Time Wars

Poul Anderson, "Flight to Forever" IN Anderson, Past Times (New York, 1984), pp. 207-288.

There are perhaps two "Time Wars" in "Flight to Forever."

(i) In the twenty third century, the Martian colonies revolted against the Terrestrial Directorate. A defeated Directorate army leaped to the twenty fourth century and attempted reconquest but was smashed.

(ii) In 50,000 AD, when the Anvardi attack Sol, the Imperial ship Vengeance travels three days back in time, calculates the exact position of the Anvardian flagship seventy two hours hence, travels to that position and rematerializes beside the flagship simultaneously bombarding it with vortex cannon, blasters, gravity snatchers, atomic shells and torpedoes etc while the rest of the Imperial fleet, only one tenth the size of its enemy, attacks the Anvardi fleet which then recoils and breaks up when assaulted from within and without.

These are low key affairs when compared with the time wars between:

Wardens and Rangers in The Corridors of Time;
Havig's group and the Eyrie in There Will Be Time;
the Patrol and the Exaltationists in the Time Patrol series.

I have seen an anthology called Time Wars including Anderson's Time Patrol story, "Delenda Est," (Patrol versus Neldorians) and have read references to a series called Time Wars created but not written by Poul Anderson. I would be grateful for any information on the latter.

The Scipios

Romans broke a treaty by interfering with Carthaginian activities beyond the Ebro. In 219 BC, Hannibal Barca, Carthaginian governor in Spain, besieged and captured Saguntum, thus starting war with Rome. In 218, he crossed the Pyrenees, Gaul and the Alps with 90,000 infantry, 12,000 cavalry and 37 elephants, reached Italy with only 20,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry, defeated a superior Roman army at the Ticinus River, won other battles and entered Apulia and Campania.

Many Italians joined him, Quintus Fabius Maximus failed to defeat him and, in 211, Hasdrubal Barca arrived from Spain with reinforcements. In 210, Hannibal burned Rome. (The alert reader must notice when this timeline diverges from the one guarded by the Time Patrol.)

In the Patrol timeline, Publius Cornelius Scipio, commanding the Romans, lost at Ticinus and was nearly killed in the retreat but was rescued by his son, Scipio Africanus the Elder. Cornelius attacked the Carthaginians in Spain, thus cutting off Hannibal in Italy, then Africanus defeated Hannibal at Zama.

Neldorians intervened to kill the Scipios at Ticinus but the Patrol counterintervened, restoring the timeline. Roger II of Sicily also lost a battle but escaped in the Patrol timeline but died at that battle in an alternative timeline.

Venus And Prosperity

Many fictional Venuses, including Burroughs', Kline's, Heinlein's and Lewis', are humanly habitable;

in Poul Anderson's "Delenda Est," Venus, presumably habitable, has been colonized;

in Anderson's "The Big Rain," a desert Venus has been colonized but has yet to be terraformed;

in his "Sister Planet," an oceanic Venus has yet to be terraformed and colonized;

in his Technic History, Venus has been colonized despite incomplete terraforming;

in SM Stirling's "A Slip in Time," we retroactively learn that the colonized Venus of "Delenda Est" had been paradisally terraformed - lawns, gardens, vines, flowers, trees, a canal, bioengineered colorful singing birds and a cat-dog-chimp hybrid companion-nurse.

Surely a civilization with the power and wealth to effect this transformation would be able to solve all socioeconomic problems? Despite this, conflicts and wars continue for many millennia - although not indefinitely.

In "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks," we learn that the Time Patrol suppresses the Trazon matter transmuter, able to transform any material object into any other...

A Clash Of Systems

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

In the eighteenth century, French Republicanism challenged European monarchies. In the twentieth century, market capitalism and state capitalism waged Cold War. That was in our timeline.

In the twentieth century of an altered timeline in Poul Anderson's Time Patrol story, "Delenda Est," there is another clash of systems:

"'...the monarchy of Hinduraj against the sun-worshipping theocracy of Huy Braseal.'" (p. 195)

I prefer our problems to theirs! Anderson is making the point that that timeline is way behind ours in several important respects. If I lived there, I would have to support secularism and church-state separation as against theocracy. I would also argue for a constitutional, as against an absolute, monarchy. Thus, maybe there is always a way forward however bad the situation?

I remarked in a previous post that that timeline and the one guarded by the Patrol parted company so long ago that the only common language is classical Greek. Other common features are the names of gods, Bishop Ussher's creation date, Babylonian-derived units of time measurement and nationalism:

"This culture might not have the ruthless will and sophisticated cruelty of Western civilization; in fact, in some ways it looked strangely innocent. Still, that wasn't for lack of trying." (p. 203)

And the crucial difference, as with two later divergent timelines in the series, is:

"And, in this world, a genuine science might never emerge, man might endlessly repeat the cycle of war, empire, collapse, and war. In Everard's future, the race had finally broken out of it." (ibid.)

I think that it would be sufficient to end this line of thought there but Anderson and Everard continue:

"For what? He could not honestly say that this continuum was worse or better than his own. It was different, that was all." (pp. 203-204)

I think that ours is better - unless we manage to destroy the Earth in this century, of course.

"And didn't these people have as much right to their existence as - as his own, who were damned to nullity if he failed?" (p. 204)

Yes, these people have as much right to existence as Everard's but I have argued before that I do not think that any further temporal paradoxes will result in "nullity" for either population. In fact, when Everard tells Deirdre that the spells he used to work the timecycle prevent him from taking her home, this lie is unnecessary. He could return her to her twentieth century where she would continue to live even if her whole timeline becomes a past one from the point of view of an observer in another timeline.

What We Want To Know More About

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series discloses much about the Patrol and its main adversaries, the Exaltationists, but three other groups are also important:

the Nine discovered time travel but are mentioned only once;
the Danellians founded the Time Patrol but are mentioned briefly and usually kept in the background;
the Neldorians are time bandits but appear in only a single story which, for a decade and a half, was the culminating installment of the series.

The impression generated is that the Nine and the Danellians had to be mentioned to explain the origin of the Patrol but that thereafter the emphasis was meant to be on particular stories set in the past, not in the future. The Neldorians had to be mentioned as the source of a causality violation but, otherwise, were described as briefly as possible.

When Everard has deduced that the Scipios died at Ticinus, Van Sarawak infers:

"'Somebody must have knocked them off...Some time traveler. It could only have been that.'" (p. 219)

Everard replies:

"'Well, it seems probable, anyhow. We'll see.'" (ibid.)

Does he mean probable that the turning point was at Ticinus or probable that time travelers were involved? He does not yet know of any other source of causality violations although another source does come to light much later in The Shield Of Time.

The Neldorians are from the two hundred and fifth millennium, described as "...an age of bandits..." (p. 221). What does that mean? It would be interesting to learn more.

The history of the altered timeline states that, after winning the Roman Wars:

"'...the Carthaginian government was too venal to remain strong. Hannibal himself was assassinated by men who thought his honesty stood in their way.'" (p 201)

The writers of this history knew nothing of time travelers but Time Patrol spies learn that two Helvetian mercenaries called Phrontes and Himilco joined Hannibal in the Alps and gained his confidence, then, after the war, practically ran the government, organized Hannibal's murder and "...set new records for luxurious living." (p. 221) They look like Neldorians.

While some Patrolmen spy on the Neldorians, others rescue colleagues from "...more or less ignominious situations..." (ibid.) in the altered timeline. It is added:

"...another score would simply have to be written off." (ibid.)

But how is it known that the missing score had time traveled forward into the altered timeline and not into the original timeline?

The same question applies to Wanda in The Shield Of Time. She arrives back at the lodge and confirms that she has been in the alpha timeline but, before her return, Everard was certain that she was lost in the alpha timeline whereas, for all he knew, she could have traveled forward into the original timeline.

Italia Irredenta

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

When, in Poul Anderson's Time Patrol story, "Delenda Est," Boierik Wulfilasson of Cimberland whines that war is necessary because:

"'Carthaglann stole Egypt, our rightful possession.'" (p. 210)

- Everard murmurs, "'Italia irredenta...'" (ibid.)

- which, of course, Boierik does not understand, although it is exactly what he has just expressed.

Boierik speaks Cimbri, not Italian. When I first read "Delenda Est," I picked up some vague idea of what Everard's Italian phrase might mean from the context but now I have a policy of checking every word or phrase used by Anderson that I do not understand.

"Italia irredenta" means "Italy unredeemed." Italian irredentists aimed at the unification of all Italian speaking people and of all territories deemed to be Italian territory. Thus, Corsica, Nice and Savoy have been claimed: a perfect recipe for endless war in the Mediterranean. Anderson shows nationalism and the state perpetuating themselves through alternate histories:

"...man was man, in any history." (p. 203)

Everard reflects that his captors were probably married with children, probably enjoyed beer and dice, and maybe bred horses or roses:

"But none of this would do their captives a bit of good, when the almighty Nation locked horns with its kin." (p. 209)

Divergent Religion

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

In our history, the Egyptian god Amun was called Zeus Ammon by the Greeks, Jupiter Ammon by the Romans and Amon by the Hebrews.

In the alternative history of Poul Anderson's "Delenda Est," in about 100 BC, Germanic tribes invaded Italy which in the twentieth century is called Cimberland and at that time its most powerful deity is Wotan Ammon. Thus, this name, mentioned only once in the story, is not a mere arbitrary juxtaposition invented by Anderson but is a logical extrapolation of the religion in a timeline where Wotan-worshipers had conquered Jupiter-worshipers and had then identified their chief deity with the important Egyptian Amun.

The twentieth century is polytheist. Not only did the destruction of the Romans by the Carthaginians (instead of vice versa) enable Germanic tribes to conquer Italy, it also enabled the Syrians, unopposed by the Romans, to suppress the Maccabees. Hence, no Judaism or Christianity. Prophetic monotheism excludes other gods whereas a different kind of inclusive monotheism can grow out of Paganism:

"'The more educated people think that there is a Great Baal who made all the lesser gods...'" (p. 195)

This is more like the Hindu approach. Recognition of the great Baal is compatible with maintaining the ancient cults and with respecting the more powerful foreign gods: "'Best not to chance their anger.'" (ibid.)

Respect other people's gods, yes. Fear their anger, no. Tibetan Buddhists have a story about one of their founding monks taming the local gods. Thus, the gods can still be there but should no longer be feared.

Divergent Languages

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

Historical divergence implies linguistic divergence but a language that has not diverged too far yet might still be comprehensible. In "Delenda Est," Poul Anderson writes a few sentences that we understand and take to be in an existing European language - but then we are told that they are not.

When, coping inside an alternative timeline, Everard claims to understand a little Cimbric, his interlocutor responds:

"'Ah, aen litt. Gode!...Ik hait Boierik Wulfilasson ok main gefreond heer erran Boleslav Arkonsky.'" (p. 208)

We are told that Everard has never heard of this language but nevertheless follows it reasonably well although speaking it will be a problem because "...he couldn't predict how it had evolved." (ibid.)

That does not prevent him from trying:

"'What the hell erran thu macking, anyway?' he blustered. 'Ik bin aen man auf Sirius - the stern Sirius, mit planeten ok all. Set uns gebach or willen be der Teufel to pay!'
"Boierik Wulfilasson looked pained..." (ibid.)

- as well he might. Anderson wrote some humor and I think that this passage counts as an example of that.

But the main point in this passage is that Anderson composed a couple of sentences in one of the languages of an alternative history, then incorporated them into his text so that we read and understood them before we realized what they were.

Artisans And Druids

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

The divergent timeline in Poul Anderson's "Delenda Est" has not engineers and scientists but "'...artisans and druids...'" (p. 194), thus some technology and maybe some philosophy but no science.

A timecycle, coveted in an earlier story by Cyrus' Chiliarch Harpagus, has been captured by the government of Ynys yr Afallon who want the two captured Time Patrolmen to "help" them:

"'By showing our artisans and druids how to make more weapons and magical carts like your own.'" (ibid.)

Everard reflects that:

"They didn't have the tools to make the tools to make what was needed..." (ibid.)

Anderson's two predecessors in historical time travel fiction are Mark Twain and L Sprague de Camp. Twain's Yankee impossibly organized Arthurian Britons not only to manufacture a printing press, electric cables, machine guns etc but even to do it all in secret whereas de Camp's Martin Padway, transported to the late Roman Empire, innovates plausibly and gradually, starting with Arabic numerals, and has still not synthesized gunpowder by the end of Lest Darkness Fall, but by then has prevented the Fall of the Roman Empire.

Thus, Anderson improves on Twain and builds on but surpasses de Camp. Wells hinted at historical time travel in the Time Traveler's over-dinner conversation but then moved his central character only into the future.

Marius Again

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

In Roman history and in Poul Anderson's historical novel The Golden Slave, the Roman general Marius halted a barbarian invasion of Italy. Marius is mentioned in Anderson's Psychotechnic History and in Poul and Karen Anderson's King of Ys Tetralogy and also, I am fairly sure, in other works by Poul Anderson. I have discussed Marius more than once here.

Here he is again - or rather his absence is here, in another timeline. Because the Romans lost the Second Punic War, the Punic Wars are called the Roman Wars and there was no army of the Roman Republic led by Marius to oppose that barbarian invasion:

"'About a hundred years after the Roman Wars, some Germanic tribes overran Italy.' (That would be the Cimbri, with their allies the Teutones and Ambrones, whom Marius had stopped in Everard's world.)" (pp. 201-202)

Because the two histories diverged so long ago, the only language in common between Everard and a citizen of Ynys ar Afallon is ancient Greek. Everard once had a job in Alexandrine times and Deirdre Mac Morn is a Classical scholar who performs Greek drama. ("Mac" means "son" so a patronymic has become a surname, as in our timeline.) The disappearance of Rome from history becomes clear when Everard says:

"'I speak Latin too.'
"'Latin?' She frowned in thought. 'Oh, the Roman speech, was it not? I am afraid you will find no one who knows much about it.'" (p. 188)

(I keep trying to halt the forward momentum of this blog so that I can apply some attention to alternative activities. I have again reached a round number of posts near the end of a month so this might be a breathing space. Meanwhile, I would like to hear from blog readers. If anyone out there can find time to "comment" by saying who they are, where they are and how they came to be interested in Poul Anderson, that would be appreciated.)

Addendum, 24 Feb '14: As I thought, Marius is mentioned during a political and historical discussion in Poul Anderson's futuristic sf novel, Shield (New York, 1970), p. 86.

Blinking Out Of Space-Time?

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

Manson Everard in a divergent timeline thinks:

"There were other Time Patrolmen in the pre-Roman past. They'd return to their respective eras and...
"Everard stiffened. A chill ran down his back and congealed in his belly.
"They'd return and see what had happened, and try to correct the trouble. If any of them succeeded, this world would blink out of space-time, and he would go with it." (p. 204)

When I first read that over fifty years ago, I thought, "The longer Everard remains in the divergent timeline, the greater the risk that he will be in it when it blinks out of existence," but, of course, this "...when..." does not refer to any moment within that timeline. At the moment when Everard thinks this, either he exists or he does not. The fact that he is thinking anything proves that he exists. Therefore, it is not true that he does not exist. Period. There are other points of view from which Everard no longer exists, for example the point of view of someone thinking about Everard after his death or the point of view of someone in a subsequent timeline but none of that changes the fact that Everard does exist now.

When Everard and Van Sarawak, accompanied by Deirdre, escape on a timecycle and take stock of where/when they have escaped to, Van Sarawak says:

"'What year is this? About the time of Christ? Then we're still upstairs of the turning point.'" (p. 217)

I thought, "Then travel further back without delay in case you are still in the divergent timeline when it blinks out of existence," but that was nonsense. The problem is that, when fictitious characters travel from, in this case, 1960 AD to about 30 AD, we imagine that 1960 and 30 and the date of the Second Punic War a few centuries BC are not different times but different places co-existing at the same time. Thus, we think, if a Time Patrolman arrives in say 213 BC and spends half an hour in that year before taking the action necessary to restore Roman victory in that war, then, half an hour after that Time Patrolman's arrival in 213 BC, the 30 AD and 1960 AD in which the Carthaginians had won that war will blink out of existence and, if Everard has lingered for more than half an hour in either of those years, then he will blink out of existence with it.

I hope that this clarification of intuitive thoughts demonstrates their absurdity.

Tam-o'-shanters And Strange Countries

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

I have googled three more words in "Delenda Est."

"...tam-o'-shanter..." (p. 181), a word that I recognized but realized that I did not know what it meant but then did recognize the object described, a kind of Scottish cap, which (I now know) is named after the title character of an epic by Robert Burns.

"...cannel..." (p. 184), I had no idea what this meant but its meaning is easy to google.

"Hinduraj" (p. 185): this is the kind of foreign word (in this case, a fictitious foreign word) whose meaning, at least in a general sense, is immediately clear both from the context of its use and from the form of the word itself. The British Raj was the British reign in India. I googled to check whether there is or has been any "Hinduraj" in our timeline and learned that the Hindu Raj is a mountain range in Pakistan.

In the divergent timeline:

Ynys yr Afallon = a North American confederacy, down to Colombia;
Tehannach = Texas;
Huy Braseal = much of South America;
Hinduraj = Australasia, Indonesia, Borneo, Burma, eastern India and much of the Pacific;
Punjab = Afghanistan and the rest of India;
Han = China, Korea, Japan and eastern Siberia;
Littorn = Russia and much of Europe;
Brittys = the British Isles;
Gallis = France and the Low Countries;
Celtan = Iberia;
Helveti = Switzerland and Austria;
Cimberland = Italy;
Hyperborea = Scandinavia;
Svea = north Scandinavia;
Gothland = south Scandinavia;
Carthagalann = a North African confederacy;
Parthia and Arabia = the Near East;
smaller countries occupy the rest of South America, the Balkans and southern Africa.

Delenda Est

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

When Manson Everard and Piet Van Sarawak arrive in the wrong 1960, the crowd that they see are described as "...roundheads..." (p. 178). I have googled this word but have found only the political term, "Roundhead," not a physiological term, "roundhead." Obviously, I know what a "round head" is but nevertheless have not elsewhere, as far as I know, come across "roundhead."

Everard describes the people as "'...brachycephalic...'" (p. 180). I have googled this word and do not quite connect its dictionary meaning with round heads. Indeed, "brachycephaly" is described as "flat head syndrome."

Although this particular inquiry has led no further yet, I find it fruitful not only to admire Anderson's large vocabulary but also to check the meaning of every single unfamiliar term. Doing this has proved to be informative.

The title of this story, "Delenda Est," of course requires an explanation that is not given in the text. "Delenda est Carthago" ("Carthage must be destroyed"), a slogan repeated in political speeches in the Roman Republic, meant that conflict with a persistent enemy must be ended not by a peace treaty leading to preparation for another war but by annihilation of the enemy.

Why?

As Bob Shaw observed in a Serious Scientific Talk at a Science Fiction Convention, most people think that, if they are struck by lightning, it will kill them but science fiction readers know that a much more likely outcome is that they will be flung into the past.

Which period of the past they will be flung into is a product of three factors:

the voltage of electricity in the lightning;
their body weight, measured in pounds;
which period the author has been mugging up on.

Lightning was the mechanism for time travel in L Sprague de Camp's Lest Darkness Fall and in Poul Anderson's "The Man Who Came Early," which is a direct comment on the de Camp novel. The Anderson story remarks that lightning-induced time travel happens very rarely - so rarely that it has happened in only one other work of fiction so far?

A similarly humorous explanation may be appropriate for the conundrum presented in Anderson's "Delenda Est":

"'...the Patrol and the Danellians are wiped out. (Don't ask me why they weren't "always" wiped out; why this is the first time we came back from the far past to find a changed future. I don't understand the mutable-time paradoxes. We just did, that's all.)'"
- Time Patrol (New York, 2006), p. 187.

I suggested two answers to this not-to-be-asked question in a recent post but the real answer, of course, is that the author has started to write a series about an organization whose job is to prevent time travelers from changing the past so now he is writing a story in which some time travelers have changed the past. (Similarly, Asimov started a series in which Seldon's psychohistorical predictions guided the Foundation, then wrote a story in which the Mule overturned those predictions - but, as I always say, Anderson's historical fiction is far better and moreover is about real history.)

When the Patrol plans its counter-intervention in the pivotal battle, Everard says:

"'...I don't think we can get away with more than two agents actually on the scene. The baddies are going to be alert, you know, looking for counterinterference.'" (p. 222)

This tells us that the action will continue to focus on Everard and his companion for this story, Van Sarawak. Indeed, Everard continues:

"'The Alexandria office can supply Van and me with costumes.'" (ibid.)

Something else that we might notice here is that, as science fiction readers, we are on familiar territory. We already know that, if we intervene in a battle in order to change the course of history, then we need to be alert for any other time travelers trying either to preserve the established course of history or to undo our changes!

The tradition of time travelers possibly observing and interacting with historical battles goes back to a conversation between the Time Traveler's dinner guests.

Discussing Causality Violation

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006); The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991).

History and therefore political geography is changed in Anderson's "Delenda Est" (see image). This alteration is discussed more fully in The Shield Of Time:

"'You spoke of persons who entered the alternate future but failed to get away from it. What became of them when it was...abolished?'
..."'They no longer existed either.'" (p. 304)

They no longer existed in the restored Danellian timeline. However, the "abolished" timeline was a four dimensional continuum. I see no reason why, from the point of view of people within it, it should cease to exist in its version of 1960 right after Everard and Van Sarawak had left it. Indeed, other time travelers probably went much further uptime within that timeline. Therefore, I think that, if Everard and Van Sarawak had failed to retrieve their captured time machine, then they would have lived out the rest of their lives in that alternative reality.

Everard is asked why only a few, not many, time travelers entered the alternate future. One answer might be that this is a matter of quantum randomness. Another answer might be that there are causal relationships between chronokinetic events. To simplify: if Everard used a particular timecycle to travel from his 1960 to Roman times and back again, then the Neldorians stole that machine and traveled to Roman times to change the outcome of the Second Punic War, then, after that sequence of events, Everard, having traveled on a different timecycle further back to the Pleistocene, returns uptime into the history in which Carthage had won the Second Punic War.

Everard's answer:

"'They [the few] were just the ones who happened to cross the crucial moment, bound uptime, in that larger section of time during which there were related events, like the Patrol's salvage work...'" (ibid.)

- doesn't make sense, which is why he adds:

"'I hope you understand what I'm saying. I don't.'" (ibid.)

- then Komzino appeals to "'...a metalanguage and metalogic accessible to few intellects...'" (ibid.)

- says that they do not have time to quibble about theory (because they are faced with a new temporal catastrophe) and turns the discussion to practical matters.

Earlier And Later In The Series

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

In "Delenda Est" (1955), Piet Van Sarawak is from Venus in the early twenty fourth century. In "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" (1983), there is a hospital on the Moon in 2319. These fictitious dates entail that the Venerian colony and the Lunar hospital are contemporary with each other. However, the publication dates of the two stories present an alternative perspective.

In those twenty eight years, it was learned that Venus was not a planet that would be easily colonized. Science fiction written in the mid-1950's assumes a Venus as easily colonizable as Australia whereas sf written in the mid-1980's draws on considerably more detailed information about conditions in other parts of the Solar System. Writing in 1983, Anderson simply does not refer to Van Sarawak's Venus but instead presents a more restrained view of the future in space with no mention of anything beyond the Moon - although I found the artificial gravity rather surprising.

The Venus colony is not denied. Anderson was careful not to include any future information that would be negated during his lifetime. I think of these two stories as earlier and later in the series rather than as contemporary with each other.

2319

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

In "Time Patrol," Manson Everard meets an Academy instructor born in 9573, another who is a veteran of the Martian war of 3890 and a Danellian from more than a million years hence;

in "Gibraltar Falls," he meets Feliz a Rach of the First Matriarchy two millennia hence;

in "Delenda Est," he is with "Piet Van Sarawak (Dutch-Indonesian-Venusian, early twenty-fourth A.D.)" (p. 174);

in "Ivory, And Apes, And Peacocks," he meets the director of Jerusalem Base between the birth of David and the fall of Judah, who "...was born in twenty-ninth century New Edom on Mars..." and is a veteran of the Second Asteroid War. (p. 307)

However, all of these encounters occur in our past. Only in a single passage, 2319 (pp. 374-378), does the action of the Time Patrol series move beyond the twentieth century or even beyond the date of publication of the current story.

The information about the future is necessary background for stories about journeys from the present to the past. Also, Anderson is not only an imaginative but also a restrained writer. In his multi-volume future history, the Technic Civilization series, he never tells us why the Ancients/Chereionites had disappeared or died out or even whether the last Chereionite, Aycharaych, survived the bombardment of his home planet.

That single excursion to 2319, approximately contemporaneous with Van Sarawak, is a surprise that divulges little:

a hospital on the Moon has artificial gravity, scented air and a carpeted floor;
an electronic skullcap gives hours of sleep;
a window or screen shows mountains, craters and a black sky with a full white and blue Earth.

On p. 379, Carl is back in 302.

Two Influences Of Christianity?

In different works, Poul Anderson suggests two possible influences of Christianity on science. First, in Is There Life On Other Worlds?, he suggests that the close reasoning applied to supernatural entities in theology was later re-applied to natural processes and technology because simultaneous social developments made that re-application possible. If so, then the simultaneity of theological disputes and technological developments was coincidental.

Secondly, he suggests, in "Delenda Est," that the belief that a single deity had created an ordered cosmos encouraged the scientific search for cosmic order. If so, then I suggest that the idea of such a creator can now be regarded as a discarded scientific theory. Organisms look as if they have been designed to survive and to procreate but natural selection is an alternative explanation. The Solar System has been compared to a clockwork mechanism which, of course, would have had to be designed. However, the laws of motion account for planetary orbits with reference to natural forces operating independently of consciousness. Scientific cosmogony describes gravitational and nuclear forces transforming the simplest of the elements into complicated galaxies of stars and planets.

There is more to a religious tradition than a discarded scientific theory. However, I argue that, if any meaning or value is to be found in such traditions, then it has to be differentiated from their earlier role in explaining cosmic origins. That latter task is now performed by scientists discovering pre-conscious forces and processes. Creation stories are valuable myths and we are now the heirs of all the traditions: Torah, Veda, Edda, Koran (YHWH, Indra, Odin, Allah) etc.