"House Rule"
"Losers' Night"
A Midsummer Tempest, xi, xii and Epilogue.
xii concludes:
"Valeria and Rupert settled themselves for conversation. The landlord listened." (p. 106)
I would resent being listened to but that is part of the deal. The landlord listens and learns instead of charging for food, drink and accommodation!
In the Epilogue, a larger number of guests exchange stories. Impatient to hear from others, Valeria Matuchek concludes her tale, and thus also the novel, abruptly:
"'Enough. I hope you've enjoyed my story.'" (p. 229)
Mister Gaheris: "There.
"That's my tale told. Who's next?"
-Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: Worlds' End (New York, 1994), p. 41, panels 5-6.
Valeria surprises us by saying that she had spent some time in the Shakespearean timeline:
"'...learning how things worked out.'" (p. 228)
After conversing with Rupert, she had consulted history books elsewhere, then travelled "'...through that universe...'" (ibid.) before returning to the Old Phoenix. So she has control over her inter-universal travel unlike Holger, whom she tries to help.
Inter-universal inns are more crowded at some times than at others:
Chiron the centaur: "I have never seen the inn so full."
-Worlds' End, p. 141, panel 5.
"There were many gathered this evening, to sit before the innkeeper's fire, enjoy his food and drink and regale him with their tales."
-Epilogue, p. 228.
"About a score of people were present..."
-Poul Anderson, "Losers' Night" IN Anderson, All One Universe (New York, May 1997), pp. 105-123 AT p. 108.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
This might seem trivial, but how did Mine Host Taverner replenish his supplies of food, drink, and firewood if he did not charge his guests? We know so little about Taverner and his wife.
I would have been very happy if Anderson had written one or two more Old Phoenix stories besides the three he wrote (I count Chapters XI, XII, and that Epilogue in A MIDSUMMER TEMPEST as the third). If we can see Old Nick there why not Dominic Flandry?
I was interested to see both Queen Mary I and Winston Churchill in "Losers' Night." There were times both of them must have known or felt themselves defeated or losers. And I was outraged to read of how Churchill's statue at the houses of Parliament was vandalized/desecrated!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: I'd bet on magic.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
For story telling purposes, that makes sense. But I have wondered if the Taverners used something like the high-tech food maker we see on the "Envoy" in STARFARERS. That is, a device which, after the proper proteins/flavors/liquids were put in, made whatever foods and drinks it was programmed to make.
Ad astra! Sean
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