-dimensional set of relationships between events. If one space-time zone is somehow "unstable," then some events are within that zone whereas others are before, after or outside of it.

Janne Floris must watch and sometimes intervene in a sequence of events where, e.g., Veleda:

preaches;

leads a ritual;

eats;

sleeps;

rises;

prays;

gives advice;

receives a visitation from Floris/Nehalennia;

etc.

To Floris, these events are static in the sense that she can observe and re-observe them in any order and as often as necessary. 

Anti-Patrols

If Antiochus had gained complete control of Asia Minor, then one of his descendants might have succeeded in crushing Judaism in Palestine, thus preventing Christianity and making the Danellian timeline:

"'...a phantom, a might-have-been, which, conceivably, an alternate Time Patrol keeps suppressed.'"

-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), PART TWO, 1987 A. D., p. 76.

(However, it turns out that such success for Antiochus was very improbable.)

If the Exaltationists had made themselves overlords throughout the world, then:

"'There'd never have been a you or a me, a United States, a Danellian destiny, a Time Patrol...unless they organized one of their own to protect the misshapen history they brought into being.'"

-Poul Anderson, "The Year of the Ransom" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 641-735 AT 23 May 1987, p. 718.

The Time Patrol series could be developed in different directions:

further episodes set in yet more historical periods;

wars between rival Patrols!

Here is a third possibility:

"'Time travel was old when [the Danellians] emerged, there had been uncountable opportunities for the foolish and the greedy and the mad to turn history inside out.'"

--Poul Anderson, "Time Patrol" IN Anderson, Time Patrol, pp. 1-53 AT 2, p. 11.

Stories set in that long period of extratemporal interventions unregulated by a Patrol.

Is anyone who wants to change anything foolish, greedy or mad? No. In "Time Patrol," Stane is a well-intentioned time criminal.

Danellians

In Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series, the Danellians are the evolutionary successors of home sapiens. It is the Danellians that organize selected human beings into the Time Patrol to protect the particular timeline that leads to them.

What is necessary for the evolution of Danellians? First, human beings to evolve into Danellians. Secondly, time travel:

"'They did not wish to forbid the travel - it was part of the complex which had led to them - but they had to regulate it.'"

-Poul Anderson, "Time Patrol" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-53 AT 2, p. 11.

Time travel requires advanced technology and therefore, before that, a scientific revolution whether in the seventeenth century AD or at some other time.

"Delenda Est" is the culmination of the original collection, Guardians Of Time, and PART SIX, "Amazement of the World," is the culmination of the novel, The Shield Of Time. In both culminations, a change to history prevents the scientific revolution and therefore generates a timeline without Danellians. I had wondered whether a mere change to human history would necessarily eliminate the Danellians but these changes would. 

No Dearth Of Problems?

"Star of the Sea," 20.

"'What will you do next, Manse?'

"'Who knows? We never have a dearth of problems.'" (p. 631)

But their problems, even though involving time travel, must be finite in number. Milieu HQ exists for only twenty years, 1890-1910. It would be nothing for an individual, even without futuristic anti-age treatment, to work in the HQ office for that entire period. For 1850-2000, there are three milieus each with an 1890-1910 HQ - based in London, Moscow and Peiping respectively - but they can deal only with a finite amount of business. Someone who worked in one of the HQs or even in all three of them and then retired would have seen the history of the Patrol in these milieus from beginning to end. 

For Time Patrollers, there is always the possibility that, if they travel into their past, then return to their present, they will return to an alternative present but a retired agent who stayed in the present would not have this problem. So there should be a generation of agents who have completed the work of the Patrol.

A Series Turned Inside Out

"Star of the Sea," 20.

Manse Everard and Janne Floris are unsure where they stand with each but are mature enough to sort it out. There was a narrative imperative here because Poul Anderson set this story in 1986, knowing that Everard would meet Wanda Tamberly for the first time in October of that year.

The chronology of the Time Patrol series was turned inside out. "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks," originally to be read immediately after The Guardians Of Time, should now be read immediately before The Shield Of Time with "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," "Star of the Sea" and "The Year of the Ransom," in that order, coming between the five stories in The Guardians Of Time and "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks." This is the order in which Everard and other characters experience the events. Time travel could have become more complicated and might have done if the series had been continued.

Reconceptualizing Two Series

I keep revising my summary of the contents of Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series. See here.

The latest revision -

Delete:

(v) Wanda Tamberly's Time Patrol career (two);

Insert:

(v) Wanda Tamberly's early Time Patrol career, beginning in Beringia and ending with the alpha-beta-timelines crisis (two);

This is a more detailed summary and emphasises that Tamberly's career is just beginning. What might have happened next? At the end of a series, we are only at a beginning.

In Anderson's Technic History, the Flandry period ends with the beginning of Flandry's daughter's career and what we know of the post-Imperial periods ends with the beginning of a new era of unprecedented wealth.

I have posted on several occasions about beginning the Technic History with seven volumes culminating in The Earth Book Of Stormgate. After that, there are ten fairly straightforward volumes:

Young Flandry (three volumes);

"Outpost of Empire " and The Day Of Their Return (one);

Captain Flandry (three);

Admiral Flandry (two);

After the Empire (one).

"Captain Flandry" is two collections and one novel although the order of the contents of the collections needs to be revised. It makes sense for the first collection to end with "A Message in Secret" and for the second to begin with "A Plague of Masters," which corresponds to the way these works are presented in The Technic Civilization Saga.

Since the second "Admiral Flandry" volume is The Game Of Empire, the single post-Imperial volume could appropriately be entitled After The Empire.

Happy Endings

"Star of the Sea."

Chapter III ends:

"...peace among men." (p.628)

The following Chapter 20 begins:

"'I just got your letter,' Floris had said on the phone. 'Oh, yes, Manse, do come as soon as you can.'" (ibid.)

So there is peace in the past and the agents have returned to the twentieth century. Happy endings all round. And we learn an advantage of Time Patrol membership when the text continues:

"Everard hadn't wasted time aboard a jet. He stuck his passport in a pocket and hopped directly from the Patrol's New York office to the one in Amsterdam. There he drew some Dutch money and got a cab to her place." (ibid.)

Subjectively instantaneous space-time travel can be just instantaneous space travel. In fact:

"The time effect was the by-product of a search for a means of instantaneous transportation...'"

-Poul Anderson, "Time Patrol" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-53 AT 2, p. 9.

Apparently, both instantaneous transportation and travel into the past involve infinitely discontinuous functions.

The mention of money also matters. When Guion invites Everard to dinner at a restaurant of his choice, Everard reflects:

"Superficially the offer meant little. An Unattached agent of the Time Patrol drew on unlimited funds. Actually it meant a great deal. Guion wanted to spend lifespan on him."

-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), PART ONE, 1987 A. D., p. 4.

Unattached agents value their time. 

Gutherius And Nehalennia

"Star of the Sea," III.

Gutherius encounters an old woman whom he thinks:

"...must have been Nehalennia herself." (p. 637)

- another incarnation story. Through her intervention, as he believes, Gutherius is richly rewarded when he helps shipwrecked seafarers. Because Nehalennia is goddess of ships and trade, Gutherius invests in a ship that trades with Britain. The remainder of this chapter expresses devotion to Nehalennia just as Chapter IV expresses devotion to Mary:

fair weather and a following wind always favour Gutherius' ship;

his goods sell well;

he becomes rich;

he builds an altar to Nehalennia and offers generously after every voyage;

he always bows to the evening and morning stars.

"Hers are the trees, the vine, and the fruits thereof. Hers are the sea and the ships that plow it. Hers are the well-being of mortals and peace among them." (p. 628)

In the following chapter, Janne Floris tells Manse Everard how she had inspired Veleda to redirect the goddess towards peace. In this chapter, Poul Anderson writes as if he himself were a devotee of Nehalennia.

Narrative Structures

"Star of the Sea."

Chapter I begins with the goddess, Niaerdh, and is followed by Chapters 1-10.

Chapter II begins with the pantheon, the Anses, and is followed by Chapters 11-19.

Chapter III begins with a man, Gutherius, and is followed by Chapter 20.

Chapter IV begins with the human mother of God, Mary, and ends the novel.

Complicated but worthwhile.

Mary does not appear but is addressed in prayer.

In The Shield Of Time, Guion of the Time Patrol appears only in the brief PARTs ONE, THREE and FIVE in conversation with Manse Everard, then with Wanda Tamberly, then with Everard again, but is absent from the action of the longer PARTs TWO, FOUR and SIX. It might have been good to see this mysterious character in action in a later volume.

The change of focus from the Wanes and Anses to Gutherius is maybe like the change of focus from the Eddas about gods to the Sagas about men. In this post, I meant to focus on Gutherius but got side-tracked onto complicated narrative structures.

The Bridge

"Star of the Sea."

"'Finally Civilis agreed to meet with Cerialis and discuss terms. It is a dramatic scene in Tacitus - a bridge across the Ijssel, from which workers first removed the middle - the two men stood each at an end of the broken span and talked -'

"'I remember that,' Everard said. 'It's where the manuscript ended, till the rest was recovered. As I recall, the rebels got a pretty fair offer, which they accepted.'" (2, pp. 489-490)

The Tacitus Two manuscript with no peace settlement but continued warfare and subjugation of the tribes had diverged just after that point. As Everard commented:

"'Kind of spooky, huh?'" (2, p. 487)

Chapter 18 ends when Niaerdh tells Veleda:

"'When [the kings and chiefs] are gathered before you, give them the word of peace.'" (p. 622)

Chapter 19 describes the parley on the broken bridge. Burhmund lists his services to Rome. Peace talks begin.

Chapter III contrasts with I and II by describing not conflict between gods but peace among men.

Turning Point

"Star of the Sea," 18.

Burhmund and Veleda are historical figures in Tacitus' Histories. Heidhin, Veleda's companion, and of course Manse Everard of the Time Patrol are fictional characters created by Poul Anderson. Thus, several narrative strands converge when Burhmund tells Heidhin:

"'Yon Everard is an odd one. He may be able to bring something about.'" (p. 617)

That is how a time traveller intervening in historical events might appear to a participant in those events: odd but possibly effective. We value alternative viewpoints in fiction. In Anderson's Technic History, we sometimes read how van Rijn, Falkayn or Flandry appear to others.

Burhmund and Heidhin converse although neither is presented as the viewpoint character. Veleda arrives and leads Heidhin outside. We are told what Burhmund says to others who are present when the door closes, then we follow events outside the building without any break in the text. Heidhin and Veleda converse with Janne Floris/Niaerdh. As in the previous chapter, Floris hears Everard's voice internally so she, Floris, has become the viewpoint character.

This chapter is the turning point. Heidhin releases Veleda from her oath by killing himself. His death ensures the Tacitus One timeline. If Heidhin had refused to yield and had carried Veleda with him, then the Tacitus Two timeline with continued warfare and a new religion of the Goddess would have followed.

A Time Of Peace

"Star of the Sea," 17.

Janne Floris must persuade the prophetess, Veleda, that her deity, Niaerdh, has changed from a goddess of war to a goddess of peace. Is this possible? Floris quotes "olden wisdom," beginning:

"'To every thing there is a season..."

- and ending:

"'...a time of war; and a time of peace.'" (p. 613)

That does the trick with Veleda but they still have a warlike culture to contend with.

Whose is the point of view (pov) here? The opening paragraph about the smouldering sunset could have a collective pov. In the second paragraph, a hind shivers because of the weather and because he sees Wael-Edh. He reflects on her, mutters a spell and hastens home so the pov is his but then he is gone.

In the third paragraph, Edh approaches and enters her tower so the pov might be hers although only her externally observable movements and words are described. In the upper room, Janne Floris appears and the pov seems to become hers although again this might be an externally observed conversation between the two women. Finally, Floris subvocalizes and hears Everard's English language reply in her head. The pov is now definitely Floris's.

Wet Weather

"Star of the Sea," 16.

A description of miserable weather is appropriately followed by a description of miserable men!

Weather And The Environment

hissing sleet

flat, drenched land

low visibility

withered grass

wind tossing bare trees

a burned house

dankness

chill

north wind smelling of swamps, sea and approaching winter

water dripping from Everard's hood past his face

hoofs squelching in deep mud

The Men

snuffling

sneezing

comrades fevered with chattering teeth in sick bay

wretched

tarnished metal

sodden kilts

gooseflesh

sunken cheeks

short rations

gloomy atrium

slumped, staring staff

We get the point. Sometimes, if we analyse an Andersonian description and list the adjectives, they go on and on. Not a complaint. Appreciate and savour every detail.

Frederick Forsyth And Poul Anderson II

More literary parallels. First, The Devil's Alternative features a Swede called Wennerstrom. These are two parallels with Steig Larsson. Secondly, Forsyth's Wennerstrom has commissioned a supertanker and is asked what he will call it:

"'Do you remember the Sagas? We'll name her to please Niorn, the god of the sea... For Niorn controls the fire and the water, the twin enemies of a tanker captain; the explosion and the sea herself... So we will name her after the daughter of Niorn, Freya, the most beautiful of all the goddesses. We will call her the Freya.' He raised his glass. 'To the Freya.'"

-Frederick Forsyth, The Devil's Alternative (London, 1980), 4, pp. 101-102.

Niorn is a new spelling but we have recently discussed the deity, Njord/ Niaerdh/Nerthus, in relation to Poul Anderson's historical fantasy, historical time travel fiction and future history fiction:

the god Njord and his human incarnation;

the goddess Niaerdh and a Time Patrolwoman who poses as her;

a planet called Nerthus. 

Andropov And Gorbachev

I am learning more about how near future thrillers can intersect with alternative history fiction. Instead of technological innovations, such novels can involve fictional political leaders. Thus, in Frederick Forsyth's The Devil's Alternative, published in 1979 but set in 1982, Yuri Andropov has been head of the KGB but has not become Russian Premier whereas, in Forsyth's Icon, published in 1996 but set in 1999, Andropov has been Premier. Yet Sir Nigel Irvine features in both works. Novels involving Sir Nigel can be regarded as a series but with the qualification that their political background changes. They are not set in quite the same timeline.

Poul Anderson's The Shield Of Time, published in 1990, mentions Gorbachev. The Time Patrol series began in 1955. Time Patrollers must have known about Gorbachev back then and even earlier. Their milieu HQ is in 1890-1910. But they did not happen to mention Andropov or Gorbachev in any conversations recorded by Poul Anderson!

Mutable Time Theory

In "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth":

Causal loops are subtle. An incipient causal loop is dangerous because it can set up a resonance which can cause changes of history that multiply catastrophically. The loop is made safe by closing it.

In "Star of the Sea":

Causal loops often have a powerful and subtle force. It is necessary to prevent a causal loop from developing into a causal vortex.

Terminology

Causal loop:

"'The time traveler becomes a cause of the selfsame events he set out to study or otherwise deal with.'" (Time Patrol, p. 448)

"'...our investigation of a disturbance to the plenum is what brought it about.'" (p. 559)

Clear. But what are:

an incipient causal loop?

a resonance?

a causal vortex?

The changes of history multiplying catastrophically sound as if they might be a vortex.

Everard has to rely on intuition based on a lot of experience:

"'I looked deeper into your case mainly because of a hunch, an uneasy feeling that something wasn't right.'" (p. 448)

His assessment of a situation can change:

"'No, this is no slight ripple in the time stream. This is a maelstrom abuilding. We've got to damp it out...'" (p. 450)

Yet later:

"'...that was quite a minor eddy in the time stream, easily damped...'" (p. 566)

Again, intuition is involved:

"'This is different. I don't know how it is, but I feel it in my marrow.'" (ibid.)

Only intuition can respond to unpredictability.

Shakespeare And Ecclesiastes In The Time Patrol

"Star of the Sea," 14.

Janne Floris has killed the Romans who were raping Edh and is holding her where she is still lying on the ground:

"'What do you want of me, Niaerdh?' [Edh] whispered. 'I am yours. As I always was?'

"'Slay the Romans, all the Romans!' Heidhin bawled.'" (p. 592)

Edh, in shock, asks the goddess what she should do and hears "Slay the Romans!" Of course, it is not the goddess who bawls that but Edh is confused and trying to understand. She asks whether Niaerdh is troubled that the Romans befoul her world.

Heidhin says that he will pay with his life. He will. Unable to accept peace with Rome, he will kill himself, thus moving events towards the Tacitus One timeline.

Everard tells Floris:

"'The time is out of joint and you can't set it right today. You can't. Meddle any more, and I swear there'll never be a Tacitus One book, maybe never a Tacitus Two. We don't belong in these events, and that's why the future is in danger. Leave them be!'" (p. 593)

He quotes Shakespeare:

"The time is out of joint. O cursed spite

"That ever I was born to set it right!"

-Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5, lines 189-190.

Wanda Tamberly and Aryuk quote Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5, lines 15-20 when they stage an apparition of a ghost in Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), PART FOUR, 13,211 B. C., XII, p, 244, whereas Janne Floris quotes Ecclesiates 3: 1-8, when she stages an apparition of the goddess in "Star of the Sea," 17.

Everard is a time traveller who knows that he does not belong in these events. The time is not out of joint. He is.

Where The Time Patrol Goes

A short while ago, I summarized the contents of Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series but missed some points so here we go again:

(i) Manse Everard's early Time Patrol career, beginning with his recruitment, training, first case and promotion to Unattached status and ending with the Carthaginian crisis (four episodes);

(ii) turning points in the lives of two other Patrol agents, Tom Namura and Carl Farness (two);

(iii) "Star of the Sea" as a turning point for Manse Everard because he begins and ends a relationship with Janne Floris and will shortly meet Wanda Tamberly (one);

(iv) the four-phase War against the Exaltationists, involving Wanda Tamberly in its second phase (three);

(v) Wanda Tamberly's Time Patrol career (two);

(vi) an interruption to Everard's and Tamberly's holiday in San Francisco (one).

Comments

The Patrol could have contacted Everard after, instead of during, the holiday.

Everard and Tamberly are married in SM Stirling's "A Slip in Time."

The series goes somewhere and could have gone further.

Addendum: See revision here.

Connections

Poul Anderson's Technic History and his Time Patrol series are set in different timelines. However, either an extratemporal intervention or a quantum fluctuation could cause a Time Patrol agent to arrive in the Technic History and we know that from that timeline there is a route to the inter-universal inn, the Old Phoenix. I do not advocate inauthentic or chaotic sequels to Anderson's works. However, a sufficiently imaginative author would be able to make some connections. I cannot imagine how it would be done but then I would not have been able to imagine any of this in the first place. This post is one of my late evening thoughts before switching off the computer and turning to other reading which is always waiting.

High is heaven and holy.

Fear And Feast

"Star of the Sea," 13.

"Winter passed, rain, snow, cavernous darknesses, the night of fear before the sun turned back and the day of feast that followed, lightening skies, thaw, newborn lambs, budding boughs." (p. 585)

The point of view is collective and entirely that of people living in the past, not of time travellers passing through. The sentence introduces a paragraph that goes on to describe spring and approaching summer in almost poetic language. I was struck by the contrast between the night of fear and the day of feast. We still have the day. People in earlier times must really have feared that, this year, the sun would continue to decline and would not turn back.

In this chapter, Poul Anderson conveys all the sensations and feelings of Edh's young life up to and including the experience that changes her life forever.