A Man And His Role

Three Hearts And Three Lions, CHAPTERs ONE-TWO.

Holger enters a universe that accepts him as a knight and that draws him into that role even though he retains the memories and inquiring mind of a twentieth century engineer:

he dons armor that he finds because he has nothing else to wear;

he mounts and rides a strangely friendly horse because he has no other transport;

old Mother Gerd offers hospitality to a fine young knight instead of asking whether he is looking for a reenactment festival;

they converse in an archaic French with many Germanic words that was previously unknown to him...

At this stage, he must ask questions and his first theory is time travel which, since I am pressed for time here, will require a further post.

Transition

Three Hearts And Three Lions.

Holger Danske's World War II beach battle with Nazis is described in the introductory "NOTE" on pp. 7-11. Thus, it "really happened"/happened in our world. By contrast, when he wakes up naked in a forest at the beginning of CHAPTER ONE on p. 13, we know that he has been transported/translated to another world - we know what kind of book we are reading, apart from anything else - whereas he has yet to deduce that fact.

Old leaves crackle. Earth, moss and moisture are pungent. A brook tinkles. It is day, not night; afternoon, not morning. The trees are of Medieval wildness. There is a squirrel, a pair of starlings and a hovering hawk which joins our list of birds of prey.

We are going to like the Carolingian universe.

Narrative Distance

One of the pleasures of reading a long, complicated fictional series is being able to look back and appreciate distance covered:

by the end of Poul Anderson's Trader To The Stars, we have read three stories about Nicholas van Rijn but without as yet any sense of future history;

by the end of Anderson's The Trouble Twisters, we have seen David Falkayn's career advance from apprentice through journeyman/factor to Master Merchant/trade pioneer crew leader, with a cameo appearance by van Rijn;

after two novels about both characters, we realize that we are now seeing the beginning of the end of the Polesotechnic League;

after reading the companion volumes, The People Of The Wind and The Earth Book Of Stormgate, we have covered not only the entire history of the League but also the beginning of a new era with the Terran Empire, the Domain of Ythri and the growing Merseian Roidhunate;

in "Starfog," set several millennia later, the League, the Empire and even the Anglic language are ancient history.

If, as I suggest:

Three Hearts And Three Lions
Operation Otherworld
A Midsummer Tempest 

- were to be packaged as a trilogy, then a new reader would be puzzled but eventually rewarded. On p. 93 of Volume III, a woman addresses her companion as "Holger" (from Volume I) and, on p. 94, he addresses her as "Valeria" (from Volume II). Thus, everything comes together. We have seen not only Holger in solitary action but also Valeria's story from her parents' first meeting through their engagement, marriage and honeymoon, then her birth, infancy and teenage years: varied and substantial narratives.

WW II, Another Blog And Good Night

Three Hearts And Three Lions.

How World War II affected Scandinavian countries is an issue common to this novel and to Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy to which I will shortly return (see also War In Art And Life) but, before I do that, let me refer you all to another Internet discussion of Three Hearts..., here.

Searching this, Poul Anderson Appreciation, blog will show how much I have already discussed Three Hearts..., e.g., the various Problems And Tests that Holger faces. (See also Troll.) Whether there is a lot more to be said remains to be seen - but there usually is.

Modern Theories And Researches

Three Hearts And Three Lions.

According to the British lecturer quoted in the NOTE (pp. 7-11) (see the above link):

relativity and quantum mechanics prove that observers are inseperable from what they observe;

logical positivism has shown that many supposed facts are really constructs or conventions;

psychic researchers have discovered unsuspected mental powers;

maybe some old myths are more than superstitions.

We are dependent on the observed world to the extent that we are part of it and would not exist without it. How we observe and perceive it depends both on us and on it.

Logical positivism was an extreme empiricist philosophical position. I heard AJ Ayer say on TV that he had thought that, since only verifiable propositions were meaningful, propositions about the Roman occupation of Britain meant only that archaeologists now find objects that they interpret as Roman coins, pottery etc. In other words, the logical positivists went too far, as Ayer cheerfully acknowledged.

Have psychic researchers discovered anything yet? There seems to have been an early twentieth century expectation that they were about to do so.

The reference to relativity and quantum mechanics reminds us of what happened to those disciplines in the goetic universe but this is not there.

A Trilogy And A Short Tetralogy

In An Unnoticed Trilogy, I suggested that certain works by Poul Anderson comprise a trilogy with a two-part appendix:

"Operation Afreet," "Operation Salamander," "Operation Incubus" and "Operation Changeling" were collected as Operation Chaos;

Operation Chaos and its sequel, Operation Luna, were collected as Operation Otherworld, which is the middle volume of the trilogy;

the opening and concluding volumes are Three Hearts And Three Lions and A Midsummer Tempest;

the two-part appendix comprises the short stories, "House Rule" and "Losers' Night," which could be collected with A Midsummer Tempest.

However, I still also like my earlier suggestion (see The House Of Sorrows) that these two stories plus another two short stories form a conceptual sequence:

"The House of Sorrows," an alternative history;
"Eutopia," travel between alternative histories;
"House Rule" and "Losers' Night," an inn between alternative histories.

Thus, there could be a fourth volume to be entitled The Old Phoenix And Other Universes.

Another World In A Parallel Universe

(i) A man is mysteriously transported from this familiar world to another world where he is a hero.

(ii) Quantum mechanics might entail the coexistence of many parallel universes.

(i) and (ii) are entirely unrelated concepts. However, when (ii) has been formulated, it might then be used to provide a "scientific explanation" for the in fact much older narrative of (i).

Apparently, this is what happened with Poul Anderson's Three Hearts And Three Lions. When Anderson had sold a shorter version to Anthony Boucher, editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Boucher persuaded him to include a scientific rationalization which subsequently remained in the longer version, published as a novel.

"Wave mechanics already admits the possibility of one entire cosmos coexisting with ours. The lecturer said it was not hard to write the equations for an infinity of such parallel worlds. By logical necessity the laws of nature would vary from one to another. Therefore, somewhere in the boundlessness of reality, anything you can imagine must actually exist!"
-Poul Anderson, Three Hearts And Three Lions (London, 1977), NOTE, pp. 7-11 AT p. 9.

Slow down there, author, narrator, lecturer or whoever we are hearing in this NOTE.

First, is it logically possible for laws of nature to vary? I can see no logical necessity for water to boil at 100 degrees instead of at 101 degrees. Such laws have to be discovered empirically and cannot be deduced from any logical or mathematical axioms. So, yes, let us accept that the laws could vary.

Secondly, however, this establishes only that it is possible, not that it is necessary, that natural laws vary between universes.

Thirdly, if, by an infinity of parallel worlds, is meant an infinity encompassing every possible alternative world, then, yes, the conclusion follows because it is merely a restatement of the premise.

However, we all know that this is just a rationalization for getting Holger into a world where he can wield a fabulous sword.

Blood Of Britain

A Midsummer Tempest, xxiv.

"Now on [Rupert's] flanks go horsemen like steel towers, and at his side one who wears a crown. Overhead, golden-glowing, flies a dragon banner. Those rebels who see know that this is Arthur come home. They remember what blood of Britain is in them too. Their leader casts down his standard and weeps. The King's riders burst through.'" (p. 220)

(Which King's?)

This partly answers my question here. Arthur's intervention is not only an overwhelming military solution but also an inspiring reminder of a common heritage. But inspiration must also accept change (see Ages Pass/Passages), as Charles I's concluding speech does at least in part.

Cromwell remains unbowed but must surrender when his army has dissolved.

"Britain" has many meanings. In That Hideous Strength, CS Lewis presents England as a conflict between (good) Logres and (bad) Britain, but that is unusual.

Concluding A Midsummer Tempest

A Midsummer Tempest.

For Charles I's concluding speech, see Exiles.

For the guests in THE TAPROOM OF THE OLD PHOENIX in the Epilogue, pp. 228-229, see A Large Gathering In The Old Phoenix.

At last the text belatedly catches up with Will's knighthood by Charles I and refers to him correctly as "Sir William Fairweather" in xxv, pp. 222 and 223.

Oberon, thanking Rupert and Jennifer, says:

"'Ye have lit countless candles in a shadow.'" (xxv, p. 226)

However, Valeria states at the end of the Epilogue that the machine, science and reason triumphant are the real New World in the Shakespearean timeline. Thus, that world is not heading towards goetic science so maybe Faerie will have to withdraw?

Backtracking to xx, pp. 185-186, we learn there that, since Shakespeare is the Historian, his texts are not performed as plays but read as chronicles.

That seems to wind up this rereading of A Midsummer Tempest although other details might still attract our attention.

Amen To The Bells

"All bells were ringing and banners flew from every staff, as the King rode into the City."
-A Midsummer Tempest, xxv, p. 222.

"In glory did Gospodar Bodin ride home... all the bells of Zorkagrad pealed until Lake Stoyan gave back their music."
-Poul Anderson, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 339-606 AT XX, p. 605.

"'Amen to the bells...'"