The Wanderer

It would be good to have a book entitled The Gods Of Time collecting Poul Anderson's "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" and "Star of the Sea" but not presented or advertised as a volume of his Time Patrol series. 

The first two narrative passages in "The Sorrow..." are headed 372 and 1935, respectively. 372 is historical fiction and possibly historical fantasy. Characters are said to be god-descended and to go down hell-road. Are these statements literally true in this narrative? The Wanderer arrives, speaks and departs. He is the great-grandfather of one of those who receive him and hear him speak and the family is said to be descended from Wodan. Is the Wanderer Wodan/Wotan, as in Wagner? 1935 reveals him to be not only a time traveller but even a Time Patrol member! Ideally, this would come as a surprise to readers. Too late now, of course. "The Sorrow..." was first published in Time Patrolman and is now in Time Patrol. But get with the narrative when you read or reread it. You do not yet know that the Wanderer is Carl Farness when you read 372...