"Wind snarled and skirled. Smoke from the longfire eddied bitter on its way upward, hazing lamps throughout the hall. Shadows flickered. They seemed to bring the carvings on pillars and wainscots to uneasy life. Nightfall came fast at the end of these shortening days. Soon there would be nothing but night."
-Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003), p. 3.
- sets a familiar scene in a recognizable style: a lamp-lit hall, sounds, sights and seasonal change, impersonal description, alliteration and a two-word sentence. It also recalls the opening paragraph of "The Sorrow of Odin The Goth" -
"Wind gusted out of twilight as the door opened. Fires burning down the length of the hall flared in their trenches; flames wavered and streamed from stone lamps; smoke roiled bitter back from the roof-holes that should have let it out. The sudden brightness gleamed off spear-heads, axheads, swordguards, shield bosses, where weapons rested near the entry. Men, crowding the great room, grew still and watchful, as did the women who had been bringing them horns of ale. It was the gods carved on the pillars that seemed to move amidst unrestful shadows..."
-Poul Anderson, "The Sorrow Of Odin The Goth," 372 IN Time Patrol (New York, 2006), pp. 333-334.
The latter paragraph should be read in full although I have shortened it for quotation purposes. It is longer, describes not only a hall but also its occupants and includes both a short list-description and one item of vocabulary that I googled. I think that I know what such words mean but then find that I don't, exactly.
Meanwhile, a good start to Mother Of Kings.
No comments:
Post a Comment