Conan, Daris and Falco proceed by wingboat to Taia. Daris has declared her love for Conan and he could make love to her. However, Belit would reproach Conan not for disloyalty to her, Belit, but for treachery to Daris when leaving Daris to return to Belit. Falco remains besotted with Senufer, not accepting that Senufer must be Nehekba.
"High above the boat, on wings that shone golden in the sun, an eagle kept pace." (p. 135)
At first sight, yet another hovering bird of prey. However, if we remember Nehekba's earlier dialogue, then we know that this eagle is Nehekba in magical bird form following the wingboat. In how many works by Poul Anderson do sorceresses spy in bird form? (Maybe I can get blog readers to do some of the research work?)
This will be a good place to break off because, turning the page, we must cope with a description of Taia as the wanderers arrive there:
"XIV WAYFARERS IN TAIA" (p. 136)
And we spot on the facing page a "...silvery cataract of Milky Way..." (p. 137) that we seem to have missed before.
13 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
The sorceress Queen Gunnhild sometimes took bird form in MOTHER OF KINGS.
Ad astra! Sean
And there is another one.
Kaor, Paul!
Now I remember! Alianora the Swanmay, in THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS.
Ad astra! Seab
Right? Right!
And another.
Kaor, Paul!
Two in fact: in THE KING OF YS, Forsquilis, one of the nine Queens of Ys, and her daughter by Gratillonius, Nemeta, were able to assume the forms of owls.
Ad astra! Sean
And of course British slang sometimes refers to women as "birds". Or it did.
Sean,
There is another one.
Paul.
From Sean M. Brooks:
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Paul!\
Mr. Stirling: That one I'm not familiar with. Also, in one of Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey novels one character told her companion, "He thought you a tart." I later realized that was slang for "prostitute."
Paul: Another one? I'm getting flummoxed! (Smiles)
Ad astra! Sean
In MOTHER OF KINGS?
Kaor, Paul!
But I've already thought of Queen Gunnhild, from MOTHER OF KINGS.
Ad astra! Sean
OK.
Ah, looked it up. "Bird" for "young woman" dates from 1915; it was current until the 1970's, and has gradually died out since.
Post a Comment