Superheroes

See here. Poul Anderson did not write superheroes but easily could have done. They exist in prose as well as in comic strips and on screen. The first superhero was an extraterrestrial, therefore an sf character. Pseudo-scientific rationales can be concocted for superpowers. The psychic time travel in Anderson's There Will Be Time is a superpower. His characters, Joel Weatherfield and the Danellians, are super-human beings with sf explanations, extraterrestrial and extra-temporal, respectively.

"Superheroes" as a hybrid genre also presents magical and supernatural explanations for superpowers but Anderson did all that as well. He wrote fantasies featuring Conan, Norse gods and other supernatural beings.

I have said all or most of this before. These current reflections are prompted by concurrently reading David Lagercrant's The Girl In The Spider's Web which ingeniously incorporates Marvel Comics superheroes as fictions within the fiction. Our heroine is not super-powered but has been inspired to develop her human talents to a super-normal level by reading these characters while suffering injustice - a classic superhero "origin story."

Poul Anderson turned his hand to many kinds of work, including original stories about characters created by other authors. Isabel Allende wrote a Zorro novel and I wish that Anderson had written a Superman novel.

Mithras And The Bull

What do we know about Mithras and the Bull? Our sources are:

(i) The Three BC (Conan The Rebel, The Dancer From Atlantis and The Golden Slave);

(ii) The Time Patrol;

(iii) Ys.

(i) Mitra of the Sun is active in Conan The Rebel. The Dancer from Atlantis, a contemporary of Theseus and the Minotaur, dances with bulls. In The Golden Slave (New York, 1980), the Cimbri throw bulls at the spring rites. Phryne, the educated Greek slave, calls Eodan of the Cimbri, "Another Theseus!" (p. 36)

The conquering Cimbri travel with a great Bull idol, "...who was also in some way Moon and Sun...," in a wagon (pp. 15, 214). King Mithradates of Pontus, a Mithraist, wonders whether:

" '...the Bull in whose sign you wandered the world was the same that bleeds upon the altars of the Mystery?'" (p. 206)

(ii) In The Time Patrol (New York, 1991), the street cries of ancient Persia include:

" 'Alms, for the love of Light! Alms, and Mithras will smile upon you!...' " (p. 42)

"...the sign of the cross...was a Mithraic sun-symbol..." (p. 48)

In Cyrus' palace, a Time Patrolman looks up:

"Overhead he saw a painted roof, where a youth killed a bull, and the Bull was the Sun and the Man." (p. 56)

(iii) King Gratillonius of Ys, a Mithraist, sacrifices a white bull.

Christianity won the battle of ideas with Mithraism because it admitted women and replaced a sacrificial animal with bread and wine. There is still blood on the altar but sacramentally.

(I said in an earlier post that The Golden Slave shifted from Eodan's point of view to Phryne's for the first time in Chapter XIII but it had already done so in Chapter III. I need readers to point out mistakes.)

Conan And Marius

There are some similarities between these characters but also what a contrast! Both were fearsome soldiers and neither was created by Poul Anderson. Conan was an already established fantasy hero. Marius was a really existent historical figure.

Conan is the central character of a novel whereas Marius is discussed by characters in a novel and a short story. Marius, good at soldiering and at nothing else, made the mistake of going into politics and causing chaos whereas Conan, disliking states, preferring barbarism to civilisation, had the good sense to stay with what he was good at. I understand that later in this multi-authored series Conan does become a king but I imagine that this involves one-man rule of a small kingdom with popular assent, a very different proposition from electoral office and power politics in the growing, soon to be imperial, Roman state.

Marius, a general, rallied Romans and annihilated barbarian invaders. Conan, a barbarian, inspired rebels who annihilated imperial invaders. Conan also performed the cinematic feat of swinging on a rope to attack his enemies from behind. Only in Poul Anderson's works is it possible to read both an assessment of the historical Marius' military and political careers and an addition to the fictitious Conan's military exploits.

Prophecy

I think we expect that, if a man is to fulfill a prophecy, then the tasks necessary for the fulfillment of that prophecy are going be the major work of his life. In Conan's universe, it is all in a day's work, almost. In Poul Anderson's Conan The Rebel (New York, 1981), it has been prophesied that a legendary weapon, the Ax of Varanghi, will lie hidden for five hundred years but will then be wielded by a Northerner leading the liberation of the Taian people.

As soon as Conan arrives in Taia, it is revealed in a trance before the altar to a priest of the Taian god, Mitra of the Sun, that Conan is to be the Wielder. Conan himself protests that he has been a rover, barbarian adventurer, thief, bandit and pirate. Here, he refers to his exploits in previous volumes and even to earlier events in the current volume. The priest adds that, if he lives, Conan will also be a king, thus referring to events in later volumes. None of this matters. At this stage only, it is his sacred duty to wield the Ax.

Swearing by his own god, Crom, he accepts, expecting "...a glorious fight..." (p. 149) Next, he must undertake a Quest for the Ax which is guarded by monsters. Needless to say, the Quest is successful.

Some practical considerations are allowed to intervene. The militarily experienced Conan does wonder how mere possession of a single weapon is meant to guarantee victory. Might it not lead instead to overconfidence and defeat? On the other hand, the mere word that the Wielder will lead an army ensures that:

"From end to end of the country, boy, man, hale grandsire, strong maiden took weapons..." (pp. 189-190).

The Ax is so effective that it fills him with confidence. When, on the battlefield, he is incapacitated by magic, there is a danger that his army will bolt but, when his friends have eliminated the threat to Conan himself, there is no stopping them. Immediately after the victory, he surrenders the Ax to the Taian leader and it passes from him forever. As I said, all in a day's work.

At the very end of the novel, Conan tells a friend that everything he did was for Belit, the woman he is with at least in this novel; I do not know about the others. He does not mention Crom, let alone Mitra who had sent the Ax.

The Three BC

I have reread The Dancer From Atlantis, am rereading Conan The Rebel and will reread The Golden Slave. These are Poul Anderson's three novels set BC:

Conan The Rebel (heroic fantasy), past events and supernatural beings;
The Dancer From Atlantis (science fiction), past events and future technology;
The Golden Slave (historical fiction), past events and the origins of myths.

Next to be reread might be the three novels set in the fourteenth century:

The Merman's Children (historical fantasy), past events and supernatural beings;
The High Crusade (science fiction), past events and extraterrestrial technology;
Rogue Sword (historical fiction), past events.

A single long novel covering these themes, except the supernatural, is:

The Boat Of A Million Years (historical fiction and science fiction): past, present and future events and a mutation.

Anderson smuggles science fiction into the past via time travel, an early alien invasion and immortality. His works give the impression of systematically covering every possible implication of an idea as if they had been preplanned with this purpose in mind.

Lists

On page 120 of Poul Anderson's Conan The Rebel (New York, 1981), Conan and his companions enter the city of Luxur. They take half a page to do so because, as he often does, Anderson describes the scene graphically with lists of details, appealing to several of the senses. In fact here there are four lists:

kinds of traffic (foot, cart, litter, chariot, horse, ox, donkey, camel);
kinds of traveler (laborers, drovers, nomads, merchants, courtesans, soldiers, hawkers, performers, housewives, children, foreigners);
travelers' activities (crowded, jostled, chattered...);
street smells (grease, dung, roast meat, oils, perfumes, drugs, humankind, beastkind).

As always, Anderson celebrates human vivacity and diversity.

He similarly describes the two cities on the colonised planet Avalon in The People Of The Wind, the town of Portolondon in "The Queen of Air and Darkness" and the lairs of the Lunarians in his Harvest of Stars tetralogy. One difference is that the Luxurian state is a static despotism whereas the Avalonians, the Lunarians and the people of Portolondon are politically and individually free and socio-economically dynamic so that in those cases there is more diversity to enumerate and celebrate. But Anderson appreciates basic humanity, whatever its context.

Fear

Siegfried and the Green Lanterns are fearless but how do they survive? Fear is a survival mechanism. Courage is not fearlessness but the ability to do what we are afraid to do.

Conan, at least in Poul Anderson's Conan The Rebel (New York, 1981), fears supernatural threats but overcomes this fear:

"Yes, Conan thought, if he must fight through graveyard horrors to regain Belit, he would." (p. 102)

In a sword and sorcery novel, "...graveyard horrors..." are real, not just imagined. Earlier in the novel, it was suggested that a civilised, literate person has less reason to fear the supernatural but surely not in a world where greater knowledge does not disprove but confirms the existence of gods, ghosts and demons - unless, of course, the mere growth of secular knowledge does weaken the influence of the supernatural entities, as is suggested in a few other works of fiction, including some by Anderson?

Ymir

In Poul Anderson's Conan The Rebel (New York, 1981), Conan exclaims, " 'Name of Ymir!' " in a context where gods are real and many. (p. 97)

Does this single phrase entail the validity of the Eddaic creation myth beginning with a chasm where interacting heat and cold caused a thawing from which emerged the first giant, Ymir, from whose body Odin, Vili and Ve made the world - sky from skull, clouds from brain, sea from blood, mountains from bones, earth from flesh, with dwarfs emerging like maggots, - then carved the first man and woman from an Ash and an Elm? Were Conan's people, the Cimmerians, the custodians of this tradition of creation?

Conan's own god is not the devious Odin but the straightforward Crom who:

"...favored, if he did not actually help, the bold." (p. 99)

What is really happening here is that Anderson, like the other writers continuing Howard's series, is free to use any terminology in this prehistoric period. Members of a dark-skinned race are described exactly like Africans but presumably are not that in this imaginary geography.

The Wingboat

In Poul Anderson's Conan The Rebel (New York, 1981), the white, metallic, fifty-foot "wingboat" does spread wings but does not fly. Instead, controlled by gestures and magic words, it skims along the surface of a river with supernatural speed, a curious combination of magic and science:

" '...the last of its kind...The magical formula of its making was lost when Acheron perished, three thousand years ago.' " (p. 45)

I do not know whether Acheron, sounding like Atlantis or Numenor, was invented by Anderson to account for this single mechanism or whether it is part of the background of the Conan series but, in either case, Conan's prehistoric world is spatio-temporally vast if casual reference can be made to a magical realm of so long ago.

Another curious mechanism is a small mirror worn by the priestess Nehekba. Touching it releases either a dark paralysing ray or a light language-imparting ray. Like the metallic boat, a mirror emitting rays sounds like technology although again its power source is magical. Conan the barbarian addresses Nehekba as he would if she did wield scientific technology. He is not, he says:

" '...as stupid as you took for given. You civilized people think that because we barbarians have no cities or books we must be a lot of dumb animals. Hell, we need our wits more than you do!' " (pp. 92-93)

Conan has fared widely, has assessed civilised countries and now speaks like a civilised man.

I have linked this novel to Anderson's The Dancer From Atlantis since both are set BC although Dancer is science fiction. Its futurian time travellers use a language-imparting device, the mentator, which, of course, is technological, transferring data between the speech centres of brains, whereas Nehekba, casting her magic spells, knows nothing of brains or their speech centres.

Prehistoric Politics

In Poul Anderson's Conan The Rebel (New York, 1981), Conan suggests that the serfs could fight, preferring freedom or death to continued servitude. He mentions not only "'...their overlords...' " but also, specifically, "'...the state...' " as oppressing them (pp. 67-68). Quite advanced political thinking for a prehistoric barbarian?

Otanis replies that " '...that would bring the end of civilisation!' " (p. 68) My reply would be, "Not necessarily," but Conan cheerfully agrees. Otanis continues that a serf rebellion would abolish learning, art and refinement for "'...those beasts of burden...' " (p. 68).

My reply to this would be that no human being is a beast and that liberation of serfs need not mean abolition of learning etc. Conan's reply is that the price of civilisation, " '...having a state...' " is "'...always...too high.' " (p. 68) Really? I do not agree with this. I prefer a civilised state to barbarism and also hope that civilisation will transcend the need for states but to say that is to take the political discussion to a later era - later than ours, not just than Conan's.

Otanis concludes, " 'Best we not discuss politics...' " (p. 68). Indeed. Conan and Otanis are characters in a sword and sorcery novel which is not the sort of text in which the issue of the state is usually discussed! Soon, Conan must return to the more straightforward business of simply fighting the agents of the local oppressive state.

Poul Anderson BC

Uniform editions of Poul Anderson's Complete Works could include a four-volume boxed set, to be entitled "Poul Anderson BC," containing three novels of different genres and one collection.

I am currently rereading the heroic fantasy Conan The Rebel (New York, 1981), the earliest in chronological order of fictitious events because set in a prehistoric civilization. The phrase, " 'Mitra, himself a warrior...,' " on page 38 recalls "'Mithra, etiam miles...' " (Mithras, also a soldier...) in Poul and Karen Anderson's King of Ys tetralogy, which would be the second boxed set.

Conan, viewed from a distance by the villain in Chapter I, first appears as viewpoint character in Chapter III but not again until Chapter VI. Anderson uses intervening Chapters to introduce characters who are specific to this novel and to establish the situation which Conan and Belit are approaching.

New characters introduced in Chapter IV include Ausar, a chieftain of the rebelling Taians, and his daughter Daris. We are told that "...he had been unhappy about her wish to fare along in his roving force...," so that here he seems to be the viewpoint character of this section of the Chapter. (p. 33) However, later in the same section, Daris "...gasped in dismay as she realized...The Stygians had kept themselves fully ready to fight..." so the narrative point of view is now hers. (p. 36) She is either knocked out or killed - we do not yet know which although we soon learn - and the next section of the Chapter returns to Ausar's point of view.

Conan fans reading this far might resent the fact that he is off-stage so much - even Chapter III is mainly Belit recounting her story to Conan - but presumably he will soon return to center stage and remain there for most of the rest of the novel? Although not interested in reading any more of the Conan series, I appreciate Anderson's ability to construct a novel in this genre and within an established series. Conan The Rebel deserves to be republished as a volume both of the Complete Anderson and of the Complete Conan.

Illustrations

A curious feature of Poul Anderson's Conan the Rebel (New York, 1981) is the illustrations by Tim Kirk, showing not scenes from the novel but items mentioned in the text:

a pirate ship;
a kraal;
a knife;
a felucca;
armour and shield;
a keep;
Conan's helmet, hauberk and shield;
a priest's mask;
a candlestick;
a "wingboat";
an iron collar with keys;
a knobkerrie;
a homunculus;
the "Ax of Varanghi";
another set of armour.

Some of these illustrations might be reproduced somewhere on the internet although I could not find them on a cursory search. Despite the absence of action scenes among the interior illustrations, the book does have some graphic front covers which I have attached here and in previous posts.

Chapter II shows two ways to manipulate a man. Jehanan has been enslaved, chained and brutalised. Now, however, the priestess promises to " '...make of him what we need...' " by other means:

" 'Let him be bathed, anointed, well clad, well dined and wined. Let him have a soft bed in a beautiful room where the air is cool and fragrant. When he has rested, I will seek him out. Presently we shall know much more.' " (p. 16)

That sounds as if it might work but I will have to read on to find out.

Military Manoeuvres

Poul Anderson often describes military conflicts. His understanding of strategy and tactics is evident in Chapter IV of Conan The Rebel (New York, 1981):

a Stygian militia marches to crush a Taian rebellion;
the militia approaches a long thin gorge of the Helu River Valley;
a Captain expects them to camp before entering the gorge because they cannot traverse it before dark and it would be a bad place to be attacked;
however, the Commander, ordered to crush the rebellion quickly, hopes that they will be attacked;
his men will then repulse the Taians and withdraw but will inflict heavier casualties than they suffer because they are better equipped and used to fighting in close ranks;
meanwhile, the Taian leader plans to attack the head of the column while some of his warriors form a row across the bank to hold off the rest, then after dark to retreat uphill where " '...yon blundering flatlanders will never dare pursue...' " and to continue harassing them on subsequent days (p. 33).

Thus, by the end of the fourth page of the Chapter, we know the plans of both sides but must read further to learn the outcome.

Conan The Rebel, Chapters I-III

Conan The Rebel (New York, 1981) is another example of Poul Anderson's versatility. In this heroic fantasy novel, he does not imaginatively create a new central character or present a previously unchronicled fictitious realm but competently contributes to an established series. Not having read any other Conan novels, I do not know how many of the geographical or other details presented here are invented for this single work. Nor do I know whether Conan had teamed up with the female pirate captain Belit at the end of the previous volume or whether we are to understand that this has occurred between volumes.

The prehistoric civilisation has a mixture of, to us, partly familiar place names, races and gods. We recognise the serpentine Set and Mitra of the Sun. The name of the river Styx half suggests that the characters are already in the underworld. (They are not but that connotation is certainly present.) In the city of Khemi at night, sacred pythons seek for prey but slither away in alarm from the sound of footsteps. Nevertheless, "...the streets after sunset held their special perils." (p. 10)

There is an intolerance uncharacteristic of polytheism:

" '...the infidels who acknowledge you not...' " (p. 2)

" 'Cursed be Mitra and the Hyborians that follow him...' " (p. 3)

We can see one way that some nations moved from polytheism towards monotheism. A temporal ruler who extended his power over several realms came to be called not just "King" but "King of Kings." Similarly, a god was flattered when his worshipers called him Lord not, e.g., of the Nile Valley but of the whole Universe. Set is addressed in this way but acknowledges that he has not yet attained that level of power:

" 'You have called me lord of the universe, but you know how many and diverse are the gods of earth, sea, sky, and underworld. You know how few of them own me their master, how few of their peoples look on me as aught but a devil.' " (p. 3)

Since Set's servant sleeps on a mattress "...stuffed with the tresses of sacrificial maidens...," let us agree that he is indeed a devil. (p. 1) He is referred to, very inappropriately, as " 'He Who Is...,' " the highest of divine titles. (p. 14)

The viewpoint character of Chapters I and II is the centuries-old Topathis, a priest in Set's temple and head of the Black Ring of magicians. Set shows him the approaching Conan and Belit as on a television screen. They do not appear in their own right until Chapter III. Before that, we learn of the preparations being made against them.

Set tells Topathis that the conflict must remain terrestrial " '...for if the great gods intervened, that could bring on the Last Strife.' " (p. 3) This recalls Odin avoiding a too early Ragnarok in Anderson's The Broken Sword and also the US and USSR backing opposite sides in local wars but avoiding Mutually Assured Destruction on the global scale - a situation that Anderson reflected in the conflict between Terrans and Merseians in his main future history series and that Star Trek also reflected with the Federation and Klingons.

In Chapter II, we learn of a hidden axe, believed to be a Mitran relic with which a leader will free a people, thus a counterpart of the magical swords in other Anderson fantasies.    

Conan The Rebel

My son-in-law used to have several Discworld books on a shelf. When visiting, I would pick a book off the shelf, read a couple of pages and put it back without getting into it. Another book that I sampled in this way was Almuric by Robert E Howard. Apart from that, I have read no Howard.

The only Conan book that I have read is Conan The Rebel by Poul Anderson. This novel is one volume both of the Conan series and of Poul Anderson's Complete Works but I have read it only for the latter reason.

Notionally, if we were to read all of Anderson's heroic fantasy, historical fantasy, historical fiction, contemporary fiction and science fiction in chronological order of fictitious events (while remembering, of course, that Andersonian time is broad and deep as well as long so that there is no single linear chronology for all his works), then we would have to start with Conan The Rebel. It is the earliest, being set in a prehistoric civilisation.

However, it is not the book that we would recommend for anyone to start reading Anderson. His heroic fantasy began with The Broken Sword, which is chronologically preceded by Poul and Karen Anderson's Ys tetralogy and by other solo Anderson works, and his sf began with Brain Wave which is contemporary, not futuristic, in setting.

Anderson very skilfully contributed to a number of series created by other authors. Having read his single Conan book only once immediately after purchasing it, I might reread it next after finishing The Dancer From Atlantis.

An Ancient Triad

Still rereading Hrolf Kraki's Saga and looking a short way forward (or rather backwards) -

If I remember it correctly, the final battle is like a mini-Ragnarok. The Danes know that they can lose, especially when supernatural evil is deployed against them, but this is where they should be. Their highest loyalty is to King Hrolf and they should be with him when it counts, whatever the outcome. "For how can man die better..." etc.

After that, the question is what to reread next. Imaginatively, I am still in Poul Anderson's pasts, not back in his futures. Before Hrolf Kraki's Dark Ages was the Fall of the Roman Empire, a period that included the flooding of the city of Ys. Set earlier than Poul and Karen Anderson's King of Ys tetralogy are three novels by Poul Anderson:

Conan The Rebel, a heroic fantasy set in a prehistoric civilisation;
The Dancer From Atlantis, a science fiction (sf) novel about time travelers in Atlantis;
The Golden Slave, a historical novel set during the Roman Republic.

These works are unconnected, in no way a trilogy, but they do happen to be three novels set in ancient times and they also represent Anderson's three genres of fantasy, sf and historical fiction.

Whenever a new Doctor Who season starts, I tell people to read the real stuff: The Time Machine; The Time Patrol; The Time Traveler's Wife. The Dancer From Atlantis is also pertinent:

a man from the future, Sahir, in a malfunctioning space-time vehicle, the anakro;

a language teaching device;

time traveling companions accidentally collected from earlier periods, wanting to return home;

Doctor Who also had a story set in Atlantis.

(Also, see here.)

I expect to reread some of these works before returning to any of Anderson's futures.