Appendix N: Poul Anderson's "The High Crusade"

Having read "The Broken Sword" previous to this novel, I found it an odd juxtaposition to the former. First, the tone here is much lighter. Anderson does not attempt to take his story seriously, but at the same time, he is a serious enough writer that the reader is able to take the novel seriously. Secondly, while "The Broken Sword" fits nicely into the nitch of Sword & Sorcery, or possibly just Fantasy, "The High Crusade" fits imperfectly in both Fantasy and Science Fiction.





Originally serialized in Astounding Magazine in the year 1960, The High Crusade opens with a starship landing in England during the 14th Century. The English overtake the aliens, hi-jack it and end up light years away from home in a star-spanning empire ruled by the Wersgorix, a blue-faced alien race that rules several other races through having the most advanced technology.





The story that follows is that of Sir Roger Baron de Tourneville and his exploits in which, well, not wanting to give too much away, I'll say "God Favors the English". As mentioned earlier, the tone of Crusade is much lighter then that of The Broken Sword. There are many humorous moments in this short novel, along with short spats of high adventure. The narrator is one Brother Parvus a Franciscan Monk who explains his Christian name thusly:





"...I am of low size, and ill-favored, though fortunate to have the trust of children"

Brother Parvus gives a sometimes first hand account, and when necessary, recounts details he was not present to witness. As a narrator, he works wonderfully as I never found the story jarring. Along with humor and adventure is twisted in a tale of love lost, love betrayed, love regained, the classic "Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back".

The edition I have was published by Baen publishing in 2010, as a 50th Anniversary edition. It includes an Introduction by Astrid Anderson Bear, the daughter of Poul Anderson and the wife of Greg Bear. There are also five Appreciations of the novel, one each from: Diana L. Paxson, Eric Flint, Greg Bear, David Drake and Robert Silverberg. Included after the novel proper is a short story written by Anderson and in the same universe as The High Crusade titled "Quest".

"Quest"first appeared in Ares in 1983. It is set, appropriately enough, 30 years after the events of The High Crusade and tells the short tale of Sir Eric in his quest for the Holy Grail. The high moment of this story for me was a "singing sword" (a technological construct of the famous relic) that has the wrong tape inserted into it before battle. As Sir Eric rushes to confront a dragon the sword sings:

Oh, give me a haunch of ruddy beef,

And nut-brown ale in my pot,

Then a lusty wench with a sturdy arse

To bounce upon my cot--

It is a short tale, but everybit as enjoyable as its predecessor.

I pondered upon why Gary Gygax included this novel in his Appendix N. There are two possibilites, the first is in Mr. Gygax's own words:

for the hours of reading enjoyment, I heartly recommend the works of these fine authors to you.

That may be reason enough, for The High Crusade is without a doubt a story that can and most likely will be enjoyed by gamers of all different lots; however, what is the direct impact of this novel upon Dungeons & Dragons?

I thought long upon this, and remembered a section in the 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide in which Gygax spoke of keeping campaigns fresh and alive. He spoke briefly of having realms similiar to the lost island of King Kong, and The Isle of Dread does that well, or perhaps realms similiar to Jack Vance's Dying Earth. He then presented alternative rules for converting AD&D characters to Boot Hill and Gamma World.

In my younger gaming days, this is something that me and my friends took literally. We had six-shooters, shot guns and mutants making frequent appearances in our games. With the acquistion of Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, robots and ray-guns gained heavy circulation.

Perhaps Poul Anderson's The High Crusade served as Gary Gygax's inspiration for this simple idea. Eric Flint, in his Appreciation sites Anderson's tale as heavily influencing his own genre twisting tales. Even if it were only a subliminal influence on Gygax's idea, it serves as an excellent example of what Swords & Ray-Guns could be.

Appendix N: Poul Anderson's "The Broken Sword"

Published in 1954, the same year as Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring saw publication, it is tempting to compare Anderson's novel to the Ring Trilogy. Both works are influenced by Norse mythology, shades of the Poetic Edda are obvious in The Broken Sword; however, while Tolkien took Norse Mythology and molded it to fit his vision of Middleearth, Poul Anderson took a more literal approach with The Broken Sword. Perhaps a weakness of Sword is that it reads as if written by a writer trying too hard to emulate a story form he obviously holds in high regard.

There were moments while reading passages of the novel that I found myself doing an inward eye roll. That aside, it is a delightful read and is without a doubt a true classic of Sword and Sorcery literature. I am careful to not say Fantasy in the generic sense. While it is a novel that would fall under the large banner of Fantasy in the genre sense, I would consider it more in the vein of Sword and Sorcery. Not quite in the vein of the works of Robert E. Howard or Fritz Lieber, but more similar to that of Lord Dunsany or even William Morris.

I only make this distinction as Poul Anderson does not attempt to create his own world here; while Tolkien took his Norse influences and created his own world clearly outside of the boundaries of reality, Anderson's tale takes place in a fictionalized England during the period of Viking incursions. Populace superstitions of the realm of Faerie are real and can be sensed from time to time upon the margins of society. Anderson's Faerie realm is perhaps a dimension which shares our own. As are the realm of Jottenheim and the Norse Gods.

Anderson's elves are not Tolkien's elves. They are, in Dungeons & Dragons terminology, Chaotic. The affairs of mankind not only do not interest them, they are perhaps beneath them. Here is perhaps the first influence which can be seen upon the development of Dungeons & Dragons. Comparing this novel to Anderson's novel Three Hearts and Three Lions, in which a definite alignment system is developed by Anderson, the rudimentary beginnings of on alignment system may be viewed in The Broken Sword, although it is not clearly as drawn out. Perhaps also an early influence upon what would become the standard Troll in D&D is here as well:

...arms like tree boughs that hung to their knees...Their skin was green and cold and slippery...few of them had hair...eyes set far into bone-ridged sockets, were like skulls.

The realm of Fae as presented by Anderson in his novel is in tune with that of Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter or the many works of William Morris. In my own personal vision of Dungeons & Dragons, this vision of the realm of Faerie would have more heavily influenced the game.

I've read that Anderson was inspired by H. Rider Haggard's The Saga of Eric Brighteyes, but having not read it myself I can not speak to that. I have also read that the broken sword of Anderson's novel inspired Michael Moorecock to create Stormbringer the famous sword of his Elric stories. Having read those, I can see the influence.

My copy of The Broken Sword came from a local used book store. A quick search of Abe Books coughed up several copies ranging from .69 to 20 plus dollars. It should be noted that an earlier version of the novel appeared in 1954. The work was rediscovered by Lin Carter and printed as the twenty-fourth volume of his Ballentine Adult Fantasy Series in 1971. My copy is a fourth printing from Del Rey this is the same as the version printed by Lin Carter, but missing his introduction. Anderson says this:

...without changing the story, I did allow myself a number of textual emendations...I did not rewrite end to end...I have trimmed away a lot of adjectives and wordbrush, corrected certain errors and inconsistencies, and substituted one Person (in one brief though important scene) for another who didn't really belong there.

Also in Anderson's forward, he openly admits that this novel could not be written by the same author who would later write Three Hearts and Three Lions:

This young, in many ways naive lad who bore my name could, all unwittingly, give readers a wrong impression of my work and me.

As I stated earlier, this is not Poul Anderson's strongest work, but time spent reading it is time well spent for lovers of Fantasy and/or Dungeons & Dragons.

As a note for the purists out there, an edition by Gollancz was published in 2002 titled The Broken Sword (Fantasy Masterworks). I have not seen this edition, but from what I understand it is exactly as the story appeared in 1954 prior to the 1971 Ballentine edition. For myself, I enjoyed the novel enough that I am seeking out the Gollancz copy so I may compare the two; however, the Gollancz edition is no longer in print either. Amazon lists new copies from $48.67 and used versions (some in hardcover) from $5.62.

I encourage you buy local and buy often.