Sunsets

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth."

Sunsets are colourful symbols of the passage of time: the end of a day; metaphorically, the end of an era; the Sunset of Mankind in The Time Machine; the sunset of the Terran Empire in the Dominic Flandry series; PG Wodehouse's Sunset At Blandings.

Here are three significant sunsets.

When Dagobert is killed in battle:

"The sun sank westward, blood-red in a greenish heaven. Its light glimmered of carrion fowl awheel overhead. " (337, p. 392)

When Ermanaric's men kill Randwar and Swanhild:

"This was a bleak evening, where wind shrilled. Tatters of smoke mingled with scudding wrack. Sunset smoldered. A few slain defenders sprawled on the cobbles." (366-372), p. 444.

Before Ermanaric kills himself:

"He had watched sunset smolder away in the west, while thunderheads gathered blue-black in the east. Those clouds now loomed across a fourth of heaven." (374, p. 463)

All fully appropriate.