Polar Places

By Hersius

Introduction

Gor is depicted as a planet that has climate zones analogous to those of Earth. In an earlier article, it was suggested that Norman used a simplified scheme of average-latitude ranges to conceptualize these zones. TGV Feb 2003. It is clear that Gor has an arctic ice cap, and it is also clear that Norman intended his work to be cast on a planet in which the geographical settings are believably Earth-like, with certain idealized differences such as no man-made pollution, noticeably higher oxygenation, and lighter gravity in an orbit slightly closer to the sun than is Earth’s orbit. The verisimilitude inherent in the writings suggests strongly that an antarctic polar ice cap can be inferred.

On Earth, the polar ice caps cover an average area extending from 90 degrees to 75 degrees when the planet is not in the grip of an ice age. On Earth, both the shape and the altutude of the south polar cap are distinct from those of the northern ice cap, and Norman gives us no information as to the shape or altitude of the Gorean southern ice cap. Gor’s northern ice cap seems to be circular on the side above the western part of the supercontinent, as will be illustrated below.

Gor has a northern arctic ocean, known as the “polar sea,” which flows eastward. In Gor’s northern hemisphere, the ocean currents move in a counter-clockwise direction. The Stream of Torvald, in Thassa to the west of the continent, is an ocean current warmed by equatorial heat that moves northward, warming the Torvaldsland coastline enough to permit some limited agriculture where cultivation would not otherwise be possible. As it enters arctic waters, the current splits, and water is driven eastward between the land mass and the ice cap. The land curves to match the circular curve of the ice cap, and the result is a narrow sea shaped like a scimitar. The sea is narrow enough to be frozen over for half of each year, permitting people to cross over it on foot to the ice cap itself. It is wide enough to have more than one recognized current, the principal one being known as the “parsit current.“ Book 9 Page 55; Book 12 Pages 37, 38, 99, 109, 190.

The land adjacent to the scimitar sea is a vast, narrow tundra region referred to as the “polar basin.” It is also characterized as “the northern wastes.” The polar basin lies within the Arctic Circle, which extends to the land just below Ax Glacier. The polar basin is characterized by permafrost. However, it is also characterized by being a dry, level plain, home to mosses, lichens, shrubs and some seasonal variations that include berries, flowers and insects. Much of the tundra has bogs. The polar basin is treeless, as is the land below Ax Glacier, although driftwood from the coast is deposited by the polar sea. The polar basin has uplifts known as “nesting cliffs“ to which birds migrate. These are thought to be geologically related to the Hrimgar Mountains. Book 9 Pages 156-157; Book 12 Pages 36, 128, 139, 152, 165, 176, 187-188, 191, 195-196, 205-206.

The Northern Forests form the southern boundary of the tundra zone. To the extreme west, the Hrimgar Mountains form the boundary between the tundra and Northern Forests zones and the triangle of largely-coastal land known as Torvaldsland.

Background

The size of the planet and its available area for land masses are important for conceptualizing its geography. Gor is somewhat smaller than Earth, which suggests that some comparison with Venus may be appropriate. TGV Mar 2003. The ice caps place northern and southern limits on the available areas on which Norman’s action stories take place. By inferring a southern cap and by using the Earth average for the extent of each ice cap, a total of 30 degrees of latitude out of 180 degrees becomes accounted for by polar caps. A map jigsaw puzzle starts its north-south boundaries by filling in the top and bottom 15 degrees with polar ice caps. The rest of the available geography must be contained within those constraints.

Gor likely has an antarctic ocean as well, although this is simply Thassa close to the southern ice cap. An earlier article suggested that the Southern Plains is a land mass that collided with a northern land mass in the distant past. That collision formed the Ta-Thassa Mountains in the same way that on Earth, India migrated northward to crash into the Eurasian continent and form the Himalayas. The occurrence was in the remote past, as evidenced by the erosion that must have taken place to make the Ta-Thassa Mountains pale in altitude before the Voltai and Thentis Mountains, such as with the Urals on Earth. There had to be oceanic room bewteen the southern cap and the northern land mass over which the Southern Plains land mass could move. This suggests that oceanic distance remains between the Southern Plains and the southern ice cap. TGV Sep 2003. This view is reinforced by the fact that fierce winds sweep the Southern Plains, as those winds would logically come from the Gorean antarctic ocean.

Norman writes that 240 varieties of plants grow within 500 pasangs of the north pole. Book 12 Page 196. One interpretation can be that the axial pole itself is meant, and since Norman states that the plants do not grow on the ice cap itself, one can clonclude that there is almost no ice cap on the continental hemisphere; this would place the tundra closer to the 90 latitude mark and give the map an extra 10 degrees or so of latitude to work with. Another interpretation can be that the edge of the polar ice cap, rather than the axial pole itself, is meant and that all the plants referred to grow in the tundra region, which would then be located where expected.

The northern sea is narrow enough that it sometimes freezes over and allows people to walk across it to the permanent ice cap. This and its shape, along with the comment that the 240 plant varieties exist within 500 pasangs of the pole, suggest that the northern sea is much narrower than 500 pasangs. At the same time, it is wide enough to have more than one current, its main current being the parsit current. These articles estimate its width at an average of maybe 200 pasangs.

The latitudes of the tundra and the polar sea can be estimated by taking into account the Northern Forests. On Earth, the boreal forest, which is, literlly, the “northern forest” zone lies on average between 60 and 68 degrees latitude, and the tundra zone is found on average between 68 and 75 degrees latitude. See also TGV Jan 2004. Adopting those figures for Gor, the narrow polar sea should probably be found between 75 and 73 degrees latitude, and the tundra should probably be found between 73 and 68 degrees latitude.

The pass through the Hrimgar Mountains through which the large tabuk herd migrates from the Northern Forests into the polar tundra plains is named the Pass of Tancred. Book 12 Pages 36, 190-192, 195. Norman possibly drew his inspiration from Sir Thomas Tancred. Tancred represented British financiers and co-designed a railroad project, known as the White Pass and Yukon Route, over what had been considered by most to be an almost-impassable stretch of mountains. Construction began in 1898, and when the 35,000 workers completed it in 1900, the 110 mile railroad linked Skagway, Alaska and White Horse, Yukon Territory.

The ship designer who built the ship that Cabot intended as a relief vessel for the Red Hunters of the Polar Plains is named Tersites, and he was considered half-blind and mad. Book 12 Page 28. Norman was possibly inspired by Shakespeare’s character Thersites, in the play Troilus and Cressida, considered a fool, who was in turn based on a Homeric foot soldier in the Trojan War, described as lame and ugly and who was killed by Achilles.