Old Phoenix POV's

Careful rereading is necessary. The first person narrator of Poul Anderson's "House Rule" informs us that the Peter Abelard whom he sees in the Old Phoenix Inn is:

"...still a whole man."

-Poul Anderson, "House Rule" IN Anderson, Fantasy (New York, September, 1981), pp. 9-20 AT p. 16 -

- i.e., has not been castrated, as he was in our history. 

The first person narrator of Anderson's "Losers' Night" informs us that he has:

"...heard, or seen for myself..."

-"Losers' Night," p. 111. (my emphasis)

- that several legendary, mythical, fictional, literary or historical persons have visited the Old Phoenix and that these include:

"...an Abelard who remained a whole man..." (ibid.)

I had to check. The absence of that phrase, "...or seen for myself...," would have implied different narrators for these two stories.

That narrator is absent from the Old Phoenix passages in A Midsummer Tempest which are all in the third person. Chapter xi begins with Prince Rupert's point of view (pov) but becomes omniscient narrator when he leaves the taproom. In xii, Rupert returns to the taproom and the narrative returns to his pov. In both cases, Valeria Matuchek is present. In the Epilogue, Rupert and his companion, Will, are long gone, Valeria has just finished recounting their story to a larger group of guests and the narration is from her pov.

And that is it for Old Phoenix povs. As Valeria concludes:

"'I hope you've enjoyed my story.'"

-Poul Anderson, A Midsummer Tempest (London, 1975), p. 229.

Here the author addresses his readers.

Poets And Hack Writers

Three Hearts And Three Lions, CHAPTER TEN.

When enough evidence has accumulated, Holger deduces that he is in a universe where the myths of Charlemagne are literally true just as later, in A Midsummer Tempest, Valeria Matuchek deduces that Prince Rupert is from a universe where the plays of Shakespeare are literally true. 

"'...that what was myth in one world might always be fact in some other.' PERELANDRA"

-CS Lewis, "Forms of Things Unknown" IN Lewis, The Dark Tower and other stories (London, 1983), pp. 124-132 AT p. 124.

(Lewis based a short story on a quotation from his own novel, Perelandra.)

Holger goes further:

"The mystics, dreamers, poets, and hack writers of home had in some unconscious way been in tune with whatever force linked the two universes; the corpus of stories which they gradually evolved had been a better job of reporting than they knew." (ibid.)

- which is precisely how DC Comics explained the differences between the Golden Age and Silver Age versions of their superheroes.

This idea covers a lot of territory and can unite a lot of literature.

The Power And The Inn

I am searching for blog references to the power unknown that granted the charter for the Old Phoenix, e.g.:

Powers Unknown 

The Taverners' Charter And Sagittarius 

Moving Between The Universes

After Or Between

The Time Patrol And The Old Phoenix

"Anomalous Variations In Reality"

That seems to be all.

In A Midsummer Tempest, xii, Valeria Matuchek tells Prince Rupert that the Old Phoenix is in "'...a pocket universe...'" (scroll down)

A "power unknown" controlling a pocket universe in a multiverse that contains not only high tech civilizations but also gods... Whatever the source and purpose of this power, it seems clear that the inn can be kept supplied with food and drink without the Taverners needing to collect coinage from diverse periods from their customers.

See the question in the combox for Telling The Tales.

Facsimiles And Verse

Valeria Matuchek:

"'...the theorems I do know let me cross from continuum to continuum, with a fair probability of landing in whichever one I want, or a reasonable facsimile of it.'"

-Poul Anderson, A Midsummer Tempest (London, 1975), xi, pp. 95-96.

The hostess of the Inn of the Worlds' End:

"You will return to the worlds from which you came, or ones very similar."

-Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: Worlds' End (New York, 1994), p. 158, panel 3.

Here is another parallel. In either multiverse, a traveller might arrive not in the intended world but in one so similar that any differences do not matter or might not even be noticed.

The landlord of the Old Phoenix:

"'...I'm a fat and cunning spider, albeit male,

"'which weaves a subtle web bedewed with ale

"'and wine and stronger waters, and thus ensnares

"'a singing swarm of lives,

"'to batten on the fables that they bear.'" (xii, p. 97)

We saw before that much of the text is verse laid out as prose. I have rearranged this passage according it to its rhythm, as far as I have been able to. 

When the landlord introduces Clodia Pulcher from Rome, Prince Rupert protests that she has been dead for sixteen hundred years. The landlord replies:

"'Not in the world that is her own, my lord.

"'And here may come, from every time and clime,

"'aye, every cranny of reality,

"'whoever finds a way to find the door

"'And brings uncommon tales wherewith to pay.'" (ibid.)

(And I need a food break after that.)

Multiverses

See Anderson And Andrea. 

In addition to discussing the state of this world, Andrea and I also watch superhero TV series that involve inter-universal crossovers within a fictional multiverse.

Worthwhile prose sf that I have read about multiverses includes:

Conquistador by SM Stirling;

Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest in which -

the Prince Rupert of the Rhine from the Shakespearean universe of this novel (A Midsummer Tempest),

Holger Danske from Carolingian myth and from Anderson's Three Hearts And Three Lions,

and Valeria Matuchek from the magical universe of Anderson's Operation Otherworld -

- meet each other in the inter-universal inn, the Old Phoenix, from Anderson's "House Rule" and "Losers' Night," the first cameoing Nicholas van Rijn from Anderson's Technic History and the latter featuring among others Winston Churchill.

We can't get enough of it. (But fortunately Anderson gives us quite a lot.)

Addendum, 29 April: Life has gotten busy here. (I use an Americanism out of respect for Poul Anderson.) So far this year, we have had 440 posts in 4 months so maybe that is enough until some time early next month? On Saturday, there will be a May Day March and Rally in Lancaster and, on Sunday, I might get a lift to a Wesak (The Buddha's Birthday) Festival in Northumberland. Did both last year. (Maybe not many people celebrate both.) Anderson-wise, we are still rereading Harvest The Fire. After that, who knows? Onward through the multiverse.

Poul Anderson's Crossovers

We find that I have written many posts about fictional crossovers.

I think that some of the best such crossovers are to be found in Poul Anderson's works:

Holger Danske is introduced in Three Hearts And Three Lions;

Valeria Matuchek is introduced (indeed, is born and becomes a teenager) in Anderson's Operation Otherworld;

Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest introduces an alternative historical Prince Rupert of the Rhine;

in some chapters of A Midsummer Tempest, the alternative Rupert meets Holger Danske, now lost between universes, and Valeria Matuchek, now a graduate student, in the inter-universal inn, the Old Phoenix;

also in the Old Phoenix but in an Anderson short story, "House Rule," Nicholas van Rijn from Anderson's Technic History drinks with Sancho Panza from Cervantes' Don Quixote and with Eric the Red from history;

Sherlock Holmes appears in Anderson's Time Patrol series and, along with several other fictional characters, in the A Midsummer Tempest epilogue.

While in a divergent timeline, Manse Everard of the Time Patrol could have met and crossed over with a character who was a hero of that timeline. Indeed, Lorenzo de Conti, the personal causal nexus, probably meets that criterion.

Poul Anderson's Leading Characters

Which do we prefer?

Gratillonius, Roman centurion and King of Ys.

Nicholas van Rijn, interstellar merchant.

David Falkayn, interstellar merchant, van Rijn's successor, Founder of the Avalon colony.

Dominic Flandry, Terran Imperial intelligence agent.

Manson Everard, Time Patrolman.

Jack Havig, mutant time traveller.

Hanno, mutant immortal.

Hugh Valland, "antithanatic" immortal.

Prince Rupert of the Rhine.

Valeria Matuchek, daughter of a werewolf and a witch, first human being on the Moon in her timeline.

There are many others but these ten are prominent.

Lieutenant (J.G.) Sergei Karamzin

Ensign Flandry, CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

Karamzin is yet another minor character seen once and never again but he tells us something about the Terran Empire, especially when he says of Dragoika:

"'She's only a xeno.'" (p. 171)

Remember Ensign Quarles' dismissive attitude to xenos.

On Merseia, Flandry had learned that:

"The Merseians were not the antlike monsters which Terran propaganda depicted."

-CHAPTER ELEVEN, p. 107.

So Quarles and Karamzin have been brought up on Terran propaganda and lack Flandry's ability to learn otherwise.

Karamzin, who has been on station in a battleship for a year, is frantic for new faces and news. There has been an unsuccessful attempt to brighten a wardroom with pictures and draperies. Karamzin regards psuedosensory inputs and the galley, which is good, as "'...just medicine...'" (p. 170) and hopes for opposition from the Merseians whereas Flandry, who has already seen action, hopes otherwise.

 

When Karamzin asks Flandry how Dragoika is, Flandry replies that she is his friend, "'...worth a hundred Imperial sheep...'" (p. 171) and should not be spoken of with disrespect. Flandry learns from experience but how many other Terrans do? He thinks of Starkad as:

"...the great globe itself..." (ibid.)

This is Shakespeare, from a passage also quoted by Manse Everard and Prince Rupert, and is highly relevant in view of the imminent fate of Starkad:

 

Our revels now are ended. These our actors, 
As I foretold you, were all spirits and 
Are melted into air, into thin air: 
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, 
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve 
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, 
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff 
As dreams are made on, and our little life 
Is rounded with a sleep. 

William Shakespeare 
From The Tempest, Act 4 Scene 1

(The image shows Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.) 

Historical And Fictional Characters

A historical figure can become a fictional character, e.g.:

Harald Hardrada in Poul Anderson's The Last Viking Trilogy;

Saints Corentine, Patrick and Martin in Poul and Karen Anderson's The King Of Ys Tetralogy;

Croesus and Hiram in Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series.

In Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest, Prince Rupert of the Rhine becomes a fictional character in an alternative history.

This process began in the Bible where a historical book, 2 Kings, refers to a prophet Jonah (14:25) who was later adapted as the central character of a fictional narrative, Jonah. See "In The Belly Of The Whale."

The Wind Answers Twice

A Midsummer Tempest, xxiv.

After Rupert's incantation, the fire sinks, a cloud covers the Moon, stars fade and:

"Only the wind had speech; and its chill gnawed inward." (p. 216)

I frequently say that the wind comments. This time, it is even described as speaking. Rupert concludes that there is no help. But the wind does something else. Sir William - the text should no longer call him "Will" - feels:

"'...liake I war a dudelsack tha wind's about to play a jig for ghosts on.'" (p. 217)

The King and the Prince had not realized that their answer should come through a man of the land. Sir William, who took no part in the incantation, nevertheless responds to it. The fire leaps up, the cloud departs, stars brighten, the Tor opens, horns sound, the Wild Hunt and the Avalonian knights ride forth, ghosts of monks sing, "'Dies irae, dies illa...'" (p. 219)

Into Battle

A Midsummer Tempest, xxiii.

Prince Rupert:

"'If we do naught, we're done; while if we fare and fail, we'll fall together - how better than in battle-brotherhood?'" (p. 213)

(We notice the alliterative verse: fare, fail, fall; better, battle, brother.)

This is always my reply to the Jeremiahs: "We won't succeed in making the world a better place? We certainly won't if we don't try."

Me on a picket line: Defend pensions!
Young worker crossing picket line: There might not be pensions when we retire.
Me: There won't if we don't defend them now!

Scientist campaigning for action on climate change: If we try, we might fail. If we don't try, we will fail.

Onward. Rupert's fight was right insofar as it was against Puritan dictatorship but there were different views on the Parliamentary side, of course.

A Wedding And A King

A Midsummer Tempest, xxiii.

Charles I to Prince Rupert's fiancee, Jennifer Alayne:

"'My lady, if thou hast no near male kin, may I bestow thee on thy wedding day?' (She burned in bewilderment and glory.)" (p. 212)

This reminds us (editorially speaking) of the end of Kevin Costner's Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves. The forest wedding of Robin and Marion is interrupted by soldiers. A familiar voice forbids the ceremony to continue - unless he can give away the bride. Sean Connery (uncredited) plays Richard the Lion Heart returned from the Crusade. When I saw it, there was a silence of recognition in the cinema: Connery is a celebrity to us as Coeur de Lion was to his contemporaries.

Connery's Robin And Marion is IMO the best cinematic treatment of the theme of a man and his legend.

Bodies

A Midsummer Tempest, xxiii.

"'It is Prince Rupert! Rupert has returned! Protect him with your bodies, him and these! Bring him at once, the prince before the King!'" (p. 210)

All men are equal. However, if, during a battle, I was ordered to protect a commander with my body, then I would obey such an order. Prince Rupert or, since I would be on the other side, General Cromwell would have to be protected.

Ironically, if he had no other recourse, a Presidential bodyguard would have to earn his salary by taking a bullet instead of the President - then his family would inherit his salary.

Of course, what we urgently need is a world were such orders and decisions are no longer necessary!

Wholeness And Height

A Midsummer Tempest, xxii.

Prince Rupert tells Ariel:

"'...'tis for the Old Way thou hast drawn thy sword: the wholeness of the living world.'" (p. 200)

This issue goes far beyond the bounds of a single fantasy novel. It must be possible for humanity to benefit from the application of scientific knowledge without at the same destroying the wholeness of the living world, to synthesize new technology with old wholeness. See also Skuld.

Meanwhile, when their boat flies magically, Will closes his eyes and hides whereas Jennifer leans out and waves for as long as possible. I am all the way with Will.

We approach the climax of A Midsummer Tempest but at a leisurely pace, noticing as many details as possible along the way.

Villains Beyond Villains

SM Stirling's several villains beat everyone else's for the sheer purity of their evil whereas Ian Fleming excels at the elaborateness of his villainous organizations and sometimes the upper echelons of such an organization are real people. We will consider examples from Fleming, John Sanders and Poul Anderson.

When James Bond fights Le Chiffre, the latter is assassinated by SMERSH which, at that time, is run by Beria. After Bond has defeated Mr Big of SMERSH, he is confronted by SMERSH's Chief Executioner, Donovan Grant, then by its Head of Operations, Rosa Klebb, but we, the readers, also see the Head of Planning, Kronsteen, and the overall Head, G, who receives a phone call from his superior, Serov. Thus, in SMERSH, there have been two historical figures. As a last gasp of SMERSH, Bond later defeats their treasurer, Goldfinger, whose name is famous although he is fictional. Later, Bond defeats Largo and Uhlmann of SPECTRE before confronting Blofeld twice. See also my ideas for Blofeld's Successors. (For the sake of simplicity, I have enumerated neither the other Russian intelligence chiefs with whom G confers nor the various criminal organizations represented in SPECTRE.)

In John Sanders' historical novels, the villainous organization, the Sealed Knot (a real organization) answers direct to the exiled Stuart (a real person) and that brings us to the reverse situation in Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest, where Prince Rupert's antagonist, Sir Malachi Shelgrave, answers to:

"...a Roundhead officer, to judge from his bearing and russet coat: a strong-built person whose homely features grew mustache, chin-tuft, and warts." (xxi, p. 193)

The warts alone tell us that this is "'...General Cromwell...,'" (p. 194) who also appears in Alan Moore's Jerusalem.

Once Again Through Time II

In the Old Phoenix, Taverner introduces:

"'Messer Leonardo da Vinci... Herr Doktor Albert Einstein....'"
-Poul Anderson, "House Rule" IN Anderson, Fantasy (New York, 1981), pp. 9-20 AT p. 17.

However, he later terminates their conversation:

"'No.'...
"'No, gentlemen,' he said in language after language...
"'I fear I must ask you to change the subject. You would learn more than should be. Both of you.'" (pp. 19-20)

But he does not stop the conversation between Prince Rupert and Valeria Matuchek even though, as a result of this conversation, Rupert returns to the Shakespearean timeline knowing that he must prevent a regicide and all its historical consequences.

Rupert has come from a timeline in which there is no regicide. Therefore, it is permissible, indeed probably necessary, that he return to that timeline and prevent regicide. Da Vinci has come from a timeline in which he did not later have any inkling of Einsteinian relativity. Therefore, it is necessary that he be prevented from conversing any further with Albert Einstein.

Taverner preserves existing timelines just as the Time Patrol preserves the Danellian timeline. We know what happens to the Danellian timeline if a time criminal succeeds despite the efforts of the Time Patrol whereas I am not sure what would happen to da Vinci's timeline if he did return to it with some knowledge of relativity.

It is also clear that da Vinci was possibly intelligent enough to suggest to Einstein where he was going astray, thus in turn changing the nature of Einstein's discoveries, as indeed happened in the goetic universe. See Speculative History.

The Last Of The Things That Are Gone

This is an appropriate title for the last post of today if I finish it soon. Otherwise, it will be the first post of tomorrow.

Gratillonius was the last King of Ys;
Harald Hardrada was the Last Viking;
Emperor Maximilian was the Last of the Knights;
Prince Rupert was the Last Cavalier;
Dominic Flandry will be the Last Knight of Terra.

Founders and Firsts are rightly remembered; but also "Lasts," fighting rearguard actions, epitomizing passing periods.

"'For you and me, and all brave men, my brother,' said Wayne, in his strange chant, 'there is good wine poured in the inn at the end of the world.'"
-GK Chesterton, The Napoleon Of Notting Hill, 1904
-quoted in Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: Worlds' End (New York, 1994), p. 1.

Good night or morning.

Rupert's Religious Rights

(Prince Rupert, The Last Cavalier. We have encountered that type of title before.)

A Midsummer Tempest., ix.

When Rupert is Shelgrave's prisoner, the latter wants him to receive the Puritan minister and:

"'...would give me no chaplain for myself -'" (p. 73)

When he was a prisoner in Linz, Rupert refused to see Jesuits.

I would see the Puritan and the Jesuits to disagree with them but would expect an interesting discussion only with the latter. Meanwhile, I would meditate without needing a chaplain (see here) although a visit from a Zen monk or lay minister would be welcome.

In Lancaster, some member of our meditation group is a chaplain to the Royal Lancaster Infirmary. In theory, each new patient is visited at least once by a chaplain. Thus -

Chaplain: Hello, I am a (fill in the blank) chaplain.

Patient (1): No, thank you.

Patient (2): I am a Catholic and need to see a priest for confession and communion.

The (Zen etc) chaplain refers Patient (2) to the Church of England chaplain who dispatches the Catholic chaplain. If it works properly, then everyone helps everyone else, the patients' needs are addressed and no one is inappropriately proselytized, a vast improvement on the days of the likes of Shelgrave.

POVs In Chapters i And ii

A Midsummer Tempest.

Prince Rupert is the viewpoint character of i. We are told that he waited and was aware, what he thought and that:

"An inner pain touched him." (p. 1)

We are told that he recognized Will and what he saw during the Battle of Marston Moor.

At the end of i, Rupert is captured by Roundheads led by an as yet unnamed knight.

In ii, Rupert and that knight, identified as Sir Malachi Shelgrave, converse in blank verse disguised as prose - except that we notice its singsong rhythm. And, as if this were a play or a film, neither man is the viewpoint character. Both are described as if by a third party observer. When Rupert is annoyed, his fists knot but we are not told how it feels to him. When they walk in silence, we are told that both control their tempers.

After they have entered a railway shed, there is a change of scene which should have been marked by a double space between paragraphs:

"A moment later, a coach and four rattled up a drive which curved to meet the Bradford road." (p.14)

"A moment later..." makes us think that we are still outside the railway shed but the rest of the sentence locates the scene elsewhere. Jennifer Alayne alights from the coach and, on p. 17, sees and recognizes Shelgrave but not his large companion whom we know to be Rupert. Thus, the narrative has acquired a viewpoint character but it is Jennifer.

Is Rupert Right? II

A Midsummer Tempest, ii.

Prince Rupert challenges Sir Malachi Shelgrave:

"...you people prate so much of freedom -' He waved toward the hireling workers in the fields. 'How free are they? No lord looks after them. You're free to let them go in beggary across the gashed and smoky land you'd make.'" (p. 13)

They walk in silence, controlling their tempers. What would I say to Rupert?

Is it freedom to be looked after by a lord?
Did lords "look after" their serfs?
Wage workers are free to organize.

Later, Shegrave looks forward to:

"'...a day when power does not grow from birth or sword, but out of mills and furnaces.'" (p. 14)

The power from mills and furnaces is first the power of their owners but secondly the power of  workers to challenge and ultimately to dispossess the owners.