Avalonian Foreign Policy

The People Of The Wind.

 

"late 25th C Falkayn founds a joint human-Ythrian colony on Avalon ruled by the Domain of Ythri. [same planet - renamed - as "The Problem of Pain"]

-Sandra Miesel, CHRONOLOGY OF TECHNIC CIVILIZATION IN Poul Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 663-672 AT p. 666.

 

Avalon began as a human colony joined by some Ythrians who remain a minority. Ythri does not rule Avalon. The planet is "'...under the suzerainty, the protection of...Ythri...'" (III, p. 476)

 

"'Ythrian practice is not Terran... The worlds of the Domain are tied to each other principally by vows of mutual fidelity. That our fellows are no longer able to help us does not give them the right to order that we cease defending ourselves. If anything, deathpride requires that we continue the fight for what help it may afford them.'" (XIII, p. 582)

 

When there are Terran-Ythrian border clashes, the Ythrians have no strong authority or central government to control their impulsive individuals or small groups. See Reasons For War. My suggestion is that, in the case of Avalon at least, the Khruaths should accept that they are not equipped to handle dealings with Terrans, therefore that foreign policy should be the sole responsibility of the Parliament of Man, especially since Avalon is essentially a human colony. If this policy were to be implemented and then worked, then the rest of the Domain might accept that they also should at least take advice from the Avalonian Parliament. Individualistic Ythrians can be persuaded that they should act in the best interests of their choths when their Wyvans have made well-advised judgments. The principle would have to be extended to dealings with other species. The Ythrians have absorbed Dathyna and either they or the Terrans will gain the Antoranite-Kraokan complex around Beta Centauri.

 

However, history progresses. Later, we are told that governmental institutions atrophy even for human Avalonians.

Reasons For War

The People Of The Wind.

Matthew Vickery, President of the Parliament of Man on Avalon, says:

"'We can get excellent terms, and I've dealt with Governor Saracoglu, I know he'll see to it that agreements are honored.'" (XI, p. 566)

Thus, we learn that Saracoglu is an honorable and efficient diplomat. But he did promote that war against Ythri in the first place and his smug response to Luisa's accusation that he was motivated by careerism:

"'One is permitted to daydream.'" (XII, p. 579)

- persuades me that her accusation is on the money. But, whatever the governor's personal motivation, let's look at the stated reasons for the war. Saracoglu says that the Ythrians started most of the violent border incidents and that:

"'...they are predators by nature. And they've no strong authority - no government at all - to control the impulses of groups. That's been a major stumbling block in the effort to reach an accommodation.'" (III, p. 473)

That leads back to thoughts about how Avalon at least might manage its foreign relations better but let's leave that till tomorrow.

An Appropriate Christmas Present

(Another one this year. For earlier posts today, see Revision And Expansion and Christmas Under A Red Dwarf Star. For previous Christmases, see links from A Pivotal Story.)

Edward Brook-Hitching, The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps (London, 2016).

Interesting information about places mentioned by Poul Anderson and Neil Gaiman:

The Phantom Atlas summarizes the story of Atlantis and Anderson, of course, wrote The Dancer From Atlantis;

Hy Brasil (scroll down) was purged from maps only as recently as 1865;

the opening and concluding chapters of Anderson's long novel, The Boat Of A Million Years, are entitled "Thule" and, in the former, the central character, Hanno, joins the northern expedition of Pytheas whose lost account is cited in The Phantom Atlas.

There are Brendan's Islands on Anderson's fictional planet Avalon and there was a fictional St Brendan's Isle on maps of the Atlantic well into the seventeenth century.

Also relevant here is an earlier post, Anti-Magic.

Revision And Expansion

This post is old news but its content can be harmlessly re-summarized while we are not doing anything else.

The eleven works in The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume I, The Van Rijn Method, comprise:

one more recently published story, "The Saturn Game";

the first seven of the twelve works, including one novel, that had been collected as The Earth Book Of Stormgate, together with their Earth Book introductions;

the first two of the three David Falkayn stories that had been collected as The Trouble Twisters;

the first of the three Nicholas van Rijn stories that had been collected as Trader To The Stars.

Volume II, David Falkayn: Star Trader, comprises:

the two remaining Trader To The Stars stories;

the one remaining The Trouble Twisters story;

three more Earth Book stories with their introductions;

the novel, Satan's World.

Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire, comprises:

the novel, Mirkheim;

the two remaining Earth Book stories with their introductions and afterword;

"The Star Plunderer" which had been collected, inappropriately, in The Long Night;

the previously uncollected "Sargasso of Lost Starships";

the novel, The People Of The Wind, providing the background for the Earth Book.

Thus, Volumes I-III (of VII) are like a revised and expanded Earth Book.

Christmas Under A Red Dwarf Star

"The Season of Forgiveness" is the sixth of twelve works collected in Poul Anderson's The Earth Book Of Stormgate and the eighth of eleven works collected in Baen Books' omnibus volume, The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume I. It is a sequel to the first story about David Falkayn and the second story about the Ivanhoans who later join Falkayn's Supermetals Company.

A pagan can either acknowledge Christ as another god or convert to the belief that he is the one god. In Anderson's Technic History, the Wodenite Axor converts to Christianity whereas the Ivanhoans recognize that Christ is the Prince of Peace of the Terran traders who therefore should have special wisdom to negotiate peace during his season.

Meanwhile, I am considering how Avalon, a mixed human-Ythrian colony, should conduct its affairs both internally and externally, but this is probably too complicated an issue for Christmas day when we take a rest from practical politics.

A Pivotal Story

Is "Lodestar" a pivotal story in Poul Anderson's Technic History? (See "Further Repercussions Of 'Lodestar,'" here, and its combox.) Yes. The story was written to end a saga. In it, David Falkayn and Coya Conyon independently realize that the Polesotechnic League has gone bad. Coya's disagreements with her grandfather, van Rijn, and Falkayn's conflict with his employer, that same van Rijn, dramatize the scale of the problem. An Ythrian sees the shadow of God the Hunter across van Rijn's way of life. This foreshadows the civil war in the following installment, Mirkheim. Meanwhile, van Rijn has all but retired. His grown granddaughter sees that he is indeed old. The van Rijn series at least approaches its end.

The installment after Mirkheim, "Wingless," which immediately follows "Lodestar" in the Earth Book, is about David's and Coya's grandson on Avalon, far removed from the Polesotechnic League. When, after just one more Avalonian story, Hloch tells us that The Earth Book Of Stormgate is ended, his AFTERWORD is followed by an INTRODUCTION written by a very different historian. Donvar Ayeghen, President of the Galactic Archeological Society, discusses the Memoirs of Rear Admiral John Henry Reeves, Imperial Solar Navy, which depict the legendary Founder of the First Empire. We are reading not only a future history series but also the works of its historians.

Will there be a post tomoz? See:

Happy Christmas

At This Time Of Year... 

Christmas II

Appropriate Endings Of Volumes

Baen Books' The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume I, The Van Rijn Method, compiled by Hank Davis, collects the first eleven of the forty three installments of Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization, ending with "Hiding Place" which had been the opening story of the original Nicholas van Rijn collection, Trader To The Stars.

Volume II, David Falkayn: Star Trader, also compiled by Davis, collects seven installments, ending appropriately (see maybe the next post) with "Lodestar."

Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire, also compiled by Davis, collects six installments, ending with The People Of The Wind which finally explains the "The Earth Book Of Stormgate" introductions to twelve of the twenty four installments collected in Volumes I-III.

(Posting when possible.)

Strong Female Characters

I began to draft a list of Poul Anderson's strong female characters but the list became longer than I want to handle at this time of night so let me leave that thought with you all as we approach the third decade of the third millennium of our era. A blog should not only impart information but also inspire reflection.

I do not know how many posts there will be in the next few days. Let me wish every blog reader a Happy Christmas while also hoping for a better New Year. We speculate about the future and live into it.

On Tametha And Valya

"Lodestar."

Chee Lan tells us that Polesotechnic League company factors and field agents "'...set up a little dunghill of an empire...'" (p. 372) on Tametha. I took this to mean that the company representatives oppressively exploited Tamethan labor, which would explain why the natives rebelled, although we are not shown any details of this exploitation.

On Valya, we are told of injustices perpetrated by Stellar Metals although, in this case, the injustices do not involve exploitation of local labor:

Stellar Metals chased out the gold miners who had been there before them;

Stellar mining machines break up the herds which are the Valyans' main food source;

Stellar neither picks at veins nor sifts streams but extracts quartz from mountainsides, leaving heaps of poisonous slag;

Stellar also diverts rivers through hydraulic separators, destroying aquatic life.

Thus, "Lodestar" and, after it, Mirkheim, show us serious problems within the League and also an ingenious solution devised by David Falkayn.

Elementary...

I dropped science early at school and never got to grips with the periodic table. Poul Anderson gives us some information in "Lodestar" and repeats it in Mirkheim.

Creation began with the primordial element, hydrogen-1, the smallest atom, a single electron orbiting a single proton. The primordial fireball fused some hydrogen into helium which, I gather, comprises two electrons orbiting two positrons and usually also two neutrons. (See here.) Heavier elements are fused by adding protons to a nucleus. Hydrogen condensed into stars which fused elements heavier than helium. The shedding of gas by red giants and the explosion of stars as either novae or supernovae spread heavier elements through space where they condensed into a second generation of stars and of planets bearing life. Proteins use carbon; bones use calcium; animals breathe oxygen.

Although small stars fuse no element heavier than iron, supernovae fuse copper, gold and uranium. Too many protons in a nucleus generate repulsive forces counteracting attraction and destabilizing the nucleus. However, for some reason that is unexplained, nine elements with atomic numbers 114 to 122 are stable, only weakly radioactive and highly valuable as catalysts, conductors and components in strong alloys.

Observations

Since "...to this day [hydrogen-1] comprises the overwhelming bulk of matter in the universe...," ("Lodestar," p. 388) many more universes can be created from existing materials.

Empirical scientists have achieved what rationalist philosophers attempted, discovered the components of reality.