Poul Anderson describes a battle, a frequent occurrence in his fiction:
the leading charioteer sounds his bison horn;
his troops howl their wolfish war cries;
horses gallop;
wagons bang;
foot soldiers leap and yelp;
axes boom on drum-head shields;
the leader signals;
slingers and archers halt;
stones and arrows whistle;
Lockridge squeezes the trigger of his rifle...
The leader goes down.
Extratemporal interference but no way near enough to influence history, of course.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I was reminded of "Brave To Be A King," the man forced to play Cyrus the Great (Keith) was no obscure chieftain whose life made no difference to history. Cyrus/Keith was a genuinely crucial character in history.
Ad astra! Sean
I'd say that even an obscure chieftain would seriously affect the future in his neighborhood, by determining who'd be conceived if nothing else.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
True, but I would expect the consequences of what such an unimportant chieftain did to fade away over time and distance into complete obscurity.
Ad astra! Sean
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