Tir-nan-Og

Poul Anderson, The Broken Sword (London, 1977), p. 95.

Wealth gleams in the streets of Tir-nan-Og and the caves of the leprechauns so the Sidhe cannot be bought with the promise of booty in Trollheim.

Tir-nan-Og is the Land of the Young and WB Yeats wrote:

"I HAVE drunk ale from the Country of the Young..."
-copied from here.

(I thought that he drank wine but the text says "ale.")

This boast sounds like the one in the Rig Veda:

"Have I not drunk Soma?" (see here)

Tir-nan-Og anticipated time dilation which Poul Anderson celebrated in Tau Zero. There seems to have been an ancient intuitive recognition that time is relative, not absolute.

Addendum: At secondary school in the Republic of Ireland, I read an Irish poem, see here. It begins "Ta Tir na nOg..." We translated "Is cat ag cru ne greine" as "The cat milking the sun."

Is cat ag crú na gréine.
-copied from here. (Scroll down.)

And see Cul an Ti.

Wine, Ale And Soma

"I have drunk wine..."
-SM Stirling, The Sunrise Lands (New York, 2008), Chapter One, p. 3.

"I have drunk ale from the Country of the Young..." (see here)

(I misremembered this line as referring to wine, not ale.)

"Have I not drunk Soma?" (see here)

Three drinks late at night because I cannot sleep. And what do Poul Anderson's Merseians drink? See here.

Four Senses In The Jungle

For Love And Glory.

Lissa and Hebo track the missing Susaian, Orichalc, through the Freydisan jungle, an environment providing much scope for multi-sensory descriptions:

gloom;
rank odors;
sticky sweat, both felt and smelled;
"Cries, croaks, whistles..." (XXXVI, p. 197)

"Rain rushed, wind brawled, branches creaked." (XXXVII, p. 201)

Compare "Rain Roared."

What with meditating and all, I usually avoid alcohol but this evening we received a free bottle of wine when we ate in the Borough:

I HAVE drunk ale from the Country of the Young
-copied from here.

Have I not drunk Soma?
-copied from here.

"In the secret high place of the heart there are two beings who drink the wine of life in the world of truth."
-Katha Upanishad, Part 3.

A New Planet

"Inconstant Star," Chapter X.

Exploring an ancient artifact enclosing a mini-black hole, Robert Saxtorph experiences the transcendent excitement of the scientist:

"How did that line or two of poetry go? 'Some watcher of the skies, when a new planet swims into his ken.'" (p. 244)

"By God, he had seen Truth naked, and She took him by the hand and led him beyond himself, into Her own country!" (ibid.)

And I feel that I have drunk ale from the Country of the Young.

See Chapman.