Torvaldsland

By Hersius

Introduction

Torvaldsland is decribed as containing cliffs, inlets, and mountains. Its soil is thin, and the land is rocky. Most of the farms appear to be along the coast. Book 9 Page 55. Torvaldsland is a geologic uplift. TGV June 2003. Whereas the coastline of the Northern Forests is at sea level, the Torvaldsland coastline is dominated by cliffs, between which are fjords. The land slopes steeply between the coast and a series of mountains distinct from the Hrimgar chains. Book 9 Pages 81-82.

The identification of a series of mountains other than the Hrimgar Mountains becomes a note of special interest. Everyone knows that the major mountain chains of known Gor that Norman has so far revealed are the Hrimgar, Thentis, Voltai, Sardar, and Ta-Thassa ranges. Norman does not limited the planet’s mountains to the major mountain ranges, however. The existence of the mountains of Torvaldsland ilustrates this. Compared to the great planetary mountain chains, the tiny mountains of Torvaldsland are insignificant, although they mean everything to the people who live on them or beside them along the Torvaldsland coast. In the same vein, Norman speaks of “inland lakes and seas” (Book 10 Page 7), so if he continues to write, more surprises can be expected.

The Torvaldsland mountains rise within view of the coast. The peaks are snowcapped but the western slopes provide grazing for bosk in the summer and land for tilling on what are called “high farms.” Book 9 Pages 82, 145, 238-239. The Torvaldsberg, which is a free-standing mountain, is one of these, and it is only a few pasangs inland, given the speed with which Tarl Cabot and Ivar Forkbeard reached it (they left the hall of Svein Blue Tooth, located at the cost, at night, and were part way up the the Torvaldsberg by noon) and given the amount of coastal detail they could see from it. Book 9 Pages 214-216.

A character who calls himself Hrolf and who arrives to fight Kurii in response to the war arrow tells people that he is from “the East.” The comment is made that he is not questioned but the implication seems to be that few would care to live east of the Torvaldsland mountains. Book 9 Pages 239, 267.

Torvaldsland is a coastal place. The herd of Tancred, which migrates along the southwestern side of the Hrimgar Mountains, is said to travel east and north of Torvaldsland. TGV December 2005. The places mentioned in Book 9 other than the high farms are all either islands, skerries, or inlets. Although Ax Glacier is geologically an intermountain glacier within the Hrimgar Mountains, the human population extends as far north as Ax Glacier. This is shown not only when Ivar Forkbeard posed as someone from that region but also when people from that region acknowledged the summons of the war arrow. Book 9 Pages 139, 238.

The fact that Torvaldsland is coastal and has a number of mountains basically at the coast explains why the Torvaldsland current can warm the area sufficiently to permit limited farming and grazing. Torvaldsland is at the same latitudes as the polar basin. The Hrimgar Mountains shield the small triangle of land from the polar winds, and the mountains of Torvaldsland would seem to further protect the coast from whatever winds come off of the Hrimgars. The Torvaldsland current is relatively warmer water that flows, in part, northward along the Torvaldsland coast. The comment is made that without it, Torvaldsland would be too cold for agriculture. Book 9 Pages 55-58.

As discussed below, the Torvaldsland coast is estimated by these articles to be at around 16 degrees west longitude.

Background

The location of Torvaldsland starts with the location of Thentis, from which the location of Ko-ro-ba can be derived. This in turn leads to the locations of Laura and Lydius, and Torvaldsland can be projected from Lydius.

These articles have consistently used the Thentis and Voltai mountain ranges as the Prime Meridian, not because anyone on Gor would do so, but rather as a fixed point of reference for everything else. The tops of the Thentis Mountains seem to brush the Northern Forests, the Thentis range is just north of the Voltai, and, with one interruption for the Tahari, the Voltai runs straight south like a backbone to Thassa at the Plains of Turia. That seems perfect for a Prime Meridian.

The Thentis Mountains are estimated at 2 degrees west and 2 degrees east longitude. One degree west and east is given for the highest peaks, those that rival the Himalayas. That leaves 1 degree west for the mountains where the black wine and tarns are found. Since Thentis is located deep within that area, Thentis can be located at 1 1/2 degrees west. These articles also place the Northern Forests between 60 and 68 degrees north latitude. This puts the upper edges of the Thentis ranges at 60 degrees north if one follows Book 7 Page 129 as suggesting that the northern portions of the Thentis Mountains meet the Northern Forests. These articles give 4 degrees of latitude for the Thentis Mountains, and so they are placed between 56 and 60 degrees north. If one accepts the interpretation that the Olni River leaves the Thentis Mountains, and if one accepts the idea that Thentis, although nearby by definition, does not relate to the Olni as a port city at or near the source of the Olni (some online visual interpretations to the contrary), then both Thentis and the Olni have to be squeezed into 4 degrees of latitude. It seems reasonable to then have the Olni exit the range at 57 degrees north and to place Thentis at 58 degrees north. Recall that Ko-ro-ba is northwest of Thentis, so room needs to remain for Ko-ro-ba to be below the Northern Forests. Placing Thentis at 58 degrees allows Ko-ro-ba to be found at 59 degrees north.

Ko-ro-ba is close to Thentis. When Tarl Cabot found himself returned to Gor, he saw the Thentis Mountains as a blue smudge in the distance, turned toward Ko-ro-ba using the Thentis ranges as a reference point, and walked in a day to where Ko-ro-ba used to be. He had been dropped on the outskirts of the ruined city. Book 2 Pages 20, 24, 25, 32. In March of 2005, I asked Xerxex: “A geo tech question for you: with the curvature of a planet like Venus, how many longitudinal degrees would you be to see the top of a mountain range like the Himalayas as a distant smudge? Knowing the maximum range for seeing such a range as a smudge will help me locate Ko-ro-ba. ... I need to locate Ko-ro-ba by reference to Cabot seeing the Thentis Mtns as a “blue smudge” on the horizon while a day’s foot trek from Ko-ro-ba.” Xerxex responded by not only sending me the formula for ground distance but by sending me an Excel spreadsheet with calculations for both Earth and Venus and various heights. The man is amazing! Anyway, using that information, Ko-ro-ba can be placed at about 350 pasangs from the 1 degree west where the Thentis Mountains loom over the planet. This places the cities of Thentis and Ko-ro-ba less than 350 pasangs apart. Remember that the farther north or south of the equator you go, the more closely the lines of longitude are to each other. At 59 degrees north latitude, the 350 pasangs covers about 8 degrees of longitude. If Cabot saw only the highest peaks, and if those highest peaks were at 1 degree west, then Cabot would have been at 9 degrees west. Ko-ro-ba can therefore be located at about 8 degrees west, giving 1 degree for the “blue smudge fudge factor,” meaning that Cabot saw not simply the highest peaks but a bit more of the Thentis ranges.

Locating Ko-ro-ba at around 59 north 8 west lets us project Laura.

Laura is north of Ko-ro-ba. Book 7 Pages 61, 62, 198. Laura is also northwest of Ko-ro-ba. Book 7 Pages 63, 108. Here is one of those discrepancy notes: in Book 7, Targo is a Torian Slaver who has a small wagon caravan heading to Laura. Page 59 states that his caravan was attacked northeast of Ko-ro-ba. Page 190 states that the attack took place northwest of Ko-ro-ba. However, Page 59 does not say that Laura itself is northeast of Ko-ro-ba, so the placement of Laura northwest of Ko-ro-ba is not in question.

The distance between Ko-ro-ba and Laura can be grossly guessed by reference to the “many days” that it took Targo’s wagon(s) to make the trip. Targo’s slow caravan, pulled by bosk, was attacked either 2 or 4 days after leaving Ko-ro-ba. Elinor, the woman whom Norman uses for Book 7’s point of view, was discovered 2 or 3 days later. Two days later they encountered a caravan, and Targo replenished supplies. It seems that the other kajirae began teaching Elinor the Gorean language at that time. The group met 4 more caravans and stopped at 2 palisaded villages within the next 10 days. The following day they met the retinue of a Lady Rena of Lydius, that night Lady Rena was captured, and the next day shortly after dawn they reached Laura. Book 7 Pages 59, 62-63, 65, 69-78. The trip took just shy of 3 weeks, with plenty of stopping and disaster. I think that it would appear to a reasonable reader that a group walking steadily with none of the mishaps and dallying would have easily made it in half the time, given that the terrain was grassy hills and meadows. Book 7 Pages 43, 59, 74. It is commonly estimated that in the American west, a wagon train could cover 10 to 15 miles in a good day. Taking the grand view, 15 miles x 0.7 pasangs per mile x 20 days = 210 pasangs. Taking the minimum view of an average of 10 miles per day yields 140 pasangs, and that is probably still generous for Targo’s ill-fated and stop-and-shop as you go travel strategy. Laura is at the edge of the Northern Forests, so it can be placed at 60 degrees north. 140 pasangs at 60 degrees north covers a smidge over 3 degrees of latitude. Laura can then be guesstimated roughly at 60 north 11 west.

Finding Laura estimates Lydius. Laura is a port on the Laurius River, located as far inland as the river is navegable. Lydius is the port city where the Laurius River joins Thassa. It is below the southern borders of the Northern Forests and is a bit southwest of Laura. Laura is both 200 pasangs upriver from Lydius and 200 pasangs inland from Thassa. Book 7 Pages 59-60, 81, 85; Book 8 Pages 18, 24, 41, 64, 85, 263; Book 9 Page 16. 200 pasangs at 60 degrees north on Gor covers almost 5 degrees of latitude. Lydius can thereby be roughly guesstimated at 58 north 16 west. This means that Lydius, which according to these criteria may be only some 350 pasangs from Ko-ro-ba, lies 8 degrees of longitude to Ko-ro-ba’s west, which illustrates how the lines of longitude converge. Eight degrees of longitude at Gor’s equator (using the planetary size estimates that these articles use) represents some 680 pasangs, nearly twice the distance!

From Lydius, the Northern Forests hug the Thassa shore, with Torvaldsland just above them along the coast. Book 7 Pages 60, 81-82, 86, 90; Book 8 Page 18. When Cabot is speaking with Ho-Hak about an incident that took place in the Vosk delta, it was mentioned that a tarn had flown from the spot to the northwest, where it would have encountered the coast. Cabot figured that the tarn would have then followed the coast northward, perhaps to Torvaldsland itself. The coast is later described as continuing northward. Book 9 Pages 20-21, 25. Keeping the coastline at a true north would then place the Torvaldsland coast at 16 degrees west. The Northern Forests end at 68 degrees north according to these articles. Kassau is located on the coast “at the northern brink of the forest”, and beyond, Torvaldsland is said to begin in people’s minds “with the thinning of the trees northward.” Book 9 Pages 25-26. Kassau can thereby be located at perhaps 67 north 16 west. This agrees with the statements that Lydius is hundreds of pasangs to the south of Kassau and that the Thentis Mountains are southeast of Kassau. Book 9 Pages 28, 52.

Helmutsport is an interesting place to locate. It is specifically mentioned as being on the coast as a free port administered by Merchants. Lydius is also mentioned as a free port administered by Merchants, and the islands of Scagnar, Hunjer, and Skjern, which are located west of Torvaldsland, are listed as exchange islands. Book 6 Page 137-138. It seems that the cold north gets a lot of attention as Merchants trade with Torvaldsland! Helmutsport is located north of Lydius. Book 10 Page 7. When Torvaldslanders unite under the war arrow to fight Kurii, people from the exchange islands and from Helmutsport are numbered among them. The Skerry of Einar is identified as being the southern point of Torvaldsland from the ocean. Book 9 Pages 55, 74-75. When the ship of Ivar Forkbeard makes for home, it bypasses the coast until it comes to the inlet that ends at Forkbeard’s Landfall. Book 9 Pages 80, 151. There are places to the south of that locale, such as the Inlet of Thorstein Camp, formerly known as the Inlet of Parsit. Book 9 Page 147. My guess is that Helmutsport is a town at the southern land boundary of Torvaldsland, just as the Skerry of Einar is the oceanic marker. This agrees with the order of listing of places on Book 10 Page 7. If that is the case, it could conceivably be located at 69 north 16 west.

The mountains of Torvaldsland follow the coast. They can be guesstimated to be found at Helmutsport, which we are taking to be at 69 north, and they do not interfere with the herd of Tancred, so they probably do not reach Ax Glacier, which we take to be at 73 north. TGV December 2005. The mountains of Torvaldsland could therefore conceivably be found between 69 north and 72 north. This would place most of the Torvaldsland population within 69 and 72 north as well.

The mountains of Torvaldsland are undoubtedly conical and quickly rise in height. Cabot and Ivar Forkbeard were ascending the Torvaldsberg, which is described as looking a lot like the Matterhorn, quickly after reaching it, and the farms that are found on the mountains are called “high.” The mountains of Torvaldsland therefore probably do not take up very much longitudinal space. With 1 degree of longitude being estimated at taking up about 29 pasangs (some 20 miles) of ground at 70 degrees west, the mountains of Torvaldsland can be guesstimated at being found at with their east sides at 15 degrees west.

This places Torvaldsland at 16 degrees west, between 69 and 72 degrees north. If the populated area is restricted, for the most part, to an area between 69 and 72 degrees north and 16 and 15 degrees west, the land area would be some 225 pasangs from north to south and some 30 pasangs from east to west, for a total of some 7,650 square pasangs (some 5,355 square miles). Torvaldsland ends up being smaller than Iceland. In fact, it would be barely a country-identifying color streak on most maps.

The idea that the area is truly small is supported by the concept that the population is not that numerous. We are lead to assume that when the war arrow was taken to all parts of Torvaldsland - in an extremely short amount of time, I might add - every able-bodied man, including at least some thralls, showed up. Those who were not already present at The Thing would have heeded the call of the arrow, whether out of duty, self-interest, or the chance of a lifetime to be part of something so tremendous. The men of Torvaldsland and a significantly large army of Kurii could all meet on a single field. It does not therefore appear that we are looking at a male population that reaches into the millions. Moreover, to have one person, Ivar Forkbeard, who is even an old curmudgeon to boot, win at all those competitions suggests that the competition was not all that extensive. One would expect a large population to be stocked with hearty young adults of Olympic athlete prowess. The fact that some old guy does the Mark Spitz award clean-up thing suggests a small population for Torvaldsland.

To get an idea of how far east to locate the southwest part of the Hrimgar Mountains, we need to again consider the herd of Tancred.

When Cabot was at ‘the wall” that acted as a barrier to the herd’s exit from the Northern Forests, he saw that the wall extended in both directions (east and west) to the horizon. The flatness of the terrain is not given, but Norman’s intent was obviously to suggest that the wall was a true barrier. Cabot was told that the wall extended more than 70 pasangs, which at 68 degrees latitude would cover a little over 2 degrees of longitude. Book 12 Page 149. The herd did not simply make an “end run” around it. The portion of the wall where Cabot found himself did not abut the Hrimgars, so he was apparently well west of them.

In addition, the herd hugs the land along the western side of the Hrimgars east and north of Torvaldsland, and since this is a migration pattern, we can understand that the herd has taken this route for generations. Book 12 Page 36. Recall that at least parts of Torvaldsland are subject to famine. Book 9 Page 55. If the herd were within hunting distance of Torvaldslanders, my guess is that it would have been wiped out long ago. At a minimum, if the herd’s route were close enough to Torvaldsland for its hunting to be practical, the Torvaldslanders would know the timings of its northern and southern migrations, and you can bet that if they saw that the herd’s migration had been interrupted, they would have dusted off that famous war arrow and would have dismantled that inconvenient wall long before Cabot arrived on the scene.

The only conclusion can be that the herd - and the Hrimgar Mountains - are far enough away from Torvaldsland to make the Torvaldslanders not bother to hunt the greatest single source of protein and hides in the region. At the same time, since these articles consider the Thentis and Voltai mountains to be the result of plate tectonics, I am reluctant to locate the Hrimgars east of the Prime Meridian. As a compromise, given the longitudinal constraints, the place where the southwestern portion either exits or meets the Northern Forests can be roughly dart-thrown at around 10 west. The width can be supposed to be around 4 degrees, which at that latitude would cover some 128 pasangs, making the place where the southeastern portion exits or meets the Northern Forests projectable at around 6 degrees west. This would leave 6 degrees, or around 180 pasangs, of distance between the mountains of Torvaldsland and the Hrimgars. As an aside, if one wished to continue the Hrimgars into the Northern Forests a bit, one could estimate them extending 2 degrees of latitude to 66 north and, at that latitude, covering between 8 and 4 degrees west longitude. Oh, and the wall, or its remains, would then be found at 68 north covering 12 to 10 degrees west.