The Weathermother II

The People Of The Wind, I.

In the Weathermother:

Jack Birnam hiked and rescued an Ythrian;

Hloch will write The Earth Book Of Stormgate.

 

Now, in The People Of The Wind, Arinnian sets out to fly by gravbelt from Gray on Falkayn Bay to the highest peaks on the Coronan continent which men call the Andromedas although Arinnian translates the Planha name into Anglic as "Weathermother." (We read it in Old Anglic/English.)

Arinnian/Christopher Holm lives in Gray but is a member of Stormgate Choth which had settled the Weathermother in Birnam's time. He, Arinnian, flies there to stay overnight at Lythran's aerie before flying with the rest of that household to the regional Khruath.

If I lived on Avalon, then I would want to attend Khruaths, not to vote for the Parliament of Man. Therefore, I would have to join a choth. However, I would not want to accept the concept of "deathpride" which can lead to duels and honorable suicides. So I would suggest the formation of a choth that combined (what we would regard as) the best aspects of Ythrian and human traditions. Choths are variable enough for this to be feasible.

The Weathermother

"To those who read, good flight.

"It is Hloch of the Stormgate Choth who writes, on the peak of Mount Anrovil in the Weathermother."

-Poul Anderson, INTRODUCTION WINGS OF VICTORY IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 75-77 AT p. 75.

These are the opening sentences of Hloch's introduction to The Earth Book Of Stormgate although, when the entire contents of the Earth Book are incorporated into The Technic Civilization Saga, this general introduction is reconfigured as an introduction merely to the first Earth Book story, "Wings of Victory," which is the second in the Saga.

You might think that the Weathermother is a colorful detail invented for Hloch's introduction. However, it is taken from one of the stories:

"The loftiest heights on the planet Avalon belong to the Andromeda Range. But that is a name bestowed by humans. Not for nothing do the Ythrians who have joined them in their colonizing venture call that region the Weathermother. Almost exactly two days - twenty-two hours - after he had spied the stranger, a hurricane caught Jack Birnam."

-"Rescue on Avalon," p. 310.

Despite his allergy to, and resentment of, Ythrians, Jack will have to rescue the stranger who is Ayan, Wyvan of Stormgate.

Some Avalonian Place Names

Sometimes we are told a Planha word, e.g., "choth." At other times. a Planha word is translated for us, e.g., "deathpride," "Weathermother."

"To those who read, good flight.

"It is Hloch of the Stormgate Choth who writes, on the peak of Mount Anrovil in the Weathermother."

-Poul Anderson, INTRODUCTION WINGS OF VICTORY IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, December 2009), pp. 75-77 AT p. 75.

That should be filmed with a scene of clouds blowing past a peak and Hloch's words as voiceover. 

Human Avalonians call the Weathermother range the Andromedas. Avalon is smaller than Earth so that its mountain-forming forces are weaker. In addition, rapid rotation causes violent weather which also makes for a lower surface. The highest Andromeda is only 4500 metres. 

On Earth:

Polynesia means "many islands";

Micronesia means "small islands";

Melanesia means "black islands";

Indonesia means "Indian islands."

On Avalon:

Oronesia means "mountainous islands."

The Oronesian archipelago, occupied by Highsky Choth and many very small choths, crosses the Tropic of Spears and ends near the Antractic Circle. In the northern hemisphere, it separates the Middle Ocean from the Hesperian Sea. Beyond the equator is the South Ocean. Oronesia has a distinct rich ecology and has been a refuge for eccentrics of both species. Colonists originally settled the Hesperian Islands before moving to the northern Coronan continent the size of Australia, stretching past the Tropic of Swords. In the southern hemisphere, Equatoria, New Africa and New Gaiila are large islands or small continents.

The Peak Of Mount Anrovil In The Weathermother

In Poul Anderson's The Earth Book Of Stormgate, Hloch's introductions draw substance from the stories introduced. Thus, the volume begins:

"To those who read, good flight.

"It is Hloch of the Stormgate Choth who writes, on the peak of Mount Anrovil in the Weathermother."

-Poul Anderson, The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1979), p. 1.

Eventually, in the twelfth and last collected story, we read:

"The loftiest heights on the planet Avalon belong to the Andromeda Range. But that is a name bestowed by humans.Not for nothing do the Ythrians who have joined them in their colonizing venture call that region the Weathermother. Almost exactly two days - twenty-two hours - after he had spied the stranger, a hurricane caught Jack Birnam. Born and raised here, he was used to sudden tempests. The rapidly spinning globe was always breeding them. Yet the violence of this one astonished him."

-Poul Anderson, "Rescue on Avalon" IN The Earth Book Of Stormgate, pp. 422-433 AT p. 423.

Also relevant here is some information imparted in The People Of The Wind:

"Avalon rotates in 11 hours, 22 minutes, 12 seconds..."

-Poul Anderson, The People Of The Wind IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 437-662 AT II, p. 452.

And, in "The Problem of Pain":

"The days were too short for work, the nights too short for sleep." (p. 43)

Short days and high mountains are perhaps the father and mother of violent weather.

Saga And Earth Book

In Baen Books' seven-volume The Technic Civilization Saga, we read Hloch's AFTERWORD to The Earth Book Of Stormgate at the mid-point of Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire, then read the novel, The People Of The Wind, at the end of that omnibus volume even though we understand that the Earth Book is composed in the aftermath of the events of The People Of The Wind. In the alternative and earlier reading order, the Earth Book immediately follows The People Of The Wind. Reading it that way, we already understand a great deal before we open the Earth Book. 

We already know that:

Stormgate is the name of an Avalonian choth;

Avalon is a human colony planet with a large Ythrian minority;

the "choth" is the basic unit of Ythrian social organization after the family;

Ythrians are flying carnivores so their psychology, sociology and theology differ from ours.

Reading Hloch's first Earth Book INTRODUCTION which, in the Saga, comes near the beginning of Volume I, The Van Rijn Method, we find:

"To those who read, good flight. 

"It is Hloch of the Stormgate Choth who writes, on the peak of Mount Anrovil in the Weathermother. His Wyvan, son of Lythran and Blawsa, has asked this. Weak though his grip upon the matter be, bloodpride requires he undertake the task."

-Poul Anderson, INTRODUCTION WINGS OF VICTORY IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, December 2009), pp. 75-77 AT p. 75.

We know that:

the Weathermother is theYthrian name for the Andromedas, the highest mountain range on Avalon;

Stormgate is based in the Weathermother;

a Wyvan is a judge;

Lythran and Blawsa are the heads of a household;

bloodpride, also called deathpride, is the highest obligation for an Ythrian.

Further along, we find references to the human towns, Gray and Centauri, and to the Terran War. The People Of The Wind describes a lot of activity in both those towns and is entirely focused on the Terran War. In the Saga, these references are tantalizing hints of what is to come. We should read the Technic History in one order and reread it in the other.

Who Knows of Avalon?

In "The Problem of Pain"

"...intermediate in size between Earth and Ythri, surface gravity 0.8 terrestrial;
"slightly more irradiation, from a somewhat yellower sun, than Earth gets, which simply makes it a little warmer;
"axial tilt, therefore seasonal variations, a bit less than terrestrial;
"length of year about three quarters of ours, length of day a bit under half;
"one small, close in, bright moon;
"biochemistry similar to ours - we could eat most native things, though we'd require imported crops and livestock to supplement the diet.
"All in all, seemingly well-nigh perfect." (1)

South of the largest continent, a great gulf swarms with life. A strong eastward current is deflected north by an archipelago. Monstrous marine creatures graze on floating islands of densely interwoven "atlantis weed" probably also supporting lesser plants and animals. Higher solar energy input and rapid rotation make storms more violent than would be possible on Earth.

On an island in the gulf:

"A mat of mossy, intensely green plants squeezed out any possibility of forest." (2)

Surgeon trees' thin leaf-fringed bows, sharp enough to cut a wing from a swooping Ythrian, whip insanely in the wind which blows gorgeous blossoms torn from vines. Widespread low, russet-leaved, rankly odorous hell shrubs clutch at feet with raking twigs and emit vapours scarcely harming Ythrians but slowly poisoning human beings. Waterfowl fly through a rose, gold and silver-blue sunrise.

In "Wingless"

Ythrians and human beings settle different territories in the Hesperian Islands before jointly colonising the Coronan continent. Nat Falkayn, seventeen Avalonian (twelve Terran) years of age when visiting the Ythrian extended household of Weathermaker Choth:

"...stood on a balcony of that tall stone tower which housed the core families. Below were a paved courtyard and rambling wooden buildings. Meadows where meat animals grazed sloped downhill in Terrestrial grass and clover, Ythrian starbell and rye, Terrestrial oak and pine, Ythrian braidbark and copperwood, until cultivation gave way to the reddish mat of native susin, the scattered intense green of native chasuble bush and delicate blue of janie. The sun Laura stood big and golden-colored at morning, above a distantly glimpsed mercury line of ocean. Elsewhere wandered a few cottony clouds and the pale, sinking ghost of Morgana. A flock of Avalonian draculas passed across view, their leathery wings awkward beside the plumed splendor of Keshchyi's." (3)

Morgana is the moon, brighter and faster than Luna. Keshchyi is a young Ythrian.

Whirlpools around the dark coraloid reefs at a lagoon entrance hold "...thick brown nets of atlantis weed torn loose from a greater mass far out to sea..." (4)

In "Rescue on Avalon"

The highest Avalonian mountains are called the Andromeda Range by human beings and the Weathermother by Ythrians. (Hloch of the Stormgate Choth wrote The Earthbook of Stormgate on the peak of Mount Anrovil in the Weathermother.) Ironleaf trees draw metal from the soil and concentrate pure particles in shining purple leaves which attract pollinating bugs and also absorb radio waves. A hospital window opens on Avalonian king's-crown, Ythrian windnest and Earthly oak.

The Parliament of Man and the Great Khruath of the Ythrians divided continental territory between the species. Human beings need prairies for crops whereas Ythrian hunters occupy the Weathermother.

In The People of the Wind, Chapter One

The city of Gray on Falkayn Bay is surrounded by human-owned grain-fields, Ythrian-owned pastures for maukh and mayaw, forests of oak, pine, windnest or hammerbranch and treeless areas of native susin where some barysauroids survive. Even in Gray, humans, with ample room on Avalon, build low. Highrises are for ornithoids (Ythrians).

"Laura, a G5 star, has only 72 per cent the luminosity of Sol and less ultraviolet light in proportion; but Avalon, orbiting at a mean distance of 0.81 astronomical unit in a period of 0.724 Terran, gets 10 percent more total irradiation than man evolved under." (5)

Christopher Holm, thirty years Avalonian old, has joined Stormgate Choth as Arinninan. The Stormgate compound:

"...stood on a plateau of Mount Fairview. At the middle lifted the old stone tower which housed the senior members of the family and their children. Lower wooden structures, on whose sod roofs bloomed amberdragon and starbells, were for the unwed and retainers and their kin. Further down a slope lay sheds, barns, and mews. The whole could not be seen at once from the ground, because Ythrian trees grew among the buildings: braidbark, copperwood, gaunt lightningrod, jewelleaf which sheened beneath the moon and by day would shimmer iridescent. The flowerbeds held natives, more highly evolved than anything from offplanet - sweet small janie, pungent livewell, graceful trefoil and Buddha's cup, a harp vine which the breeze brought ever so faintly to singing. Otherwise the night was quiet and, at this, altitude, cold." (6)

Avalonian constellations include Wheel, Swords, Zirraukh, Ship and Maukh.

Chapter Two

"Avalon rotates in 11 hours, 22 minutes, 12 seconds, on an axis tilted 21 degrees from the normal to the orbital plane. Thus Gray, at about 43 degrees N., knows short nights always; in summer the darkness seems scarcely a blink." (7)

Human fluid balance and kinesthesia have had to readjust to a gravity field only 80 percent Terran. Ythrians shifting their breeding cycle to Avalonian conditions had low fertility in early generations.

Humans who join choths "go bird." Ythrians who leave choths to become atomic individuals within the global community become "Walkers." Mistwood Choth, like the home world Ythri, has successfully adapted Terran technology.

Chapter Three

Equatorial diameter: 11,308 kilometers. Highest Andromedan peak: 4500 meters. Corona, the north polar continent extending past the Tropic of Swords: eight million square kilometers, comparable to Australia. In the Southern hemisphere, Equatoria, New Africa and New Gaiila are small continents or large islands.

2000 kilometres west of Gray, the Oronesian archipelago crosses the Tropic of Spears, separating the Middle Ocean to the West from the Hesperian Sea in the northern hemisphere and the South Ocean beyond the equator. Oronesia supports a distinct ecology. Eccentrics flee there to settle islands and found choths of only a single household. However, the more numerous Highsky Choth occupies much of the archipelago and controls the fisheries around latitude 30 degrees North. Tabitha Falkayn, Hrill of Highsky, is a third generation human member of her choth and was brought up by Ythrians. Western Corona and northern Oronesia must defend the Hesperian Sea against Terrans.

Upper slopes have susin and a few shrubs. Lower, cultivated ground has red Ythrian clustergrain to feed shuas and Terrestrial fruit trees to feed Highsky humans. A herder and his uhoth control flapping shuas while an Ythrian sailor scouts for piscoids and native pteropleuron lumber around.

Chapter Four is about Terrans preparing to attack Avalon from Esperance.

Chapter Five

The main Ythrian language is Planha, the equivalent of Terran Anglic. Khruaths, gatherings open to all free adults in a given territory, have judicial and limited legislative authority. Wyvans, the presiding officers, explain the law and try suits but cannot compel. If non-compliance is deemed sufficiently serious, then the Wyvans cry Oherran, calling on everyone in the territory to attack the offenders. Rejection of the call would be a deathpride matter, with suicide the Wyvans' only option.

Addendum, Sun 23 Nov 2015: I was too brief about the Khruaths -

an ancient Khruath was a periodic gathering open to all free adults in a territory;
later, regional Khruaths elected delegates to Year-Khruaths covering larger territories;
Year-Khruaths send delegates to the High Khruath of the planet, meeting every six years or on extraordinary occasions;
Wyvans are chosen at each level;
however, any free adult can attend a Khruath at any level.

Chapter Six

The only other Avalonian city is Centauri at the mouth of the Sagittarius in the Gulf of Centaurs. In the Phoenix House, Tabitha/Hrill orders a catflower cocktail. She and Chris/Arinnian eat piscoid-and-tomato chowder, beef-and-shua pie, salad of clustergrain leaf and pears and drink coffee spiced with witchroot and a bottle of vintage dago. The Nest, a tavern for ornithoids, is the tallest building in Centauri with a gravshaft to its rooftop for humans who have not brought flying gear. It is unwalled, protected from rain by a vitryl canopy. Insectoids circle fluoroglobes and a service robot serves New African beer.

Most of Highsky keeps to the Old Faith, using drugs in sacred revels. Other planets in the Lauran System are Elysium, Camelot, Phaeacia and Utgard.

Chapters Seven and Eight describe a battle in space.

Chapter Nine

Morgana is smaller than Luna but, being close, raises twice the tides. The Avalonian vertebrate design is hexapodal. Winged creatures have four legs. The dense mat of low-growing vegetation prevents native forests and helps to explain why animals remain reptiloid, unable to compete with mammals or birds. Trees are low and thick or slim and supple to survive high winds caused by rapid rotation. Imported domestic animals had to be revamped genetically because local food lacks some vitamins.

In Chapter Ten, the Terran Admiral parleys with Avalonian leaders and a fallen Avalonian, the First Marchwarden, is laid to rest.

Chapter Eleven

High Wyvan Liaw of the Tarns addresses the Great Khruath of Avalon from outside David Falkayn's house on First Island in the Hesperian Sea. On a North Coronan prairie, a flapping youth leads a herd of quadrupedal burden-bearing zirraukhs. South-East from Oronesia are the Brendan's, Fiery and Shielding Islands. Atlantis weed patches are entire ecologies grazed by peaceful but huge kraken. David Falkayn's granddaughter named Avalon. Equatorian centaurs use tools of stone and bone.

Chapters Twelve and Thirteen are mainly about the consequences of the war in space.

Chapter Thirteen

In winter, snow falls in North Corona and in the mountains but not in Gray where "...the susin stayed green on its hills the year around." (8)

Chapter Fourteen

Zirraukhs are warm-blooded quadrupeds smaller than horses and unlike them but used for the same purpose.

Chapter Fifteen

An Ythrian swoops on a pteropleuron that had been hunting piscoids near the surface of the sea.

Chapter Sixteen

Grief causes premature ovulation in a bereaved Ythrian female. A male seeks her out. This is not against choth law and the female's human chothmate, Arinnian, has no cause to challenge so he insults the Ythrian male until the latter challenges him.

Chapter Seventeen

On the Scorpelunan plateau in Equatoria, hexapods graze under their parasol membranes. Packs of dog-sized hexapodal lycosauroids and throngs of twenty centimeter long cockroach-like kakkelaks attack Terran invaders who are being slowly poisoned by hell shrubs. Furious tropical storms caused by high irradiation and fast spin delay evacuation.

Chapter Eighteen

Smaragdine susin, chasuble bush and Buddha's cup grow on a hill above Falkayn Bay. 

Chapter Nineteen

Trefoil and sword-of-sorrow grow in the grass. Harp vines ring. Jewelleafs twinkle. Morgana is less bright because scarred by Terran bombardment.

Why Am I Doing This?

I have summarized an alternative reading. We read an Anderson novel to follow the story. We appreciate that there are rich background details but do not usually pause to savor the details. I have noted as many details as I can of the planet Avalon.

(1) Poul Anderson, "The Problem of Pain" IN Anderson, The Earth Book of Stormgate, New York, 1978, pp. 26-48, AT p. 33.
(2) ibid., p. 40.
(3) Poul Anderson, "Wingless" IN The Earth Book of Stormgate, pp. 411-420, AT pp. 413-414.
(4) ibid., p. 417.
(5) Poul Anderson, The People of the Wind, London, 1977, p. 7.
(6) ibid., p. 10.
(7) ibid., p. 18.
(8) ibid., p. 127.

In Oronesia And The Weathermother

The People Of The Wind, III.

The Western Coronan Khruath decided that its region must cooperate with northern Oronesia to defend the Hesperian Sea. This means that mountain-dwellers must confer with island-dwellers and ornithoids (Ythrians) with "birds" (human choth members). To facilitate early mutual understanding, Oronesian "birds" first meet with Coronan "birds" and ornithoids with ornithoids. Christopher Holm is a delegate because he is one of the few human beings in Stormgate. He contacts Tabitha Falkayn because they are already acquainted and because she is a descendant of the Founder which matters in Stormgate if not in Oronesia.

In the Weathermother, while Eyan and Vodan fly together:

"A wind sang..." (p. 33)

We expect it to. We must remember that the Ythrians are the title characters, the people of the wind:

"The Ythrians drank of the wind's cold and swam in its swirling, thrusting, flowing strength. It stroked their feathers till they felt the barbs of the great outer pinions shiver." (ibid.)

Eyath catches a downdraught, glides, flies back up, traces a thermal, catches that and is carried higher. She would not trade this to be human.

(Each species wonders what it would be like to be the other.)

Arinnian Over Gray And Falkayn Bay

The People Of The Wind.

My favourite prose passage in this novel is the conclusion:

"Snowpeaks flamed. The sun stood up in a shout of joy.

"High is heaven and holy." (XIX, p. 662)

These two short paragraphs are comparable to the conclusions of A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows and "Star of the Sea," which I have also quoted.

My favourite scene in The People Of The Wind is in Chapter I when Arinnian, ascending from Gray on antigrav, enjoys the view. We have described this scene before and need not repeat every detail but they include:

the town of Gray sprawling among green trees and susin and colourful gardens on hills surrounding Falkayn Bay;

the Hesperian Sea, sun-flared silver, horizonward sapphire;

a cargo vessel from Brendan's Islands;

above, patrolling space warcraft (war is imminent);

on the inland horizon, the Andromedas/the Weathermother;

outside Gray, Ythrian ranches, human farms and native ecology.

We can see why the colonists settled the Hesperian Islands before tackling this Coronan continent. Beyond Hesperia and over the horizon is Oronesia. We will learn more about that archipelago and also about Brendan's and other islands later in this novel.

It is human beings that build cities, only two on Avalon: Gray and Centauri. But some Ythrians live in highrises in Gray. Thus have the two species come to intermingle. Christopher Holm/Arinnian has joined Highsky Choth which is based in the Weathermother but has agreed with his parents that he will remain in Gray to complete his mathematical studies. Choths have been accepting human members for the past century. Thus, Avalonian history has progressed a long way from "Rescue on Avalon."

Three Stages

There are three stages in the colonization of Avalon.

To avoid possible friction at the beginning, human beings and Ythrians settle on different islands in the Hesperian archipelago. Thus, Nat Falkayn sees Ythrians rarely and then only because they have business with his father or grandfather.

When the two races move to the Coronan continent, they divide up the territories between them. Ythrians live by hunting and ranching, not by farming - so, when the Stormgate Choth grows, it exchanges prairie for the Andromedas/Weathermother. Such deals are arranged between the Parliament of Man and the Great Khruath of the Ythrians. It is good to read juvenile sf where such matters are decided peacefully instead of by invasion and conquest. Jack Birnam's family, sea ranchers living on the coast five hundred kilometers west of the Andromedas, rarely see an Ythrian and might be unfamiliar with the details of choth organization, like the role of a "Wyvan." When Stormgate holds the Weathermother, human beings will no longer have free access to the Andromeda mountains, not because of any inter-species segregation but simply because land allocated for habitation, hunting and ranching cannot simultaneously be used for unrestricted hiking, camping, climbing etc. At this early stage, the two races do not overlap much because they are too busy adapting themselves to the new world.

The third stage, planetary integration, is shown in The People Of The Wind. Choths receive human beings into membership. The tallest building in the human city of Centauri is the Nest, a tavern for ornithoids, with a gravshaft to the roof for human beings who have not brought flying gear. Both species eat from mixed menus.

In The Weathermother

Poul Anderson, "Rescue on Avalon" IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 307-322.

Avalon's rapid spin causes sudden storms. Alone in the Andromeda Range, which the Ythrians call the Weathermother, Jack Birnam, caught in such a storm, is safe for several hours in his sleeping bag and shelter.

When, with the storm ended and night fallen, he emerges, we look for a description of the Milky Way but:

"Morgana, the moon, was full, so radiant that it crowded most stars out of view." (p. 311)

We are not disappointed when we look for appeals to several of the senses:

snowfields glitter;
the sky is blue-black;
boulders and bushes shine like silver;
a mercurial stream chuckles;
a cataract booms;
stillness after the storm seems holy;
the air is chill;
Jack smells trefoil, livewell and janie;
trefoil is sharp and livewell is sweet but janie is undescribed;
he plans a fire, snack and coffee but is interrupted...

Five senses if we count the coffee.

The Technic History incorporates narratives of every length from single short stories to series of stories to a trilogy of novels. A large number of short stories gives a future history body.

There were Falkayns in the previous story, there is a Holm in this story and a Holm will marry a Falkayn further down the line.

Technology And Nature

"Rescue on Avalon."

Because none of his friends are free to accompany him, Jack Birnam hikes alone into the Weathermother where, as often on rapidly spinning Avalon, there is a sudden storm. His sleeping bag with hood and breathing mask can keep him warm at lower than Avalonian temperatures. A duraplast sheet keeps off hail and debris. Explosive pegs hold the collapsible alloy frame firm in the bedrock. His pocket transceiver can summon an aircar from a nearby rescue station if necessary - as long as the storm does not prevent air travel. Thus, technology more or less keeps a lone individual safe in a wilderness.

Ayan, Wyvan of Stormgate, flies into the Weathermother, wearing only belt, pouch and dagger. Ythrians, unclothed and able to hunt live prey, are considerably closer to nature than their fellow Avalonians of human stock.

Ivar Holm points out to Jack that, in an inter-species exchange, human beings gained fertile prairies and lost only mountains which are humanly useful only for recreation and then only by a few. This is an excellent story of inter-species cooperation.

Four Choths

 

The People Of The Wind, I-II.

Chris/Arinnian lives neither with his parents - his father must speak to him on screen - nor with any of the extended households that make up Stormgate Choth - he must fly for several hours to Lythran's aerie in the Andromedas mountain range named in Planha the Weathermother. (Stormgate was taking possession of the Weathermother in "Rescue on Avalon.")

After one night at the aerie, Arinnian flies with the extended family to the mountain where the regional Khruath, attended by other Stormgate families and by members of other choths, meets. His friend, Lythran's daughter, Eyath, will become betrothed to Vodan who is also of Stormgate although she had previously thought of marrying into a less strict choth. These choths at last begin to develop some individuality.

Vodan has launched a silvicultural engineering firm in partnership with young members of Stormgate, Many Thermals and The Tarns. Daniel Holm's colleague, Ferune, is of Mistwood Choth, progressive, mechanized, large and prosperous.

Our present purpose is to gather data about choths but that is far as we go this evening. Remember these names:

Stormgate

Many Thermals

The Tarns

Mistwood

Five Families On Avalon

The People Of The Wind.

It is the details that count although they are soon forgotten.

At Spearhead Lake And On Mount Anrovil

Ferannian and Rennhi of Stormgate Choth held the country around Spearhead Lake. Their son, Hloch, lives in a tower on Mount Anrovil in the Weathermother. Rennhi wrote The Sky Book Of Stormgate but died before completing its companion volume, The Earth Book Of Stormgate. However, Hloch, who had assisted his mother's research, then completed the Earth Book.

 

On Mount Fairview

The household of Lythran and Blawsa occupies a compound on a plateau of Mount Fairview in the Weathermother. Their son, Tariat, is a Wyvan whether of the whole of Stormgate or at least of part of it. Tariat, speaking as a Wyvan, urged Hloch to complete the Earth Book. Lythran's and Blawsa's daughter, Eyath, is a childhood friend of Arinnian and became betrothed to Vodan, also in Stormgate, but he died in the Terran War.

 

The Holms

Daniel Holm, who is Second Marchwarden of the Lauran System, and his wife, Rowena, have a son, Christopher, who is also Arinnian of Stormgate and becomes engaged to Tabitha Falkayn, who is Hrill of Highsky.

The Falkayns

Tabitha Falkayn is a direct descendant of the Founder. Her grandparents joined Highsky Choth and Tabitha was raised by Ythrians after the early death of her parents.

Draun

Draun of Highsky is a business partner of Tabitha in a commercial fishery. He deliberately sought out Eyath when she was in heat while mourning for Vodan: legally not rape in the Terran sense but morally equivalent. Arinnian provokes Draun into challenging him but, before they can meet in duel, Draun dies killing Terrans, defending the fallen body of his oldest son, Nyesslan.

Appreciating The Earth Book

We will shortly go out for the evening. I am appreciating the hardback The Earth Book Of Stormgate as a physical artifact. Of course the text is identical but reading the collection in this edition is a very different experience from carefully handling and struggling with my disintegrating paperback edition. Hloch's introduction is superb. For anyone who has just read The People Of The Wind, as ideally they should have done, the references to Stormgate Choth, the Weathermother, a Wyvan and the towns of Gray and Centauri are instantly comprehensible.

Of course, the Earth Book does not include the final version of Sandra Miesel's Chronology of Technic Civilization. Thus, "The Saturn Game" is absent. Also, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows is followed not by The Game Of Empire but by "/story on Flandry's old age planned/" (p. 12) The collection represents a stage in the development of the Technic History and therefore is of inestimable historical value.

Facts About Avalon Disclosed in The Earth Book Of Stormgate

(i) An Ythrian couple, Ferannian, an engineer, and Rennhi, a historian, "...held the country around Spearhead Lake." (Poul Anderson, The Earthbook Of Stormgate, New York, 1979, p. 1)

Despite participating in a technological society, the Ythrians are winged carnivores. Thus "...held the country..." means that they subsisted by flying, hunting and eating live prey.

(ii) They had regular contact with human beings because:

he worked in Centauri, Gray and other Avalonian towns;
travel routes crossed above Spearhead Lake;
there was a nearby copper mine;
they were "...guest-free..." (p. 1);
being near the large town of Gray, their choth, Stormgate, receives more human members than most. 

(iii) Rennhi wrote The Sky Book Of Stormgate about the ancestors on Ythri and the founders and descendants on Avalon and gathered material for the Earth Book, helped by her son, Hloch, but God stooped on her before she could write the second Book.

(iv) Hloch served in space during the Terran War and later visited Imperial planets in a merchant crew but then, tiring of the void, returned to the winds.

(v) Tariat, son of Lythran and Blawsa and Wyvan of Stormgate Choth, asked Hloch to complete the Earth Book, annals from the Discovery through the World-Taking but "...as told...by Terrans, who walk the earth." (p. 2)

(vi) Hloch begins to write on the peak of Mount Anrovil in the Weathermother...

Filming The Earth Book Of Stormgate

A thought can move through my mind for a very long time before I realize that I should post about it. For links to other "filming" posts, see here.

As an introduction to a film based on Poul Anderson's The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1978), I think that a narrator should read in its entirety Hloch's Introduction, pp. 1-2, beginning:

"To those who read, good flight."

We should see Ythrians flying on the horizon but they should as yet be too far away for us to differentiate them from large birds.

"It is Hloch of the Stormgate Choth who writes, on the peak of Mount Anrovil in the Weathermother."

The audience should understand that terms like "Choth" will be explained later. For now, it is sufficient to pick up some idea of their meaning from context. We should see churning clouds above a large mountain.

"His Wyvan, Tariat son of Lythran and Blawsa, has asked this. Weak though his grip upon the matter be, bloodpride requires he undertake this."

Again, "Wyvan" and "bloodpride" will be explained later. "Bloodpride" is largely self-explanatory. We might see two Ythrians, Tariat and Hloch, in conversation.

"Judge, O people. The father of Hloch was Ferannian and the mother was Rennhi. They held the country around Spearhead Lake."

We see an Ythrian dwelling beside a lake with Ythrians circling overhead.

"He was an engineer who was often in Gray [and here], Centauri, and other towns, dealing with humans."

For the first time we see human beings in a town accompanied by Ythrians.

And at the end:

"Now The Earth Book of Stormgate is ended. From my tower I see the great white sweep of the snows upon Mount Anrovil. I feel the air blow in and caress my feathers. Yonder sky is calling. I will go.
"Fair winds forever." (p. 434)

We should see what Hloch sees and hear an eagle's wings.

A Mixed Ecology

Ferune is an Ythrian:

his ancestor's shields hang in his house;

outside grow Ythrian trees - thick hammerbranch, high lightningrod and water-gathering sword-of-sorrow;

a trumpet calls his sons and chothmates to fly with his litter, led by his widow and torch-bearing daughters.

However, Ferune has lived on Avalon, where his choth is Mistwood:

cold, wet fog blows from the sea;

inland is Old Avalon;

the noise of a boomer tree frightening away animals rolls beneath the house and echoes from the shields;

flying as high as they can, the litter-bearers see on the horizon the sunlit snow peaks of the Weathermother;

at sunrise, the new Wyvan of Mistwood blows the horn, calls the dead and speaks the New Faith;

the litter is tilted above crags, boulders and streams;

Ferune's widow leads a sky dance by a hundred Ythrians watched by hovering human Avalonians.

Fictional Universes II

Fictional universes contain not only persons but also places that take on a life of their own. In Poul Anderson's Technic History, the Virgilian System includes the planets, Dido and Aeneas. The latter, lighter and dryer than Earth, kind of like a Mars with a breathable atmosphere, would have been more suitable for colonization by the nearby Ythrians. However, human scientists, wanting to study the tripartite inhabitants of the even less hospitable Dido, established a base, which became a University, on Aeneas. The Rebel Worlds, set mainly on Dido, has one chapter set on Aeneas. Its sequel, The Day Of Their Return, is, except for a single early flashback, set entirely on the surface of Aeneas. 

Hermes, important as the home planet both of David Falkayn and of Sandra Tamarin, remains off-stage until it becomes a major setting in Mirkheim and is again visited in A Stone In Heaven.

Avalon, is shown at four different stages of development in three short stories and one novel. Its notable locations include the Weathermother mountain range and the cities of Gray and Centauri, the latter containing Livewell Street named after a local flower.

Dennitza appears only in A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows where, however, it imparts a real sense of place to the Kazan, the Obala and Zorkagrad.

Returning again to another author in another medium and genre, Alan Moore fully exploits the connotations and implications of the familiar place name, "Gotham City," before bringing on stage its most notorious inhabitant.

On Avalon

What is evident on rereading Poul Anderson's The People of the Wind, I, is the realization of the planet Avalon as a physical environment. The city of Gray, named after the captain of the Grand Sutvey ship, Olga, is on Falkayn Bay, named after David Falkayn. Christopher Holm/Arinnian, flying straight up from Gray by antigravity belt, sees Bay, city, countryside, other fliers of different species and sea and air vehicles. Three ecologies merge: imported Terran and Ythrian and native Avalonian. Anderson describes ranches, pastures, animals and trees.

When Arinnian has reached his destination, Lythran'a aerie on Mount Fairview in the Andromedas/the Weathermother, the description becomes more detailed:

Ythrian trees

broadbark

copperwood

lightningrod

jewelleaf

native flowers

janie

livewell

trefoil

Buddha's cup

harp vine singing in the breeze

Constellations, Wheel, Sword, Zirraukh and Ship, are visible and Arinnian reflects on other regions of Avalon:

Plains of Long Reach

arctic marshes

scorching New Gaiilan savannah

the many islands that are most of the land

A well conceived almost real place.

Three Volumes?

"In Nick Van Rijn, Poul Anderson created one of the most memorable and popular characters in science fiction, and now, for the first time, all the novels and stories of Van Rijn and the Polesotechnic League will be published in chronological order in three volumes."

-back cover blurb on Poul Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009).

 

Three? The Van Rijn Method is the first of the seven volumes of The Technic Civilization Saga, compiled by Hank Davis and published by Baen Books. However, it is correct to state that Volumes I-III collect the entire Polesotechnic League series as well as the encompassing The Earth Book Of Stormgate. Volumes IV-VII cover an entire later historical cycle of the Terran Empire and its aftermath. The link is that the founding and early period of the Terran Empire, occurring long after van Rijn's death, are described in the Saga, Volume III.

"To those who read, good flight.

"It is Hloch of the Stormgate Choth who writes, on the peak of Mount Anrovil in the Weathermother."

-Poul Anderson, INTRODUCTION WINGS OF VICTORY IN The Van Rijn Method, pp. 75-77 AT p. 75.

 

And I must add my good wishes to those of Hloch while going about other business in the Terran city of Lancaster.