A bright, ringed, full moon makes treetops hoar and silvers the wavelets of a lake while a chill autumnal breeze rattles dying leaves. Three senses and, so far, a natural scene but then a vodianoi rises in the lake and a vilya flits on the shore: two supernatural beings. We must remember that this novel is a historical fantasy, midway between heroic or mythological fantasy and historical fiction. Poul Anderson wrote all of these genres and kept them distinct although maybe the scenes in his inter-universal Old Phoenix Inn transcend genre?
Frankenstein was transitional between Gothic and science fiction. Superman was transitional between sf and superheroes. This latter hybrid genre combines sf and fantasy. I have wandered away from the eerie moonlit lake because it is getting late and I am about to stop rereading The Merman's Children even though I had returned to it late in the day. There has been a lot of Real Life to cope with. When we are comfortably retired, all that we are really obliged to day is to stay alive but other stuff comes up.
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