Immortality And The Wind On Tanith

 

"World of the Mad."

Tanith reads like the source of the wind that blows through Poul Anderson's multiverse:

"A wind blew through drifting clouds, and it seemed as if the wind had language too and spoke to the men, if they could but understand it."

Yet another sf rationalization of "immortality": whereas life elsewhere is metastable, on Tanith it arises spontaneously from complex chemistry and human bodies are free from any chemical or colloidal degradation. In Anderson's "What Shall It Profit?," shielding an organism from all radiation made it immortal.

"There was a storm outside; the cottage shook to a fury of wind and was filled with its noise and power."

"The wind roared and boomed, with a hollow voice that seemed to shout words in some unknown tongue..."

"Her voice was very small in the racket of wind."

Langdon "...would go striding through [fire-storms] like a god shouting back at the wind."

Eileen remembers in "...winter storms on Terra... a big wind driving snow against the house."

"The wind yammered, banging on the door."

"There was a new voice in the storm now, a great belling organ was crying to him to come out..."

"The storm sang outside, and he heard music and lure and enchantment."

"The wind called and called."

When Eileen is alone because Langdon has answered the call and gone out in the storm, it seems to her that all the powers of Tanith are against her:

"The wind hooted and whistled, piping down the chimney and skirling under the eaves."

"All the old forgotten powers of night and dark and Hell were abroad, whirling on the wind and slamming against the door and banging their heels on the roof."

"...the wind sang to him. It filled him, the song of the wind, the song of Tanith. He was lost in it..."

This is when he knows that he approaches allness and peace.

He experiences fire, wind, trees, a chant, living forests, dancing hills and an ancient Tanithian flying in the storm while Eileen has a miscarriage. The wind that was exultation to him was devastation to her. They leave Tanith and return to mortality.