Skafloc, the human boy raised by elves, hunts stags and boars and:
"There was other and trickier game, chased crazily through the woods and across the crags, unicorns and griffins which Imric [the elf-earl] had brought from the edge of the world for his pleasure." (p. 29)
So there is an "edge of the world" from which even more exotic creatures can be brought.
"Ah, there must be terrible queer creatures at the latter end of the world."
-James Joyce, A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man. (On the last page.)
"...he heard the wind at the edge of the world forever calling."
For that third quotation, see:
- where we find that we have already connected the Time Patrol with The Broken Sword through wind and time.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
The only thought I have here is that the only example I recall from Tolkien's legendarium a mortal man was raised from infancy by the elves was Tuor, the son of Huor and Rian. Distraught by Morgoth's crushing victory at the Nirnaeth Arnodiad, Rian sought for Huor and was succored by the elves, to whom she entrusted her son after giving birth to Tuor. After which she left them and died of grief at the Great Mound Morgoth had his orcs raise in triumph.
Ad astra! Sean
There were actually weird (by European standards) animals "at the edge of the world" -- lions, tigers, giraffes...
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I think some primitive maps had notations like this: "Here there be dragons." (Smiles)
Ad astra! Sean
Note that medieval West Europeans lived in a more restricted world than, say, Romans. Rome stretched from Britannia to the Middle East; Syria was part of the Empire. An educated Roman learned about all of it.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, of course. The collapse of the Western Empire and the disruption of long distance traveling and trade inevitably restricted the mental horizons of most peoples of the fallen Empire.
Ad astra! Sean
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