A Mixed Ecology

Poul Anderson conveys the richness of the Avalonian environment with detailed descriptions of what can be seen from particular vantage points. From a balcony of the tower of the Weathermaker Choth, Nat Falkayn sees, first, the imported organisms:

meadows full of grazing meat animals brought from Ythri;

Terrestrial grass, clover, oak and pine;

Ythrian starbell, wry, braidbark and copperwood -

- then, beyond the cultivated area, native Avalonian organisms:

the red mat of susin;
intensely green chasuble bushes;
delicately blue janie;
a flock of leather-winged draculas.

Susin must be the local equivalent of grass, surface-covering vegetation that can be cropped down to ground level without being killed. Anderson always describes this on each colonized planet.

Again, the view from a hospital window displays the mixed ecology:

"...a lawn and tall trees - Avalonian king's-crown, Ythrian windnest, Earthly oak - and a distant view of snowpeaks. Light spilled from heaven. The air sang."
-Poul Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2012), p. 321.

These are the moments to be savored in Anderson's works. There are many such passages, to be found when rereading since they are usually forgotten soon after a single reading.

(Ythrian hammerbranch has found its way to Aeneas: see here.)

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.

New European Trees

The Star Fox, Part Three, VI.

On the human colony planet, Europe Neuve:

"...everywhere trees, Earth's green chestnut and poplar mingled with golden bellefleur and gracis." (p. 173)

This is like a microcosm of the mixed ecologies to be found in Poul Anderson's Technic History, e.g.:

hammerbranch

Atlantis weed

livewell

trefoil

janie

grass

surgeon trees (scroll down)

There are too many to list. These links also refer to other Ythrian, Avalonian and Aenean trees, grass equivalents etc.

Ramnuan Plants And Animals

 

A Stone In Heaven, I.

Grass equivalent: nullfire, tall on the veldt, a thick turf elsewhere.

Kinds of trees: brightcrown; saw-frond.

Other plants: fragrant nightwort; rattling spearcane.

Small twilight creatures: darters; scuttlers; light-flashers.

A hovering flyer: something strange from beyond the Guardian Range.

Ramnuans spread vanes and ride onsars. Yewwl carries an infant in her pouch.

Poul Anderson creates distinctive organisms for each new planet. We become familiar with Ythrian hammerbranch etc. However, imaginative new names of trees must be invented for Ramnu: brightcrown etc.

Some Remaining Details Concerning Aeneas

Aeneas has a mixed ecology. Imported Terran oak and acacia, Llynathawrian rasmin and Ythrian hammerbranch grow beside native delphi and rahab. (The awkward names of the planet Llynathawr and its city, Catawrayannis, reflect the fact that the planet was discovered by, then purchased from, Cynthians.)

A delphi is described as "...low, gnarled trunk, grotto of branches and foliage."
-Poul Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2010), p. 76.

That grotto sounds inviting and Anderson's characters indeed make use of it. A man and a woman "...went into the moon-dappled grotto of the delphi. The luck [a pet] stayed outside, waiting." (p. 150)

When tinerans pass relics of La-Sarzen, the High Ones (Builders, Elders, Ancients, Old Shen, Foredwellers etc), they dismount from stathas, kneel, lift arms, chant, rise, cross themselves and spit. That last touch is a sacrificial act on the Dreary of Ironland as on Frank Herbert's Dune. This is entirely a pagan ritual except that they have incorporated the sign of the cross. However, the same author's Time Patrol series informs us that this sign was originally a Mithraic sun symbol. That origin would subsist across the timelines.

The king of a tineran band has to be of a certain family although not necessarily an eldest son. His women are chosen with a view to breeding and the heir apparent serves an apprenticeship in another Train. Individuals from different bands meet and marry at assemblies called Fairs. Kings, royal wives and concubines have orgiastic fertility rites in shrines and holy caves at the Fairs. Trains include Waybreak, Brotherband, Dark Stars, Gurdy Men, Magic Fathers and Glorious.

Trees

On Aeneas, the Hedin Freehold has a windbreak comprising:

Aenean delphi and rahab;
Terran oak and acacia;
Llynathawrian rasmin;
Ythrian hammerbranch.

That is a very mixed ecology although not the only such in Technic civilization. When Flandry was on Llynathawr, trees were mentioned although they were not identified as "rasmin." The Hedins' flowers, cultivated with difficulty, are all extra-planetary because blossoms did not evolve on Aeneas.

Wind brings moisture from canals, marshes and salt lakes so the Hedins farm and ranch. The remainder of the account of the Freehold is familiar from many similar passages in Anderson's works:

manse
cottages
barns
sheds
workshops
paved coutyard
mosaics
machines
many kinds of people and animals
sounds
generations of leadership and loyalty

While rereading The Day Of Their Return, I do not summarize the plot, which is there for anyone to read, but instead try to highlight details that might be missed while merely following the plot. Ivar Frederiksen is on the run from the Impies but we can pause to appreciate the trees of four planets.

An Ythrian On Aeneas

"A breeze bore smoky odors of starkwood. They recalled the smell of the Ythrian, as if his forefathers once flew too near their sun." (Scroll down.)
-Poul Anderson, The Day Of Their Return IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 74-238 AT 8, p. 139.

What is happening in these two sentences?

(i)  Wind often intervenes, or at least seems to comment, in Andersonian texts. Here it is a, gentler, breeze.

(ii) Starkwood is part of the Aenean environment, like hammerbranch on Ythri or ironleaf on Avalon.

(iii) Breeze is felt and starkwood is smelled. In the immediately preceding sentence, hoofs clop - so we do get our usual minimum of three senses.

(iv) Ythrians, proud winged hunting carnivores, are appropriately compared to Icarus.

Anderson packs much meaning into two sentences.

Unfamiliar Plants

In Poul Anderson's Technic History, we become familiar with alien trees and flowers like:

hammerbranch
braidbark
livewell
etc

In Anderson's Genesis, PART TWO, II, the far future Earth has become equally alien with:

goldfruit
plume
vasi
hairleaf
fireflower
schorchwort
bloomgrain
paperleaf
richen
shipwood

See also Kalava's Period.

In some instances, colors or scents are described but I leave it to blog readers to find these by reading Genesis. We get a strong sense of Kalava's world before his adventure with the star gods begins.

The Eastern Edge Of Ilion

The Day Of Their Return, 4.

(Tomorrow will be taken up with a funeral, then an evening meeting, so there might not be much blogging. There was a guy that I had expected to meet at the funeral but I read his obituary today.)

We realize that Aeneas is not just an empty stage where Poul Anderson's characters strut and fret their hour but an imaginatively constructed planetary environment:

there are canals, marshes and salt lakes on the Antonine (former) Seabed;

westerly winds blow moisture from the Seabed onto the eastern edge of the continent of Ilion where there is "...actual rain two or three times a year." (p. 100);

also, the Wildfoss River helps to maintain a water table that supplies a few wells;

consequently, generations of the Hedin family have been able to farm and ranch;

their settlement has a windbreak of Aenean delphi and rahab, Terrestrial oak and acacia, Llynathawrian rasmin and Ythrian hammerbranch;

their flowerbeds have to be extra-planetary because no flowers evolved on Aeneas.

Think about all that detail, then contemplate not just the Hedins but an entire population living in Ilion and in other parts of Aeneas.

Life on Aeneas

Anderson does not just tell us that his characters are on another planetary surface but presents enough colorful details to evoke an exotic environment.

Environment

Year nearly twice Terran; rotation: 20 hours, 19 minutes, a few seconds.

Little rain; no snow; dead seas; drought; cold; hurricane winds; drifting dust; scouring sand; water rare and precious but some rivers, canals, marshes and salt lakes.

Plants

The Aenean equivalent of grass, fire trava, is "...onyx tinged with red and yellow..." (1) Its daytime odor is "...flint and sparks..." (1) It curls into a springy mat at night. There is also bloom trava and sword trava as well as starkwood and daggerbushes. Trees are "...native delphi and rahab, Terran oak and acacia, Llynathawrian rasmin, Ythrian hammerbranch." (2) 

We are told that:

"True blossoms had never evolved on Aeneas, though a few kinds of leaf or stalk had bright hues." (2)

Beside a spring, "Plume trava nodded white above mossy chromabryon; spearflies darted silver bright..." (3)

Animals

Horses and green, six-legged stathas were imported for agricultural use. Terran-descended but gene-modified and adapted cattle are a new genus. Small, three-eyed "lucks," kept as pets or mascots by tinerans, are extra-Aenean but pre-human. Tinerans also keep big, well feathered neomoas. An ula flaps overhead. There is a native tadmouse. Hazards on the Ironland plain include spider wolves and catavales. On the river, "...long-bodied webfooted brown osels..." are used to herd "...fat, flippered, snouted chuho - water pigs..." which "...browsed on wetcress." (4)
 

There is more. As with Avalon, Anderson evokes not only a planetary environment but also the adaptation to that environment of human beings and their imported species.
  

(1) Poul Anderson, The Day Of Their Return, London, 1978, p. 9.
(2) ibid., p. 37.
(3) ibid., p. 79.
(4) ibid., p. 120.

Yet More Details

Slowly rereading a Poul Anderson novel in order to blog about it is an excellent opportunity to appreciate Anderson's attention to detail even more closely than usual. For instance, in The Day Of Their Return, we read that, on the dry planet, Aeneas, the Hedin Freehold is able to engage not only in ranching but also in agriculture because:

the Wildfoss river flows close enough to maintain a water table with a few wells;

wind-driven moisture from the canals, marshes and salt lakes of the Antonine Seabed brings rain two or three times a year.

Whitewashed rammed earth buildings decorated with stone or glass mosaics comprise manse, cottages, barns and workshops around a paved courtyard. Windbreak trees are:

native delphi and rahab;
Terrestrial oak and acacia;
Llynathawrian rasmin;
Ythrian hammerbranch.

The casual reference to Ythri is evocative for regular Anderson readers.

All flowers have had to be imported because Aenean plants never evolved blossoms, their closest approach being a few bright leaves or stalks. When it comes to describing the life and activity of the steading, Anderson presents one of his description-lists, including kinds of people, animals, vehicles, sounds and smells. The animals include stathas. It is explained in a later passage that these green, six-legged, domesticated animals were imported to Aeneas - as, in the previous installment of the Technic Civilization History, to Freehold - from elsewhere just as horses were imported from Earth.

I must have read all of these details before because I have read through the entire novel at least twice but over a long period. Details about the Hedin Freehold were not remembered but are worth recovering.

Extraterrestrial Trees And Bushes In Two Timelines (Probably Not A Complete List)

See recent discussion of trees in Thongtree.

On SM Stirling's And David Drake's Bellevue
thongtree

In Poul Anderson's Technic History
On Aeneas
starkwood
daggerbush
delphi
rahab

On Avalon
king's-crown
chasuble bush
boomer tree
surgeon tree
hell shrub
ironleaf tree

On Ythri
braidbark
copperwood
windnest
lightningrod
sword-of-sorrow
hammerbranch

On Llynathawr
rasmin

Sources:

Life On Aeneas
Who Knows Of Avalon?
A Mixed Ecology, 3 July 2014
Another Mixed Ecology
Trees
A Mixed Ecology, 11 November 2014
Some Remaining Details Concerning Aeneas

Livewell On Delfinburg

There is livewell on Delfinburg. In other words, an Avalonian flower grows on a Terrestrial pontoon city. Anderson lists "...fragrances of rose, jasmine, aurelia, livewell..." (Rise Of The Terran Empire, p. 31) when David and Coya Falkayn talk in a roof garden on Delfinburg in Mirkheim.

But the Falkayns have not colonized or even named Avalon yet. The planet, provisionally called "Gray," was discovered during the Grand Survey and later explored - so were flowers brought from it then? Or is livewell an Ythrian plant that has been brought to Earth and will later, like windnest and hammerbranch, be taken to Avalon?

I have only just noticed this reference to "livewell" in Mirkheim. It caught my attention because I had previously posted about Livewell Street as a place on Avalon, then had realized that the street was named after a plant. Anderson, writing Mirkheim later than the works set on Avalon, included livewell among the plants growing on Delfinburg.

The proliferation of future historical details is endless.

Addendum: The People Of The Wind, Chapter One, confirms that "livewell" is native to Avalon. See here.

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.

A View On Avalon

Hovering on negaforce, Arinnian savors the view of the Avalonian city, Gray:

"The town sprawled across hills green with trees and susin, color-patched with gardens, that ringed Falkayn Bay." (Rise Of The Terran Empire, p. 442)

Sail-driven hydrofoil pleasure boats skim across the sea;
robots load cargo ships at the docks;
one cargo ship approaches from the Brendan Islands;
another stands out on the sun-lit, silver-flaring Hesperian Sea;
elsewhere, the sea is sapphire, then purple on the horizons;
the sun Laura is low and aureate;
the sky is a slowly darkening blue with high cirrus clouds that Arinnian sees as feathers;
there is a salt breeze;
Ythrians, human beings, draculas, aircars and vans are in flight;
an intercontinental liner lands at the airport;
higher up, space warcraft are on patrol because of imminent war against the Terran Empire;
beyond the coastal range and the central valley, he sees the highest peaks in the Coronan continent, called the Andromedas in Anglic and the Weathermother in Planha;
around Gray are Ythrian and human ranches;
three ecologies blend together;
human beings grow grain;
Ythrians graze maukh and mayaw;
oak, pine, windnest and hammerbranch encroach on native susin where there are still a few barysauroids.

Mistwood

The People Of The Wind, X.

Does "Mistwood" sound Tolkienian?

"Before sunrise, Ferune departed Mistwood." (p. 558)

That is to say that the body of First Marwarden Ferune, who has died defending Avalon, is disposed of according to the rite of the Ythrian New Faith. We gather that it is appropriate to set off while it is still dark.

The text continues:

"That day his home country bore its name well." (ibid.)

The name bears two syllables, each a distinct word, "Mist..." and "...wood." Both are well represented in the following description.

Mist

There is "Fog..." and "Smokiness..." (ibid.) The fog blows cold, wet and blinding from the sea while the smokiness prowls among trees.

Wood

Hammerbranch boles are thick.

Lightningrod trunks soar.

Sword-of-sorrow stems are ringed.

Boomer tree noise rolls beneath Ferune's house and echoes from ancestral shields.

Boomer trees are remnants of Old Avalon.

Mist and Wood

Moisture drips from trees onto fallen leaves and chimes when it strikes pools among ringed stems.

The rest of this passage describes the funeral ceremony. Sons surrounded by their torches-bearing choth carry the body on a litter over the wilderness high enough to see the Weathermother snowpeaks lit by the hidden sun. When the sun rises, the new Wyvan of Mistwood blows the horn and speaks the words. The sons tilt the litter. The choth drop torches. The widow leads the sky dance. Ferune's spirit is always remembered.