Gods And Other Beings

"Whether in superstition or in metaphor, Cerialis replied, surprisingly quietly, 'That will depend on the goddess, won't it?'"
-Poul Anderson, "Star of the Sea," section 16, IN Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006), pp. 467-640 AT p. 609.

We can still say such things metaphorically.

"'Well,' he said low, 'that lies with the gods, doesn't it? Or with the norns but no use in offering to them.'"
-Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003), Book Three, Chapter II, p. 193.

How many kinds of beings are superior to gods, mythologically speaking of course? Norns, Buddhas and Neil Gaiman's Endless. Also, the Hebrew god is supposed to be more powerful than any others, thus generating a syllogism:

gods are power;
other gods are powerless before the god of Abraham;
therefore, there are no other gods.

In some of Anderson's historical fictions, Christians have not yet reasoned from the second premise to the conclusion.

Danes settling in England take baptism because:

"Christendom was so vastly more wide and rich than anything left in the North." (Mother Of Kings, Book Two, Chapter XIV, p. 141)

These are cultural conversions. What are the grounds for spiritual conversions? For St Paul it was a blinding light and a voice, thus, I would say, a psychological crisis. For CS Lewis, it was philosophical arguments with which I disagree. For some, it is hearing Evangelical preaching although I find this completely irrational. I have considered evidence for the Resurrection here.

Domitian

Time travelers study history:

"'Sociologists studying Rome, early second century A.D., found on short notice that they needed to know what the upper classes thought of the Emperor Domitian, who died a couple of decades earlier. Did they really remember him as a Stalin, or concede that he'd done a few worthwhile things? The later sections of Tacitus eloquently expressed the negative view...'"
-Poul Anderson, "Star Of The Sea" IN Time Patrol, p. 486.

Tacitus wrote:

"In Republican times biographies and even autobiographies of outstanding individuals were written and admired; but they are out of fashion in an age hostile to excellence, when a brilliant career has become so hazardous and talented biographers so reluctant. Indeed, under the tyrannical rule of Domitian the authors of two such works were condemned to death and the books destroyed, as part of a calculated attack on freedom of expression in Rome. Although the new regime is far more liberal, we are slow to recover from fifteen years of such oppression - and in writing a biography of my father-in-law Agricola I feel I must ask indulgence both for my theme and for my lack of literary skill."
-D.E. Soulsby, Tacitus, Selections From Agricola (Cambridge, 1973), p. 2.

Brilliant careers becoming hazardous reminds us of what Chunderban Desai said to Dominic Flandry about the later phase of the Terran Empire. And now I really must get back to reading some Latin...

"Gnaeus Iulius Agricola, vetere et inlustri..."

Tacitus, Cerialis And Maybe The Draka?

Can I continue to post indefinitely about Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series? That does seem impossible although I have astounded myself several times already. However, two things should happen this coming week.

First, tomorrow, Monday, I must prepare for a Latin class on Tuesday. We are reading Tacitus, who mentions Cerialis. Remember the Time Patrol story, "Star Of The Sea." Also note the attached image. Thus, we are engaging, in the original language, with the history that provides the background for Anderson's historical science fiction.

Secondly, surely SM Stirling's Under The Yoke should arrive from the US, unless the order has gone completely awry? Regular readers know that Poul Anderson Appreciation sometimes focuses backwards onto Wells, Stapledon and Heinlein and sometimes focuses forwards onto Stirling who has developed one aspect of sf, alternative histories, in far greater detail than even Anderson did.

So I don't know what the next few posts will be about, just that there will be some.

The Fantastic And The Topical

A mediocre sf author might write a time travel story that is only nominally set in a historical period and that glaringly contradicts itself when presenting time travel paradoxes. By contrast, Poul Anderson, e.g., in "Star of The Sea" and "Amazement Of The World," presents subtle temporal paradoxes in well realized historical periods.

Thus, when Manse Everard of the Time Patrol explores a divergent timeline, the reader is informed of several aspects of life in the twelfth century. See here and here. Further, when Everard compares life in the twelfth and twentieth centuries, this generates a combox discussion of different ways to conduct our affairs in the twenty first century. Thus, we move instantly from the fantastic to the topical.

Larry Niven's Svetz series presents the argument that:

time travel is impossible;
therefore, time travel fiction is fantasy, not hard sf;
therefore, a time traveler seeking an extinct horse/whale etc should find a mythical unicorn/leviathan etc.

This makes sense as the premise of a single series but does not negate the existence of genuine hard sf time travel fiction like Anderson's Time Patrol series! Because the Svetz series is humorous, Niven deliberately includes some inconsistencies in its time travel logic - these might as well exist alongside the unicorns. Meanwhile, because Anderson deals not only with abstruse temporal paradoxes but also with real history, his texts can at any time generate discussion of real, even urgent, issues.

Janne And Wanda

In "Star Of The Sea," Janne Floris says:

"'...I feel I am worth most in the field, my field, and will be until I am too old and feeble.'" (Time Patrol, p. 638)

Do Time Patrol agents get old and feeble when their "...antithanatic treatment...will arrest the aging process..." (p. 345)?

In any case, Janne's preference for fieldwork is the reason why she ends her relationship with Unattached agent Manse Everard on p. 639, which is appropriate because a passage narrated by Wanda Tamberly begins on p. 641. Between them, on pp. 639-640, is a prayer to Mary who incorporates elements of the goddess Nehalennia, a role played by Janne.

We might say that this is the feminine quarter of the Time Patrol universe. The series has come a long way from the original four short stories, each focused on Manse Everard and on one male colleague.

"Earlier" Timelines?

In the introductory short story, "Time Patrol":

"'Time travel was old when [the Danellians] emerged, there had been uncountable opportunities for the foolish and the greedy and the mad to go back and turn history inside out. They did not wish to forbid the travel - it was part of the complex which had led to them - but they had to regulate it. The Nine were prevented from carrying out their schemes. And the Patrol was set up to police the time lanes.'" (Time Patrol, p. 11)

On these four sentences - plus a few more - rests the entire Time Patrol series, which was already a major work of science fiction and successor to The Time Machine even during the decade and a half when it was just one volume of four short stories.

"...it was part of the complex which had led to them..." is a clever reply in advance to the objection, "If time travel is dangerous to the Danellians, then why do they allow it?"

"...the foolish and the greedy and the mad..." - Anderson and I would been able to agree on the need to restrain the greedy and the mad but might well have disagreed about who was foolish. Everard says:

"'I think most human misery is due to well-meaning fanatics like [Stane].'" (p. 42)

Some human misery, yes. Most? I don't think so. And not every well-meaning reformer is fanatical. There must have been well-meaning, well-informed, non-fanatical time travel groups wanting to bring about, e.g., a twentieth century without two World Wars, the Holocaust, Hitler, Stalin, nuclear weapons, the Cold War, local wars, avoidable famines, pollution etc. But these would all be foolish according to the Danellians and the Patrol.

"...uncountable opportunities..."  -

Was there a succession of earlier timelines superseded by the Patrol?
Did the Nine carry out their schemes?
Was there a Cyrus who did not need Patrol intervention to prevent his murder in infancy?
Was there a Veleda killed when young so that the Northern rebellion occurred without her input and the Virgin Mary did not assimilate the imagery of the star and the sea?
How many random fluctuations in space-time-energy have there been?
Etc?

Turning Points

Poul Anderson's "Star Of The Sea" has two turning points:

Janne Floris, swooping down on her timecycle, kills Roman sailors raping Edh;

Heidhin commits suicide as the only way to release himself from his oath to fight the Romans as long as he lives.

Between these two moments, is the potential for a divergent timeline:

if Floris had not killed the sailors, then they would probably have killed Edh;

if Heidhin had not killed himself, then Edh would have withdrawn into the wilderness, continued to preach war against Rome and founded a new religion.

By investigating a problem, the Time Patrol agents caused the problem but then resolved it. And, because of their intervention, Edh, instead of dying young, lives into old age as the messenger of a peaceful goddess, reinforcing Christian incorporation of Pagan imagery and thus strengthening the Time Patrol's timeline.

In this short novel, Poul Anderson:

informs and educates his readers about the Northern revolt against the Roman Empire;
presents convincing historical fiction about Veleda, Burhmund, Petillius Cerialis and others;
dramatizes the development of religion;
contrasts a first century wilderness with modern Amsterdam;
creates a subtle time travel paradox.

Later:

"'Cerialis became governor of Britain, where he conquered the Brigantes.'" (Time Patrol, p. 632)

I attended some neo-Pagan gatherings called "Briganti Moot."

Nehalennia

In "Star Of The Sea," Floris tells Everard:

"'Nehalennia...did what gods are supposed to do, gave courage and solace, made men a little more decent that they would otherwise have been, and sometimes opened their eyes to beauty.'" (Time Patrol, p. 634)

That is not what gods have always done. See here. But it is the best that we can make of them. Beauty and courage replace horror and fear. The following mythological passage begins not with dreadful gods but with a man, a hunter who meets a gentle goddess. Anderson shows us religion evolving and maturing with the spread and growth of civilization.

Ave Stella Maris!

World Lines Tightening

In Poul Anderson's "Star Of The Sea," Time Patrol agent Janne Floris disguised as the goddess Niaerdh tells the sibyl Veleda to stop preaching war and to start preaching peace with Rome. Veleda cannot do this until her companion Heidhin has been released from his oath never to make peace with Rome. Floris proposes to take Veleda to Heidhin on her timecycle which Veleda perceives as "...the bull of Frae, cast in iron..." (Time Patrol, p. 611).

Everard, communicating subvocally, warns Floris that the rebel leader Burhmund is currently visiting Heidhin and offers to find another time for Floris to approach Heidhin but Floris replies:

"'No, wait. This may be a stroke of luck.' Or the world lines tightening as they seek to regain their proper configuration?" (p. 615)

Floris plans to whisk Heidhin away and hopefully persuade him so that "'...Heidhin the implacable suddenly converted...'" (ibid.) will make a suitably strong impression on Burhmund. What does "...the world lines tightening..." mean? It seems that, if a time traveler changes a past event, there can be three consequences:

(i) it does not matter because that event is too insignificant to affect history;
(ii) the event was a nexus so history is changed;
(iii) the event has the potential to change history but other events change to compensate - the world lines tightening.

When Everard tries to prevent a divergent timeline by appearing as an angel to Lorenzo de Conti, the latter grabs Everard, realizes that he is human and fights. After killing Lorenzo, Everard remarks:

"'...the tide was carrying him...trying to preserve its twisted future - Let's hope we've broken the spell at last.'" (The Shield Of Time, p. 428)

A timeline, like an organism, protects itself if possible.

Sunset Smoldered

As we approach the climax and conclusion of Poul Anderson's "Star Of The Sea," a new chapter begins by describing the ending of a day:

"The early sunset smoldered above the forest." (Time Patrol, p. 610)

There are intimations of death as the opening paragraph continues:

"Boughs were like black bones athwart it. Puddles in field and paddock glowed dull red with it..." (ibid.)

Thus, branches resemble bones and water resembles blood.

"...beneath a greenish sky as cold as the wind that eddied whimpering across them." (ibid.)

A cold whimpering wind does not incline us to anticipate a happy ending.

"A flight of crows passed. Their hoarse cries sounded for a while after the dusk had swallowed them up." (ibid.)

Flights of birds were interpreted as omens. Hoarse cries sound ominous: will the dusk that swallows the crows also swallow the characters and their hopes? That concludes this opening paragraph - the scene has been set for darkness and death.

Sleet, Rain, Wind And Cold

Through sleet, rain, wind and cold, Everardus the Goth rides across flat acres between withered grass, leafless trees and burned houses.

"The north wind smelled of the swamps over which it had roared, of the seas beyond, and of winter striding down from the Pole." ""Star Of The Sea" IN Time Patrol, p. 601)

This opening paragraph, addressing four senses, ends with swamps, seas and winter! The sleet hisses, vision is lost, chill penetrates clothes and the wind smells.

For narrative purposes, Anderson need only have written that Everard of the Time Patrol rode to meet the Roman general, Petillius Cerialis. Imagine an Anderson text with all its descriptions of natural scenery edited out.

In the timeline guarded by the Patrol, Romans and barbarian rebels make peace. To reinforce this course of events, a Patrolman must negotiate between the general and the rebels. Patrol histories, files, computers and experts persuade Everard that "...this is the proper configuration of a plenum that has powerful negative feedback. We've identified the random factor that could bring on an avalanching change; what we must do is damp it." (pp. 607-608)

Cerialis would not be flattered to know Everad's thoughts on the Romans:

"I'll never be fond of the Romans, but they do bring other things with them than slave traders, tax farmers, and sadistic games. Peace, prosperity, a widened world - those don't last but when the tide ebbs it leaves behind, scattered through the wreckage, books, technologies, faiths, ideas, memories of what once was, stuff for later generations to salvage and treasure and build with again. And among the memories is that there was, for a while, a life not given over entirely to naked survival." (p. 604)

How much of European history is attempts to rebuild the Roman Empire?

"Out Of The East..."

We have observed that Poul Anderson's "Star Of The Sea" includes passages of mythological writing and of historical fiction and also that several of the latter begin by describing seasonal changes. Here by contrast is the opening sentence of a mythological passage that begins with the transition not from winter to spring but more fundamentally from night to day but which also invests this naturally recurring event with mythic significance:

"Out of the east, the morning behind them, rode the Anses into the world." (Time Patrol, p. 557)

Remember, new gods coming from the east with the sunrise. I have attended Pagan ceremonies where we each speak and drink from a horn of mead before passing the horn around the circle. At such ceremonies, I have recited Poul and Karen Anderson's "Tene Mithra, etiam miles, fides nostris votis nos," (see here) and will in future recite, "Out of the east..."

Two Camps

As far as I can make out, Everard and Floris have two camps in the first century.

In 70 AD, they are on:

"...a remote hilltop overlooking woodlands that reached to every horizon." (Time Patrol, p. 539) See here.

In 49 AD, when visited by Ulstrup, they are in an uninhabited area between two tribes:

"From a bluff screened by trees they looked down over the river." (p. 563)

The river is broad with green banks, rustling reeds, croaking frogs, silver fish, thousands of waterfowl and occasional boats. Floris says:

"'We will be a little in the life of the country...not quite like disembodied spirits passing through.'" (p. 563) -

- which is similar to what was said about the first camp. After their climactic intervention in the life of Edh/Veleda, the two Patrol agents return a few days later to their first camp, in 70 AD, with its two one-person shelters.

Yet again we should pause to appreciate Poul Anderson's description of a sunset:

"The sun was newly down, clouds lay red and gold to the west, eastward the sky deepened while night rose in a tide over the wilderness." (p. 594)

We must never forget that, although the time travelers are interacting with human beings, they are nevertheless not in a cultivated country but a wilderness.

Winter Passed

Often, chapters in "Star Of the Sea," as in The King Of Ys, begin with a change of the seasons but here is the opening sentence of a paragraph from within the body of the chapter that is a mini-biography of Veleda:

"Winter passed, rain, snow, cavernous darknesses, the night of fear before the sun turned back and the day of feast that followed, lightening skies, thaw, newborn lambs, budding boughs." (Time Patrol, p. 585)

As I commented on an opening sentence in "The Sorrow Of Odin The Goth" (on p. 362), this one describes two seasons, winter and spring. We should remember that the day of feast was preceded by a night of fear. How could people know that this time the sun would not continue to sink lower each day?

The paragraph in "Star Of The Sea" continues:

"Spring brought leaves and northbound wings; Niaerdh rode about the land..." (p. 585)

The goddess rode about the land? Her concealed image was pulled in a wagon:

"...you saw the car of Niaerdh go by, covered that none might behold her..." (p. 582)

But, to most people then, what was the difference between the image of the goddess and the goddess?

The paragraph ends:

"The Sun Car rolled ever higher and slower, green swelled, thunderstorms flashed and banged above the heath, rainbows glimmered far out to sea." (ibid.)

Thus:

the Sun, like Niaerdh, rides in a "Car";
Donar passes above the heath(ens);
and -

"'I will come to you on the rainbow,' Niaerdh plighted.
"So it was. So it is." (p. 469)

Heathens

"Around [the thorp] reached heath, where only sheep could thrive." (Time Patrol, p. 580)

Thus, the Alvarings who live in the thorp are "heathens," in the root sense of dwellers on the heath. I cannot be sure that Anderson intended the word "heath" to suggest "heathen" but it fits. The Alvarings still worship the ancient goddess Niaerdh as much or more than the more recently imported Anses whereas the Geats, occupying the other half of the island, worship Niaerdh less and by implication the Anses more.

The king of the Alvarings sacrifices a man to Niaerdh in thanksgiving when his daughter Edh survives early childhood. Edh becomes devoted to Niaerdh and addresses her as "'All-Mother...,'" the feminine form of "All-Father, " Odin's title. Edh's Niaerdh receives the dead into her hall and leads them in a hunt and is a war deity with command of the elements and the moon. She receives women who die giving birth just as Odin receives dead warriors.

Here, from within heathenism, is the potential for a Goddess-worship that will appeal to women, who will in turn influence their children, and thus will successfully resist Christianity when missionaries of that faith arrive centuries later. Heading off such a development is a job for the Time Patrol.

On The Beach

I think that there is something special about any fictional scene set on a shore or beach although I cannot put my finger on exactly what: something to do with the transition from land to sea, the meeting of two environments and the possibility of embarking on or returning from a long voyage. Appropriately, there are two such scenes, both excellent, in Poul Anderson's "Star Of The Sea."

Time Patrol Specialist Jens Ulstrup has heard that Veleda had arrived by ship on the Baltic littoral five or six years previously. Everard and Floris must check out Veleda's arrival, then trace her journey back to the shore from which she had departed. Having heard Ulstrup:

"Floris...gazed past the river and the forest beyond, northeasterly toward an unseen shore." (Time Patrol, p. 570)

That unseen shore is the one on which Veleda arrived, not, as I wrongly said here, the one on which she had perceived Floris as the goddess. But Everard and Floris are cautiously working their way back toward that moment of apparent revelation. Wisely, Floris has declined Everard's suggestion that she, Floris, approach Veleda directly. Floris' reason is that Veleda has isolated herself, probably in a state of emotional or religious crisis, so that any interruption could have unpredictable effects. Indeed it would. Veleda would recognize Floris as her goddess although the Patrol agents do not know that yet.

The beach on which Everard awaits the arrival of Veleda and her companion is beautifully described with characteristic Andersonian details: sand dunes; stiff grass; haze; kelp; shells; fish- and bird-bones; darker sand under the high-water line; gulls above; cold salty wind; "...smells from the deeps..." (ibid.); incoming tide; waves hissing on the shore, booming further out; horizon becoming sky; scudding clouds; rain in  the west; inland - sedge, pools, distant forest, a brook, a marsh, a hamlet.

On this beach, Everard, disguised, hopes to meet Veleda and Heidhin:

"...instead of simply tracing the ship across the water, backward through time. They dared not charge blind into what might well be the source of the instability, the obscure and easily annulled event from which an entire future could spring. Here, they hoped, was an opportunity to learn something beforehand at minimal risk." (pp. 574-575)

Of course, the obscure event will be their own arrival but they have to go there to learn that.

When a Time Patrolman travels into the past, it is always possible that he will return futureward into a different timeline. In this story alone, that possibility is described as a fork or divergence in time.

If Carl Farness, appearing at the showdown fight between his descendants and Ermanaric, had helped his descendants, then he would certainly have traveled forward into a different twentieth century. And if all Patrol agents returning from earlier times had returned into the timeline in which Odin did betray his followers, then they would never have known what Carl had done. In fact, there would be two Carls. When Everard in 1935 told Carl that he must return to 372 to betray his followers, they were in a timeline in which a version of Carl had appeared in 372 and betrayed his followers. Thus, if the Carl who traveled back after his conversation with Everard had decided to go against Everard's advice, then he would have initiated another timeline that Everard would have no knowledge of.

Four Kinds Of Writing

Poul Anderson's "Star Of The Sea" incorporates four kinds of writing:

mythological;
fictional;
historical;
devotional.

The mythological passages imaginatively reproduce earlier stages of Northern European mythology;

the historical passages summarize the course of the Northern revolt against the Roman Empire;

the concluding section is a prayer addressed to Mary, Stella Maris;

the fictional passages are of three kinds:

historical fiction, e.g., an account of a barbarian siege of a Roman camp;
science fiction, e.g., a conversation between two time travelers in modern Amsterdam;
a synthesis, i.e., the time travelers interact with Romans and barbarians.

Comments: comprehensive and impressive.

The Anglii

In "Star Of The Sea," a ship's captain tells Manse Everard:

"'...we coast west to the Anglii, with goods for a great market they hold this time of year.'" (Time Patrol, p. 572)

In 43 AD, the captain does not mean the English. Angles will not enter England, which will be named after them, until the Romans have left it. At present, they must still be back in the original Anglia or Angeln.

Everard has had instilled in him knowledge of a local Germanic language that "...was akin to what he had used in Britain some four centuries futureward, when the descendants of tribesmen on these North Sea shores were invading it." (p. 511)

- and that was on his first mission for the Time Patrol before he had been promoted to Unattached status. On that mission, Everard visits Kent which was invaded by Jutes whereas the Angles went into Northern and Central England and East Anglia and gave their name to England and Anglia. All that is centuries in the future when Everard meets the captain who is sailing to the Anglii.

As If

In "Star Of The Sea":

"Now and then an owl hooted, low, as if asking a question of an oracle." (Time Patrol, p. 539)

To the pure empiricism of an earlier age, appearance was reality. The sun went round the Earth. There would have been no perceived difference between an owl hooting as if asking a question and an owl asking a question. Thunder certainly sounds like Thor's chariot.

Alan Moore showed this well in the opening chapter of his novel, Voice Of The Fire. Where we would say that something on a hill that looked like a man turned out to be a tree, a retarded prehistoric youth says instead that the man on the hill turned into a tree.

By observing that an owl sounded as if it were consulting an oracle, Anderson reminds his readers that that was how people in the first century perceived reality. He remarks that "...even the most sophisticated Roman believed in omens, if nothing else." (p. 505) Heidhin tells Veleda, who speaks for the goddess, that, if she does not make peace with the sky gods, "'...they will withdraw victory from us.'" (p. 531) How does he know this? By every possible means:

"'I have read this in the stars, the weather, the flight of ravens, the bones I cast.'" (ibid.)

Well, that sounds convincing. But, just in case it does not convince, Heidhin also deploys a more practical argument based on empirical psychology:

"'And what if I am mistaken? The fear itself is real in men's hearts. They will begin to hang back in battle, and the foe will break them.'" (ibid.)

Thus, successful leaders did not rely only on oracles after all.

Readjustments

Although I mentioned Time Patrol agents embedding themselves in past ages, they also need a period of readjustment when returning to their home era. In "Star Of The Sea," after witnessing a massacre:

"Everard allowed Floris two days at home for rest and recovery...he too welcomed a respite...He walked the Amsterdam streets for hours on end, bathing in the decency of the twentieth-century Netherlands." (Time Patrol, pp. 520-521)

In "The Year Of The Ransom," Helen Tamberly says:

"'Stephen was only supposed to be gone three days. Six days for him, three days for me. He wanted that much time merely to reaccustom himself to this milieu. He meant to wander about incognito, getting back into Victorian habits, so he wouldn't absent-mindedly do something that would surprise the servants or our local friends." (p. 673)

Keith and Cynthia Denison who lived in New York in the 1950's have to begin new identities in Paris in 1981 so they plan to meet there in 1980, taking a twelve month holiday in order "'...to segue into the manners and mores of a later generation...'" (The Shield Of Time, p. 280)

Although, the jump across time is instantaneous, months are needed to adjust to a new environment in an earlier or later period. Poul Anderson has thought through all the implications of regular time travel.