Learning Some History With Poul Anderson

Rogue Sword, AUTHOR'S NOTE, p. 5.

1309 Knights Hospitallers capture Rhodes.
1311 Catalans conquer central Greece.
1386 Peloponnesian baron Nerio Acciaiuoli expels Catalans from Greece.
1522 Turks capture Rhodes.
1530 Emperor Charles V grants Malta to Knights Hospitallers.
1565 Knights repulse Turkish fleet.
1814 Britain gains jurisdiction over Malta.
1960 "Knights of Malta" are a Catholic noblemen's charity.

I knew three Catholics who became Knights of Malta. Two had worldly motivations. Knightly religious services and social events were places to be seen. The third valued " a kind of spirituality that is rare these days." This included "spiritual privileges," i.e., Indulgences.

When my father converted to Catholicism, he was invited to join the Catenians, a Catholic business men's charity, founded in 1908.

This evening (see previous post), we ate in the Borough.

Finishing Rogue Sword

OK: "Boniface" is a word applied to innkeepers and is derived from the name of a dramatic character of that profession, like calling a traitor a "Judas" etc.

Since Rogue Sword is the only Poul Anderson volume in my possession while spending four nights away from home, I will probably run out of new additions to make to this blog. Slightly longer term, I might acquire some (to me) new material that will have to be read for the first time, not just reread, before it can be commented on.

Setting Rogue Sword in 1306 was, for those who know the relevant history (I suppose not many of us), kind of like setting a twentieth century novel in 1913 or 1938: it is already known what will happen next. In this case, the Templars will be suppressed; the Hospitallers will take possession of Rhodes where they will rule for over two hundred years before, after another period of homelessness, being given Malta and becoming known as the Knights of Malta. Great events are about to occur.

In fact, just as the Western Roman Empire had fallen a thousand years earlier in Poul and Karen Anderson's King of Ys tetralogy, the Eastern remnant of the Empire is now in terminal decline.

Lucas, evading the Inquisition, is hidden, fed and helped to escape by a woman called "Xenia." Because the name is familiar, I googled it to check whether Anderson was cameoing an existing character. He wasn't but "Xenia" turns out to be a Greek word for hospitality.

In The Footsteps Of St Paul II

Sunday, 30 September 2012

Reproduced below is the text of a post dated 30 Sept, stating the purpose of the blog. The holiday in Malta is nearer. Since 30 Sept, the blog discussion has remained with Poul Anderson's fictitious pasts and will stay there for a considerable time before it returns to his futures.

The nearby city of Preston ("Priest Town") was a centre of Catholic resistance to Henry VIII's Reformation. The City Council's symbol is an image of a haloed lamb with a cross. There are many Catholic institutions of different kinds. There are now also mosques, a gurdwara and a colourful Hindu temple. A Pagan moot met in a pub on the same street as the temple. Thus, British and Indian gods congregated at opposite ends of a single street. There is a large park by the river and also docks on the river. My point is that the history, diversity and beauty of Preston are reminiscent of Ys.

From 17 November to 1 December, 2012, I will be on holiday in Malta and not using a computer. Anyone then viewing this blog will not find any new posts but I hope that past posts will still be read.

The blog addresses anyone already familiar with Poul Anderson's works and anyone else who might become interested in them. Anderson's complete works should be republished and could be adapted into other media.

I aim to show that this vast and varied body of work is worth reading and rereading. It comprehensively covers past, future and alternative histories in several genres and styles and at lengths varying from (many) single short stories to trilogies, tetralogies and multi-volume series. Anderson applied to his fiction an extensive knowledge of both mythology and science. His works address fundamental issues of life, humanity and society:

like James Blish, though with a much larger output, he is a significant successor to HG Wells, Olaf Stapledon and Robert Heinlein;

like his contemporary, JRR Tolkien, he is a significant successor to the Eddas, sagas and William Morris;

his A Midsummer Tempest, both a sequel to Shakespeare's The Tempest and a companion volume to other Anderson fantasies, conceals blank verse dialogue and even a Shakespearean sonnet in its prose.

This combination of genres and skills is unique as is the coexistence of both quantity and quality in a single body of work. Both Wells and Heinlein declined whereas Anderson innovated and speculated anew at the very end of his career. He was agnostic but respected Christianity so perhaps my initial reference to St Paul's adventures was more relevant than I realised. 
 

In The Footsteps Of St Paul And The Goddess

OK. I will be busy tomorrow and the two week excursion to Malta starts early on the day after that so this should be the last post of November. The Dianic who convenes Lune Pagans Moot told me that there are plenty of Goddess sites on Malta so I will walk in Her footsteps as well as those of the saint after whom I am named.

I like a story of Paul from Acts. When he was preaching, someone asked, in effect, "What is this ignorant braggart shouting about?" Another guy listened and replied, "New gods." The name "Jesus" was discernible as was the feminine noun "Resurrection" which might have sounded like the name of a goddess, thus (maybe) "Jesus and the Living Goddess."

If history had gone differently, then our pantheons would have differed as well, as Poul Anderson points out a couple of times.

This Afternoon And Evening

Hello. I am having lunch before heading over to Morecambe to try to visit Andrea. A more complicated post about Didonians is gestating but will have to wait until this evening. The Indian curry mentioned recently here is postponed because a friend is unwell. Rereading Poul Anderson blends with the rest of life. Sheila will visit her family in Northern Ireland and I might revisit the friend in Birmingham. Because Sheila likes Malta, we might revisit there although I do not want to make a habit of flying in the current climate.

Laters...

(Andrea's brother's Old Pier Bookshop, front and interior. Andrea inhabits the two floors above the shop.)

In The Footsteps Of St Paul

From 17 November to 1 December, 2012, I will be on holiday in Malta and not using a computer. Anyone then viewing this blog will not find any new posts but I hope that past posts will still be read.

The blog addresses anyone already familiar with Poul Anderson's works and anyone else who might become interested in them. Anderson's complete works should be republished and could be adapted into other media.

I aim to show that this vast and varied body of work is worth reading and rereading. It comprehensively covers past, future and alternative histories in several genres and styles and at lengths varying from (many) single short stories to trilogies, tetralogies and multi-volume series. Anderson applied to his fiction an extensive knowledge of both mythology and science. His works address fundamental issues of life, humanity and society:

like James Blish, though with a much larger output, he is a significant successor to HG Wells, Olaf Stapledon and Robert Heinlein;

like his contemporary, JRR Tolkien, he is a significant successor to the Eddas, sagas and William Morris;

his A Midsummer Tempest, both a sequel to Shakespeare's The Tempest and a companion volume to other Anderson fantasies, conceals blank verse dialogue and even a Shakespearean sonnet in its prose.

This combination of genres and skills is unique as is the coexistence of both quantity and quality in a single body of work. Both Wells and Heinlein declined whereas Anderson innovated and speculated anew at the very end of his career. He was agnostic but respected Christianity so perhaps my initial reference to St Paul's adventures was more relevant than I realised.

Wealth And Discretion

How can someone make use of vast wealth acquired by questionable means?

Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander, expert computer hacker, finds a crooked lawyer in Malta to manage her stolen millions.

Niels Jonsen in Poul Anderson's The Merman's Children approaches a bishop who explains publicly that Niels has come into an inheritance and has found the bishop's favor.

They are centuries apart but Scandinavian.

Wider Perspectives

Pulling back from a single volume by Poul Anderson presents an amazing perspective.

The single novel, Rogue Sword (New York, 1960), shows us imperial and military changes in the early fourteenth century.

" '...the Pope has summoned their Grand Master to reply to certain grave charges...' " (pp. 228-229)

That is the Grand Master of the Knights Templar but the reader might not realise that this is the prelude to the suppression of the Templars the following year. This Order, which had pioneered banking, was to be suppressed by a centralised state that wanted its wealth so these events were the modern age in the making.

Meanwhile, the rival military Order, the Hospitallers, plans to take possession of Rhodes, a step towards, centuries later, becoming the still extant Knights of Malta. At the same time, the once mighty Eastern Empire can no longer defend itself against rebelling mercenaries and its enemies include Muslims. This is either the end of civilisation or the beginning of a new one.

The novel shows us all this while, quite properly, remaining within the bounds of historical fiction. But also set in the fourteenth century are a historical fantasy novel showing us the end of Faerie and a science fiction novel showing us the beginning of interstellar contact. Receding away into earlier periods are several novels about Faerie, four other volumes of historical fiction, a tetralogy about the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, a time travel novel set in Atlantis and a heroic fantasy about a character not created by Anderson.

Moving the other way, into the future, we find many works featuring interstellar travel and several about the Fall of the Terran Empire. All these works cannot fit into a single timeline but we also find four volumes and some short stories acknowledging the existence of multiple timelines! Can we ask for more? (There is a more, one contemporary fantasy novel, three mystery novels and many contributions to other writers' science fiction series.)

Finding an Unexpected Connection by Sean M. Brooks

I recently reread (June, 2011) Poul Anderson's historical novel ROGUE SWORD. The book is set in the waning days of the Eastern Roman Empire of the early 1300's. The Catalan Grand Company of mercenaries was then ravaging the dying Empire. Because the Eastern Emperor Andronicus II had treacherously murdered the Grand Company's leader.

A secondary but important character in ROGUE SWORD is Brother Hugh de Tourneville, a knight of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem/Rhodes/Malta. Brother Hugh's name seemed familiar, and I found his surname in THE HIGH CRUSADE.

A few quotes are indicated. The protagonist is Lucas Greco, who is waiting at the beginning of Chapter I to meet a new friend: "He stood in the Augustaion, waiting for Brother Hugh de Tourneville to meet him as they had agreed." Later in the same chapter I read: "this gentle, drawling second son of a Lincolnshire baron..."

Next I found this in Chapter I of THE HIGH CRUSADE (Brother Parvus narrating): "I was born some forty years before my story begins, a younger son of Wat Brown. He was blacksmith in the little town of Ansby, which lay in northeastern Lincolnshire. The lands were enfeoffed to the Baron de Tourneville..." (Baron Roger).
I was surprised ROGUE SWORD and THE HIGH CRUSADE had a connection of any kind. For one thing, THE HIGH CRUSADE, while a serious book, is often rollicking. ROGUE SWORD, by contrast, is a fierce, grim, and bloody book.

It was the year 1306 when Lucas Greco first met Brother Hugh de Tourneville. THE HIGH CRUSADE begins in 1345. My guess is Brother Hugh was the younger brother of Baron Roger's grandfather Nevil de Tourneville (mentioned in Chapter IX of CRUSADE). The Tourneville family was also said to be descended from a bastard son of William the Conqueror.

THE HIGH CRUSADE was first published as a magazine serialization in 1959 and published as a book in 1960. ROGUE SWORD was published in 1960 and reprinted by Zebra Books in 1980.

I also thought of how, in Chapter XV of ROGUE SWORD (and various other pages) Poul Anderson seems to have accepted the hostile view of the Knights Templar spread by their enemies. However, the last Time Patrol story Anderson wrote: "Death and the Knight," gives a less starkly negative view of the Templars.

"Allah Akbar!"

Three Hearts And Three Lions, CHAPTER TWENTY.

"'Allah akbar!' exploded Carahue. 'They're terrified of magic. Merciful saints, I meant to say.'" (p. 129)

Ketlan was a big fan of Anthony Burgess and was envious that I had heard Burgess speak on James Joyce at Lancaster Duke's Playhouse. Ketlan got me to read Earthly Powers. In that novel, a Maltese character has always accepted that he prays to Deus in a church whereas his Muslim neighbor prays to Allah in a mosque. Now, however, the Catholic Church has adopted the vernacular liturgy so that suddenly the character finds himself praying, in his Arabic-influenced Maltese, to Allah in church. For him, this is a problem - but had he never addressed God in the vernacular in private prayer?

When Sheila and I were on holiday in Malta, we were looking around the back of a church during a Mass and heard the priest say, "Oh, Allah..."

Carahue acts in character as a recent convert from Islam to Christianity.

The De Tournevilles

Poul Anderson, The High Crusade, CHAPTER VII.

See "Finding An Unexpected Connection" by Sean M. Brooks here.

William of Normandy conquered England in 1066 (see Poul Anderson's The Last Viking Trilogy);

an Earl Godfrey was outlawed for piracy;

an illegitimate grandson of William married an illegitimate daughter of Earl Godfrey, thus founding the de Tourneville line (p. 49);

Brother Hugh de Tournville was a Knight of Malta in the fourteenth century;

Sir Roger de Tourneville led an English expedition into space later in the fourteenth century.

I suspect that William is the only historical figure in this list.