Posted by pandabrett on Nov 24, 2020
Short Sorcery: Poul Anderson’s “The Tale of Hauk”
Short Sorcery: Poul Anderson’s “The Tale of Hauk” by Bill Ward Poul Anderson, Grand Master of Science Fiction and author of over 100 books, always seems to bring a little something extra to the table when writing a tale invoking Norse mythology. Whether it be in the myth-inspired sword-and-sorcery classic The Broken Sword, or his novelized retellings of the sagas of figures like Hrolf-Kraki and Harald Hardrada, Anderson’s love for the history and culture of the Dark Ages, and in particular the immortal tales of his own Scandinavian ancestors, comes across in every line of these works. “The Tale of Hauk,” the story of a man that must confront the vengeful ghost of his own father, perfectly encapsulates Anderson’s passion for tales of the Viking era, and demonstrates his mastery at bringing such a world to life. “The Tale of Hauk” originally appeared in the first Swords Against Darkness (1977) anthology edited by Andrew J. Offutt, but has subsequently been reprinted in many ‘Best of’ editions and in Anderson’s own collection, Fantasy. While not strictly sword-and-sorcery in the Howardian sense – Anderson’s own Cappen Varra shorts as seen in the Thieves World shared-world anthologies would be better examples of that – “The Tale of Hauk” is a work of dark, heroic fantasy with a strong splash of Weird Tale. It is also a tour de force of style, written in a way that captures the rhythm and tone of an old Norse saga. On the occasion of Hauk’s homecoming: “That was on a chill fall noontide. Whitecaps chopped beneath a whistling wind and cast spindrift salty onto lips. Clifftops on either side of the fjord were lost in the mist. Above blew cloud wrack like smoke. Hauk’s ship, a wide-beamed knorr, rolled, pitched, and creaked as it beat its way under sail. The owner stood in the bows, wrapped in a flame-red cloak…” Anderson uses the short, clipped cadence of the Anglo-Norse tradition, with nary a latinate word in sight. It is direct language, unadorned, in which the nouns and verbs do most of the heavy lifting. In combination with a faintly antique diction in both narrative and dialog, and a finely realized snapshot of North European cultural life of the era of Alfred the Great and Harald Fairhair, “The Tale of Hauk” reads more like a modernized translation...
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