Captain Flandry, Parts I-IV

The first four Captain Flandry stories:

(I) "Tiger by the Tail"
(II) "Honorable Enemies"
(III) "The Game of Glory"
(IV) "Hunters of the Sky Cave"

are a perfect tetralogy.

(i) Flandry defeats the Scothanians in (I), is described as the single-handed conqueror of Schothania in (II) and commands a crew that includes a Scothanian in (IV). (His crew also includes two Gorzuni and one Donarrian - two other species that had been introduced earlier in Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization.)

(ii) Admiral Walton, introduced in (I), reappears in (IV), where he is described as "...one of the last brave and wholly honorable men in all Terra's Empire." (Sir Dominic Flandry, p. 272)

(iii) Flandry learns how to lie to the telepath Aycharaych in (II), this incident occurs between some of the events in (III), which is mostly set on Nyanza, and Aycharaych congratulates Flandry on his handling of l'affaire Nyanza in (IV).

(iv) Flandry first meets Aycharaych in (II) and captures him in (IV) - but the Merseians arrange a prisoner exchange.

(IV) reveals a curious effect of the Technic History version of hyperspace. Flandry's ship, the Hooligan, while pursuing an Ardazirho craft, briefly interpenetrates it so that Flandry sees into its turret and even recognizes its pilot. Then the Hooligan matches phases and captures the Ardazirho.

(IV) is the only installment of the History to feature the Ymirites. Flandry encounters them on Jupiter before traveling to the colony planet Vixen, which plays important roles both earlier and later in the History, as does the Vixenite family, Kittredge.

Flandry On Scotha: Chaos And Order

Asdagaar's assassins kill King Penda.
However, Asdagaar's clansfolk, having learned what kind of male he is, do not fight well.
Nartheof's fleet breaks Asdagaar's.
Asdagaar dies.
Nartheof seizes the throne.
Chaos increases.
Nornagast's vengeful kin kill Nartheof.
Earl Morgaar smashes Torric's force.
Fragments of Torric's force harry the remnants of Penda's troops fleeing from the advancing Ilirian Liberation Army.
Royalists are:
scattered through space;
driven from subject planets;
hunted by former allies;
annihilated by advancing Terrans.
Scothan lords fight each other or surrender to Terra.

Flandry will advise an Imperial commission that will probably make Scotha an Ilirian-dominated international confederation with its Queen Gunli advised by a Terran resident. Later in his career, Flandry commands a troop that includes a Scothan armed with a wrecking bar.

Why does anyone fight when they can travel through space and see galaxies? (See image.)

Flandry On Scotha: Duke Asdagaar And Prince Cerdic

Duke Asdagaar, head of a clan that has always been more loyal to itself than to the throne, is a parricide and oath-breaker who, like most nobles, forgets that slaves and servants see, hear and speak. Thus, Flandry easily blackmails him to help others against the throne.

Finally, Flandry sends a messenger in a spaceship with a letter to the Terran Admiral Walton who arrives with twice the strength of the already demoralized opposition and easily defeats the forces of either the royalist Duke Markagrav or the rebel Kelsy. Identification is uncertain.  

Scothan tradition nearly traps Flandry at the end:

Gunli, oath-breaker, can regain her honor only by arranging single combat between Flandry and Cerdic;
Cerdic thinks that a civilized Terran will be unable to fight with a sword;
Flandry, triumphant to the end, demonstrates that decadence includes archaisms like scientific fencing.

Poul Anderson has no trouble in rationalizing a sword fight in an ancient castle in a futuristic sf story.

Flandry On Scotha: Sviffash Of Sithafar

"'Gods gave many gifts, but,
Gunli, yours was greatest.'"
-Poul Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2010), p. 267.

I thought that it was appropriate to quote the concluding lines of Dominic Flandry's alliterative verse to Queen Gunli - but we must move on to Sviffash of Sithafar.

He is a "...herpetoid..." (p. 268) and I cannot find this word anywhere. He has a tail, bowed legs, fanged jaws, lidless black eyes and a flickering tongue. The Scothani treat Sviffash's people badly and Flandry tells him, truthfully for once!, that the Terran Empire treats its subjects decently, if only because the Imperials have learned that the alternative is counterproductive. (We do know of exceptions, of course.) Sithafar might be an ally rather than a client or even just left in its extra-Imperial independence.

Sviffash can contact the Empire and other potential rebels who are known to Flandry but must spare Scotha because the rebellion will have Scothan allies, not only power-seeking nobles but also Ilrian nationalists secretly helped by Queen Gunli. Everything is coming together. Flandry does not mention, because it is not relevant here, rival claimants for the Frithian throne who, if they are fighting among themselves, will not be able to resist the rebellion when it comes from Ilria, from within Frithia and from off-planet - not to mention an approaching Terran fleet, but Flandry has not quite organized that yet when speaking to Sviffash.

Flandry On Scotha: Queen Gunli

Queen Gunli is from Ilria, culturally superior but technologically inferior to Frithia. Because her young knight, Jomana, was of low degree, she was married off to King Penda. Later, Jomana was killed in a raid led by Cerdic.

Gunli wants Ilrian independence and an end to war. Flandry, having caught her eye on his first audience with Penda, composes alliterative verse in the Scothan bardic form:

"'So I see you standing,
sorrowful in darkness...'"
-Poul Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2010), p. 267.

Gunli avoids the winter solstice feast because the savages get on her nerves. Flandry avoids the feast because his mere presence would cause too many fights and, indeed, there are more than usual this year. This means that she and he are alone in an alcove by a window.

"...Scothanian and human females were extremely similar in outward anatomy." (p. 258)

We must add male skills to those that Flandry deploys for the downfall of Scotha.

Flandry On Scotha: Earl Morgaar

Flandry advises Earl Morgaar, the avaricious feudal lord of the conquered planet, Zanthudia:

farm out tax-collecting - which more than doubles revenues;

when the natives respond to this by murdering tax collectors, hiding goods and making an insurrection, crush them;

when it is pointed out that this is both costly and counterproductive, then set up puppet committees, blame scapegoats and favor selected underdogs (measures which work well only when administered skilfully);

when it is pointed out that Flandry's advice enriches some Scothani but at the expense of others, then reflect that, since the prospect of gain always stirs up strife and since wealth is even now corrupting the court, it may be necessary to forestall a coup against the too-trustful King Penda...

...but approach Prince Kortan, not the ambitious Torric.

Flandry now has:

Nartheof seeking glory for himself at the expense of Cerdic and, incidentally, disposing of Nornagast;
Torric plotting to overthrow the heir, Cerdic;
Morgaar and Kortan working against Torric.

It won't be long now. But I am not happy about all that suffering and strife that Flandry instigates on Zanthudia.

Flandry On Scotha: Prince Torric

Flandry befriends and gains the confidence of the king's younger son, Prince Torric. They drink, yarn and gamble. Flandry wins.

In former times, the assembly of nobles elected each new king from among a recently deceased king's sons but this had led to civil wars so it was decided to choose a successor while the father still reigned. King Penda had pressured parliament to choose his eldest son, Cerdic, as a precedent for primogeniture.

Cerdic had then persuaded Penda that any prince but himself who had too much power might try for more. Consequently, Torric is promised only a single planetary system in the conquered Terran Empire whereas some lower ranking males expect more.

Flandry argues that it is Torric's duty to work for Scotha by becoming king. Any chieftain's power rests on his supporters. Since Penda will not live long and since Cerdic is disliked, someone else with a claim to the throne can use the remaining time to build support for himself and to win over Cerdic's supporters. Fratricide is unthinkable but retirement to the governance of a planetary system would suffice... Torric does not want to bribe Cerdic's faction but his friend can handle such matters for him...

Flandry now has both the Chief of Intelligence and Cerdic's younger brother working against Cerdic!

Flandry On Scotha: General Nartheof

Dominic Flandry advises General Nartheof, Chief of Scothan Intelligence. Flandry's first job is to convince the General that Scotha will not be ready to attack the Terran Empire for another ten or twenty years:

the Imperial Naval Intelligence Corps is better than Scotha's;

if the war is prolonged, then Intelligence will become of prime importance;

even if a Scothan victory is quick, an Imperial remnant will wage a covert struggle;

Merseia might help Scotha but will then turn against it and Ythri might intervene so Nartheof needs intelligence on both those domains as well as on Terra;

when Scothan Intelligence is reorganized, noble birth should not count in promotions and commoners who did well in the ranks might not make the best officers (the first point is made by Nartheof; the second by Flandry; both should cause dissension).

Flandry also advises on the reorganization of fellow services. According to Nartheof, Nornagast the Quartermaster is inflexible but is the king's cousin and saved his life so the king "'...cannot dismiss him without betraying honor.'" -Poul Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2010), p. 260.

Flandry's advice: Nornagast must have enemies who might include an excellent swordsman who would kill him in a duel, having made a prior arrangement with Nartheof who could immediately advise the king on Nornagast's successor while protecting the swordsman from the king's wrath. This vile suggestion from a low, dishonest, treacherous Terran is indignantly dismissed but it is enough that the suggestion has been voiced.

Acknowledging that (he has been told that) Terrans are low etc, Flandry adds that they conquered widely once and expands on the theme of the pitchfork. Warriors do not handle muck but pitchforks do and he who orders the use of a pitchfork need not think about how it is used. Having again given offense with such an indelicate comparison, Flandry offers amends by disclosing the location of a secret but unguarded Imperial arsenal. Of course, Nartheof need not tell Prince Cerdic about the arsenal but can advance his own power and glory by himself dispatching the expedition, explaining afterwards that there was no time to lose...

So far, Flandry has managed to:

delay the attack;
cause dissension in Intelligence;
initiate a plot against Nornagast;
incite Nartheof to act independently of, thus against, Cerdic;
strengthen Nartheof and gain his protection.

This process continues in subsequent conversations until Scotha is rent by civil war when the Terran Fleet arrives.

Flandry On Scotha

Having learned Frithian, the principle language of Scotha, en route, Flandry begins his subversion as soon as he is presented to King Penda. Based on Imperial experience, he advises the king to respect his subjects, for example by installing radiant heating for the benefit of visiting nobles of non-Scothan species. Glancing around the hall, he sees "...dissatisfaction on many faces..." - and also catches the eye of the queen.
-Poul Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2010), p. 258.

This is followed by carefully manipulative conversations with:

General Nartheof;
Prince Torric;
Earl Morgaar;
Queen Gunli;
Sviffash of Sithafar;
Duke Asdagar -

- and a concluding sword fight with Prince Cerdic as the Terran Navy easily overpowers the space fleets of a disintegrating realm. It will be instructive to analyze these conversations. However, my present destination is the realm of the Lord Morpheus.

Tiger By The Tail

Dominic Flandry recognizes a pattern in Terrestrial and interstellar history: a people who learn from, and maybe even overcome, a technologically superior culture imported by explorers, traders or missionaries. Natives can even move from an Iron Age to modern industry. Resources can be exchanged for education and equipment. Newly trained scientists and engineers with their automated machinery can coexist with peasants whose rulers might not want them educated.

The Scothani, taught by others - possibly Merseians wanting to see Terra challenged -, overran the Alarri some of whom then attacked the Terran Empire, hoping that it would buy peace. Instead, the Navy smashed and scattered the invading fleets at the Battle of Mirzan when Flandry was a boy. That Battle should be in the Chronology of Technic Civilization.

The Scothani build a sizable empire (see here) unknown to Terra, then make the mistake of kidnapping Dominic Flandry for his information and advice.