{"id":29927,"date":"2015-08-31T06:30:55","date_gmt":"2015-08-30T18:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=29927"},"modified":"2015-08-25T22:01:15","modified_gmt":"2015-08-25T10:01:15","slug":"here-be-dragons-the-magic-and-power-of-maps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2015\/08\/31\/here-be-dragons-the-magic-and-power-of-maps\/","title":{"rendered":"“Here Be Dragons”: The Magic and Power Of Maps"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The Wall of Night Series map; design by Peter Fitzpatrick<\/p><\/div>\n

One of my earliest reading fascinations was with the place of maps in story, particularly in historical fiction where the known world faded into the blankness of uncharted territory, and the legend promised that, \u201cHere be dragons.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

And then, of course, I discovered Fantasy\u2014where the unknown might very well be inhabited by dragons.<\/p>\n

One of the great allures of Fantasy is the way it explores \u201cwonder\u201d and \u201cpossibility\u201d, as well as the ability to simply have fun with \u201cwhat if\u201d\u2014and nothing captures these elements better than the map. The blank spaces on the chart offer mystery, adventure and danger, while the map as a whole conveys a sense of the world that is larger than either the protagonist\u2014or the reader\u2019s\u2014immediate experience of it. Perhaps most importantly of all in Fantasy, the uncharted regions of the map, or the charted realms where the \u201cother\u201d dwells, also offer the possibility of magic\u2026<\/p>\n

\"heirofnight_bothcovers_450px-1\"<\/a>I have used the map in precisely this way in The Wall Of Night<\/b><\/a> series. It exists as an artefact in The Heir Of Night<\/i><\/a>, building a sense of the world and framing the story in relation to it. In Heir<\/i>, the map takes the physical form of a table with the realms of Haarth incised into the top. The protagonist, Malian of Night, turns the tabletop in order to examine her world\u2014but also her own place within it.<\/p>\n

\u201cA map of the Wall and all the known lands of Haarth had been etched into the wood and inlaid with precious metals to show the salient details of each country.\u00a0 A sinuous vein of gold marked the River, the mighty Ijir with its two great tributaries and multitude of prosperous city states, all built on the back of the river trade.\u00a0 Each city was picked out in a minute precision of turrets or minarets or spires, depending on its character, and in whatever heraldic colors had belonged to it when the table was made.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Malian\u2019s dark, slender brows were drawn together, the set of her young mouth thoughtful as she spun the table surface slowly round, so that the Wall and surrounding Gray Lands gave way to the Barren Hills, then to the River and all the countries to the south.\u00a0 A line of pewter marked the thousand leagues of road that ran from Emer to fabled Ishnapur and beyond that again was the vast and unknown desert, a sea of dunes wrought in jasper, topaz and bronze.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"UK\/AU\/NZ<\/a>

UK\/AU\/NZ<\/p><\/div>\n

In The Gathering Of The Lost<\/i><\/strong>, another main character, Carick, is a cartographer, and the repairing and reading old maps both illuminates his ignorance of the world he inhabits, while providing context for his growing understanding.<\/p>\n

‘ Carick \u2026 shrugged inwardly, concentrating on the Castellan\u2019s maps instead. These were in sad condition, but Carick thought they could be rebacked, with care, and the faded lines re-inked. He was more concerned, given their age, that the detail being redone might be highly inaccurate, and that there were too many blank areas on every chart.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDo what you can, Maister Carick, and I will be grateful,\u201d Lord Falk said, when Carick approached him with his concerns. \u201cThere\u2019s no coin to spare for new surveys, not when we have the entire north to garrison.\u201d He was standing by his dayroom window, gazing down at the village, and he beckoned Carick to join him. \u201cIt looks peaceful, does it not? But each year is a constant struggle to get the harvest sown and gathered, both for the folk in those fields and all those like them throughout northern Emer. Yet without the harvest, we all starve.\u201d He shot a glance at Carick. \u201cStarvation is not a thing you experience often on the River, from what I hear, but it\u2019s as great an evil as anything a knight might slay with arrow or sword. And there is only so much I can wring out of these folk, even for the necessities to defend them.\u201d<\/span> ‘
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\"USA\"<\/a>

USA<\/p><\/div>\n

Maps also work as a functional artefact in Gathering<\/i><\/strong>. They, together with Carick\u2019s skill, chart a physical course through difficult terrain when need and danger drive.<\/p>\n

\u2018The knight leaned forward. \u201cThis dotted line, here. What\u2019s that?\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Carick peered at it. \u201cProbably a foot-track used by shepherds or hunters. But this map is very old. Any path could be like The Leas village and have disappeared long ago.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSee where it runs,\u201d said Raven, \u201cup over this ridge\u2014cutting almost directly from the ford, here, to The Leas.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Carick looked at the map contour, which was very steep, and then at the sheer rise of hillside that contour represented. But potentially, if the damosels who went upriver had taken the southwest tributary, Raven\u2019s company could use the dotted path to cross the ridge and reach The Leas ahead of them.\u2019<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In this sense, the possession of maps and the knowledge they contain, define a boundary between civilization and savagery.<\/p>\n

\u2018 Lord Falk \u2026 turned back to Carick. \u201cAnd you, Maister Cartographer, I must get safely to Caer Argent \u2026 the Duke does not agree that what was good enough for our generation will do for the next.\u201d \u2026 His smile, as he glanced at Ser Bartrand, was sly. \u201cI heard, recently, that the he plans to endow a university in Caer Argent.\u201d ‘\"dragon_thornspell\"<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

But as yet, none of the maps in The Wall Of Night<\/strong> series have led the protagonists to a realm inhabited by dragons\u2026<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my earliest reading fascinations was with the place of maps in story, particularly in historical fiction where the known world faded into the blankness of uncharted territory, and the legend promised that, \u201cHere be dragons.\u201d And then, of course, I discovered Fantasy\u2014where the unknown might very well be inhabited by dragons. One of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,30,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-my-books","category-epicfantasy","category-funstuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29927"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29933,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29927\/revisions\/29933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}