Mary O'Meara

In Poul Anderson's World Without Stars, antithanatics prevent death by old age or disease - like the anti-agathics in James Blish's Cities in Flight. Anderson's characters artificially edit their memories but preserve enough for practical purposes and for psychological continuity. Hugh Valland has lived for three thousand years and returns to Earth every few years or decades to visit Mary O'Meara. The big reveal at the very end of the novel is that what he really visits is her grave. He is monogamous, i.e., celibate, and seems well-balanced but we start to wonder when we realize the truth.

It was suggested that Valland edits out the memory of Mary's death so that, each time he returns to Earth, he thinks that he is returning to the still living Mary. I doubt it. He is never in any hurry to return. A delay of decades does not bother him. And surely he would suffer every time he re-learned that he had deceived himself.

On reflection, the song that he sings is not about Mary but about her surroundings: stars, dew, hilltop, lilies. He knows that he is singing about a grave and we realize this on rereading. But, when stranded on an extra-galactic planet, he is motivated to lead the effort to escape and return to Earth. As with the Emperor Norton in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, Valland's madness keeps him sane.