Prydain geography
Feb. 27th, 2011 12:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lotesseWhile there are maps of Prydain, they seem to have rather fallen out of circulation - they were not printed in the editions I had as a child - and there is also not, as far as I can tell, a complete map in existence. The beautiful maps printed in each of the volumes of the Chronicles are clearly hand-drawn, and do not reproduce one another with any spatial accuracy.
Because it's hard to find them, here are the four maps of Prydain printed in the books - note that these are recombined from hi-res screencaps of GoogleBooks, and so might have a few jagged edges:
In each of these the geography is highly variant, and major locations appear and disappear - it weirds me out to remember how close they must come to the wreck of Spiral Castle several times in the series, for one thing. So I decided I wanted a complete map, so as to begin getting my head properly around this world. I used the map from The High King as my base, erased plot details, and added in marks for elided locations.
Note that some of these names are placed on fairly vague evidence! We know that Pen-Llarcau is one of the northern kingdoms, but not exactly where it might be. Rheged, Mawr, and Dau Gleddyn (all allies of the Horned King) are identified only as "the cantrevs of the south." The location of Madoc is completely without evidence of any kind, I'm afraid. The placement of Avren Harbor rests only on the geographical point of the slight natural harbor formed in the shape of the river at that point. But it works well enough, I think.
Because it's hard to find them, here are the four maps of Prydain printed in the books - note that these are recombined from hi-res screencaps of GoogleBooks, and so might have a few jagged edges:
In each of these the geography is highly variant, and major locations appear and disappear - it weirds me out to remember how close they must come to the wreck of Spiral Castle several times in the series, for one thing. So I decided I wanted a complete map, so as to begin getting my head properly around this world. I used the map from The High King as my base, erased plot details, and added in marks for elided locations.
Note that some of these names are placed on fairly vague evidence! We know that Pen-Llarcau is one of the northern kingdoms, but not exactly where it might be. Rheged, Mawr, and Dau Gleddyn (all allies of the Horned King) are identified only as "the cantrevs of the south." The location of Madoc is completely without evidence of any kind, I'm afraid. The placement of Avren Harbor rests only on the geographical point of the slight natural harbor formed in the shape of the river at that point. But it works well enough, I think.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-27 07:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-27 10:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-27 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-27 10:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-28 12:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-28 02:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-28 03:57 am (UTC)Have you tried relating the map to a map of Wales? I am sorry to say that when I finally went to Mon/Anglesey, I found it flat and dull.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-01 03:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-28 06:07 am (UTC)Did you like Vesper Holly too?
no subject
Date: 2011-03-01 03:41 am (UTC)Map
Date: 2011-12-27 02:30 am (UTC)http://onelastsketch.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/a-map-of-prydain/
Many thanks!