Here Be Dragons

 

STEFAN EKMAN

WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS

Middletown, Connecticut

Wesleyan University Press

Middletown CT 06459

www.wesleyan.edu/wespress

© 2013 Stefan Ekman

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

Designed by Richard Hendel

Typeset in Miller and Filosofia by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.

Wesleyan University Press is a member of the Green Press Initiative.

The paper used in this book meets their minimum requirement for recycled paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ekman, Stefan, 1961–

Here be dragons: exploring fantasy maps and settings / Stefan Ekman.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN
978-0-8195-7322-3 (cloth: alk. paper) —

ISBN
978-0-8195-7323-0 (pbk.: alk. paper) —

ISBN
978-0-8195-7324-7 (ebook)

1. Fantasy fiction—History and criticism.

2. Landscapes in literature. I. Title.

PN
3435.
E
38 2013

809.3′8766—dc23       2012034770

5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Acknowledgments
vii

1. INTRODUCTION
1

The Relevance of Settings 1

What Is Fantasy? 4

2. MAPS
14

Previous Explorations of Fantasy Maps 15

What Is a Fantasy Map? 19

A Survey of Fantasy Maps 22

Reading Fantasy Maps 43

3. BORDERS AND BOUNDARIES
68

Together Apart: Borders in Brust, Gaiman and Vess, and Nix 70

The Geography of History: Polders in Tolkien, Holdstock, and Pratchett 99

4. NATURE AND CULTURE
129

Two Slippery Terms 130

The Return of the Tree: Bringing Nature Back into Minas Tirith 135

Nature, Magic, and Misfits: Wilderness within Newford 141

Blurred Boundaries: Conflux in New Crobuzon 154

Growing Somewhere In-Between: Liminal Nature in Ombria 166

5. REALMS AND RULERS
177

Linking Rulers to Realms: An Overview 178

Ruling the Mythical Landscape: The Fisher King in
Last Call 183

Shaping the Realm: Palimpsests in
Tourists 190

Where Dark Lords Live: Landscapes of Evil in Tolkien, Donaldson, and Jordan 194

6. SOME FINAL THOUGHTS
216

Appendix A: Method for the Map Survey 221

Appendix B: Map Sample 225

Notes 233

Bibliography 263

Index 277

Acknowledgments

As a rule, I do not travel alone; and during my explorations of fantasy landscapes, numerous traveling companions have joined me, suggesting better routes, offering invaluable advice, or just generally cheering me on. I have greatly appreciated the company of all of you.

My most heartfelt gratitude goes to Marianne Thormählen, who provided unwavering encouragement during the entire project. My work has benefited enormously from her stimulating advice, attention to detail, and willingness to devote time and energy far above and beyond the call of duty. I could not have hoped for a better cicerone on this trip. I am also immensely grateful for the help and support of Tom Shippey, whose knowledge of Tolkien and numerous other areas of the fantastic has been a tremendous resource.

A number of people have discussed, read, and commented on various stages of this text. Above all, credit should go to the members of the Higher Literary Seminar in the English Studies section at the Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, whose willingness to dedicate time and effort to improving this text was always sincerely appreciated. This book owes a great deal to your work. My warmest thanks also go to Lisa Isaksson, Martin Andersson, Petra Andersson, David Sandboge, Susanna Karlsson, Viktoria Holmqvist, Christine Mains, Brian Attebery, Stefan Högberg, Richard McKinney, Mattias Ekman, Farah Mendlesohn, Siv Tapper, and Jenni Tyynelä for reading various drafts and sharing your knowledge (and libraries) with me.

For the quantitative map study in
chapter 2
, I was in particular need of assistance. If it had not been for the kind support of SF-Bokhandeln, the bookseller that gave me access to its database as well as its stock, that study would have been next to impossible to carry out. Pia Heidrich, Aidan-Paul Canavan, and Lena Ekman: without your help, the chapter would have been much the poorer. I am also indebted to Cai and Bengt Alme, Immi Lundin, Anna Clara Törnqvist, Marie Wallin, and Katarina Bernhardsson, who all made my journey considerably less strenuous and much more pleasant. Furthermore, I would like to express my gratitude to the following foundations for generously funding part of my work: Hjalmar Gullberg och Greta Thotts stipendiefond (Hjalmar Gullberg
and Greta Thott Scholarship Fund), Fil dr Uno Otterstedts fond för främjande av vetenskaplig undervisning och forskning (Dr. Uno Otterstedt Fund for the Advancement of Scholarly Education and Research), Knut och Alice Wallenbergs stiftelse (Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation), and Hilma Borelius stipendiefond (Hilma Borelius Scholarship Fund).

Finally, I am deeply grateful to my friends and my extended family, who have been invaluable companions on the road of writing. I especially thank my parents for introducing me to fantasyland all those years ago and always accepting and supporting my commitment to the genre. Without you, this journey would never have begun. Most of all, I would like to thank Helena Francke, who has been with me every step of the way toward this book, however rough the going. Were it not for her patience with my constant talk of fantasy, and the generosity with which she gave of her time, expertise, and sound advice, this book would not have turned out the way it did, and my journey would have been a grueling and dreary trek indeed.

R
eading fantasy was always like going on a journey for me. It might have been to a curious place spied through the window, or to an impossibly exotic country far away. Sometimes the landscape was comforting and familiar; at other times, disturbing and alien. Blinding beauty or nauseating ugliness assailed my eyes. In these places, there were adventures and heroes, enigmas and challenges, but what stuck in my mind was often the various locations themselves. Some of them were natural landscapes: grand, open vistas or dense, mysterious forests; others were cities, with dark alleys, labyrinthine sewers, and architectural marvels. Many, admittedly, seemed to echo the European Middle Ages; but all eras and continents, as well as times and places unknown to me, appeared before my inward eye. Somehow, the stories seemed to revolve around these places, weaving in and out of them rather than just using them as backdrops for the action onstage.

This books deals with fantasy settings and the worlds that became so important to me in my reading. Instead of roaming the worlds one at a time, with the plot as my guide, I have explored them more systematically and for their own sakes, to reveal how they are constructed and how they interact with the other elements of the stories. As I delved into the fantasy worlds, I discovered much that surprised me; and my explorations also made me realize how truly intriguing the realms of fantasy are, and how deserving of critical investigation.

THE RELEVANCE OF SETTINGS

It is not uncommon for critics to draw attention to the importance of the natural environment in fantasy.
¹
Some even go so far as to suggest that in fantasy, or in some kinds of fantasy, or in some fantasy works, the landscape can function as a character on one level or another.
²
Nevertheless,
the fantasy landscape's proclaimed importance is not reflected in much of the fantasy criticism that has been produced, and most attention is still being paid to character and plot. John Clute implies the interconnectedness of character, plot, and setting by defining “fantasy geography” (not just the landscape) as a manifestation of the story and a “metaphysical pathos of the emotions and events” therein.
³
In Don D. Elgin's
The Comedy of the Fantastic: Ecological Perspectives on the Fantasy Novel
,
⁴
the main value of the setting derives from how the characters affect and are affected by it, despite its significance as a world “complete in and of itself.”
⁵

A number of studies have concerned themselves with the structure of the fantasy setting, discussing it in terms of its main structural components and how they relate to one another. A seminal example is Kenneth J. Zahorski and Robert H. Boyer's “The Secondary Worlds of High Fantasy,”
⁶
in which the authors propose a rough taxonomy of otherworldly fantasy settings but say little about any natural environments. Some scholars have examined the fantasy environment in connection to the maps that frequently accompany novels in the genre,
⁷
and multiple studies focus on the landscapes and settings of particular writers and works, most commonly J. R. R. Tolkien and
The Lord of the Rings
(1954–55).
⁸