"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.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And these remarks about the "night of fear" reminded me of how some pagans would sacrifice humans to their sun gods, to give these gods greater strength.
Ad astra! Sean
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