Trying Desperately to Find Which Book this Ensign Flandry Quote Comes From

[AnnePMitchell]

Hi All!

Talk about a needle in a haystack - I am trying (quite desperately, as it's for a birthday present for my boyfriend) to determine from which Poul Anderson Ensign Flandry book this quote comes from.

In the scene, apparently someone is asking a somewhat inebriated Flandry why he does what he does, and he says something to the effect of:

"To keep those I love safe" (or "To keep my loved ones safe") "from the long night" or "from the night of the long knives"

- Or SOMETHING like that! -

Yes, I know it's vague, but that's all that I have to go on. My boyfriend feels very strongly about this quote, and this sentiment, but he can't recall from which book it comes (and I can't recall the exact quote and can't ask him lest I tip him off).

(Some have suggested, logically, that it comes from "The Long Night", but I searched a PDF of it and couldn't find it.)

I'm hoping against hope that maybe someone here may recognize what I'm looking for, and be able to point me to the correct book.

Thank you!

 

[Mad Alice]

The Broken Sword?? I don't know the book but I recognize the quote.

It was what thee Ensign called The coming of a new dark age that would beset them if their empire ever fell.
It is actually a reference to a quote by Hitler and Himmler, of a WWII engagement, the Battle of The Night Of The Long Knives.
I just thought I would throw that tidbit of trivia out there. Hope it helps, and best wishes upon the upcoming festivities.

 

[Ray Pullar]

The Broken Sword is not a Flandry book; it's a blood and thunder Viking doom saga with elves and trolls battling.

I read nearly all of the Flandry novels and much of the stories back in the nineteen-eighties as a teenager. The quote sounds like something the older Flandry (who made Admiral by the end, Horatio Hornblower style) would have said, looking back morosely at many betrayals and deaths (often brought about by his own hand) and grimly forward to the fall of the Terran Empire at the paws of the Merseians and the long night that would descend. The younger man had a more upbeat attitude not yet worn down into bitterness - although the character was always haunted by depression much like his creator. So I'd think that it would be the later novels that it appears in - A knight of ghosts and shadows (1974), A stone in heaven (1979) or The game of empire (1985). Three earlier works featured the youthful Flandry - Ensign Flandry (1966), The rebel stars (1969) and A circus of hells (1970). I don't think he expressed this sort of outlook in those as it came from the disappointments of experience.

If you haven't already, I suggest asking at the Baen Books' forum - Baen's Bar - it has kept these stories in print and the gang there no doubt has resident experts.

 

[Gonk the Insane]

Yep, @Ray Pullar beat me to it: I've read The Broken Sword and there's not a Flandry to be seen. You can find a full list of the Flandry books on Wikipedia here:
Dominic Flandry - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not sure which one the quote's in, but at least now you've got a shorter list. Good hunting!

 

[AnnePMitchell]

The Broken Sword is not a Flandry book; it's a blood and thunder Viking doom saga with elves and trolls battling.

If you haven't already, I suggest asking at the Baen Books' forum - Baen's Bar - it has kept these stories in print and the gang there no doubt has resident experts.

Hey, thanks Ray! Just registered over there and posted as well. Thank you!

 

[AnnePMitchell]

Yep, @Ray Pullar beat me to it: I've read The Broken Sword and there's not a Flandry to be seen. You can find a full list of the Flandry books on Wikipedia {link omitted because "you must have at least 15 posts in order to post a link" (which is reasonable, I might add).

Not sure which one the quote's in, but at least now you've got a shorter list. Good hunting!

Thank you, Gonk! I actually had already found all of the PDFs that I could of that same wikipedia list, and searched them, and couldn't not find it. :-\ But, again, with not even having the exact quote, it was, well, "haystack, meet needle searcher". Hence my post here. :~)

Thank you!

 

[galanx]

The Broken Sword?? I don't know the book but I recognize the quote.

It is actually a reference to a quote by Hitler and Himmler, of a WWII engagement, the Battle of The Night Of The Long Knives.

The Night of the Long Knives was actually Hitler's purging of the SA and his old buddy Ernst Rohm in June 1934.