Time With Kathryn And Kossara

Djana wishes that Dominic Flandry will never get the woman that he really wants. (Her wishes have power.) Flandry really wants Kathryn McCormac, then later Kossara Vymezal. He does have time with both but that is all. With Kathryn, there is the time on Dido, then in the spaceship when he is returning her to her husband. She helps him to plan how he will negotiate with the rebel leader, Hugh McCormac, then:

"Theirs had been a curious intimacy while they traveled hither...between times, dreamy talk of old days and far places, much reminiscence about little events on Dido - Flandry wondered if man and woman could grow closer in a wedded lifetime. In one aspect, yes, obviously they could; but that one they both shied off from speaking of."
-Poul Anderson, The Rebel Worlds IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 367-520 AT Chapter Fifteen, p. 505.

Flandry's happiest time with Kossara is summarized here.

I do not believe that human beings are naturally monogamous. If I were Hugh McCormac, then I would not have a problem if Kathryn had had sex with Flandry on Dido or in the spaceship. However, the one person whose wishes are paramount in this case is Kathryn McCormac.

Kathryn McCormac

 

The Rebel Worlds, CHAPTER TWELVE.

I hope that the attached image of the British paperback back cover blurb is legible.

The barbarians are at the edge not of the galaxy but of known space. They do not expect the Empire to fall yet. The description of McCormac and of Flandry is accurate. The number of suns affected by Kathryn McCormac is exaggerated. But her single word could decide many fates. Flandry would support Hugh McCormac's revolution if he could be with Kathryn even for a while. Flandry changing his loyalty even temporarily would drastically alter the outcome of the Rebellion whether or not it led to McCormac becoming Emperor. Maybe Sector Alpha Crucis would become independent. The rebels would not have gone into exile. The remainder of Flandry's life and career would have been very different. But Djana's geas preventing Flandry from getting the woman that he really wants is still operating.

God And Hugh McCormac

The Rebel Worlds.

We know from "The Problem of Pain" and The Day Of Their Return that there are convinced Christians on Aeneas.

Hugh McCormac reflects:

"If Kathryn were tuned in on my mind...she'd say there must be something in Leviticus against mixing so many metaphors."

-CHAPTER ONE, p. 372.

Not a serious remark, obviously, but one that confirms the role of the Bible on Aeneas.

Kathryn McCormac to Dominic Flandry:

"'Dominic, I'm prayin' for both of you.'"

-CHAPTER FIFTEEN, p. 505.

- for both her husband and Flandry who are on opposite sides in a civil war.

"[McCormac] thanked his iron God that the sun of Llynathawr was not visible in these latitudes."

-CHAPTER SIX, p. 425.

Flandry to McCormac:

"'Down on your knees, McCormac, and thank whatever smug God you've taken on as your junior partner, that I have to find some way of saving your life because otherwise the harm you've done would be ten times what it is!'"

-CHAPTER FIFTEEN, p. 509.

Well, what is God: iron, smug or something else? Until He tells us, each of us has to find the best answer that we can. 

East Of Windhome

Poul Anderson, The Day Of Their Return IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 74-238, 2.

The chapter begins:

"East of Windhome..." (p. 76)

- which, we might remember, was the name of Hugh McCormac's residence in Chapter VI of The Rebel Worlds.

The viewpoint character, Ivar Frederiksen, hears "...the Windfloss flowing." (ibid.) We might remember that Kathryn McCormac's maiden name was Frederiksen and that Hugh McCormac, when returning to Windhome, heard the Wildfoss River brawling in cataracts.

Ivar and his comrades ambush "Imperials." (p. 77) Later, Ivar confirms that these Imperials are "Terrans." (p. 81) Before doing that, he has entered Windhome, "...the ancestral seat of the Firstman of Ilion." (p. 79) That was Hugh McCormac's title. Sergeant Astaff, wearing Ilian uniform in defiance of Imperial decree, addresses Ivar as "'Firstli' Ivar!'" (p. 80) - then reminds him that he is, "'...next Firstman of Ilion....'" (p. 82)

Astaff also tells us:

"'I know Empire. Traveled through it more than once with Admiral McCormac.' As he spoke the name, he saluted. The average Imperial agent who saw would have arrested him on the spot." (p. 82)

Astaff begins our introduction to Aenean Anglic, with no definite article: "Empire," not "the Empire." More importantly, with Flandry, we met the Pretender McCormac; now, with Ivar, we meet a man who served under, and still salutes, the exiled Admiral McCormac.

Finally, moving the narrative forward, Astaff introduces us to Aenean religion. Ivar, as next Firstman, is:

"'Maybe last hope we got, this side of Elders returnin'.'" (ibid.)

Little does the reader yet suspect what this is going to mean although the opening chapter has given us a hint:

"-Six million years have blown by in the night, said Caruith. I remember..." (p. 76)

The issues of The Rebel Worlds are still with us and more will be added although, somewhat disjointingly, all the characters have changed.

Frederiksens

The Day Of Their Return.

Thus far, rereading selected passages of Poul Anderson's The Day Of Their Return, I have not referred to the hero of the novel, Ivar Frederiksen, because there are so many other (more interesting?) characters.

Ivar first appears on the second page of the text:

"Ivar Frederiksen shivered." (2, p. 76)

Although he is a new, and one-off, character, we have already met another member of his family. When Kathryn McCormac informed Dominic Flandry about the planet Dido, she said:

"'The base, Port Frederiksen'-a brief white smile-'one of my ancestors founded it-'s on the western end of Barca, as we've named the biggest continent.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Rebel Worlds IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 367-520 AT CHAPTER SEVEN, p. 436.

Thus, Frederiksen was Kathryn's maiden name and Ivar is her nephew. Kathryn's husband, Hugh McCormac, was Firstman of Ilion. Kathryn's brother, Edward Frederiksen, has succeeded to the Firstmanship. Hugh McCormac rebelled against Terra. Now Ivar does also.

One Day's Work For Dominic Flandry

The Rebel Worlds.

Flandry's men on Dido that we missed before:

Lieutenant Valencia will assume command if Flandry fails to return from reconnaisence;

Mitsui and Petrovic will prepare Kathryn's hiding place.

Flandry makes it all seem easy:

secretly hijack a rebel ship, thus acquiring the rebel code and ensuring the defeat of the rebellion;

conceal the prisoner, Kathryn McCormac;

leave her guarded by a single Didonian registered as three space hands to satisfy regulations;

lure her tormentor, Governor Snelund, on board;

help Kathryn to assassinate Snelund;

return Kathryn to her husband, Hugh McCormac;

persuade McCormac to lead his fleet out of known space and never return;

devise an implausible narrative to account for all these mysterious comings and goings;

get away with it because the Intelligence Service needs able men who get results;

go far (or die trying).

A Sandwich With Coffee

The Rebel Worlds, CHAPTER FIVE.

Kathryn McCormac becomes Dominic Flandry's prisoner. She refuses hospitality from the Empire until he points out that she must eat to live and indeed must already have done so while detained by Snelund. Then she accepts a sandwich and coffee. A trivial point, perhaps.

However, when I am under pressure - and I have never been under as much pressure as Kathryn McCormac - my appetite goes completely. I can go for a very long time without wanting to eat. This is not a hunger strike. It is demotivation. There seems to be no point in chewing or swallowing. When, although stressed from conflict at work, I had to eat socially, I chose a meal with mashed potatoes. My friend, Andrea, says that, as a man of Italian descent, his response to pressure is the exact opposite, comfort eating. I cannot imagine it.

In Kathryn's shoes, I would not have refused hospitality on principle but nevertheless could not have stomached a sandwich. I expect some blog readers to have opinions.

Aeneans

Hugh and Kathryn McCormac, characters in Poul Anderson's The Rebel Worlds, are from the planet Aeneas. Chapter VI of The Rebel Worlds is set on Aeneas as is all of The Day Of Their Return. Anderson keeps minute details, such as Aenean phrases and speech patterns, consistent.

Kathryn McCormac to Dominic Flandry:

"'We had connections, we could eventu'ly raise a zoosny on Terra, even if Snelund was a pet of the Emperor's.'"

-The Rebel Worlds, V, p. 47.

Sergeant Astaff to Ivar Frederiksen, Kathryn's nephew:

"'When zoosny's died down, I'll slip your folks word you're alive and loose.'"

-Poul Anderson, The Day Of Their Return IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 74-238 AT 2, p. 81.

"A tadmouse piped into the mordant wind."

-The Rebel Worlds, VI, p. 54.

("...mordant..." is another instance of the wind commenting on the action.)

"A trill sounded. [Tatiana] walked to a perch whereon, tiny and fluffy, a native tadmouse sat."

-Captain Flandry, 7, p. 122.

(Tatiana is Ivar's fiancee.)

Details in The Rebel Worlds developed further in its sequel include tinerans, the Antonine Seabed, the Wildfoss River and Windhome:

"...the ancestral seat of the Firstman of Ilion."

-The Day Of Their Return, 2, p. 79.

Ivar Frederiksen

Hugh McCormac led a rebellion. Dominic Flandry defeated it. Ivar Frederiksen and Chunderban Desai dealt with its aftermath. The Day Of Their Return, when introducing Ivar, summarizes his biographical details of necessity briefly, so briefly that I had completely forgotten them despite rereading the novel several times.

Fleet Admiral Hugh McCormac became Firstman of Ilion, Speaker of the three Houses of the Aenean legislature, when his older brother died without leaving an heir. Because Kathryn Frederiksen had become McCormac's second wife, her brother and his family often vacationed at Windhome, ancestral seat of the Firstman.

When the Imperial favorite, Aaron Snelund, became Governor of Sector Alpha Crucis, taxes increased, venal appointments were made, injustices occurred in less well represented societies, petitions were shunted aside, arrests and confiscations for "treason" began, there were secret police and outrages, Snelund detained Kathryn, Hugh was arrested and rescued and led a mutiny. Kathryn's nephew, Ivar, a hereditary member of the University of Nova Roma, had been educated there from infancy. The curriculum had included military training since the Troubles. Now students drilled full time, expecting to fight in the rebellion which, however, was suddenly defeated. With Snelund dead, Muratori became Sector Governor. With Hugh and Kathryn fled, Ivar's father became Firstman and Ivar became Firstling or heir while Desai was appointed High Commissioner of an occupied Aeneas.

The University was closed and the Frederiksens moved to Windhome. When the University reopened, under observation, Ivar returned to Nova Roma and engaged in underground activity, now living not in the family townhouse but in a cheap part of the Web where there was for the first time a more significant criminal class. When rallies and demonstrations at the Brian McCormac monument became riots, assemblies were banned, the monument was razed and the Landfolk were ordered to disband all units and surrender all weapons.

Ivar led a group that smuggled out weapons and ambushed an Imperial patrol in order to acquire more arms, then hide in Ironland oases, raid, recruit and gain support and off-planet sympathy. However, the ambush failed and Desai must order a search for the fugitive Firstling.

The Rebel Worlds And The Day Of Their Return

It is not immediately apparent to the reader how Poul Anderson's The Day Of Their Return follows from his The Rebel Worlds. In the former, the series character Dominic Flandry deals with Hugh and Kathryn McCormac. In the latter, we meet a new one-off viewpoint character, Ivar Frederiksen.

However, we were told that Kathryn's maiden name was Frederiksen. Hugh was Firstman of Ilion on Aeneas. When, at the end of The Rebel Worlds, Hugh and Kathryn went into exile, her brother, Edward, succeeded to the Firstmanship and Ivar is his son.

Thus, despite the absence of Flandry and the McCormacs from The Day Of Their Return, we are dealing with Kathryn's nephew who is also the heir of Hugh's successor. Anderson writes a direct sequel but disguises it by changing the characters and even the surname of the Aenean first family.

He also introduces a completely new character, Chunderban Desai, who has, since the McCormac's exodus, been appointed High Commissioner of the Virgilian System where the humanly colonized planet is Aeneas. Thus, the reader sympathizes both with Ivar trying to lead a new Aenean rebellion and with Desai trying to prevent it.

A commissioner is intermediate between a resident and a sector governor. Desai's superior is the Governor of Sector Alpha Crucis and the incumbent of that position has also changed since The Rebel Worlds. Desai has interesting conversations with Uldwyr of Merseia, Aycharaych of Chereion, Peter Jowett of the Web, Tatiana Thane of the University of Virgil, Colonel Mattu Luuksson of the Companions of the Arena and eventually with Ivar Frederiksen.

Like The People Of The Wind, The Day Of Their Return is a rich novel in Anderson's History of Technic Civilization that does not feature any of the series characters of that History.

Significant Names

The Rebel Worlds, VII.

While approaching the Virgilian planet, Dido, the Aenean, Kathryn McCormac, tells Flandry:

"'The base, Port Frederiksen' - a brief white smile - 'one of my ancestors founded it - 's on the western end of Barca, as we've named the biggest continent.'" (p. 65)

Names

Virgil wrote the Aeneid, the Latin epic about Aeneas, survivor of Troy and ancestor of Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome.

Dido, Queen of Troy, was romantically involved with Aeneas and his abandonment of her to pursue his destiny is supposed to explain the historical Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage. (The Time Patrol intervened in the Second Punic War but in a different timeline.)

Hannibal Barca, Carthaginian general during the Second Punic War, famously led his army with elephants across the Alps.

Frederiksen: this is the first time that we are told Kathryn's maiden name. Her brother will become Firstman of Ilion on Aeneas after Kathryn's husband, Hugh McCormac, defeated by Flandry, goes into exile with Kathryn and many of his followers.

Ilion is an archaic name of Troy, hence Homer's Iliad. Virgil based his Aeneid on Homer's Iliad and Oddysey, to both of which the Aeneid is a sequel.

Manuel Argos, Founder of the Terran Empire, was a remote historical successor of Romulus.

After The Rebellion

After the Young Flandry/The Imperial Stars Trilogy:

the story of John Ridenour, whom Flandry had met on Starkad in Ensign Flandry, continues in "Outpost of Empire";

the aftermath of the McCormac Rebellion, which had occurred in The Rebel Worlds, is described in The Day Of Their Return;

the life and career of Dominic Flandry continue in most, although not all, of what is left of the Technic History. 

The Day Of Their Return begins with Job 4:12-16.

Its opening chapter, 1, less than a page in length, ends:

"Above them paled Dido, the morning star."

-Poul Anderson, The Day Of Their Return IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, February 2010), pp. 74-240 AT 1, p. 76.

This tells us that 1 is set on Aeneas.

 2 begins:

"East of Windhome..." (ibid.)

This tells us that 2 is also set on Aeneas. In fact, the whole novel is.

"...Kathryn McCormac, his father's sister..." (4, p. 104)

- tells us that our new viewpoint character, Ivar Frederiksen, is Kathryn's nephew. Although Kathryn's maiden name was mentioned in The Rebel Worlds - an ancestor had founded the research base, Port Frederiksen, on Dido - the change of surname makes it easy to forget these Aenean family relationships between books. Kathryn's brother and his family were not mentioned in The Rebel Worlds. The McCormacs have fled before the beginning of The Day Of Their Return. It is all one solid future history.

Dominic Flandry's Tragic Era

For the previous post, I reread just two sentences in The Rebel Worlds. This was enough to make me want to reread the entire novel and to re-immerse my mind in the Flandry period of the Terran Empire. This novel is the culmination of the Young Flandry Trilogy which delineates the background of the pulp hero who had first appeared in "Tiger By The Tail." It introduces Aeneas, the setting of The Day Of Their Return, and even mentions the tinerans.

The Rebel Worlds shows us Chives's home planet, Shalmu, features Hugh McCormac's doomed attempt to reform the Empire, describes the metropolis in its own right of Admiralty Center in the Rocky Mountains, reveals Flandry's imagining of the coming Long Night and informs us of his tragic relationship with Kathryn McCormac and the fulfillment of the curse put on him by the heroine of the previous novel. Flandry exiles McCormac and his followers. Their remote descendants will be discovered millennia later in the concluding installment of the Technic History when human civilizations have spread through several spiral arms of the galaxy, Anglic has become a dead language, Vixenite colonials have colonized New Vixen and the planet Serieve has also been colonized on the galactic rim.

Rereading The Rebel Worlds could lead to rereading other Flandry stories and also that concluding installment, "Starfog."

Computer Problem II (And Flandry)

Provisional schedule: acquire new computer on Friday 30 May; then spend time learning to use it, interrupted by a week in Scotland. (Although this blog is an appreciation of Poul Anderson, not a personal journal, I also try to convey something of life going on at the same time, with enjoyment of fiction very much a part of life.) I am currently still using the damaged computer albeit with some difficulty.

In The Rebel Worlds,Terran Imperial Naval Intelligence sends to the troubled Sector Alpha Crucis several undercover agents and some inspectors and Dominic Flandry commanding a warship with special authorization.

Flandry alone:

rescues the rebel leader's wife, Kathryn McCormac, from the abusive Sector Governor;
gets shot down on the planet Dido;
leads his surviving crew across Dido to the vicinity of a rebel-held base while learning a Didonian language;
flies ahead, on spacesuit gravity impeller, to the base, where he persuades the personnel to send their single interstellar craft with a crew of two plus himself to rescue his men, not mentioning that they are loyalists;
hijacks the ship;
shoots out the base radio;
delivers the rebel code to the Imperial fleet;
remains on the ship with, as crew, a single tripartite Didonian who knows nothing of human affairs; 
entices the Governor onto the ship, where Kathryn kills him;
returns Kathryn to her husband with the warning that, since their code has been captured, the rebels cannot win a space battle and must flee known space, never to return;
reports that, while returning to Terra with Kathryn, he was detected and captured by the enemy who disabled his craft, thus wiping its computer.

I had to write down that list of deceptions to keep it straight in my head.

Introducing Hugh McCormac

Poul Anderson, The Rebel Worlds IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, January 2010), pp. 367-520, CHAPTER ONE.

A Circus of Hells ends with Dominic Flandry's point of view (pov). The Rebel Worlds begins with an unentitled prologue narrated from a composite Didonian pov which the reader does not understand yet. CHAPTER ONE is Admiral Hugh McCormac's pov. Flandry will return in TWO.

McCormac is imprisoned in an artificial satellite orbiting a planet called Llynathawr where there is a city called Catawrayannis. If we have read The Technic Civilization Saga consecutively, then we might remember that Catawrayannis was where Jim Ching wound up.

McCormac remembers a conversation with a quadrupedal Wodenite and is rescued by a mostly human band that also includes a quadrupedal Donarrian. Again, if we have read the Saga in order, then we have encountered both species before. In fact, our first Wodenite, Adzel, was a friend of Jim Ching.

One of McCormac's human rescuers:

"...had not lost the hit of Aeneas." (p. 377)

"...hit..." was obviously an error but I needed to check what the original would have been:

"He had not lost the lilt of Aeneas."

-Poul Anderson, The Rebel Worlds (London, 1973), I, p. 12.

Before speaking, this guy had "...trod forth." (ibid.) "Tread" is a favourite verb of Anderson's.

Before his rescue, McCormac had reminisced about Aeneas:

rusty, tawny;

towers of Windhome;

banners;

coloured crags and cliffs;

Ilian Shelf;

Antonine Seabed;

Wildfoss cataracts;

Kathryn...

We might remember that Peter Berg in "The Problem of Pain" was from Aeneas. If we remember just some of these details, then we appreciate a future historical background.

Some Strong Female Characters In Poul Anderson's Technic History

Betty Riefenstahl marries Jim Ching, possibly.

Sandra Tamarin becomes Grand Duchess of Hermes.

Thea Beldaniel becomes League liaison with Dathyna.

Coya Conyon marries David Falkayn.

Kathryn O'Donnell marries Manuel Argos.

Tabitha Falkayn marries Christopher Holm. (Two surnames to conjure with.)

Quenna is killed in a Terran attack.

Eyath survives the war, her fiance's death, an assault by a male Ythrian that Terrans would regard as rape and the disapproval of her childhood friend, Christopher Holm.

Persis d'Io helps Dominic Flandry's to escape from Merseia and later raises their son.

Djana goes her own way after parting from Flandry.

Kathryn McCormac does not leave Hugh McCormac for Flandry.

Tatiana Thane marries Ivar Frederiksen.

Kit Kittredge helps Flandry to liberate Vixen.

Kossara Vymezal becomes engaged to Flandry.

Miriam Abrams marries Flandry.

Diana Crowfeather helps to defeat the Magnusson Rebellion.

Vida Lonwe-Magnusson disowns her husband.

Yasmin explains stellar irregularity.

When the truth is known, Graydal will not marry Daven Laure.

Flandry's Implausible Victories

At the end of the Young Flandry Trilogy, Dominic Flandry:

learns Didonian pidgin so that he can induce a newly created Didonian entity to help with his secret plans;

hijacks a rebel spaceship;

thus, both escapes from the Virgilian System and hands the rebel code to the Navy;

helps Kathryn McCormac to kill the corrupt Sector Governor who had abused her;

returns Kathryn to her husband, Hugh, the leader of the Rebellion;

warns Hugh McCormac to flee from known space since the Navy has his code;

thus, both ends the fighting and protects the Aenean rebels who will become the ancestors of the Kirkasanters;

adequately conceals the evidence for all his crimes, including murder and treason.

I should have ended Future Historical Continuity by adding one more way in which Young Flandry prepares the way for later events: the flight of the Aenean rebels will be followed, millennia later, by contact with the Kirkasanters and that, unfortunately, will be the last installment of the Technic History.

Battle On Dido

The Rebel Worlds, CHAPTER TWELVE.

The woman on this cover of A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows is Kossara Vymezal but could equally have been Kathryn McCormac and in fact the image is re-used on a volume collecting both novels. See Time With Kathryn And Kossara.

Barbaric Didonians, undetected by krippo scouts because hiding in a cave, attack Flandry's group but are driven off by Terran guns. After the battle, the Thunderstoners, Flandry's Didonian allies:

"...could assemble one full person at a time." (p. 481)

- and opt for Guardian Of North Gate, then for Lightning Struck The House whose units have learned pidgin by combining with those of Cave Discoverer who, it seems, is no more. (Later: Yes, Cave Discoverer's ruka has been killed.)

Flandry reminds Kathryn that:

"'...this particular fracas was an incident in your precious revolution." (p. 482)

The barbaric Didonians have no understanding that they are attacking Imperials who have been shot down by barbarian mercenaries hired by a pretender to the Terran Throne - a reminder that the universe is bigger than any of us can imagine.

In Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, the slogan "Coal, Not Dole," appears on a wall in a scene set in London. Thus, the Great British Miners' Strike of 1984-'85 was one small part of the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Ivar Caught Fire

The Day Of Their Return, 4.

"Then Kathryn McCormac, [Ivar's] father's sister, was taken away to Snelund's palace; and her husband was arrested, was rescued, and led the mutiny." (p. 104)

In The Rebel Worlds, we read about Kathryn, Snelund, Kathryn's husband, his rescue and mutiny. We did not yet know of Ivar. We knew that these events at the top of Aenean society had had massive repercussions for the planetary population. Now we are told something of those repercussions. The passage continues:

"Ivar caught fire, like most Aenean youth. His military training, hitherto incidental, became nearly the whole. But he never got off the planet, and his drills ended when Imperial warcraft hove into the skies.

"The insurrection was over." (ibid.)

 

The insurrection was over thanks to Dominic Flandry although we are not told that here. But the occupation and reconstruction of Sector Alpha Crucis cause further conflicts and Ivar Frederiksen tries to lead a new insurrection. This reads like real history. World War I led to World War II... Victory is followed not by peace but by the next war, at least as long as the underlying causes of conflict remain.

Values

The Rebel Worlds, VII.

Kathryn McCormac to Dominic Flandry after being raped by Aaron Snelund:

"'To you, what happened to me was...unfortunate, nasty, yes, but not a befoulin' I'll never quite cleanse me of, not a thing makes me wonder if I should really want to see Hugh ever again....'" (p. 60)

How can anything done by Snelund to Kathryn befoul her in a moral as opposed to a mere physical sense? Returned to her husband or other relatives, Kathryn needs support, not cleansing. But I know that some societies have had other attitudes.