York And Lancaster

Some of Poul Anderson's characters visit York and this blog is written in Lancaster. These are the two "Roses" cities.

In York yesterday, we:

visited the Minster;

visited the home of a Catholic martyr, which is now a chapel;

bought Yorkshire curd tart;

bought hand-made wooden kitchen cutlery from a Ukrainian market stall holder;

had a good time.

We are still reading SM Stirling's The Lords Of Creation for the first time.

Two Places And A Sparrow

The Avatar, XXIV-XXV.

"'...a cold and brilliant night at Machu Picchu.'" (XXIV, p. 206)

A recording on a giant viewscreen of York Minster:

"...was not static but moved slowly around the delicate facades, soaring and intricate vaults, glowing windows of that loveliest of medieval churches." (XXV, p. 215)

Two places that are seen elsewhere in Poul Anderson's works. 

Are the Others who constructed the T machines:

"'Like God? 'His eye is on the sparrow.'" (XXIV, p. 208)

A Biblical allusion.

The Avatar shares the same rich background as Anderson's other works.

Memories Of Earth

Starfarers, 12.

Before dying on a planet of Delta Pavonis, old Michael Shaughnessy remembers:

Newgrange

a parish church

York Minster

Chartres Cathedral

the University of Salamanca

the portrait of the Empress Theodora at Ravenna

Michelangelo's Day of Judgment

the Parthenon

Egyptian tombs

Shwe Dagon

the Great Wall

the Forbidden City

Kyoto

Virginia hills known to Washington and Jefferson

Machu Picchu

We recognize some places from other Poul Anderson works.

Shaughnessy tells this to the winds of a planet where his wife was buried centuries before.

This character has given us a glimpse of Nansen's career before Envoy, an introduction to the Kith and now memories of the Earth that was.

The history continues.

Diversity

Genesis, PART TWO, VII, 7.

(Numbers are expressed in Roman letters, a Roman numeral and an Arabic numeral.)

Laurinda and Christian attend Mass in York Minster in the 1900 of a timeline where there had been no Reformation: dimness, glories, chants and incense. In the York Minster of our timeline, I have meditated in a side chapel and attended an Evensong service where God was thanked for the lives of the founders of the Salvation Army and the Missionaries of Charity.

I appreciate the Hindu response to religious diversity, discussed in the combox here. In India, Hinduism incorporated the Buddha as a divine incarnation but Buddhism survived as a separate tradition by spreading through Asia. Although Hindus can also accept Christ as a divine incarnation, Christianity and several other traditions have maintained their integrity alongside Hinduism. There are synagogues with Indian Jewish congregations and the first European Christian missionaries to India found episcopal churches claiming apostolic succession from St Thomas. Sikhism is long established as a tradition distinct from its Hindu and Muslim origins. If, in SM Stirling's The Peshawar Lancers, some Anglicans had accepted absorption into Hinduism, others would not have. The diversity within Hinduism reflects the diversity without. 

Announcing The End Of The World

Sometimes a single phrase in a single text raises a question that generates references to an unmanageable number of other texts.

How will the end of the world be announced - or presaged? Is "the world" Earth or the universe? Do we mean the end of everything or only of the present world order? Will the end, in whichever sense, arrive unannounced?

In Paris, on the Left Bank overlooking the Boulevard St. Germain, in 1902:

"Everard tried not to remember that in a dozen years this world would crash to ruin."

-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), PART ONE, 1902 A. D., p. 119.

 

The precursors of the Jehovah's Witnesses had predicted the end of the world - or at least the end of the present sinful world order - in 1914 and subsequently, of necessity, reinterpreted it. Thus, a supernatural event occurred then but the end will come soon.

 

In Anderson's After Doomsday, spaceships re-enter the Solar System after Earth has been sterilized. Its inhabitants would have had no warning. In his Tau Zero, the crew of a relativistic spaceship sees the universe fading and contracting. However, the sterilized Earth will be re-seeded and the contracted universe re-expands so is there an end? In Anderson's Harvest Of Stars and Genesis, the latter a highly appropriate title, consciousness and intelligence might survive the heat death of the universe.

(A British TV program is just now showing the East window in York Minster which begins with (the Biblical) Genesis and ends with Apocalypse.)

Before the Ragnarok, three cocks crow, in Jotunheim, Hel and Asgard, respectively. See Cockcrow, Addendum. 

 

See also Gabriel's horn.

 

I could also reference James Blish, Isaac Asimov, Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman but perhaps Anderson alone, plus Voluspa and Apocalypse, is comprehensive enough? 

 

This post was initiated by a passage in which James Bond reflects that Goldfinger, funding SMERSH, is:

 

"...piling up the surplus for the day when the trumpets would sound in the Kremlin and every golden sinew would be mobilized."

-Ian Fleming, Goldfinger (London, 1959), CHAPTER 7, p. 64.

 

So the free world would have ended when, metaphorically of course, trumpets sounded in the Kremlin? Unlikely and, in any case, did not happen.

Manse's Memories

Poul Anderson, "Delenda Est" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 173-228, 2.

Everard's memories of his home timeline when he seems to have lost it:

broad plains
tall mountains
prideful cities
his parents
his father lifting him high
a girl at college
Bernie Aaronson, beer, smoke, talk
Phil Brackney, machine guns in France
the Whitcombs, high tea in Victorian London
the Denisons, chrome eyrie above New York
Jack Sandoval, Arizona crags
a dog
Dante's austere cantos
Shakespeare's ringing thunder
York Minster
the Golden Gate Bridge
a man's life
billions of human beings

He is in a timeline where all that had never been. We recognize the Whitcombs, the Denisons and Sandoval from earlier Time Patrol stories. We remember York Minster, the Golden Gate Bridge and a Shakespearean timeline from other works by Anderson.

There is also the question of whether there ever will be a scientific revolution in the Carthaginian timeline.

A Theory Of History And An Alternative History

In The George And Dragon, I focused on the George and Dragon so I skipped past the alternative history which, however, had been discussed in several previous post. See here. The idea that the ecclesiastical conciliar movement might have prevented the Reformation is part of the Hordian theory of history which is a strong link to Poul Anderson's Technic History.

Christian and Laurinda attend Mass in York Minster. See image. (When Sheila and I attended Evensong there once, God was thanked for the lives of the founders of the Salvation Army and of the Missionaries of Charity.)

This Alternative History
Bishops regained powers lost to the Papacy;
the Church was reconciled with the Hussites;
there were no wars of religion;
the Church counterbalanced the state;
thus, absolute monarchies were prevented (link to the Time Patrol);
there was no Thirty Years' War to devastate Germany;
nor was Germany divided into principalities;
instead, it was unified in the 17th century;
soon it became the dominant European power;
it colonized and conquered to the east;
it had irreconcilable religious and cultural differences with the Slavs;
the harsh imperium provoked rebellion;
it also decayed and disintegrated;
thus, in 1900, the Russians advance on Berlin;
science and technology have developed more slowly;
there is a fossil fuel industry and a Lagrangian level of theory;
parliaments are more powerful than kings, emperors or popes;
beyond 1900, scientific and technological progress accelerate;
there is a long turbulent period...;
Christian says, "'Never mind!'" (Genesis, PART TWO, VII, 7, p. 188)

Their Base Emulation III

Genesis, PART TWO, VII, 6.

I knew that that there would be more about this emulation. Having witnessed conflict in an emulated Hellenic timeline, Christian and Laurinda return to the peace of their mid-eighteenth century Surrey estate where:

huge white clouds are blue-shadowed;;
sunlight spills;
poppies blaze;
grain goldens;
green pasture stretches;
cattle drowse;
an oak is broad-crowned;
hoofs thump;
saddles creak;
horse smell is sweet;
herbs are pungent;
a blackbird whistles.

After the horror that they have seen, the next place that they visit is also peaceful, York Minster in the 1900 of a history where there had been no Reformation.

This World

Finding themselves in another world, some characters remember and appreciate this world.

Manse Everard recalls his friends, including characters from previous stories, and:

"...the austere cantos of Dante and the ringing thunder of Shakespeare; the glory which was York Minster and the Golden Gate Bridge..."
-Poul Anderson, "Delenda Est" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 173-228 AT 2, p. 184.

In Three Hearts And Three Lions, CHAPTER THREE, Holger Carlsen recalls (I will rewrite them as a list):

the graceful spires of Copenhagen;
moors, beaches and wide horizons in Jutland;
ancient towns in green dales on the islands;
the skyward arrogance of New York;
the mist on San Francisco Bay made gold by the sunset.

While he is riding into Faerie, Holger remembers what reads like an even more fabulous realm.

Operation Luna: Miscellaneous VI

Operation Luna.

In Steve Matuchek's study (20, p. 175):

books by Mark Twain;
books by Jack London;
mystery novels;
Arizona Flyways;
Decatur's sword (scroll down);
Hoppe's No. 9.

Searching the blog for "Decatur" revealed an earlier reference to him in Poul Anderson's "The Pugilist," which I had completely forgotten.

Frogmorton's garden path is "...lined with zinnias." (21, p. 183)

Steve and Ginny visit a church on Oglethorpe Street in York, near the Minster. (22, p. 197) I have found a lane called Oglethorpe in York, near the Minster. In the church, the altar looks rococo and the stained glass lacks the Burne-Jones influence.

Frogmorton deciphered Mayan and Aztec inscriptions by animating copies (?), a technique which has cracked Minoan Linear A. (20, p. 181) For more on Frogmorton, see here.

Steve thinks that he will be able to handle Fu Ch'ing's dacoits. (21, p. 193)

The Contemporary In The Cosmic III

In Operation Luna, Poul Anderson describes the York that we know (see York Minster) even though this, otherwise indistinguishable, York is on an alternative Earth where:

magic works;

air travel is by broomsticks or flying carpets;

the two American visitors are a werewolf and a witch whose daughter will later meet Prince Rupert of the Rhine and Holger Danske while traveling between universes;

the Devil/the Adversary is a real and active being;

Hell is a low entropy universe with distorted space-time;

there is contact with Heaven and a route to Yggdrasil;

evil supernatural beings have emigrated to the Moon;

an enchanted sword speaks;

etc.

Can our York coexist with all that? Many who have lived there have believed in at least some of these things.

Cathedrals

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

I have probably missed some.

Again York Minster And The Haunting Of Europe

For previous references both to York and to its Minster, see here.

In Poul Anderson, The Avatar, XXV, Ira Quick projects a moving picture of the Minster, with a Gregorian chant on the sound track, onto a giant screen. This "...loveliest of medieval churches..." (p. 215) reminds Quick of Terrestrial achievements that are now threatened by interstellar contact - as he sees it. Extra-solar intelligences are merely "inhuman..."

In XXIV, Frieda von Moltke says that the Others, who constructed the T machines, haunt the extra-solar Betans "'...more than Christ haunted Europe...'" (p. 213)

More than that? Have the Betans focused systems of belief, hope and even architecture on the Others? Europeans now have access to every tradition. They can either ignore Christianity or locate it in a wider context, e.g., see Teachings.

Which significant political tract opens by stating that a specter is haunting Europe?

The Corridors Of History

Time And York was occasioned by a TV program about York Minster presented by Tony Robinson. A link from the latter post leads to other posts about different periods in English history.

I have found that reading either historical fiction or time travel fiction can lead into reading history, e.g., Simon Schama's A History Of Britain based on a TV series.

Time And York

York Minster features prominently in works by Poul Anderson. See here.

The Minster took 242 years to build, from 1230 to 1472. Thus, twelve generations knew this cathedral only as a building site.

The Minster has a uniformed police force answerable to the Dean and Chapter of the Minster, not to the Chief Constable. This seems to make it the oldest continuously existing police force anywhere, just as Britain has a very long tradition of fighting ships loyal to the king.

The Time Patrol has an office in London in 1000 A.D. which sends material and clothes to Agents Everard and Whitcomb when they have to travel from the London office in 1894 to 464 A.D. It may be the office in 1000 A.D. that has oversight of the building and early history of the Minster, possibly delegating a small team, a temporal equivalent of the Minster police force, to counteract any potential interruptions to the more than two centuries of building work. It would be an easy matter for some accident or extra-temporal interference to halt the work, thus changing the subsequent history of England.

Learning History IV

(York with the Minster.)

See Learning History III.

In Europe, the Edwardian period was called the belle epoque." (p. 184)

In York Minster, the windows include the Five Sisters. (ibid.)

Christian and Laurinda hear Mass at the tierce hour, then, after, the Nunc Dimittis, wander around the Minster. (p. 185)

This alternative York has "...somehow Teutonic architecture." The George and Dragon public house is in a Tudor building and serves Continental beer. (p. 186)

In this emulated history, the conciliar movement succeeded. The Councils of Constance and Basel healed the Great Schism and made a reconciliation with the Hussites. (p. 187) In Poul Anderson's SFWA Bulletin article, he tells us that John K. Hord regarded the Council of Basel as the beginning of the breakdown of Western European civilization.

Acknowledgments

Poul Anderson, American and agnostic, shows us contemporary York (see York Minster) and presents Catholic characters, like van Rijn and Axor, sympathetically. SM Stirling presents authentic British characters, like Sir Nigel Loring, and settings, like Newport Pagnell, and understands every religion that he writes about.

Further, Stirling acknowledges his sources. Thus, let us on this blog also thank:

Steve Brady for assistance with dialects and British background;
Kier Salmon for help with the Old Religion;
Diana L. Paxson for information on Asatru;
Dale Price for help with Catholic organization, theology and praxis.

Stirling also acknowledges other sources but here I focus specifically on the British and religious backgrounds.

SM Stirling, The Tears Of The Sun (New York, 2011), Acknowledgments.

Tourist Trips And Traps

(Woburn Abbey.)

SM Stirling's Emberverse Vol II, The Protector's War (New York, 2006), begins at Woburn Abbey, England, in 2006 AD, Change Year Eight. An ex-SAS man thinks:

"I've been here before..." (p. 1)

So have I, although too long ago to remember anything.

"In 1953 the eleventh duke had opened [the Abbey] to the paying public, complete with golf course, pub, guided tours and antique shop - and avoided the forced sales which so many of his peers suffered after the Second World War." (p.2)

There is a lot of that in England. Also, former private residences are outdoor pursuits centers etc.

It is always interesting to read a North American author's account of a visit to a historic site in England. In particular, see York Minster.

Records Of What Did Not Happen

This post should be called "Records Of What Did Not Happen In The Current Timeline." Each timeline has three spatial dimensions and one temporal dimension. Several of these four-dimensional continua succeed each other along a second temporal dimension.

Some Danellian records state that Charles Whitcomb remained a bachelor and eventually "...was killed on active duty with the Patrol." (Time Patrol, p. 52)

However, in the current timeline, Whitcomb:

retired from the Patrol after a single mission;
married Mary Nelson;
lived with her in Victorian London, starting in 1850;
sometimes thought wistfully about what he had been in the Patrol;
but decided that his wife and children had been worth that sacrifice.

The Whitcombs serve high tea before a cannel fire when visited by Manse Everard. Thus, Charlie retains an indirect contact with the Patrol although his bachelor life and eventual death on active service did not happen in this timeline.

When Everard and Van Sarawak are in the Carthaginian timeline, it is their lives and history that "did not happen." Everard remembers, among other things, his parents, visiting the Whitcombs and:

"...the austere cantos of Dante and the ringing thunder of Shakespeare; the glory which was York Minster and the Golden Gate Bridge -" (p. 184)

York Minster gets a consistently good press in Anderson's works. Later along Everard's world-line, when the Danellian history has been restored:

"Light streamed through the Golden Gate." (p. 746)

When Wanda Tamberly has come dangerously close to breaking the Patrol's Prime Directive, she is shown records of "'...time gone awry...'" (The Shield Of Time, p. 253) which teach her a necessary lesson.

In my opinion, this terminology of successive timelines makes sense of most of what is said about variable reality in the Time Patrol series although it is not the terminology used by the Patrol itself. I would love to learn Temporal and discuss the matter with Patrol agents on their own terms.

A trainer at the Time Patrol Academy states that travel to the past:

"'...involves the concept of infinite-valued relationships in a continuum of 4N dimensions, where N is the total number of particles in the universe.'" (Time Patrol, p. 9)

I think that time travel in an immutable timeline requires no extra dimensions and that time travel in a mutable timeline requires only one extra dimension. However, I am a philosopher, not a physicist. 4N is an enormous number. I think that it assumes a finite universe? Otherwise, N would equal infinity and 4N would also equal infinity? However, even if 4N is finite, it is a large enough number to incorporate not only the many successive timelines of the Time Patrol universe but also, in some other part of the multi-dimensional framework, the many coexisting timelines that have access to the Old Phoenix Inn.

Temples In The Open Air

Poul Anderson, Three Hearts And Three Lions (London, 1977), Chapter Twenty-Four.

In the previous post, we mentioned the significance of stars and, in this post, we will mention places of worship so let us also note that Chapter 8 of James Blish's The Star Dwellers is called "A Temple of Stars."

After entering the ruined and abandoned St Grimmin's Church:

"Holger thought that the church was not dead, not defiled. It stood roofed with sky and walled with the living world; it stood as the sign of peace." (p. 152)

Reflections
(i) In Liverpool, a church was bombed during the War. The ruin has not been repaired but preserved as a reminder. In good weather, office workers eat sandwich lunches in the church garden.

(ii) Recently, I walked in a field near Morecambe Bay (see image) with a friend, Nygel, who is a Wiccan high priest. I remarked, "This is our temple, the sky and the hills." He replied that some buildings convey sacredness. I thought of York Minster because being in it does not feel like being indoors.

(iii) That same friend led a group of us sitting round a fire at night near the Bay. He noticed that, when he sat facing the fire, it felt like being in a cave or other enclosed space, whereas, when we stood up and turned around, we saw sky, stars and the vast open space between us and the hills across the Bay. Awe is a spontaneous response.