magic is control of external phenomena by means not yet known to science but maybe coming under "parapsychology";
an alien metabolism able to live indefinitely, change shape etc might be vulnerable to actinic light or to electrochemical reactions with iron;
such immortals might resort to nonferrous metal and alloys and, e.g., sail like the wind in almost frictionless ships;
they might have built castles earlier than human beings but would not have developed science, e.g., gunpowder or steam engines, in their long-living, aristocratic, conservative, warrior culture.
However, I don't think that any of these rationalizations appear in the text of the novel?
17 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
IIRC we get some rationalizations of this kind in THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS, where we see Holger Carlsen amused by the idea of Elvish wizards using spectroscopes.
One book I have is MEDITATIONS ON MIDDLE-EARTH, ed. Karen Haber (Byron Press: 2001). Anderson contributed an essay, "Awakening the Elves," discussing how Tolkien's works, esp. THE LORD OF THE RINGS affected him. Truthfully, I think he could have made use of THE SILMARILLION, to give more nuance to what he said about the Elves.
A bit surprised you are rereading THE BROKEN SWORD, that was only an off the top of my head suggestion, what might be reread.
Are you reading either the original edition of 1954 or the rather drastically revised version of THE BROKEN SWORD, pub. in 1971? Both are well worth reading.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I have both but am starting to reread the revision.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I recently finished rereading AFTER DOOMSDAY, a short but understatedly powerful novel.
Maybe I should reread the original ed. of THE BROKEN SWORD.
Ad astra! Sean
And comment on that here.
Kaor, Paul!
I have at least reread Anderson's contribution to MEDITATIONS ON MIDDLE-EARTH, "Awakening the Elves." I want to quote a paragraph from it, on page 31, where he was discussing Tolkien's conception of the Elves: "Of course he knew exactly what he was doing, and succeeded nobly. His elves are as real as everybody else in the epic, grave and brave, powerful and poetic, wonder-working and wishful, an unattainable yet incontestable ideal. In my opinion, here his source was most clearly the Bible, and he was expressing his own faith. As my wife Karen says, these elves are like seraphim."
I agree this is a very fair description of the High Elves we see, as they had become by the time of THE LORD OF THE RINGS. But not as many elves had once been in the First Age of Middle-earth. That's why I wished Anderson had paid more attention to the elves seen in THE SILMARILLION, where some showed themselves to be as rash, callous, and amoral as the elves seen in THE BROKEN SWORD. The Noldorin elves seen in LOTR were what they became after being purged by sorrow and suffering. That too was an expression of Tolkien's faith, unflinching realism about how bad and flawed people, any kind of people, can be.
Ad astra! Sean
Note that 'benevolence' was not attributed to elves, trolls, or deities in pagan religions.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, pagan religions reflected what their believers were like.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: most religions do, at least aspirationally.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, albeit the higher faiths, like Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, have or teach greater aspirations.
Ad astra! Sean
Well, Christianity spent its first 3 centuries as the religion of the subordinate part of the population. This marked it out.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!!
I agree and I noted how, in your Antonine books, Christians were still living in fear of persecution. Albeit you had Artorius persuading Marcus Aurelius to begin repealing the anti-Christian laws.
And I still had in mind the "aspirations" taught by Christ in mind.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: though you should note that Christianity really took off during the 3rd century crisis, when the Empire nearly went under and wrecked its economy.
'This world' wasn't very attractive.
In that alternate history, they get their Industrial Revolution in the 3rd century, and the world is united and so (most) war abolished, and so is slavery (gradually).
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I don't disagree! I too believe that as late as Marcus Aurelius' reign there was still only about 150,000 early Catholics in the Empire. Yes, the agonies of the Third Century Crisis shook the confidence of many, many Romans in what had once seemed a rock-solid civilization.
I read with great interest the discussion Artorius had with Marcus Aurelius in TO TURN THE TIDE, and I have one quibble. I have to disagree with how Artorius explained the Eucharist to the Emperor, because he gave what I have to call a Zwinglian view of that sacrament. Catholics/Orthodox believe that what happens at every Mass/Divine Liturgy celebrated by a validly ordained priest is that Christ becomes present under the accidents of the Bread and Wine at the consecration. But I would not expect a lapsed Baptist like Artorius to talk about Transubstantiation--I know Baptists have Zwinglian beliefs about the Eucharist.
And I'm sure you already knew that!
Antonine Rome conquered and unified the world? I was expecting a long, long struggle between Rome and a Han Empire greatly strengthened and modernized by those Chinese time travelers.
I hope that Roman industrial revolution managed to avoid most of the mistakes of our timeline. And possibly the Empire achieved space travel long before we, far too slowly, have!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: Oh, yes, most of the mistakes were avoided -- and some unavoidable ones were of shorter duration. The Americans know where things went wrong and what the dead-ends were, and they leave 'coded' information in books.
Human beings being human beings, the Romans make mistakes of their own. But they avoid most of ours.
They have some advantages, too. For example, if you spoke Latin and practiced Classical civilization, it didn't matter what you looked like, you were a Roman.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Good, Antonine Rome avoiding most of our mistakes and the mistakes made by the Romans were NTTB.
I agree, cultural assimilation and loyalty to the Empire were what mattered to the Romans, not what a person looked like.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: "Race" as a belief is a product of the Age of Exploration. If you walk from Sweden to China, people change gradually -- some Finns have (blue or grey) eyes with a fold at the corner, for example. But if you -sail- from one end of Eurasia to another (or south to Africa) you get the transition without the intermediate steps.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Correct, to go from Point A to Point Z often means feeling startled at how different people can look compared to what you were familiar with.
Ad astra! Sean
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