Tachwyr addresses the Grand Council whose faces he sees on a multi-screened communication set that he:
"...had had brought out onto a towertop of his castle. At this tremendous moment he wanted to stand overlooking the lands of his Vach, while its ancient battle banners snapped above him in the wind." (p. 264)
When Brechdan Ironrede chooses to receive the Terrans in Castle Afon, Max Abrams reflects:
"He's shaken... He's rallying quick, but he needs the help of his ancestors."
-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, January 2010), pp. 1-192 AT CHAPTER FOURTEEN, p. 141.
Tachwyr wants ancestral lands and banners when he is triumphant. Brechdan wants his ancestors when he is shaken. Abrams thinks:
"I wish my ancestors were around." (ibid.)
Whether our ancestors are around is largely a matter of how we see it. In the Roman Empire, displaced slaves left their gods behind - unless they came to believe in a single omnipresent god. Abrams rallies himself by remembering his home planet, Dayan, then:
"I too have a place in the cosmos. Let me not forget." (ibid.)
"If I forget thee..."
2 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I quoted a text from Chapter 1 of ENSIGN FLANDRY where Lord Hauksberg reflected there was a triumphant time in the Empire's history when fathers exhorted their children to remember what their ancestors had achieved and won.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I like how you alluded to Psalm 136/137 5-6: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten! Let my tongue cleave to my palate, if I remember thee not..."
Merry Christmas! Sean
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