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.)

A Hero Of Technic Civilization

(My copy of Multiverse has been dispatched and should arrive on 9 July.)

John Birnam, appearing only in the fourteen page juvenile short story, "Rescue on Avalon," is allergic to Ythrians and resents the granting of his beloved Andromeda Mountains to the Ythrian colonists on Avalon by a joint decision of the two planetary authorities, the Parliament of Man and the Great Khruath. However, despite suffering greatly from his allergy, Jack saves the life of the injured Wyvan of Stormgate Choth.

Consequently, Stormgate will pay for a cure for his allergy. Further, Jack and any guests of his will always be welcome in the Andromedas, called by the Ythrians the Weathermother - a heartwarming story of differences transcended and of enmity overcome, especially since the following story in the History of Technic Civilization is of Gorzuni raiding Earth for slaves, of a ship load of those slaves slaying their captors and of that liberated ship then bombarding Gorzun.

Human beings and Ythrians share Avalon but must later fight the Empire that was founded by the leader of those escaped slaves.

Families And Choths On Avalon

The Holms went to Avalon with Falkayn and a Holm later married a Falkayn so what had happened in between? David Falkayn, the Founder of the Avalonian colony, went there with his wife Coya and their son Nicholas who was born on Earth and named after David's employer/Coya's grandfather. Nicholas' son, Nat, was born on Avalon.

Later, one Ivar Holm works at Andromeda (Mountain) Rescue Station when the current Wyvan of the Stormgate Choth, injured in a storm, needs to be rescued. Later again, Daniel Holm is a Marchwarden while his son, Christopher, joins Stormgate Choth and marries Tabitha Falkayn, a direct descendant of David and a member of Highsky Choth.

Tabitha is the third generation of her family in Highsky. When her parents were lost at sea, an Ythrian family adopted her and encouraged her to take a wandertime in accordance with Highsky custom so she has been a huntress, trapper, sailor, prospector and gambler in human country. Living entirely among Ythrians in the Oronesian islands, she runs a commercial fishery in partnership with Draun, an Ythrian of the Old Faith.

Emil Dalmady from Altai was employed, then funded as an entrepreneur, by Nicholas van Rijn. Some of his children moved to Avalon with Falkayn and one of them, Judith Lundgren, wrote historical fiction which was published in the periodical, Morgana (named after the Avalonian moon) and later collected in The Earth Book Of Stormgate.

One of the most progressive Avalonian choths is Mistwood, embracing human technology, therefore large and prosperous. Ferune, Wyvan of Mistwood, is succeeded as First Marchwarden of Avalon by Daniel Holm. Another choth is The Tarns and Liaw of that choth is Wyvan of the High Khruath. And that is as much as I can find about families and choths on Avalon.