Originally published on Poul Anderson Appreciation, Friday 20 April 2012
In "The Problem of Pain"
"...intermediate in size between Earth and Ythri, surface gravity 0.8 terrestrial;
"slightly more irradiation, from a somewhat yellower sun, than Earth gets, which simply makes it a little warmer;
"axial tilt, therefore seasonal variations, a bit less than terrestrial;
"length of year about three quarters of ours, length of day a bit under half;
"one small, close in, bright moon;
"biochemistry
similar to ours - we could eat most native things, though we'd require
imported crops and livestock to supplement the diet.
"All in all, seemingly well-nigh perfect." (1)
South
of the largest continent, a great gulf swarms with life. A strong
eastward current is deflected north by an archipelago. Monstrous marine
creatures graze on floating islands of densely interwoven "atlantis
weed" probably also supporting lesser plants and animals. Higher solar
energy input and rapid rotation make storms more violent than would be
possible on Earth.
On an island in the gulf:
"A mat of mossy, intensely green plants squeezed out any possibility of forest." (2)
Surgeon
trees' thin leaf-fringed bows, sharp enough to cut a wing from a
swooping Ythrian, whip insanely in the wind which blows gorgeous
blossoms torn from vines. Widespread low, russet-leaved, rankly odorous
hell shrubs clutch at feet with raking twigs and emit vapours scarcely
harming Ythrians but slowly poisoning human beings. Waterfowl fly
through a rose, gold and silver-blue sunrise.
In "Wingless"
Ythrians
and human beings settle different territories in the Hesperian Islands
before jointly colonising the Coronan continent. Nat Falkayn, seventeen
Avalonian (twelve Terran) years of age when visiting the Ythrian
extended household of Weathermaker Choth:
"...stood
on a balcony of that tall stone tower which housed the core families.
Below were a paved courtyard and rambling wooden buildings. Meadows
where meat animals grazed sloped downhill in Terrestrial grass and
clover, Ythrian starbell and rye, Terrestrial oak and pine, Ythrian
braidbark and copperwood, until cultivation gave way to the reddish mat
of native susin, the scattered intense green of native chasuble bush and
delicate blue of janie. The sun Laura stood big and golden-colored at
morning, above a distantly glimpsed mercury line of ocean. Elsewhere
wandered a few cottony clouds and the pale, sinking ghost of Morgana. A
flock of Avalonian draculas passed across view, their leathery wings
awkward beside the plumed splendor of Keshchyi's." (3)
Morgana is the moon, brighter and faster than Luna. Keshchyi is a young Ythrian.
Whirlpools
around the dark coraloid reefs at a lagoon entrance hold "...thick
brown nets of atlantis weed torn loose from a greater mass far out to
sea..." (4)
In "Rescue on Avalon"
The
highest Avalonian mountains are called the Andromeda Range by human
beings and the Weathermother by Ythrians. (Hloch of the Stormgate Choth
wrote The Earthbook of Stormgate on the peak of Mount
Anrovil in the Weathermother.) Ironleaf trees draw metal from the soil
and concentrate pure particles in shining purple leaves which attract
pollinating bugs and also absorb radio waves. A hospital window opens on
Avalonian king's-crown, Ythrian windnest and Earthly oak.
The
Parliament of Man and the Great Khruath of the Ythrians divided
continental territory between the species. Human beings need prairies
for crops whereas Ythrian hunters occupy the Weathermother.
In The People of the Wind, Chapter One
The
city of Gray on Falkayn Bay is surrounded by human-owned grain-fields,
Ythrian-owned pastures for maukh and mayaw, forests of oak, pine,
windnest or hammerbranch and treeless areas of native susin where some
barysauroids survive. Even in Gray, humans, with ample room on Avalon,
build low. Highrises are for ornithoids (Ythrians).
"Laura,
a G5 star, has only 72 per cent the luminosity of Sol and less
ultraviolet light in proportion; but Avalon, orbiting at a mean distance
of 0.81 astronomical unit in a period of 0.724 Terran, gets 10 percent
more total irradiation than man evolved under." (5)
Christopher Holm, thirty years Avalonian old, has joined Stormgate Choth as Arinninan. The Stormgate compound:
"...stood
on a plateau of Mount Fairview. At the middle lifted the old stone
tower which housed the senior members of the family and their children.
Lower wooden structures, on whose sod roofs bloomed amberdragon and
starbells, were for the unwed and retainers and their kin. Further down a
slope lay sheds, barns, and mews. The whole could not be seen at once
from the ground, because Ythrian trees grew among the buildings:
braidbark, copperwood, gaunt lightningrod, jewelleaf which sheened
beneath the moon and by day would shimmer iridescent. The flowerbeds
held natives, more highly evolved than anything from offplanet - sweet
small janie, pungent livewell, graceful trefoil and Buddha's cup, a harp
vine which the breeze brought ever so faintly to singing. Otherwise the
night was quiet and, at this, altitude, cold." (6)
Avalonian constellations include Wheel, Swords, Zirraukh, Ship and Maukh.
Chapter Two
"Avalon
rotates in 11 hours, 22 minutes, 12 seconds, on an axis tilted 21
degrees from the normal to the orbital plane. Thus Gray, at about 43
degrees N., knows short nights always; in summer the darkness seems
scarcely a blink." (7)
Human
fluid balance and kinesthesia have had to readjust to a gravity field
only 80 percent Terran. Ythrians shifting their breeding cycle to
Avalonian conditions had low fertility in early generations.
Humans
who join choths "go bird." Ythrians who leave choths to become atomic
individuals within the global community become "Walkers." Mistwood
Choth, like the home world Ythri, has successfully adapted Terran
technology.
Chapter Three
Equatorial
diameter: 11,308 kilometres. Highest Andromedan peak: 4500 metres.
Corona, the north polar continent extending past the Tropic of
Swords: eight million square kilometers, comparable to Australia. In
the Southern hemisphere, Equatoria, New Africa and New Gaiila are
small continents or large islands.
2000
kilometers west of Gray, the Oronesian archipelago crosses the Tropic
of Spears, separating the Middle Ocean to the West from the Hesperian
Sea in the northern hemisphere and the South Ocean beyond the equator.
Oronesia supports a distinct ecology. Eccentrics flee there to settle
islands and found choths of only a single household. However, the more
numerous Highsky Choth occupies much of the archipelago and controls the
fisheries around latitude 30 degrees North. Tabitha Falkayn, Hrill of
Highsky, is a third generation human member of her choth and was brought
up by Ythrians. Western Corona and northern Oronesia must defend the
Hesperian Sea against Terrans.
Upper
slopes have susin and a few shrubs. Lower, cultivated ground has red
Ythrian clustergrain to feed shuas and Terrestrial fruit trees to feed
Highsky humans. A herder and his uhoth control flapping shuas while an
Ythrian sailor scouts for piscoids and native pteropleuron lumber
around.
Chapter Four is about Terrans preparing to attack Avalon from Esperance.
Chapter Five
The
main Ythrian language is Planha, the equivalent of Terran Anglic.
Kruaths, gatherings open to all free adults in a given territory, have
judicial and limited legislative authority. Wyvans, the presiding
officers, explain the law and try suits but cannot compel. If
non-compliance is deemed sufficiently serious, then the Wyvans cry
Oherran, calling on everyone in the territory to attack the offenders.
Rejection of the call would be a deathpride matter, with suicide the
Wyvans' only option.
Chapter Six
The
only other Avalonian city is Centauri at the mouth of the Sagittarius
in the Gulf of Centaurs. In the Phoenix House, Tabitha/Hrill orders a
catflower cocktail. She and Chris/Arinnian eat piscoid-and-tomato
chowder, beef-and-shua pie, salad of clustergrain leaf and pears and
drink coffee spiced with witchroot and a bottle of vintage dago. The
Nest, a tavern for ornithoids, is the tallest building in Centauri with a
gravshaft to its rooftop for humans who have not brought flying gear.
It is unwalled, protected from rain by a vitryl canopy. Insectoids
circle fluoroglobes and a service robot serves New African beer.
Most
of Highsky keeps to the Old Faith, using drugs in sacred revels. Other
planets in the Lauran System are Elysium, Camelot, Phaeacia and Utgard.
Chapters Seven and Eight describe a battle in space.
Chapter Nine
Morgana
is smaller than Luna but, being close, raises twice the tides. The
Avalonian vertebrate design is hexapodal. Winged creatures have four
legs. The dense mat of low-growing vegetation prevents native forests
and helps to explain why animals remain reptiloid, unable to compete
with mammals or birds. Trees are low and thick or slim and supple to
survive high winds caused by rapid rotation. Imported domestic animals
had to be revamped genetically because local food lacks some vitamins.
In Chapter Ten, the Terran Admiral parleys with Avalonian leaders and a fallen Avalonian, the First Marchwarden, is laid to rest.
Chapter Eleven
High
Wyvan Liaw of the Tarns addresses the Great Khruath of Avalon from
outside David Falkayn's house on First Island in the Hesperian Sea. On a
North Coronan prairie, a flapping youth leads a herd of quadrupedal
burden-bearing zirraukhs. South-East from Oronesia are the Brendan's,
Fiery and Shielding Islands. Atlantis weed patches are entire ecologies
grazed by peaceful but huge kraken. David Falkayn's granddaughter named
Avalon. Equatorian centaurs use tools of stone and bone.
Chapters Twelve and Thirteen are mainly about the consequences of the war in space.
Chapter Thirteen
In
winter, snow falls in North Corona and in the mountains but not in Gray
where "...the susin stayed green on its hills the year around." (8)
Chapter Fourteen
Zirraukhs are warm-blooded quadrupeds smaller than horses and unlike them but used for the same purpose.
Chapter Fifteen
An Ythrian swoops on a pteropleuron that had been hunting piscoids near the surface of the sea.
Chapter Sixteen
Grief
causes premature ovulation in a bereaved Ythrian female. A male seeks
her out. This is not against choth law and the female's human chothmate,
Arinnian, has no cause to challenge so he insults the Ythrian male
until the latter challenges him.
Chapter Seventeen
On the Scorpelunan plateau in Equatoria, hexapods graze under their
parasol membranes. Packs of dog-sized hexapodal lycosauroids and throngs
of twenty centimeter long cockroach-like kakkelaks attack Terran
invaders who are being slowly poisoned by hell shrubs. Furious tropical
storms caused by high irradiation and fast spin delay evacuation.
Chapter Eighteen
Smaragdine susin, chasuble bush and Buddha's cup grow on a hill above Falkayn Bay.
Chapter Nineteen
Trefoil
and sword-of-sorrow grow in the grass. Harp vines ring. Jewelleafs
twinkle. Morgana is less bright because scarred by Terran bombardment.
Why Am I Doing This?
I
have summarized an alternative reading. We read an Anderson novel to
follow the story. We appreciate that there are rich background details
but do not usually pause to savor the details. I have noted as many
details as I can of the planet Avalon.
(1) Poul Anderson, "The Problem of Pain" IN Anderson, The Earth Book of Stormgate, New York, 1978, pp. 26-48, AT p. 33.
(2) ibid., p. 40.
(3) Poul Anderson, "Wingless" IN The Earth Book of Stormgate, pp. 411-420, AT pp. 413-414.
(4) ibid., p. 417.
(5) Poul Anderson, The People of the Wind, London, 1977, p. 7.
(6) ibid., p. 10.
(7) ibid., p. 18.
(8) ibid., p. 127.
