Vysochina And Captain Flandry

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, II.

I am fascinated by Dennitzan geography. Much is already on the blog, e.g.:

the Kazan

The Obala 

Zorkagrad

 

On p. 365, we read that the huge crater of the Kazan bites an arc from the Vysochina so what is the latter? First, it is named after a region of the Czech Republic. Secondly, further down p. 365, there is a reference to "...Vysochina hills." We read elsewhere that Kossara wants to show Flandry an overlook in the Vysochina highlands. And that is it, at least so far. There are three previous references on the blog (see here; scroll down) but all say much the same.

 

Hopefully, this is the last attempt to put the Captain Flandry sub-sub-series in the right order in hypothetical new editions:

Volume I

Two diptychs:

"Tiger By The Tail" and "Honorable Enemies"

"Message in Secret" and "The Plague of Masters"

Volume II

One trilogy:

"The Game of Glory," "Hunters of the Sky Cave" and "The Warriors from Nowhere"

Volume III

One novel:

A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows

 

As a rule, each installment refers back to the previous one but "The Game of Glory" refers back to "Honorable Enemies" and the second diptych can fit between them.

Hunting In The Kazan II

See Hunting In The Kazan.

Before killing the dyavo, Kossara had clear shots at a soaring orlik and a bull yelen poised on a crag but let them live. Indeed, why go out and kill anything? Manse Everard had hunted in the Pleistocene but Wanda Tamberly taught him to take a camera instead of a gun.

Kossara and Trohdwyr make camp:

"...high in the bowl of the Kazan, where that huge crater bit an arc from the Vysochina."
-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 II, p. 365.

Trohdwyr was born in a fishing village, presumably on the Obala.

Dense purple mahovina, springy to walk on and spicy to smell, is studded by white and gold wildflowers. To the east, the ringwall slopes down to trees and yellow evening light falls on misty forest.

Hunting In The Kazan

When Kossara and Trohdwyr hunt a dyavo, we learn a little more of Dennitzan geography. The northern rim of the Kazan cuts through the Vysochina hills. There is a view of the "...sungold whiteness..." (Chapter II, p. 365) of the Planina Byelogorski and of smoke from Vulkana Zemlya. Poul Anderson probably created a consistent Dennitzan ecology but showed only parts of it in the text. For the planet Daedalus, see here and here.

Before cooking the meat, Trohdwyr invokes Aferhdi of the Deeps, Blyn of the Winds and Haawan who lairs on the reefs, asking only that they "...trouble us not..." (p. 366) He remains an old-fashioned pagan ychan, unconvertible to Orthochristianity.

Kossara thinks:

"Surely the Pantocrator didn't mind much, and would receive his dear battered soul into Heaven at the last." (ibid.)

Why should the Pantocrator mind respect for His deeps, winds and reefs? Kossara expresses the same benign universalism as Father Tomislav in The Merman's Children. See here.

Retirement In The Technic History

Where would you prefer to retire in the period of the Terran Empire?

Archopolis
Hermes
Imhotep
Daedalus
Avalon
Dennitza
Nyanza
somewhere else?

Flandry's and Kossara's plans for retirement on Dennitza had included:

a house in Dubina Dolyina;
an apartment in Zorkagrad;
many children;
xenological expeditions to other planetary systems;
staff Intelligence work;
investments;
enterprises;
she showing him an overlook in the Vysochina highlands;
he teaching her winetasting;
she reading aloud from Simich, he from Genji;
the opera in Zorkagrad;
dances at land festivals;
sailing across Lake Stoyan to a cafe under the flowering trees on Garlandmakers' Island;
taking the children to the zoo and merrypark.

Some of my friends would remark, "It sounds alright for those that can afford it!"