The Bull And The Goddess

"Star of the Sea."

The goddess Niaerdh to the god Frae:

"Your gift to me shall be the bull that you are riding.'" (I, p. 468)

A horned thing appears before Veleda:

"...it was the bull of Frae, cast in iron, and on it rode the goddess who had claimed it from him." (17, p. 611)

It is a Time Patrol timecycle and on it rides Janne Floris, Specialist Patrol agent, just as Patrol scholar Carl Farness had appeared as Woden to warring Goths.

Poul Anderson seamlessly blends mythology and sf, as also history and sf. We learn more by rereading Anderson than by reading many others.

Ave Stella Maris!

History

Poul Anderson's abiding theme is history:

The Last Viking Trilogy, historical fiction;

the Time Patrol series, historical science fiction;

The King Of Ys Tetralogy (with Karen Anderson), historical fantasy;

the History of Technic Civilization, a science fiction future history.

This is in no way a complete list.

In recent posts, we have followed the question of narrative points of view from the Time Patrol to the Technic History but have not escaped from historical processes. In "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," Huns and Goths were migrating while the Roman Empire was divided and converted to Christianity. In A Circus Of Hells, the Merseian Roidhunate is expanding in every direction except where it is barred by the Terran Empire which however is withdrawing from outlying planetary systems like a receding tide. We do not know what will happen next but we do know that there will be change.

In historic Lancaster, it is raining and also the day of the annual Green Fair. 

Continuity

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," 372, 43, 374.

Following the Wanderer's advice - Carl is still interfering -, Alawin burns Hathawulf's hall so that Ermanaric will not possess it, then leads a group including his mother and Hathawulf''s widow and son west where he is baptized. He lives a long life in the Gothic kingdom in southern Gaul and his descendants are among the founders of Spain. Carl must have done a lot of temporal snooping to learn all of that. Weakened by Ermanaric's civil strife, the East Goths can no longer withstand the Huns although they will eventually take over in Italy.

Carl will continue to record stories and songs but will no longer become personally involved. And there this story ends at last. Is it the most substantial of the Time Patrol instalments?

Investments And Influence

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," 366-372.

For a whole year, the Wanderer takes Alawin to visit the Visigoths, then a Christian Gothic settlement within the Empire, then Constantinople, then the Visigoths again. Does Carl devote an entire year of his own lifespan to this? And how much of this time is spent on Time Patrol business?

Among the East Goths themselves, he spends much time, and with some eventual success, persuading them to make preparations to move west. Some invest over there by sending gold, goods and men. Others become ready to depart quickly if necessary. In these matters, Carl is acting in the long term interests of his descendants but surely not serving the aims of the Patrol? If anything, he contradicts those aims by trying to influence the course of events.

We know that versions of a story differ. Carl summarizes the Volsungasaga and the Nibelungenlied to Everard and now we ourselves read the later "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" by Poul Anderson! It is with a sense of irony - or even of humour - that we read a passage in which Carl anxiously asks Hathawulf how well he and his brother get along with their half-brother. Do they ever quarrel? We know that Carl has read a version of the story in which the brothers kill the half-brother. Whatever is really going to happen still lies ahead...

Earlier Times And Fallen Leaves

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," 366-372.

Poul Anderson's texts capture human life.

"'Let us drink something hot and remember earlier times.'" (p. 440)

The Anses:

"'...too shall perish in the wreck of the world.'" (p. 442)

"'World after world has gone down in ruin ere now, my son, and will in the years and thousands of years to come.'" (p. 443)

(In Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, the Inn of the Worlds' End is perpetually renewed because worlds are ending all the time.)

"Hathawulf's wife Anslaug...suckled their firstborn. The Wanderer gazed long upon the babe. 'There lies tomorrow,' he whispered. Nobody understood what he meant. Soon he was walking off, he and his spear-staff, down a road where lately fallen leaves flew on a chill blast." (ibid.)

Firstborn: a beginning; fallen leaves: an ending. Although beginnings and endings are perennial, the Wanderer alone knows that a greater ending approaches. He has made preparations for those of his Goths who can to move west but is unable to disclose his knowledge of what is to come. 

Athanaric And The Christians

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," 348-366, pp. 409-422.

Tharasmund's father-in-law, Athanaric, king of the West Goths, persecutes Christians because he sees them as agents of the Empire, an unjust and counterproductive policy. Instead, he should:

treat Christians and pagans with full equality;

show Christians that they can be as happy outside the Empire as inside it and indeed might even prefer life outside it;

include one or more representatives of Christian communities among his advisors;

encourage sharing of cultures and festivals.

Some Christian clergy dislike that fourth policy but it can be done. Muslim neighbours bring us food at Eid. Everyone who visits a Sikh Gurdwara or a Krishna Temple is fed. We are enriched by diversity.

Ulfilas And The Wanderer

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," 1858.

Although this passage is set in 1858, Carl Farness shows Herbert Ganz a hologram of himself as the Wanderer conversing with Ulfilas, the Arian Apostle to the Goths, in the fourth century.

Ulfilas:

"...moved in the vanguard of Christendom, the morrow." (p. 403)

Yet Farness, a field agent of the Time Patrol, has physically travelled from a much longer morrow! Ulfilas is canny enough to see that Carl is not an ordinary man and wonders whether he is even human. He is but he works for the post-human Danellians. But none of that can be said. 

Goths are willing to offer to Christ in his lands and will convert to Arianism although:

"...from this would spring centuries of trouble." (p. 404)

Would it? I do not know the history of how Arianism was suppressed. Carl can argue neither for paganism nor for Christ.

In the opening paragraph of the following section, headed 344-347, Ermanaric becomes king of the Ostrogoths. We move closer to 372.

How And Why Carl Helped The Teurings Against The Vandals

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," 300-302, 1980.

Most Goths returned from battle. Some had seen a blue-cloaked spearman in the sky. (Antigrav.) Monsters charged the Vandals who saw eerie lights and felt blind fear. (Illusions and subsonic beams.) The Wanderer united the Gothic tribes, led their chiefs and imparted military intelligence. Lootless Vandals withdrew. 

Carl killed no one and saved lives on both sides. That Vandal raid was unrecorded and its outcome was insignificant apart from the fact that Gothic victory preserved a society where Carl was able to continue his mission. He claims that the line of descent that he had started was a minor statistical fluctuation that would soon average out. However, very soon, he will accept and take for granted without any apparent surprise or concern that that line of descent is the exact same family that is central to the stories that he has come to investigate. Something does not quite add up there.

Referring to Indian, Persian, Celtic and Slavic myths, Carl tells Everard:

"'...those last are even more poorly chronicled. Eventually, my service will-'" (p. 390)

It is difficult to know what the words, "are," "Eventually" and "will," mean within a time travelling organization spanning a million years. An individual field agent who, on his own world-line, has not yet done the research must be prevented from knowing the results of the research before he has done it but, apart from that, surely all of his colleagues should benefit from his research whichever part of the timeline they are working in?

302-330

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth."

Although 300-302 covers only two years, it also informs us that Carl's intervention gains ten years of peace for his Goths. However, Jorith dies bearing Carl's son, Dagobert, after only one year. The following three narrative sections are headed:

2319

302-330

1980

Carl confers with a Time Patrol doctor on the Moon in 2319 and with Everard in New York in 1980. In the 302-330 period:

Dagobert's grandparents, Winnithar and Salvalindis, raise him;

the Wanderer visits occasionally;

Dagobert's son, Tharasmund, and King Geberic's son, Ermanaric, are born;

Dagobert becomes leader of the Teurings and leads them south.

So far, the history of Gothic migrations is on track. Readers know that the Teurings will have a showdown with Ermanaric.

Seasons And Wind

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth."

300-302 (pp. 362-374) is the narrative passage in which Carl Farness establishes himself among those Goths called Teurings. It begins:

"Winter descended..." (p. 362)

- and also encompasses:

"Spring stole northward..." (p. 365)

When the Teurings plan to resist the encroaching Vandals:

"Outside, wind hooted and rain dashed against walls." (p. 368)

- and when Carl offers to help:

"A sound like the wind passed down the shadowy length of the hall." (ibid.)

We have reflected on this sentence in four previous posts.

I now see that this is the moment when Carl crosses a line. He has become so personally involved not only with the Teurings but also specifically with Jorith that he responds to an appeal from her. His job is to record songs and stories, not to take sides in a fight - although he ingeniously defends his intervention to Everard afterwards! 

The Time Patrol timeline can accommodate a lot of extratemporal intervention but Carl is going to overdo it.

Everard's Roles

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth."

Manse Everard does not show up until the fourth narrative section headed 1980.

Five Time Patrol instalments set earlier in Everard's career are narrated in the third person and from his point of view (pov). Another, "Gibraltar Falls," is narrated in the third person and from Tom Nomura's pov, thus briefly presenting Nomura's perception of Everard. In 1980, we read Carl Farness' first person account of how he, Farness, perceives Everard. Farness tells us that this experienced Unattached agent of the Patrol is large, tough-looking, powerful and comfortable. "The Year of the Ransom" will give us a young woman's account of Everard... 

In 1980, Farness explains his mission among the Goths to Everard and thus to us so Everard performs a narrative function. Then Farness settles down to work. The fifth narrative section is headed 300-302. We begin to travel by the slow route back to that crucial year, 372, which had opened the story.

Carl Intervenes

Poul Anderson, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, December 2010), pp. 333-465.

In 372, the brothers, Hathawulf and Solbern, announce their intention to lead their tribe, the Teurings, to attack their king, Ermanaric, and to kill him in revenge for his killing of their sister, Swanhild. Hathawulf's and Solbern's young half-brother, Alawin, proposes to accompany them in the attack on Ermanaric but the Wanderer arrives and forbids this.

In 1935, we learn that Carl Farness had used a "...little gadget..." (p. 341) to eavesdrop on the Teurings' deliberations and then had intervened and had done what (he says) he "'...needed to do...'":

"'A few hours of observation from concealment, a few minutes of action, and fini.'" (p. 346)

Carl's next job will be to record the stories and songs that will result from the attack on Ermanaric. But why is he not just observing and recording as a Time Patrol scholar should? Why instead did he intervene and restrain Alawin? We must read on to find out. But we have already been told that those Goths are his descendants. Carl has been not only observing the past but also participating in it. Time Patrol regulations...

Intimations Of Futurity II

Vault Of The Ages, Chapter 1.

Carl:

"'...our ancient cities yield so much metal that we can even trade it with other people.'" (p. 71)

With the benefit of having read later works by Poul Anderson, we recognize themes from his Maurai History and from his The Winter Of The World. This passage also confirms that Vault... is set in a post-apocalyptic future. 

"'...I can see where these northerners, these Lann as they call themselves, would envy us.'" (ibid.)

Impending war is a familiar Andersonian theme as is men hearing the call and gathering to fight:

"'The men are gathering... the Dalesmen have heard the war-word of their Chief and are sending their fighting men to join him.'" (p. 16)

This happened when the Goths resisted the Huns in "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth."

Also:

"'...this is a matter I do not understand very well but some say the world is getting colder.'" (p. 17)

Even more like The Winter Of The World! Over the centuries, mankind must cope not only with world wars but also with world climate changes. Everything is here in embryo.

Central Park

See:

Evening In New York: Everard And Bond

Fictional Representations Of New York

New York In Space And Time

- my point here being that New York is a major venue in works of fiction. It is one point of contact between Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series and Virginia Andrew's Dollanganger series. In both of these series, some of the characters live close to or even overlook Central Park and stroll in the Park. But there the resemblance ends. The second Dollanganger novel, Petals On The Wind, is set in the early 1960s but makes no reference to any historical events of that period. It is only about the ways that individual human beings can find to be vile to one another. The Time Patrol series covers all of human history. A character who strolls in Central Park has spent generations among the Goths and reflects on how World War II could have been prevented.

Interest in the fates of the characters will keep me reading until the end of Petals On The Wind but I will probably not follow through with the remaining three Dollanganger novels, let alone the same author's five-volume Casteel Family Saga. Poul Anderson's characters deal with the universe and with each other, not just with each other.

What We Want From Time Travel II

(III) Narratives about what it is like for a time traveller to be in the past. 

Jack Finney does this very well in parts of his novel, Time And Again.

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" and "Star of the Sea" are two long instalments of Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series. These two instalments, both about Northern European mythology, could be collected as The Gods of Time. Another two instalments, "The Year of the Ransom" and "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks," both about Neldorian time criminals, could be collected as The Thieves of Time. Gods and Thieves could then become Volumes II and III of a four-volume boxed set. However, this takes us away from our current focus on some of the contents of the two Gods instalments.

In both instalments, some entire narrative sections are entirely about the lives of people living in the past. 

"Wind gusted out of twilight as the door opened."

-Poul Anderson, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, December 2010), pp. 333-465 AT 372, p. 333.

"Winter descended..."

-ibid., 300-302, p. 362.

"Seen from the ramparts of Old Camp, nature was terrifying enough."

-Poul Anderson, "Star of the Sea" IN Time Patrol, pp. 467-640 AT 1, p. 469.

"Winter brought rain..."

-ibid., 3, p. 494.

"Wind rushed bitter..."

-ibid., 5, p. 518.

"Suddenly spring billowed over the land."

-ibid., 7, p. 530.

In "The Sorrow...," the fifth century Goths do not know that their mysterious visitor, the Wanderer, is a time traveller. The events in these sections unfold as they would have done if he had been their contemporary or, as they believe, Wodan.

In the opening story, "Time Patrol," in a passage that I have quoted more than once before, we read:

"This was the first moment that the reality of time travel struck home to Everard."

-Poul Anderson, "Time Patrol" IN Time Patrol, pp. 1-53 AT 4, p. 24.

He is in a hansom cab in Victorian London. A long paragraph spells out the implications.

Novels could be written about:

a time traveller who gets a job in the bar of the Cavern Club shortly before the Beatles begin their career there;

a Time Patrol Specialist who lives for a decade in the town where he grew up and sees his four year old self accompanying his parents to church on Sunday;

many other such scenarios.

These time travellers do not need to participate in major events or in causal paradoxes. It would be sufficient if they experienced and learned from the past. They would compile detailed histories of previously unknown events. Their author would be able to imagine what had really happened in history. 

What Gratillonius Knows Of The Goths

 

The Dog And The Wolf, XI, 1.

"Their tribes were divided between  a western and an eastern branch.

"Wandering down from Germanic lands, they had settled in regions north of the Danuvius and the Euxinus.

"Later the thrust of a wholly wild and terrible breed, the Huns, caused them to seek refuge among the Romans.

"They proved to be formidable soldiers, especially as cavalrymen...

"...but untrustworthy subjects, apt to rebel.

"Most became Christian...

"...though of the Arian persuasion..." (p. 214)

I have rearranged this passage into discrete data, numbering seven. We can read about these Goths, Huns and Arians in Poul Anderson's Time Patrol story, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth."

"It was the Birthday of Mithras. Gratillonius rarely saw a calendar, but everybody knew when solstice happened, and from that he could reckon this day." (p. 216)

He and we remember when he celebrated Birthday on the Wall. His entire career as King of Ys has come and gone since then, just as we remember long periods of time when we worked in a particular place.

How many Birthdays of Mithras are mentioned in The King of Ys?

Adrianople, 378; Peace, 381

"'Finally the Goths decided they'd had a bellyful, and revolted. The Huns had given them the idea and technique of developing cavalry, which they made heavy; at the battle of Adrianople in 378 it rode the Romans down.'"

-Poul Anderson, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 333-465 AT 43, p. 462.

"'It is but four or five years since the Goths rode down the Romans at Adrianople. Have you heard about that, centurion? The Emperor Valens himself died on the field. Theodosius must buy the alliance of those barbarians, Arian heretics, those that are not still outright heathen -'"

-Roma Mater, p. 24.

Yes, the Time Patrol text had told us that those Goths were Arians and added:

"'A new Emperor, Theodosius, made peace with the Goths in 381, and most of their warriors entered the Roman service as foederati: allies, we'd say.'"

-ibid.

By rereading one Anderson text and remembering another, I have learned some Roman history. 

The Past In The Time Patrol Series: Various Years

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth."

1935

New York, autumn. Not many cars. Roast-chestnut carts. A large apartment overlooking Central Park where it is safe to stroll in the evening. A doorman who need not also be an armed guard.

300

The Vistula, winter, when almost no one travels and strangers are welcomed. The chief wants to see even a gangrel. 

1890s

Everard, based in New York, 1980, changes clothes because he knows of a good free lunch in a local saloon.

1980

New York, winter. Snow tumbling past the window makes Everard's apartment a white cave.

337

Goth infantry withstand Hun horse. Arrows darken the sky. Banners stream. Earth shakes. Weapons gleam. Bows twang. Sling-stones fly. Horns bray. Goths win. Their leader dies.

1858

Berlin, summer twilight on Unter den Linden. Fragrant trees, horse-drawn vehicles, tall hats, Prussian officers, a nightingale in a rose garden, a spacious house full of books and bric-a-brac where a maid in a black dress with white cap and apron serves coffee, cakes and cognac.

1934

New York, December, cold, dark, Salvation Army, Santa Clauses, Depression.

1935

New York, March, a walk in Central Park.

372

Goths, rain, wind, an end.

43

Hawaii before the Polynesians, quicksilver sea, the evening star above Mauna Kea, peace.

A time traveller goes back and forth. Poul Anderson goes way beyond Wells' original concept.

The Past In The Time Patrol Series: Goths, 300-372

Poul Anderson, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 333-465.

Historical figures:

Athanaric

Geberic

Ermanaric

Frithigern

Ulfilas

Constantine

Theodosius

Goths:

Visigoths

Ostrogoths

Ulfilas converted many Goths to Arianism. However, according to his Wikipedia article, Theodosius helped to establish mainstream Christianity. Visigoths settled in Gaul, then took over in Iberia, whereas the Ostrogoths took over Italy.

Ermanaricshafen

Superb intertextuality - John Wilkie refers to Rostov-on-Don, then corrects himself:

"'...Ermanaricshafen.'"

-Daggers In Darkness, CHAPTER TWO, p. 41.

The explanation follows immediately:

"There were quiet snorts and rolled eyes: Ermanaric had been...probably...a quasi-mythical Gothic king in the Ukraine in the fourth century AD, one who figured prominently in the Volsungasaga and the Niblelungenlied. The Germans were notorious for ransacking history and legend for ethnically suitable names to plaster on their vastly enlarged realm. The Ukraine was the East Gothic Marchland these days..." (ibid.)

If we were reading Daggers In Darkness on screen, then it might be appropriate for an ad to appear, saying: "Read Poul Anderson's excellent Time Patrol story, 'The Sorrow of Odin the Goth.'" Anderson's characters are East Goths, including Ermanaric, living in the Ukraine, and time travellers who refer to the Volsungasaga and the Nibelungenlied. Sometimes it feels as is if all of literature and fiction is one long series.