Thursday 10 January 2013

10th Century York


Alternative Yorks:

Poul Anderson's Operation Luna describes contemporary York albeit on a parallel Earth;

Anderson's Genesis describes an alternative York in a post-human AI emulation;

his Mother Of Kings (New York, 2033) describes 10th century York -

"A wind from the north went astray in the twisting lanes of York, milled about between walls and hissed under eaves. Most stenches scattered before its sharpness. Thatch, turf, and shakes blocked sight of the morning sun, but light spilled down from the wan blue. Wild geese were on the wing. Their honking blew faint through hoofbeat, footfall, creak, clang, mumble, all the manifold racket below." (p. 219)

- a characteristically evocative descriptive passage, ending with a list of sounds. Some Andersonian street scenes include even longer lists of smells.

Eirik Blood Ax, having lost Norway, has become King in York so the action of the novel has moved to the North East of England. As Queen Gunnhild rides forth with the King:

"It was no mean town through whose streets she passed. For all the war and woe that had gone by, it had grown strongly under the Danes. Even this late in the year ships crowded its wharfs, come up the River Ouse - on whose west side newer buildings now also clustered thick - from the Humber and the North Sea with goods to stuff the warehouses." (p. 219)

The rich description continues, becoming rather too long to quote in full except to say that it presents yet another list:

"...workmen, chapmen, sailors, fishers, farmers, herders, wives, children, hawkers, priests, thralls, beggar, now and then a whore or maybe a wandering ragged singer, surely thieves, and who could say what else?" (p. 220)

This is the birth of the Yorks described in Operation Luna and Genesis.

5 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

I myself visited York in July 1996. One of the thingsd I noticed during my stay was how it remained light till nearly 10 PM. And I esp. recall how York Minster pleased me. Not so cluttered up with secular bric a brac as is, alas, the former Westminster Abbey. I also visited the shrine of the martyr St. Margaret Clitherow in the Shambles. And I also visited a museum outlining the history of York.

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Anderson describes a Mass in the Minster in GENESIS. Sheila and I attended Evensong there once. God was thanked for the lives of William Booth and Mother Theresa. I think also that we were in the Minster (if not, some other Anglican Cathedral) when, once an hour, a clergyman entered the pulpit and addressed us all briefly in 3 different languages to remind us that we were in a place of worship.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

Yes, I remember that Mass shown in GENESIS. Altho it was actually a "fiction" by the sophotect Gaia as she/it tried to determine which possible line of culture and civilization would work "best" for the humams she/it brought back from extinction. If my memory is correct, this Mass is shown in a hypothetical timeline where Henry VIII did not brutally drag the Church in England into schism from Rome.

And of course I have heard of Mother Theresa, foundress of the Sisters of Charity. And William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army.

Have you ever visited the Catholic Westminster Cathedral, near Victoria Undergound in London? That was one of my most favorite places to visit in London. Both to attend Mass and simply to admire a beautiful, if somewhat austere church. And the Paulist bookstore next to the cathedral is well worth visiting if you have time (assuming it's still there, of course).

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Paulist? I have been to Westminster Cathedral but not recently. My main memory is of the lift (elevator) and the view from the tower, which had featured in a British film many years before that.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

I actually took that lift up to the top of the tower of Westminster Cathedral to enjoy the view during one visit.

The Daughters of St. Paul is a an order of nuns who specialize in publishing and distributing Catholic literature. I've been to various of their stores in locations as diverse as Boston, Honolulu, London, and Rome. They also pub. works from other publishers, not just themselves. Worth a look, IMO, if you wish!

Sean