Happy Endings, Neat Resolutions

Poul Anderson's "Wingless," originally "Wingless on Avalon," exactly twelve pages in length, was written for a boys' magazine. The companion piece, "Rescue on Avalon," exactly fourteen pages in length, was written for a juvenile anthology. Word count and economy of writing were clearly central issues. Neither story features any characters in common with the rest of Anderson's Technic History.

Each covers a major early stage in the colonization of Avalon:

settlement of the islands and preparation for the move to the continent;
early days on the continent - allocation of territories and learning to cope with the violent weather.

Each tells a personal story that encapsulates what the joint colony is about:

Nathaniel Falkayn cannot fly without a gravbelt but can swim and therefore can rescue an Ythrian whose wing is caught in atlantis weed when his boat has been wrecked on a reef - Nat no longer feels inferior;

Jack Birnam, allergic to Ythrians and also resentful that they have been allocated his beloved Andromeda Mountains, must approach and handle Ayan to save his life - but now Ayan welcomes Jack and his guests to roam the Andromedas at any time and Ayan's choth will pay to cure Jack's allergy.

Settling Avalon II

Nat Falkayn grows up in Chartertown on one of the human-colonized Hesperian Islands of the planet Avalon, where he is taught the Planha language. This includes both words and bodily signs although a human being cannot reproduce the latter. When, occasionally, an Ythrian is a dinner guest at the house of Nat's grandfather, David, or his father, Nicholas, the conversation is usually in Planha, not in Anglic, which encourages Nat to learn the Ythrians' language. This becomes helpful when the Weathermaker Choth invites him for Freedom Week.

Nicholas says that, in Nat's generation, the two species must come to know each other well. Three hundred years later, the Governor of Sector Pacis still refers to the biracial culture as being created on Avalon. More centuries after that, Dominic Flandry says that intelligent races will survive the Empire and will "'...build fascinating new civilizations...'" (Flandry's Legacy, p. 75), adding that mixed species cultures, like the one on Avalon, "...look especially promising." What others are there?

What we need is a post-Imperial novel set in an interstellar civilization led by Avalon and other multi-species planets. Nicholas Falkayn, Governor Saracoglu and Dominic Flandry point towards such a future but it remains just out of our reach.

Settling Avalon

When human beings and Ythrians have colonized the Hesperian Islands on Avalon, "...the chief abode of the allied folk..." (Rise Of The Terran Empire, p. 296) is called Trauvay or Wingland. (The former is also the name of the High Wyvan of Ythri centuries later at the time of the Terran War.)

Trauvay/Wingland is the site of the headquarters of a research and development team for the joint colonization of the northern continent, Corona. Nicholas Falkayn, son of the Founder, attends as an engineer, accompanied by his family because the team will meet for many Morganan months. Thus, his son, Nat Falkayn (seventeen Avalonian years old, twelve Terran) meets many young Ythrians and the scene is set for a short story originally published in Boy's Life - an excellent addition to Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization.

A Mixed Ecology

Poul Anderson conveys the richness of the Avalonian environment with detailed descriptions of what can be seen from particular vantage points. From a balcony of the tower of the Weathermaker Choth, Nat Falkayn sees, first, the imported organisms:

meadows full of grazing meat animals brought from Ythri;

Terrestrial grass, clover, oak and pine;

Ythrian starbell, wry, braidbark and copperwood -

- then, beyond the cultivated area, native Avalonian organisms:

the red mat of susin;
intensely green chasuble bushes;
delicately blue janie;
a flock of leather-winged draculas.

Susin must be the local equivalent of grass, surface-covering vegetation that can be cropped down to ground level without being killed. Anderson always describes this on each colonized planet.

Again, the view from a hospital window displays the mixed ecology:

"...a lawn and tall trees - Avalonian king's-crown, Ythrian windnest, Earthly oak - and a distant view of snowpeaks. Light spilled from heaven. The air sang."
-Poul Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2012), p. 321.

These are the moments to be savored in Anderson's works. There are many such passages, to be found when rereading since they are usually forgotten soon after a single reading.

(Ythrian hammerbranch has found its way to Aeneas: see here.)

Families And Choths On Avalon II

Ythrians throughout their Domain, including on Avalon, which has a majority human population, self-organize in choths which differ in size and traditions:

"...whether they be roughly analogous to clans, tribes, baronies, religious communes, republics, or whatever, [mainland choths] counted their numbers in the thousands at least. In Oronesia there were single households which bore the name; grown and married, the younger children were expected to found new, independent societies."
-Poul Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2012), p. 464.

Oronesia, a line of drowned peaks rising above the ocean's surface, is a haven for human or Ythrian eccentrics, each of whom has been able to colonize one or just a few small islands, hence the small choths. But, by contrast, the numerous fisher folk of the Highsky Choth occupy a long stretch of the Oronesian archipelago.

The most basic Ythrian social unit is the family, each requiring fiercely guarded territory for hunting or herding. The family of Lythran and Blawsa occupies a compound on a plateau of Mount Fairview. Senior family members and their children live in an old stone tower whereas the unwed, retainers and their kin live in lower wooden buildings with amberdragon and starbells growing on their sod roofs. The family belongs to Stormgate Choth.

Three centuries earlier, when the colonists had settled Avalonian archipelagos though not yet the Coronan continent, the Weathermaker Choth was described as an "...extended household..." (p. 297) with "...the core families..." housed in a "...tall stone tower..." (p. 297), above wooden buildings. This suggests two different kinds of choths. In Weathermaker, families share a tower. In Stormgate, they do not. But, by the time we read about Stormgate, an entire continent has been settled by the two species.

We are told somewhere, although I can't find it, that some choths are identified with a particular territory but others not. Wyvans (public officials/judges) are elected in each choth and also in each Khruath, a regular, regional fully democratic meeting that can be attended by every free adult in the given territory, regardless of choth. For the Great Khruath of Avalon, a computer-equipped staff filters questions and comments from two million enfranchised adults, including human choth-members, and, after only six hours, 83 percent vote in favor of continued resistance to Imperial Terra.

Wingless

Winged and feathered Ythrians fly but cannot swim. Their understanding of air movements enables them to construct efficient sailboats. (Self-adjusting curved boards replace keel and centerboard to increase speed but I do not understand the technicalities.) However, when one immaturely handled boat is wrecked on a reef and atlantis weed entangles a sailor's wing, a human being must enter the water to free the wing. Then, that young man on his gravbelt and another Ythrian are able to pull their injured companion free.

The moral of the story:

"'I have learned how good it is that strengths be different, so that they can be shared.'
"'Well, yes, sure. Wasn't that the whole idea behind this colony?'"
-Poul Anderson, "Wingless" IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2011), pp. 295-306 AT p. 306.

Nat Falkayn, the rescuer, is seventeen Avalonian, twelve Terran, years old. We have seen four generations of Falkayns:

Athena
David
Nicholas
Nat

Three centuries (fifteen generations?) later, we see Tabitha, who is a direct descendant of David. Thereafter, the action of the History moves away from Avalon but Dominic Flandry, anticipating the Long Night after the Terran Empire, comments:

"'The sophont races will survive. In due course, they'll build fascinating new civilizations. Cultures of mixed species look especially promising. Consider Avalon already.'"
-Poul Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (New York, 2012), p. 75.

So a colony founded in anticipation of the fall of the Solar Commonwealth still offers hope to someone anticipating the fall of the Empire that had replaced the Commonwealth. Is Falkayn's legacy greater than Flandry's?