Mihaljo and his men chase a stag which exhausts their horses, then disappears. One of his attendants says:
"'Sir, this is no place for Christians. Old heathen things are abroad. That was no buck we hunted, it was the very wind, and now it has vanished to wherever the wind goes. Why?'" (p. 3)
Indeed, why? Is the wind taking an even more active part than usual in an Andersonian narrative? Well, no. It transpires that a vilja that had been a young woman known to Mihaljo is responsible. This experience sends Mihaljo into a monastery to the dissatisfaction of his father, the zhupan. It remains to be shown how this prologue connects with the main text of the novel which begins with:
"The bishop of Viborg..." (I, p. 9)
Read on, pilgrims.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Even tho I don't know enough to describe it, I know there are scientific and practical reasons for what makes winds "work." Iow, there is nothing magical about winds. One of the consequences of the rise of Christianity was how it demythologized natural processes, such as winds. Meaning there was nothing magical about or in them. And that was necessary if a true science was ever to arise, as it was starting to do in the 13th/14th centuries.
But it took time for such implications to spread and sink in everywhere. And writers of fantasies are free to use magic in their stories, as Anderson did in THE MERMAN'S CHILDREN. But he always tried to use magic in logical or rational ways, as in THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS, where we see Holger Carlsen amused by the idea of Elvish wizards using spectroscopes!
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment