Thursday 23 April 2015

A Mangalbites In Constantinople

Poul Anderson, The Boat Of A Million Years (London, 1991), Chapter VII, pp. 155-178.

"'...a mangalbites on the staff of the Archestrategos.'" (p. 170)

I do not remember noticing the odd word "mangalbites" on any previous reading of Boat... However, it provides us with a link to Poul Anderson's The Last Viking Trilogy because the title character of that work, Harald Hardrada, was a "manglabites."

The Last Viking definitely refers to the King Olaf who became St Olaf. I would have to check whether the Trilogy also refers to St Olaf's kinsman, King Olaf I. If so, then this would be another link between the two works (see here).

Other unfamiliar terms
"...the gate and harbor of the Kontoskalion." (p. 156)
"...the fine linen sakkos and bejeweled dalmatic..." (p. 157)
"...the houses of Pera and Galata." (p. 159)

In two successive chapters, Hanno is with an immortal woman but does not know it, then with another but loses her. However, they have the rest of time to find each other again.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I believe that the word is "manglabites", meaning mace-bearer.

Best Regards,
Nicholas D. Rosen

Paul Shackley said...

Nicholas,
I have given two different spellings because my sources do! (I expect that one is right and the other is wrong.)
Paul.