Wodan And The Wind

See Winds Between Worlds.

Carl Farness, Dagobert's father, comes from and returns to the wind. He is identified with Wodan the Wanderer who is the god of the wind and, since the dead ride on the night wind, it is Wodan who conducts them:

"'...to the Afterworld.'"

-Poul Anderson, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 333-465 AT 1980, p. 391.

Being the Wanderer makes Wodan:

"'...the patron of travelers and traders.'" (p. 380)

Travellers include time travellers, like Carl himself. Traders include Nicholas van Rijn, "Trader to the Stars," although that Master Merchant offers to St. Dismas.

When Carl enters the hall:

"Wind flapped the edges of his blue cloak..." (372, p. 339)

When he offers to help against a Vandal attack:

"A sound like the wind passed down the shadowy length of the hall." (300-302, p. 368)

When he informs his great-grandson, Alawin, of the deaths of Alawin's half-brothers, Hathawulf and Solbern:

"Morning brought rain. Driven on a hooting wind, hail-cold, hail-hard, it hid everything but the thorp that huddled beneath it, as if the rest of the world had gone down in wreck." (372, p. 456)

The wreck of the world prefigured.

When Carl makes his last farewell to Alawin:

"He strode through the shadows, out the door, into the rain and the wind." (p. 459)

- out of the world.

A Sound Like The Wind

The fourth century Goths whom Carl Farness has befriended are threatened by two bands of Vandals. When Carl has offered to help but in his own way, adding that the Goths must follow his advice even when they do not understand it:

"A sound like the wind passed down the shadowy length of the hall."
-"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," Time Patrol, 300-302, p. 368.

Like the wind? Is this the passage through the hall of Wodan-Mercury-Hermes who is the Wanderer and "'...the god of the wind...'" (1980, p. 390), with whom Carl will later be identified? Wodan conducts "'...the dead down to the Afterworld...'" (p. 391) and, on a battlefield in 337:

"A breeze flitted cold across gore-muddied earth, ruffled the hair of corpses that lay in windrows, whistled as if to call them hence." (337, p. 392)

As I have said before, the wind is almost one of the characters in Poul Anderson's historical fantasies. The Time Patrol is historical sf but these passages could be fantasy.

The Wind II

CS Lewis' spiritual autobiography, Surprised By Joy (London, 1964), has this quotation from Wordsworth on its title page:

"Surprised by joy - impatient as the wind."

(That second clause puts rather a different meaning on the line.)

Poul Anderson's "The Sorrow Of Odin The Goth" begins:

"Wind gusted out of twilight as the door opened." (Time Patrol, p. 333)

Carl's dealings with his fourth century Goths end thus:

"He strode through the shadows, out the door, into the rain and the wind." (p. 459)

Earlier, Carl had made a full sensory recording of his meeting with the historical figure, Ulfilas. When he views the recording, he thinks:

"Was it really me looming over him, lean, gray, cloaked, doomed and resigned to foreknowledge - yon figure out of darkness and the wind?" (p. 403)

I think that, in these three passages, the wind signifies the hostile elements of Northern Europe, also human survival despite their hostility. The Wanderer strides through the darkness, rain and wind; they do not overcome him.

However, when he offers to help the Goths against the Vandals but adds that, "'...it must be in my own way...'" (p. 368):

"Nobody cheered. A sound like the wind passed down the shadowy length of the hall." (ibid.)

There is no human response. Instead, something wordless and non-human passes through the hall. The Goths experience the presence of Wodan.

Time And Wind

The Emperor Frederick says, "...if time allows...," not, "...if God allows." Winnithar the Goth proposes to gather as many men as time allows. They say more than they know. Both are in the presence of a Time Patrol agent.

When Carl agrees to help the Goths against a Vandal attack but in his own way:

"Nobody cheered. A sound like the wind passed down the shadowy length of the hall."
-"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," 300-302, p. 368.

The shadowy length is life. The sound that is not the wind is the passage of time. Carl sets in motion a myth that he will have to complete.

Seasons And Wind

"The Sorrow of Odin the Goth."

300-302 (pp. 362-374) is the narrative passage in which Carl Farness establishes himself among those Goths called Teurings. It begins:

"Winter descended..." (p. 362)

- and also encompasses:

"Spring stole northward..." (p. 365)

When the Teurings plan to resist the encroaching Vandals:

"Outside, wind hooted and rain dashed against walls." (p. 368)

- and when Carl offers to help:

"A sound like the wind passed down the shadowy length of the hall." (ibid.)

We have reflected on this sentence in four previous posts.

I now see that this is the moment when Carl crosses a line. He has become so personally involved not only with the Teurings but also specifically with Jorith that he responds to an appeal from her. His job is to record songs and stories, not to take sides in a fight - although he ingeniously defends his intervention to Everard afterwards! 

The Time Patrol timeline can accommodate a lot of extratemporal intervention but Carl is going to overdo it.