"The Forest of Time" is an

alternate history Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, altern ...

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...

by American writer

Michael Flynn Michael Thomas Flynn (born December 24, 1958) is a retired United States Army lieutenant general and conspiracy theorist who was the 24th U.S. National Security Advisor for the first 22 days of the Trump administration. He resigned in light of ...

. It was originally published in the June 1987 issue of ''Analog'' magazine. In 1988, the story was nominated for the

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...

for Best Novella. It was reprinted in the anthologies '' The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifth Annual Collection'' (1988) and '' Roads Not Taken: Tales of Alternate History'' (1998), as well as Flynn's short story collection '' The Forest of Time and Other Stories'' (1997).

Plot

The story is set in an alternative world wherein the

Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of Kingdom of Great Britain, British Colony, colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Fo ...

, after gaining independence from

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

, did not succeed in creating the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, but instead developed into separate and mutually hostile nation-states which often fight bitter wars with each other. In the novella, the citizens of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

speak a language they call "Pennsylvanisch", which a character describes as "

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

dialect mainly derived from Swabian and with many

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

loan word A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...

s, which a speaker of

High German The High German dialects (german: hochdeutsche Mundarten), or simply High German (); not to be confused with Standard High German which is commonly also called ''High German'', comprise the varieties of German spoken south of the Benrath and ...

would find it difficult to follow". This language has a rich literary tradition of which the Pennsylvanians are proud; and they feel suspicious of, and threatened by the hostile English-speaking nations of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

to their north, and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

to their south. In that Pennsylvania, only the

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

communities still speak English as their native language, and they are therefore recruited by the Pennsylvanian Intelligence Service as spies to infiltrate the territories of neighboring nations. The story's main conflict comes when a Pennsylvanisch officer encounters a man who claims to be from the United States as we, the readers, know it. The officer first regards the man as either truly mad, or feigning madness to cover his mission of espionage for an enemy such as New York, but soon becomes enamored and full of longing for the parallel universe described by the captive. In a brief part of the story, the time traveler's journal reveals that he has visited other worlds, including one with an

Axis victory in World War II A hypothetical military victory of the Axis powers over the Allies of World War II (1939–1945) is a common topic in speculative literature. Works of alternative history (fiction) and of counterfactual history (non-fiction), including stories, n ...

. A reference to

Nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

s being hanged on lamp posts in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

might point specifically to

Eric Norden ''The Ultimate Solution'' is a 1973 alternate history novel by journalist and former ''Playboy'' interviewer Eric Norden, set in a world where the Axis forces won World War II and partitioned the world between them. The novel is noted for its ...

's ''

The Ultimate Solution ''The Ultimate Solution'' is a 1973 alternate history novel by journalist and former ''Playboy'' interviewer Eric Norden, set in a world where the Axis forces won World War II and partitioned the world between them. The novel is noted for its ...

'', in whose plot the Nazi occupiers of that city summarily execute the members of a resistance cell made up of Catholic priests, monks and nuns. The traveler has also passed through a world where the

Plantagenet The House of Plantagenet () was a royal house which originated from the lands of Anjou in France. The family held the English throne from 1154 (with the accession of Henry II at the end of the Anarchy) to 1485, when Richard III died in batt ...

Dynasty still rules England (and North America) and where a kind of scientific magic is practiced. This might be the world of

Randall Garrett Gordon Randall Phillip David GarrettGarrett, Randall
in ''

Lord Darcy.

Historical background

The

timeline of the story hinges on the historical event known as the Pennamite–Yankee Wars. In actual history,

and

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

both laid claim to the

Wyoming Valley The Wyoming Valley is a historic industrialized region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The region is historically notable for its influence in helping fuel the American Industrial Revolution with its many anthracite coal-mines. As a metropolitan are ...

, both colonies having been granted that territory by King Charles II in the 17th century, though only a century later did European settlers overcome Native American resistance and embark on settling it. Rival settlers from Pennsylvania (Pennamites) and Connecticut (Yankees) came into violent conflict, both just before and just after the American War of Independence - though very few people were actually killed, so that the term "war" for this conflict is rather exaggerated. Eventually, the conflict was settled peaceably: Pennsylvania's possession of the disputed area was confirmed, but the Yankees settled in it were accepted as full-fledged citizens of Pennsylvania, their main town of

Wilkes-Barre Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It is the secon ...

becoming one more Pennsylvanian town (eventually, city). By the early 19th century the whole issue receded into the past. However, in the alternate history of Flynn's book, in the 1780s

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

took a personal interest in the Pennamite–Yankee War and in a fatally misguided step placed a unit of the Virginia militia, commanded by himself, as a neutral buffer between Pennamites and Yankees. This culminated with the Virginians being trapped and decimated in a crossfire, Washington himself being among those killed. When the news of Washington's death reached Philadelphia, where the Constitutional Convention was just convening,

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

suffered a stroke and died, too. The convention broke up in consternation, and the

Constitution of the United States The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...

was never adopted and a Federal Government never created. The loose structure of the

Continental Congress The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. ...

eventually disintegrated, with the Thirteen Colonies going each its own way as full-fledged nation states – except that the Yankees of

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

created their own more narrow confederation. In this situation, Yankee settlers – backed by the rest of New England – held on to much of the Wyoming Valley, their conflict with Pennsylvania further escalating; rather than part of Connecticut, they created the new nation of The Wyoming (not connected to our history's State of Wyoming, much more to the west). Eventually, two mutually hostile nation states emerged, possessing fully equipped regular armies – hereditary enemies which habitually and repeatedly go to war with each other. To Pennsylvanians,

became a deeply hated enemy capital, created on stolen land which was rightfully Pennsylvania's (reminiscent of the historical conflict between France and Germany over Alsace-Lorraine). With Pennsylvania adopting the German language while the Yankees remained English-speaking, the political enmity was exacerbated by increasing linguistic and cultural differences. At the same time, Pennsylvania also has marked cultural and political differences from the Prussian-dominated Germany in Europe. Pennsylvanians speak a different kind of German, and pride themselves on having much more free society and political institutions, a difference especially owing to many Pennsylvanians being descended from political refugees who fled Germany. In the 19th century, the British helped Chiefs

Tecumseh Tecumseh ( ; October 5, 1813) was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the expansion of the United States onto Native American lands. A persuasive orator, Tecumseh traveled widely, forming a Native American confederacy and ...

and

Sequoyah Sequoyah (Cherokee language, Cherokee: ᏍᏏᏉᏯ, ''Ssiquoya'', or ᏎᏉᏯ, ''Se-quo-ya''; 1770 – August 1843), also known as George Gist or George Guess, was a Native Americans in the United States, Native American polymath of the Ch ...

create Native American states which, although thinly populated, were able to stand up to European settlers, with the former Thirteen Colonies being disunited, acting at cross-purposes and often going to war with each other. Eventually, the idea of further westward expansion was abandoned, the European settlement of North America never reached much further than it was at the end of the 18th century. In Britain, there was no

Victorian Era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

, since Victoria never became Queen, and in her absence Britain did much worse economically and incidentally lost its power in North America; this world has no United States and also no

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. By 1970 when the story takes place, technology has only reached a level roughly similar to our history's late 19th or early 20th century.

Samuel Morse Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor and painter. After having established his reputation as a portrait painter, in his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph ...

is remembered only as a painter, not an inventor; the

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

was invented only much later, by

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...

, who made only a few other inventions.

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that mi ...

either did not exist at all, or he never built his factory; automobiles are few, hand-made and very expensive, and a case when two of them ''nearly'' collided is remembered as a special occasion. Radio does not yet exist, and its feasibility is hotly debated, and the same for

heavier than air An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or by using the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in ...

flight. In military affairs, a

Star fortress A bastion fort or ''trace italienne'' (a phrase derived from non-standard French, literally meaning ''Italian outline'') is a fortification in a style that evolved during the early modern period of gunpowder when the cannon came to domin ...

- long obsolete in our history - remains a highly effective military resource for all armies, and the story's plot takes place in such a fortress. About twenty years before, Pennsylvania was involved in a major war, the " Piney War". Its foes,

and

, sought to partition

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

between themselves and deny Pennsylvania access to the sea; however, the Pennsylvanians proved the victors, trashing their opponents and securing the bulk of New Jersey. In this war, New York troops were decimated when trying to storm a Pennsylvanian machine gun position; however, this world did not yet see such scenes on the scale of our history's

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The story's Pennsylvanian protagonist had a major role in that war's decisive battle. (Though not explicitly mentioned, for Virginia to be in a position to try conquering parts of New Jersey, Virginia must have swallowed

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

at some earlier stage.) At the time of the story, the Virginians and the New York "Knicks",In our history, "Knickerbocker" (shortened to "Knicks") was used to refer to people or objects from

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. Evidently, in the divergent history where the State of New York developed into a full-fledged nation state, the term was extended to include that entire nation. seeking revenge, had forged an alliance with Pennsylvania's hereditary Yankee enemies as well as with the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

to the west, creating a ring of enemies all around Pennsylvania. Should all of them attack simultaneously from all directions, Pennsylvania would be in a dire situation. The Pennsylvanians' best strategy would be to play for time and seek to create divisions among its enemies— who had often fought each other, even in the recent past— and hope for the anti-Pennsylvanian alliance to fall apart. The full political and military details are not provided, and only glimpses are given in passing. In this history's nation state of New York,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

is far smaller than in reality and of much less account; decision-making in New York is still to a considerable degree in the hands of

patroon In the United States, a patroon (; from Dutch ''patroon'' ) was a landholder with manorial rights to large tracts of land in the 17th century Dutch colony of New Netherland on the east coast of North America. Through the Charter of Freedoms a ...

s, Dutch-descended landowners of the

Hudson Valley The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to ...

. In Virginia, effective political power is in the hands of "The Lee Brothers", presumably members of the

Lee family The Lee family of the United States is a historically significant Virginia and Maryland political family, whose many prominent members are known for their accomplishments in politics and the military. The family became prominent in colonial Bri ...

which was prominent in Colonial Virginia; but the story does not tell what is the Lee Brothers' official and legal position in Virginian politics, or even how many brothers are there. The rest of North America is also balkanized into many nations and there are passing references to some of them, which are too distant to take direct part in the conflict: The Kingdom of Carolina to the south, French-speaking

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

to the north, Spanish-speaking Nuevo Aztlan far to the west, Columbia, Cumberland, Pontiak. There is a single reference to

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

and no reference whether this Texas is Spanish- or English-speaking. The Kingdom of Carolina is mentioned as "the biggest state on the Eastern seaboard" and a producer of fine tobacco; probably, as well as

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

, its territory includes

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and possibly

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, too. The whole story includes no reference to Blacks and leaves unclear whether

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

was abolished and if so, how that was achieved. The story's plot takes place at a Pennsylvanian ''festung'' (

star fortress A bastion fort or ''trace italienne'' (a phrase derived from non-standard French, literally meaning ''Italian outline'') is a fortification in a style that evolved during the early modern period of gunpowder when the cannon came to domin ...

) overlooking the no-man's-land of the Wyoming Valley, whose garrison is tensely expecting the storm to burst. It is into this tense situation that the visitor from another reality is suddenly flung.

Analysis

In actual US history, a large part of Pennsylvania's population in the 18th century were indeed speakers of a Germanic language (not to be confused with standard German), though the elites in the colony and later state were English-speaking. The numbers of Germanic speakers dwindled in later periods, though the language still survives, especially among the

Amish The Amish (; pdc, Amisch; german: link=no, Amische), formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian origins. They are closely related to Mennonite churches ...

. It is known as "

Pennsylvania Dutch The Pennsylvania Dutch ( Pennsylvania Dutch: ), also known as Pennsylvania Germans, are a cultural group formed by German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. They emigrated primarily from German-spe ...

" (i.e., ''Deitsch'', meaning "German, Germanic" rather than referring to the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

) and sometimes also called "Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch" by its own speakers. Flynn assumes that in a situation where Pennsylvania became an independent nation-state, distinct from and often fighting with its neighbors, Pennsylvanisch had a chance to become the official and dominant language, which later immigrants learned upon arrival.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Forest Of Time, The Novelettes German-American history Alternate history novellas Pennsylvania Dutch language 1987 short stories

Plot

Historical background

Analysis

See also

References

External links