----------------------------Original message---------------------------- At 12:28 20/11/97 -0500, Alberta Auringer Wood wrote: >At the Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives meeting in >Saskatoon last May, one of our speakers was William Sarjeant of the >University of Saskatchewan who writes using his two middle names of Antony >Swithin. He has created a series of novels about the island of Rockall. >[...]. The books are not fantasy, science or historical fiction - they are >examples of how maps can be interpreted by one's imagination and some >careful use of geological, geographic and social theory to build a >plausible theory of what could have been. MANY years ago, in my PRE-undergraduate days, I remember attending a fascinating talk by an academic geographer (from the University of Leeds in England I think?), who presented an astonishingly detailed analysis of "the geography of Tolkein's Middle Earth". His thesis was that, if you examine the maps and text of "Lord of the Rings" and the other Middle Earth sagas, you can build up an extremely plausible, multi-layered view of this imaginary place. And, furthermore, if you do undertake this sort of analysis, he suggested that various parallels emerge between the "geography of Middle Earth", and the actual geography of Europe at the time that Tolkein wrote. The more obvious examples were the location of Mordor in the east, behind a high and seemingly impenetrable barrier of mountains (analogy with the Iron Curtain of the time and the "evil empire" of the Soviet Union?); the "good guys" living in rural simplicity in "the Shire" (evoking an English, Anglo- Saxon sense of place: even the Hobbits' pubs have more than passing similarity to those of rural southeast England of the time!); and the "elves" and "dwarfs" occupying mountainous lands to the northeast (parallels with Scandinavia and myths of Trolls and so on?). I'm sure there were other examples, some much more subtle and based on deeper geographical ideas (the geographies of the social dynamics between the groups, for example; and the comparative descriptions of 'sense of place' as exhibited by the different cultures encountered in the yarns). Unfortunately, my own geographical education was not sufficient at that stage for me to really appreciate the subtleties of his argument, but it must have made an impression, for me to be able to still remember it over twenty years later! I wish I knew who the speaker was, and also if his ideas had been published anywhere? Does anybody out there know? An interesting topic for discussion. Over the years, I have first learned from you folks of many of the books that have since become my favourites. So do please continue throwing out pointers to particularly notable fiction (and non-fiction) from time to time as you have been! Have a good weekend! Darius *************************************************************************** Darius Bartlett Darius Bartlett Department of Geography Roinn na Tireolaiochta University College Cork Colaste na hOllscoile Corcaigh Cork, Ireland Corcaigh, Eire Phone: (+353) 21 902835 Fax: (+353) 21 271980 E-mail: [log in to unmask] http://www.ucc.ie/ucc/depts/geography/djb --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This message was transmitted using 100% recycled electrons.... ***************************************************************************