The Broken Sword Read online

  Likewise, it seemed only natural that the dwellers in the middle world would be technologically superior to their human contemporaries. Assume, if you will, that there really were races once which could do magic – that is, mentally control external phenomena by some means as yet unknown to our physical science. (But see some of the recent work and speculation on ‘parapsychology.’) Assume that they could live indefinitely, change their shapes, and otherwise have mastery over the world. Such an alien metabolism might have its own penalties, in an inability to endure the glare and actinic light of the sun or in disastrous electrochemical reactions induced by contact with iron or silver. So – why should not these handicapped immortals compensate by discovering aluminum, beryllium, magnesium, and the steel-like properties of many non-ferrous alloys? They might have made other inventions as well, such as ships which could sail indefinitely fast because of having virtually frictionless hulls. Though castles such as we know them were not yet found in the Europe of King Alfred’s time, the faerie folk might have been building them for a long while; and in the same way other apparent anachronisms would be simply the achievements of races older and wiser than man. But an aristocratic warrier culture, particularly with the conservatism induced by many centuries of life, would not be likely to develop science very far, and we should not look for gunpowder or steam engines in the ruins of faerie.

  As for what became of the people of this story, and the sword, and faerie itself – which obviously no longer exists on Earth – that is another tale, which will perhaps some day be told.

  ALSO BY POUL ANDERSON

  NOVELS

  Vault of the Ages (1952)

  Brain Wave (1954)

  No World of Their Own (1955)

  Planet of No Return (1956)

  Star Ways (1956)

  The Snows of Ganymede (1958)

  War of the Wing-Men (1958)

  The Enemy Stars (1959)

  Perish by the Sword (1959)

  Virgin Planet (1959)

  Earthman, Go Home (1960)

  The Golden Slave (1960)

  The High Crusade (1960)

  Murder in Black Letter (1960)

  Rogue Sword (1960)

  Three Hearts and Three Lions (1961)

  Mayday Orbit (1961)

  Orbit Unlimited (1961)

  Twilight World (1961)

  After Doomsday (1962)

  The Makeshift Rocket (1962)

  Murder Bound (1962)

  Let the Spaceman Beware (1963)

  Shield (1963)

  Guardians of Time (1964)

  Three Worlds to Conquer (1964)

  The Corridors of Time (1965)

  The Star Fox (1965)

  Time and Stars (1965)

  The Fox, the Dog, and the Griffin (1966)

  Ensign Flandry (1966)

  The Rebel Worlds (1966)

  World Without Stars (1966)

  The Horn of Time (1968)

  Beyond the Beyond (1969)

  Satan’s World (1969)

  A Circus of Hells (1970)

  Tales of the Flying Mountains (1970)

  Tau Zero (1970)

  The Byworlder (1971)

  The Dancer from Atlantis (1971)

  Operation Chaos (1971)

  There Will Be Time (1972)

  Hrolf Kraki’s Saga (1973)

  The People of the Wind (1973)

  The Queen of Air and Darkness (1973)

  The Day of their Return (1974)

  A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows (1974)

  Fire Time (1974)

  A Midsummer Tempest (1974)

  Inheritors of the Earth with Gordon Eklund (1974)

  Star Prince Charlie with Gordon R. Dickson (1975)

  Homeward and Beyond (1976)

  Inheritors of Earth (1976)

  The Winter of the World (1976)

  Agent of the Terran Empire (1977)

  Mirkheim (1977)

  A World Named Cleopatra (1977)

  The Avatar (1978)

  The Peregrine (1978)

  The Demon of Scattery (1979)

  Earthman’s Burden (1979)

  Flandry of Terra (1979)

  The Merman’s Children (1979)

  A Stone in Heaven (1979)

  The Devil’s Game (1980)

  The Golden Horn (1980)

  The Road of the Sea Horse (1980)

  The Sign of the Raven (1980)

  Explorations (1981)

  Fantasy (1981)

  Winners (1981)

  Cold Victory (1982)

  The Gods Laughed (1982)

  Maurai and Kith (1982)

  New America (1982)

  The Long Night (1983)

  Orion Shall Rise (1983)

  Time Patrolman (1983)

  Seven Conquests (1984)

  The Games of Empire (1985)

  Roma Mater with Karen Anderson (1986)

  Dahut with Karen Anderson (1988)

  The Dog and the Wolf with Karen Anderson (1988)

  The Year of the Ransom (1988)

  The Boat of a Million Years (1989)

  No Truce with Kings (1989)

  Alight in the Void (1991)

  How to Build a Planet with Stephen W. Gillett (1991)

  Inconstant Star (1991)

  Kinship with the Stars (1991)

  The Longest Voyage (1991)

  The Time Patrol (1991)

  Flandry (1993)

  Harvest of Stars (1993)

  The Stars Are Also Fire (1994)

  Game of Empire (1994)

  All One Universe (1996)

  The Fleet of Stars (1997)

  Harvest the Fire (1997)

  The Saturn Game (1997)

  War of the Gods (1997)

  Starfarers (1998)

  Operation Luna (1999)

  Genesis (2000)

  Hokas Pokas with Gordon R. Dickson (2000)

  Mother of Kings (2001)

  SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS

  Stranger from Earth (1961)

  Trader to the Stars (1966)

  The Trouble Twister (1966)

  The Book of Poul Anderson (1975)

  The Best of Poul Anderson (1976)

  The Earth Book of Stormgate (1978)

  Operation Otherworld (1983)

  Past Times (1984)

  The Unicorn Trade with Karen Anderson (1984)

  Dialogue with Darkness (1985)

  The King of YS with Karen Anderson (1987)

  Space Folk (1989)

  The Shield of Time (1990)

  The Armies of Elfland (1992)

  The Imperial Stars (2000)

  POUL ANDERSON (1926–2001) was born in Pennsylvania of Scan-dinavian parents and lived for a short time in Denmark before the outbreak of World War II. He attended the University of Minnesota and gained a degree in physics in 1948. He joined the Minneapolis Fantasy Society and associated with such writers as Gordon R. Dickson and Clifford D. Simak, and published his first science fiction story, ‘Tomorrow’s Children’ which he wrote with F. N. Waldrop, in 1947. Among his many fine novels are Brain Wave, Three Hearts and Three Lions, Tau Zero, War of the Wing-Men, Mirkheim and The Avatar. He was President of the Science Fiction Writers of America 1972–3, won the Gandalf (Grand Master) Award for 1977, and received seven Hugos and three Nebulas for his shorter fiction.