The Forge in the Forest (56 page)

This was a legacy from the early days. Morvannec was the first settlement of men in Brasayhal; from there they had set out to discover the apparently more attractive lands west of the mountains, and founded Greater Morvan. Morvannec had dwindled as the fortunes of its descendant grew; when Morvan was at its height, it had become little more than a quiet and underpopulated port of passage for produce from the sea and the provincial farmlands. Even its princes spent more time in Morvan, necessarily so as the threat from the Ice appeared; Korentyn Rhudri was thought unusual in his care for Morvannec's interests. In this he was prompted by Vayde, who had a real affection for the town, and that is why his statue was set in the place of most honor by the harbor. Vayde may have been as farsighted in this as in other matters, for although they had been bypassed for the lands of Morvan, the Eastlands were potentially just as fertile. But craggy contours and woodland cover had made the Eastlands more suitable for a variety of smaller farms, rather than the rich monoculture the sothrans preferred; the plains of Morvan were flatter and easier to cultivate. Perhaps also the power of Tapiau was then stronger in the eastern woods, and his terrors guarded the trees. Certain it is that to the northern folk also the great expanses of hill and mountain north of the Waters, more thinly wooded, seemed more attractive places to settle.

But with these lost the Eastlands had much to offer. The floodplains of the many rivers could yield ample grain and soft grazing, and the low hills around rich pastures, while steeper slopes offered hill hardier grazing, great store of timber, and the hunting that the northerners had excelled in since the days of Kerys. The sea also was rich, since the Ice had driven much of its life further south. But only after the founding of the realm of Morvanhal was the wealth of the East recognized, and turned wisely to account.

THE ICE

The accounts of the Ice in the Book of the Helm reflect a very different aspect of it from the cramped valley glaciation Elof and Kermorvan previously crossed. Here for the first time Elof encountered the true icesheet, and the massive Walls of Winter, the Fasguaith, the glacial cliffs that spearheaded its terrifying advance. Ils' description of Ice movement is—as one would expect from the duergar— substantially correct, particularly in seaboard climates such as the City by the Waters enjoyed. However, it is somewhat oversimplified; many other factors may speed up or slow down glacial advance. One such is known as basal slip; the sheer weight of ice may melt a thin film of water below the glacier, upon which it may slide forward with greatly reduced friction—exactly the same principle as skaters use, concentrating their body weight into thin knife edges. The rather incoherent account of Morvan's fall attributed to Korentyn may suggest something of what this effect could achieve over an already frozen smooth surface; some areas of the modern Antarctic icesheet are afloat on buried lakes. Another factor is the season: oddly enough, the icesheet may have advanced more quickly in summer than in winter. In colder weather the pressure melting may lessen and the glacier freeze more firmly to the ground beneath; this slows its advance, but makes it vastly more damaging, tearing away vast blocks of hard rock. Many mountains were leveled and the majority of major lakes excavated in this fashion. The debris, borne along on or ahead of the glacier wall, created rockfalls such as the one where Raven left the travelers, and is generally known as glacial
till
.

MELTWATER

Equally accurate is the description of meltwater effects. The sheer force of the water in such outflows is astonishing, and is often aided by the large amounts of rock debris they carry, which grinds away the ice in its path. They may flow over the glaciers, or out from underneath, and in doing so create tunnels even larger than the travelers found, up to some 250 feet across; the water pressure has been known to slant them upslope, as Ils suggests. Often they carve deep channels in the surrounding rock. Volcanic action under a glacier, often triggered by its pressure on the rock, can result in a truly explosive outburst, an erupting torrent of water and debris known in Iceland as a
jokulhlaup
.

THE KING'S HILL (MORVAN)

Such isolated outcrops as this are in fact not uncommon in ice sheets; their technical name is
nunatak
. The ravaged surface is characteristic. Its sudden flowering, however, is equally probable; many species of small plants and even insects have been found thriving on
nunataks
, perhaps sustained by the concentration of sunlight reflected off the surrounding ice. It has even been suggested by some theorists that they acted as refuges for many subarctic species during major glaciations, but this is uncertain. It was probably the existence of the hill gates that helped preserve the Catacombs so well, by allowing a flow of dry cold air along the passages; grave goods in tombs in the Andes and elsewhere have been similarly preserved.

THE MAPS

As the Book of the Sword made clear, the peoples of the Western Land of Brasayhal had grown very insular in the thousand years since the fall of Kerbryhaine. For the kindreds of men, all that lay east of the Meneth Scahas was a memory of loss, grief and dangers almost beyond comprehension, and they chose to blot it from their minds, and keep no maps; they thought never to return. The Duergar were less blinkered, but age upon age had passed since their first flight west, and they also had expected never to go back. The map accompanying the first volume represents the approximate extent of even their knowledge, and it had grown vague and general. Thus Kermorvan's journey was in every sense an exploration, and he knew little or nothing of what lands and conditions he might expect to find. Only on this second map is the full extent of Brasayhal shown; or rather, Brasayhal free of the Ice. For the rest of that great land lay dead and buried for a long age, and longer yet was to pass ere it saw the sun's light once more; and, as with the long dead, its aspect then was sadly changed.

Some corrections have been made in the map—the full southward extent of the Meneth Scahas, for example, is shown, and the eastward margins of the Ice made clearer. For completeness' sake the main feature of the southeastern lands have been included, though they do not come into this tale.

FLORA AND FAUNA

The life of the Forest lands that dominate the Book of the Helm was undoubtedly much richer and more varied than the Westlands', but for the most part it still resembled modern forms closely enough to need little comment. Alongside them, however, many older and stranger creatures still dwelt, and not always by chance. At times, of course, the descriptions are not close enough to identify properly; for example, the flock of small birds through whom Tapiau spoke were very probably some variety of warbler, but it is impossible to tell. In one or two cases, however, some telling details can be picked out.

DOMESTIC ANIMALS

As a rule these are not described in detail, the authors no doubt assuming they would be familiar enough to readers. As they are; but a few exceptions remain.

Ponies (Chapter 2) There were many distinct species of horse, small and large, in the land at this time; a few, such as Kermorvan's warhorse, had been introduced from Kerys, but most were native, and only recently domesti-

cated, if at all. Such the company's mounts must have been, and unusually primitive to have retained the small side-hooves mentioned. In most horses of this time these remnants of the ancestral three-hoofed foot had already dwindled to mere splint bones. It is possible that they were some pony-sized breed of the older genus
Hipparion
, which was superseded by the more modern genus
Equus
at around this time.

Musk-Oxen (Chapter 9) There seems to be no significant difference between these creatures and their modern descendants, the species
Ovibos muschatus
, either in appearance or behavior. They are members of the subfamily
Caprinae
, or goat-antelopes, a hardy group which flourished particularly during the Long Winters, and in the case of the musk-ox and its little-known cousin, the takin, grew to relatively giant size. It is, however, possible that this growth was a product of deliberate breeding by the duergar, and perhaps even the species as such, descended from one or other of the varieties of mountain-adapted goats they kept. Certainly the musk-ox takes more quickly to limited domestication than many other species.

WILD ANIMALS

Giant Horses (Chapter 2) The chance reference to these creatures is in fact borne out by other books of the Chronicles. Such beasts undoubtedly existed; almost certainly they were of the species
Equus giganteus
, one of the wild strains native to Brasayhal, rather than brought by men from Kerys, and larger than any horse now living. Once they ran wild over the grasslands of Morvan, and their strength, fierceness and untameability became proverbial; their herds must have been an awesome sight. In latter days some might still be found among other wild horses in the Open Lands, where predators were few; hence Kermorvan's confidence about the ponies.

Giant deer (Chapter 4) These were undoubtedly true deer
Cervidae
, but not the most famous giant form, the so-called Irish "elk"
Megaceros;
it was never found in these lands. From the description, particularly the pendulous muzzle and cupped palmate antlers, the huge moose
Cervalces
is a more likely candidate; its antlers might have a span up to 12 feet.

Daggerteeth (Chapter 4) These fierce predators are more fully described than before, so they can be firmly identified as saber-toothed cats, and members of the long-toothed
Machairodontinae
rather than the "scimitar-toothed"
Homotheriini
. They appear to lack the lower-jaw "sheaths" characteristic of
Machairodus
itself, and their size, if unexaggerated, is too great for the later form
Me-gantereon;
almost certainly they were the archetypal "saber-toothed tiger"
Smilodon
. If so, Kermorvan's courage was all the more remarkable;
Smilodon
stood nearly four feet high at the shoulder, and far outweighed a genuine tiger. It was the most recent of its species to evolve, and the last; this again argues a relatively recent date for the Winter Chronicles.

Onehorn (Chapter 7) This is undoubtedly a species of the so-called "woolly" rhinoceros. The great size, long horselike body and single, straight horn suggest
Elasmoth-erium
, the largest known rhinocerine species: its horn alone was about six feet long. Its shaggy coat and mane— and the characteristic tuft of "beard" below the jaw-undoubtedly gave this creature a horselike appearance which is very suggestive. Certainly memories of it would make a more credible source of folklore than modern rhin-ocerines.

OTHERS

The huge herbivore whose appearance so startled the company in Chapter 4 is not difficult to name, though it must have been near the north of its range. The shape of head and claws, the diet, and the dermal armor beneath a shaggy pelt identify it as one of the family
Mylodontidae
, the later giant ground sloths, and probably of the species
Glossoth-erium
, because neither flourished in these lands. Specimens of the skin have survived, complete with bony nodules which could well have turned arrowshot at long range.

The beast that lurked in the Catacombs of Morvan is much harder to identify. In appearance and behavior it seems closer to the
Mustelidae
than the bears, so very probably the travelers were right in thinking of it as some kind of giant wolverine. However, this raises a problem; such a beast did exist, but millions of years earlier, in the Miocene period. This would make it a startling anachronism in the time of the Chronicles, but not the only one. The Powers, and in particular the Ice, may well have maintained many such alive in their service long after their day had passed in the rest of the world, harboring them perhaps on or around the
nunataks
. If this is so, it raises an intriguing possibility for the
akszawan
, the lizardthing that in the course of the Book of the Sword surprised Elof and Kermorvan in their camp. Its reptilian aspect is hard to reconcile with its ability to survive and function in the cold climate of the Northland mountains. It might, however, have been a synapsid, or "paramammal," a transitional creature ancestral to all mammals, blending reptilian skeletal and body traits with the beginnings of mammalian dentition and a "warmblooded" physiology. But this family, whose best-known member is the sail-backed
Dime-trodon
, flourished as long ago as the late Permian—a period, interestingly enough, in which there may also have been severe glaciations. If it was a paramammal, therefore, its line had been kept alive for no less than 225 million years.

THE FOREST

The trees and plants of the Forest were, as far as can be told, very like modern forms, and where possible the modern names have been used in the text. It was the ecology in which they grew that was different. The Forest might have appeared the richest land in all Brasayhal, so vast and so energetic was the growth it bore. Yet, like the modern
selva
, this great pyramid of life grew from a
very
delicate foundation. Its ecological cycle was based on swift transmission of water and nutrients, leaving the topsoil beneath neither deep nor rich. Tapiau's fear of the incursions of the Ice on one hand, and on the other men, was therefore well founded. Once frozen, the ground could not support the Forest: once cleared, the Forest could not easily reestablish itself. In northern areas grassland swiftly took over, while in the south all too often the exposed topsoil simply dried up in summer and blew away. And to judge from the state of those lands today, this in the end was its fate. It may seem unlikely that so vast a woodland could perish so easily; yet great areas of the Sahara today were, not long since, the forests where Hannibal obtained his elephants.