Map of Dark Age England

[Connorsrpg]

I am setting my 3rd 4E campaign in Dark Age England. Whilst I have found many 'terrain' and kingdom maps I was wondering whether anyone knew of a decent map of the British Isles showing terrain features such as forests, swamps, moors etc. Most simply are coloured to show elevation.

Anyone know of some good drawn maps I could use?

Cheers. C

 

[Pbartender]

I am setting my 3rd 4E campaign in Dark Age England. Whilst I have found many 'terrain' and kingdom maps I was wondering whether anyone knew of a decent map of the British Isles showing terrain features such as forests, swamps, moors etc. Most simply are coloured to show elevation.

Anyone know of some good drawn maps I could use?

Cheers. C

I'm afraid you won't find many, if any at all... Elevation largely hasn't changed in the thousands of years mankind has been around, so it's easy for modern cartographers to include it in their historical maps. Swamps and plains and forests can change quickly and often.

Plus, terrain, aside from rivers, coasts and major mountain ranges -- which also don't change much -- wasn't greatly important to medieval cartographers. They just wanted to know where the cities were. There aren't really any accurate records of where those sorts of features were, so the best anyone can do now is guess.

That said, the maps of Abraham Ortelius (though he worked during the Renaissance) might have something. I'd check them.

 

[Ambrus]

I ran a Dark Ages campaign years ago set in the West Saxon kingdom (i.e. Wessex), circa 511 AD. It was called "Adventus Saxonum" and the party consisted of members of the first generation of native Saxons. I performed an immense amount of research on the area and period to get it right. Maps were hard to come by since few people bothered to draw comprehensive maps during the period and so much of the British Isles continued to change from decade to decade following the fall of the Roman empire and the arrival of the Saxons.

Since I'm something of an amateur cartographer, I ended up drawing my own detailed map of Southern England based on my exhaustive research; it turned out so nice that I have it framed and still hangs on my wall. My map is a snapshot of the period however; as the Saxon continued to settle the eastern shores and make war with the Britons, the borders changed and settlements got renamed. So my 511 map would be considerably out of date only 100 years later.

In case you're unaware there were two Dragon Magazine articles written by an acquaintance of mine, Ian Malcolmson, concerning adventuring in Dark Ages England. They are Dark Ages in issue 257 and Hearth & Sword: Deities of the Dark Ages in issue 263. They're by necessity very brief in scope, but nonetheless interesting to read. Since so little is known about the period however, historians (and I) would likely debate some of the notions presented in the articles. So YMMV.

In what time period and area are you setting your campaign?

 

[Ambrus]

Plus, terrain, aside from rivers, coasts and major mountain ranges -- which also don't change much

You'd be surprised. I discovered during my research that a significant stretch of the coastline in south eastern Britain shifted over a mile out to sea since the early Dark Ages. What once started as old Saxon fishing villages and forts are now land locked cities and towns in England.

 

[Pbartender]

You'd be surprised. I discovered during my research that a significant stretch of the coastline in south eastern Britain shifted over a mile out to sea since the early Dark Ages. What once started as old Saxon fishing villages and forts are now land locked cities and towns in England.

You're right... The coasts of the low countries -- Belgium, Holland and Denmark -- would be another good example. The channels and sandbars therebouts change dramatically and often.

Not that any maps of the coastlines or rivers were especially accurate at that point in history, but you are right... While on the whole the larger shape of Britain might stay relatively the same as an island, changes do happen.

 

[sjmiller]

I do not know if the Ordinance Survey still produces this map, but there is one called Britain Before the Norman Conquest. It's a huge highly detailed map of the island showing towns, roads, ruins, and elevations. An absolutely stunning resource.

 

[rexartur]

I am setting my 3rd 4E campaign in Dark Age England. Whilst I have found many 'terrain' and kingdom maps I was wondering whether anyone knew of a decent map of the British Isles showing terrain features such as forests, swamps, moors etc. Most simply are coloured to show elevation.

Anyone know of some good drawn maps I could use?

Cheers. C

Have you tried looking for King Arthur Pendragon RPG resources?

 

[grodog]

You can also look for a copy of Columbia Games' _Lionheart_ (which is set in the 1200s), but that may be later than what you're really shooting for, date-wise?

 

[coyote6]

I have a map, somewhere, of Pendragon's England (at least I think that's what it's from). I don't remember where on the web I got it, though. I'll try to find it later & see if I can post it.

Edit: found it. It's a color map from Pendragon; the jpg is 5.67 MB.

Googling found it posted here: http://rpgfalun.faluit.com/-Pendragon/Pendragon Maps/ along with a bunch of other stuff.

 

[El Mahdi]

...In case you're unaware there were two Dragon Magazine articles written by an acquaintance of mine, Ian Malcolmson, concerning adventuring in Dark Ages England. They are Dark Ages in issue 257 and Hearth & Sword: Deities of the Dark Ages in issue 263. They're by necessity very brief in scope, but nonetheless interesting to read. ...

I've still got my copies of these Dragon issues just for those articles. They were really well done and seem really good for running a Dark Ages campaign. But, Ambrus is right on how historians would probably debate many things in it. The problem with developing this era as a campaign setting is that it was a very fluid and volatile 500 or so years. Like he said, cultural groups, countries, and borders could and would change from decade to decade. However, there are a few decent maps in the articles showing the major kingdoms at different points, just not a lot of topographical and geographic features.

You'd be surprised. I discovered during my research that a significant stretch of the coastline in south eastern Britain shifted over a mile out to sea since the early Dark Ages. What once started as old Saxon fishing villages and forts are now land locked cities and towns in England.

Absolutely. A perfect example would be the Fens and the Wash in East Anglia. For most of Englands history this was an area of fresh and salt water marsh, much like the Netherlands. The land wasn't reclaimed until fairly modern times. Many of the rivers courses have also changed due to human engineering to drain the Fens. And, along with cities that are now landlocked, there are also cities that have completely disapeared due to coastal erosion.

I lived in East Anglia for about six years and did a lot of reading into the local history of the area. I've always wanted to run an epic campaign spanning the history of the region from Roman times all the way into the Late Medieval period. If you're interested in some cool locations you ought to check out East Anglia. There's Ely (or Isle of Eels), an island in the middle of the Fens with a small port village (Littleport); Bury St. Edmunds, which was once a Saxon royal town and had a very large abbey (not to mention the burial place of King Edmund); Mildenhall, a Danish colony; and Elvedon Forrest (Forrest of Elves) - and that's just scratching the surface.

I'm sure there are some old maps of the area floating around the internet, or possibly from historical societies, that show the area before the Fens were drained. Your best bet for any maps would be to target specific areas you are interested in, then search the internet and contact local historical societies for more info and resources.