St Patrick

Today is St Patrick's Day. Sheila and I attended a talk on the cult of St Patrick delivered at Lancaster Museum by a historian from Lancaster University. We have previously mentioned the local ruined St Patrick's Chapel. (Scroll down.) It is possible that Patrick came from this part of England. Nothing in the talk confirmed any of the details about Sucat/Patricius as given in Poul and Karen Anderson's The King Of Ys. However, I quoted these details in a question and the speaker confirmed that they represent an early tradition about Patrick. The two documents definitely written by Patrick are his Confessio and his letter to Coroticus. Beyond them, anything else is a matter of historical judgement. 

"I could wish to leave them to go to Britain. I would willingly do this, and am prepared for this, as if to visit my home country and my parents. Not only that, but I would like to go to Gaul to visit the brothers and to see the faces of the saints of my Lord."

- Confessio.

St Patrick

While out walking today, we visited the ruined St Patrick's Chapel (see image and here) in Heysham. It is possible that:

Patrick came from Ravenglass, further up the Cumbrian coast;
Heysham is where he was shipwrecked on his return from Ireland;
he was buried at the site of the Chapel.

I mention this because Patrick is Sucat (Christian name: Patricius) in Poul and Karen Anderson's The King Of Ys.

We live with history and fiction. George Fox, founder of Quakerism, was imprisoned in Lancaster Castle. While visiting Nottingham, I met the current Sheriff of Nottingham and also a man roaming the streets role-playing the easily recognisable role of Friar Tuck. Legends live.

Interlude

Less posts today. Some days I am on a roll with a topic like Mars. Other days I am:

reading other kinds of fiction (see here);
watching a dvd (see here);
walking around Lancaster (see image).

The Queen visited the Castle (see image) where she met a few local worthies. It is appropriate that, when the Head of State visits, she meets not everyone resident in Lancaster but at least some that we know, in my case the current Mayor and a local newspaper cartoonist.

Agenda for the blog:

finish reading SM Stirling's In The Courts Of The Crimson Kings;
decide what next to read by Stirling;
continue to track down the NESFA collections of Poul Anderson's shorter works.

Of local interest and relevance to Poul Anderson:

St Patrick is a character in Poul and Karen Anderson's The King Of Ys;
there is a ruined St Patrick's Chapel on the coast in what is now Lancaster City District;
last night, a member of our (Buddhist) meditation group said that Patrick lived as a hermit at the site of the Chapel for a year between evangelizing Ireland and returning to Ireland;
he thought that this story was historical whereas I suspect that it is legendary;
either way, we are again that close to a piece of our history.

Other Historical Connections

St Patrick, Sucat in the Andersons' King of Ys Tetralogy, has a historical or legendary association with part of Lancaster City District. The image shows stone graves which are near the ruined St Patrick's Chapel, Heysham.

Prince Rupert of the Rhine, hero of Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest, fought a battle in Lichfield.

St Martin, Martinus in Ys, has a church in Birmingham and had a College in Lancaster.

The historical city of York features in three works by Poul Anderson, in a historical past, an alternative present and a future conscious simulation of an alternative past! Anderson covered every possibility: backwards, forwards and sideways in time, from physical space into cyberspace and also into the supernatural.

On a tourist trail in a town near Caernarfon, we had to find a lion's head on a wall but this was mere decoration, not an esoteric symbol - although there might have been a secret meeting of Hindus, Mithraists or Narnians...

Pete

The Avatar, III.

Rereading a novel, we can reexamine every phrase in it if we want to.

Broderson says:

"'For Pete's sake, Aurie!'" (p. 24)

A common phrase; nothing unusual. Except that I never before wondered who Pete was. Broderson tells us:

"'And Paul's, Matt's, Mark's, Luke's, and Jack's.'" (ibid.)

Well, another Andersonian Biblical reference...

The image shows the statue of "Pete" in the Catholic Cathedral of St Peter, Lancaster.

We referenced St Patrick yesterday and Pete and his mates today and this is far too late for me to be blogging. Sheila has just returned from a St Patrick's Day evening drink with an Irish friend in the Gregson Centre which has featured on this blog before. Everything comes around eventually.

(Maybe we'll get back to the plot of The Avatar later today.)

Changes II

See here.

The harvest season is immemorial and celebrated with customs that also become immemorial. In Armorica:

the last sheaf is consecrated as the Maiden;
a wether is chosen as Wolf of the Fold and sacrificed;
"...a branch hung with ears of grain [is] brought into house or barn."
-Poul and Karen Anderson, The Dog And The Wolf, Chapter XXIII, section 1, p. 451.

And the Church of England still celebrates Harvests. (Incidentally, there is a St Martin of Tours Church in Morecambe.)

Perhaps it is appropriate that, after the Harvest Festival in Armorica in 407, men harvest what they have sown politically. The locals expel the Romans. When Duke Gratillonius receives two Imperial delegates, Procurator Bacca and Bishop Bricius, the first two of these characters are fictional whereas the third is historical. In fact, four saints appear in The Dog And The Wolf:

Bishop Martinus, St Martin;
Martinus' kinsman, Sucat, St Patrick;
Martinus' successor, Bricius, St Brice;
Martinus' appointee to the ministry in Ys, Corentinus, St Corentin.

Of these, we respect all except the portly, expensively dressed Bricius, who puffs indignantly:

"'I will not demean my sacred office by squatting down like a savage.'" (p. 452)

Here is another change, and in a single generation, from the ascetic, unwashed Martinus to the lordly, self-important Bricius. The latter says that the Church is neutral in the civil war but that:

"'God will give victory to the righteous.'" (p. 453)

He will not or, at least, not necessarily - unless Bricius just means that he will prudently proclaim as righteous whoever wins? He also consigns Gratillonius to eternal torment instead of simply discussing the rights or wrongs of Gratillonius' case.

The characters act as they do because, like the Ysan leaders before the inundation or like James Blish's magicians after Black Easter, they know that they are living in changed times. In this case, Rome can no longer protect or compel so the Armoricans must take the initiative.

Patriarchs And Patricians

In Latin:

pater, father;
patres, forefathers;
patricius, of the forefathers;
patricii, patricians, aristocrats.

Patres is plural of pater and patricii of patricius.

In Poul and Karen Anderson's King of Ys Tetralogy, St Martin says that his cousin, Sucat, will become Christ's patrician. Sucat is renamed "Patricius," in English "Patrick," and canonized, thus St Patrick.

In Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization, a star is named "Patricius." Thus, the star and its planets are the Patrician System.

In Larry Niven's Known Space future history, the kzinti are ruled by a Patriarch. In Poul Anderson's Man-Kzin Wars stories, Ulf Markham admires the kzinti and has a hereditary vote in the Wunderlander House of Patricians although only on federal matters. Election as a consul of his state would give him a say in who attends the House of Delegates. This sounds to me like Anderson's political thinking enriching the Wunderlander constitution in Niven's future history.

Markham leaks the hyperdrive to the kzinti. His excuse:

"'They would inevitably have gotten it. Only by taking part in events can we hope to exercise any influence.'" (The Man-Kzin Wars, p. 125)

A familiar argument: we can influence Apartheid by supporting it instead of sabotaging and ending it.

Myth, Legend And History In Fiction

How many mythical, legendary or historical figures are woven into the fabric of Poul and Karen Anderson's The King Of Ys?

Julius Caesar visited Ys although he did not mention it.

Augustus' engineers built the Ysan sea wall and public buildings in the Forum.

Magnus Maximus, Western Roman Emperor, sent the future King Grallon to Ys.

St Martin helped Grallon and counselled his cousin, the future St Patrick.

St Corentin became chaplain to Ys.

The Morrigu and Mithras appeared in battles outside the city.

Grallon sends a messenger to the dictator Stilicho.

The Sea God, Lir, Son of Chaos, remains off-stage but destroys the city.

Niall of the Nine Hostages is the human agent of the destruction of Ys.

Grallon's daughter, Dahut, unwittingly helps Niall, then haunts the sea above the sunken city.

The Andersons masterfully combine these elements into a single narrative.

Kinds Of Crossovers

(i) The Tarzan and Earth's Core series intersect in Tarzan At The Earth's Core and the She and Allan Quartermain series intersect in She And Allan.

(ii) Characters from Poul Anderson's Carolingian, goetic and Shakespearean timelines meet in the Old Phoenix.

(iii) Death from The Seventh Seal emerges from a cinema screen in Last Action Hero.

(iv) British and Irish mythologies intersect because Arthur invades Ireland and Fionn fights Arthur.

(v) Irish Pagan and Christian legends intersect because Oisin, married to a daughter of Manannan (scroll down) mac Lir, returns to Ireland after three centuries in the Land of the Young and meets St Patrick.

(Manannan, Lir and Patrick feature in works by Poul Anderson.) 

Patrick

See Back From Ireland.

I missed one important Irish connection. St Patrick is:

a character in The King Of Ys by Poul and Karen Anderson;

the legendary figure after whom a star is named in Poul Anderson's Technic History;

of local interest in the Lancaster City District. See here.

While we are in the presence of sainthood, for my philosophical reflections on life and death while I was in Ireland, see here.

Good And Bad

Gratillonius' enemies list the powerful individuals and significant groups that support him:

Senator Apuleius Vero, tribune of Aquilo;
praetorian prefect Ardens;
Stilicho, dictator of the Western Empire;
army veterans settled in Armorica thanks to Gratillonius;
former outlaws transformed into forest rangers;
tribes people benefiting from the suppression of pirates and bandits and from the revival of trade.

They never ask why, if he has done all this good, they regard him as bad. What they do consider is whether to oppress the Ysan colony with increased taxation and then they pragmatically discuss whether a tax would be insufficiently ruinous or unenforceable or resisted. Dispersing the Ysans would humble them and save their souls, of course. It is possible not only to oppress a social group but also to feel pious about it.

Martin Luther King wrote that laws cannot change the heart but can restrain the heartless. Something similar happens to the anti-Gratillonians. Bishop Martinus, the future St Martin, knows claivoyantly that these three men are currently plotting against Gratillonius in the basilica so he sends his kinsman, Sucat, the future St Patrick, to command them not to afflict the Ysans. This would after all hinder their evangelization.

Sucat does not wait for an answer. The principle plotters agree between themselves to heed the bishop but only as long as he remains alive and only because they fear his political and supernatural power. Blinded by hatred, they do not suspect that they are agents of the kind of evil that they claim to oppose.

Local And Future History

 

OK. Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization has an intricate structure which is not only fascinating but also somehow dynamic at least when the reader's attention shifts back and forth between the two equally valid reading orders for the first main section of the history. Either we begin and end this section with the earlier published collections, Trader To The Stars and The Earth Book Of Stormgate, or instead we read through the first twenty four instalments in their fictional chronological order as presented in Baen Books' The Technic Civilization Saga, Volumes I-III (of VII).

When I posted earlier today, I had just returned from the Heysham Viking Festival which has a ship and people in costume practising crafts in tents. Many wear Thor's hammer as a medallion. St. Peter's Church in Heysham is over a thousand years old and there is also a ruined St. Patrick's Chapel overlooking Morecambe Bay. We live and breathe history and project future history.

Faerie Alliances II

(This is the last post of June. July posts will not start until some time next week.)

See Faerie Alliances.

Although the Jotuns are akin to trolls, the trolls will not call on them any more than the elves will call on the Aesir because, if those two "'...contending Powers beyond the moon...'" (p. 92) were to enter Midgard, that would initiate "'...the last battle...'" (ibid.)

How are they beyond the moon? We think of interplanetary space. However, Asgard is high in the Tree - higher than the moon? - whereas Jotunheim is to the north - beyond the horizon, thus beyond the paths of sun and moon?

When Valgard asks:

"'How does this fit with what I was taught of...the new god?'" (ibid.)

- Illrede replies:

"'Best not to speak of mysteries we cannot understand.'" (ibid.)

I find that somewhat unsatisfactory. If a fantasy author mixes his mythologies, then he is at liberty to create a new framework to incorporate diverse pantheons.

Gods protect men from Faerie. The worst outcome, for Faerie, would be if men called together upon the new white god because that would be the end of Faerie. OK. Maybe that answers Anderson's own question at the end of his Foreword:

"As for what became of those who were still alive at the end of the book, and the sword, and Faerie itself - which obviously no longer exists on Earth - that is another tale, which may someday be told." (p. 12)

Is it entirely obvious? The Faerie kept themselves invisible. Despite his prolificity, Anderson did not return to this particular theme.

Look at the image in this earlier post. The historical Jesus was a Jew but unhistorical images of Christ have been developed in diverse Christian traditions and can be adapted elsewhere. Pictures of St Patrick banishing the snakes from Ireland have been used to represent a Voodoo god of serpents. So is there some basis for the idea of a Pagan Christ, e.g., a nature deity resembling traditional images of Christ but removed from the context of the Gospel narratives and Christian doctrines?

Sigurd And Saint Peter

Manson Everard of the Time Patrol says:

"'...I've seen Wagner's Ring operas. And when I had a mission once in Scandinavia, toward the close of the viking period, I heard a yarn about Sigurd, who killed the dragon and woke the Valkyrie and afterward mucked everything up.'"
-Poul Anderson, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 333-465 AT 1980, p. 356.

That Scandinavian mission occurs between installments of the Time Patrol series.

Inside the church is a Norse hog-back stone from around 1000AD, which would originally have been a grave cover.
-copied from here.

The stone has been moved into the church to protect it from weathering. We saw it today. It has:

Sigurd carved on one side and Sigmund attacked by wolves on the other;
two symbols, a fish and a shamrock-like shape, which might be Christian.

I am uninspired blog-wise today but here is a connection between a Poul Anderson text and our local environment.

See also:

St Patrick
Other Historical Connections

There is more about the hog-back stone here and here. 

Panorama

In the past:

Eodan and Tjorr were mythologized as Odin and Thor;

Carl Farness also contributed to the myth of Odin/Hermes/Mercury;

Marius defeated barbarian invaders, including Eodan, and was remembered by Gratillonius, the last King of Ys;

Gratillonius' contemporary, Patricius, was later invoked as St Patrick and remembered by displaced gods who helped Skafloc Elven Fosterling;

Skafloc saw the drowned tower of Ys.

In the future:

Marius is remembered in more than one future;

Nicholas van Rijn and others invoke saints;

van Rijn names a spaceship "Mercury";

van Rijn's protege, David Falkayn, is remembered as the Founder of the colony on Avalon;

Falkayn's crew member, Adzel, is remembered as the Wayfarer and has a Square named after him;

a star is named "Patricius";

Dominic Flandry and many others remember Manuel Argos as the Founder of the Terran Empire;

Flandry tells stories of van Rijn;

Flandry's fiancee, Kossara, is canonized;

the Kirkasanters do not remember Hugh McCormac but we know that, banished by Flandry, he led their ancestors into exile.

This is a magnificent panorama of prominent individuals in myth and history, past, future and parallel.

Origin Stories

Yossi gave me Klaus, a bizarre "origin story" for you know who. Superheroes have origin stories. There are a few such stories in Poul Anderson's works.

(i) In Poul and Karen Anderson's The King Of Ys, a young man called Sucat is baptized as "Patricius" (God's patrician), and converts Ireland - St Patrick.

(ii) Also in The King Of Ys, the Roman centurion, Gaius Valerius Gratillonius, gradually becomes the legendary King Grallon, or Gradlon, of Ys.

(iii) The King Of Ys also refers to the origin of the Arthurian legend. See Camelot And Armorica.

(iv) In The Boat Of A Million Years, Hanno visited the court of a post-Roman British warlord called Artorius... (Scroll down.) (Were some of Hanno's fellow immortals also the sources of legends? See Starkad II.)

(v) In Anderson's The Golden Slave, Eodan gradually adopts the characteristics of Odin. See Origins II.

The Wealth Of The Past

I am grateful to correspondent Sean M Brooks for suggesting that I reread Poul and Karen Andersons' Ys tetralogy shortly after rereading Poul Anderson's The Golden Slave. It is good to spend more time in Anderson's pasts before returning to his futures.

The connections between Anderson's various historical novels are clearer when they are reread successively. The tetralogy is rich in information not only about the by that time Christianised Roman Empire but also about other parts of Europe like the still Pagan Hivernia (Ireland) - the characters include a young man who will later be called St Patrick - and the mythical Ys.

So far, I have focused on what we are told about Irish gods and about the hero's deity, Mithras, the latter an early alternative to Christ. However, other details worthy of attention while rereading are:

the antecedents and history of Ys;

Ysan domestic life and politics;

 
the nature of the city's gods, the Three, and the role of its Witch-Queens, the Nine;

the various Challengers to Gratillonius' Kingship of Ys and what happens to them;

the network of resistance to Roman rule and Grallon's (Gratillonius') fruitful contact with it;

the aftermath, with Ys destroyed, Rome withdrawing, Christ triumphant, the beginning of the Dark Ages and the seeds of the Middle Ages (Gratillonius lived at the end of an age as we do now).

The Patrician System

(Note: This 30th post of June 2013 will be the last post for this month, probably. I want to work in round numbers and am unlikely to add another 10 between now and the end of the 30th. Any more that are written before then will be published on 1st July.)

In the immediately preceding post, I wrongly referred to six inner and four outer planets of the star Patricius. The diagram of the Patrician System (Poul Anderson, Flandry's Legacy, New York, 2012, p. 193) is diagonally divided into an upper left half showing the inner planets and the asteroids and a lower right half showing the outer planets. However, closer examination of the diagram reveals that "Vitruvius" appears both as the outermost of the "inner planets" and as the innermost of the "outer planets." Clearly, this is done to show us how the two halves connect. But the result is that the total number of planets is nine, not ten.

The Patrician System is very similar to the Solar System with:

nine planets;
asteroids between the fourth and fifth planets;
colonies on the third and fourth planets.

I have already mentioned:

Daedalus and Imhotep, the two colonized planets;
Archimedes and Leonardo, the two that are obviously named after famous engineers;
Vitruvius.

The remaining four are the two innermost, Liang Ling-tsan and Channing, and the two outermost, Katsuragi no Kami and Sennacherib.

Patricius is St Patrick whom regular Anderson readers have met in the King of Ys Tetralogy before he gained his Christian name.

Despite being equivalent in position to Mars, Imhotep has thirty per cent greater gravity than Earth. This planet held only a scientific base and a few support industries for centuries until the Starkadians were settled there in the previous generation. Since then, the city has grown and now houses Imperial offices in the Pyramid with many other new buildings around it.

Crom

Conan The Rebel.

Belit, the heroine of Poul Anderson's Conan novel, was a Robert E. Howard character.

I saw a scene from Conan the Barbarian where Conan played by Arnold Schwarzenegger asked his god, Crom, for help and added "But, if not, to Hell with you!" My attitude to the gods is: "We ask your help but, if not, we'll do it ourselves."

According to Anderson, Crom bestows, on those that he favours, strength and heart but nothing else. We are pleased to learn that Crom Cruach was an Irish pagan god who ran afoul of St. Patrick, of course. 

I was pleased to find Crom in Conan The Rebel because Mitra seems too civilized a god for Conan. With some gods, the message basically is that we are on our own and that it is up to us what we do.