Kossara Vymezal

(That cover shows Flandry rescuing Kossara from a Merseian.)

Poul Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (New York, 2012).

Kossara learned Serbic from her parents, Anglic from a governess and Eriau from gamekeeper Trohdwyr's family. She calls Trohdwyr's people "ychani," in Eriau, not "zmayi," in Serbic. She learned to walk by clinging to his tail. Her mother sang her the Eriau lullaby, "'Dwynafor, dwynafor, odhal tiv'" (p. 401), although Kossara has no tail. Later, Kossara accepted that, although she was an Orthochristian, Trohdwyr "...remained an old-fashioned pagan ychan." (p. 366)

She served in the Narodna Voyska which had been basic to Dennitzan life since the Troubles: squadrons, regiments, honors, rights, chapels, ceremonies, parade grounds, bugles, pipes, drums, volleys, the flag coming down at sunset, the litany of the dead. An adult, she gave Trohdwyr "...confessions which she did not give her priest." (p. 368) I must not tell a future saint how to practice her religion but, of course, any actions that are classified as sinful should be mentioned to a priest.

Dennitzan Orthochristians canonize St Kossara. Virginity is not necessary for sainthood although unrepented premarital sex would disqualify, if it were known about. However, Kossara did in fact remain a virgin. She did not have sex with her first fiance, Mihail Svetich, before he was killed in action during the war of Imperial succession. Her second fiance, Dominic Flandry, and she were interrupted by a nearby nuclear explosion and, soon afterwards, she was killed in an attack on the Dennitzan Parliament. You have to be dead to be canonized.

Dennitza Revisited

I think that Dennitza is my favorite fictional planet in the Poul Anderson canon. See:

search result for The Kazan
In Zorkagrad Old Town
In Zorkagrad
Bodin's Prayers
Imaginative Multiverse
Protective Merseians
The Wind
Retirement In The Technic History
Log Cabin
Fast Action
Constitution Square
A Necessary Causal Link
Mesyatz
Dennitzan Cultural Blending
Kossara Vymezal
Six Dennitzan Heroes And One Saint
At The Moment Of Death
Dennitza And Ys: Their Contrasting Fates
Two Beginnings And Two Endings
Prayers
Conclusion
Flandry's Prayer II
Conclusion II
Kossara Vymezal In St Clement's Cathedral
Explicit Pathetic Fallacy
Dead Leaves
Inter-Species Politics 

At The Moment Of Death

Poul Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (New York, 2012).

While Kossara Vymezal holds the dying Trohdwyr, she manages to "...croak..." (p. 412) an Eriau phrase. We do not know what the phrase means but it is meaningful to us because we have already been told that it is a lullaby that Kossara's mother sang to her.

While Dominic Flandry holds the dying Kossara, she says, "'Dominic, darling...I wish -" (p. 562).

These deaths affect the reader because we have learned to care about Kossara and Trohdwyr.

While Kossara lies in a half-open coffin in St Clement's Cathedral, Flandry tells her that he had wanted her ashes scattered on Dennitza but he now understands the Dennitzans' decision to build her a big tomb on Founders' Hill. He asks her to help him believe that she still is but:

"His sole answer was the priest's voice rising and falling through archaic words." (p. 577)

He had not expected anything more but he even apologizes to her for not receiving an answer. If there is any hereafter, there is no guarantee that Kossara can hear Flandry's thoughts from it. The Orthodox practice of "...a priest chanting behind the iconstasis..." (p. 576) is at least potentially an effective dramatic presentation of the idea of a voice from another world.

In the Greek tradition, drama grew from religious ritual. An epic was ceremonially recited. The addition of extra speakers for the characters, then of actions, transformed narrative into drama. To this day, a clergyman officiating in any tradition should enact the role of a human being approaching the divine.

Djana's Curse

Djana:

"'I guess I can't stop you from having almost any woman who comes by. But I'll wish this, that you never get the one you really want.'"
-Poul Anderson, Young Flandry (New York, 2010), p. 365.

There are two women whom Flandry really wants. Kathryn McCormac refuses to leave her husband. Kossara Vymezal wants marriage before sex but changes her mind twice. The first time, it would be impractical -

Kossara: "'Would it be wrong? Here in these clean spaces, under heaven?'"
Flandry: "'It would not be very practical, I'm afraid. You deserve better.'"
-Poul Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (New York, 2012), pp. 522-523.

The second time:

"'But, uh, your cathedral wedding -'
"'I've come to see how little it matters, how little the universe does, next to having you while I can. Tonight, Dominic. Now.'
"He seized her to him.
"A flash went blue-white in the front windows.
"They sprang up.'" (p. 534)

Kossara's entire family has been slain. From this moment on, he and she are busy and on the run until she too is killed...

Can Djana's curse really cause all that? Of course, the text is ambiguous. But she definitely did have the psychic power to make conscious beings do what she wanted. Her Merseian mentor measured the effect. A Merseian space crew seeking Flandry's inert vessel detected it by radar but dismissed the object as an asteroid because Djana willed it.

Such control over events rivals the luck of Teela Brown in Larry Niven's Known Space future history. Whatever is lucky for Teela Brown happens, even ancient events with beneficial consequences for her remote future - although hindsight is necessary to see what was beneficial. Djana seems to have a similar effect at a distance.

In case the reader has not read or has forgotten the earlier novel, Flandry tells Kossara:

"'...I'd got a different woman angry at me. She had a peculiar psionic power, not telepathy but - beings tended to do what she desired. She wished on me that I never get the one I wanted in my heart. I'm not superstitious, I take no more stock in curses or spooks than I do in the beneficence of governments. Still - an unconscious compulsion - Bah! If there was any such thing, which I positively do not think, then you've lifted it off me, Kossara...'" (p. 524)

An unconscious compulsion on Flandry could not possibly cause a nuclear explosion to kill Kossara's family at the moment when she said, "Now." When Djana delivered the curse:

"He thought little of her remark, then." Young Flandry, p. 365.

We also think little of it. There is simply no indication that Djana's anger might have such major consequences in two later novels.

Dennitza

The star Zoria is an F8 sun, a third again as luminous as Sol. The terrestroid planet Dennitza is half covered by ocean. Axial tilt and rotation period cause extreme weather and climate. Less than a million years ago, a shower of giant meteoroids caused an ice age. Now, sea levels rise in the Great Spring.

Terrestrial human beings colonized Dennitza about 2450. About 200 years later, Merseian immigrants arrived and in 3047 comprise 10% of the population. Their self-designation is "ychani," seekers. The human Dennitzan term, possibly contemptuous in origin, is "zmayi." Displaced by political conflicts at home, ychani provided labor for new Dennitzan industries. Able to endure cold better than humans, they mainly live on the Obala, the east coast of Rodna, the main continent in the northern hemisphere, where they specialize in fishing and pelagiculture. The legendary ychan hero Gwyth dared the storms and sea beasts of the Black Ocean.

In Dubina Dolyina province, Danilo Vymezal is both the voivode (hereditary aristocrat) and the nachalnik (governor chosen both by the Gospodar {planetary head of state} and by the popular assembly).
 
Cultural influences: Vymezal's bugle call is an immemorial Merseian war song; his wife sings an Eriau lullaby to their daughter, Kossara: Dwynafor, dwynafor, odhal tiv.

Religions: human Dennitzans, Orthochristians worshiping in St Clement's Cathedral, later canonize Kossara Vymezal, who has a large tomb on Founders' Hill. Some ychani of the Black Ocean remain pagans referring not to "the God" of Merseian religion but to Afherdi of the Deeps, Blyn of the Winds and Haawan who lairs on the reefs.  

Yovan Matavuly led the human pioneers who, like other emigrant groups at the time, wanted to preserve traditions, customs, language, race etc. They speak Serbic and Imperial Anglic while the ychani/zmayi speak archaic mutated Eriau. 

Dennitza, still in its ice age, has limited habitable areas. Mahovina turf and woodland duff are soft and springy. Evergreen equivalents are low and gnarled with blue-black plumes. Firebush burns spontaneously to ripen and scatter its seeds. There are no ornithoids but orliks are winged theroids. Flocks of yegyupka fly south; guslars trill; a horned bull leads a herd of yelen; riba caught from the Lyubisha River can be fried to eat. 

The original colonists, having to survive without sophisticated technology, developed a baronial clan system which persisted under industrialization. The Shkola, university and research center, preserved learning almost from the beginning of the colony. Lake Stoyan and the capital Zorkagrad are in the center of the Kazan, an astrobleme containing woods, farms and rivers, on Rodna. In Zorkagrad, the fountain before the Capitol in Constitution Square contains bronze statues of the hero Toman Obilich in combat with wild Vladimir. On a rock hill beyond the Square are the battlements of the Zamok or Castle, the executive center.

The Gospodar, elected out of the Miyatovich family by the plemichi, clan heads and barons, has supreme executive authority subject to Grand Court rulings on constitutionality. Court verdicts are reversible by the Shkoptsina, a Parliament with chambers for plemichi, commons and zmayi, although more than once in history a demonstration of zmayi has marched into the House of the Zmayi and been heard. One demonstration in 3047 carries the white star on blue standard of Yovan Matavuly and the red axe on gold of Gwyth. A militia, the Noradna Voyska, has been basic to Dennitzan society since the Troubles.

The nachalniki, i.e., heads of okruzhi (baronies or prefectures), are hereditary or elected by resident clans or appointed by the Gospodar depending on ancient usage. Towns and rural districts have elected councils. Ychani have preserved the Merseian organizational form, Vachs. For example, Ywod is Hand of the Vach Anochrin as well as steadcaptain of the fishing village of Nanteiwon on the Obala. Kyrwhedin is Hand of the Vach Mannoch, a member of the House of the Zmayi and moot-lord of the Obala steadcaptains. In this third capacity, he presides when the steadcaptains meet around a table made from timbers of Gwyth's ship in Council Hall at Novi Aferoch at the Elena River mouth.

Gospodar Bodin Miyatovich, having supported the Imperial usurper Hans Molitor, was rewarded with governorship of the Taurian Sector which faces the Merseian Rhoidunate. Ychani, not wanting Merseian rule, are loyal to Gospodar and Emperor. The Dennitzan poet Andrei Simich celebrated the deeds of the Founder and other ancestors but, in the absence of Simich, we must make do with a prose account of Bodin's raid into Merseian space.

Source: Anderson, Poul, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, London, 1978.

(For convenience, dates are as given in Sandra Miesel's Chronology of Technic Civilization but see here.)

Unreliable Memories

Why did Bodin Miyatovich, Gospodar of Dennitza, send his niece, Kossara Vymezal, to Diomedes? Flandry asks, Kossara remembers and we read flashbacks. However, Kossara's memories have been tampered with so we might not be reading an accurate account of whatever did happen. This will take a while to disentangle.

Miyatovich indignantly opposes the Emperor's decree to disband the Dennitzan militia - and says that another civil war may be necessary, or does he say the latter? Kossara cannot explain her fanatical hatred of the Empire except by referring to what Imperials did on Diomedes to people she cared about and later to her. But Flandry, who defends the Empire, wants to identify the Imperials she refers to so that they can be brought to justice. And, in any case, Kossara can say whatever she likes about the Empire to Flandry in private without suffering any consequences.

So what did happen? It is necessary to reread several bracketed flashbacks but I will reconstruct and summarize the course of events. Later: see Undercover On Diomedes.

Undercover On Diomedes

Four groups operate undercover on Diomedes.

(i) Human agents of Merseia, posing as agents of Ythri, foment revolution among dissatisfied and disaffected natives.

(ii) Merseian agents who have infiltrated Imperial Intelligence arrive on Diomedes, where they occupy a wing of the Residency, ostensibly to investigate the Ythrian agitation. These Merseian agents include Aycharaych.

(iii) Other human agents of Merseia, posing as agents of Esperance investigating the alleged Ythrian agitation, claim to discover that the human agitators come not from the Domain of Ythri but from Dennitza.

(iv) The Gospodar of Dennitza sends his niece, Kossara Vymezal, accompanied by one zmay, Trohdwyr, ostensibly on a xenological study but covertly to investigate the accusation against Dennitza.

Thus, the only Dennitzans operating undercover on Diomedes are Kossara and Trohdwyr and they are there to investigate the allegation that Dennitzans are operating undercover on Diomedes! However:

a Diomedean leads the two Dennitzans to group (iii);
group (ii) attacks, killing Trohdwyr;
Aycharaych manipulates Kossara's memories, making her believe that -

she hates the Terran Empire;
she did go to Diomedes with other human Dennitzans to incite rebellion;
the Imperials killed not only Trohdwyr but also several human Dennitzans.

By going to Diomedes, Kossara compounded the lie that Dennitzans had gone to Diomedes for subversive purposes. In fact, she herself was made to believe the lie. Only Aycharaych could have perpetrated such a level of deception. Dennitzans did have problems with the Empire but not on the scale that Kossara was made to imagine.

Fast Action

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows.

Events move quickly in troubled times. Flandry has a single conversation with Danilo Vymezal, voivode and nachalnik, Kossara's father. Flandry and Kossara have a single night, day and following evening in Vymezal's cabin by the Northrim. Then:

Danilo Vymezal and all his household are murdered with a tactical nuke;

Gospodar Bodin Miyatovich is arrested for high treason;

Chives is wanted dead or alive;

Flandry and Kossara fly to the Obala...

 

Endgame time. We expect Flandry to defeat the conspiracy but also know that he can lose much:

 

in Ensign Flandry, he lost his innocence;

in A Circus Of Hells, he earned the enmity of Djana;

in The Rebel Worlds, he loved Kathryn but she stayed with Hugh McCormac.

 

Flandry suppressing suspicion of his son echoes Gratillonius in denial about his daughter. 

 

Two dramatic potential turning points in the Technic History are Falkayn's confrontation of van Rijn at Mirkheim and Aycharaych's appeal to Flandry on Chereion. After what has happened with Flandry's son and fiancee, Aycharaych asks him to make further betrayals. That was probably already impossible but has certainly become so.

 

We parallel Flandry and Aycharaych with Bond and Blofeld:

 

at the end of Thunderball, Bond learns that someone called Blofeld had been the top man in SPECTRE;

 

in The Spy Who Loved Me and again at the beginning of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond knows of a criminal called Blofeld but there has been no personal contact as yet;

 

at the end of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, with the murder of Tracy, the conflict between Bond and Blofeld becomes personal...

 

Similarly, by the end of A Knight..., Flandry has lost both his son and fiancee. How can Aycharaych possibly ask him:

 

"'What are a few more lives to you? What is Terra?'" (XX, p. 600)

 

A few more lives!

 

In this final dialogue, Aycharaych addresses Flandry as "'Dominic...'" and confirms again that he has been engaged in "'...an art, a sport...'" (ibid.)

 

Finally, we fully understand both of these "Honorable Enemies."

The Merrypark

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows.

I remembered that, when Kossara Vymezal anticipates married life with Dominic Flandry, one of the many activities that she envisages is taking:

"...their children to the zoo and the merrypark." (XVI, p. 544)

"Merrypark" stuck in my memory as a distinctively Dennitzan word for a fairground, children's play area or something of that sort. On rereading we learn that Gospodar Bodin Miyatovich had taken his niece, the young Kossara:

"...to the zoo and the merrypark." (II, p. 366)

I had not noticed this first use of the term but, of course, Poul Anderson was carefully building a consistent picture of life on Dennitza whether or not his readers noticed every detail. Dennitza might be my favourite planet in the Technic History although I think that of Avalon when rereading The People Of The Wind. I would certainly welcome the opportunity to meditate in the Cathedral of St. Clement, Zorkagrad. Kossara was christened and confirmed and would have been married by Father Smed but instead she lay in state:

"...St. Kossara." (XX, p. 605)

The Tale Of Bodin's Raid

A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, XVII.

As the march approaches the Dennitzan Parliament, Kossara tells Flandry:

"'Here we go, my brave beloved. They'll sing of you for a thousand years.'" (p. 558)

Maybe they will but what we see happening later is Dennitzans celebrating Bodin Miyatovitch and Kossara herself:

"How shall we tell it, brothers, the tale of Bodin's raid?" (p. 341)

"...while [Bodin] lived, no foeman troubled the peace [St. Kossara] brought us through his valor." (pp. 605-606)

The saint inspires. The Gospodar acts.

Flandry planned the raid on Chereion but Bodin led it. Afterwards, Flandry returned home:

"'...he answered Miyatovich: 'I have my own people.'" (XX, p. 605)

- and maybe his role was played down on Dennitza.

The fictional author of the italicized passages is a colleague across the centuries of Hloch who edited The Earth Book of Stormgate. We would like to know the name and rank of this Dennitzan who records and praises Bodin Miyatovitch and Kossara Vymezal.

A Man And His Rep II

See A Man And His Rep.

Here is another example of a man and his reputation parting company. When Kossara Vymezal's captors discuss "'...this, uh, Captain Flandry...,'" obviously never having heard of him before, Kossara thinks:

"Hoy? Chives said Flandry is famous. - No. How many light-years, how many millions of minds can fame cover before it spreads vanishingly thin?"
-Poul Anderson, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 339-606 AT p. 473.

This puts Flandry in exactly the same position as Falkayn in Mirkheim. Anderson deduces one implication of a number of civilizations interacting on an interstellar scale. Nowadays, some politicians and celebrities are known all over one planet but who could possibly be known throughout hundreds of cubic light years?

Edwin Cairncross hopes to be remembered through the lifetime of the universe! See here.

Credit Where Credit Is Due Department
The book cover copied here accurately depicts a scene in the novel:

Flandry flies into the cave in combat armour;
the Merseian, Glydh, grabs Kossara;
with a blaster needle beam, Flandry shoots Glydh in the head;
steam, brain matter, blood and bone spurt across Kossara.

Can you conceive of the mentality of a human being who willingly serves the Roidhunate? I reread this passage hoping to find some interesting information about Glydh's assistant, Muhammad Snell, but failed. Anderson gives us the minimal biographical data that we have come to expect:

The Merseian
Personal name: Glydh.
Vach: Rueth.
Nickname: Far-Farer.
Rank: afal.
Corps: Naval Intelligence.

Glydh's Assistant
Human name: Muhammad Snell.
Eriau name: Kluwych.
Place of birth: somewhere in the Roidhunate.

Neither survives his encounter with Flandry.

Flandry's Women

Dominic Flandry's heroines are a mixed bunch. In five novels:

Persis d'Io

Djana

Kathryn McCormac

Kossara Vymezal

Miriam Abrams

- who are:

an aristocrat's mistress

a prostitute

an Admiral's wife

a devout virgin

Flandry's former commander's daughter

Persis raises their son on her own.

Djana goes her own way.

Kathryn stays with her husband.

Kossara is murdered and canonised.

Miriam marries Flandry.

Djana and Kossara are Christians but different. Kossara wants to be married to Flandry in St. Clement's Cathedral by Father Smed who had christened and confirmed her. Djana hopes that they can be partners but becomes disillusioned. 

Aycharaych's Art

 

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, XII.

Human agents of Merseia foment rebellion on Diomedes. They must pretend to be Avalonians in order to encourage Alatanism, the belief among (winged) Diomedieans that they will receive solidarity and support from (also winged) Ythrians. But the Merseian operatives must also give the impression that they are Dennitzans so that the Gospodar of Dennitza will send his niece, the xenologist, Kossara Vymezal, to investigate. Aycharaych can predict how the Gospodar will respond. On Dennitza, Kossara is contacted by human agents of Merseia posing as spies from Esperance. The fake Esperanicians claim that, having heard from Diomedeans of Dennitzan involvement in the resistance movement, they themselves then posed as Dennitzans. Agents of Merseia who have infiltrated Imperial Intelligence arrest Kossara. Hypnoprobing, combined with Aycharaych's telepathy and hypnosis, suppresses some of Kossara's memories and fakes others so that she believes that she had been involved in the Diomedean resistance. She is sold into slavery on Terra in order to drive a wedge between Dennitza and Terra. Aycharaych regards this kind of operation as a work of art.

Who is the "knight of ghosts and shadows" of the title? Flandry reflects:

"I see in my mirror the specter of [Aycharaych]. Though who of us is flesh and who image?" (pp. 503-504)

Kossara's Prayer

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, XVI.

Through Poul Anderson's empathetic writing, we imaginatively enter into Kossara Vymezal's prayer. She remembers her dead: her family, her fiance, her zmay servant, every soul and every living being that was killed when her home was nuked:

"Father of Creation, receive them. Jesus, absolve them. Mary, comfort them. Light of the Holy Spirit, shine upon them forever.

"I dare not ask for more. Amen." (p. 542)

Some Christians would confidently ask for everything and would not address Mary. Either way, this theology is perhaps the most complicated there is. Kossara, who herself will soon be a saint and prayed to, addresses four persons. I have to write "persons" rather than "beings" or "deities" because:

the three divine persons are one being;

Mary is a human being;

Jesus is both a divine and a human being.

That reads like a Hegelian triad of thesis, antithesis and synthesis.

Is it customary to address Mary between members of the Trinity?

Kossara believes that these four persons literally exist. They are not myths or personifications. She also believes that all the departed souls are immortal and will (hopefully) be received by the Father. Secularists simply dismiss all such beliefs. Maybe some of us can appreciate religions as what Alan Moore called "higher fictions." In The King Of Ys by Poul and Karen Anderson, Ysans, unlike Christians, do not understand their myths literally.

In SM Stirling's The Peshawar Lancers, the British Empire, Angrezi Raj, relocates to India where Anglican and Hindu concepts merge. Our hero appropriately reflects on Krishna. As a myth, I appreciate Vishnu:

the middle member of the Trimurti (Triple Form) - Brahma/Creator, Vishnu/Preserver, Shiva/Destroyer;

incarnated in an evolutionary sequence of animals and human beings, the latter including Krishna, the Buddha and (I don't see why not) Christ.

Kossara And God

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, XVII.

Fiction reflects life. I am still thinking about Kossara Vymezal thanking God for letting her go into danger with Dominic. To a monotheist, everything that happens is part of a life-long interaction with God. Let's begin at the beginning. I wake up early, too tired to get up yet but not able to get back to sleep either. A monotheist would ask, "Why did You wake me? Do You want me to spend this time in prayer or meditation?" As a non-theist, I ask myself, "Can I use this time for meditation?" I can even utter the agnostic prayer: "To Whom it may concern; to whatever gods may be..." Of course, I cannot say the prayer of monotheist faith. However, many monotheists believe that God upholds us all whether or not we believe in him. Kossara thinks this about the pagan ychan, Trohdwyr. Thus, my experience parallels Kossara's and sometimes moves close to it, which is unsurprising since, despite our differences, we are two human beings in similar universes.

Deaths In Fiction

Because the heroes and heroines of action-adventure fiction usually survive improbable odds, it is particularly shocking when such a character is unexpectedly killed in action. Examples are:

Kossara Vymezal in Poul Anderson's Dominic Flandry series;
Tracy Bond in Ian Fleming's James Bond series;
Mike Havel and Astrid Loring in SM Stirling's Emberverse series.

Such a death, when it does occur, usually happens at or near the end of a volume and is a significant event for the series as a whole. Astrid's death, occurring off stage between chapters, seems to be an exception to this.

Kossara's death should have been expected. We had been told that Flandry would not get the woman that he really wanted and events so far had borne that out. Nevertheless, Kossara's death by violence while addressing the Dennitzan Parliament was devastating.

Sequels Galore

When I said at the beginning of the previous post that I was big on sequels, I was really thinking not of Nicholas van Rijn and David Falkayn but of Dominic Flandry. The Captain Flandry series has a prequel, the Young Flandry Trilogy, in which Flandry advances from Ensign to Commander, and a sequel, A Stone In Heaven, in which Flandry is an Admiral. The following volume, The Game Of Empire, is a proto-series, because it is potentially the opening volume of a series about Diana Crowfeather, and features three cameo appearances by Diana's father, Fleet Admiral Flandry. The Young Flandry Trilogy, Volume III, The Rebel Worlds, has a sequel, The Day Of Their Return, that quotes intelligence gathered by Commander Flandry.

At the end of the Captain Flandry series, Volume III, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, Flandry had intended not only to marry Kossara Vymezal but also to settle down with her on her home planet, Dennitza. However, Kossara has been martyred. Nevertheless, Flandry's new plan to return home surprises Kossara's uncle, the Gospodar of Dennitza, Bodin Miyatovich:

"'Go back to Terra?... In God's name, why?'"

-Poul Anderson, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, March 2012), pp. 339-606 AT XX, p. 604.

Flandry watches the bombardment of Chereion before replying:

"'I have my own people.'" (ibid., p. 605)

There ends the narrative although it is followed by a prayer of thanksgiving for Gospodar Bodin. But what happens to Flandry after he has returned home? Indeed, as we would want, there is a sequel.

Kossara And Elena

The People Of The Wind, IX.

Is it right to pray to the dead? Pure monotheism says: pray only to God. Dominic Flandry asks his murdered fiancee to give him a sign that she still exists but does not believe that he receives it. However, her fellow Dennitzan Orthochristans later canonize Kossara Vymezal. This makes Flandry the first person to pray to St. Kossara, even before her canonization.

While withdrawing from Avalon, Admiral Cajal addresses prayers in three directions. He asks Christ who forgave the soldiers to help him forgive himself and the saints to stand by him till his work is done. Thirdly:

"Before everyone, you, Elena, who in Heaven must love me yet, since none were ever too lowly for your love, Elena, watch over me. Hold my hand." (p. 547)

There is no agreed belief or practice in such matters. What is right according to one tradition is wrong according to others. (Someone who came into our meditation group was shocked to see people sitting for meditation with their backs to the Buddha.) Cajal addresses:

a divine person;

those whom his Church has declared to be in Heaven;

his deceased wife whom he assumes to be in Heaven.

This can get complicated. Some people prefer simplicity but, again, there is not and can scarcely be any agreement.

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.

Explicit Pathetic Fallacy

I spotted this one before turning in last night.

In Poul Anderson's A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, a disciplined, armed procession of four hundred ychan fishers marches towards the Dennitzan Parliament where they will respectfully but firmly request that their leaders be invited to address the Lords, the Folk and the Zmayi, who are meeting in a single chamber. The procession conceals the cloaked and hooded Dominic Flandry and Kossara Vymezal.

The ychani and their two human companions might encounter resistance either from the authorities, Dennitzan or Imperial, or from pro-Merseian assassins. In fact, Anderson, through Flandry, has reminded us of Djana's curse: that Flandry will never get the woman that he really wants. He did not get Kathryn McCormac and now is engaged to Kossara who resembles Kathryn. But they were interrupted before having sex, right after Flandry had reminded us of Djana... We have every reason to fear the worst for Kossara.

Nature obliges with a skirling west wind, a pale sky, sweeping cloud shadows, cold, crying winged animals, branches casting about, leaves blown noisily along the pavement and rain puddles. To clinch everything, the paragraph ends:

"All nature was saying farewell."
-Poul Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (New York, 2012), p. 552.