Connections

The previous post directly linked The Merman's Children back to The Broken Sword which is one of Poul Anderson's five Norse fantasies:

The Broken Sword

Hrolf Kraki's Saga

The Demon Of Scattery

War Of The Gods

Mother Of Kings

The Merman's Children is one of three novels by Poul Anderson set in the fourteenth century:

Rogue Sword

The Merman's Children

The High Crusade

Sean M. Brooks found an unexpected connection between Rogue Sword and The High Crusade.

The five Norse novels are separated chronologically only by Anderson's The Last Viking Trilogy:

The Golden Horn

The Road of the Sea Horse

The Sign of the Raven

- which is preceded by Poul and Karen Anderson's The King of Ys Tetralogy:

Roma Mater

Gallicenae

Dahut

The Dog and The Wolf

- which in turn is preceded only by Poul Anderson's three novels set B.C.:

Conan The Rebel

The Dancer From Atlantis

The Golden Slave

Every time that I try to summarize a part of Anderson's past fiction, I wind up summarizing all of it.

Conversion

Uncountable individuals are born into and move between major religious and secular world views. Why does anyone convert from one belief to another? People try, to differing extents, to understand life and are not always satisfied with received answers.

In Surprised By Joy, CS Lewis explains his conversion to Christianity. His conversion process involved philosophical reasoning that I disagree with. When I told a fellow school pupil that I had read a book about Lewis' conversion, I was asked, "Oh, did CS Lewis become Catholic?" In that milieu, "conversion" meant Protestant becoming Catholic, not sceptic becoming Christian. I thought at the time that that was exceedingly narrow.

A graduate student that I knew was a teenage convert from Islam to Christianity but strongly influenced by Hinduism. He felt able to attend a Hindu Temple while seeing Christ at the centre. When I asked an adult convert to Catholicism, "Why?," she said only, "Well, the first time I came into a Catholic church, I felt as if I had come home...," then, "So I made enquiries about the Catholic Faith and realized that there was no turning back!" That was all.

In Poul Anderson's Technic History, Adzel and Axor have converted to different Terrestrial religions but there is no story about either conversion. Poul and Karen Anderson do describe a conversion to Christianity in The King Of Ys, Volume IV, The Dog And The Wolf. Corentinus asks Gratillonius whether he believes in the one God, His Son and Their Spirit, with a few more doctrinal details. Gratillonius replies that he does and thinks that he must.

Why must he? Gratillonius' cultural environment has always assumed allegiance to gods although there has been some variety. He feels that Mithras has failed him. At the same time, he is surrounded by friends and colleagues who are Christians and the Empire that he had served was officially Christian. He is simply moving with history by becoming Christian just as later generations will move with history into other world views.

The Dog And The Wolf II

"'The Lady Jessica ordered you to differentiate between the wolf and the dog, between ze'eb and ke'leb. By her definition a wolf is someone with power who misuses that power. However, between wolf and dog there is a dawn period when you cannot distinguish between them.'"

-Frank Herbert, Children of Dune (New York, 1977), p. 372.

"'The dog remembers the wolf.'" (ibid.)

(I do not know what ze'eb and ke'leb are.)

See The Dog And The Wolf.

Thus, this distinction between dog and wolf or vice versa is in a tetralogy by Poul and Karen Anderson, a novel by Jerry Pournelle and SM Stirling and a novel by Frank Herbert. Herbert's texts contain passages which read as if they are meant to come across as profound. I am still proceeding toward the end of Children of Dune in small chunks but mainly doing other reading.

Legends

The Dog And The Wolf, XXV.

"'They'll remember [Dahut] with Ys, a legend, a hearthside story on winter nights.'" (p. 502)

"A few traditions survive from ancient times - among them, perhaps, the story of Ys." (Notes, XXV, p.528)

Poul Anderson imagines that this process of experience becoming legend continues into multiple futures:

"'You frontier people  are the healthy ones. You'll be around - most of you - long after the Empire is a fireside legend.'"

-Poul Anderson, "Hunters of the Sky Cave" IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight of Terra (Riverdale, NY, March 2012), pp. 149-301 AT VIII, p. 206.

Will they have firesides that far in the future? They will have their equivalents. And, in that particular future, mankind is so widely dispersed across the galaxy that it will not become extinct. Our immediate future is another matter.

Mercy

The Dog And The Wolf, XXV, 4.

Gratillonius questions Corentinus:

"'Might God have taken [Dahut] to Him after all?'

"'It is not for us to set bounds on His mercy...'" (pp 502-503)

Corentinus believes that "His mercy" is boundless. Christian apologists reply that creatures can freely reject God's mercy. However, an omnipotent creator creates every aspect of each of His creatures, including the motivations that determine their free choices. "Free" can mean only "unconstrained." At the end of Poul Anderson's The Merman's Children, Fr. Tomislav draws universalist conclusions. Universalism is belief in the salvation of all. I do not accept Tomislav's theist premise but I do think that his conclusion is logical.

Into Night

 

The Dog And The Wolf, XXV, 4.

"Sundown at their backs, they rode into night." (p. 504)

This is the concluding prose sentence of The King of Ys, Volume IV, The Dog And The Wolf. It is followed by the five line poem beginning: "Would you know the dog from the wolf?...," then, on the following pages, by Notes, Afterword, Geographical Glossary and Dramatis Personae.

"...they rode into night..." is a generic ending. We all ride into night. Is there anything more to be said? Well, we can do something worthwhile before the sun goes down. We commune with those who went before by reading what they wrote.

Conclusion

The Dog And The Wolf, XXV.

The King of Ys covers twenty five years, beginning and ending on the Birthday of Mithras.

While exorcising Dahut, Corentinus, echoing the opening lines of Paradise Lost, says that Satan:

"',,,brought death into the world...'" (p. 501)

He did not. Does anyone still believe that the first human beings and all their descendants would have been physically immortal if not for an original act of disobedience to a divine command? Death was part of life before us and we are part of life.

There might be further reflections on rereading to the end of The King of Ys but that is all for now. Tomorrow I again visit Andrea above the Old Pier Bookshop.

Old Gods

The Dog And The Wolf, XXIV, 5.

Nemeta tells Tera:

"'But you serve the old Gods yet... Not the Gods of Ys but of your own people, Cernunnos, Epona, Teutatis, Those Who once were mighty here and may still keep a little, little strength to help Their last few worshippers.'" (p. 486)

In a pagan perspective, "Which Gods (exist and) are active here?" and "Which Gods are worshipped here?" are the same question. In that sense, the perspective is empirical. To answer the question(s), it is necessary merely to inquire to Whom local prayers and temples are dedicated.

What becomes of Gods Who are no longer worshipped? There is a short story by Lester del Rey in which They become human. The best fictional answers that I know are in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. See:

Where Do Gods Go?

And Death Says...

A joke answer by Alan Moore is mentioned in:

The Approach To Ys

See also:

Where Did The Gods Go?

My own reflections on gods, God and the One have been revised since the last time I linked to them.

Gratillonius And Dahut

The Dog And The Wolf.

Gratillonius' work is unstinting, sending Evirion to Britannia to negotiate joint patrols at sea and joint actions against the barbarians and visiting other continental regions to argue that they too can break from Rome but must cooperate with Armorica. It took a long time for Gratillonius to accept that expulsion of Roman officials was necessary and he always understood that to have himself proclaimed Emperor would be not to solve the problems but to exacerbate them. 

He also drives himself as he does in order to forget Dahut but the time must come when action has to be taken against her. The story of Ys will not end until she does and that must be soon because we draw close to the end of Volume IV of the Tetralogy.

Catto's Religion

The Dog And The Wolf, XXIV, 1.

"...Cattto, embittered at the Gods of Ys, soon learned to call on Christ." (p. 468)

Does Catto accept Christ as his Lord and Saviour or does he just call on Christ as a powerful god? If the latter, then Catto has not become a Christian but remains a pagan. This is not a value judgment on my part - or it might be but the other way around. I have no problem with anyone who calls on gods but Christians introduced intolerance and can be offensive. 

Catto advises his sons, Surach and Esun:

"'Pray God - nay, He'll ha' no ear for the likes of us - ask holy Martinus if he'll bring us in safe, for 'tis out of our hands now.'" (p. 469)

Martinus, a character earlier in The King of Ys, has now been canonised. Emperors were deified but saints are canonised. Catto has not (yet) absorbed the idea of a single omnipresent deity equally responsive to all prayers. His metaphysic embraces an unapproachable supreme being and finite but powerful beings like Martinus who might help. Next, from Catto, we hear:

"'I'll give the Powers whatever they want for our lives...'" (ibid.)

So Martinus is one of the Powers?

Surach clutches an amulet and mouths spells. All three flee when they hear Dahut singing. They lose their ship, Catto dies of a fever, Esun becomes a deckhand and Surach a docker. Is Dahut, empowered by the Three of Ys, more powerful than the new God? Wait until an exorcist comes.

Fickle And Miserly

The Dog And The Wolf.

Uail maqq Carbri of Tuath Caelchon in Mide:

"'...that would have been as the Gods willed, and a fickle lot They are, as every sailor and warrior well knows.'" (XXIII, 5, p. 466)

Manson Emmert Everard, Unattached agent, Time Patrol:

"A man had to take whatever the gods offered him, and they were a miserly lot."

-Poul Anderson, "Brave To Be A King" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, December 2010), pp. 55-112 AT 4, p. 74.

Uail believes in the literal existence of "the Gods." Everard does not. But both use polytheistic language to express their experience of life. Such language comes easily to Everard because he spends time in societies where that is the conceptual framework.

"Under the moon, first with mistletoe, second with drawn blades, last with blood from themselves, by Lug and Christ and the threefold Mother, they plighted their faith." (XXII, 6, p. 448)

These names are relevant if they inspire the men who are plighting their faith.

Into Battle

The Dog And The Wolf, XXI, 2.

Scouts report an advancing Germanic host. Skirmishers draw them on. Dwellers in a nearby village flee. Gratillonius, Saloman and other mounted men wait on a hill. Below them, three thousand men, members of defence brotherhoods, stand in four lines. To one side is a group of Roman veterans, former Ysan marines, with young men that they have trained, and Frankish volunteers. Foresters hide in the woods.

Mounted men

Brotherhoods

Veterans etc

Foresters

Surviving skirmishers run down the opposite hill, followed by about two thousand loping Germani carrying standards and forming a wedge, soon hit by arrows and shots from slings. Brotherhood men lower pikes as the Germani strike. The line holds. Gratillonius sends a boy to tell the foresters to emerge from the woods and sends Saloman to join the veterans who have made assaults reel back so that the Germani now go round them. Reserves from the rear join the now ragged line. Cadoc leads the foresters whose wedge pierces the Germanic wedge in flank and rear. When Gratillonius' trumpeter sounds the charge, Saloman leads the veterans against the Germanic left. Gratillonius rides behind the line encouraging the men in the names of Christ, Lug, Epona, Cernunnos and Hercules. Then, going in front of the line with his fellow riders, he leads them in a charge, some with lances but most with swords. His horse, Favonius, kicks and bites. The Germani break. Armorican archers and slingers butcher some small defensive groups. Horse and infantry chase and kill the fleers. About a hundred escape but most will be killed by the populace. A very few will tell the horde what they had met: a line that held and three counterattacks.

Into The Future

The Dog And The Wolf, XXI, 1.

"I am committed, Gratillonius thought. There's no way back. But where is it we're bound?" (p. 411)

"We do not know where we are going. Nor do most of us know. For us it is enough that we are on our way.

"-Le Matelot."

-Poul Anderson, INTRODUCTION HIDING PLACE IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, December 2009), pp. 555-556 AT p. 556.

"The entire organization was so vast that he could not really appreciate the fact. He had entered something new and exciting, that was all he truly grasped with all layers of consciousness...as yet."

-Poul Anderson, "Time Patrol" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, December 2010), pp. 1-53 AT 2, p. 13.

In Poul Anderson's three main series, his characters approach the future with apprehension or anticipation. I agree with those Ythrians in the Technic History who see the shadow of God the Hunter across the future.

Many People

In The King of Ys, Volume IV, The Dog And The Wolf, some chapters or chapter sections begin with a change of time, place and person:

"Publius Flavius Drusus, old soldier, came in from his farm..." (IV, 1, p. 81)

"Titus Scribona Glabrio, civil governor of Lugdunensis Tertia, received Quintus Domitius Bacca, his procurator..." (V, 1, p. 96)

"Tera, who had kept sheep and led rites among those folk who sparsely dwelt in the hinterland of Ys, knew she would never know peace in Aquilo." (VIII, 5, p. 166)

"Immediately after Easter, Evirion Baltisi travelled overland..." (IX, 1, p. 170)

"Late on a drizzly day, Bannon of Dochaldun reached the cabin." (X, 1, p. 189)

"Eochaid maqq Endae held an islet in a narrow bay of the Alban Dal Riata coast." (XVII, 2, p. 333)

"Flavius Vortivir, tribune at Darioritum Venetorum, was a hard man but righteous in his fashion." (XIX, 2, p. 375)

"...Brick and tile, the house of Septimius Rullus was among those that had escaped conflagration." (XX, 3, p. 397)

"There were three who sat behind a long table in a room of the basilica: the Duke of the Armorican Tract, the governor of Lugdenensis Tertia, and his procurator." (XXI, 5, p. 422)

"'Hail, Caesar!' boomed the deep young voices.

"From the towertop where he stood, Constantinus saw widely over those domains that were his." (XXI, 6, p. 425)

"There was a man named Catto who was a fisher at Whalestrand..." (XXIV, 1, p. 468)

Half of these characters are here introduced for the first time. The narrative has progressed a considerable distance from the immediate aftermath of the destruction of Ys. We are not sure how much time elapses but we remember that Gratillonius and Verania will have both a son and a daughter before this volume concludes. The text communicates the sense that the consequences of earlier dramatic events spread outwards affecting more and more people while at the same time the contemporaneous withdrawal of Rome is of even graver significance. Gratillonius, like Dominic Flandry, resists the descending darkness.

Adventures Of Evirion

The Dog And The Wolf, XIX, 3-4.

Unable to go to sea because of pirate activity, Evirion Baltisi:

"...could find no work unless it be as a common labourer, and he would not stoop to that." (p. 378)

He should. The text continues:

"Nor could he, without fatal damage to his authority over his crew, should Brennilis ever put to sea again." (ibid.)

Then he needs to educate his crew, to show them that he is versatile enough to work either as a labourer or as a sea captain, even if their social system and prejudices remain hidebound and stratified. Gratillonius, the King, engages in physical work.

"Summer was then well along, a bleak one this year, chill rains and fleeting pale sunshine. However, for a time it grew hot. Through several days the weather smouldered with never a cloud..." (3, p. 378)

More about seasons and weather.

At last a resolution to a long drawn out tale of spite and animosity - Nagon Demari tries to have Nemeta arrested for witchcraft and Evirion kills him:

"'Oh, Lydris,' bubbled from [Nagon's] mouth - the name of his wife." (4, p. 384)

As with Benoni Strang in Poul Anderson's Mirkheim, we sympathise with a villain as he dies.

Gratillonius' Policies

 

The Dog And The Wolf, XIX.

Gratillonius's social policies are extremely enlightened:

"As for the basilica in Aquilo, it was full of the homeless and the orphaned. Corentinus supported him in the idea that their needs outweighed the government's." (1, p. 372)

"'What with the refugees we're getting, we'll skirt the edge of famine ourselves.'" (p. 373)

"'Whoever comes to us does it of his own choice.'" (2, p. 375)

"'We're accused of harbouring runaways. All I can reply is that we aren't magicians, to hear men's inner thoughts. Idlers, thieves, and ruffians don't get leave to stay. If someone believes he can identify a person who belongs elsewhere, he is free to come and try.'" (ibid.)

There is an entrenched prejudice that smears all refugees as idlers, thieves and ruffians.

Gratillonius:

fights and kills brigands and pirates and commandeers their booty to pay the exorbitant taxes of those who would otherwise be impoverished;

accepts refugees and anyone willing to work;

does not accept idlers, thieves or ruffians;

pays extra cash contributions for Imperial defence;

does business with those who do not understand patriotism but at least understand business;

organises an armed defence force discretely when this is necessary but has been declared illegal.

Can you find any fault with Gratillonius?

Political Realism

The Dog And The Wolf, XVIII, 5.

Procurtor Bacca at last gets the message. Apuleius dies and must by replaced as tribune in Aquilo. Who better to replace him than Gratillonius who is not rebellious, is able, has a large popular following, is helping the community to thrive and has protected it from its enemies?

"'Set grievances aside... This is for Rome.'" (p. 370)

History is full of examples of realistic political decisions and of former opponents burying the hatchet. Harder to appease will be Bacca's henchman, Nagon Demari, who is motivated solely by implacable hatred of Gratillonius.

Lived Wisdom

The Dog And The Wolf, XVIII, 3.

Tera, widow of Maeloch:

"...what use in fretting? Each gladsome day we have lived is the one treasure that no one can rob us of.'" (p. 365)

Every good day that we have lived is safely in the remembered past. Every bad day is there as well but our assessment of them is different and we can usually learn from them. 

What Tera might fret about is Saxon raids. Even if we are in a part of the world where military attack is not imminent, we might fret about the consequences of our own past collective actions. But - without denying any of the threats - we can continue to enjoy immediate experience, like Tera with her gladsome days. This weekend, we have a 1940s Revival. I was born in 1949 so do not remember World War II but grew up in its aftermath. People older than me remember good and bad times.

Church And State, Greed And Hate

The Dog And The Wolf.

"Sanctuary: This issue was an early one in that conflict between Church and state which was to dominate Western history for centuries and shape much of the new civilization." (p. 520)

This is one of the Andersons' notes to Chapter XVIII. In that chapter, Corentinus says that, if a bishop has freedom to use his own judgement in every sanctuary case, then:

"'It sets the Church above the state: as is fit and proper, of course.'" (2, p. 360)

No, Corentinus. You need to have some experience of a society where Christianity is just one religion. Church-state separation is necessary and is what we maybe learned from that Medieval Church-state conflict which is central to the culminating section of Poul Anderson's The Shield of Time. 

("Church and state, greed and hate" comes from Ape and Essence by Aldous Huxley.) 

Dahut And Nemeta

The Dog And The Wolf, XVIII, 1.

Dahut can pursue her vengeance as far as the tidal waters reach up the rivers. Yesterday, walking by the River Lune, we met two Coast Guards whose work extends as far as the tidal waters reach up the river. 

Nemeta is content to remain a witch with her cats in the woods, especially since Dahut cannot reach here there. Nemeta tells Gratillonius:

"'Father, 'tis you I sometimes weep for.'

"Wind moaned in the trees. The first raindrops fell down it." (p. 358)

The wind is going to moan, isn't it, when Gratillonius' daughter talks about weeping for him? And the rain falls in sympathy. Nemeta is the last worshipper of the Three of Ys and the first witch of the Dark Ages. The narrative moves gradually from the last days of the Western Roman Empire to the earliest days of the subsequent history that is already known to us.