First draft of Narnia map

[gmtaslash]

And so Trojie didst upload her first version of the map, and beg everyone's indulgence for the fact that a) Lantern Waste is off the page to the west, and that b) she has NO justification for why the Shribble is there except. well, how far can a giant owl with a child on its back fly, anyway? And for the fact that the Glasswater is so huge; it has to be, trust me, because it has to pass within fifteen miles of Aslan's How. Oh, and the scale at the bottom reads 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 miles.  I'm sorry it's so small.

Comments

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

how far can a giant owl with a child on its back fly, anyway

One of those questions you never expect to be asking...

Anyway, the map looks grand.

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

There will be additional panels to the north, west and south, covering Ettinsmoor and the Wild North, the Western Mountains and Lantern Waste, and Archenland and Calormen respectively.

Technically I doubt that a giant owl can fly at all, given that there's an upper limit to the size a flying bird can be; the largest one I know of is the extinct Haast's eagle (Harpagornis moorei) which had a wingspan of twelve feet. Any bigger than that and the bird's just too heavy to fly. So a bird big enough to support a child of at least, say, ten (though probably more like twelve or thirteen, I suspect) on its back simply won't have the strength to lift both the child and itself; a swan (specifically Cygnus olor) is about 30kg and one of the largest flying birds currently alive; it needs to take off from the surface of a watercourse because the ground is too lumpy for it to be able to get up enough speed to launch. So I doubt that even if the owls could get aloft with these kids on their back that they could have got far; I've put the Shribble about 60-70 miles from Cair Paravel because it seems to have been hinted that it's a long way between the two places.

WHY DO I THINK ABOUT THESE THINGS? I SHOULD BE PREPARING MY PROPOSAL, NOT WORRYING ABOUT FICTIONAL OWLS FLYING OVER FICTIONAL RIVERS!

of course, two owls could carry a child between them on a length of creeper, held under the dorsal guiding feathers...

OH GOD KILL ME NOW.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

*dies*

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

*revives*

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Oh how kind you are.

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

We can't have a dead Cap'n; it would end badly.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

People might blame you.

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

They might, and I might be thrown overboard.

And then I'd have no choice but to cling to driftwood, wash up on an island, live off breadfruit and tree-climbing crabs for a year, build a raft and set sail for land once more.

Naturally the raft would be christened 'Ed/Caspian'.

[sedri.livejournal.com]

*giggles madly* No, Trojie, I can't kill you - I love you too much for that. Go the Python! *snigger*

And good luck with your proposal, whenever you get around to it.

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

Thank you :)

I *will* get round to it this weekend, I'm even working on it today, despite Google Scholar's uselessness...

[sedri.livejournal.com]

Am glad to hear that, as today IS weekend. ;p Not that it makes much difference for me, as I have an exam in a few hours. But then it's over!

Am rambling. Sorry. When you have time, will you tell me what this proposal is actually about? I'm all curious.

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

Good luck with your exam!

I will be posting about the PhD proposal as soon as I have it straight in my head and my ideas approved by the supervisors, so sometime this week, I hope. I *can* tell you that it's on the morphometrics, taxonomy and evolution of the bivalve genus Spissatella :)

[sedri.livejournal.com]

You may need to include a glossary, Madame Smart Person. ;p

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

morphometrics; mathmatical analysis of shape

taxonomy; the science that involves working out the what constitutes a species and how various species are related

evolution; the origin of new species through descent with modification

bivalve; a mollusc of the class Bivalvia; has two plate-like shells (valves). Examples; scallop, clam, mussel.

Spissatella; a NZ-only genus of said class Bivalvia

that help? :P

[sedri.livejournal.com]

Well, I KNEW what "evolution" is, thank you (note the sarcasm). But the others... yes, it does. Thank you (note the sincerity).

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

Sarcasm and sincerity noted :) I just decided to go down the 'thorough' route :)

[sedri.livejournal.com]

;p Fair enough. You can never know how close or far we are from your level of expertise.

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

Indeed, particularly since my mother, whom I thought knew at least a bit about this sort of thing, gets a sort of glazed look in her eyes the moment I say the word 'statistics'...

[sedri.livejournal.com]

And Trojie's friends didst rejoice.

True, Glasswater does strike me as oddly big - yes, of course I trust you - but what struck me first is that its path seems so parallel to the Great River (blech! Every time I say that I'm tempted to type "the Anduin" instead. Grr.) - like train tracks. That's what struck me first. Not necessarily a bad thing! Just saying.

And no wories about the sie. Me has good eyes.

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

The Glasswater does parallel the course of the Great River, true, but that's because I had to pass it between two specific points (the measured distance between the mouths of the two and the measured distance between the How and the Glasswater to the west) and yet the Glasswater does not (at least is not mentioned as) being a branch or tributary of the Great River.
The topography suggested in the books puts high ground to the north and to the southwest of the Great RIver, meaning that both the Glasswater and the GR are lying in the lowest part of what is, I am increasingly starting to think, a glacial valley, or possibly even a fiord with more recent volcanics .. OH MY GOD THAT'S IT

*rushes away*

*realises she hasn't finished, and rushes back*

I actually suspect that the the Rush and the Glasswater have a common source in the Archenland mountains....

[sedri.livejournal.com]

*is happy for Trojie's epiphany, though she's not entirely sure what just happened*

I think I get it. I suppose it'll be easier for us not-inside-your-head people to understand once you've got more topography in there; land heights and all that.

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

I'm working on topography, promise!

*goes off to ponder Epiphany some more*

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

GRIN

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

Does it look plausible to you? Topography will hopefully be on the next draft.

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

I really don't know--I doubt I'll be much help unless you start thinking about where to put fossil deposits (ooh, preserving earlier ages!).

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

FOSSILS IN NARNIA FTW

There are SO molllusc beds in the sandstone/siltstone sequences on the coast around Cair Paravel. You know it's true.

[elvenpiratelady.livejournal.com]

And there was much rejoicing, and the people did bow down to Trojie's cartography skills.

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

:P My cartography skills are lacking, but more R&D is going into this map as we speak.