I have just discovered a choir channel called Clamavi de Profundis. Their vision of Tolkien's legendarium is so good, I'm sure The Professor himself would heartily approve!
One of my favourits tracks is the Song of Durin. Listen, and be transported!
Wednesday, 15 April 2020
Friday, 6 March 2020
Chapter Extract, The Retribution of Thengon
On my Subscribestar page is an extract from the first chapter of the sequel to The Ironwood Staff, The Retribution of Thengon.
It's a paid-for post, so you'll have to subscribe to see it - come on, it's less than £1 a month! Thank you!
Friday, 28 February 2020
New writing sample
As a sample of what I get up to, there's a short story up on my Subscribestar page, which describes a rather fun and very realistic dream I had once.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Wednesday, 12 February 2020
Chapter Extract
Hi, all
Over at my Subscribestar page, I've got an extract from The Ironwood Staff, to whet your appetite.
I know this worked for one person, she said, 'Where's the rest?'
Over at my Subscribestar page, I've got an extract from The Ironwood Staff, to whet your appetite.
I know this worked for one person, she said, 'Where's the rest?'
Tuesday, 11 February 2020
New Subscribestar Post
Over at my Subscribestar page is a thought on the draft animals of the Southlands. I thought it would be good to have my Fair Folk on something other than horses - for better or for worse!
Friday, 24 January 2020
A note on maps
The maps for Ironwood Staff and Retribution are based on the same map, scribbled down by me several years ago now, when I first started seriously writing down my story. As is tradition, North is at the top, and I thought there was enough new and strange in my book without changing that as well!
Mountains are shown as if drawn from life, which would have been the case in pre-modern times. The mountains around Greystone are drawn to resemble the Magaliesberg, which inspired the story in the first place:
One of the first issues I encountered was that of distance - I couldn't use modern units, because it would (badly) violate suspension of disbelief; but I couldn't really use Imperial ones either, since I couldn't guess as to the progress of the caravan through the Drylands (for example) and translate that into map distance. So, I made the map assuming distances in metric, then translated that into miles, and hence into leagues. I didn't want to use miles either, so I thought, 'What does "Mile" mean?' It comes from 'unum mile passsum', a thousand paces in Latin. So I use units of 'Thousand Paces' on my map.
I thought that for future reference, I should remember this literal translation for any other measurement. For example, there would be twelve thumbs (inches) to a foot, three feet to a measure (translation of metre), a hundred measures to a furrow, etc.
I thought of this in connection with the legacy of Christopher Tolkien, son of The Professor, and his epic work in rendering the maps of Middle Earth. He set the standard for fantasy maps, with many imitators or followers adopting the "East=Evil" convention, which lasted for a time. That convention even cropped up in the Game of Thrones world, where West=Home. The crucial action all takes place on the continent of Westeros.
Of course, there's some understandable chauvinism involved here. English-speaking cultures and their literature assume that West=Home because their starting point was at the western edge of the Old World. It's burned deep into our genetic memory.
(My own personal beef with Westeros is how the whole continent seems to be in a temperate latitude, pretty much regardless of its size. Again, it's a problem of perspective. Where I grew up, you could drive from one major population centre to another, and cross at least one biome boundary in the process. Of course, none of that affects the maps as such anyway.)
Mountains are shown as if drawn from life, which would have been the case in pre-modern times. The mountains around Greystone are drawn to resemble the Magaliesberg, which inspired the story in the first place:
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| Credit:Shutterstock.com |
One of the first issues I encountered was that of distance - I couldn't use modern units, because it would (badly) violate suspension of disbelief; but I couldn't really use Imperial ones either, since I couldn't guess as to the progress of the caravan through the Drylands (for example) and translate that into map distance. So, I made the map assuming distances in metric, then translated that into miles, and hence into leagues. I didn't want to use miles either, so I thought, 'What does "Mile" mean?' It comes from 'unum mile passsum', a thousand paces in Latin. So I use units of 'Thousand Paces' on my map.
I thought that for future reference, I should remember this literal translation for any other measurement. For example, there would be twelve thumbs (inches) to a foot, three feet to a measure (translation of metre), a hundred measures to a furrow, etc.
I thought of this in connection with the legacy of Christopher Tolkien, son of The Professor, and his epic work in rendering the maps of Middle Earth. He set the standard for fantasy maps, with many imitators or followers adopting the "East=Evil" convention, which lasted for a time. That convention even cropped up in the Game of Thrones world, where West=Home. The crucial action all takes place on the continent of Westeros.
Of course, there's some understandable chauvinism involved here. English-speaking cultures and their literature assume that West=Home because their starting point was at the western edge of the Old World. It's burned deep into our genetic memory.
(My own personal beef with Westeros is how the whole continent seems to be in a temperate latitude, pretty much regardless of its size. Again, it's a problem of perspective. Where I grew up, you could drive from one major population centre to another, and cross at least one biome boundary in the process. Of course, none of that affects the maps as such anyway.)
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| The World of The Ironwood Staff - note scale bar and South Arrow at top! |
Monday, 20 January 2020
The End of an Era
Christopher Tolkien, son of The Professor, has passed beyond the West and the circles of the world,
where there is more than memory. He was a good and faithful son, having
taken part in the creation of the Legendarium (he was the
cartographer), and bringing to light the background mythology of the
Silmarillion, Lost Tales and the History of Middle-Earth series.
The world is a little more grey, now. This affected me more than I expected. Rest in Peace, CJRT. We hope to see you again, some day.
The world is a little more grey, now. This affected me more than I expected. Rest in Peace, CJRT. We hope to see you again, some day.
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