Of course the list from Mary Shelley to Poul Anderson and his successors covers the modern sf tradition. Anderson's other literary antecedents are:
the Bible
the Eddas
the Sagas
Saxo Grammaticus
Der Nibelungenlied
William Shakespeare
Rudyard Kipling
Arthur Conan Doyle
- and maybe some that I don't know about.
We have noticed the many Holmesian references in Anderson's works, particularly the appearance of a private investigator and his amanuensis in "Time Patrol."
In SM Stirling's The Lords Of Creation, one of the Brittanians is named Colonel Sebastian Moran although their ancestors came to the Sphere pre-Doyle so this is a coincidence although it conveys the ambience of the Brits.
(End of posting for a while. We will walk to Morecambe for a concert and tomorrow will visit Bowness on Windermere. On Tuesday, I will visit Andrea above the Old Pier Bookshop. On Wednesday, there will be a solar eclipse here.)
3 comments:
Had fun with that.
As have we.
Kaor, To Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Both: Dang, despite having read "The Adventure of the Empty House," I never thought of the Holmesian Col. Moran when I read Stirling's THE LORDS OF CREATION.
Paul: I might have included St. Gregory of Tours' HISTORY OF THE FRANKS as one of Anderson's sources, because of how he mentioned that work in the prefaces to HROLF KRAKI'S SAGA. But when I asked if that was the case in a letter to Anderson, he stated in his reply that he had nor read Gregory's book, depending on an article called "The Long-Haired Kings."* I was so surprised that I sent him a copy of Lewis Thorpe's translation of the TEN BOOKS OF HISTORY (as St. Gregory called it) as a birthday gift in 1992.
In his thank you letter Anderson commented that skimming thru parts of St. Gregory's book was so fascinating that he would probably read the whole book quite soon. I'm glad Anderson was pleased by the book and had it for almost nine years before he died.
I'm reasonably sure I read the HISTORY OF THE FRANKS at least three times, and it was fascinating reading. We get a graphic look at how Gallo-Roman Gaul adapted to Merovingian rule and began the slow process of becoming France.
Ad astra! Sean
*I later looked up "The Long-Haired Kings" and it was well worth reading. Don't recall the author's name, however.
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