Appendix A:
Location Parallels and Calculating Travel Time
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A map is finally ready!
There is now a map for this fic which basically overlays the prop maps used in the series plus my AU additions onto a modern map of England and Wales. It's posted on my deviantART account (username is vikingsong, same as here), entitled "The Prophecy: Appendices (Appendix A)." Additional details about specific plot & location correlations are below.
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Location parallels for Ch 78 & 79 (since these are particularly relevant to plot and themes):
For the purposes of this fic, the location of the Fortress of Níþdraca (the Fortress of the Fisher King in the Perilous Lands) corresponds roughly to the modern city of Leeds (in West Yorkshire, UK).
The underground river and cave network correspond to the River Aire, which cuts a meandering 15-mile route southeast from Leeds to the town of Castleford before the River Caulder joins from the west and the combined river flows eastward (though not currently through a ravine). After fording the river there, Arthur, Merlin, and the knights crossed a plain and ended up in the Forest of Engred.
The place in the Forest of Engred where Arthur learns that Merlin is Balinor's son corresponds roughly to the modern location of Pontefract, roughly a league (~3 miles) southeast of Castleford. Pontefract is a municipality whose history stretches back to the Middle Ages and whose name translates from French to English as "broken bridge." Scattered across this area are a number of small areas designated as "ancient woods," according to conservation standards in the UK, from which I'm extrapolating a larger, contiguous ancient wood that might have covered most of that area a thousand years ago.
My favorite factoid from my research and map-geekery is Pontefract's town motto (a reference to Charles II and the English Civil War), "Post mortem patris pro filio," which roughly translates from Latin as "After the death of the father, support the son." It is here that Merlin grieves for Balinor and also where the bridge of trust between Merlin and Arthur is broken just as Aredian attacks.
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- Maps -
Again, there is a map for this fic which basically overlays the prop maps used in the series onto a modern map of England and Wales. It's posted on my deviantART account (username is vikingsong, same as here), entitled "The Prophecy: Appendices (Appendix A)." Dodgy canon geographic references + even more dodgy references from wider Arthurian canon + selected bits of ~1100 years of history + a very liberal dash of literary license = one extensive and very colorful map which is historically inaccurate for any given point in time but overall not really any worse than canon was to begin with! I'm going to add another more detailed map in the near future which will include specific cities and landmarks from canon and AU. In the meantime, the list below includes the relevant correlations.
To give credit where credit is due, I found versaphile's fan-made map and associated reference info—which are posted on AO3 as "MAP: Atlas of the Kingdoms of Albion" and can also be found via Pinterest and I think there may also be a Tumblr post—to be a particularly helpful resource when I was figuring out how to adapt the maps and reference points from canon onto real maps, both historical and modern.
**The biggest change for this fic from the canon maps is that I wanted Cenred's kingdom to line up with the wider Arthurian canon that associates Merlin with several sites in Wales, including Carmarthen. To make this work, I effectively flipped Cenred's kingdom from Camelot's eastern border to its western border. Sorry, BBC, it just makes more sense that way for this fic. Yes, I know it throws off the naming patterns (the linguistic root of Essetir correlates with Essex) and it wouldn't make sense to have the Saxons invading from the west rather than the east, but in my defense, canon was a tossed salad of several centuries' worth of historical figures, kingdoms, fashion, weaponry, and languages, plus a dollop of fantasy-inspired #aesthetic vinaigrette on top, so I frankly don't feel bad for this particular bit of artistic license.**
Camelot (citadel and city) = London, England
Glastonbury (Elyan's village) and the Lake of Avalon = (obviously) the vicinity of Glastonbury, England
Border between Camelot and Cenred's kingdom; also called the Ridge of Essetir = a very loose stand-in for the border between England and Wales
Ealdor = somewhere in the northern bit of Monmouthshire, Wales, just across the border from England
'neighboring Carmarthen,' about a day's ride from Ealdor = (again, obviously) Carmarthen, Wales
Mold, the last scrap of civilization before the Perilous Lands = Mold in northern Wales (south-southwest of Liverpool)
The Perilous Lands = the following counties in England: Lancashire, West Yorkshire, and the western half of North Yorkshire
The Fortress of Níþdraca = Kirkstall Abbey (in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, as described in more detail above, along with relevant surrounding sites)
The Northern Plains = for the purposes of this fic, it's basically the middle portion of England (with the except of the Peak District), bounded by/including the following counties: Herefordshire (southwest), Cheshire (northwest), Lincolnshire (northeast), and Cambridgeshire (southeast)
The Impenetrable Forest = the Peak District in England
Kingdom of Mercia = eastward from Castleford, West Yorkshire, England; includes the southern arm/peninsula of North Yorkshire plus all of East Yorkshire, England
Kingdom of Deira = the eastern half of North Yorkshire, England
City where Alator and the Catha are based = somewhere in the northernmost corner of Scotland in what was the historic county of Caithness, just south of the Orkney Islands
Kingdom of Caerleon = southernmost section of Wales (including Brecon Beacons National Park, Cardiff, and Caerleon in the greater Newport area), but does not include Carmarthen and anything north of it (as per earlier note about Carmarthen being in Cenred's kingdom) or the northern half of Monmouthshire (also per the earlier note about the approximate location of Ealdor)
Gedref (both the region and the Labyrinth) = county of Hampshire, England
The Isle of the Blessed = Steep Holm, an island in the Bristol Channel (Welsh: Ynys Rhonech; "Rhonech" apparently translates loosely as "give" in English...so I'm making a linguistic leap between the concepts of gifts/to give and blessings/to bless to make this correlation viable)
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- Distances and Travel Times -
For purposes of measurements and estimates in this fic, a league is presumed to be approximately 3 miles and a 'pace' is between 2.5-3 feet.
*Side note: Yes, I'm American, so I'm more comfortable estimating distances in feet & miles because that's how I've learned to quantify and experience distance. I have a clear sense of what it feels like to run 2 miles or drive 200 miles, but talking about running 3.2km or driving 320km evoke no memories or points of reference...so my apologies for this Appendix to readers in the rest of the world who use the much more logical metric system for everything! (I will, however, stand by the logic of Fahrenheit over Celsius in reporting weather conditions, but that's another argument for another day.)*
Travel on foot is presumed to be 1 league per hour (3 miles per hour). For the sake of easy estimates and rounding, the assumption is that travelers on foot can cover 8 leagues or 25 miles in a day, assuming that they will then camp for the night if it's a multi-day journey (i.e. A "four days' journey" on foot is approx 100 miles or 32+ leagues). Exceptions: travel on foot through difficult terrain (bogs, caves/slippery ground, seriously inclement weather, deep snow or mud) is presumed to be 1/3 to 1/2 as fast as usual (so only 1-1.5 miles per hour or 1/3 to 1/2 of a league per hour; approx 8-12 miles per day).
Travel on horseback is presumed to be twice as fast as on foot (2 leagues per hour or 6 miles per hour) over long distances, although short sprints would obviously be much faster. Travelers on horseback can therefore cover 50 miles per 24-hr day on sustained journeys (i.e. A "four days' ride" is approx 200 miles or approx 64+ leagues). However, travelers on horseback can cover more ground in a shorter period of time by riding more hours per day and/or swapping out horses along the way - the horses' point of exhaustion is the rate-limiting factor in these cases.
Ambrosius the hawk, by contrast, can cover distances much faster than travelers on foot or on horseback. For the purposes of this fic, he can cover ground twice as fast as travelers on horseback (that is, 4 leagues or 12 miles per hour). This means he can go 100 miles in a day. However, this is compounded by the fact that he doesn't really have to stop to sleep - he can get by just fine with his power naps at either destination, so he can theoretically travel for the entirety of the 24-hour day+night, allowing him to do a "four days' ride" in 24 hours (200 miles or 64+ leagues).
tl;dr - In a journey of 200 miles (64+ leagues), Elyan hiking through slimy, claustrophobic caves will take 16 days to reach his destination, while Merlin walking on level forest trails will get there in 8 days. Arthur on horseback will get there in only 4 days (and then spend the next 4 complaining until Merlin catches up). Leaving them all in the dust, Ambrosius will get there in a mere 24 hours.