Thursday 27 April 2017

Manse Everard's Religious Experiences

In Cyrus' palace, Everard sees a painted roof where a youth kills a bull and the Man is the Bull and the Sun. Outside, peasants sacrifice to the Earth Mother who was old before the Aryans came in a dark predawn past. The mountains are haunted by wolf, lion, boar and demon.

Near the Rhine, Everard shudders when the wind in the trees speaks with the voices of the darkling gods.

The wind seems to blow keener when Heidhin tells Everard that Edh is the chosen of a goddess.

Everard does not believe in Mithras, the Earth Mother, demons, gods or goddesses but he feels what their believers feel. He shares their experiences.

5 comments:

S.M. Stirling said...

Ah, those yellow Gollancz SF books! Nostalgia!

Sean M. Brooks said...

Dear Mr. Stirling,

For me, it would be the Chilton Books edictions ENSIGN FLANDRY, AGENT OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE, and FLANDRY OF TERRA, that makes me feel nostalgic.

But I do have a Gollancz edition of AFTER DOOMSDAY.

Sean

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And I would feel the need to stress, with regret, how Poul Anderson erred here about Mithraism. The "developed" Mithraism we see in "Brave To Be A King," is now believed by most historians to have not existed in Cyrus the Great's time. Rather, Mithraism was a much later Greco/Roman development owning little, if anything, to Iranian or Zoroastrian influences.

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
We, of course, now account for the earlier Mithraism as another difference between the Time Patrol timeline and ours.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

In alternate universe terms, that certainly makes sense!

Sean