One More Biblical Quotation

OK. I spoke too soon here. There is a fourth Biblical quotation in Poul Anderson's The Peregrine (New York, 1979):

"Canst thou draw out Leviathan with a hook? ...Will he make a covenant with thee?" (p. 176) (See Job 41)

This quotation is occasioned by the sight of several of the Alori sailing through a storm in a longboat pulled by some large swimming animal.

The Alori have a superhuman ability to control nature without machine technology. An escaping human group, pursued by the Alori, travel in a boat that has a sail, tiller and cabin but is nevertheless "...a living tree, fed by sea minerals and earth laid in the bottom." (p. 172) The boat soaks up incoming water and expels "...a fine rain..." from its sides (p. 175).

Before escaping, the human beings had been housed in hollow trees with naturally grown doors, windows, curtains, mossy carpet soft enough to sleep on, luminous plants, shelves, water tap and drain beside a bush whose fruit can be used as soap. The Alori can pass messages through the forest and get it to sing during a festival - branches, water, birds and animals. It is also possible to sleep outside. Rain is clean, warm and unproblematic.

However, the Alori are able to cross space only in stolen spaceships and cannot tolerate the approach of machine culture. So, by their own admission, their culture must go under when the Stellar Union expands into the Great Cross region.

"A Text In Job"

"The Problem of Pain."

Poul Anderson often either quotes from or refers to the Bible and we have set out to note every such quotation or reference but have consistently missed a highly significant one. First, please note:

The Bible In General

A Note on Anderson's Use of the Bible

The Bible On The Blog 

 

Specifically, The Book Of Job

An Appropriate Biblical Quotation

Blog Search Result For Job iv. 12-16 (Scroll down)

The Peregrine II

One More Biblical Quotation

Job

 

Now, after all that, the concluding two paragraphs of "The Problem of Pain":

 

"'Maybe you can find a text in Job. I don't know, I tell you, I don't know.'

"The sun lifted higher above the burning horizon." (p. 48)

 

In this dramatic conclusion, Poul Anderson:

 

refers to Job;

does not quote from that book;

instead, invites his character and maybe also his readers to do so!

 

So let's find a text in Job.

Bible Round-Up

Poul Anderson, New America. 

Danny Coffin quotes his foster-father, Joshua Coffin, quoting:

"'The laborer is worthy of his hire...'" (p. 38) See here.

Now that we have started, we might as well make a note of every Biblical quotation in Poul Anderson's works. See Sean's article here and I have also searched this blog for "Biblical quotation" (see here; scroll down) but the search has not found every example. Searching for "Joshua Coffin" (scroll down) should bring up his quotations as well as other information. There are other key words and phrases, e.g., we had a few posts on What Is Truth?

Any further Biblical quotations from Coffin or anyone else can and probably will be addendumed to this round-up. In fact, see:

New America: Conclusion

Different Uses Of The Bible In Fiction III

Poul Anderson, The Dancer From Atlantis (London, 1977).

p. 1: blurb;
p. 2: other Sphere titles by Anderson;
p. 3: title page;
p. 4: publication details;
p. 5: quotation, Revelation, viii, 6-13;
p. 6: quotation, Rig-Veda, vii, 56;
p. 7: Chapter One begins.

We note another Biblical quotation.

In Chapter Four, we learn that the anakro, space-time vehicle, was bound for prehistoric Africa and protoman. That is an appropriate pretext to bring in James Blish whose character, Kit Kennedy, finding a secluded valley in Africa, compares it to Paradise:

"...that garden planted eastward in Eden...And a river went out of Eden to water the garden..."
-James Blish, The Night Shapes (London, 1963), pp. 44-45.

When I had published the previous post, I realised that I had not included Blish. Then I realized that I could link him to The Dancer From Atlantis. Then I found a Biblical quote just inside Dancer.

Far out.

Captain Flandry And The Day Of Their Return

I refer to:

Poul Anderson, The Day Of Their Return (London, 1978);

Poul Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2010).

Let us abbreviate these titles as The Day... and Captain Flandry...

Captain Flandry... is an omnibus collection of:

"Outpost of Empire"
The Day Of Their Return;
"Tiger by the Tail";
"Honorable Enemies";
"The Game of Glory";
"A Message in Secret."

For present purposes, I distinguish between The Day... as a single volume and The Day Of Their Return as the second of six works collected in Captain Flandry... The Day... and The Day Of Their Return are the same novel but please bear with me.

The Day... ends, on p. 207:

"He had never before known how steep the upward path was.

"But I pray you by the lifting skies,
"And the young wind over the grass,
"That you take your eyes from off my eyes,
"And let my spirit pass."
"-Kipling.

"THE END."

The table of contents in Captain Flandry... tells us that The Day Of Their Return begins on p. 74 and that "Tiger by the Tail" begins on p. 240.

"Outpost of Empire" ends on p. 72;
p. 73 is blank;
p. 74 is the dedication of The Day Of Their Return;
p. 75 presents the title of the novel, a Biblical quotation and the beginning of the first chapter.

Thus, The Day Of Their Return does begin, with its dedication, on p. 74.

P. 238 ends:

"He had never before known how steep the upward path was."

P. 239 is blank;
p. 240 is the quotation from Kipling (see above);
p. 241 presents the title and the beginning of the text of "Tiger by the Tail."

Thus:

"Tiger by the Tail" begins on p. 241, not on p. 240;
Captain Flandry... wrongly presents the Kipling quotation not as a coda to The Day Of Their Return but as a prelude to "Tiger by the Tail."

Classical-Biblical Syntheses

Geoffrey of Monmouth is a fictional historian and also a contributor to the literary tradition about Troy because Geoffrey's History does for the British what Virgil's Aeneid did for the Romans - tells them that they are descended from the Trojans!

Biblical-Classical synthesis began when Christ displaced the Olympians to become the single god of the Roman state and the Bishop of Rome became the Pontifex Maximus, the chief priest of the Roman state religion. Dante has Virgil in the Inferno and both Classical and Biblical scenes depicted in Purgatory. The first science fiction novel, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, is sub-titled The Modern Prometheus (Classical) and begins with a quotation from Paradise Lost (Biblical).

In Poul Anderson's Technic History, Manuel Argos declares that his Terran Empire, like the Roman Empire, will admit aliens to citizenship. Later, one of those aliens converts to Jerusalem Catholicism and seeks evidence for a Universal Incarnation. Thus, Classical and Biblical traditions transcend the Solar System and humanity.

In SM Stirling's Nantucket Trilogy, Alban converts to Christianity fight at Troy!

Subliminal Symbolism: On The Third Day

"On the third day he arose, and ascended again to the light."

-Poul Anderson, The Day of Their Return IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 74-238 AT 1, p. 75.

This opening sentence of a novel is preceded by a Biblical quotation: JOB, iv, 12-16. The sentence itself is obviously New Testament-inspired. The title, The Day Of Their (not His) Return, sounds un-Biblical. The novel features a religious movement incorporating Biblical elements. In fact, the work reads like a much better version of Dune just as Poul Anderson's Technic History reads like a much better version of Foundation.

"To Yuri Alexeievitch Garshin, the captain appeared as an angel from his grandmother's Heaven. It was on the third day since the ambush."

-The Shield Of Time, PART TWO, 1985 A. D., p. 11.

Angel, Heaven and third day. "...grandmother's Heaven..." is a recognition of generational social change.

Garshin thinks:

"Angel from Heaven indeed." (p. 14)

- when the captain, after his mysterious appearance, is helpful.

"Behind and above, the captain stood, arms folded, watching him go. When Garshin glanced rearward, a last time, he saw sunlight from behind the helmet make a kind of halo, as if on an angel who guarded some place mysterious and forbidden." (p. 16)

Halo, angel, mystery. But there is more symbolism here that we understand only in hindsight. The captain is a time traveller, a Time Patrol agent, a guardian of time. The place that he guards is mysterious and forbidden indeed because this timeline is to be deleted.

Full Of Days; Stars

See:

"A Note on Anderson's Use of the Bible" by Sean M. Brooks here;
Biblical Images;
"More Lasting Than Bronze" here;
The Peregrine II;
"One More Biblical Quotation" here.

I link to these Biblical references because I have just found another one, very understated:

"...his body died, old and full of days..."
-Genesis, Part Two, V, 2, p. 153. (See here.)

Lastly (for tonight), I should have remembered here that Genesis also ends with the word "stars." (p. 248)

The Bible In The Day Of Their Return

"A Note on Anderson's Use of the Bible" by Sean M. Brooks (here)
"More Lasting Than Bronze" (here)
"The Peregrine II" (here)
"One More Biblical Quotation" (here)
"Different Uses Of The Bible In Fiction" (here)
"Different Uses Of The Bible In Fiction II" (here)
"Uses Of The Bible" (here)
"Uses Of The Bible II And More About Venus" (here)
"What Is Truth?" (here)
"'What Is Truth?' (Again)" (here)

I have linked to these earlier posts because I now want to mention that Poul Anderson's The Day Of Their Return begins with a quotation from Job iv 12-16. Further, Chapter 1 begins:

"On the third day he arose, and ascended again to the light."
-Poul Anderson, The Day Of Their Return IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 75-240 AT p. 75.

Later, there is discussion of the status and significance of miracles and specifically of the Resurrection of Christ. See "The High Commander." (here)

Thus, more uses of the Bible.

A Biblical Quotation

Roma Mater, XV11, 3.

Dahilis protests when she sees Gratillonius initiating Cynan in a stream sacred to the Goddess. She says:

"'Belisama, Mother, forgive them. They knew not what they did.'" (p. 316)

There is that quotation again. (In Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series, Yeshua, while being burned to death by medieval inquisitors, says, "'Father, they do know what they are doing.'")

Gratillonius has to assure his men that Dahilis has not profaned their ceremony and assures her:

"'My dear, in the end all Gods go back to the One; and as for me, I am the high priest and avatar of Taranis, Her lover.'" (p. 317)

All go back to the One. There I agree. Theology becomes complicated when the incarnation of Taranis conduct a Mithraist initiation in water sacred to the Goddess.

"Get Thee Behind Me..."

I thought that I had read the phrase, "Get thee behind me, Satan!" in Poul Anderson's Nicholas van Rijn story, "Territory," or maybe early in the next story, "The Master Key," but now cannot find that phrase in either of these stories. I mention this because it is a common reading experience. I have been doing other reading so maybe the phrase was somewhere in a work by, e.g., Conan Doyle. But the blog can be a collective effort. Can any blog reader either locate this phrase in one of these van Rijn stories or alternatively confirm that it is not there?

I wanted to quote the phrase because it would have been yet another Biblical quotation. Searching the blog, we find that we have previously quoted "Get thee behind me, Satan," but from a Psychotechnic History story, "The Big Rain," not from a Technic History story. See "A Missed Biblical Reference" etc here. (Scroll down.)

The Bible on the blog.

Preliminaries

How much can we tell about a novel before beginning to read the text? We have already discussed the Biblical quotation at the beginning of Poul Anderson's Planet Of No Return. See here.

My copy of this novel is a British paperback. See image. On the front cover, the Yorkshire Post is quoted as saying that "Poul Anderson is one of the best." Jerry Pournelle said somewhere, "Everyone knows that Poul Anderson is one of the best. They're wrong. He's better!"

This novel has a Cast of Characters before the Biblical quote. The Cast is divided into "Crew of the Spaceship Henry Hudson" and "The 'Rorvan' strangers." The latter are clearly aliens. The international spaceship crew includes a Lunarian astronomer and a Martian physicist but, since these crew members are named "John Lorenzen" and "Joab Thornton," respectively, we infer that they are human colonists of the Moon and Mars.

The back cover blurb informs us that there has been an as yet unsuccessful search for extrasolar planets to colonize and that the Henry Hudson is about to embark for a system from which the Da Gama has failed to return.

The plot thickens.

An Appropriate Biblical Quotation

"The Pirate."

Exploring a city on a planet whose population has been killed by supernova radiation, Trevelyan recites aloud:

"'The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away...'" (p. 157)

This is the kind of passage that we (a) recognize, (b) recognize as Biblical and (c) probably do not know the source for. Now we know: Job 1:21.

However, Trevelyan continues:

"...I will not bless the name of the Lord. But I will remember. Oh, yes, I will remember.'" (ibid.)

Where does this come from?

The post on the Bible in Anderson remains to be completed.

A Scullery And A Glade

A Midsummer Tempest, viii.

This chapter has two scenes:

THE SCULLERY OF THE MANOR, pp. 57-62;
THE FOREST GLADE, pp. 62-65.

In the scullery, Sir Malachi Sheldrake instructs his ward, Jennifer, with yet another Biblical quotation:

"'Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.'"
-see Exodus 22:18.

In Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, horrific serial murders are based on such Biblical texts. See Different Uses Of The Bible In Fiction II.

In the glade:

"Everywhere among the trees, whose twigs bent over the Milky Way like claws, wavered dull-blue lights. 'Corposants, those lures of death.'" (p. 63)

The Roundheads pursuing Rupert and Will see:

"'Herne the Wild Hunter!'" (p. 64) (Scroll down.)

Sheldrake reminds his companions that "'...fat Jack Falstaff wore the aspect of...'" Herne. (p. 64)

- and we must remember that, to them, Falstaff is a historical figure.

Biblical Instruction

A Midsummer Tempest, xvi.

(We will have an image of the title of every book in the Bible, eventually.)

The Reverend Barker, instructing Jennifer, has reached Leviticus 18:23 which, he says, ends:

"'...it is confusion.'"

The full text is:

"Neither shall thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before any beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion." (KJV)

"Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion." (NIV)

Why does Jennifer need such instruction? According to Barker, she expresses confusion by hailing a French goose girl, calling her free and requesting her (Papist) prayer. OK. I have had enough of Barker. I wanted to note yet another Biblical quotation and also to check which the full verse said.

The Wind On Sena

Roma Mater, XXV, 2.

When the state barge has delivered the pregnant Queen Dahilis to the island of Sena for her Midwinter Vigil, the captain thanks Lir that He has brought them there safely and Belisama for the gift of Dahilis. When the captain has spoken, we are told that:

"The wind tattered his words." (p. 407)

Despite their safe passage through "...the wild water...," (ibid.) that wind underlines the hostile elements that Lir personifies. Throughout this chapter, wind batters both Dahilis and Gratillonius who has come to help although, for religious reasons, he must keep his distance unless she seeks him. Night falls but, when Gratillonius looks across from his tent to the House of the Goddess where Dahilis should be, he sees no light or other sign of habitation. When he asks Mithras what he should do:

"A still small voice replied: Look for the smoke." (p. 416)

There is no smoke.

And there is another Biblical quotation that we have not noted before.

ROGUE SWORD, CHAPTER X

Rogue Sword, Chapter X.

"My mother was a Candian Greek, Lucas thought..." (p. 145)

Sickened by the slaughter of children, Lucas quotes:

"Whoso shall offend one of these little ones..." (p. 146)

- a Biblical quotation that we have not noted before:

Matthew 18: 6-14

Mark 9: 42

Lucas is between two women although we think that we know which one he is going to wind up with.

Turning the page, we find that the opening passage of Chapter XI covers several weeks and is replete with historical and geographical references that we will address either today or tomorrow although first and right now we will have to satisfy the inner man.

The Great Art

Operation Chaos, XII.

Professor van Linden of Alchemy:

"...had to use an adaptation of the Dobu yam-calling chant..." (p. 8)

- to find his mislaid copy of the Ars Thaumaturgica. Googling this Ars... discloses only this reference to it so we deduce that it is fictional.

Magic is Ars, the Art:

"'Magister Merline... Sapientissime Britonum, secreti secretorm possessor, incredibili quodam gaudio afficimur quod te in domum nostram accipere nobis - ah - contingit. Scito nos etiam haud imperitos esse magna artis - et - ut ta dicam...'"
-CS Lewis, That Hideous Strength IN Lewis, The Cosmic Trilogy (London, 1990), pp. 349-753 AT CHAPTER 12, 6, p. 626.

Lewis helpfully provides a footnote:

"Master Merlin, wisest of the Britons, possessor of the secrets, it is with inexpressible pleasure that we embrace the opportunity of - ah - welcoming you in our house. You will understand that we also are not unskilled in the Great Art, and, if I may say so..." (ibid.)

("secreti secretorum possessor" means "possessor of the secret of secrets," not "possessor of the secrets," but I can't find my single-volume That Hideous Strength to compare the footnote in that edition.)

See Ars Magna.

I envy Wither, a twentieth century man, his ability to converse readily in Latin but our study of Latin grammar and texts was never aimed at conversational ability.

A few pages later, we find yet another Biblical quotation:

"All is vanity..." (p. 87)

Addendum:

"Master Merlin, wisest of the Britons, possessor of the secret of secrets..."
-CS Lewis, That Hideous Strength (Pan Books, London, 1979), CHAPTER TWELVE, VI, p. 161, footnote. 

A Ferment Of Ideas

Reading, and reading about, the New Testament Epistles, I get the distinct impression of documents that refer to one God, the Father, and also to his one Son, the Messiah, who is sometimes described as pre-existent, therefore incarnated, but not yet as the second of three persons eternally coexisting within a single divine being or substance. Thus, we get a snapshot of religious ideas developing. Something happened in Jesus' consciousness. He interacted with many people. Different things happened in their consciousnesses. Whatever happened was expressed in terms of existing ideas.

I get the impression of a ferment of ideas in the Terran Empire period of Poul Anderson's Technic History. Human, Ythrian and Merseian monotheisms are incompatible but there can be partial syntheses like Djana's vision of a Merseian Christ. Magnusson combines his Neosufism with the Merseian idea of "the God." Axor combines his Jerusalem Catholicism and his quest for the Universal Incarnation with the occult-sounding idea that the Builders:

"'...abandoned their achievements, as we, growing up, put away childish things, and went on to a higher plane of existence.'"

-Poul Anderson, The Game Of Empire IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, June 2012), pp. 189-453 AT CHAPTER TWO, p. 210.

("...put away childish things..." is yet another partial Biblical quotation that I have not noted before.)

Axor's companion, Targovi, is a pagan if he is anything.

Small wonder then that, to be as inclusive as possible, the Magnusson Rebellion proclaims:

"'Stand by. The Divine, in whatever form It manifests Itself to you, the Divine is with us.'"

-CHAPTER FIVE, p. 261.

Citizen's Credit Alone

"Mankind does not live by bread - or citizen's credit - alone. Abundance may be harder to endure than scarcity."

-Sandra Miesel IN The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 2, p. 17.

Observations

Another Biblical quotation but this one not by Poul Anderson.

Abundance harder than scarcity? No way, Jose.

The technologically unemployed are disaffected? Yes, maybe for a transitional generation or two but pyschotechnicians should have predicted and prepared for this. Brady cannot be employed as a mathematician but he could be given Internet access to every discovery of the mathematical machines and human super-geniuses and could spend a lifetime, or as long as he wanted, studying and discussing them, then find something else to do.

I cannot see that anything like the Humanist Revolt had to happen.