Glaciation And Great Spring

Dennitza's sun, Zoria, is brighter than Sol and Dennitza is smaller than Earth. Ultraviolet cracking reduced the oceans to covering half the surface. The day is 18.8 hours.

Less than a million years ago, Dennitza was struck either by giant meteoroids or by a shattered asteroid:

on land, impact, concussion, radiation, fire and craters;
at sea, tsunamis destroying the coasts;
in the sky, dust blocking the sun for years and clouds lasting for millennia;
at the poles, growing ice caps;
from the poles, glaciers halfway to the equator;
in the biosphere, mass extinctions, including of a tool-making species, then new forms, hardy or contentious;
later, clearing skies and melting glaciers;
then, storms, floods, more extinctions, migrations, ecological changes and rising sea levels;
meanwhile, human colonists building coastal towns destroyed by rising seas and a capital city in the middle of a large astrobleme.

Note: many interesting and dramatic events occurred before humanity arrived.

At The Moment Of Death

Poul Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (New York, 2012).

While Kossara Vymezal holds the dying Trohdwyr, she manages to "...croak..." (p. 412) an Eriau phrase. We do not know what the phrase means but it is meaningful to us because we have already been told that it is a lullaby that Kossara's mother sang to her.

While Dominic Flandry holds the dying Kossara, she says, "'Dominic, darling...I wish -" (p. 562).

These deaths affect the reader because we have learned to care about Kossara and Trohdwyr.

While Kossara lies in a half-open coffin in St Clement's Cathedral, Flandry tells her that he had wanted her ashes scattered on Dennitza but he now understands the Dennitzans' decision to build her a big tomb on Founders' Hill. He asks her to help him believe that she still is but:

"His sole answer was the priest's voice rising and falling through archaic words." (p. 577)

He had not expected anything more but he even apologizes to her for not receiving an answer. If there is any hereafter, there is no guarantee that Kossara can hear Flandry's thoughts from it. The Orthodox practice of "...a priest chanting behind the iconstasis..." (p. 576) is at least potentially an effective dramatic presentation of the idea of a voice from another world.

In the Greek tradition, drama grew from religious ritual. An epic was ceremonially recited. The addition of extra speakers for the characters, then of actions, transformed narrative into drama. To this day, a clergyman officiating in any tradition should enact the role of a human being approaching the divine.

Six Dennitzan Heroes And One Saint

"...the olden heroes, Yovan Matavuly who led the Founders the long lightless way to this our Morning Star, Toman Obilich who slew wild Vladimir on the crown of the Glacier, Gwyth who dared the storms of the Black Ocean, Stefan Miyatovich - great ancestor of Gospodar Bodin - who in the depths of the Night Years cast back the reavers from our very homes."
-Poul Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (New York, 2012), pp. 341-342.

Although they inhabit its surface, the Dennitzans call their colony planet their Morning Star - a new beginning. In Constitution Square, a bronze fountain depicts Toman's fight with Vladimir. A table in the Council Hall of Novi Aferoch is made from timber out of Gwyth's ship. Stefan Miyatovich exactly parallels Brian McCormac, defender of Aeneas during the Troubles and ancestor of Hugh McCormac. Dennitzans call the Troubles "the Night Years," not to be confused with the later Long Night, which we hope Dennitza will survive.

So far, four heroes:

Yovan;
Toman;
Gwyth;
Stefan.

To these, we add:

Andrei Simich, the poet who celebrated the previous four;
Gospodar Bodin Miyatovich, who led "Bodin's raid" (p. 341);
St Kossara, Bodin's niece, who brought peace through his valor.

That peace lasted through his lifetime, a real happy ending. His return from the raid was celebrated by songs, bells and dancing maidens crowning him with flowers.

In Anderson's historical fiction, some characters believe that, e.g., Thor is a real being that can intervene on their behalf. In his historical fantasies, Thor is a real being that can intervene on their behalf. In the hard sf of A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, pagan ychani believe that Aferdhi, Blyn and Haawan are real beings that can be held afar by a sign and a prayer while Orthochristians believe that St Kossara is a real being who sends them peace through Bodin's valor.

Explicit Pathetic Fallacy

I spotted this one before turning in last night.

In Poul Anderson's A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, a disciplined, armed procession of four hundred ychan fishers marches towards the Dennitzan Parliament where they will respectfully but firmly request that their leaders be invited to address the Lords, the Folk and the Zmayi, who are meeting in a single chamber. The procession conceals the cloaked and hooded Dominic Flandry and Kossara Vymezal.

The ychani and their two human companions might encounter resistance either from the authorities, Dennitzan or Imperial, or from pro-Merseian assassins. In fact, Anderson, through Flandry, has reminded us of Djana's curse: that Flandry will never get the woman that he really wants. He did not get Kathryn McCormac and now is engaged to Kossara who resembles Kathryn. But they were interrupted before having sex, right after Flandry had reminded us of Djana... We have every reason to fear the worst for Kossara.

Nature obliges with a skirling west wind, a pale sky, sweeping cloud shadows, cold, crying winged animals, branches casting about, leaves blown noisily along the pavement and rain puddles. To clinch everything, the paragraph ends:

"All nature was saying farewell."
-Poul Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (New York, 2012), p. 552.

A Flandry Tetralogy

Poul Anderson's "A Handful of Stars" (1959) was lengthened as We Claim These Stars! (1959), then re-entitled "Hunters of the Sky Cave." At the beginning of "Hunters...," Flandry, in the Solar System, says that he has returned Home after the Nyanza business, i.e., after the events of "The Game of Glory." (1958) A few pages later, Aycharaych says:

"'Congratulations upon your handling of l'affaire Nyanza... We are going to miss A'u on our side.'"
-Poul Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandery: The Last Knight Of Terra (New York, 2012), p. 160 -

- thus confirming that the events of "...Glory" immediately preceded those of "Hunters..."

Early in "...Glory," Flandry "...discovered how to lie to a telepath." -Poul Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2010), p. 303. Thus, the entire contents of "Honorable Enemies," (1951) Flandry's first meeting with Aycharaych, occur between the beginning and the end of "...Glory."

In "Honorable Enemies," Flandry is referred to as "'...the single-handed conqueror of Scothania...'" -Captain Flandry, p. 280. This happened in "Tiger by the Tail." (1951)

Thus, these four works:

"Tiger by the Tail" (1951)
"Honorable Enemies" (1951)
"The Game of Glory" (1958)
"Hunters of the Sky Cave" (1959)

- form a continuous tetralogy although they are not presented as such in the Chronology of Technic Civilization. Flandry captures Aycharaych at the end of "Hunters..." but the Merseians insist on a prisoner exchange, so the story of Flandry versus Aycharaych continues.

More Latin

A while ago, we mentioned Latin in Poul Anderson's works, e.g.: Delenda est; Roma Mater; Tene, Mithra... Here is some more.

"'Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes,' remarked Sarlish surprisingly."
-Poul Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (New York, 2012), p. 332.

Since Sarlish is from "'...Jagranath, which lies beyond the Empire...'" (p. 331), this is indeed surprising. He is also an Imperial Duke's chief Intelligence officer. This explains his knowledge of Anglic, though not of a Latin quotation. I was pleased to come across this famous line, "I fear Greeks bringing gifts," because our Latin class recently read that passage, about the Trojan horse, in the Aeneid.

Aycharaych, another extra-Imperial alien but also a student of humanity, tells Flandry:

"'I already had business in these parts - negotium perambulans in tenebris, if you like -...'" (p. 461).

I do not know how Flandry feels but I am in the dark about this phrase and have asked our Latin tutor for enlightenment. It is something to do with "a task walking around in darkness."

Addendum, 26 May 2014: "Doing the job in the dark."

Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra

Volume VI of Baen Books' The Technic Civilization Saga by Poul Anderson, compiled by Hank Davis, is Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (New York, 2012), which collects:

"The Plague of Masters" (pp. 1-147);
"Hunters of the Sky Cave" (pp. 149-301);
"The Warriors from Nowhere" (pp. 303-337);
"A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows" (pp. 339-606).

Just four works, all about Flandry, three of them novels. "The Warriors from Nowhere", a very short story, can retroactively be regarded as a mere prelude to "A Knight..." Thus, Volume VI is effectively a Flandry trilogy, like Vol IV, Young Flandry. Given the parameters of the Saga, I can understand the rationale for Sir Dominic...

However, "The Plague of Masters" is a direct sequel to "A Message in Secret" and, I think, belongs with it. "A Knight..." is a sequel to the original Flandry series and is the first of three novels featuring sons or daughters of characters introduced in the first Flandry novel. I think that these three "Children of Empire" novels belong together and that the following four post-Flandry works should have a volume to themselves.

Thus, although I recognize that Sir Dominic... is a solid Flandry omnibus collection, I still have reasons to prefer a different way of dividing up Anderson's History of Technic Civilization.