I have been using this lap top to follow world events so have not used it to blog for a while.
Conan is absent from Chapters IV and V. We meet several other characters and learn some history, geography and prophecy. There is an Andersonian action scene, a battle, in which Daris, daughter of the Taian rebel leader, is captured. She is transported to Khemi in the magically fast wingboat of Set, the equivalent of a hyperspace spaceship.
Conan, off-stage for these two chapters, is kin to the Taians and will fulfill one of their prophecies although that destiny is unique to this novel by Poul Anderson and should not affect events in any other volume of the Conan series.
This Hyborian Age literally had good and bad gods and it would have been right to serve the former and to oppose the latter. Maybe this is another timeline or maybe the gods have withdrawn from the human realm since then? Both Poul Anderson and Neil Gaiman present explanations of the latter possibility.
Conan will return to the page in VI which we might reread tomoz. Earth Real conflicts also impact consciousness. Parallel narratives: as I heard a hospital porter ask, after grinning when shown a tabloid headline: "Wha'? In real life or int' soap?" We live in two worlds.
4 comments:
Well, Set...
Kaor, Paul!
Anderson's Conan is very different from Howard's Conan. A Conan set in an alternate Hyborian universe!
Ad astra! Sean
Yeah, basically Conan in youth and early middle age in Howard is out for #1 -- he'll stand by his friends, but that's about it. After he becomes king of Aqulionia he develops some altruism towards his own kingdom, mainly because he identifies with it.
That's fairly accurate for a wandering barbarian adventurer, because their main social commitments are usually to their kinfolk.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Exactly, you reminded me of the preface/introduction Anderson wrote for HROLF KRAKI'S SAGA, stressing how narrowly Scandinavian warriors defined their loyalties: to sworn lords, kin, close friends. With everybody else either foe men or prey. And greed or treachery often led to these bonds being broken.
And what Conan felt after becoming king of Aquilonia was right: heads of state should be altruistic about their states and peoples. Their safety and wellbeing should come first with them!
Ad astra! Sean
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