"Goat Song" is a
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
novelette by American writer
Poul Anderson
Poul William Anderson (November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001) was an American fantasy and science fiction author who was active from the 1940s until the 21st century. Anderson wrote also historical novels. His awards include seven Hugo Awards and ...
. Originally published in ''
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher a ...
'' issue of February 1972, it was later included in the anthologies ''
Nebula Award Stories Eight'' and ''
The Hugo Winners Volume 3'', as well as in Anderson's collection ''Homeward and Beyond''.
This story has strong parallels to the
Greek myth
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of ...
of
Orpheus and Eurydice
The ancient legend of Orpheus and Eurydice (, ''Orpheus, Eurydikē'') concerns the fateful love of Orpheus of Thrace for the beautiful Eurydice. Orpheus was the son of Apollo and the muse Calliope. It may be a late addition to the Orpheus myths ...
Plot summary
In a future world humanity is dominated by a massive computer, SUM, which claims to record the soul, and promises a resurrection at an indefinite future date. A harper—who alone remembers the old songs—mourns for the loss of his love, and desires nothing but her resurrection. SUM so far has only used that power to keep its human
avatar
Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...
, the
Dark Queen
The Dark Queen is the main antagonist of the '' Battletoads'' video game series by Rare introduced in the original '' Battletoads'' in 1991. Dark Queen is the nemesis of the protagonistic Battletoads. She is a mysterious mistress of evil magic ...
, eternally young. The harper confronts the Dark Queen on a lonely road during her yearly sojourn through the overworld. Appealing to her lingering humanity, she agrees to take the Harper before SUM. In SUM's dark, underground fortress it agrees to return the harper's love, if the harper will teach humanity to worship SUM as a god. But there is one condition: a test of loyalty. The Harper must walk all the way to the outside, but not once look back to see if his love is following. The harper agrees. On the long walk back he is full of doubts, but manages to look straight ahead, until the last moment. He turns and sees his love for an instant before she is taken away, and he is cast outside.
SUM admits that it is more interested in the harper as an antagonist than a servant, since it doesn't yet fully understand the human mind. Harper goes nearly insane for many months, but then begins the deliberate process of using his songs to implant the idea that humans should rule their own lives and that SUM should be destroyed.
Some of his followers take it to
much more wild extremes. At the end of the story, he is going to meet some of these women—a parallel to the
maenads
In Greek mythology, maenads (; grc, μαινάδες ) were the female followers of Dionysus and the most significant members of the Thiasus, the god's retinue. Their name literally translates as "raving ones". Maenads were known as Bassarids, ...
who tore Orpheus to pieces.
Awards and nominations
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Hugo Award for Best Novelette
The Hugo Award for Best Novelette is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The novelette award is available for works of fiction of ...
, winner (1973)
*
Locus Poll Award
The Locus Awards are an annual set of literary awards voted on by readers of the science fiction and fantasy magazine ''Locus'', a monthly magazine based in Oakland, California. The awards are presented at an annual banquet. In addition to the pl ...
for Best Short Story, third place (1973)
*
Nebula Award for Best Novelette
The Nebula Award for Best Novelette is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) to a science fiction or fantasy Novella#Versus novelette, novelette. A work of fiction is defined by the organization as a novele ...
, winner (1972)
References
External links
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Novellas by Poul Anderson
1972 short stories
Hugo Award for Best Novelette winning works
Nebula Award for Best Novelette-winning works
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