Skafloc and Freda live as outlaws:
"Dark and drear was that land, unpeopled by men or Faerie folk..." (p. 120)
"Dank and chill was the cave. Winds whittered in its mouth and surf pounded on the rocks at its foot." (ibid.)
They hunt game and kill trolls but a raven tells Skafloc that the trolls are winning the war. Despair? No, a moment of realization as Skafloc suddenly remembers the gods' gift of a sword. Freda feels him stiffen and tremble: yet another standard Andersonian moment... David Falkayn has at least two such moments (of realization) - and how many other Anderson characters also have them?
That is a fitting note on which to end for this evening. I am too head-tired for any more research and as always feel the call of other reading. Poul Anderson has to compete for attention - and always wins some of it.
Futureward.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I've been waiting for you to come across that Andersonian moment of realization, in Chapter 18 of THE BROKEN SWORD. This is how the 1954 text of the story described it (page 154 of the Abelard-Schumann edition): "As it were a lightning bolt, he seemed to see a blinding flash before his eyes, the bright gleam of a sword lifted high against darkness."
Was this one of the earliest moments of realization in any of Anderson's published stories? It might be one of the very earliest of such moments because I read elsewhere the text of THE BROKEN SWORD was finished by 1948--but was slow to find a publisher willing to print it (not until 1954).
Ad astra! Sean
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