Fantasy in the 1950s
Poul Anderson wrote two classic Fantasy novels pretty much one after the other. Three Hearts and Three Lions appeared in F&SF, September October 1953. The Broken Sword (1954) appeared as a hardcover novel, then was virtually forgotten until Lin Carter resurrected it in 1971. These two books show two very different sides of Anderson, one the Science Fiction writer, and the other a son of Scandinavian ancestry. Both books have their virtues, but it will become obvious as we go along, which I think is the more important volume.
The John W. Campbell Influence
Three Hearts and Three Lions belongs in a category I would call “Campbellian Fantasy” or American Fantasy. John W. Campbell created the Pulp magazine Unknown (later Unknown Worlds) in 1939, to publish a style of Fantasy that was more logical, along the lines of SF. This magazine produced such heroic fantasy novels as Flame Winds and Sons of the Bear God by Norvell W. Page, The Reign of Wizardry by Jack Williamson, the Harold Shea stories of L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, the Fafhrd & Grey Mouser stories of Fritz Leiber. Afterwards stories in the same style appeared: L. Sprague de Camp’s The Tritonian Ring (1951) and Robert A. Heinlein’s Glory Row (1963) are two. All these stories share one feature (with the possible exception of Leiber): an underlying belief that Magic is just Science we don’t understand.
Scandinavian Myths
The Broken Sword is not of this type. Poul Anderson took the myths of his Danish background and created the only other novel of true elven beauty, along with J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The book is so well done it deserves to stand beside Tolkien. Despite the numerous imitations of Middle Earth, none deserves such praise. Anderson was not influenced by Tolkien but by the same mythic material. As such, it is one of the few examples we have of heroic fantasy that is not slave to the master. Anderson was familiar with Robert E. Howard, the other great influence on Fantasy writers, but doesn’t follow him either.
The date 1954 is important. Howard’s Conan existed in old Pulp magazines (soon to be reborn under Gnome Press but not yet!) and Tolkien was only just publishing The Fellowship of the Ring in hardcover in England. Anderson sat at the final point in time where a writer could create without the influence of these two giants dominating their mental space.
A Portal Fantasy
Let’s look at the two books:
Three Hearts and Three Lions is a portal fantasy. Holger Carlsen is in the midst of a gun battle with Nazis in Denmark when he is transported to a magical world of Charlemagne and trolls. He finds a suit of armor and a horse waiting for him. He gathers friends and sidekicks in Alianora, a swan maiden, Carahue, a Saracen warrior and the dwarf, Hugi. They encounter all manner of monsters (dragon, giant, werewolf and troll) while searching for a magical sword, Cortana. Holger discovers he is one of Charlemagne’s heroes, Olgier the Dane. He falls madly in love with Alinora, but is ultimately transported back to our world. His bravery helps the Americans steal Neils Bohr out of Europe. The atomic bomb can now happen. The book ends with Holger wanting to return to the magical world and his love but the fate of two worlds secured by his bravery.
It is ironic that Three Hearts and Three Lions appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. It belonged in Unknown Worlds but that magazine died ten years earlier in 1943 due to wartime paper shortages. In 1953, there really weren’t too many places to publish it. F&SF was probably the best choice. Anthony Boucher was editor, and Tony knew a good thing when he saw it.
The novel has been influential since its first appearance. Michael Moorcock says it influenced his own Fantasy, where forces of Order and Chaos fight (not Good and Evil). This in turn inspired the Alignment system of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.
A Second Masterpiece
The Broken Sword had a very different history. It appeared in 1954, probably the worst time for a Fantasy novel to be published. Science Fiction was king after World War II. Abelard-Schuman published it in hardcover and then it pretty much disappeared. Poul got on with writing a lot of Science Fiction (though “The Barbarian” appeared in F&SF, May 1956 and “The Valor of Cappen Varra” in 1957.) It was Lin Carter who rescued the book from obscurity when he reprinted it in 1971 as part of the Ballantine Fantasy Series. Things had changed in the late 1960s when The Lord of the Rings was published in paperback. Sword & Sorcery was cresting a new wave of popularity. The times were ripe for a (not so) new classic of elven fantasy.
Unlike Three Hearts and Three Lions, The Broken Sword is not a portal fantasy. It exists in its own secondary world of Vikings and elves. The story stars Skafloc, a changeling among the elves and originally son of Orm the Strong. The elf Imric steals the child and replaces him with Valgard. Skafloc and Valgard are pawns in a war between the worlds of men and faery. E. F. Bleiler described the book in The Guide to Supernatural Fiction (1983): “The first portion of this novel is perhaps the finest American heroic fantasy, with good characterizations, excellent surface detail, good plotting, and an admirable recreation of the mood of the Old Norse literature. But the story ends in a mad scramble and unconvincing slaughter.” I think this is an appropriate ending to a story based on Scandinavian folklore.
Bleiler and Moorcock
Bleiler is correct in calling it “the finest American heroic fantasy”. There are few books that come close to Anderson’s novel. (I guess you can see what preference now.) Again Moorcock points to Poul Anderson as an influence, the sword Stormbringer was inspired by Skafloc’s blade. (Moorcock does say he felt the 1971 version was weaker than the original.) Some might think that the broken sword was inspired by Tolkien’s Narsil that Aragorn has reforged. This is not the case. Both Anderson and Tolkien were inspired by the same source material.
Perhaps the best indication of the power of The Broken Sword is all the stories set in the same universe that followed. Holgier from Three Hearts and Three Lions did appear in Anderson’s A Midsummer’s Tempest (1974) where he rests in “The Inn Between the Worlds” (an idea Edmond Hamilton cooked up in the 1940s). The Broken Sword was followed by Hrolf Kraki’s Saga, based on the ancient work, but even better the stories of The Merman’s Children (1973), The Demon of Scattery (with Mildred Downey Broxon)(1979) and The War the Gods (1997). Poul explored his Danish roots in stories like “The Tale of Hauk” (Swords Against Darkness, 1977) and a three-part biography called The Last Viking (1980) about Harald Hardrada.
Conclusion
Poul’s love of Sword & Sorcery (call it heroic fantasy, if you prefer) was always evident from his earliest work in Planet Stories. Despite being a space opera magazine, he wrote several tales that were S&S hiding among the laser guns. “The Witch of the Demon Seas” (January 1951), “The Virgin of Valkarion” (July 1951) and “Swordsman of Lost Terra” (November 1951) could all have appeared in Weird Tales as Sword & Sorcery if Poul had only been born twenty years earlier. That he was able to shift back and forth between SF and S&S is a testament to his versatility a writer that allowed him to write two heroic fantasy classics.
great overview
Just saw this. I read The Broken Sword soon after it appeared, in the Abelard Schuman edition. I had bought the Lord of the Rings as it appeared when it was still somewhat obscure but known of by the SF community, but found that I couldn’t read it. I, to, had read Norse mythology since I was very young and LOTR, when I finally read it, had none of the same existentialist realism(if you like) of Norse literature, but was softened by post-war Christian sentimentality, with its need to justify loss. For me, it was a watered down version of The Broken Sword. I loved Poul’s fantasy but didn’t like most of his sf.
Oddly, I don’t care for his SF either.