The Man Who Came Early is a 1956 science fiction short story by Poul Anderson which worked as a Spiritual Antithesis to Lest Darkness Fall, as well as a deconstruction of Trapped in the Past stories.
Gerald "Samsson", an American soldier stationed in Iceland, is sent back to the Viking Era after being hit by lightning.
The story is in the public domain. It can be read here
Tropes found in this work:
- Arranged Marriage: After Gerald's death, Ospak set up an arranged marriage for his daughter. Thorgunna did not protest it, but her refusal to talk to her husband speaks volumes about her real feelings on the matter.
- Artistic License – History: The world ending at the turn of the millennium was not a widespread belief among Early Middle Ages Christians.
- But Now I Must Go: Subversion. At the end, Gerald must leave his host because he has earned the ire of another clan and he does not want to get Ospak's family tangled up in a blood feud.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Thorgunna calls her father Ospak a coward and a perjurer when their houseguest Gerald kills a man in self-defense during a duel, and Ospak will not pay the wergild out of fear for a blood feud.
- Central Theme: As Ospak puts him: "[Gerald's] doom was that no man may ripen a field before harvest season."
- Due to the Dead: When Gerald was slain, his body and all he had owned was burned and buried in a barrow.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: While Gerald dies from a hunting party, he kills most of his assailants even after his gun runs out of ammo and leaves his main attacker with a limp, and the survivors acknowledged his fighting prowess in the aftermath.
- Downer Ending: At the ending, Gerald gets involved in a blood feud and gets killed off after all of his attempts to change history have fallen flat on their face. At best, he changes the course of history slightly by having one noble convert to Christianity faster.
- Easy Evangelism: Justified. Ospak Ulfsson is willing to listen to the priest out because after meeting Gerald he knows Iceland will be Christian before too long, and he sees no point in fighting against it.
- End of an Age: The story is set at the very end of the Viking Age, right before Iceland's conversion to Christianity.
- The Fair Folk: When the priest tries to convince Ospak to stop offering elves food, Ospak argues getting elves angry is very bad.
- Giving Radio to the Romans: Deconstructed. Gerald's attempts to change history fall flat on their face, predominately because while he has some ideas to implement, he lacks any sort of practical skills to do so as he was just a Military Police grunt, and, far more importantly, lacks common sense of what are his realistic capabilities. When he tries to show the Vikings how to make compasses, he has no idea where to find or mine magnetic ores. When he tries to show them how to build more modern sailing vessels, the Vikings point out that such vessels are too cumbersome to dock anywhere where there is not a ready built harbor, an obvious rarity in that time period, and so on. The story's main point is that introducing future inventions, while possible, is immensely difficult, because most advances are useless without an equally advanced society or infrastructure (and often both) to support them or outright impossible to make without them. In the end, his last technological artifact, a pistol, runs out of ammo during a fight to the death, and he has far more results using his martial arts training to dispatch the men sent after him in a blood feud. He is eventually killed, and at most, he influences a noble family to Christianize faster, as the family that took him in listened to him talking about Iceland becoming Christian in the future.
- Greek Fire: Mentioned. When Gerald tells Ospak about a weapon which can shoot burning projectiles, his host believes him because he has seen and heard of Greek Fire."I have it from Filif Eriksson, who served in the guard down there, and he is a steady fellow when not drunk. He has also seen the Greek fire used, it burns on water."
- Guns Are Useless: Justified. Since he knows about "Greek fire", Ospak believes Gerald's claims that his gun is more powerful than a bow. However, he still thinks bows are better because guns sound prohibitively expensive and excessively difficult to make.
- Human Sacrifice: Ospak claims he did not make human sacrifices, but he wanted to have the option to do so. He is not happy that the Christian priest intends to outlaw that custom.
- Lightning Can Do Anything: It can send people back in time apparently.
- Medieval Morons: Defied. 9th century peasants are smart people who are perfectly adapted to their environment and mode of life. In contrast, Gerald comes across as useless since he does not even know how to ride a horse properly.
- Mighty Whitey: Deconstructed. The Vikings are not impressed with Gerald's modern knowledge, his complete lack of basic useful skills (like hunting, farming, tanning, carpentry, horse-riding or even weaving) or his twentieth century morals, and all his attempts to introduce modern technology fail utterly. When he tries to show the Vikings how to make compasses, he has no idea where to find or mine magnetic ores. When he tries to show them how to build more modern sailing vessels, the Vikings point out that such vessels are too cumbersome to dock anywhere where there is not a ready built harbor, an obvious rarity in that time period. The Vikings find the matches he brought with him impressive, but he has no idea how to make more. The only knowledge he has of any use is modern martial arts.
- Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: When Ketill taunts Gerald, Gerald wants to take it outside. Then he finds out that the Viking's idea of "taking it out" is a not a fist fight but a duel to the death. Ketill gives him the option to back down if he is too cowardly to fight like a man, which prompts Gerald to fight him anyway.
- Retired Badass: Ospak used to be a warrior before settling down and becoming a landowner.
- Spiritual Antithesis: This short story was conceived as a response to Lest Darkness Fall, Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and the like. Anderson differed from Twain in his treatment of the "modern-day time-traveler finds himself stuck in a "primitive" society" trope. Unlike Hank Morgan, Samsson finds medieval people are not backwards, brainless morons at all. And they are not impressed with his skills or morals.
- Time Travel: Gerald was sent back in time after a lightning strike.
- Trapped in the Past: Deconstructed. Gerald is unable to adapt to the Viking society. And in the end, he runs afoul of his ignorance of Viking legal customs and is killed. The story's main point is that time-travelers do not really have much chance of introducing future inventions because most advances are useless without an advanced societal and technological infrastructure to support them, while the characters in question do not have sufficient skills, tools and resources to introduce new technology.
- Villain Respect: Gerald manages to kill or maim most of his attackers, and the survivors admit they "they are an eldritch race in the United States, but they do not lack manhood".
- Ye Goode Olde Days: Discussed, and one of the novel's subversions. In the end, Gerald is buried in a tomb, and Ospak ponders about soldiers in the future who might look at the unnamed tomb, and wish that they lived like the warrior they think he was all those years ago.
