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'...