Outside St. Clement's Cathedral

(St. Clement's Cathedral, Prague.)

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, XVIII.

"Bodin Miyatovich and his wife waited outside. The weather was milder than before, as if a ghost of springtime flitted fugitive ahead of winter." (p. 577)

The pathetic fallacy never lets up. Flandry is about to tell Miyatovich that he has found a way forward. Appropriately, the weather mildens as a ghost - also appropriate - of springtime flits through.

Sounds never let up either:

"Traffic boomed in the street. Walkers cast glances at the three on the stairs, spoke to whatever companion they had, but didn't stop; they taught good manners on Dennitza." (ibid.)

Another good word about Dennitza, where Flandry would have stayed if Kossara had lived. Passersby glance at all three. The Gospodar and his wife are planetary celebrities and Flandry has become one. He even ran the provisional government after defeating the coup.

More tomoz. 

Kossara Vymezal In St Clement's Cathedral

(St Clement Macedonian Cathedral.)

The four man honor guard stands in the uniform of the Narodna Voyska, heads lowered, rifles reversed;

candles burn in tall holders with lilies, roses and viyrnatz everywhere between;

Flandry smells flowers and incense as he walks across the stone floor;

a priest chants archaic words behind the iconostasis;

the air is cool and dim;

evening light slants between columns;

the domed ceiling shows Christ Lord of All and the Apostles on gold and blue;

Flandry inwardly addresses Kossara but hears only the priest's voice;

searching his languages for the best farewell, he says, "Sayonara. Since it must be so.'" (A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, Chapter XVIII, p. 577);

he bows and departs -

- but his next step is military action.

Cathedrals

Westminster Abbey
York Minster
Notre Dame
St Peter's, Lancaster
the Cathedral of Domkirk
St Clement's Cathedral

I have probably missed some.

The Technic History And Real Life

OK. We have got drawn back into Poul Anderson's Technic History (History of Technic Civilization).

Years ago, I enjoyed Wagner's Ring Cycle on TV because I was able to follow the plot thanks to sub-titles. (I would not have been carried along by the music alone.) Adzel, a Wodenite who resembles a dragon, sings Fafner when he is a student on Earth.

In The Earth Book Of Stormgate, Chinese New Year is celebrated in San Francisco Integrate and Christmas on the planet Ivanhoe. We celebrate both in Lancaster.

We recognize Sikh men by their turbans and their karas. Ensign Flandry takes orders from Commander Singh when no superior officers survive in a space battle.

Kossara Vymezal encounters an extremely unpleasant human subject of the Merseian Roidhunate named Muhammad Snell (Eriau name: Kluwych). We are more fortunate in our Muslim neighbours who share food at Eid. 

Kossara, later canonized, lies in state in St. Clement's Cathedral in Zorkagrad on Dennitza. In Lancaster, we have a Priory Church, a Cathedral of St. Peter and a Polish language Catholic Church among others.

The Terran Emperor celebrates his Birthday by following daylight around the globe. The King of England visited Lancaster where he is Duke.

Our multi-cultural society prefigures their multi-species society. 

Humanity will survive the Long Night but might not survive the Chaos.

Sayonara. 

On Hermes, Avalon And Dennitza

We feel as if we have been on the planets Hermes, Avalon and Dennitza.

Hermes has St. Carl's Church in Starfall.

Dennitza has St. Clement's Cathedral in Zorkagrad. The Orthochristians canonize Kossara Vymezal. Kossara's zmayi servant, Trohdwyr, had been a pagan ychan, invoking Aferdhi, Blyn and Haawan.

On Avalon, Tabitha Falkayn, who is Hrill of Highsky Choth, tells Christopher Holm, who is Arinnian of Stomgate Choth, that most members of her choth keep to the Old Faith. There is no mention of churches on Avalon although one of the Oronesian islands is called St. Li.

Public Figures

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, XVIII.

When Dominic Flandry has said, "Sayonara," to Kossara in St. Clement's Cathedral:

"Bodin Miyatovich and his wife waited outside... Walkers cast glances at the three on the stairs, spoke to whatever companions they had, but didn't stop; they taught good manners on Dennitza." (p. 577)

Somewhere in Julian May's Galactic Milieu Trilogy, a planetary head of state and her colleagues walk the short distance from a government building to a restaurant specializing in a local species of fast-growing mushrooms. The proprietor makes no mention of the fact that she has just seen them speaking on live TV on a large screen on the wall of her restaurant. Good manners.

I think that there should be less distance between the public and public figures so that it would be less of a sensation to see them outside a Cathedral or in a restaurant immediately after they have been on TV. In Britain by now, anyone who wants merely to see our head of the state, the Queen, should have been able to do so and most of us must know someone, if not several people, who have met her. "Long to reign over us..." has gone on for a long time!

As sf readers, we always wonder about the near and further future and to many of us here it will be a real sensation to have a different monarch.

Far-Off Chanting

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, XVIII.

When Kossara lies in her open coffin in St. Clement's Cathedral, Flandry:

sees her uniformed honor guard, candles, flowers, evening sunlight between columns, the Apostles with Christ Lord of All against blue and gold on the domed ceiling and Kossara's face, now colorless and serene;

smells lilies, roses, viyenatz and incense;

hears "...the somehow far-off sound of a priest chanting behind the iconostasis..." (p. 576);

feels cool air.

A perfect setting for either prayer or contemplation. Flandry in fact prays, addressing Kossara who will be canonized. The far-off rising and falling chant of archaic words symbolizes transcendence but is not the affirmation of survival that Flandry asks for.

Conclusion II

(St. Clement's Cathedral, Prague.)

Poul Anderson's A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows ends with Bodin's Prayer (see here) after the bombardment of Chereion (see here).

Before the bombardment, Flandry tells Gospodar Bodin that the Dennitzan action should spark a quarrel that will enable Emperor Hans to force appeasers out of his regime. Hopefully including Lord Hauksberg, if he is still around?

Bodin hopes that Dennitza will survive the Empire.
John Ridenour expects that Freehold will survive.
Flandry expects that Nyanza and Vixen will.

The Long Night is coming but is well prepared for.

Funeral

This evening, we watched a reshowing of the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral. I am interested in the ways that society finds to mark the passing of people regarded as important. This practice will continue in future even if everything else changes: who is regarded as important and how their passing is marked. The practice is represented in Poul Anderson's Technic History when Kossara Vymezal lies in state in St Clement's Cathedral in Zorkagrad on Dennitza near the end of A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows. Probably every aspect of life, and death, is to be found somewhere in Anderson's works.

Christian funerals refer to a hereafter. How is it known that there is a hereafter? And, if there were one, how would any particular individual's destination be known? Skeptics attending funerals listen with respect and interest but remain skeptical. We are united by the accepted custom that everyone except a few sectarians attends weddings and funerals of friends and colleagues irrespective of denomination or tradition. When the Pope announced that it was OK for Catholics to attend family weddings etc in other churches, he merely acknowledged what anyone with any sense was already doing. Vox populi vox Dei.

Dominic Flandry effectively prays to his dead fiancee, Kossara, but does not think that he receives an answer. Mormon missionaries (scroll down) advised me to ask God for the truth about religious matters so I did. But I have to interpret whether I received an answer.

More Merseians On Dennitza

A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, IV.

"Day of Burning" and A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows are linked across several centuries. Life was hard on Merseia because the planet was modernizing and moving into space at the same time as it had to be protected from supernova radiation and there was a three-sided struggle for power between Vachs, Gethfennu and nations like the Republic of Lafdigu. Merseian immigrants were welcome on the human colony planet, Dennitza. Able to stand cold better than human beings, they do most of the fishing and pelagiculture, especially on the eastern seaboard of the main continent, Rodna. They are organized in Vachs and have their own House in the Shkoptsina, Parliament. Kossara remembers a gruff welcome at the campfire of great green hunters and is overcome by emotion. After Abrams' and Flandry's (fully justified) hostility to the Roidhunate, Anderson's account of inter-species harmony on Dennitza is welcome indeed. It is hard to choose but I think that Dennitza is my favourite planet in the Technic History. Its place names are resonant:

the Kazan

the Obala

Zorkagrad

I would not participate in Orthochristian prayers or sacraments but would meditate in a side chapel of St Clement's Cathedral. I would also learn how to recite Eriau prayers with Trohdwyr. Paganism encourages ritual observance but does not insist on credal assent.

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.)

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.

Watching DUNE

When, like today, I visit Andrea above the Old Pier Bookshop, I do not post on this blog during the day but often have something to post about when I get back home. Today Andrea and I watched Dune, TV series, episode one. I do not think that Frank Herbert's Dune deserves three different screen adaptations when Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization still has none.

Observations:

Interstellar empires, complete with Emperors, are big in American sf! What happened to Presidents? In James Blish's The Quincunx of Time, the President of the Milky Way announces federation with the Magellanic Clouds in 3480. In Isaac Asimov's The Stars Like Dust, the Constitution of the United States is considered for use on an interstellar scale. However, in novels set later in that future history, there is a Trantorian Empire that becomes the Galactic Empire. Dune presents an already established Empire whereas Anderson shows us the rise, decline and fall of the Terran Empire together with some very different and plausible individual Emperors.

Herbert presents organized religion only as a vehicle for cynical manipulation of planetary populations whereas Anderson shows us genuine piety and devotion, e.g., in Kossara Vymezal who wants to be married in St. Clement's Cathedral by Father Smed who had christened and confirmed her. Andrea went as far as to say that the evil of organised religion was the entire point of Dune but that might be going too far.

Many And One

A Merseian thinks:

"...by the God, by all the pagan gods of the forefathers..."
-Poul Anderson, The Game Of Empire IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 189-453 AT CHAPTER ELEVEN, p. 314.

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.
-copied from Dennitza.

The Ythrian Old Faith is polytheist but the New Faith is monotheist. Merseian and Ythrian monotheisms are incompatible with each other and with any Terrestrial religions. There is no personal relationship with "the God" who favors the Race. "God the Hunter" stoops on all and is honored by giving Him a good fight.

Engels, analyzing what he called "all religion" and what I call "theistic religions," suggested four stages:

natural polytheism, personifications of natural forces;
social polytheism, personifications of social forces like war, wealth and justice;
monotheism, unified personification;
atheism, cessation of personification when external forces are scientifically understood.

A modern monotheist and atheist at least agree in not personifying thunder, fire, celestial bodies, the economy etc. Do extrasolar intelligences like Merseians and Ythrians develop through comparable stages?

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. 

Lying In State

I have the live stream of the Queen lying in state on my computer screen and have just watched the changing of the guard. Ceremonial swords are very evident. Try to imagine the kind of technology that would be used to present the lying in state of Terran Emperor Georgios in the Technic History. We see the lying in state of Kossara Vymezal in St. Clement's Cathedral in Zokagrad on Dennitza but that seems to be a low tech affair. The evening news showed an inter-faith service in the Hindu Temple in Liverpool (see image) focused on the Queen. State funeral in Westminster Abbey tomorrow.

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