FANTASY NORDICS AND FANTASY GREEKS
Note the two warships that decorate the Dragon Annual 1996 map of Oerth. The top right is a Norse langskip ("longship"), a kind of viking ship. The bottom left is a Greek trieres (τριήρης "three-rower", also called a "trireme" from Latin triremis "three-oar").
The langskip signifies fantasy Nordics. The trieres signifies the fantasy Greeks.
NORDICS
The langskip flourishes across Scandinavia in the Viking Period (800s-1000s CE) and the first century of the Post-Viking Period (1100s-1300s). Ship designs loosely relating to it are evident as early as the 200s and even upto today. There is a fluid continuum of different kinds of ships during the Viking Period that blend into each other. But the longer narrower ones tend to be used for war, because they are faster, while also able to transport many warriors. The ships can navigate both ocean and shallow river, and are surprisingly light to carry distances on land. The famous drakar ships, literally "dragons", are luxury versions of these longships, such as ornate prow carvings, suitable for a prominent family whence also a jarl. The Norse texts mention dragon head figures and similar that can be placed on the prow, to make the whole ship appear as if a slithering dragon, but these heads get removed before approaching land so as not to alarm the nature beings there that might attack the ship. What these figurative heads look like remain speculative.
The langskip that decorates the Dragon Annual map illustrates where the 1980 Darlene map of Flanaess has "Ice Barbarians" and "Snow Barbarians" to correspond the Norse communities in Greenland and has the "Frost Barbarians" to correspond the Norse communities in Newfoundland and elsewhere in Canada.
Fantasy versions of Nordics are part of the World of Greyhawk, including Norway, Saami, Iceland, Sweden, and Finland. I am proud that these Nordic heritages are part of D&D. Heh, I appreciate less when misrepresenting Nordic peoples as "barbarians". But that is a concern that D&D today realizes more sensitively. (The "Barbarians" of fantasy African Congo, and the "Savages" of fantasy Central America, are also likely to find more accurate updates in any future product.) Personally, I find the berserkar a fascinating element in Norse history. They are a small group, who the general Norse society fears. The berserkar repurpose the (typically feminine kinds of) shaman magic for (typically masculine) melee warfare.
The wintery Norse "Barbarians" of Flanaess inhabit fantasy North America, including Greenland. Apparently, these fantasy Norse peoples come from West Oerik, from Ravilla and Jotnumheim.
Ravilla looks like Normandie, but locates as Denmark, and its forests and size − and elves − are Sweden and Finland. Alfheimr is one of the names for a coastland in today Sweden. The land is between the border with Norway and the Swedish city of Göteborg (aka Gothenburg). In the Viking Period it is part of Norway, and also called Ránríki. Today it correlates with Båhus and the Swedish cultural province of Bohus-län. During the Viking and Post-Viking Periods, the region is known for its Pre-Viking aristocratic family that descends from Alfr the Elder, who are known for their alfar extreme goodlooks. Generally, alfar descendants are masters of every form of magic. It might be that the Norse concept of alfar originates from Alfheimr and spreads from there to elsewhere in Scandinavia. The alfar are the nature beings of the sunlight, of the solar corona, sunbeams, and even the solar reflections off of clouds and snow. The ambient daylight relating to Baldr is different kind of light. Moreover the alfar sunlight symantically encompasses success, sex, joy, fate, luck, and magic.
The 1996 Dragon Annual map calls this area Elven Lands while the Chainmail map calls it Ravilla. Ravilla is fantasy Sweden-Finland-Denmark, including Alfheimr along the coastline of the Swedish area. Fantasy Alfheimr is one of its Elven Lands, but not the only one, and would include elves, humans, and half-elves.
Jotnumheim, labeling as Gigantea, is mainly Norway but includes the Swedish side of the range mountains, with the Saami lands, plus the nearby lands of European Russia with Karjala and Kola.
Thus the Ice, Snow, and Frost communities in northern Flanaess come mainly from Jotnumheim-Gigantea, but also from Ravilla.
JOTNUMHEIM WITHIN GIGANTEA
The 1996 Dragon Annual map mentions the Jotnumheim Sea. This is also an appropriate name for the land that it borders.
Notice the informed difference between the Norse names: the traditional Jǫtun-heimr (literally "the jǫtunn realm") versus the neologism Jǫtnum-heim (with the dative case jǫtnum meaning something like, "the home among the jotnar").
Regarding Jotnumheim. I prefer the name Jotnumheim to represent the fantasy version of Norway because, while distinct from Jǫtunheimr, it is a meaningful Norse phrase and suitable for a Norse-esque location. (Maybe Russians are ok with their north being called Jotnumheim too, in a nod to Rus. This Russian "Jotnumheim" can include Russian animistic beings, such as Baba Yaga. Or perhaps a new name will specify Russia and Karjala areas.)
This land name "Gigantea" includes Jotnumheim but actually extends beyond upto parts of the northern coastland of fantasy France, where giants also inhabit. The Lune Noire setting refers to this wider sense of Gigantea by the French name, "the lands of the giant shapes" (Terres de Gigantomorphes). So, Jotnumheim is part of Gigantea but is specifically fantasy Norway-Russia, while Gigantea also includes other areas of giant populations as well, such as in the fantasy versions of France and Germany.
By the way, in the 1980 Darlene map of Flanaess, there is also a place called Jotun, that appears to correspond the wondrous rock formations that Arizona is famous for. These rocks are living beings, whence "jotun", albeit properly from a Flan perspective, corresponding the Indiginous American tribes there.
HYPERBORIA: THE ICE BRIDGE BETWEEN GIGANTEA AND NORTH POLE ISLAND
There is a significant conflict between the 1996 Dragon Annual map and the 2002 Chainmail Skirmish map. The Dragon map has Gigantea written across fantasy Norway-Russia. In the 2002 Chainmail map, there is no Gigantea, and where its land is is instead a few islands.
The conflictive representations probably derive from an alternative understanding of the wording by Skip Williams: "Hyperboria is my name for an icy continent whose interior holds Oerths north pole. A semipermanent bridge of ice connects the land to Oerik proper." Thus the change between the two maps seems to assume Gigantea to be as if this "bridge of ice". Then supposes, perhaps there are at least some islands below this ice.
The confusion arises because Hyperboria is called a "continent" despite the fact that it is actually a polar ice cap that is floating on the ocean water. There are some islands here and there under the ice, but most of it ocean. That the continent is itself the "bridge of ice" doesnt occur to some readers. Glaciers cover the entirety of Hyperboria, and what is land or water below is often nonobvious. Humans inhabit it, and the vast area gets counted among the continents.
In any case, there is a more useful way to reconcile any conflicts between the two maps. The 1996 Dragon Annual map is correct.
This Gigantea, relating to the Jotnumheim of fantasy Norway-Russia, is a geological terrain of rock, especially its steep mountain range that continues the vast continental mountain range across the supercontinent of Oerik. It is easy to handwaive the conflicting coastlines in the Chainmail map because both maps are representing fjords. Indeed, Norway has hundreds of thousands of islands while the ocean itself weaves in-and-out the convoluted fjords deep into the mountainous interior of Norway. To represent the coastland of Norway as either a simple coastline or a group of islands is equally a stylistic oversimplification.
Moreover, the Chainmail map drastically oversimplifies. For example, despite the Seameast being a vast "primeval forest", probably a dense equatorial jungle, it appears on Chainmail as if a barren desert because the minis game is uninterested in carefully representing it.
There is also a more careful way understand the descriptions here of the continent of Hyperboria. Notice on the 1996 Dragon Annual map, an island peeks down from the northern edge. This island is the "interior" land of the continent of Hyperboria, where the north pole is. I here name it, North Pole Island. This location is the north pole of planet Oerth. At this location, one sees the stars spin like wheel, rather than rise and set. North Pole Island is one of the islands underneath the Hyperborian ice cap.
The continent of Hyperboria is mainly an ice cap that is floating on the polar ocean. This polar ocean is the Dramidj Ocean. Part of this ocean is ice-free north of Flanaess, but most of it is under the ice cap. Therefore, the "icy continent" of Hyperboria (being mainly made out of ice) and the Dramidj Ocean underneath it, are roughly the same place on a map.
In other words, almost the entire continent of Hyperboria is the "semipermanent bridge of ice" that connects the "interior" "land", namely North Pole Island, to the supercontinent of Oerik, namely Gigantea.
The reference to "Oerik proper" relates to part of the mountains of Gigantea being covered by the icy continent. Thus it is ambiguous whether this overlap is part of Oerik which is the continent of rock or else is part of Hyperboria which is the continent of ice. The rock part is the "proper" part of Oerik.
In sum, we have fantasy Norway-Russia as the Jotnumheim, which is a region within Gigantea. The Jotnumheim Sea gets its name from the land. The floating icecap of Hyperboria is itself the ice bridge that includes the treacherous path between Gigantea and North Pole Island.
JOTNAR
The jotnar nature beings normally coexist alongside humans. Note, the Nordic nature beings are the actual objects of nature, like a mountain or a river. These objects of nature have minds, in the same way that the physical bodies of humans do. If the mind of this natural object manifests in a human form, it is usually human-size. In Norse folkbelief, certain jotnar, such as the mind of a mountain, can manifest in the form of a human that is as tall as a mountain, whence some jotnar really are "giants". But most jotnar are normal human sizes. Similarly, in Finnish folkbelief, any humanlike manifestation of a nature feature is normally a humanlike size.
English-speakers tend to have difficulty representing Nordic folkbeliefs accurately because of its historically Christian cosmology. For example, for Finnish folkbelief, a Christian during the 1500s (a Lutheran bishop) describes Finland as if having "gods" and as if polytheistic. Even since the 1700s, scholars are already clarifying that these nature beings are more like "guardian spirits", and are nondivine. And even the term "spirits" feels somewhat misleading because the nature beings are often solid objects, like rock formations and water bodies. It is more accurate to think of these apparitions of nature as mental projections out from these objects of nature. A mountain has a mind and can project its mind elsewhere in the form of a human. Despite the academic awareness that these folkbeliefs are animistic, rather than polytheistic, English-speakers often use the confusing terms "gods" and "spirits".
In any case, for D&D, a jotnar family of natural features can have a family member who manifests as Huge (or Large or Gargantuan), even when most family members do so as Medium.
Some jotnar have minds that are powerful enough to manifest as a human of flesh-and-blood indefinitely, and can intermarry and have children with humans. The offspring are mainly human but also inherit the magical aspects of their nature being parentage.
Nordic peoples share interesting cultural heritages, and the planet Oerth that is the D&D World of Greyhawk and Blackmoor has several locations to explore the fantasy versions of the Nordics.
GREEKS
The 1996 Dragon Annual uses a langskip warship to illustrate the presence of Nordics. Likewise, it uses a trieres warship to illustrate the presence of Greeks. Fantasy versions of Greek-speaking peoples are part of planet Oerth, as well as fantasy versions of the many peoples near-and-far who adopt their Hellenistic cultural crosspollinations.
Like most warships, the trieres is built for speed and transport of warriors. The Greek name tri-eres means "three rowers" and refers to the three tiers of rowers that can paddle in the same location without their oars interfering with each other. The later Latin name triremis, whence English trireme, is a loan translation, where tri-remus means "three oars" in Latin. The trieres is a ramming ship, whose prow has a bronze-plated ram to destroy other ships. This ship design especially flourishes around the 400s BCE, in the context of Athens and other seafaring city-states.
The Ancient Greeks, of course, are mainly polytheistic. The popculture understanding of Ancient Greek spirituality is fair enough. Perhaps the existential experience of polytheism is worth nuance, where local traditional ceremonies are vital, but systematic theology is irrelevant. Perhaps the fact that the dryad (Greek druas) is a god is worth mention, a tree god who controls a local place and receives worship and offerings, and sometimes priests to serve her and her holyplace. (Thus for D&D, this region might have its dryads be Celestial rather than Fey.) The Post-Classical, Medieval, and Modern Greeks are mainly monotheistic, and proud of their originally Greek New Testament that, in some sense, sanctifies the language. This part of the world tends to be deeply theistic.
On the Dragon map, the location of the trieres warship is in the Gulf of Ishtar that adjoins Ishtarland. The Greeks are one of the coastlands (whether mainland or island) of this Gulf of Ishtar region. More on the location of fantasy Greece below.
IRAQ
Ishtar is a city, and Ishtarland is the many lands that are under its governmental hegemony. The identity of Istharland is complex involving the peoples of many lands, but the city of Ishtar itself is in fantasy Iraq, the land of "at least two great rivers", namely versions of the Euphrates and the Tigris. Today Iraq is famously an arid flatland, but it includes the highly fertile areas "watered by southern storms" and especially the rivers that descend from the surrounding mountainous lands.) The name, "Ishtar", is a prominent god of Babylon, a city in Ancient Iraq.
CYPRUS
Note, there is a conflict between 1996 Dragon Annual map and the Lune Noire comic map that details this part of Oerth. In the Lune Noire map, Histarland labels an island. But in the Dragon map, Ishtarland labels a sizable area on the mainland of West Oerik, while this particular island is said be part of the Tarquish Empire instead. The city of Ishtar is on the continent, and the city of Tarque is on its own island of Tarquish. The two cities rival each other for control of the coastlands of this island and other coastlands: "The city of Ishtar vies with Tarquish for the control of coastal trade." In the Lune Noire map, Ishtar currently controls the island in question, while in the Dragon map, Tarque controls this island. In my map above in this post, this particular island is the one between Tarque and Isthar. Realistically, Tarque has cities that serve as its ports on one side of this island, while Ishtar has cities as ports on the other side of this island. Thus, the island in question is under the hegemonies of both Tarque and Ishtar. Thus both maps are correct.
If this island includes both Greek ports and Phoenician ports, then it is probably fantasy Cyrpus.
ITALY
The identity of Tarque is known. The island of Tarquish is fantasy Italy, and its city of Tarque is fantasy Rome. The French comic series Chroniques de la Lune Noire is mainly about the places in fantasy France, especially the city of Lhynn (near fantasy Bordeaux). But it occasionally describes events in Tharque. The comic artwork is high quality, even fine art. My impression of this wider region is something like a blend of Italian Renaissance paintings about ancient Greece and Marvel comic superheroes about Mount Olympus. The architecture of Tarque is vaulting Classical Roman monumental style, and its clothing is an eclectic anachronism of Greek muscular-shaped esthetic armor, medieval Holy Roman crowns, and aristocratic robes and capes. The term Greco-Roman applies. It is Rome, but emphasizes its ancient-to-modern fascination with Greece.
The presence of the Greek trieres warship in the Gulf of Ishtar relates to fantasy versions of the western and northern coastlands of the Mediterranean Sea, including places like Greece, Italy, and Spain. However the eastern and southern coastlands of the Mediterranean Sea are elsewhere on planet Oerth, contiguous with Erypt on the Celestial Sea, that relates to fantasy versions of places like Israel, Egypt, and Morocco.
LEBANON AND TUNIS
Ishtar feels like an anachronic blend of ancient Babylon and Islamic Bagdad. It is a landlocked place, but accesses the ocean via its rivers, and is a destination of globally prominent traderoutes by land and sea. The two rivers reach the open waters near fantasy Kuwait.
Yet Ishtarland perplexes. The rivalry between Tharquish and Ishtarland connotes the rivalry between ancient Greeks and Phoenicians. It especially connotes the rivalry between Rome and Carthage. Carthage is a Phoenician port on the Tunis coastland. So, while Ishtar is fantasy Iraq, the ships of Ishtarland are fantasy Phoencia. The fantasy connection between the two cultures is something like a medieval atavism of the Babylonian Empire.
Phoenicia is the Greek exonym for Lebanon. In ancient times, the prominent coastal cities are Tyre and Sidon, but in modern times, the prominent coastal city is Beirut. Both Lebanon and Israel are the land of Canaan. Lebanon is Northern Canaan, and Israel is Southern Canaan. The languages of Phoenician and Hebrew are mostly mutually intelligible.
Nevertheless, in the ways of Oerth mashups, fantasy Lebanon is in the Gulf of Ishtar as part of Ishtarland, while fantasy Israel is in the Celestial Sea east of Erypt. Fantasy Tunis is also in the Celestial Sea, whose coast is clearly visible west of Erypt. The continental area of Ishtarland, comprises fantasy Lebanon and Kuwait on its Gulf of Ishtar coastline. Fantasy Iraq is farther inland.
In the context of Ishtarland, the "Ishtar" of Lebanon is Ashtart, a Canaanite god relating to Babylonian Ishtar. Even for fantasy versions of Lebanese Christians and Muslims, Ashtart is part of the Lebanese cultural heritage. So, the seafaring culture of Ishtarland is more about Ashtart, even tho Ishtar itself is more about Ishtar.
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL ... AND TARTESSOS AND ATLANTIS
Fantasy Spain is between the fantasies of France and Italy. On the Dragon map, it is the peninsula between Lhynn and Tarquish. The map labels Spain as the "Tarquis Dominions". References to dominions, marches, empires, and so on, are fairly useless for gaming purposes because they name the ethnicity of the dominator but say nothing about the ethnicities who are there being dominated. At least here, we know these dominions correspond fantasy Spain and Portugal, which is at times a part of the Roman Empire and today part of the EU.
Spain is one of the ancient Mediterranean coastlands that includes both Greek and Phoenician port cities. In this context, it is worth mentioning ancient Tartessos in today Andalusia, Spain. It is a harbor city on the Atlantic coast of Spain, on the mouth the Guadalquivir River. It has hegemony over much of mainland region. Archeology tends to identify Tartessos with Tarshish of Phoenician and Israeli traditions. It is also probably one of the inspirations for the fictional fable of Atlantis, by Plato, his allegory about a tragic utopia. Tartessos is especially valuable because its traderoutes funneled tin, to alloy copper into the vital bronze of the Bronze Age. It continues to flourish during the Iron Age. The location of Tartessos beyond the Mediterranean Sea enjoys semi-mythical status, and its name Tarshish is synonymous with seaworthy ships generally.
On Oerth, fantasy Spain and Portugal is exactly the geography of the reallife Iberian Peninsula, except that its eastern coastlands, including places like Valencia, are instead adjoining lands contiguous with Iraq, including Phoenician Lebanon. Probably one of the nearby islands "holds" the flavors of the fantasy Spanish eastern coastal cities.
GREECE
Fantasy Greece lacks identification on the map, but it appears to be one of the islands of the Tarquish Empire. As part of a network of many islands, it works out as an island for Athens, and island for Sparta, and similar. In this significant context, the "nesia" of many islands (Greek nesos, "island") likewise includes coastlands such Istanbul aka Constantinopolis in Byzantium, as well as the coastlands of Turkey, such as Ephasis. During the Classical Age, all of these locations are Greek-speaking ethnicities.
WEST OERIK COMPRISES THE SUBCONTINENTS OF GONDURIA AND AQUARIA
In sum, the subcontinent of Aquaria has the fantasy Nordics in Jotnumheim-Gigantea and Ravilla Elven Lands. The subcontinent of Gonduria has the fantasy Greeks alongside Rome and Phoenicia. The langskip relates to the Nordics. The trieres relates to the Greeks.
The name Gonduria doesnt occur on the 1996 Dragon Annual map. But Gygax mentions it in passing in one of his novels, Dance of Demons. In the book, the demon Tharizdun chases the heroes across the planet: "from the distant south, through the Moving islands, up and across Gonduria’s vast continent, and thence across the Agitoric Ocean to western Oerik’s shore." This sentence is tricky to reconcile with the Dragon map. The map is the entirety of the planet Oerth. Note both sides of Antaria (fantasy Australia) on both west and east edges of the map. There is nowhere else that a "vast continent" can be. Wherever Gonduria is, the map depicts it plainly.
The solution is, the continent of Gonduria is a subcontinent. Gonduria is the southern part of West Oerik. But the northern part of West Oerik is Aquaria. Compare how the reallife supercontinent of Eurasia counts both Europe and Asia as separate continents, despite the arbitrariness of the Ural Mountains officially dividing the two.
Thus, the sentence by Gygax tersely describes the heroes traveling the distant southern hemisphere of planet Oerth. The heroes pass thru the "Moving Islands" that I interpret to mean the icebergs from Polaria floating across the open waters of the Storms Ocean. From there they reach the Solnor Titanicum Ocean. East Oerik calls this ocean Solnor, possibly in Flannish (corresponding one of the languages of Indigenous America), but West Oerik calls the same ocean Titanticum, namely the Latin language of Tharquish. The heroes hug the vast coastline of Gonduria, specifically along the Gulf of Ishtar. But after passing Tharquish which is still part of Gonduria, they head due north in the open waters of the Solnor Titanicum. They reach the Agitoric Ocean, whence they sail westward, and finally land on the shores that are on or near Ravilla. Note Gonduria is part of West Oerik, but the heroes land on a part of West Oerik that isnt Gonduria. Namely, the heroes land on the northern shores of the subcontinent of Aquaria.
The name Aquaria relates to the Frank Mentzer campaign, since 1976. Aqua-Oerdians dwell there, who relate to the early history of Flanaess in the World of Greyhawk. Aquaria is a continent that is 5000 miles due east from Flanaess. 3000 miles is width of the Solnor Titanicum, thus 2000 miles is the Agitoric, then finally reaching the northern shores of Aquaria, which is thus a subcontinent of West Oerik.
All of the obscure information that is available about the rest of planet Oerth reconcile. The disparate details piece together a reasonable picture of what this planet looks like.
