"Boseville was typical of the small towns along the Flone between Nova Roma and the Cimmerian Mountains." (10, p. 151)
We are familiar with the Flone and Nova Roma. Searching the blog, I have found one previous reference to the Cimmerian Mountains here but none to Boseville which is part of the dominant nord culture of Aeneas and has:
colorful buildings opposite a ferry terminal, pastures and timberlots;
behind the town, canals through croplands whose farmers live in the community;
service industries;
minor manufacturing;
trade through the Riverfolk;
an inscribed monolith commemorating local defenders during the Troubles.
Boseville has not been disturbed either by the McCormac Rebellion or by the Terran occupation.
8 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I thought the name "Cimmeria" seemed familiar, and I was right! Anderson took that name from Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian stories, in which Cimmeria was the mountainous homeland of his hero. So here we see Anderson showing some homage to Howard's work.
Ad astra! Sean
sean,
There are also real world meanings of "Cimmeria," as in ROGUE SWORD.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Dang! I only recently finished rereading ROGUE SWORD and I don't recall seeing that name. I must have, but it didn't stick in my mind.
Ad astra! Sean
It originally referred to a nomadic people in what's now the eastern Ukraine and adjacent parts of Russia, some of whom moved to the Near East and clashed with the Assyrians in the early Iron Age. They were later supplanted by the Scythians/Saka; the Cimmerians were Indo-European linguistically, but it's not sure which branch they spoke -- possibly Indo-Iranian, possibly related to Thracian.
Sean,
No wonder. I got it wrong. should have written "THE GOLDEN SLAVE."
Paul.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Paul!
Mr. Stirling: I looked up "Cimmeria," and among other things I saw that named being mentioned in Homer's poems. Meaning the archaic Greeks had some contact with Cimmerians?
Paul: And I've not yet reread THE GOLDEN SLAVE, so I would not have had reason to remember coming across "Cimmeria" recently!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: the Greeks had longstanding trade ties with the whole Black Sea area, and in the Archaic period Greeks from Ionia and Lesbos started planting colonies there.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That's basically what I somewhat vaguely had in mind! I knew the Greeks had colonies in the Black Sea region.
Ad astra! Sean
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