Tomislav's Children And The Halfworld

The Merman's Children.

When speculating about the fate of his lost son, Father Tomislav says, 'Kryie eleison.'" (p. 122) When relating that his daughter married and went abroad, he says, 'Christe eleison.'" (ibid.) When recounting that his younger son ran away, he repeats, 'Kyrie eleison.'" (ibid.) These two Greek phrases, recited in this order, are part of the Catholic Latin rite although Tomislav is a Catholic of the Glagolitic rite. His youngest daughter drowned in the lake. Despite all this, Tomislav counts his blessings:

God;
the greenwood;
music;
merrymaking;
fellowship;
the trust of his parishioners;
the love of their children.

Whereas the puritanical Bogomils exorcise every halfworld survival, the Glagolitics tolerate:

the vodianoi that plunders nets in the lake;
Leshy tricksters in the wood;
polevik that keep blight from the crops;
domovoi that embody a household and its well-being;
Kikimora that might help overworked housewives.

The number of supernatural beings seems to be endless. A new one is added every time there is a list.

Author's Note And Prologue

In her Historical Notes to The Demon Of Scattery, Mildred Downey Broxon writes:

"Our thanks to Jerry Pournelle for help with one technical point." (p. 198)

In his Author's Note to The Merman's Children (London, 1981), Poul Anderson writes:

"I am grateful to Karen Anderson, Mildred Downey Broxon, Dorothy Heydt, and Jerry Pournelle." (p. ix)

Might we suggest that some small part of Poul Anderson's multiverse is Jerry-built (with apologies to haters of puns)?

The Merman's Children
Prologue
Book One: Kraken
Book Two: Selkie
Book Three: Tupilak
Book Four: Vilja
Epilogue

The Prologue is pp. 1-5; p. 1 is information-packed:

Dalmatia
Shibenik village and abbey
the river Krka
the Angevin Charles Robert, boy-king of Croats and Magyars
the river Chikola
Skadin village
the lord of the village, the zhupan
Leshy
vodianoi
vilja
the great Ban, Pavle Subitj, the kingmaker
the ports of Zadar and Split.

That is all that there is time for tonight.

Mythological Beings

Like The Broken Sword, The Merman's Children assumes that each national mythology accurately describes non-human intelligences that once existed in that country. Thus, in the fourteenth century:

merfolk had colonised various coastal waters;
a were-seal dwelt at sea but alone;
Leshy tricked people in the wildwood;
polevik kept blight from crops;
domovoi embodied a household and its well-being;
Kikimora sometimes helped housewives;
a vodianoi, growing old or young with the lunar phases, was a water monster shaped like a bulky man but covered in moss and weeds, tailed, webbed and taloned;
a vilja was a young woman barred from Heaven because she had drowned herself, now embodied in mist, wind and dreams, pulling men underwater if they embraced her;
Rousalka, further north, were similar to but more fearsome than vilja;
a tupilak was a stuffed walrus hide with sewn on fangs and claws, animated to move, seek the water and prey on its maker's enemies. (There was an animated creature in Oz: the Gumph?)

I had previously heard of only three of these ten and had encountered the term Leshy only because Larry Niven used it in the title of one of his series.

At The Lake

The Merman's Children, Book Three, III.

A bright, ringed, full moon makes treetops hoar and silvers the wavelets of a lake while a chill autumnal breeze rattles dying leaves. Three senses and, so far, a natural scene but then a vodianoi rises in the lake and a vilya flits on the shore: two supernatural beings. We must remember that this novel is a historical fantasy, midway between heroic or mythological fantasy and historical fiction. Poul Anderson wrote all of these genres and kept them distinct although maybe the scenes in his inter-universal Old Phoenix Inn transcend genre?

Frankenstein was transitional between Gothic and science fiction. Superman was transitional between sf and superheroes. This latter hybrid genre combines sf and fantasy. I have wandered away from the eerie moonlit lake because it is getting late and I am about to stop rereading The Merman's Children even though I had returned to it late in the day. There has been a lot of Real Life to cope with. When we are comfortably retired, all that we are really obliged to day is to stay alive but other stuff comes up.

Rousalka

The Merman's Children.

Vanimen bravely leads the mermen against the physical threat of the vodianoi but bawls and flees when he sees a rousalka/vilja, a woman who:

"'...haunts the water where she drowned.'" (p. 135)

Another character sympathizes:

"'...a ghost is terrifying in itself.'" (p. 136)

It is. If we believed that there was a serial killer in the house, then we would feel fear and, if we believed that there was a ghost in the house, then we would also feel fear but of a qualitatively different kind, inspired not by any physical threat but by a mere eerie presence. And we know what these feelings are like even if we do not believe in ghosts. This is a common inheritance from the times before there were electric lights and scientific knowledge. For previous relevant discussion, see here.

The Fourteenth Century And The Future

The Merman's Children.

(i) In historical fantasy set in the fourteenth century, as in hard sf set in the future, human beings interact with other intelligent species.

(ii) Magnates of the Hanseatic League (p. 126) become more powerful than kings like their successors in the Polesotechnic League which was modeled on the Hansa.

(iii) Catholics and Orthodox of different rites survive into the periods of the Polesotechnic League and of the Terran Empire.

Looking not forward but backward, a provincial ruler in the fourteenth century is protected from evil spirits by "'...a fingerbone of St Martin...'" (p. 132) Bishop Martinus was a prominent figure in the earlier period of Ys. The fingerbone is carried in a cross on which:

"A crystal covered a hollow theren." (ibid.)

The evil spirits include a vodianoi:

humanoid;
tailed;
as bulky as three war horses;
with moss and weeds growing on him;
long toed;
webbed;
taloned;
bristled;
flat face;
cavernous mouth;
glowing red eyes.

Explorers find similar beings on other planets in the future.

Page 1

Beginning to reread a novel by Poul Anderson, we learn some history and geography. 

A league inland from the steep Dalmatian coast, the town of Shibenik stands on a hill above the river Krka with mountain peaks visible to the east. The Krka and other rivers enter a lake from which water falls, then narrows, towards the sea. Land around the lake and falls was wooded except where it had been cleared for agriculture around the Krka. Upriver, where the Chikola enters the Krka, were the village of Skradin and its zhupan's stronghold. The wilderness was home to:

wolves

jackals

deer

boar

elk

aurochs

Leshy

vodianoi

a vilja

The zhupan, Ivan Subitj, was kin to Ban Pavle. Ivan's son, Mihajlo, educated at the abbey in Shibenik, had travelled to the ports of Zadar and Split and across the Aegean to Italy. In search of wealth and fame, Mihaljo joined:

"...the retinue of Pavle Subitj the kingmaker." (p. 1) 

I have paraphrased the opening page of which Poul Anderson novel?