Greatland

Mirkheim, X.

Grand Duchess Sandra and her son, Eric, discuss their response to the Baburite invasion.

"'We can organize guerillas.'

"'They'd spend near their whole time surviving.' At the present epoch, Hermes had a single continent, Greatland, so enormous that most of its interior was a desert of blazing summers and bitter winters. 'Worse, they'd invite reprisals on everybody else. And never could they defeat well-equipped troops on the ground, missile-throwing ships in orbit.'" (p. 153)

 

A conversation can be narrated without identifying a point of view. See the description of the dialogue between van Rijn and Hirharouk in Coya Conyon. I had to check but this conversation between Sandra and Eric is definitely narrated from her pov. Her cigar smoke tastes harsh.

However, of particular interest is the explanatory interpolation, beginning "At the present epoch..." A future historian, recounting the conversation, pauses to explain to his audience the geology of Hermes in that long past epoch.

 

For the development of Greatland by a later Grand Duke, see the link from "Hermes," also Edwin Cairncross's Ambitions.

Hermes

The planet Hermes:

is in the system of the star Maia in Sector Antares;
has two moons, Caduceus and Sandalion;
has one large continent, Greatland, with an arid interior;
was colonized early mainly by northern Europeans;
was developed by private corporations which became the basis of the Hermetian state;
began as a Grand Duchy with a stratified society;
gained stewardship of the industrially valuable planet Mirkheim after the Babur War;
at that time also became an ordinary crowned republic while remaining nominally a Grand Duchy;
during the Troubles, developed a military-oriented society with authority concentrated in the executive and rule by whoever commanded the greatest armed force;
lost Mirkheim when Hans Molitor became Emperor;
rioted against forced demilitarization under Molitor and was pacified by the Marines;
prospered under Grand Duke Edwin Cairncross who reclaimed the interior with canals, landscaping, imported species, urbanization, commerce and a castle on an extinct volcano.

Greatland divides the Auroral Ocean to the east from the Corybantic Ocean to the west. The city of Starfall is on the east coast where the Palomino River flows into Daybreak Bay. Tilirras sing from millionleafs and there are colorfully winged, trilling nidifexes.

When Hermes declared independence from Terra, its new constitution recognized the Kindred as the Thousand Families controlling the "domains": either landed estates or corporations. The presidents of the domains elect the Duke or Duchess of Hermes from the Tamarin family which must not own a domain. Ancestors of Kindred and Tamarins were the first to arrive from Earth but, instead of founding a corporation, the Tamarins free lanced as scientists etc. "Followers," holding entailed shares, are junior partners in domains, each holding a single vote in domain affairs whereas Kindred have ten. "Travers," hirelings or unaffiliated business people, descended from latecomers, are not taxed and have no vote. The Liberation Front demands full rights for Travers who, as a result of "Libby" campaigns, gain a vote in choosing municipal officers. Travers bow to the Duchess, Followers salute, Kindred shake hands.

The Asmundsens, Followers of the Runebergs and tenants on the Brightwater estate, manage the Runeberg's copper industry. A younger Asmundsen, who explores and develops other planets in the Maian system, is obliged by custom to give preferential promotions to fellow Followers but acknowledges that his strike-threatening Traver employees have legitimate grievances which he tries to address by negotiating in person with their leaders and offering compensations like extra vacations. Hornbeck, the estate of the Falkayn domain, is on a plateau jutting from Mount Nevis in the Thunderhead Mountains. Sam Romney, independent ship-owner, fisherman and loyal Traver, does most of his business with the Falkayns. 

Baburite invaders appoint Benoni Strang, an embittered Traver, as High Commissioner for Hermes. Strang, as Bayard Story of the Galactic Developments company and the Seven in Space cartel, had secretly armed Babur. As Commissioner, he intends to impose a social revolution, democratizing the domains and obliging them to conduct all operations through a central trade authority. Through Duchess Sandra Tamarin-Asmundsen, he announces that a Grand Assembly to draft a new constitution, as provided for in the existing constitution, will be held when procedures for the election of delegates are in place. Christa Broderick, the Liberation Front leader welcomes Strang's proposed social reforms but Strang bypasses the Front, many of whom oppose the invasion, and his Traver supporters form a new party.

Broderick's city and farming followers snipe and sabotage while guerillas operate in the Arcadian Hills and the Thunderheads. Both groups attack Starfall while the returned Ducal Space Navy engages orbiting Baburite craft. After the liberation, the Duchess receives a petition. Revolutionary terror has weakened the domains and the Liberation Front has gained confidence. It is agreed that a constitutional convention must await a firm peace but then Hermes, while remaining nominally a duchy, will become in practice a republic. Later, Cairncross is not a Tamarin though he is remotely descended from the Founder of the Empire, Manuel Argos.

Hermes, like Avalon, Aeneas and Vixen, is an entire inhabited planet imagined in detail by Poul Anderson.

Sources: Mirkheim and A Stone In Heaven.

Wardroom

Sandra, Eric, van Rijn and Falkayn meet in the wardroom of the Hermetian space fleet flagship which has stonebark wainscoting, cyanops leather and pictures of:

Cloudhelm seen from an Arcadian hill;
the Rainbow Desert;
nighttime phosphorescence in the Corybantic Ocean.

None of these names has had to be specially invented for this scene. We have seen Falkayn in a forest of stonebark and rainroof and Sandra hunting a cyanops in the Arcadian Hills. Falkayn has flown over the Arcadian Hills beyond which lie Starfall and the Auroral Ocean. The single Hermetian continent, Greatland, separates the two Oceans.

Anderson has made Hermes seem to be such a real place that he is able to evoke its quiddity again by a few brief phrases describing the room in which the Grand Duchess, her son, her son's father and the father's protege hold their fateful meeting about the future of Hermes.

JRR Tolkien is rightly commended for his detailed creation of Middle Earth. How many fictitious planets are realized in the History of Technic Civilization as well as in Anderson's many other works of hard sf?

Approaching Hermes

OK. Immediately following the Pacific sunset, there is another colorful descriptive paragraph. Approached from space, David Falkayn's home planet, Hermes, is first a blue star, then a sapphire disc which:

is "...marbeled with white weather..." (Chapter XV, p. 205) but darkened by its single large continent, Greatland;

shows shining seas, either brightened by the sun, Maia, or shimmering under the two moons, Caduceus and Sandalion.

Poul Anderson could just have told us how the trade pioneer crew makes its clandestine approach to the occupied planet but, of course, he rightly tells us what the planet looks like first. And that really is the end of the day on this part of the planet Earth.

Political Changes In The Maian System

A Stone In Heaven, II.

We knew what the situation was at the end of Mirkheim but a lot of time has passed. What has changed? 

Hermes is no longer as rich as powerful as it was and no longer has constitutional government.

Its current dynasty of Grand Dukes is a line of military dictators.

The present Grand Duke, Edwin Cairncross, deposed his own brother.

He is not of Tamarin descent but does bear some Argolid genes unlike the present Emperor, a son of the usurper, Hans Molitor.

Hans took the Protectorate of Mirkheim from Hermes in order to secure financial support on Terra.

Cairncross has directed the settlement of the interior of the single continent, Greatland, on Hermes but is strangely unsympathetic to the xenological foundation on nearby Ramnu where the Hermetian company, General Enterprises, conducts some expanding although unspecified industrial operations.

The attentive reader deduces that Cairncross is up to no good on Ramnu and that Miriam Abrams' old family friend, Dominic Flandry, will fly to her rescue.

Across three chapters, the narrative point of view segues from Yewwl to Abrams to Cairncross to Flandry.

Where's Olga?

A Stone In Heaven, II.

From his battlemented tower on an extinct volcano in the middle of the Hermetian continent, Greatland, Edwin Cairncross, Grand Duke of Hermes, sees:

Antares;

 

Mogul, sun of Babur, the Hermetian Protectorate;

 

Olga, the constellation that contains, invisibly of course, the extinct sun of Mirkheim;

 

the Milky Way;

 

not Sol, which is too far away.

How many Olgas are there in the Technic History?

The Grand Survey spaceship, Olga, discovers Ythri and Avalon;

the explorers of Avalon include Olga Berg;

Olga's Landing is a city on Imhotep;

Olga is a constellation on Hermes.

Edwin Cairncross's Ambitions

Imagine wielding so much power that you and you alone were able to initiate great and good works and projects on an interstellar scale! Edwin Cairncross has achieved much as Grand Duke of Hermes and aims to do more as Emperor of Terra. (He just needs to overthrow the incumbent first.)

One of his most cherished achievements is his estate at Lythe in the center of the single Hermetian continent of Greatland: an eyrie with ornamental battlements on an extinct volcano above a formerly arid steppe now transformed by canals, imported plants, birds and game animals and a town made prosperous by commerce. From Lythe, Cairncross governs the globe and beyond, receiving electronic reports from a dozen elite secret agents, bypassing their nominal superiors.

He enlarged the industrial operation in the Ramnuan system and held successive political posts before forcing his half-brother's abdication and his own election. Then, as Duke, he implemented popular public works. Now, half the Hermetian adolescents are Cairncross Pioneers for sports, outdoormanship and patriotism focused on him.

As Emperor, he will:

organize research to extend instantaneous communication beyond its current limit of one light year, thus "...rous[ing] enterprise again in the human race" -Poul Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (New York, 2012), p. 132;
reverse the glaciation on Ramnu, thus gaining the reverence of an entire race "...for as long as their sun endures" (p. 134);
do much more than this, thus possibly being "...remembered through the lifetime of the universe." (p. 134)

Hey, steady on there, old chap! Can any one person possibly be remembered through the lifetime of the universe? He only stops short of imagining that he will be "renowned throughout the cosmos." I read this last phrase decades ago in a comic book loc (letter of comment). The loccer commented that Kal-El is renowned throughout the cosmos whereas the Green Lantern is known only in his own space sector.

I think that only the combination of antithanatics and instantaneous space jumps in Anderson's World Without Stars would give anyone the slightest possibility of being renowned throughout the cosmos. And, even then, he would be famous in some places but not in others as a man working for Babur tells the celebrity David Falkayn in Mirkheim.

Yerb On Yardangs

Mirkheim.

In the desert interior of the single Hermetian continent of Greatland, yerb grows on yardangs. (XV, p. 207) (That Wikipedia article on yerb is in some strange variant of English.) I no longer routinely google unfamiliar terminology in Poul Anderson's texts because I figure everyone can google and terms that are unfamiliar to me will be familiar to others. However, I thought that "yardangs" immediately followed by "yerb" warranted some attention.

The trader team clandestinely approaches Falkayn's occupied home planet, Hermes. I know what is going to happen so I am in no hurry and can pause on unusual items like "yardangs," which I do not remember having read before although I must have done, in this novel. If we notice such a word only once in our lives, then there is no way to know in advance what it means and we did not always have a dictionary to hand in pre-internet days.

Where did Poul Anderson get his extensive vocabulary from?