Quoting Historical Political Speeches

The People of the Wind, XI.

Matthew Vickery, President of the Parliament of Man on Avalon:

"'You sit here mouthing obsolete words, but I tell you, the winds of change are blowing.'" (p. 567)

He addresses Daniel Holm who has just used the Ythrian word, "deathpride." Holm replies:

"'I understand that's a mighty old phrase too,' Holm said. 'Ferune had one still older that he liked to quote. How'd it go? "- their finest hour -"'" (ibid.)

They quote two British Prime Ministers:

This was their finest hour 

Winds of Change

Only twenty years between the two speeches! But 1960 was a very different world from 1940.

More winds of change: we now have a Hindu Prime Minister of Britain and a Muslim First Minister of Scotland and the really big change is that this happens almost unnoticed.

The Great Khruath Of Avalon

The People of the Wind, XI.

It is necessary to hold a planetary Khruath in order to decide whether to continue to resist Terran aggression. There is no time to assemble physically so two million enfranchised adults are involved electronically, including those elected at regional meetings and those individuals who wish to speak. The High Wyvans stand before David Falkayn's house on First Island in the Hesperian Sea. Inside the house, staff with computers filter questions and comments. No Ythrian will speak at unnecessary length or repeat the obvious. 

Liaw of the Tarns states the issues. Other speakers present brief factual reports. One is about North Coronan food production and storage of preserved meat in radiation-proof bunkers. Arinnian reports as chief of the North Coronan guard. North Corona is now cooperating with all of Oronesia and aims to incorporate other islands. The uninhabited Equatorian continent needs to be guarded against Terran invasion. 

After six hours, 83% vote for continued resistance.

"Humans couldn't have done it." (p. 564)

I think that we can move toward it on the basis of common interests and of improved communication technology. As yet, common interests are a matter of lip service, not of material cooperation.

Strong Women Characters

In Poul Anderson's Technic History, Coya Conyon is Nicholas van Rijn's granddaughter and becomes David Falkayn's wife. We see Coya contending with her grandfather before she becomes engaged to Falkayn. Tabitha Falkayn is David's and Coya's descendant but is brought up by Ythrians. Diana Crowfeather is Dominic Flandry's daughter but grows up among Tigeries. The strong women with whom Flandry has relationships merit independent treatment. The Time Patrol series presents Janne Floris and Wanda Tamberly. The latter becomes a central character in two later instalments. 

We have noticed some parallels between Poul Anderson and Neil Gaiman. Gaiman's The Sandman has more strong women characters, including a Lesbian couple and a trans-sexual before this became a big issue. Gaiman's treatment of mythology, e.g., The Kindly Ones (the Furies) matches Anderson's.

Prayer To The Dead

The People of the Wind, IX.

Admiral Cajal reflects:

"...Intelligence...the whole navy, the whole Empire, was spread too thin across a reach too vast, inhuman, hostile; in the end, perhaps all striving to keep the Peace of Man was barren." (p. 546)

Poul Anderson readers are bound to remember the Time Patrol guarding all of history - although in a different timeline. We must accept that it is an unstated premise that time travel is as impossible in the Technic History timeline as faster-than-light space travel is in Poul Anderson's Genesis. Massive narratives are built on different fundamental premises.

A question for Cajal: is there a difference between Peace and Power?

Cajal prays to Christ and saints and then:

"Before everyone, you, Elena who in Heaven must love me yet, since none were ever too lowly for your love, Elena, watch over me. Hold my hand." (p. 547)

I suspect that the earliest prayers were to the dead, then to gods, then to God. In Hindu myths, the first man who died became god of the dead. It was thought that the dead survived because human beings seemed to enter another world temporarily in dreams, then permanently at death.

We have noticed before that Dominic Flandry was the first person to pray to St. Kossara. He asked his murdered fiancee to give him a sign...

The Major Turning Point

 

In The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire, we bid farewell to:

the Solar Commonwealth

the Polesotechnic League

Nicholas van Rijn

David Falkayn

Adzel

Chee Lan

Muddlehead

- who have been with us since Volume I

- and to Coya Conyon/Falkayn who first appeared at the end of Volume II.

And we say hello to:

the colony on Avalon

the Domain of Ythri

the Terran Empire

the Merseian Roidhunate (as a remote but growing threat)

- all of which will survive into Volumes IV-VII.

This volume is the major turning point of the Technic History series although there is an even greater turning point at the midpoint of Volume VII.

More Everyday Moments And Historical Continuity

Everyday Moments

(i) Conversation in  a wood-panelled waterfront tavern in Boseville on the River Flone on the planet Aeneas in The Day Of Their Return.

(ii) Diana sitting on the tower of St. Barbara watching the market in Olga's Landing on the planet Imhotep in The Game of Empire.

(iii) The Wodenite Axor having to sprawl on the floor at the Sign of the Golden Cockbeetle which is also frequented by miners, joygirls and a Tigery in The Game of Empire.

Historical Continuity

Later instalments of a future history series incorporate understated background references to earlier instalments. In "Day of Burning," the Polesotechnic League, represented by David Falkayn, arranges to protect the planet Merseia from the radiation effects of the supernova, Valenderay. In The People of the Wind, the superdreadnaught that is the flagship of the Terran armada is called Valenderay. This and similar connections enhance our appreciation of the series provided that we notice them.

Future Everyday Life

My favourite moments of future everyday life in Poul Anderson's Technic History are:

Jim Ching visiting Betty Riefenstahl in "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" (even more than Jim and Betty visiting Adzel):

Coya Conyon with Nicholas van Rijn in the chartered Ythrian ranger, Gaiian (=Dewfall) in "Lodestar";

Christopher Holm/Arinnian and Tabitha Falkayn/Hrill spending an evening in Centauri in The People of the Wind;

Dominic Flandry's souffle breakfast in his Archopolis apartment with the window open to the roof garden in A Stone in Heaven.

Arinnian and Hrill:

walk by the canal in Livewell Street;

eat piscoid-and-tomato chowder, beef-and-shua pie, clustergrain salad and pears and drink coffee spiced with witchroot and vintage dago in the Phoenix House;

meet Vodan and Quenna in the Nest where they drink New African beer.

As Larry Niven commented, Anderson immerses us in the future and puts us into a whole new world.

Details And Connections

In a future history series, we can focus on details in a particular story or on the relationships between stories. Thus, "The Saturn Game," about exploration of a Saturnian moon in the twenty first century, is the first instalment in Poul Anderson's Technic History whereas "Starfog," about exploration of a globular cluster on the fringe of another spiral arm of the galaxy several millennia in the future, is the last instalment of the Technic History. These two stories are only indirectly connected:

a character in "The Saturn Game" was brought up as a Jerusalem Catholic;

Dominic Flandry meets a Wodenite Jerusalem Catholic priest in The Game of Empire;

descendants of rebels exiled by Flandry in The Rebel Worlds return in "Starfog";

Flandry was on a planet called Vixen in "Hunters of the Sky Cave";

in "Starfog," Daven Laure is from New Vixen.

Here is a visual detail that should be included in any screen adaptation. Liaw of the Tarns, Wyvan of the High Khruath, participates in a teleconference:

"Liaw sat silent for a space, during which the rest of them heard wind whistle behind him and saw a pair of his grandsons fly past. One bore the naked sword which went from house to house as a summons to war, the other a blast rifle."

-The People of the Wind, V, p. 494.

It would be valid to add a scene to explain the symbolism of the naked sword.

Two Culminating Collections

Poul Anderson's Technic History in its original reading order comprised more or less seven volumes culminating in the long collection, The Earth Book of Stormgate, followed by ten volumes culminating in the short collection, The Night Face and Other Stories. The Earth Book completes the first part of the Technic History, mainly about the Polesotechnic League, whereas The Night Face... completes the Technic History. Each of these two collections covers enough fictional history to count as a single-volume future history. The Earth Book incorporates eight more Polesotechnic League instalments whereas The Night Face.... does not include any further Terran Empire stories but is entirely post-Imperial. Also, the Earth Book is bound together by Hloch's newly written introductions and afterword whereas there are no such additional passages by Anderson in The Night Face... Reading the Technic History, we appreciate these contrasts.

An equivalent volume in Larry Niven's Known Space future history is Tales of Known Space.

Invasion From The Future

The People of the Wind, V.

Matthew Vickery, President of the Parliament of Man on Avalon, complains about defence spending:

"'When I think of the prosperity that tax money, those resources, could have brought, left in private hands - or the social good it could have done in the public sector - Give you military your heads, and you'd build bases in the fourth dimension to protect us against an invasion from the future.'

"'We are always being invaded by the future,' Ferune said." (p. 490)

First, we notice that Vickery is a skilful politician, able to appeal to two constituencies simultaneously. Secondly, we appreciate the wisdom of Ferune's response. A Zen monk said that, at any moment, we do not know what is going to come up, either without or within. So we need two things: a lot of experience of past situations but also alertness to whatever is new. Vickery's sarcastically intended bases in the fourth dimension are a good concrete metaphor for alertness. We cannot see into the fourth dimension but we can be alert to what comes out of it.

Threads And Jerusalem Catholicism

As in past history, numerous narrative threads run through Poul Anderson's Technic History, weaving in and out of successive periods. I set out to trace one thread but have become entangled in several. The earliest reference to the Jerusalem Catholic Church is in the very first story, "The Saturn Game." The earliest references to Hermes, Woden and Cynthia - Falkayn's, Adzel's and Chee Lan's home planets - are in the second story - the first in the Earth Book, - "Wings of Victory." This story does more than refer to the Ythrians. It introduces them. The third story, "The Problem of Pain," features Ythrians, introduces the planet Avalon and refers to the planet Aeneas. The fourth story, "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson," introduces Adzel and the Polesotechnic League and refers to Cynthia and Ythri. This story is contemporaneous with "Margin of Profit" which introduces Nicholas van Rijn. The next story, "The Three-Cornered Wheel," introduces David Falkayn and the planet Ivanhoe. I had better stop there. A sound foundation for a Heinleinian pyramidal future history series is laid in these opening instalments which carry us half way through The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume I.

The single thread that I was looking for was the Jerusalem Catholic Church which, I think, makes three appearances

"'My family was well-to-do, but they were - are - Jerusalem Catholics. Strict about certain things; archaistic, you might say. She lifted her wine and sipped. 'Oh, yes, I've left the Church, but in several ways the Church will never leave me.'"

-Poul Anderson, "The Saturn Game" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, December 2009), III, p. 30.

Centuries later, Philippe Rochefort reflects that their reproductive pattern seems to determine the lives of intelligent beings but then thinks:

"But no, a Jerusalem can't believe that. Biological evolution inclines, it does not compel."

-Poul Anderson, The People of the Wind IN Anderson, Rise of the Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, March 2011), IV, p. 481.

More centuries later, the Wodenite, Axor, is a Jerusalem Catholic priest. (Wodenites are another thread, of course, - even Wodenites converting to Terrestrial religions.)

I would like to discuss several issues with Rochefort. He disapproves of mixed colonies but Avalon is a fascinating success. On the eve of war with Ythri, he reflects that Ythrians are phasing out slavery whereas the Terran Empire is reviving it:

"How more moral are we than they? How much more right do we have?

"He straightened in his chair. Man is my race."

-The People of the Wind, IV, p. 487.

Get real, Rochefort. Wars are fought for economic and strategic advantage, not for morality.

Morgana And The Narrator

"The Problem of Pain."

The planet unofficially called "Gray" has:

"'...one small, close-in, bright moon...'" (p. 115)

"Gray's moon was up, nearly full, swifter and brighter than Luna." (p. 129)

When Gray is settled and named Avalon, its moon will be called Morgana, a periodical will be named after it, Judith Dalmady/Lundren, daughter of Emil Dalmady, will write short stories to be published in Morgana and three of these will be collected in The Earth Book of Stormgate. Is Morgana scarred during the Terran War? Maybe not. If it is, then this information will be in The People of the Wind or the Earth Book.

During their sky dance for drowned Arrack, her family chants:

"'High flew your spirit on many winds... be always remembered....'" (p. 125)

We read these words again at the funeral of Ferune, Wyvan of Mistwood Choth, in The People of the Wind.

When Olga Berg is dying, Peter:

"...knelt again, beside her. He has not told me what he said, or how." (p. 130)

This is the only intrusion of the first person narrator into the central part of the story about Peter Berg's experience on Avalon.

Reintroducing The Technic History

"The Problem of Pain" is the second of twelve stories in Poul Anderson's The Earth Book of Stormgate and introduces the planet Avalon which is colonized in the eleventh and twelfth stories in the Earth Book.

In The Technic Civilization Saga, "The Problem of Pain" is the third of eleven stories in Volume I (of VII), there are seven stories in Volume II and Avalon is colonized in the second and third of six stories in Volume III. (Here, "stories" is shorthand for both short stories and novels.)

Although Avalon is discovered early in the Technic History, both the Solar Commonwealth and the Polesotechnic League have to rise and fall before there is sufficient motivation for colonization and the intervening stories record in particular the expansion and decline of the League. Deterioration begins in Satan's World, increases in "A Little Knowledge" and "Lodestar," all in the Saga, Volume II, and climaxes in Mirkheim in Volume III. Many individual stories, each a substantial narrative complete in itself, build a historical process. After the colonization of Avalon, there are three more stories in Volume III and four more volumes in the Saga. OK. Read or reread it!

Mutual Incomprehension

"The Problem of Pain."

Peter Berg's incomprehension continues and is reciprocated. How many different ways are there to conceptualize a death?

Enherrian's daughter, Arrack, pulls Berg away from a rock on which he would have been smashed but then she goes under and is drowned.

(i) Berg tries to express sympathy. Arrack's brother says that it is unnecessary.

(ii) Berg says that she died saving him. Her brother replies that she also saved what Berg was carrying.

(iii) Enherrian says that she fought well and gave God honour. Berg wonders whether this means that she prayed and confessed. (No way.)

(iv) Berg says that she is in heaven. Enherrian wonders how Arrack can be anywhere when she is dead. (Excellent question.)

(v) Berg refers to her spirit and Enherrian replies that it will be remembered in pride.

(vi) Olga Berg asks whether they do not believe that the spirit outlives the body? Enherrian expresses incomprehension and does not want to continue the conversation.

I have counted six incomprehensions.

I would once have said that God must understand and accept all His creatures, having, after all, created them. I would still say this, at least in a notional or hypothetical sense.

"The Problem of Pain": Adaptation To Screen

"The Problem of Pain." 

If adapting Poul Anderson's Technic History, each short story should be the equivalent of a single TV series episode. Each longer story or novel should be serialized. There should be no "feature film"-length dramatizations. (In my opinion.) No scene or dialogue should be omitted.

"The Problem of Pain" should start with Hloch's introduction: voiceover with scenes illustrating the founding of the Solar Commonwealth, the discovery of Avalon, Rennhi researching in the University of Fleurville etc. Next, we should see the unnamed narrator and Peter Berg on the planet Lucifer. Some of Berg's dialogue, like his descriptions of Ythrians in flight and of the arrival of the expedition on the planet provisionally called "Gray," should be dramatized.

Eventually, Berg says:

"'A hurricane. Unpredicted; we knew very little about that planet. Given the higher solar energy input and, especially, the rapid rotation, the storm was more violent than would've been possible on Earth. We could only run before it and pray.

"'At least, I prayed, and imagined that Enherrian did.'" (p. 117)

After a double space between paragraphs, the scene shifts to a third person account of the hurricane:

"Wind shrieked..." (ibid.)

This is the point at which, on screen, the scene should shift fully from Lucifer to "Gray."

Berg asks God to protect them from the hurricane but also submits himself to God's will and imagines that the Ythrian does something similar. We project our own assumptions onto others. Meanwhile, Enherrian honours God the Hunter by striving against the hurricane.

Avalonography

Poul Anderson, "The Problem of Pain" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, December 2009), pp. 103-134.

Where better to look for Avalonography than in the story which introduces the planet and in which it is explored by Ythrians employing an Aenean human couple?

Hloch introduces an unnamed first person human narrator whose own introduction and conclusion frame a third person account of Peter Berg's experience on the as yet unnamed planet, Avalon. This terrestroid planet, smaller than Earth, larger than Ythri, might be colonized by either species or both. (The first Ythrian story, "Wings of Victory," was published in 1972; the rest, including this one, in 1973. Anderson clearly worked on them together.)

A spaceship, which could not be spared to stay in orbit, left about a hundred beings who made their base on the largest continent, then dispersed across the planet. A strong current flowed east from a great gulf on the southern shore of the continent and was deflected north by an archipelago.

The largest continent = Corona.

The great gulf = the Gulf of Centaurs.

The archipelago = Oronesia.

An Ythrian family and a human couple sail out to explore a floating island of atlantis weed. The unexpectedly violent weather shipwrecks them on (what I think is) one of the Oronesian islands.

The Southern Continents On Avalon

The People of the Wind.

New Gaiila has scorching savannahs.

New Africa is the source of thick strong beer sold in the Nest in Centauri.

Equatoria has tool-using centaurs and therefore has not been colonized. It is also a death trap as the Terrans learn when they are misled into establishing a beachhead there.

There is probably more information scattered among Poul Anderson's texts. If found, it will be added here or in a later post. Anderson would definitely have created more environmental information than he was able to incorporate into the texts. "New Africa" is Anglic whereas "New Gaiila" is an Anglic adjective and a Planha noun. "Equatoria," like "Oronesia," is an appropriate coinage for a land mass on an extra-solar planet.

Fair winds forever.

Some Avalonian Place Names

Sometimes we are told a Planha word, e.g., "choth." At other times. a Planha word is translated for us, e.g., "deathpride," "Weathermother."

"To those who read, good flight.

"It is Hloch of the Stormgate Choth who writes, on the peak of Mount Anrovil in the Weathermother."

-Poul Anderson, INTRODUCTION WINGS OF VICTORY IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, December 2009), pp. 75-77 AT p. 75.

That should be filmed with a scene of clouds blowing past a peak and Hloch's words as voiceover. 

Human Avalonians call the Weathermother range the Andromedas. Avalon is smaller than Earth so that its mountain-forming forces are weaker. In addition, rapid rotation causes violent weather which also makes for a lower surface. The highest Andromeda is only 4500 metres. 

On Earth:

Polynesia means "many islands";

Micronesia means "small islands";

Melanesia means "black islands";

Indonesia means "Indian islands."

On Avalon:

Oronesia means "mountainous islands."

The Oronesian archipelago, occupied by Highsky Choth and many very small choths, crosses the Tropic of Spears and ends near the Antractic Circle. In the northern hemisphere, it separates the Middle Ocean from the Hesperian Sea. Beyond the equator is the South Ocean. Oronesia has a distinct rich ecology and has been a refuge for eccentrics of both species. Colonists originally settled the Hesperian Islands before moving to the northern Coronan continent the size of Australia, stretching past the Tropic of Swords. In the southern hemisphere, Equatoria, New Africa and New Gaiila are large islands or small continents.

Twelve Conversations

The People of the Wind.

War preparation affects many people at every level on both sides. Poul Anderson shows this by a series of conversations:

Daniel Holm with his son, Christopher;

Christopher Holm and Eyath, members of Stormgate Choth although of different species;

Daniel Holm as Second Marchwarden of the Lauran System with his superior, Ferune, Wyvan of Mistwood Choth;

Christopher Holm as Arinnian of Stormgate with Tabitha Falkayn as Hrill of Highsky;

Eyath with her fellow Ythrian, Vodan, before he goes to war;

Ekrem Saracoglu, Earl of Anatolia, Imperial Governor of Sector Pacis, with Luisa, daughter of Fleet Admiral Juan de Jesus Cajal y Palomares of Nuevo Mexico;

Lieutenant (j.g.) Philippe Rochefort with fire control, CPO Wa Chou, "Watch Out," of Cynthia and engineer-computerman, CPO Abdullah Helu from Huy Braseal;

Rochefort with Eve Davisson over dinner;

Daniel Holm and Ferune with Matthew Vickery, President of the Parliament of Man, and Liaw of The Tarns, Wyvan of the High Khruath;

Arinnian with Hrill (interrupted by meeting Vodan);

Ainnian and Hrill with Vodan and Quenna;

Cajal with Saracoglu.

Then hostilities begin.

Highsky Choth

The People of the Wind, III.

Although many Oronesian islands are home to a single household designated as a choth, the numerous Highsky Choth occupies a long stretch of the archipelago and controls some of its fisheries. A quarter of Highsky members are human. They include Tabitha Falkayn, a third generation member, brought up by Ythrians and the only human being resident on the island of St. Li. That she is a descendent of David Falkayn means little in Highsky but much in Stormgate. The Earth Book of Stormgate includes two narratives about David and one about his grandson, Nathaniel.

Most Highsky choth members observe the Old Faith which means polytheist animal sacrifices and drugs used in sacred revels. I would hope for a reformed Old Faith without the animal sacrifices. However, since Ythrians are carnivores, maybe this is a different proposition for them?

The Sky Book Of Stormgate

In The Earth Book of Stormgate, Hloch twice refers to his mother Rennhi's earlier work, The Sky Book of Stormgate. In his general introduction, Hloch tells us that the Sky Book is the history of Stormgate Choth, covering:

the ancestors on Ythri;

the founders on Avalon;

their descendants.

In the introduction to "Wingless," he writes:

"As for the creation and history of our choth upon Avalon, that is in The Sky Book of Stormgate."

-Poul Anderson, Rise of the Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, March 2011), p. 294.

This might remind us of:

As for the other events of Baasha’s reign, what he did and his achievements, are they not written in the book of the annalsd of the kings of Israel?  (I Kings 16:5)

Readers of the Bible do not read the book of the annals just as we, who read the Earth Book, do not read the Sky Book.

The Earth Book is the story of the settlement of Avalon and of the origin of Stormgate as told not by Ythrians but by Terrans who walk the earth. Do other Avalonian choths have similar histories? Is there an Earth Book of Highsky or a Sky Book of Mistwood?

The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume III

In The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume III, Rise of the Terran Empire, we read a linear future history series.

In Mirkheim, the Polesotechnic League begins its terminal decline. Coya Falkayn says that David and she will get out while they still can and David says that he will look for somewhere to begin afresh.

In "Wingless" and "Rescue on Avalon," the Falkayns have led the colonization of Avalon.

In "The Star Plunderer," the League has gone and Manuel Argos proclaims the Terran Empire.

In "Sargasso of Lost Starships," the Empire expands.

In The People of the Wind, Tabitha Falkayn says:

"'...the empire's been growing vigorously since Manuel the First.'" (III, p. 468)

- right after Christopher Holm has said:

"'The Empire's about to expand our way.'" (p. 469)

The scene has been set for the Terran War on Avalon and, later, Dominic Flandry's career in defence of the Empire. Volume III is maybe the best volume of the Saga.

Avalonian Days And Nights

The People of the Wind, II.

In any given passage of a third person fictional narrative, the omniscient narrator knows both the objective facts and the innermost thoughts and feelings of one of the characters, the viewpoint character. Of course, the narrative might be confined to those thoughts and feelings without any intrusion by objective facts.

This chapter begins by informing us that:

Avalon rotates in 11 hours, 22 minutes and 12 seconds;

its axis is tilted at 21 degrees;

Gray is at about 43 degrees North;

therefore, the city always has short nights;

Daniel Holm wonders whether that explains his weariness;

then he reflects that his ancestors arrived with Falkayn and have been Avalonians for centuries.

(We see one of those ancestors, Ivar Holm, in "Rescue on Avalon.")

Thus, the narrative moves from objective facts to subjective reflections.

The opening sentence about the Avalonian rotation period could have been a lead-in to a description of morning on different parts of the planet, on the Oronesian archipelago, in the city of Centauri on the Gulf of Centaurs, on the Plains of Long Reach, on the New Gaiilan savannah etc. However, I am not imaginative enough to write such a description.

Two Novels And Two Short Stories

 

Robert Heinlein's Future History

"If This Goes On -": the Second American Revolution.

"Coventry" and "Misfit": two aspects of the post-Revolutionary Covenant.

Methuselah's Children: a further crisis in the Covenant.

Poul Anderson's Technic History

Satan's World: an external threat to Technic civilization.

"A Little Knowledge" and "Lodestar": internal problems of the Polesotechnic League.

Mirkheim: the first civil war in the League.

"Lodestar" divides into three stories:

trader team;

van Rijn;

van Rijn and trader team.

Satan's World is also van Rijn and trader team. It and "Lodestar" are the last two of the four works to feature the trader team/trade pioneer crew. In Mirkheim, van Rijn reassembles the long disbanded team but for private espionage, not for any more trade pioneering. The characters never settle into a long series without any major changes.

On Avalon

What is evident on rereading Poul Anderson's The People of the Wind, I, is the realization of the planet Avalon as a physical environment. The city of Gray, named after the captain of the Grand Sutvey ship, Olga, is on Falkayn Bay, named after David Falkayn. Christopher Holm/Arinnian, flying straight up from Gray by antigravity belt, sees Bay, city, countryside, other fliers of different species and sea and air vehicles. Three ecologies merge: imported Terran and Ythrian and native Avalonian. Anderson describes ranches, pastures, animals and trees.

When Arinnian has reached his destination, Lythran'a aerie on Mount Fairview in the Andromedas/the Weathermother, the description becomes more detailed:

Ythrian trees

broadbark

copperwood

lightningrod

jewelleaf

native flowers

janie

livewell

trefoil

Buddha's cup

harp vine singing in the breeze

Constellations, Wheel, Sword, Zirraukh and Ship, are visible and Arinnian reflects on other regions of Avalon:

Plains of Long Reach

arctic marshes

scorching New Gaiilan savannah

the many islands that are most of the land

A well conceived almost real place.

Differences Between And Within Species

The People of the Wind, I.

It is necessary to remember the small psychological and cultural differences while writing, then reading, a dialogue between intelligent beings of different species.

Arinnian is speaking Planha to Eyath but must say:

"'Let's hope.'" (p. 446)

- in Anglic because Ythrians accept what comes. Every educated Avalonian is bilingual.

An Ythrian who marries into another choth does not become homesick because they travel more, starting with flying if the distance is not too great.

Ythrian couples can delay childbirth by avoiding each other while in heat. However, it is shared childcare, not regular sex, that keeps them together. Nearly all Ythrians reject contraception - not all because Poul Anderson recognizes that there are individual differences within species.

Ythrians do not brood on problems so human members of choths try to train themselves out of this habit. Arinnian translates Planha songs into Anglic but feels that he cannot convey the rapture of an Ythrian in flight.

Ythrians And Monwaingi

The kind of diversity attributed to Ythrian choths in Poul Anderson's The People of the Wind is realized among Monwaingi Societies in his After Doomsday. Two Monwaingi colonies sharing a planet may have diametrically opposed life-styles and social systems, extreme individualism as against extreme collectivism, or even biological feudalism based on genetic engineering of different castes into divergent sub-species, and yet make no attempt to convert or conquer each other, while at the same time accepting robotic policing of any minor infringements of each other's territories or activities. Sf authors try to imagine alien psychologies and Anderson succeeds in this more than once. From what we are told of the psychology of the Ythrians, intelligent winged carnivores, I consider it unlikely that they would accept despotisms or some of the other extremes attributed to them. They can just fly away from despots - unless, of course, they are wing-clipped slaves. But any such system would be too antithetical to their individual pride and territoriality. Wyvans cannot enforce their decisions. They rely on the support of custom and public opinion. I like Khruaths but not Oherran.

Ythrian And Avalonian Diversity

A choth is more than a tribe but less than a nation so what else is it? First, it is territorial but not as we know it. A choth's possessions might be a single block of land - or sea - or scattered. Secondly, it is independent. Thirdly, the constitution of any given choth is determined by slowly changing tradition. Examples given are:

tribe

anarchism

despotism

loose federation

theocracy

clan

extended family

corporation

nonhuman concepts

In no way do the choths that we are shown vary as widely as this. The Weathermaker Choth in "Wingless" is described as an extended household. The others that we see are bigger. We are told that the mainland choths whether they are approximately analogous to:

clans

tribes

baronies

religious communes

republics

etc

- have memberships in the thousands or more whereas, in the Oronesian archipelago:

"...there were single households which bore the name; grown and married, the younger children were expected to found new, independent societies."

-Poul Anderson, The People of the Wind IN Anderson, Rise of the Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, March 2011), pp. 437-662 AT III, p. 464.

And, of course, Ythrians are even more diverse than that:

"'Some, even, is from different societies and belong to no choths at allses. Ythrians got as much variation as the Commonwealth - no, more, because they not had time yet for technology to make them into homogeneouses.'"

-"Lodestar," p. 650.

(We must make allowances for van Rijn's misuse of Anglic.)

On Avalon, some Ythrians, the "Walkers," adopt a human lifestyle, leaving the choths, living instead as atomic individuals in a global community.

Finally, for yet another comparison, we remember that not all Merseians live in Vachs or speak Eriau.

The diversity of choths gives me hope that, on Avalon, there would be nothing to prevent the founding of a new choth based on modern technology and economics and leaving behind the barbaric concept of deathpride.

Planha Terminology

After watching the second Avatar film with my daughter and granddaughter, I told them that I would prefer to see a film adaptation of Poul Anderson's The People of the Wind. Attempting to share with them the wealth of Anderson's Technic History, I mentioned, e.g., that Avalon is jointly governed by the Parliament of Man and by the Great Khruath of all the choths. It is sometimes necessary to explain Planha terminology to the uninitiated:

choth

Khruath

Wyvan

Oherran

deathpride

"God the Hunter" (different from "God")

"Deathpride" has been translated into Anglic for us but still requires elucidation. Oherran is a deathpride matter. Thus, if a Wyvan's call of Oherran against an individual or group is not heeded, then that Wyvan has no alternative but honourable suicide. Blog readers who are unfamiliar with these terms might:

deduce some of their meaning from the way that I have used them here;

search this blog for previous uses of these terms;

read Anderson's The People of the Wind and The Earth Book of Stormgate.

I describe a choth as the equivalent of a tribe or nation. In fact we are told:

"'...choth.' The Planha term designated a basic social unit, more than a tribe, less than a nation, with cultural and religious dimensions corresponding to nothing human.'"

-"Lodestar," p. 650.

Regarding the religious dimension, Tabitha Falkayn/Hrill says of her choth, Highsky:

"'Most of us keep to the Old Faith, you know.'"

-Poul Anderson, The People of the Wind IN Anderson, Rise of the Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, March 2011), pp. 437-662 AT VI, p. 502.

- whereas the funeral of Ferune, Wyvan of Mistwood Choth, is conducted according to the New Faith. When the new Wyvan has spoken the words, Ferune's sons tilt his litter and his body falls from a height. He fought God the Hunter well and his spirit will be always remembered.

Spoken Anglic And Planha

Poul Anderson, "Lodestar" IN Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, March 2010), pp. 631-680.

Van Rijn and Hirharouk converse on pp. 644-646. I am imagining how this scene would be filmed. An actor fat or made to look fat for van Rijn. A CGI for the Ythrian. Hirharouk's voice must not sound human: ringing and less flexible. He speaks fluent Anglic but uses a vocalizer so we should hear the vocalized sounds as well as the Ythrian voice. I suppose that the Anglic has to be rendered by English! A whole Technic History series could not be sub-titled. Van Rijn replies in Planha. We should hear the Ythrian language and read sub-titles. Then he reverts to what is described as his private version of Anglic so we should hear his dialogue Anglicized as in Anderson's text. These might sound like minor details but they would go a long way to making a worthy dramatization.

Although we read about generational differences between van Rijn and his granddaughter, Coya, we notice that van Rijn's hair is arranged in long ringlets in the style of his youth. He has become an old man only in the chronological sense.

Generation Gaps

Poul Anderson, The People of the Wind IN Anderson, Rise of the Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, March 2011), pp. 437-662.

Two conflicts on the opening page: imminent war and a generational chasm between Daniel Holm and his son, Christopher. Because war is imminent, Chris/Arinnian does not stay with his family but goes to his choth. After all, Khruaths are being called all around Avalon.

Years ago, I read that there was only one generation gap in history: between those born before or after the atom bomb. There was a gap between my parents and me but not between me and my daughter. 

In Anderson's Technic History, there is a gap between Nicholas van Rijn and his granddaughter, Coya Conyon, and, in a later period, between Daniel and Christopher Holm. If I were on Avalon, I would want to join a choth provided that it was one that combined the best aspects of human and Ythrian traditions, which to me would mean no duels or deathpride. We are told that choths can be very diverse.

Dominic Flandry and his son wind up on opposite sides of the inter-imperial conflict but there is no estrangement between Flandry and his daughter.

Avalon

Having revisited The Earth Book of Stormgate in recent posts, we are drawn back to Avalon, the home of many choths including:

Stormgate

Highsky

Weathermaker

Mistwood

The Tarns

Many Thermals

"Wings of Victory": the Grand Survey ship, Olga, under Captain Gray, discovers Ythri.

Hloch's introduction to "The Problem of Pain" tells us that the same Grand Survey expedition discovered both Ythri and Avalon.

"The Problem of Pain": Ythrians employing Aenean human beings explore Avalon, provisionally called "Gray."

"Wingless": human beings and Ythrians colonize the Hesperian Islands on Avalon.

"Rescue on Avalon": the colonists move to the Coronan continent.

"Lodestar": some Ythrians have become spacefarers.

The People of the Wind: the Terran Empire attempts to annex Avalon.

The Day of Their Return: Avalonian human beings have learned to live without governmental institutions.

If we, editorially speaking, reread The People of the Wind, it will be in search of details not noticed or recorded during previous readings.

What Hloch Tells Us

Although James Ching and Emil Dalmady each appear in only a single instalment of Poul Anderson's Technic History, the Earth Book Editor, Hloch, tells us more about their later lives and their descendants. It is also Hloch who informs us that:

Tales of the Great Frontier by A.A. Craig is the source for "Margin of Profit," introducing Nicholas van Rijn, and for "Rescue on Avalon" about the settlement of Avalon;

records moved from Terra to Hermes are the source for "Day of Burning," about Falkayn on Merseia, and for "Lodestar," about van Rijn at Mirkheim;

The Man Who Counts, about van Rijn on Diomedes, was published as a historical novel on either Terra or Hermes;

the narrator of "Wings of Victory," about first contact with Ythri, was a planetologist named Maeve Downey;

a private correspondence recorded on Terra and transcribed into the archives of the University of Fleurville on Esperance is the source for "The Problem of Pain" about the Ythrian New Faith;

Arinnian of Stormgate Choth, whose human name is Christopher Holm (and who married Tabitha Falkayn), is a co-author of the Earth Book;

the same Grand Survey expedition discovered both Ythri and Avalon.

Think how much poorer the Technic History would be without Hloch's contributions.

Multiple Narrative Layers II

In "Esau," Nicholas van Rijn recruits young Emil Dalmady from Altai as an entrepreneur. Dalmady's parents had made sacrifices to send him to managerial school offplanet. That is all that we learn about the Dalmadys in any Technic History instalment.

Hloch's introduction to "Esau" tells us that:

some of Dalmady's children moved to Avalon with Falkayn;

one of them, Judith, heard Dalmady's reminiscences in her youth and had a good knowledge of the conditions in his youth;

she wrote "Esau" for the Avalonian magazine, Morgana (named after the Avalonian moon).

"The Season of Forgiveness" recounts an incident on the planet Ivanhoe previously visited by Falkayn.

Hloch's introduction to "The Season of Forgiveness" tells us that:

Emil Dalmady heard of the incident from one of the persons concerned when he was an entrepreneur in that volume of space;

he recounted the incident to Judith who wrote the story for Morgana.

"Wingless" recounts an experience on Avalon of the young Nat Falkayn, grandson of David and Coya and son of Nicholas who had been born near the end of Mirkheim.

Hloch's introduction to "Wingless" tells us that:

this is the last story that Judith Dalmady/Lundgren wrote for Morgana;

she was then in "high old age" but was drawing on fresh memories.

The Earth Book has carried us from Emil Dalmady in his youth to his daughter in her old age, writing about Falkayn's grandson in his youth. 

Finally, The Technic Civilization Saga changes the order of some of the stories so that we are informed that "The Season of Forgiveness" was also written by Judith Dalmady/Lundgren before we have been told that she had written any stories. Hloch's introductions sometimes assume knowledge of what is to come. Everything is disclosed if the Saga is read to its conclusion.

Multiple Narrative Layers

When Poul Anderson's "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" was collected in his The Earth Book of Stormgste, its text was not expanded. However, the narrative was extended by Hloch's introduction. The story as originally published ends when its first person narrator, James Ching, is about to become apprenticed to a Master Merchant of the Polesotechnic League. Hloch additionally informs us that:

spaceman Ching wrote running reminiscences throughout his career and settled in Catawrayannis;

his descendants let Hloch's mother, Rennhi, read the notebooks;

the text that we read as "How To Be Ethnic..." is an extract from Ching's reminiscences.

These few sentences fictitiously written by Hloch immeasurably increase the wealth of our information about Ching's career and about the Technic History.

Likewise with "Lodestar." Records transferred from Terra to Hermes by van Rijn and Falkayn include the log of the ship in which van Rijn had travelled to Mirkheim. Since the log discloses the names both of the ship and of its captain, Ythrian researchers are able to contact the Wyvan of Wryfields Choth on Ythri and, through him, Captain Hirharouk's descendants who allow the captain's journal to be read. The narrative that we read as "Lodestar" is composed by Hloch and Arinnian. The latter is Christopher Holm in The People of the Wind. Hloch's Earth Book introductions add multiple narrative layers to the Technic History.

Haertel Scholium And Technic History

I will make some remarks about James Blish as a lead-in to making similar remarks about Poul Anderson. You might remember that the recurrent themes on this blog are:

remember Wells

reread Anderson

read Blish too

film Anderson's Technic History

The first time that I read "Beep" by James Blish, I thought, "This story should be novelized." Later, Blish made three changes to "Beep." First, he revised and lengthened the text so that it could be republished as the (very) short novel, The Quincunx of Time. Secondly, he added explicit references to his character, Adolph Haertel, thus more fully incorporating Quincunx into his "Haertel Scholium," a loose network of branching future historical narratives. Thirdly, since "Beep" had already been constructed around a number of Dirac transmitter messages received from different further future periods, Blish added more such messages, including two that linked Quincunx to his works, "A Style in Treason" and Midsummer Century, thus generating a new loose trilogy within the Haertel Scholium. Thus, a work originally complete in itself was incorporated into a vaster framework. (In fact, "Beep" originated as an indirect spin-off from Blish's Okie series but any further elucidation here would be a digression.)

I thought of "Beep" in connection with Anderson's "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" and "Lodestar," not that I necessarily thought that either of these stories merited novelization. After all, "Lodestar" became the prequel to the novel, Mirkheim, both titles referring to a single planet. "Lodestar" is Mirkheim writ small. However, each of these stories conveys so much condensed information about life in the Solar Commonwealth that they are almost novelistic in impact if not in fact. Both are instalments of Anderson's Technic History and both gained in significance when they were incorporated first into The Earth Book of Stormgate, then into The Technic Civilization Saga.

Mining "Lodestar" II

Satan is a rogue planet temporarily warmed and energized by its close orbit around Beta Crucis, therefore an ideal environment for the manufacture of expensive isotopes although none higher than atomic number 100, whereas Mirkheim is a planetary core large enough to survive the supernova explosion of its primary, therefore coated with supernova-generated supermetals above atomic number 100. This comparison shows why, when Satan had been exploited for a few years, someone, namely David Falkayn, went looking for a planet answering the description of Mirkheim. Further, when the Supermetals company, secretly founded by Falkayn, had been selling supermetals for three years, someone else, namely Nicholas van Rijn, also went looking for a planet answering that description. Van Rijn agreed to keep the secret but eventually a third party found Mirkheim and a war resulted.

The Supermetals company comprises representatives of poor or primitive species like Diomedeans, Wodenites, Ikranankans and Ivanhoans. Also:

"...neglected colonies like Lochlann (human) and Catawrayannis (Cynthian)."

-"Lodestar," p. 659.

Two points about Catawrayannis:

it is not a planet but a city on the planet, Llynathawr;

the Cynthians later sold Llynathawr to the Terran Empire so that it became a human colony despite retaining its Cynthian nomenclature.

Mining "Lodestar"

Rereading Poul Anderson's "Lodestar," we realize that it is an extremely condensed text from which we can extract a wealth of information about, e.g.:

Coya Conyon's life and times;

the relationship between the planets, Satan and Mirkheim, featured respectively in the earlier novel, Satan's World, and in the later novel, Mirkheim;

the multi-species Supermetals company which mines expensive supermetals directly from the surface of Mirkheim.

Coya

She dislikes "...those money-machine merchant princes..." (p. 640) of the Polesotechnic League.

Her maternal grandfather, Nicholas van Rijn, was Dutch and Malay, her grandmother was Mexican and Chinese, her mother was called Beatrix Yeo and her father, Malcolm Conyon, was of Scottish-Hermetian, African-Nyanzan descent.

She is "...a typical modern human." (pp. 643-644)

Whereas van Rijn's generation rarely married, Malcolm Conyon's did and Coya's is "...reviving patrilineal surnames." (p. 644)

Although she never fully approved of the League, now that it is breaking down, she sometimes dreads the future.

Van Rijn says that, as youngsters become more prudish, the powers that be become more brutish but Coya replies that:

"'The second is part of the reason for the first.'" (p. 659)

There is social and generational change in the Solar Commonwealth.

Domestic Life In "Lodestar"

In Poul Anderson's Technic History, "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" shows domestic life on Earth in the Solar Commonwealth. There is some of this also in "Lodestar" Coya Conyon grew up with her parents on Earth. From her earliest age, her maternal grandfather, Nicholas van Rijn would visit their home, toss her high, give her presents from many extra-solar planets, tell extravagant stories and take her sailing, to a live performance or around the Solar System. She learned ballet. She also learned of the adventures of van Rijn's Muddlin' Through crew, became an admirer of David Falkayn and later had occasional outings with him. She works as an astrophysicist at Luna Astrocenter. That is about all. We would like to know more but this is a lot more than nothing.

A Pivotal Story II

"Lodestar":

brings together David Falkayn, the trader team, Nicholas van Rijn and Ythrians;

introduces van Rijn's granddaughter, Coya Conyon, who will become Falkayn's wife in Mirkheim, thus an ancestress of Nat Falkayn in "Wingless" and of Tabitha Falkayn in The People Of The Wind;

identifies the central conflict in the Polesotechnic League, which makes Falkayn break his oath of fealty to van Rijn and defy him to his face;

ends by confirming that van Rijn is "...indeed old." (p. 680)

Falkayn says:

"'Sir, you don't need the money. You stopped needing more money a long while back.'"

-Poul Anderson, "Lodestar" IN Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, March 2010), pp. 631-680, p. 679.

The perfect convergence of Technic History themes comes when the Ythrian, Hirharouk, sees the shadow of God the Hunter across van Rijn's way of life and advises avoidance of conflict.

A Pivotal Story

The most utterly pivotal story in Poul Anderson's Technic History has to be "The Star Plunderer," recounting as it does the transition from the Time of Troubles to the Terran Empire. Before the Troubles were the Solar Commonwealth and the Polesotechnic League. After this story is the early Empire incorporating planets successfully in "Sargasso of Lost Starships" and unsuccessfully in The People Of The Wind.

Also pivotal is "Lodestar":

written for Astounding: John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology;

the last Polesotechnic League story in The Earth Book Of Stormgate;

thus, also, the last League story to be read in the original reading order of the Technic History;

the last story in The Technic History Saga, Volume II, David Falkayn: Star Trader, where it is followed by an Afterword in which its author describes it as the ending of a saga although instead it wound up being the prequel to the concluding League novel, Mirkheim.

Interruption: more later.

My Favourite Future History Series

Regular readers of this blog already know that I remain fascinated with the structure of Poul Anderson's Technic History, particularly in its original reading order which would require some slight amendments if it were to be reproduced in a later edition. By the end of the opening Polesotechnic League Tetralogy, David Falkayn's career has advanced from apprentice to acting CEO of SSL and the League has begun its terminal decline. Thus, the narrative begins not at the beginning of the history but at one of its major turning points. Although these four volumes do not in themselves constitute a future history series, because their action is confined within the lifetimes of a single set of characters, they would nevertheless have remained a major sf series even if nothing else had been added. In particular, the culminating volume, Mirkheim, is:

a good novel, because it shows change in the lives of multiple characters;

a good political novel, because it shows how social divisions, conflicts and upheavals and an unexpected war affect these characters;

a good sf novel, because it fully develops the industrial and political consequences of a speculative premise, a superjovian planet orbiting a star that becomes a supernova.

After the Tetralogy:

one earlier and two later periods would be covered in a new collection, The Saturn Game and other stories;

a historically much later period is covered in The People Of The Wind;

periods earlier than, contemporaneous with and later than the Tetralogy, although all of them earlier than The People Of The Wind, are covered in The Earth Book Of Stormgate;

the chronologically latest event in all these seven volumes is the compilation and editing of the Earth Book by Hloch of Stormgate Choth on Avalon, the colony founded by Falkayn;

although Dominic Flandry has not yet been born, the Terran Empire that he will later defend has been founded between stories in The Saturn Game..., has waged war against Avalon in The People Of The Wind and informs the background of Hloch's editing of the Earth Book;

the Earth Book is followed by the nine-volume Flandry period and its single-volume sequel.