Chapter Sections

Poul Anderson, Vault Of The Ages, Chapter 17, "Return of the Lann."

The second section begins with a collective viewpoint:

"In the morning, folk in the beleaguered town were wakened by the roll of drums and crash of gongs." (p. 162)

- before it focuses on an individual:

"...Ralph, mounting one of the towers to peer over the valley, saw..." (ibid.)

Reading to the end, we learn the chapter's structure:

pp. 157-162 (Lenard's pov), the Lann Chief decides to send a thousand men to the City, where Carl is;

pp. 162-164 (Ralph's pov), Carl's father realizes that many militarily trained Lann are riding to the City, where Carl is;

pp. 164-166 (Carl's pov), Carl and his few companions realize that a thousand Lann are approaching.

The three remaining chapter headings are:

"Battle of the Vault";
"The Last Battle";
"Twilight of the Gods."

- but we here are well into the long night of winter and I will not post further tonight.

Another Church-State Relationship And Another POV

Poul Anderson, Vault Of The Ages, Chapter 17.

"Among the Lann, the Chief held supreme power over even the Doctors." (p. 160)

A sensible arrangement, given the Doctors' reactionary role. However, the Lann Chief accepts a Doctor's advice to have the time vault and its contents destroyed. This will both destroy the dangerous books and machines preserved in the vault and prevent the Dalesmen from deploying any ancient powers against the Lann: a sensible proposal if you accept the Doctors' superstitious premises.

Pp. 157-162 are set in the Lann camp, described from Lenard's pov. On p. 162, a double gap between paragraphs indicates a change of scene. Sure enough, we are now inside the besieged town on the following morning so whose is the pov?

"...Ralph, mounting one of the towers to peer over the valley, saw..." (p. 162)

Lenard is Carl's opposite number. Ralph is his father. For this chapter, so far, we have moved away from Carl's pov.

Lenard's POV

Poul Anderson, Vault Of The Ages, Chapter 17.

This chapter switches to the point of view of Lenard, Carl's enemy, in the camp of the Lann as they besiege Dalestown:

blazing fires;
warriors jeering and frolicking;
merry making with plundered beef and wine;
looted clothes and gold jewelry;
the rich smell of roast meat;
ruddy light;
rising smoke;
flushed faces;
laughing, roaring, shouting hubbub;
thumping drums;
twanging banjos;
sounds to terrify the Dalesmen -

- and a vivid description appealing to three of the senses.

Political Indecision In Three Universes

Three universes:

Earth Real, 2018-2019;

the post-nuclear Earth of Poul Anderson's Vault Of the Ages;

Julian May's Galactic Milieu.

As I finished writing the previous post, the Prime Minister announced that Parliament will discuss Brexit in mid-January and the Leader of the Opposition tabled a Commons vote of No Confidence in the Prime Minister. It is as if someone writes a script to keep us in suspense. (I write "as if" because I am not a conspiracy theorist.)

Anderson's Dalesmen discuss whether to execute taboo-breakers or to lift the taboo.

Galactic Milieu politicians debate whether metapsychic Unification will abolish individuality and prepare to wage interstellar war on this issue!

Brexit is an entirely secular question as is another current concern, climate change, although discussion of the ecology can have a mystical dimension. The Earth Mother is still with (some of) us. By contrast, taboo and Unification are at opposite ends of the theological spectrum. Hindu philosophers disagree about whether the individual soul is essentially identical with an impersonal Absolute or eternally distinct from a personal God. Imagine if such questions became political issues - and let's not misuse science until it becomes a tabooed subject.

Political Indecision

Poul Anderson, Vault Of The Ages, Chapter 14.

How often do we switch on the TV news hoping that a political issue has been resolved and find that it has not? No, the Conservatives Members of Parliament have not been able to debate a motion of No Confidence in their Party Leader who is also Prime Minister. Later: yes, they have debated such a motion but she has survived it. Next: the House of Commons will debate BREXIT (British exit from the European Union) next Tuesday. Then: that debate is postponed while the Prime Minister tours Europe, trying to get a better deal. Then: European leaders say that there is no better deal.

There is a similar indecisiveness in Chapter 14. While the Lann besiege Dalestown, the Dalesmen's Council discusses Carl's breaking of taboo. There are speeches, threats of violence, a vote and a compromise. Carl, although not Tom or Owl, remains in prison although not, for the time being, under sentence of death. To resolve the plot of the novel, he must be rescued, return to the City, restore scientific knowledge and dispel superstition for both Dalesmen and Lann.

The church-state conflict is still present. When Carl asks the Council to lift the taboo, the High Doctor shouts that it is heresy to suggest that the Council can not only make the laws of men but also change the laws of the gods. Although most Dalesmen do not know what "heresy" is, the conflict remains. The concluding chapter is optimistically entitled "Twilight of the Gods."

Of interest:

all tribesmen, but not tribeswomen, are members of the Council;

because of the siege, members attend armed - an usual way to conduct proceedings and nearly fatal.

Church-State Conflict In Dalestown

Poul Anderson's, Vault Of The Ages, Chapter 13, "Hero's Reward."

The chapter heading is ironic. Carl and his companions enter the town and converse with Carl's father, Ralph, the Chief. Doctors bearing holy symbols, beating drums and chanting spells against witchcraft approach. The High Doctor accuses Carl of entering the forbidden City, attributes the Dalesmen's recent misfortunes to divine anger and stirs up the crowd who become a lynch mob. Ralph is able to insist only that the boys be tried according to the law. They are imprisoned and Carl will argue his case in court.

The pagan perspective of attributing misfortunes, including defeats in battle, to divine disapproval was continued by the Hebrew prophets. The modern approach is secular. If your roof leaks, you ask, "What (physically) caused the leak? How much will it cost to fix? Am I insured? Can I sue anyone?," not: "Why have the gods done this? Have I or my fathers sinned that this has happened to me?" Some people consult horoscopes or contemplate karma but meanwhile they get on with fixing the roof and claiming insurance.

Church-State Conflict

Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, claimed that clergy were subject to ecclesiastical law, not to the king's law. Henry II's knights murdered him.

The concluding section of Poul Anderson's The Shield Of Time is about the medieval conflict between Emperors and Popes.

John Carter, former Captain in the Army of the Confederate States, a chieftain of Thark and a Prince of Helium, son-in-law of the Jed of Lesser Helium and grandson-in-law of the Jeddak of Greater Helium, was tried because he broke Barsoomian religious law by returning alive from the Valley Dor.

An excellent church-state conflict comes to the boil in Anderson's Vault Of The Ages. More on this later.

Addendum: After publishing this post, I returned to it to add Carter's various military and/or political ranks in order to bring out the church-state conflict idea. (On Barsoom, there is no difference between military and political.)

Pathetic Fallacy In Dalestown

Poul Anderson, Vault Of The Ages, Chapter 13.

As the Lann pursue Carl and his companions toward Dalestown:

"Clouds were boiling over the sky, flying gray tatters of storm, and the wind's keening rose yet louder. The storm was coming with giant strides." (p. 126)

The storm and the Lann, like the storm and the Huns at the end of Anderson's The Sorrow Of Odin The Goth.

"'Oh, it's bad, it's very bad.'
"Lightning blazed luridly in the windy heavens." (p. 130)

Anderson learned early to punctuate dialogue with appropriate natural phenomena.

A Common Store

Poul Anderson, Vault Of The Ages, Chapter 13.

"By order of the Chief and the Council, every home and warehouse and shop, any building that could hold a person, was filled with the overflow of refugees. All food had gone into a common store, and the town gave a grudging ration out of the kitchens it had taken over." (p. 129)

This can be done during a war or other emergency but what constitutes an emergency? It is a matter of priorities. Why are there homeless people and empty buildings in Britain now? I spoke to a homeless man who said that he had a place in a "squat," an illegal occupation of an empty building. Sheila bought a sleeping bag for a homeless young woman who said that she would pass it on to someone else if she herself got a place in the Night Shelter. People of goodwill help the homeless but why is anyone homeless? A relevant question at any time and also at Christmas.

Lack Of Sleep

Poul Anderson, Vault Of The Ages, Chapter 13.

The Lann pursue the escaped prisoners who experience:

"A night and a day, another night and now this day, fleeing, fleeing... only the shortest snatches of sleep, more to save the horses than themselves..." (p. 124)

The two or three times that I have remained awake for a day, a night and another day, I have been completely wrecked and incapacitated. Keeping someone awake like that is a vicious torture and interrogation technique.

After a weekend visit to Amsterdam, including a sleepless night, Sheila and I slept in bunk beds in a completely enclosed and therefore dark cabin on the ferry. I remember my head hitting the pillow and nothing else. I must have gone straight to sleep. If I had been killed during that sleep, then that last moment would never have been remembered. On another occasion, I was rendered unconscious by an anaesthetic and felt an irresistible force snuffing out my consciousness, forcing it down into darkness. I remember that last moment but only because I did not die under the anaesthetic.

My point is that I think that consciousness is like a candle flame that ends either when it is extinguished or when the candle has burned down. Some people claim evidence to the contrary, of course, and such claims should be investigated, not ignored or dismissed.

Sometimes we discuss Poul Anderson's text or what it describes or the issues that it raises. Another aspect of reading, peculiar to each individual reader, is the thoughts and reflections that it evokes in us. For me, the fact that sleep is what someone called a daily death is highly significant.