Wind In Ys

Gallicenae, VIII.

Sometimes the wind is just the wind and sometimes it means something else. We have to read carefully in order not to miss meanings.

Three-year-old Dahut is:

"...wand-slim, wind-swift." (2, p. 168)

An economical and alliterative description. Here the wind is not present but Dahut is compared to it.

As Gratillonius and the newly arrived Corentinus walk out into the Forum, the wind:

drives the rain at a slant;

hoots;

plucks clothes;

bears the sound and the smell of Ocean.

Thus, the Ysan gods greet the new Christian minister.

As Gratillonius and Bodilis lie in bed, the wind outside hoots, rattles shutters and carries the noise of the waves against the sea wall. Thus, a contrast between domestic peace and turbulent elements.

When word is brought that there is a challenger in the Wood:

"It was as if the wind came in off the street and wrapped around Gratillonius." (4, p. 183)

He feels threatened.

Gratillonius And Historical Figures

Gallicenae, VIII, 1.

Whatever the Three of Ys think about the new Mithraeum in their city, the Emperor Maximus denounces it as:

"...a new temple of Antichrist..." (p. 159)

- and demands:

"...the prompt installation of a new Christian pastor." (ibid.)

Gratillonius interacts with historical figures:

Maximus

Ausonius

St. Corentin

St. Martin of Tours

the Duke of Armorica, unnamed in the text

and others

The Andersons place the legendary figure of Grallon/Gradlon firmly in a historical context despite the elements of fantasy that remain in the story as they tell it.

Hallowing The Ysan Mithraeum

Gallicenae, VII, 4.

Gratillonius and his congregation hallow their Mithraeum in the Raven Tower in Ys on the Birthday of Mithras. Gratillonius is the Father and his father, Marcus, has been brought from Britannia to be consecrated as Runner of the Sun. In Latin, they are Pater and Heliodromos. The Mithraist ranks also include Raven, Occult, Lion, Persian and Soldier. Too cumbersome, in my opinion. They sacrifice a dove, as in Temple Judaism although not in either synagogue Judaism or Christianity. On the top of the tower, the Mithraists hymn the sun at dawn, noon and sunset.

In Ys, the elements express the Three Gods Who are patrons of the city so how do the Three seem to respond to this day of Mithraist ceremony?

"Night fell upon son and father as they made their way back to the palace. Wind yelled, drove rain and scud before it, filled streets with chill. Under the sea wall, tide ramped and snarled." (p. 158)

Thus, Taranis yells and Lir snarls. The narrative builds toward a climax at the end of Volume III.

Gratillonius And Corentinus

Gallicenae, VII, 3.

The Christian hermit, Corentinus, to the Mithraist, Gratillonius:

"'Look around you at God's world and ask yourself how it could have come to be and what this life is all about. Think.' He paused. 'No, I'll not ask that you pray for guidance. You couldn't, if you're as true a worshipper of Mithras as you seem to be. I do ask that you open your mind. Listen. Think.'" (pp. 151-152)

My Comments

"God's world" begs the question - which Christians tend to do.

Modern scientific cosmogony helps us to understand how the world came to be.

Questions about the value of human life can be addressed without reference to Corentinus' beliefs.

I took the advice of Mormon missionaries to ask God the Father in the name of his Son for the truth about religious matters. (What answer I received, if any, is between me and God.)

We should all open our minds.

Thought alone will not lead to Christian belief.

My most recent thoughts on God and the One are here.

Gratillonius is impressed with Corentinus and will later have him appointed as the Christian minister in Ys.

Saint Corentin

Gallicenae, VII, 3.

When Gratillonius rides out of Aquilo, he adds to our list of hovering birds of prey:

"...a falcon afar." (p. 144)

Gratillonius is an overnight guest in the tiny, cylindrical, conically thatched, wicker and clay hut of the hermit, Corentinus, who eats only once a day except when fasting although, on this occasion, he does eat a little extra but only to keep his guest company. 

This reminds us of Reverend Peter of Rochdale Zen Retreat who rises at an unGodly hour, 5:00 AM, I think, meditates for two hours before breakfast and, in the Indian tradition, usually eats nothing after lunch. On the evening of the fortieth anniversary of our meditation group, Peter accompanied us to a pizza restaurant where, without glancing at the menu, he ate the pizza with the simplest topping and no sweet course although some members of the lay Sangha indulged in cheese cake with ice cream.

Nicholas van Rijn praises God by savouring the best food and wine.

"Wisdom is justified by all her children." (Luke 7:35)

And Poul Anderson shows us every kind of character.

Addendum: Also, in SM Stirling's Emberverse series, a Christian monk ate bread and drank water while his companions feasted.

In Aquilo

Gallicenae, VII, 2.

Gratillonius travels outside Ys to organize the defence of Armorica. A Roman veteran had founded the colony of Aquilo three hundred years previously. This town has become a seaport near the head of navigation of the River Odita.

Aquilonian Imports

metal and glass ware

olives

oil

textiles

Aquilonian Exports

hides

furs

nuts

pigskin

preserved meat

tallow

honey

beeswax

timber

salt

beneficiated iron ore

preserved fish

garum sauce

Ysan gold, silver, ivory, shell and fabric products

How much life and labour is summarized by these lists?

Gratillonius proposes to keep Armorica out of any renewed civil conflict and knows what he would do for the whole Empire if it were in his power:

firm, just and law-abiding government

military reforms

taming of barbarians

honest currency

reduced taxes

liberation from bondage to estates

religious tolerance

Would taming of barbarians mean civilizing them or just holding them at bay? Would Gratillonius' policies have been enough to prevent the Fall of the Empire?

While he converses with his Aquilonian host:

"...outside the shuttered windows an autumn wind wuthered." (p. 140)

Gods In Ys

Gallicenae, VII, 1.

Imagine believing that various Gods were real and that peace must be kept between them as between human governments.

The Three, Taranis, Belisama and Lir, are the Gods of Ys. Christ denies all other Gods but has a priest in Ys because the city is a subordinate ally of the Roman Empire which is Christian. Mithras does not deny other Gods but does set Himself above Them. Thus, Mithraism seems to be intermediate between Ysan paganism and Christianity.

Gratillonius is:

Roman prefect in Ys, thus the local representative of a Christian state;

King of Ys, thus the current Incarnation of Taranis;

an initiate in the Mystery of Mithras.

A Mithraeum should be in a cave. The Ysans will not let Gratillonius buy land and dig a cave because the earth is Belisama's and Mithras does not accept women. Since Taranis also fructifies the earth, the Mithraeum must be in the city. Gratillonius proposes to adapt a disused warehouse but Lir Captain Hannon proposes a windowless room below the now risen sea level in the Raven Tower. Arguably, this will be appropriate since the room counts as a cave, since the raven is sacred to Mithras and since the Mithraeum, like the whole of Ys, will be hostage to Lir Who gives Mithras a cave while Mithras acknowledges the Three as the Gods of Ys even if not as superior to Himself. Will this work? Imagine proposing it at the United Nations.

Heavy Rain And Eternal Waves

Gallicenae, VII, 1.

On the present rereading, I want to follow events in Ys so I skip past the chapter sections set in Eriu although I can return to them later. 

Heavy summer rain in Ys:

a cataract concealing sky and sea

water rushing and gurgling along streets

noise of downpour on roofs and paving

waves crashing against the rampart

The crashing of the waves is described as "...remote and eternal..." (p. 132) This sound is "remote" because it comes from outside the city and because it is "below" (less noisy than) the downpour. But is it eternal? Not literally. But aspects of our environment are described as "eternal" if they remain unchanged through many generations. The most obvious example is the stars:

Destruction: I like the stars. It's the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean, they're always flaring up and caving in and going out.

But from here, I can pretend...

I can pretend that things last. I can pretend that lives last longer than moments.

Gods come, and gods go. Mortals flicker and flash and fade.

Worlds don't last; and stars and galaxies are transient, fleeting things that twinkle like fireflies and vanish into cold and dust.

But I can pretend.

-Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: Brief Lives (New York, 1994), chapter 8, pp. 12-13.

We recognize some themes common to Poul Anderson and Neil Gaiman:

gods come and go;

endings, even on a galactic scale.

Spring Wind

Gallicena, VI, 1.

When Queen Vindilis has forcefully addressed her Sister Queen Fennalis:

"There was a silence..." (p. 120)

A silence underlines the importance of what has been said and gives both women time to think but, of course, there is more. The sentence continues:

"..., apart from a whoo-oo of spring-time wind under the eaves." (ibid.)

The silence is an absence of speech but not of thought or of the background wind. Indeed, the latter is almost omnipresent. The chapter had begun with the advent of spring which included:

"Sunbeams and cloud shadows pursued each other, with rainsqualls and rainbows, till the wind lay down to rest, and whiteness brooded huge in the blue." (p. 116)

The almost personified wind lying down to rest expresses peace. When appropriate, the Andersons' wind roar or shriek but not now. This paragraph is one of their most beautiful descriptions of any season not only in Ys but:

"...across the length of Armorica." (ibid.)

naked boughs

wet earth

blossoms

leaves

new grass

tender herbs

sunbeams

cloud shadows

squalls

rainbows

whiteness

blueness

lambs

calves

foals

meadows

brilliance

wives airing and scrubbing homes

farmers ploughing

mariners sailing

bleak freshness in Vindilis' house

The Real World And Time In Ys

I must mentally readjust back from a weekend spent discussing the state of the world to the fiction of Poul and Karen Anderson's The King of Ys. (Also physically tired from travel.)

To compare the present state of the world to Andersonian fiction:

In terms of the Technic History, the Chaos is accelerating. Resources from space are not being used to rescue the ecology and a new, Technic, civilization is not emerging to replace Western civilization.

The Psychotechnic History: World War III did not happen on schedule but might still happen and meanwhile global warming is destroying the environment. No new science of society has been discovered. The Solar System has not yet been colonized.

Flying Mountains: Gyrogravitics have not yet been discovered to facilitate asteroid colonization.

The King of Ys: Lir returns as sea levels rise at the end of the Age of the Fish? Also other demons?

On another note, I want to draw attention to two passages in The King of Ys. First:

"While he still had much to do, most of it of his own making, Gratillonius began discovering time for himself."

-Poul and Karen Anderson, Roma Mater (London, 1989), XX, 2, p. 351.

A page lists his activities:

visiting around town

sailing in the royal yacht

hunting or exploring on horseback beyond the Ysan frontier

sports

reading

passive leisure

drinking and talking late into the night

his own workshop - furniture and other gifts from the King

Secondly:

"The months wheeled onward, through winter and spring and again to summer."

-see here.

My current point is that these passages present plenty of time for additional narratives to be written about the lives of Gratillonius and others in Ys. A short story collection could fit in here.