Somewhere in the pages that I have recently reread was a reference to the galaxy as "the Winter Road." Maybe someone reading after me can find the reference?
In 1072, Cadoc wonders how long the wealth of Constantinople will last but thrusts sadness aside. He does not have a time traveler's knowledge of what is to come but has lived long enough to read the signs and has also said that the trade in which he is involved is spinning toward ruin.
He tells Athenais/Aliyat:
"'I have not been in Britannia, or England and Wales as they call it nowadays, for a rather long time.'" (p. 161)
England and Wales! We recognize a gradual approach to modern place names. Just six years before this, the Normans had conquered England.
Cadoc also remembers the time:
"'...when Old Rome departed from Britannia...'" (p. 166)
This reminds us of other works by Anderson. For an sf writer, he has spent a lot of time in the past.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
All too true, Cadoc's fears about Constantinople. By 1072 incompetence and misgovernment was leading the Eastern Empire to catastrophe, such as the Battle of Manzikert, which finally enabled a Muslim power, the Seljuq Turks, to break into Anatolia. The Comnenian dynasty, beginning with Alexius I (r. 1081-1118) managed a partial/precarious revival, but it did not last. The signs of long term decay were plain to Cadoc.
Yet another chronicle I read, in translation, was Anna Comnena's THE ALEXIAD, her biography of her father Alexius I. A good man, even a great Emperor.
I read somewhere there were English refugees/exiles, unhappy with Norman rule of England, who enlisted in the Varangian Guard in Constantinople.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Hanno says that.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
English soldiers in the Varangian guard?
Ad astra! Sean
Yes.
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