Between Books II

(The Peshawar Club.)

I have been doing "blog maintenance," which improves earlier posts but does not add any new ones. It will also take some time to complete the job.

Meanwhile, maybe the next Poul Anderson volume to be reread should be The Demon Of Scattery? It describes events post-Mother Of Kings and is narrated during The Broken Sword. Thus, these three Viking volumes are set centuries after War Of The Gods and Hrolf Kraki's Saga but before The Last Viking Trilogy.

SM Stirling's The Stone Dogs cannot arrive tomorrow because there is no post on Sunday. Stirling's The Peshawar Lancers is extremely enjoyable to reread but I am determined not to google every unfamiliar word like sambhur. There are too many of them, in any case.

In ...Lancers, the King estate has a church, a temple, a mosque and a gurdwara and the Kings' business agent in Delhi is a Jew. Admirable pluralism, also to be found in Anderson's Terran Empire although not in its rival imperium, the Merseian Roidhunate. In Europe right now, terrorist fanatics are trying to destroy our pluralism and start a race war. These are bad times.

Between Books

Today I have been otherwise engaged. I have finished rereading Poul Anderson's Mother Of Kings and have not yet received SM Stirling's The Stone Dogs. As noted here, I am rereading certain passages of Stirling's The Peshawar Lancers (New York, 2002) in search of a reference to Krishna.

I note Stirling's rich vocabulary, e.g.:

"...the shade [the trees] cast was densely umbrageous..."
-Chapter Seven, p. 109.

I have read this novel twice before but do not remember noticing this word. But I do remember that I had to stop googling unfamiliar terminology because that was interfering with reading the text.

I also notice a slight contradiction? Narayan Singh tells his father, Ranjit, that Athelstane King is well, then whispers:

"And he is with me, disguised..." (p. 112)

At the bottom of the following page, Ranjit responds:

"'I will say that two friends of yours have come to visit...'" (p. 113)

King and Narayan are indeed accompanied by one other man but Narayan had not yet told Ranjit that.

It is a pleasure to reread this novel, a summit of alternative history fiction.

Taking Stock

Eirik Blood-ax and Gunnhild had eight sons and one daughter. By the end of Poul Anderson's Mother Of Kings, of these eleven family members, only three survive: sons, Ragnford and Gudrod, and daughter, Ragnhild. Eirik and six sons have died in fruitless violence. Gunnhild has expended all her energy trying to help Eirik, then their sons, to conquer and keep a kingdom.

Ragnhild has murdered two husbands and outlived a third and is shunned. According to the author's Afterword, Ragnford is not heard of again after a battle described in the book and Gudrod was later killed trying to reconquer Norway.

"'Now they were all dead, the sons of Eirik and Gunnhild,' wrote Snorri."
-Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003), Afterword, pp. 593-597 AT p. 597.

They not only set out to kill, conquer and rule but also did it in a way that made them few friends and many enemies, almost guaranteeing their failure, and also failed to learn anything from this experience - an object lesson in futility.

Death

Gunnhild is dying:

"She was bound she knew not where, to a meeting with she knew not what.
"Folk believed they did. But why then were their beliefs not the same?"
-Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003), Book Six, Chapter XXXII, p. 590.

An excellent question and one that makes me very skeptical about any claimed certainty even that there is a hereafter.

She sees:

"The Man on the Gallows, the Man on the Cross, the Man with the Drum. All had she known, but never altogether." (ibid.)

Odinism, Christianity, shamanism. She had tried to understand Christianity but failed because it did not support her dynastic ambition.

She hears waves:

"...their rushing rose to a roar. That song would go on till the ending of the world." (ibid.)

Earth abides.

"She had lost everything, she thought; yet in a way she had won everything, she who wrought mightily and never yielded. Men would remember her and her man." (pp. 590-591)

Merely to be remembered? That has to be the most immature goal imaginable. See here.

"Her strength ebbed into the wind." (p. 591)

- returning to the elements from which we arise.

Haakon In Hladi

"Haakon made great offerings. Blood streamed; flesh seethed; hlaut-staves reddened halidom and throng. Ale went down [throats] in rivers."
-Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003), Book Six, Chapter XXIX, p. 576.

Although Haakon's enemy, Ragnfrod, is Christian, Haakon refers to him as "...the son of Witch-Gunnhild..." (p. 577)

Outside his hall, Haakon sees white snow, leaden sky and glimmering fjord, feels barely cold air and hears "...no whisper of wind." (ibid.) What? Only two senses appealed to? Of course not:

"A few gulls mewed... Now and then a crow cawed, a lonesome noise quickly lost." (ibid.)

Although even silence is in a sense heard, especially if it is noticed.

Haakon enters a cote, decorated with "...the carven sign of the blood-knot...," (ibid.) and prays devoutly before an image of Thordgerd Shrine-bride, offering her a temple designed like a church if she helps him to keep Norway. He prostrates himself like a Christian. Religious practices influence each other. (A Jewish man showing a group of students around a synagogue compared a rabbi holding up the Torah scroll for the congregation to see to a priest elevating the Host.)

Gunnhild And Ragnhild

"A skuta bucked its way around the headland and inward to the mole."
-Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003), Book Six, Chapter XXVIII, p. 573.

Point of view becomes unclear in this chapter. Gunnhild, staying with her daughter, Ragnhild, invites visitors inside for hospitality.

"Ragnhild pinched her lips together, irked. 'Yes, of course.' As the lady of the house, she should have made the offer, But she hadn't thought of it. How much else had she lost in her years alone?" (p. 574)
(Grammatical error in the text.)

Either Ragnhild feels irked, realizes that she herself should have made the offer but hadn't thought of it and wonders how much else she has lost or Gunnhild sees that Ragnhild looks irked, realizes that Ragnhild should have made the offer and wonders how much else Ragnhild has lost.

Ragnhild's brother addresses a remark only to Gunnhild:

"Ragnhild marked that. Gunnhild saw her inwardly withdraw..." (p. 575)

Are we being told that "Ragnhild marked that..." or that Gunnhild saw that Ragnhild marked that? The next sentence at last clarifies that this passage is narrated from Gunnhild's point of view.

Haugh And Norn

"...a horse or two, now at graze in a haugh..."
-Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003), Book Six, Chapter XXIV, p. 557.

(A new word to me.)

Gunnhild's daughter, Ragnhild, is widowed and shunned, suspected of murdering one or even two of her three husbands. She passes her days weaving unique and uncanny tapestries showing:

Sigurd killing and being killed;
Odin and Fenris Wolf;
Thor and Jormungand;
Frey and Surt;
Heimdall and Loki.

All but the first of these are individual fights at the Ragnarok. Thus, Ragnhild does not offer to the gods but weaves their doom. The following conclusion is my interpretation but probably not the author's intention: Ragnhild is the incarnation of a norn.

Latter Days

The last time Queen Gunnhild walks and talks with her son Harald, Poul Anderson describes a "...boundless blue..." sky, clouds, mist, green growth, trees, footfalls, birdcalls "...and a lark high overhead."
-Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003), Book Six, Chapter XVIII, p. 536.

We look for at least one more sense and find it in the last sentence of quite a long descriptive paragraph:

"Thyme lent a slight sharpness to sweet earth-smells." (p. 537)

Later, because of Harald's ill-advised and ill-fated expedition, Gunnhild and her two surviving sons must go into exile in the Orkneys for the third time and the pathetic fallacy returns:

"The wind howled louder. Rain roared. A burst of hail rattled over shingles and timber. This was the first bad weather in a mild and bountiful summer. It was as if the land were casting them out."
-Chapter XXII, p. 552.

Or is it fully the pathetic fallacy when the author points it out instead of leaving it to the reader to notice it?

"...folk streamed to welcome Harald Grenska and join his host...the North had risen on behalf of its Jarl..."
-Chapter XXII, p. 550.

Despite this overwhelming popular vote of no confidence, Gunnhild's sons plan long term to reconquer Norway. I would be ashamed to assert my right to rule after such a decisive rejection.

Gunnhild prays for a sign. If if is from Christ, then she will suppress paganism. If it is from Odin, then she will burn churches. If it is from the elements, then she will go easier on the Finns. It is to be hoped that the gods and powers unite to reply, "No sign."

Ysan Inns

The murderous inter-dynastic deceit in Poul Anderson's Mother Of Kings approaches a crescendo. Haakon Jarl plans to kill Gold-Harald Knutson who plans to kill Harald Eiriksson who is sailing into a trap of the kind devised for Tryggvi Olafsson by Gudrod Eiriksson: the consequences of their own actions.

I seek temporary respite in the intriguing inns of Poul and Karen Anderson's uncanny city of Ys. See:

In An Ysan Inn
Time Passes
Inns In Ys
More Details About Ys
Epona's Horse
Appreciating Details

There may be more about Ysan inns and, of course, there is a lot about Ys, sadly inundated centuries before the events of Mother Of Kings.

Die By The Sword II

Queen Gunnhild had a husband, eight sons and one daughter. The daughter committed multiple murders. I have reread the novel, Mother Of Kings, to a point near the end where, so far, Gunnhild's husband and five of her sons have died violently yet the only lesson learned as yet is how to conspire more deviously and effectively against rival claimants to kingship in Norway. The possible inference that their chosen life-style causes their premature deaths remains a closed book.

Gunnhild will be satisfied if an heir of one of her sons rules as sole king in Norway, yet the family's entire policy and strategy ensures maximum resistance from many others to any such outcome. Not only are there rival claimants. There is also popular outrage which finally overcame Sigurd. See here and here. Guests must be entertained lavishly to prevent them from seeing that it is a continual struggle to sustain the larders that are filled only by oppression and plunder.

Having read the book only once before, I cannot remember the details of the ending so will continue to reread with interest although the endless round of dynastic conflict does become tedious. Poul Anderson, in his narration, continues to show us the beauty of nature that lies open to all - which, if they could see it, is the answer to all of the characters' problems.

Gunnhild And Hrolf Kraki

Hrolf Kraki's Saga is a retold saga full of Norse gods, heroes and the supernatural whereas Mother Of Kings is a biographical historical novel with a fantasy element recognizing the title character's role and reputation as a witch but with only two appearances by a single supernatural being: heroic fantasy as against historical fiction. Hrolf and the other leading characters in his saga are heroes; Gunnhild, Mother of Kings, is a villainness unopposed by any hero.

Without time to post at length this morning, I invite blog readers to reread earlier posts on both works and to appreciate the diversity of Poul Anderson's works even when the common theme is the retelling of Northern legends.

Thor- V And Latter Days

There is an incidental character called "Thorgils" and the story concerning him shows that Gunnhild is indeed old. See Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003), Book Six, Chapter XI, p. 516.

Gunnhild:

acting psychically at a distance, moves a viking to attack the ship carrying the widow and young son of a king murdered by her son, Gudrod;

loses another son when Sigurd is killed by the hersir whose wife he raped;

is glad to hear that her enemy, Egil, has lost a son;

must satisfy the priest enough to avoid excommunication;

tries to bargain with Christ and his Mother;

must finally have her dishonest servant, Kisping, killed;

continues to seek the death of Haakon Jarl whom she had falsely befriended.

The sooner this story tale comes to an end the better!

Thor- IV

"One day, making his rounds in Hordaland, [King Sigurd Eiriksson] came to the dwelling of the hersir Klypp Thordarson. For this while, the weather had turned lovely. Light flooded from an utterly blue sky. Breezes drifted warm, laden with smells of the greenwood that decked the hills around. Though grain stood sparse in the fields, a lark sang above them and everywhere else wildfowl flew by or called from among the trees."
-Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003), Book Six, Chapter IV, p. 480.

Here we have one more Thor- name, "Thordar," and four of the senses:

light from the blue sky;
warm breezes;
smells of growth;
birdsong.

A beautiful setting for a friendly visit - except that, in Klypp's absence, Sigurd rapes his wife. The Eirikssons are villains unopposed by any hero. Anderson faithfully recounts the history of kingship. They consume wealth and are generous hosts who reward their followers but the wealth is gained by forcing yeomen to pay scot and by going in viking. Even then, we are told that feasting is less than it should be because larders are low. (Chapter II, p. 477) The Eiriksson's only solution to low larders is more fighting and killing, sometimes the treacherous murder of those who have come in peace. These are not heroic or just rulers like some of Poul Anderson's other characters. Their generosity surely rings very hollow.

"My Croft"

There is a Sherlockian reference in Poul Anderson's Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003). Gunnhild thinks of her new dwelling as:

"'My croft...'"
-Book Six, Chapter II, p. 475.

This might just possibly have been a verbal coincidence. However, the Sherlockian connotation is confirmed when we read the rest of the paragraph:

"'My croft,' she sometimes named it to herself, wryly when she thought how in it or in the one at Byfjord she sowed what seed she could and how often she was the Norse kingship." (ibid.)

"Croft" is relevant to sowing seed. "My croft..." is relevant to being the government, as Sherlockians will recognize. See also here.

Meanwhile, Gunnhild does not set out to kill a newly born boy, just to force the boy's mother to accept that he will be fostered by an appointee of her husband's murderers! The mother refuses and it is to be hoped that she remains successful in her defiance of the Eirikssons.

The following passage is noteworthy for two reasons:

"It was a day of blue sky and white clouds. Waves danced, glittered, chuckled. The bright-striped sail drew taut, the masthead pennon fluttered like a wing, and the ship stood out to sea, bearing away Gunnhild's last breath of youth."
-Book Five, Chapter XV, p. 463.

Of course there is some beautiful natural description of the sort that, in Anderson's prose, is as frequent as punctuation. But there is also a theme of the novel - and of any biographical novel. Gunnhild, who was a girl in Book One, Chapter I, is growing old.

Two Springs

"Spring and the wanderbirds came back; darkness dwindled; snow and ice thawed away into rushing streams; buds opened; grass sprouted; a tender green lay everywhere over the land."
-Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003), Book Five, Chapter XII, p. 451.

"Raw winds and sleety rain brought in the springtime."
-Chapter XV, p. 459.

I honestly find Anderson's ever-fresh descriptions of seasonal changes more interesting than Gunnhild's malicious machinations. Not content with her sons' murders of Kings Gudrod Bjarnarson and Tryggvi Olafsson, she now hunts down Gudrod's young son and Tryggvi's pregnant wife! Gunnhild's maternal love for her own offspring has been completely perverted when it leads her to seek the death of another woman's as yet unborn son or daughter.

Taoist saying: "Two sages can share a blanket. Two Emperors cannot share a kingdom."

This and "Earth abides" seem to be the two messages of Mother Of Kings.

Gods At War

There was a time before the questions, "What gods are worshiped?" and "What gods exist?" had been differentiated. Now, if I say that Rama is worshiped in some Indian provinces and Krishna in others, I am not taken to mean that either god exists. If I do believe that, then I will have to add it. But, originally, why should the questions have been differentiated? All that a traveler wanted to know was which gods he needed to avoid offending in each new territory.

Voluspa (and see here) was a poem with a single author, not, as I like to think of it, one book in a Norse Pagan canon. Nevertheless, it expressed what some people believed. The gods would meet their doom but would not first be challenged by a solo god. Gunnhild sounds as if she believes that the old gods and the single new god literally coexist:

"Gunnhild wondered whether the gods were fighting for their hold on man or for their very lives.
"Victorious everywhere this side of the Moors and Arabs, Christ had now driven them from Denmark, and still he pressed on eastward. Yes, at his back they lingered in the Western Isles and Iceland; but once the motherland fell, or even before, those outposts too would be lost. As yet, the Goths knew little of him and the Swedes less. But he could leave such folk in their hallowed shaws at their bloody altar stones while he outflanked them through Norway. Let him take that fastness and the rest of the North would lie open. Already he had won footholds.
"The gods fought back, with weather and worshippers for weapons. They had brought him to a standstill. How long could this last? If Christ was almighty, why did his warriors sweep everything before him?"
-Poul Anderson, Mother Of Gods (New York, 2003), Book Five, Chapter IX, pp. 438-439.

Omnipotence would be not quantitatively but qualitatively different from very great power. Resistance to the latter is difficult; to the former, impossible. However, omnipotence would have no need to oppress or exploit. Thus, resistance to it would be in any case unnecessary. If omnipotence sustained the existence of everything else, then fighting it would be as impossible and unnecessary as fighting the air that we breathe or the spatiotemporal framework within which we exist. And, as the source of everything other than itself, omnipotence would be the source even of the thought of opposing it.

Meanwhile, I like Gunnhild's ideas of Christ outflanking the gods through Norway while they bring him to a temporary standstill.

Blog Maintenance

I have been giving some time to blog maintenance: scanning 2012 posts, correcting grammar and spelling and adding useful links, which I did not originally know how to do. Blogging is a novel writing medium in which we can self-publish, write as much or as little as we want and endlessly self-refer with each reference, in the form of a link, taking the reader directly to the post referred to. I made one sequence of links circular although I do not expect anyone to find it.

I realize that:

the task seems endless;
I have written far more about Poul Anderson's works than I can possibly remember;
the blog is always a work in progress, even some of the parts already written.

That said, I will now read a little more of the diabolical machinations in Mother Of Kings and possibly post about them again this evening.

Too Many Kings

"[Gunnhild] would gather [her five sons] together and show them what must be done. The grumbles of the yeomen had some truth. There were too many kings in Norway."
-Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003), Book Five, Chapter XI, p. 451.

What? Will Gunnhild advise her sons to curtail their royal privileges and prerogatives? Or four to stand down in favor of one? Will she heck as like! She will advise them to murder two other kings.

Despite her friendly diplomacy with Haakon Jarl, Gunnhild now suspects Haakon of conspiring with King Tryggvi Olafsson and King Gudrod Bjarnarson. Consequently, her son Gudrod invites King Tryggvi to discuss sharing a viking cruise, then has Tryggvi and his followers killed. Also, her son Harald attacks King Gudrod, killing him and many of his followers. This joint enterprise is enough to reconcile Harald and Gudrod, despite recent hard feeling (!), and enables them to join forces to conquer the whole Vikin area. Well, that is one way to solve the problem of too many kings. Another way would be a popular uprising to overthrow all of them.

Thor- III

See Thor- II.

Poul Anderson's Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003), Book Five, Chapter XI, p. 448 gives us two more Thor- names, not included in the Dramatis Personae, which does inform us, on p. 599, that:

"Minor or incidental characters are omitted."

In Iceland, Thord the Bull fosters Olaf Hoskuldarson and Thorbjorn marries Olaf's mother.

I cannot bring myself to care whether the Eirikssons retain their kingships in Norway. However, the text of the novel is encyclopedic. We learn about tenth century Northern Europe while gaining an over-arching impression of the seasons turning while men scheme and fight.

We see mythology in the melting pot in the creative mind of Gunnhild who wonders:

"Could the heathen be right? They would have been willing enough to set Christ in Aasgard and offer to him as they did to the rest. Might he be akin to the gods but bent on their overthrow - another Loki?"
- Book Five, Chapter IX, p. 439.

If history had gone differently, then mythology and theology would also have gone differently, as Anderson shows in "Star of the Sea."

Uncommon Insights

Gunnhild wonders:

"'Angels or Aesir...I wonder if they don't wage their war, not in the sky, but in our souls.'"
-Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003), Book Five, Chapter X, p. 444.

They do.

Haakon Jarl replies:

"'It's useless for us on earth to ask, I'd say.'" (ibid.)

Not useless, but there is always more than we know. Wittgenstein said that the important questions are the ones we cannot answer.

(Did I mention my encounter - not a physical meeting - with Wittgenstein? I read his letters to a friend. In one, he wrote, "I am afraid that the Devil will come to take me away." I thought, "This is Wittgenstein. He does not mean that literally." The very next sentence was: "(I mean this quite literally.)")

Earlier, Gunnhild had reflected on Christ driving the gods out of country after country, like a military campaign. (pp. 438-439) They:

"...fought back, with weather and worshippers for weapons. They had brought him to a standstill." (p. 438)

That contrasts with her insight about the inner struggle.

Haakon tells her of:

"...Men who saw their own fetches, knew they were fey, and soon died." (p. 445)

I had not come across that meaning of "fey" before.

See also here.

Addendum, 12 Nov 2015: I did mention Wittgenstein. See here.