Pathetic Fallacy After Ys

The Dog And The Wolf.

Apuleius in conversation with Corentinus and another clergyman:

"'...Bishop Martinus in Turonum...can't have much time left in this world. Who shall carry the light he has kindled?'

"Darkness deepened. Rain stammered on the roof." (IV, 4, p. 95)

The elements seem to answer the question!

During that same storm, Governor Glabrio, plotting with Procurator Bacca against Gratillonius and the Ysans, warns/threatens their subordinate, Nagon. Then:

"Nagon was still for a space, so still that the noise of the wind outside flew alone through the room under the stares of the saints, before he said: 'I understand.'" (V, 1, p. 100)

In a sequential art/comic strip adaptation, there would have to be a silent panel, at least one with no speech balloons, between Glabrio's threat and Nagon's assent. I am not sure how the artist would represent the noise of the wind which, of course, could be heard in a film.

A slave interrupts the meeting to announce an emissary from Martinus and is told to admit him:

"After a minute during which the wind gusted louder, a man came in." (ibid.)

The man, Sucat, the future Saint Patrick, conveys Martinus' command to Glabrio to be merciful to the Ysans. Martinus seems to have had clairvoyant knowledge of the meeting between Glabrio, Bacca and Nagon! The wind gusting louder was a suitable introduction to Sucat's tumultuous announcement.

Prefigurements

In Gallicenae (London, 1988) by Poul and Karen Anderson, the authors know how to prefigure important events, including changes in the status of the Gods.

The young Princess Dahut made a sandcastle and called it "Ys," of which it was a good replica, then "...watched the tide come in and wash it away." (p. 214) As a young adult, she will play a central role in the drowning of the real city of Ys. That city, of which her father is both prefect and King, contains the Mithraeum of which he is Father. Thus, the Three of Ys withdraw, Mithras retreats and Gratillonius moves nearer to accepting Christ.

In Hivernia, King Niall anticipates "...Ys under the sea." (p. 318) It is he who, using Dahut, will put it there.

Martinus, later known as St Martin of Tours, is visited by his cousin, Sucat, who has escaped from slavery in Hivernia. The cousin seeks ordination so that he may return to convert the Hivernians. Martinus predicts that Sucat " '...will be Christ's patrician.' " (p. 362) In fact, renamed Patricius, he will evangelize Hivernia, later known as Ireland.

Of the Gods, it is said:

" '...They Themselves are troubled. For the heavens have moved...' " (p. 32)

As above, so below. A sandcastle and some chance remarks prefigure what is to come.

Patriarchs And Patricians

In Latin:

pater, father;
patres, forefathers;
patricius, of the forefathers;
patricii, patricians, aristocrats.

Patres is plural of pater and patricii of patricius.

In Poul and Karen Anderson's King of Ys Tetralogy, St Martin says that his cousin, Sucat, will become Christ's patrician. Sucat is renamed "Patricius," in English "Patrick," and canonized, thus St Patrick.

In Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization, a star is named "Patricius." Thus, the star and its planets are the Patrician System.

In Larry Niven's Known Space future history, the kzinti are ruled by a Patriarch. In Poul Anderson's Man-Kzin Wars stories, Ulf Markham admires the kzinti and has a hereditary vote in the Wunderlander House of Patricians although only on federal matters. Election as a consul of his state would give him a say in who attends the House of Delegates. This sounds to me like Anderson's political thinking enriching the Wunderlander constitution in Niven's future history.

Markham leaks the hyperdrive to the kzinti. His excuse:

"'They would inevitably have gotten it. Only by taking part in events can we hope to exercise any influence.'" (The Man-Kzin Wars, p. 125)

A familiar argument: we can influence Apartheid by supporting it instead of sabotaging and ending it.

Good And Bad

Gratillonius' enemies list the powerful individuals and significant groups that support him:

Senator Apuleius Vero, tribune of Aquilo;
praetorian prefect Ardens;
Stilicho, dictator of the Western Empire;
army veterans settled in Armorica thanks to Gratillonius;
former outlaws transformed into forest rangers;
tribes people benefiting from the suppression of pirates and bandits and from the revival of trade.

They never ask why, if he has done all this good, they regard him as bad. What they do consider is whether to oppress the Ysan colony with increased taxation and then they pragmatically discuss whether a tax would be insufficiently ruinous or unenforceable or resisted. Dispersing the Ysans would humble them and save their souls, of course. It is possible not only to oppress a social group but also to feel pious about it.

Martin Luther King wrote that laws cannot change the heart but can restrain the heartless. Something similar happens to the anti-Gratillonians. Bishop Martinus, the future St Martin, knows claivoyantly that these three men are currently plotting against Gratillonius in the basilica so he sends his kinsman, Sucat, the future St Patrick, to command them not to afflict the Ysans. This would after all hinder their evangelization.

Sucat does not wait for an answer. The principle plotters agree between themselves to heed the bishop but only as long as he remains alive and only because they fear his political and supernatural power. Blinded by hatred, they do not suspect that they are agents of the kind of evil that they claim to oppose.

Ys In The Wider World

 

Gallicenae, XVI.

Ys continues to take its place in the wider world. Gratillonius must insist that Ysan merchants do not evade Roman customs. There is too much hostility toward the city already.

Gratillonius trains Cynan in sword-fighting and converses with Maeloch. The latter waits beside:

"...the smoke-darkened relief of a scene in an ancient tale - the hero Belcar combating the demonic mermaid Quanis -" (2, p. 355)

That is prophetic of what Dahut will become, especially since Maeloch ponders Dahut's odd behaviour while he waits and she greets him later.

The narrative broadens out well beyond Ys. A young man with a religious vocation, called Sucat, tells Martinus how he escaped from enslavement in Hivernia and how he feels that the Hivernians cry out for the Light. Martinus renames Sucat for history:

"'...you'll reach the forefront of ministry; you will be Christ's patrician.'" (3, p. 362)

St Patrick

Today is St Patrick's Day. Sheila and I attended a talk on the cult of St Patrick delivered at Lancaster Museum by a historian from Lancaster University. We have previously mentioned the local ruined St Patrick's Chapel. (Scroll down.) It is possible that Patrick came from this part of England. Nothing in the talk confirmed any of the details about Sucat/Patricius as given in Poul and Karen Anderson's The King Of Ys. However, I quoted these details in a question and the speaker confirmed that they represent an early tradition about Patrick. The two documents definitely written by Patrick are his Confessio and his letter to Coroticus. Beyond them, anything else is a matter of historical judgement. 

"I could wish to leave them to go to Britain. I would willingly do this, and am prepared for this, as if to visit my home country and my parents. Not only that, but I would like to go to Gaul to visit the brothers and to see the faces of the saints of my Lord."

- Confessio.

St Patrick

While out walking today, we visited the ruined St Patrick's Chapel (see image and here) in Heysham. It is possible that:

Patrick came from Ravenglass, further up the Cumbrian coast;
Heysham is where he was shipwrecked on his return from Ireland;
he was buried at the site of the Chapel.

I mention this because Patrick is Sucat (Christian name: Patricius) in Poul and Karen Anderson's The King Of Ys.

We live with history and fiction. George Fox, founder of Quakerism, was imprisoned in Lancaster Castle. While visiting Nottingham, I met the current Sheriff of Nottingham and also a man roaming the streets role-playing the easily recognisable role of Friar Tuck. Legends live.

Other Historical Connections

St Patrick, Sucat in the Andersons' King of Ys Tetralogy, has a historical or legendary association with part of Lancaster City District. The image shows stone graves which are near the ruined St Patrick's Chapel, Heysham.

Prince Rupert of the Rhine, hero of Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest, fought a battle in Lichfield.

St Martin, Martinus in Ys, has a church in Birmingham and had a College in Lancaster.

The historical city of York features in three works by Poul Anderson, in a historical past, an alternative present and a future conscious simulation of an alternative past! Anderson covered every possibility: backwards, forwards and sideways in time, from physical space into cyberspace and also into the supernatural.

On a tourist trail in a town near Caernarfon, we had to find a lion's head on a wall but this was mere decoration, not an esoteric symbol - although there might have been a secret meeting of Hindus, Mithraists or Narnians...

Changes II

See here.

The harvest season is immemorial and celebrated with customs that also become immemorial. In Armorica:

the last sheaf is consecrated as the Maiden;
a wether is chosen as Wolf of the Fold and sacrificed;
"...a branch hung with ears of grain [is] brought into house or barn."
-Poul and Karen Anderson, The Dog And The Wolf, Chapter XXIII, section 1, p. 451.

And the Church of England still celebrates Harvests. (Incidentally, there is a St Martin of Tours Church in Morecambe.)

Perhaps it is appropriate that, after the Harvest Festival in Armorica in 407, men harvest what they have sown politically. The locals expel the Romans. When Duke Gratillonius receives two Imperial delegates, Procurator Bacca and Bishop Bricius, the first two of these characters are fictional whereas the third is historical. In fact, four saints appear in The Dog And The Wolf:

Bishop Martinus, St Martin;
Martinus' kinsman, Sucat, St Patrick;
Martinus' successor, Bricius, St Brice;
Martinus' appointee to the ministry in Ys, Corentinus, St Corentin.

Of these, we respect all except the portly, expensively dressed Bricius, who puffs indignantly:

"'I will not demean my sacred office by squatting down like a savage.'" (p. 452)

Here is another change, and in a single generation, from the ascetic, unwashed Martinus to the lordly, self-important Bricius. The latter says that the Church is neutral in the civil war but that:

"'God will give victory to the righteous.'" (p. 453)

He will not or, at least, not necessarily - unless Bricius just means that he will prudently proclaim as righteous whoever wins? He also consigns Gratillonius to eternal torment instead of simply discussing the rights or wrongs of Gratillonius' case.

The characters act as they do because, like the Ysan leaders before the inundation or like James Blish's magicians after Black Easter, they know that they are living in changed times. In this case, Rome can no longer protect or compel so the Armoricans must take the initiative.

Origin Stories

Yossi gave me Klaus, a bizarre "origin story" for you know who. Superheroes have origin stories. There are a few such stories in Poul Anderson's works.

(i) In Poul and Karen Anderson's The King Of Ys, a young man called Sucat is baptized as "Patricius" (God's patrician), and converts Ireland - St Patrick.

(ii) Also in The King Of Ys, the Roman centurion, Gaius Valerius Gratillonius, gradually becomes the legendary King Grallon, or Gradlon, of Ys.

(iii) The King Of Ys also refers to the origin of the Arthurian legend. See Camelot And Armorica.

(iv) In The Boat Of A Million Years, Hanno visited the court of a post-Roman British warlord called Artorius... (Scroll down.) (Were some of Hanno's fellow immortals also the sources of legends? See Starkad II.)

(v) In Anderson's The Golden Slave, Eodan gradually adopts the characteristics of Odin. See Origins II.