Poul Anderson liked his action scenes. In the three concluding chapters, there are pages of continuous Homeric combat that I will not attempt to summarize. Lenard is confident that he will see his dead father in Sky-Home. How can anyone be confident of that? Where is Sky-Home or Valhalla except in human imaginations?
"Doctors" acknowledge that those who entered the forbidden time vault have not been cursed, that knowledge is good and that evil is only "'...in the hearts of men.'" (p. 187) - a Biblical realization.
Consequently, taboos are lifted:
"It was as if a great brooding presence were suddenly gone, as if the wandering night breeze sobbed in a new loneliness." (ibid.)
The wind, in this case a breeze, comments yet again. But what is this new loneliness? The text continues:
"The gods were doomed - the cruel, old gods of human fear and human ignorance felt their twilight upon them. And the darkness which dwells in every mortal heart cried out to the dying gods." (ibid.)
Maybe Dalesmen and Lann will remember this as the day when their gods died? Meanwhile, that old enemy, inner darkness, is back.
The concluding sentence of the novel:
"It was dark now, but dawn was not far off." (p. 189)
- is the perfect ending and beginning.
1 comment:
Kaor Paul!
And that inner darkness remains in all of us and can only be, sometimes, precariously restrained.
Ad astra! Sean
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