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THE TORVALDSLAND SKERRIES By Hersius INTRODUCTION The initial two articles in this Geography Department discussed the Gorean landscape in terms of latitudes and longitudes as a way of coming to terms with the immensity of the virtual landmass. Those articles provide a basis for locating the various cultural geographic areas that serve as background for the sagas that span the series. Norman defines areas in terms of their landforms, climate, and underlying geologic structures, and he shows the effects of human habitation on these areas. This and subsequent articles will identify an area and then showcase it by describing what it looks like and giving background information. A call for contributors for future collaboration on other areas will conclude each article. The purpose of the articles is simply to highlight the genius of John Norman in creating this world, to show where the various places are on Gor, and to show why each place is a special place to be. Page references are to Book 9 unless otherwise noted. THE TORVALDSLAND SKERRIES The skerries west of Torvaldsland are of interest for two main reasons. One is that they offer fascinating clues to the tectonic plate history of Gor. The second is that an adventure that Tarl Cabot had on the Skerry of Vars contributed to his personal development. The fight against the Kurii on the mainland and the solo fight against the Kur on the Skerry of Vars gave Tarl Cabot a moment of personal transformation. Reflecting on his adventure in the north, he became awestruck with tremendous mystical joy at what it is to be fully Gorean, and he considered himself to be a changed man. Page 290. A skerry is a rocky island west of Torvaldsland. The latitudes and longitudes of the skerries are therefore determined by those of Torvaldsland, which will be the subject of a separate article. The skerries are located in the stream of Torvald. When Ivar Forkbeard left Kassau, the men rowed for two days westward and possibly northward. On the second night reached the Torvald current, which guided them toward the Skerry of Einar. Einar was one day away from that location. Page 55. The Torvald current warms the coastal region. Pages 34, 56. The skerries are oceanic mountaintops worn away by the wind and sea to flattop bits of land. This indicates that the vulcanism that created them is not currently active and that erosion has taken its toll for some time. The Skerry of Einar is home to a rune stone that for many people marks the southern border of Torvaldsland. Pages 45, 229. Banks of plankton are located just south of it. Page 55. Scagnar is listed as an island and is large and flat enough to build a major compound on, yet its surface is only slightly above sea level. The Skerry of Vars is described as being rough, flat, and about a hundred feet square. Its surface is only some fifteen to twenty feet above sea level. Page 271. The Skerry of Vars, although insignificantly small, appears on the tile map of Samos. Book 12, page 35. To stand on a skerry is to look the ocean in the face. The sea here is not frozen, but it is cold in spite of the current. The entire skerry is nothing more than a bleak, grey outcropping of eroded igneous rock amid swells. Nothing grows here. Nothing lives here. From the center of the rock you can walk only twenty-five paces in any direction before the rock ends and the ocean begins again. The surface is flat from the crashing of waves, but it is uneven. The bare exposed rock is continually slippery due to the constant spray and wind, and you must make your footing sure. The pounding of the waves is heard incessantly. From time to time, the waves rise the mere twenty feet or so and lunge over the desolate rock, scratching at it, trying to drag it under, pebbles at a time. Everywhere you look you see the ocean and feel the wind. You are on the ship that does not move, buffeted by wind and spray, threatened by the ocean, defiant. BACKGROUND INFORMATION Gor has a molten layer below its crust and is geologically active. The molten layer creates the magnetic field that orients compasses to the Sardar Mountains. The crust floats on the molten layer as a number of puzzle pieces called tectonic plates. The convection motion of the molten layer moves the plates. As a result, ocean floors and continents move and collide. In a previous article, I proposed that some of the Gorean plates could be identified from information provided throughout the Books. I mentioned what I think of as the Northern Plate. This Northern Plate is bounded by a Southern Plate at the Ta-Thassa Mountains, by an Eastern Plate at the Voltai Mountains, and by a Western Thassa Plate just beyond the islands from Anango and Ianda to the Torvaldsland skerries. The skerries are island arcs. They are identified as being igneous outcroppings. Page 271. An island arc is a curved line of igneous mountains rising from the ocean floor. These mountain chains are created at subduction zones, which is where plates meet and one slips below the other into the molten layer of the planet. Continental plates do not subduct. Therefore, the islands characteristically form on the continental shelf side of the subduction zone, with deep trenches nearby on the ocean side defining where the plates meet. On Gor, the western side of the Northern Plate is dipping, creating even more pressure against the Western Thassa Plate as it goes below the continental plate. This creates large islands as well as smaller ones from the southern hemisphere all the way into the Torvaldsland latitudes. One can therefore predict that Thassa will be shallower on the continent side of the islands and that deep trenches slightly to the west of the islands will define the Western Thassa Plate. Numerous island arcs are mentioned in the series. They group in such a way as to suggest an outline for the place where the Thassa Plate and the Northern Plate meet. In the southern hemisphere, the two large islands of Anango and Ianda give clues to the location of the southern subduction zone. Book 13, page 133, Book 20, page 130. In the northern hemisphere, some 400 pasangs offshore, the islands of Tyros and Cos indicate the distance of the subduction zone to the landmass at that point. Book 6, page 139. An important clue is provided by the fact that there is a whirlpool slightly west of Tyros. Book 12, page 28. Mid-ocean whirlpools are often caused by venting where plates meet. To the north of those islands. Other arc chains of smaller islands outline the shape of the plates. A small archipelago of self governing islands lies in a scimitar shape northeast of Cos. Book 6, page 106. Whether these are the same as the exchange islands, also called the free islands, of Asperiche, Tabor, and Teletus, is not clear. Book 8, page 42, Book 20, page 129. Hulneth and Farnacium are also mentioned as being trade islands. Book 6, page 137. North of the exchange islands lie the skerries of the Torvaldsland coast. Book 8, page 43. Hunjer and Skjern are mentioned as being two of the northernmost islands of any size. Book 6, page 198. The meeting of the plates becomes closer at the more northern latitudes. In contrast to Cos and Tyros being some 400 pasangs west of the landmass, the Skerry of Vars is only 2 pasangs offshore. Page 270. The entire Torvaldsland appears to be an elevated space, with the Torvaldsberg and the Hrimgar Mountains being essentially an arc of peaks spaced fairly widely apart as if an island chain above water. Book 12, page 192. The bird cliffs of the tundra are thought to be geologically related to the Hrimgar and would therefore appear to be even more evidence of tectonic plate collision. Book 12, page 196. CALL FOR WRITERS AND RESEARCHERS Future articles will highlight other areas. People who wish to work with me to provide Book research, heartfelt descriptions, and important background information relating to the area are encouraged to contact me at hersiusofthentis@yahoo.com. I wish to call attention to the following websites. |
