Cathedral/Forest

The Night Face, VIII.

"They re-entered the cathedral stillness of the forest." (p. 615)

Yes, a forest is a cathedral with trees for columns and leaves for arches. By a "cathedral" here, I mean a large place of worship or, if "worship" is too theistic a term, then a large place for contemplation and awe. Another word is "temple." Of course, "cathedral" means specifically the location of a bishop's cathedra or throne. Bishops are successors of the Apostles who were (believed to be) witnesses of the Resurrection. But that is one tradition. There are many traditions but one mountain-top.

We worship - or contemplate with awe - with Earth below, sky above and ocean to the west and, if we are close enough to the coast, then with ocean also before us. The world is a temple. 

Regular blog readers will realize that this is a post in which I quote a single phrase from a work by Poul Anderson, then hang my own observations from it. But everyone is free to do the same, especially with such rich texts.

Shortly, I will walk across Lancaster to the Gregson Centre for a monthly gathering. Also this evening, Sheila's sister will arrive from Northern Ireland for a month or so. Fiction and life proceed in parallel.

I sometimes meditate in St. Peter's Cathedral, Lancaster. (See image.)

Oil In A Lamp

"'A cold, blustery day, 'twas. I watched that ship dwindle away under the racing clouds till she vanished in the brume, and something made me stop by the temple of Tanith and my way back and put oil in a lamp - not from them, understand, but for all poor mariners, on whom rests the well-being of Tyre.'"

-Poul Anderson, "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, December 2010), pp. 229-331, AT p. 302.

Lancaster City District, where we live, includes Morecambe Bay. Yesterday, walking on the promenade in the town of Morecambe, we saw police cars, an ambulance and a Coast Guard vehicle converging on a single point. A stretcher was carried down to the water's edge. Then a policeman walked back inland, telling us all to clear the area. 

Not only mariners are at risk at sea. Morecambe Bay is tidal. In 2004, when I was working in Morecambe, a group of illegal cockle pickers drowned. I have just googled and found a report of the incident yesterday.

Oil to Tanith - or a candle in St. Peter's Cathedral, Lancaster.

Living In The Technic History

Poul Anderson fandom becomes a state of mind. I wonder what Britain will be like in the Terran Empire especially since this island will have a Mayor Palatine in Flandry's time. When Flandry is a guest of the Mayor, it is in his lodge on Catalina so we do not see anything of Britain. Will London have engulfed the entire South? Will the Lake District, Morecambe Bay and Lancaster Castle have been preserved? I expect that country roads will be buried under grass and forest unless someone has kept them clear for recreational purposes. I imagine Flandry visiting Lancaster Priory Church or St. Peter's Church in Heysham - the latter already over one thousand years old - and again wondering about contact with Kossara.

When I see birds, I think of Ythrians. There are birds of prey at Muncaster Castle in Cumbria. Seagulls scavenge along the coast. In Caernarfon, Wales, seagulls swooped down to take food from customers' plates on tables outside cafes. I imagine Ythrians - although not stealing food, of course. If I lived on Avalon, then I would want to join a choth and to participate in Khruaths, not to vote for the Parliament of Man, but it would have to be a new kind of choth that combined what its members regarded as the best aspects of Ythrian and human traditions, e.g., the rule of law as against deathpride or duels. We would participate in Oherran by boycott, not by violence. From Avalon, I would want to visit Hermes and Dennitza.

If I lived on Earth in that timeline, then I would prefer it to be during the Solar Commonwealth, working for a government service or department, not for any of the Home Companies, and a member of the relevant trade union. 

Is time travel possible in the Technic History timeline? As a matter of fact, yes. It is possible to pass from that timeline to the inter-universal inn, the Old Phoenix. Therefore, it should be possible to re-enter the timeline at an earlier time. This is probably against the rules for ordinary guests of the inn but it should be feasible for magically propelled travelers like Valeria Matuchek or Holger Danske.

I have recently stopped driving a car. I would not be able to cope with an aircar unless it was 100% self-driving.

There is probably more to be said about living in the Technic History.

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.

Cathedrals

Westminster Abbey
York Minster
Notre Dame
St Peter's, Lancaster
the Cathedral of Domkirk
St Clement's Cathedral

I have probably missed some.

Future Catholicisms

(St Peter's Cathedral, Lancaster.)

There is:

a Jerusalem Catholic Church in Poul Anderson's Technic History;

a Neocatholic Church in Anderson's For Love And Glory;

a Reform Catholic Church in Anderson's Starfarers;

a Reformed Catholic Church on Wunderland in Jerry Pournelle's and SM Stirling's "The Hall of the Mountain King";

an Imperial Church, recognizably Catholic, in Pournelle's CoDominium future history.

Anderson and Pournelle present the inner thoughts and points of view of characters who subscribe to their future versions of Catholicism whereas Pournelle & Stirling, at least in the passage to which I refer, merely mention that there is a Reformed Catholic church in a town among the Jotun Mountains. Nevertheless, this is enough to establish the existence of such a Church.

"The Hall of the Mountain King" is an installment of the Man-Kzin Wars sub-series of Larry Niven's Known Space future history. Thus, this single reference establishes the existence of a Reformed Catholic Church in the Known Space timeline. This denomination may never be referred to again. Alternatively, some contributor to the series could build a story around it. How was the Church "reformed"? Might a kzinti Kdaptist, believing that God made Man in His image, seek admittance to a Terrestrial religion? Etc. See here.