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[bedlamsbard]

OH LOOK MAP TROUBLES AGAIN.

Seriously, one of these days I just need to sit down and draw my own map of Narnia. Why the hell is my Lantern Waste pretty far south, when everyone else's Lantern Waste is in the far north? I do not understand why my brain puts Lantern Waste either in the far southwest or in the midwest (of, uh, Narnia. Not the U.S.), but everyone else is all, "Far northwest! Far corner of Narnia!" and I am all, "NO IT IS IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION YOU IDIOTS." Also, one of these days I have to go back through the rest of my fic and note all the locations I've named that aren't canon by someone's map.

Of course, I'd have to do three different maps, to account for how Narnia changes between the Golden Age and PC, and PC and LB/Dust. And I probably won't change location names (even if the Telmarines totally would have changed them), if only because Lewis didn't and I don't want to confuse people that much.

Good thing Tirian knows this shit, at least. *flaps hands* Recent Narnian history, distant Narnian history, by the end of this story we're going to have an accounting of everything that happened from the end of PC to the beginning of Dust as far as the Telmarine kings go -- Rilian, kind of a tyrant; Tirian, smart enough not to tell Peter and/or Eustace that straight-out. We're also hearing about Absalian the Blind, Rilian's grandson, who was one of the best kings in Telmarine Narnian history.

Comments

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Ooooooh. I'd love to hear about Absalian!

Pretty sure that someone, some time, when talking about the length and breadth of Narnia, refers to Lantern Waste being in the far west.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I don't actually know all that much about Absalian the Blind, but he was Caspian's great-grandson and Rilian's grandson, and he was a second son. The first son, however, died young, leaving Absalian (who'd been blind since birth probably; he may have gone blind because of one disease or other) as heir. There was some debate about whether he could be heir as a blind man or whether he should be put aside and his younger brother Narcis made crown prince, but his father put his foot down and Absalian remained heir. (Or there's a possibility that his father died before the debate was ended and Absalian became king with the dispute about his legitimacy still in play. *shrug*) Despite being blind, Absalian was a damn good king. He lifted the Ban Rilian had laid down upon ascending the throne; Rilian forbade anyone from living more than three days travel from Cair Paravel. He also had the misfortune of being king during the one open Calormene invasion in the past three hundred years; the Calormenes tried to attack via sea, but a storm blew up and scattered their ships across the Bight, and Prince Narcis and the army of Narnia finished off the rest. Except for the whole blind thing, Tirian totally wanted to be Absalian when he grew up. Instead he's sort of imitating Caspian by the hiding out in the woods part.

Lantern Waste is definitely in the west, but it's just weird because every map I look at puts in the northwest.

[muridae-x.livejournal.com]

The important thing is probably to pin down the location of Beaversdam. PC describes Lantern Waste as west of it, and it must be close enough to Beaversdam for the Pevensies to have walked there with Mr Beaver on the day they all stumbled into Narnia together in LWW.

(Beaversdam is also the perfect example of the old Telmarine policy when it comes to Narnian locations: keep the names, wipe out the inhabitants.)

I don't remember anything in the books that said anything other than "west" for either of them, but you're right that all the maps seem to place it north-west. Darn it, now you've mentioned it I'm probably going to have to go off and do some mapmaking myself, because I'm going to wonder about it otherwise...

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Man, I never even think of Beaversdam, I just know it's close to Lantern Waste and close to the White Witch's castle. I suppose the reason mapmakers tend to place it in the northwest is because the White Witch's castle is described as lying between two mountains (hills? I don't remember) and everyone assumes there's mountains in the north. There may also be something more about Narnian geography in LB, but I don't really remember.

My Lantern Waste is in the far west, smack in the middle of the western border, and for ages and ages Lantern Waste has been the western border; Narnia's border hasn't extended past it since Peter's time. In the Golden Age, it bordered either Natare or Shoushan; by Caspian's time it bordered a hundred leagues of unclaimed wildland, and the same with Tirian.

You know, actually, since the White Witch's castle is in the mountains, I could probably make a valid case for putting Lantern Waste in the southwest, using the mountains of Archenland as her base.

Wait. Maybe the books said something about the White Witch coming into Narnia from the north? I don't remember.