In 347, when Tharasmund is about to name his and Ulrica's first son, the Wanderer arrives. Tharasmund asks the Wanderer to bestow the name which is to be Hathawulf. This obviously means something to the Wanderer who:
"...stood altogether still for a while that went on and on. At last he lifted his head. The hat brim shadowed his face. 'Hathawulf,' he said low, as if to himself. 'Oh, yes. I understand now.' A little louder: 'Weard will have it so. Well, then, so be it, I will give him his name.'" (p. 406)
In the myths, Odin will be one-eyed. Here, his face is shadowed... The story grows.
The concept of "Weard" fits with a time traveller's knowledge of what is to be. But what exactly is it in this case? Let us review what we already know.
In 372, the brothers, Hathawulf and Solbern, will set out to attack King Ermanaric who has had their sister, Swanhild, trampled to death by horses. The Wanderer will arrive to prevent their half-brother, Alawin, from accompanying them but will also refuse to foretell the outcome of the attack.
In 1980, Carl Farness tells Manse Everard that, according to saga and Eddas, the brothers, Hamther and Sorli, set out to attack King Jormunrek who had had their sister, Svanhild, trampled to death by horses. On their way, they killed their half-brother, Erp, who offered to accompany them. Invulnerable to steel, they killed many of the king's men and severely wounded him but either Hamther let slip their invulnerability to stone or one-eyed Odin appeared and divulged this crucial military intelligence. Either way, Jormunrek ordered his surviving men to stone the brothers to death. The End.
Carl, who is the Wanderer, already knows that Jormunrek is Ermanaric. He now realizes that "Hathawulf" will be elided to "Hamther" and also knows that Tharasmund and Ulrica intend to call their second son "Solbern." While investigating a story about Hamther and Sorli, he has suddenly realized that the historical originals of these two literary characters are his own great-grandsons. If he had not time travelled to 300 to begin investigating their story, then they would not have existed. He has unintentionally meddled in the time stream. Surely he should now consult an Unattached agent before proceeding any further?
Instead, he considers only two possibilities. First, since his job is only to record whatever songs and stories emerge from the fight with Ermanaric, he could return from 1934 to the fourth century only after the death of Hathawulf, thus ending any further personal involvement with his own descendants. Secondly - and this is what he does do -, he can remain involved, even intervening to prevent Alawin from accompanying his half-brothers on their foredoomed attack. He should have consulted Everard. If Carl had not begun that line of descent that led to Hathawulf and Solbern, would two other brothers have come forward to play the same roles and to be given the same names in Germanic literature? Maybe.
In any case, Carl has now involved himself so much that he will have to involve himself further in order to extricate himself from this situation and also to save the day. A further tragic role, implicit from the beginning, now awaits: Odin the traitor.
6 comments:
In the Time Patrol universe, events have "intertia" -- the Patrol guy who meets the students at the Academy says that if you prevented Booth from killing Lincoln, what would probably happen is that someone else would shoot him at the theater and Booth would get the blame.
He downplays this later in the series.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
The analogy with Boothe was not satisfactory. He jumped down from the box where Lincoln was shot in front of the audience, many of whom must have recognized an actor as well-known as Boothe.
Ad astra! Sean
Yeah, I think Poul recognized later how -accidental- history is.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Correct, plus Anderson became extremely skeptical of "predictive sciences of society."
Ad astra! Sean
Yeah, they were fashionable when he was young. He did maintain a belief in "universal states" and their downfall, though he may have been less convinced of it later.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That is interesting, meaning Anderson might have become less convinced his Terran Empire would have fallen as soon as some of the stories seem to hint? He seemed to retreat a bit from that idea at the very end of THE GAME OF EMPIRE.
Ad astra! Sean
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