"The Beginning Shapes The End..."

A long biographical novel should, in its concluding chapter, refer back to its opening page. Poul and Karen Anderson's The King Of Ys is not perhaps biographical. It begins in Gratillonius' adulthood and covers a mere twenty five years. Nevertheless, a lifetime has elapsed. He has been a King and is now a Duke, still hailed as a King. He has transferred his spiritual allegiance from Mithras to Christ and his political allegiance from Rome to Armorica. His oldest daughter has grown to adulthood and died but is not at rest.

Volume I begins:

"At noon upon that Birthday of Mithras, the sun blazed low in an ice-clear heaven. As Gratillonius looked south, he saw its brilliance splinter into rainbow shards amidst his eyelashes."
-Poul and Karen Anderson, Roma Mater, Chapter I, section 1, p. 13.

Very near the end of Volume IV, Gratillonius and Verania walk through snow and he remembers:

"'All at once I remember. Today is the Birthday of Mithras.'"
-Poul and Karen Anderson, The Dog And The Wolf, Chapter XXV, section 2, p. 497.

Christians have not yet adopted 25 December as the Birthday of Christ.

"'...it seems to me somehow as though this, everything that matters to me, it began that selfsame day, five-and-twenty years ago. I stood on guard on the Wall...And soon, one way or another, it will end.'" (ibid.)

Mithras was described as a Watchman but Mithras and the Wall are in Gratillonius' past. This is an excellent reference back to the very beginning of the novel.

Which novel by Poul Anderson can more accurately be described as biographical? (Its opening phrase is the title of this post.) Which series can be described as biographical although it begins in its hero's teens?

Literature And Time

Literature addresses the passage of time. In a biographical novel or series, the central character is young at the beginning and old or dead at the end. Poul Anderson does this with Dominic Flandry. We last see Flandry aged, not dead, but we then read four installments of the Technic History set long after Flandry's lifetime just as he lived long after the lifetimes of Nicholas van Rijn, David Falkayn, Christopher Holm, Philippe Rochefort and Tabitha Falkayn.

Natural time is cyclical but a human life has a direction. Volume I of Poul And Karen Anderson's King of Ys Tetralogy begins:

"At noon upon that Birthday of Mithras..."
-The King Of Ys: Roma Mater (London, 1989), I, 1, p. 13.

Very near the end of Volume IV, the ex-King of Ys exclaims:

"'Today is the Birthday of Mithras...it seems to me as though this, everything that matters to me, it began that selfsame day, five-and-twenty years ago. I stood on guard on the Wall...'"
-The King Of Ys: The Dog And The Wolf (New York, 1989), XXV, 2, p. 497.

Science fiction can show us the death of the universe. Time travel fiction can show us a character visiting and returning from the death of the universe. In fact, to travel too far in either temporal direction is to enter realms that are increasingly alien and ultimately uninhabitable. We will demonstrate this with two examples from Poul Anderson and two from those most quintessentially British of time travelers, the Time Traveler and the Doctor.

(Before it is objected that the Doctor is neither British nor even human, I will reply that:

(the feature film Doctor Who, played by Peter Cushing, was indeed an English inventor, like Wells' Time Traveler;

(the incarnation of the Doctor whom I will cite, played by Christopher Eccleston, when asked why he had a Northern accent (this matters in England), replied, "Every planet has a North!")

The Mystery Of Mithras

The Golden Slave, XVI.

Eodan has "...offered to many powerful gods..." (p. 213):

the Cimbrian Bull which is Moon and Sun;

the Earth Mother, Hertha/Cybele;

the Roman god, Jupiter;

a "...fork-tongued thunder-snake...," (p. 214) invoked by Tjorr.

(According to Wikipedia, "Hertha" turns out to be Nerthus.)

Despite serving the King of Pontus, Eodan cannot offer to the Pontine god, Mithras, because he has not yet "...been initiated into his mysteries." (ibid.) Mithraism is intermediate between paganism and Christianity. Conversion to the latter involves not only offering to Christ bot also no longer offering to any other gods.

Eodan understands that Mithras:

is both strong and consoling;
was "...born of a virgin through the grace of Ahura-Mazda the Good..." (ibid.);
conducts his followers to a heaven which is preferable to Hades;
has a midwinter birthday of feasts and gifts;
will lead warriors from his heaven in a last battle against Ahriman.

Eodan wonders whether Mithras can call his dead wife, Hwicca, "...back from the night wind..." (ibid.) and thinks that Northern Europeans might prefer a god like Mithras to their dark formless Powers. Yes, the Aesir, led by Odin, will invade and make alliance with the Vanir and Odin will lead dead warriors at Ragnarok.

As Everard told Denison, Zoroastrian/Mithraic ideas got into early Christianity through post-Exilic Judaism. CS Lewis re-imagined Armageddon:

"'The siege of your world will be raised, the black spot cleared away, before the real beginning. In those days Maleldil will go to war - in us, and in many who once were hnau on your world, and in many from far off and in many eldila and, last of all, in Himself unveiled, He will go down to Thulcandra. Some of us will go before. It is in my mind, Malacandra, that thou and I will be among those. We shall fall upon your moon, wherein there is a secret evil, and which is as the shield of the Dark Lord of Thulcandra - scarred with many a blow. We shall break her. Her light shall be put out. Her fragments shall fall into your world and the seas and the smoke shall arise so that the dwellers in Thulcandra will no longer see the light of Arbol. And as Maleldil himself draws near, the evil things in your world shall show themselves stripped of disguise so that plagues and horrors shall cover your lands and seas. But in the end all shall be cleansed...'"
-CS Lewis, Perelandra IN Lewis, The Cosmic Trilogy (London, 1990), pp. 145-348 AT 17, pp. 338-339.

And Aslan appears at the end of the Last Battle in Narnia. Mithras, Odin, Maleldil and Aslan are powerful myths.

Seasons

As earlier in the King of Ys tetralogy, Poul and Karen Anderson locate the narrative of Volume Four against the passage of the seasons:

"This early in the year, the surrounding forest stood mostly bare to the blue overhead." (The Dog And The Wolf (London, 1989), p. 24)

"Most fruit trees were done with blooming..." (p. 67)

"Beneath wolf-grey heaven, wrack flew. The north wind drove it, clamouring shrill, fanged with cold." (p. 84)

"That was a chilly year, but towards midsummer a spell of heat..." (p. 113)

"...the woods beyond the Odita blazed with autumn, red, russet, yellow under the earliest sun-rays." (p. 137)

"...harvest was ended, weather still mild..." (p. 145)

"The new year might be more hopeful than the last. Weather grew springlike well before the vernal equinox." (p. 153)

"Easter Eve was clear...leaves were bursting forth..." (p. 163)

"Trees groaned in the wind..." (p. 174)

"The feast of St Johannes had taken unto itself the ancient rites of Midsummer..." (p. 182)

"That summer was cruel..." (p. 192)

"...sun, warmth, and harvest odours. Bees buzzed..." (p. 205)

"Autumn blew grey from the north. Wind bit." (p. 207)

"Midwinter's early darkness had fallen..." (p. 210)

"It was the Birthday of Mithras." (p. 216)

"Spring cast green over the low land..." (p. 216)

"Summer weighed heavily on the land. Rainfall the day before..." (p. 230)

"Wind hooted and dashed rain across roof tiles." (p. 235)

"Winter heaven hung featureless grey." (p. 250)

" 'These endless winter nights drive everybody a bit crazy...' " (p. 254)

"...this was around midwinter." (p. 255)

"A light snow fell." (p. 260)

"Willows had leaved...Migratory birds were coming home." (p. 262)

"The first breath of autumn..." (p. 296)

"In the dark of the moon before winter solstice..." (p. 305)

"Springtime dusk." (p. 311)

"Harvest brought wholeness." (p. 328)

"Winter's rain brawled on the roof and sluiced down window glass." (p. 332)

"That year Beltene in Mide..." (p. 337)

"Clouds drifted low, heavy with rain." (p. 355)

"...their first, excellent harvest." (p. 358)

"On a day in autumn when the wind went loud and sharp..." (p. 362)

"The Black Months need not be dark." (p. 365)

"Spring returned..." (p. 372)

"Summer was then well along, a bleak one this year, chill rains and fleeting pale sunshine." (p. 378)

"Thunder rolled down the sky." (p. 380)

"The storm passed over." (p. 386)

"Autumn weather came..." (p. 391)

" 'Winter draws nigh.' " (p. 393)

"A sharp summer was followed by a hard winter." (p. 397)

"As the year spun down to solstice, cold deepened." (p. 401)

"Skies hung heavy, low above old snow and skeleton trees..." (p. 411)

"The sun drew nigh to midsummer. This was a beautiful year, as if to atone for the last." (p. 427)

"Summer brooded in majesty on ripening grain..." (p. 431)

"The long day of Armorican summer wore on." (p. 435)

"Rain came..." (p. 443)

"That year they kept the Feast of Lug in Armorica without their chiefs." (p. 448)

"Harvest was done..." (p. 451)

"The storks had long since departed..." (p. 472)

"Equinox almost a month behind them, nights drew in fast...Autumn colours in the woods..." (p. 484)

"The day before solstice hung still and murky." (p. 490)

"Snow began to fall..." (p. 495)

" 'Today is the Birthday of Mithras...it began that selfsame day, five-and twenty years ago. I stood on guard on the Wall...' " (p. 497)

"Midwinter nights fell early and dwelt late..." (p. 497)

Thus, by the end of the novel, we have not only witnessed great events among human beings but have also followed the circle of the year several times. 

Roma Mater I

OK. I am starting to reread The King Of Ys by Poul and Karen Anderson. This will take a long time. Volume I, Roma Mater (London, 1989) - "Mother Rome" - begins:

"At noon upon that Birthday of Mithras..." (p. 13)

The Andersons' Note explains that Mithras' Birthday, 25 December, had been the winter solstice but the latter had moved. (p. 443) Although our family recognizes 25 December with a Christmas Tree, we are also invited to a Pagan friend's house for Yule on the current solstice, 21 December.

I understand that Mithraism emerged from Persian Zoroastrianism in the same sort of way that Christianity emerged from the Abrahamic tradition. However, another Andersonian Note adds, and other sources confirm, that Mithras reached Rome via Persia from the Aryans. That makes his origin considerably older.

I prepare for meditation by invoking a named deity. I do not believe that such beings exist but see no harm in continuing the tradition of our ancestors, as in the Hippocratic Oath. Asking to be led from darkness to light focuses attention on "light." I think that "Indra" is an appropriate name. As the chief Vedic god, he would have been known to Gautama and is mentioned in Buddhist scriptures. However, Mithras, with slight variations of spelling, is comparably ancient and the Andersons adapted a Latin prayer from Kipling's "A Song to Mithras":

" 'Tene Mithra, etiam miles, fidos nostris votis nos!' " (p. 347)

"Mithras, also a soldier, keep us true to our vows!" (p. 481)

Not bad. Although not literally soldiers, we sometimes engage in conflicts and need to practice the karma yoga, nonattached action, taught by Krishna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. I would occasionally visit the Hindu Temple in Preston, which has images of Krishna and other deities on its ceiling, if I lived nearer to it.

Finishing Roma Mater

Roma Mater.

Our first sight of Gratillonius:

"At noon upon that Birthday of Mithras, the sun blazed low in an ice-clear heaven. As Gratillonius looked south, he saw its brilliance splinter into rainbow shards amidst his eyelashes." (I, 1, p. 13)

- and our last sight of him in this volume:

"His next Watch would begin on the Birthday of Mithras." (XXVI, 3, p. 438)

The Speaker for Taranis:

"'We think the Gods have worked Their will and are at peace with Ys.'" (p. 437)

I don't think so.

A new description of the Milky Way:

"...the River of Tiamat flowed across heaven..." (XXVII, p. 439)

There is a ritual in which fishing boats convey the souls of the dead from Ys to the isle of Sena. When the boats are launched:

"The wind and the sea murmured." (p. 440)

When the souls leave the boats:

"The sea and the wind sighed." (p. 441)

The fishermen, in their role as Ferriers of the Dead, hear voices:

"-'I was Dahilis.'" (ibid.)

The novel ends on this note of fantasy.

Brave To Be A King

I usually try to paraphrase but this passage needs to be quoted in full:

"'...let's check up. Doesn't the King lead a procession at the winter solstice festival?'
"'Yeah. Let's go. Quickly.'
"And the sunlight burned around them, high above Pasargadae. They left their machine hidden and walked down on foot, two travelers among many streaming in to celebrate the Birthday of Mithras. On the way, they inquired what had happened, explaining that they had been long abroad. The answers satisfied them, even in small details which Denison's memories recorded but the chronicles hadn't mentioned.
"At last they stood under a frosty-blue sky, among thousands of people, and salaamed when Cyrus the Great King rode past with his chief courtiers Kobad, Croesus, and Harpagus, and the pride and pomp and priesthood of Persia followed.
"'He's younger than I was,' whispered Denison. 'He would be, I guess. And a little smaller...different face entirely, isn't it?...but he'll do.'
"'Want to stay for the fun?'asked Everard.
Denison drew his cloak around him. The air was bitter. 'No,' he said. 'Let's go back. It's been a long time. Even if it never happened.'
'Uh-huh.' Everard seemed more grim than a victorious rescuer should be. 'It never happened.'"
- Poul Anderson, The Guardians of Time (New York, 1981), pp. 122-123.

"It" - Denison's sixteen years as Cyrus - "...never happened..." in the current timeline but I think that it makes more sense to say that it did happen in an earlier timeline along a second temporal dimension than simply that it didn't happen period. But I have argued this point before.

It is as if Denison has played a dramatic role and is now reviewing another actor taking that same part in the play. But, in this case, that other actor is the real Cyrus. In the previous timeline, Cyrus was killed at birth and Denison was later forced to play the role of a Cyrus who had not really been killed and had returned in adulthood. In the current timeline, Cyrus was not killed and therefore did not have to return in adulthood. Denison and Everard had contemplated creating a timeline in which someone else again had played the role.

Sandra Miesel, in "Of Time And The Rover," (pp. 245-254) rightly praises several aspects of this passage.

(i) Irony and allusion: two men accustomed to effortless space-time travel must walk to "...an archaic ritual and prostrate themselves to verify their triumph." (p. 250) There is an appropriate natural contrast between cold sky and burning sun.

(ii) Contrast between, on the one hand, ancient Persian celebration of the sun's return and, on the other hand, the end both of Denison's glory and of Everard's hope. (If Keith had had to remain Cyrus, then maybe Everard and Cynthia Denison...)

(iii) Mithras' Birthday became Christ's. Cyrus and his three courtiers suggest Christ and the Three Wise Men, supposedly Persian Magi. (I had not thought of that but they do.) (The account in Matthew mentions wise men and lists three gifts.)

(iv) Epiphany and Christmas associations evoke Kingship and its cost which are the themes of this Time Patrol story.

I would also draw attention to the alliteration in "...the pride and pomp and priesthood of Persia..." (p. 123).

In general, an excellent passage that encapsulates basic themes of the Time Patrol series.

What Gratillonius Knows Of The Goths

 

The Dog And The Wolf, XI, 1.

"Their tribes were divided between  a western and an eastern branch.

"Wandering down from Germanic lands, they had settled in regions north of the Danuvius and the Euxinus.

"Later the thrust of a wholly wild and terrible breed, the Huns, caused them to seek refuge among the Romans.

"They proved to be formidable soldiers, especially as cavalrymen...

"...but untrustworthy subjects, apt to rebel.

"Most became Christian...

"...though of the Arian persuasion..." (p. 214)

I have rearranged this passage into discrete data, numbering seven. We can read about these Goths, Huns and Arians in Poul Anderson's Time Patrol story, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth."

"It was the Birthday of Mithras. Gratillonius rarely saw a calendar, but everybody knew when solstice happened, and from that he could reckon this day." (p. 216)

He and we remember when he celebrated Birthday on the Wall. His entire career as King of Ys has come and gone since then, just as we remember long periods of time when we worked in a particular place.

How many Birthdays of Mithras are mentioned in The King of Ys?

Time Passes II

Again, a period of time elapses. Seasons come and go. Gratillonius lives now permanently in Ys and we cannot be told everything that happens.

Chapter VI:

"Up from the South wandered spring..." (p. 116)

- and the opening paragraph of the Chapter describes the responses of nature and humanity to spring across Armorica.

Chapter VII, section 1:

"At high summer, the rain sometimes fell nearly warm..." (p. 132)

That is a scene in Ys.

Chapter VII, section 4:

"As closely as it followed winter solstice, the Birthday of Mithras gave a glimmer of daylight, barely more than six hours, in a cavern of night." (p. 153)

- appropriate, since Mithras should be worshiped in a cave.

Chapter VIII, section 1:

"The equinoctial gales blew out of Ocean like longings, to wake the soul from winter drowse." (p. 159)

Chapter VIII, section 2:

"Early summer brought a spell of calm, light, warmth." (p. 168)

Chapter VIII, section 4:

"An autumn storm roared, whistled, flung rain and hail, throughout one night." (p. 181)

Chapter IX, section 1:

"Winter's early night had fallen..." (p. 198)

Chapter IX, section 4:

"That year huge rainstorms arrived in succession..." (p. 214)

- affecting harvests throughout Armorica.

Chapter X, section 1, paragraph 2:

"Rainstorms gave way to fog. As summer waned..." (p. 222)

Chapter XI, section 4:

"Often around the autumnal equinox, storms..." (p. 253)

Chapter XII, section 2:

"The months wheeled onward, through winter and spring and again to summer." (p. 269)

Chapter XII, section 3:

"That had been a quiet year in Ys. Yet folk came to believe that mighty things were astir in the womb of time." (p. 273)

- there are cyclical seasonal changes but also a sense of great events approaching.

Chapter XIII, section 3:

"Again the year swung towards equinox. Summer died..." (p. 302)

Chapter XIV, section 1:

"As autumn yellowed leaves..." (p. 307)

Chapter XIV, section 2:

"Forty days after solstice, the diminishing gloom of winter was made bright in Ys." (p. 310)

- by yet another royal birth.

Chapter XV begins with Dahut, twelve, approaching physical maturity.

Chapter XV, section 2, begins:

"Very early in the shipping season..." (p. 327)

Chapter XVI, section 2:

"Summer lay heavy over the land." (p. 351)

Chapter XVI, section 4:

"Midwinter rites and festival...went past solstice." (p. 362)

I have jumped over human and political events to show how the novel moves through the years. I must now return to the beginning of Chapter VII and continue rereading until the end of the concluding Chapter XVII in order to reach the half way point of the tetralogy.

A Challenge And The Seasons

 

Gallicenae.

At any time, the narrative of The King of Ys can be interrupted by a challenge in the Wood and, theoretically, Gratillonius could lose such a challenge although we know that that is not going to happen. The first such challenge is easily disposed of in V, 4. Disgusted by his own slaughter of an unworthy opponent, Gratillonius inwardly calls on Mithras to end the Three. Another god will do this. (Some say that the true God hears all prayers.)

It is three years after the events of Roma Mater and the seasons return:

"Up from the South wandered spring..." (VI, 1, p. 116)

"At high summer, the rain sometimes fell nearly warm through unmoving air." (VII, 1, p. 132)

"As closely as it followed winter solstice, the Birthday of Mithras at Ys gave a glimmer of daylight, barely more than six hours, in a cavern of night." (VII, 4, p. 153)

"The equinoctial gales blew out of Ocean like longings,to wake the soul from winter drowse." (VIII, 1, p. 159)

"Early summer brought a spell of calm, light, warmth." (VIII, 2, p. 168)

"An autumn storm roared, whistled, flung rain and hail, throughout one night." (VIII, 4, p. 181)

"Winter's early night had fallen..." (IX, 1, p. 198)

"As summer waned, Ys lay in a chill dankness and a white blindness that seemed to go on without end." (X, 1, p. 222)

"Often around the autumnal equinox, storms caused Ys to lock its sea gate..." (XI, 4, p. 253)

"The months wheeled onward, through winter and spring and again to summer." (XII, 2, p. 269)

"At Lugnassat, King Niall must by law preside over the great fair at Tallten..." (XIII, 1, p. 291)

"Again the year swung towards equinox. Summer died..." (XIII, 3, p. 302)

"Forty days after solstice, the diminishing gloom of winter was made bright in Ys." (XIV, 2, p. 310)

"At Imbolc Niall Naegeslach gave out that after Beltene (sic) he would fare overseas." (XIV, 3, p. 315)

"Very early in the shipping season..." (XV, 2, p. 327)

"Summer lay heavy over the land." (XVI, 2, p. 351)

"Autumn cooled and hazed the air." (XVI, 3, p. 358)

"Midwinter rites and festival, together with the Council meeting, went past solstice." (XVI, 4, p. 362)

"Tommaltach maqq Donngalii returned to Ys with the springtime." (XVII, 1, p. 369)

Maybe this, not the doings of human beings, is the true story?

"Of Time And The Rover"

Sandra Miesel, "Of Time And The Rover" IN Poul Anderson, The Guardians Of Time (New York, 1981), pp. 245-254.

Brilliant title. "The Rover" is Poul Anderson and some of his characters:

"The same thought must have occurred to the time rover." (p. 241)

Sandra Miesel advises us to:

"Compare [Anderson's] Old Phoenix Inn filled with heroes from everywhen in A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1974, with the gatherings in Robert A Heinlein's Number Of The Beast, 1980." (p. 246)

I prefer not to!

Miesel writes that Anderson's "...time transit stories...compare favorably with the famous efforts of John Brunner, L Sprague de Camp, Fritz Leiber, Ward Moore, Larry Niven, Andre Norton, H Beam Piper, Keith Roberts, and Robert Silverberg." (p. 246)

I disagree. I think that Anderson's time travel works are far superior to any of these. And several of the mentioned writers make a complete mess of time travel paradoxes.

in "Brave To Be a King":

"The climactic procession celebrating the Birthday of Mithras would take longer for a critic to analyze in full than it does for Anderson to describe." (pp. 249-250)

This is probably right. Next, I will reread "Brave To Be A King."

Sun And Sea

On the Birthday of Mithras, the Mithraists in Ys dedicate their temple in the basement of The Raven Tower. They have statues of the Dadophori and of lion-headed Time.

Daylight is a glimmer "...in a cavern of night..." (Gallicenae, p. 153), which is appropriate since Mithras is worshiped in a cave.

At nightfall, when Gratillonius and his visiting father return to the palace, wind yells, driving rain and chill down the streets, and:

"Under the sea wall, tide ramped and snarled." (p. 158)

Why does Chapter VII end with this sentence? Because the Mithraeum is below the waterline and vulnerable to the sea god, Lir, Who will overwhelm His city, inundating everything in it, especially the basements built just beneath the sea wall. The doom that is to come is foreshadowed in much of the preceding text.

The Blue Carbuncle

Near Christmas (scroll down), we remember and might reread:

"A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens;

"The Blue Carbuncle" by Arthur Conan Doyle;

The Shepherd by Frederick Forsyth;

"The Season of Forgiveness" by Poul Anderson -

- and I am currently reading about Christmas 2078, just sixty years from now, in Julian May's Magnificat. Also, Poul and Karen Anderson's The King Of Ys begins and ends with the Birthday of Mithras.

Because Poul Anderson fans should be interested in Sherlock Holmes, I will now recount that Aileen, our daughter, paid for Sheila and me to attend a dramatization, interrupted by Christmas carols, of "The Blue Carbuncle" in the Shire Hall court room of Lancaster Castle this evening. Watson stood in a witness box to narrate. While he read aloud The Times report of a court case, the witnesses entered the box and spoke.

When Holmes lets the culprit go, he says:

"'I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just possible that I am saving a soul.'"
-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Blue Carbuncle" IN Doyle, Sherlock Holmes Two Complete Adventures (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1994), pp. 96-188 AT p. 187

- thus linking with the theme of "A Christmas Carol."

He also says:

"'Besides, it is the season of forgiveness.'" (ibid.)

Thus, Poul Anderson's Christmas story takes its title from a phrase in Doyle's.

(Another local note: in recent years, Nygel performed an abridged reading of "A Christmas Carol," accompanied by mulled wine, in a nearby library. This year, he is making Father Christmas phone calls to children and hopefully will review a Poul Anderson novel for this blog.)

Conclusion

The Dog And The Wolf, XXV.

The King of Ys covers twenty five years, beginning and ending on the Birthday of Mithras.

While exorcising Dahut, Corentinus, echoing the opening lines of Paradise Lost, says that Satan:

"',,,brought death into the world...'" (p. 501)

He did not. Does anyone still believe that the first human beings and all their descendants would have been physically immortal if not for an original act of disobedience to a divine command? Death was part of life before us and we are part of life.

There might be further reflections on rereading to the end of The King of Ys but that is all for now. Tomorrow I again visit Andrea above the Old Pier Bookshop.

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.

Origins III

In Poul Anderson's The Golden Slave (New York, 1980), Eodan asks the educated Greek slave, Phyrne, to teach him writing:

" 'Not that we would have much use for it in the North...and yet, who knows?' " (p. 204)

Here then is the origin of Norse runes.

Tjorr, rubbing his hammer, remarks, " 'There's luck in this old maul...Maybe even something of the lightning.'" (p. 213) He worships a thunder-snake. In mythology, Thor will control thunder and lightning and fight a serpent.

Mithras will lead the warriors who have been his guests in heaven to resist the final onslaught by the forces of evil.

"Eodan thought sometimes that the North might welcome such a god..." (p. 214)

Here are the origins of the Valkyries, Valhalla and Ragnarok.

Mithras was born of a virgin through the grace of the Most High "...that his followers might live in heaven after death..." (p. 214). Men feast and give presents on his midwinter birthday and the Cross of Light stands on his banners. Here are some of the origins of Christianity.

Festivals

There are Birthdays of Mithras in The King Of Ys and Christmases in a Time Patrol story, a Technic History instalment and a chapter of A Boat Of A Million Years (XIX, 24). In real life, I have attended Christmas parties, of course, but also Solstice and Wesak (the Buddha's birthday). (In our group's calendar, Wesak is a week after May Day.) (Anderson's "Mayday Orbit.") My friend at the Birmingham Buddhist Centre is preparing a ceremony for Paranirvana (the Buddha's death). One Buddhist tradition celebrates his birth, enlightenment and death all one the same day. Sikhs celebrate the births and deaths of ten Gurus as well as Diwali inherited from Hindus. We all have our New Years. Where am I going with this? Festivals unite us. Human beings in different futures and different timelines celebrate the same or similar festivals as us.

The Boat Of A Million Years makes us wait for physical contact with the Others/Alloi. This is a book that has just about everything: fourteen historical periods; three decades of the twentieth century; the future Earth and Solar System; a long interstellar space journey; contact with another intelligent species. And its climax looks toward a further future.

A Year In Ys

Roma Mater.

The narrative proceeds through the year.

"At noon upon that Birthday of Mithras, the sun blazed low in an ice-clear heaven."

-I, 1, p. 13.

"Imbolc marked the season of making ready for the year's work, the lambing that would soon begin, spring sowing later, fishing whenever Manandan and the merfolk would allow."

-II, 1, p. 31.

"Festivals surrounded Midsummer."

-XIX, 1, p. 337.

"Summer advanced in triumphal procession."

-XX, 2, p. 351.

"Summer welled forth in its final great warmth, light, and greenness."

-XXI, 1, p. 356.

"At equinox all the Nine must be in Ys, attending the Council and carrying out certain rites."

-XX11, 1, p. 366.

"The Black Months were upon Armorica. As Midwinter drew nigh, day shrank..."

-XXIII, 1, p.380.

"There was no wind on the night before Solstice Eve, nor was the air unduly cold."

-XXIV, 1, p. 3933.

"Seas ran high on the morning after solstice, but wind had fallen off and skies were clearing."

-XXV, 5, p. 421.

And we are nearly at the end of this novel.

Hell, Voluspa And York

King Haakon asks:

"'How many will go to Hell who'd have been saved if they'd gotten the Word sooner?'"
-Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003), Book Three, Chapter VII, p. 214.

None, Haakon. If anyone is to be judged, then surely their circumstances should be taken into account especially if, as we are told, the Judge is also the Creator? And, whatever the verdict, how can finite offenses warrant infinite punishment? As a skeptical philosopher, I would be obliged to tell Haakon's missionaries that I preferred the local deities to the one that they were importing.

Haakon heeds wise advice. He considers extending the Yule celebration and linking it to Christ's birthday - which, of course, had been the solstice and Mithras' birthday. He has the good sense to "...listen and learn..." (p. 217) when a skald recites what we recognize as the Voluspa, newly arrived from Iceland:

"'...nine worlds
I knew in the tree...

"'Do you want to know more?'" (p. 218)

The foredoomed, undaunted gods, strong in their homeland, honored by Haakon's father, Harald Fairhair.

Chapter VIII begins:

"A wind from the north went astray in the twisting lanes of York..." (p. 219)

We are about to rejoin Haakon's enemy, Eirik Blood-ax, now King in York, but I am about to go to bed in Lancaster.

Why Mithras Lost

In Roma Mater (London, 1989) by Poul and Karen Anderson, "...the Christians...welcomed women to their services...Could that alone be the reason why Christ was triumphing?" (p. 28)

Too right. Although not that alone. For displaced slaves and others in the cosmopolitan Roman Empire, it had become difficult to maintain:

complicated ritual cleanliness;
divisive dietary laws;
repeated animal sacrifices;
deities and myths associated with particular places (oneness and "omnipresence" were becoming necessary).

Gentiles could be attracted by Jewish monotheism and morality but repelled by circumcision and dietary laws. Paul, preaching monotheism free from Jewish Law, could take interested Gentiles with him when he was expelled from synagogues. One dying and rising god saved all men with a perfect sacrifice which, re-enacted with bread and wine, put aside the need for ritual cleanliness, dietary restrictions and repeated but never fully efficacious blood sacrifices. The sacrifice, death and resurrection had occurred historically, recently, "under Pontius Pilate," thus superseding cyclical, ahistorical resurrections, yet had fulfilled ancient prophecies, thus were divinely ordained.

Jesus crucified is victim, priest and god in one whereas Mithras was still shown killing a bull and his (male) followers still had to find a white bull to slaughter. The Andersons' character Gratillonius refuses to share a meal, even with his military commander, on Mithras' Birthday. The Mithraists were failing, or refusing, to adapt.

Later, Christians adapted further by accepting the Mother of God in Ephesus where Paul had opposed the Mother Goddess. We can see how Mithraism lost and also that it could have won only by becoming less like itself and more like Christianity.