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| Dave Megarry's Copy of the Great Kingdom Map |
Above is a scan of a map from the early '70s showing Blackmoor and the Great Kingdom. This copy was recently uncovered by Dave Megarry, creator of the Dungeon boardgame, and a player in Dave Arneson's original campaign. Thanks to the Secrets of Blackmoor documentary (who will be posting the map on their FB page) and Dan at Hidden in Shadows I have the opportunity to take a look at this version here. Update: Dan has made a related post over here.
I've written before about another version of this map. Back in 2014, Jon Peterson gave us a glimpse of it in his video, a "History of D&D in 12 Treasures", where he labeled the map the 1971 Great Kingdom Map. Based on the video, I wrote a post titled "The Land of the Great Kingdom and Environs" (quoting the original D&D preface), where I noted similarities to the setting as finally published in the 1980 World of Greyhawk Folio (these notes are repeated below). I also back-annotated the details from the 1971 map to the original, more artistic Great Kingdom map published in Domesday Book #9 and reprinted in Jon's book, Playing at the World. Also see the even earlier post, "The Weird Enclave of Blackmoor".
Megarry's copy gives us a clearer view of the map than the glimpses in Jon's video. Each clearly originates from the same source, but Megarry's has some additional writing in colored pen. Much of it is just to darken the lines and/or writing, but there is at least one addition to the details, noted below.
Here are the features I couldn't see on the version in the "12 Treasures" video:
Keoland: This is to the southwest of the the Nir Div (later Nyr Dyv), as in the WoG Folio (1980), which notes that it was "the first major kingdom to be established in the Flanaess". Grodog's Greyhawk notes that Keoland was named for Tom Keogh, who Gygax elsewhere mentioned as a friend from his teen years. In Quag Keep, Chapter 5 there is a Keoland (once called Koeland) to the southwest of Greyhawk City. It is mentioned that Keoland has "three tributaries of size feeding the main stream" (which may be called the Vold), which fits the map above showing three waterways running north in the Keoland area to join a larger river.
Eastern Ocean: This was "Western Ocean" on the Domesday Book map, but since it's to the east of the continent the revised name makes sense.
Nomads: This is written twice just to the north of the Dry Steppes and south of the Paynims. These possibly became the Tiger and Wolf Nomads in the published setting, although those groups are much further north. Another possibility is Ull, which is in a similar position relative to the Paynims and the Dry Steppes in the published setting, and is described as a "strong tribal clan of the Paynim nomads". Quag Keep mentions the Nomad Raiders of Lar who venture into the Dry Steppes, which fits with this map having the Nomads right next to the Dry Steppes.
Contested Area: This label is south of the Gran Duchy of Urnst, west of the Kingdom of Catmelun, and east of Keoland. If Catmelun is Nyrond (see the earlier notes below), this might be analogous to the County of Urnst, which in the WoG Folio is an area fought over by the Gran Duchy of Urnst and Nyrond. Dan at Hidden in Shadows suggests this area might be what became the Wild Coast, which I agree is another possibility. It's relatively close to Greyhawk as in the WoG Folio, which says that "Portions of the area have been under the control of Celene, the Prince of Ulek, the Gynarch of Hardby, and the Free City of Greyhawk at various times" - certainly a "contested area". The name also predates the Folio, as the Wild Coast is mentioned once in Quag Keep, in a description of a battle between a demon and a dragon "from Blackmoor, out over Great Bay, down to the Wild Coast" (chapter 3). Looking at the map above, there is a great deal of territory between the Great Bay and the Contested Area; it's possible Norton was using the term simply to refer to the entire eastern coast.
The Great Kingdom: Visible on the "12 Treasures" map, but here we can more clearly see the 18 regions of the Great Kingdom, plus a "Royal Demense" [sic] in the center. The WoG Folio refers to the "Royal Demense surrounding the capital" as part of the area of authority of the Overking. The Domesday Book version of the map has an asterisk in this region, just south of the lake and possibly indicating the capital. It's situated a bit like Rauxes, the capital in the Folio, which is near where two rivers come together in a "V", but without a lake. Over in a sister post on Hidden in Shadows, Dave Meggary suggests that "the numbered areas were districts within the Kingdom which had their own Dukes and such". Some of these areas may have become the former holdings of the Great Kingdom noted in the Folio, including the nearly autonomous North and South Provinces, the Prelacy of Almor, the See of Medegia, the several member states of the Iron League, and possibly even Bone March.
Kingdom of Botulia: This is another island nation, near the Duchy of Maritz (see below). I can't find any names similar to "Botulia" anywhere else. These two nations perhaps became the island nations of the published setting: the Sea Barons and the Spindrift Isles.
Egg of Coot: On this map this region has an addition in blue marker: an 'X' labelled "Capitol". There's an asterisk-looking mark near the "F" in "OF", which could be another city, but there's no other label.
County of Hither Body (?): This region is east of the Hold of Iron Hand, northwest of the Egg of Coot. I'm not sure about that last word. In Quag Keep, there is a mention of the Hither Hills (thanks to Timrod's Quag Keep Companion for this info), which makes sense as the area is surrounded by hills.
In view of these, I've updated the annotations on the Domesday Book Great Kingdom map:
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| Great Kingdom Map from Domesday Book #9, annotated in view of the 1971 map |
For reference, and ease in reading, here the notes from my previous post:
Perunland is between the mountains to the northwest of Nir Dyv lake, as with Perrenland in the published Greyhawk map.
A Paynim Kingdom is further to the northwest, south of the Far Ocean. In the published Greyhawk this becomes the Plains of the Paynims, south of the Dramidj Ocean.
The Hold of Iron Hand,
north of the Paynim Kingdom on the Great Kingdom map, likely became the
Hold of Stonefist. In published Greyhawk it is not anywhere near the
Paynims, instead being at the western base of a northwestern peninsula in the same
position relative to the Barbarian Kingdoms.
Gygax seems to have split the northern areas of his Great Kingdom map,
putting the the Hold and the Barbarian kingdoms on a great peninsula to
the northeast, and leaving Perrenland, the Paynims and Blackmoor in the
northwest.
A Grand
Duchy of Urnst is to the immediate southeast of Nir Dyv lake, as in the published World of
Greyhawk. A Kingdom of Catmelun is to the southwest of this, possibly where the Kingdom of Nyrond is in the published version.
A Grand Duchy of Geoff is to the west near the mountains, as in published Greyhawk.
Where the City of Greyhawk should be, there's C. of Yerocundy [sp?] and
to the west, a Kingdom of Faraz. There is the possibility that
these two were combined to form the Kingdom of Furyondy, which in
published Greyhawk is to the west of the lake like Faraz.
Interestingly, Andre Norton's 1978 Greyhawk novel, Quag
Keep, uses similar but not identical names for two kingdoms:
"We shall have Yerocunby and Faraaz facing us at the
border. But then the river will lead us straight into the mountains"
(Chapter 6).
A Duchy of Maritz [sp?] also appears as an island on the Great Kingdom
map.
Quag Keep further mentions:
"In addition he saw a dozen of these silver, halfmoon circles coined in
Faraaz, and two of the mother-of-pearl discs incised with the fierce head of a
sea-serpent which came from the island Duchy of Maritiz" (Chapter 3)
This warrants a closer look at the geography mentioned in Quag Keep versus the
Great Kingdom map. Andre Norton consulted with Gygax in writing Quag Keep so
she possibly saw an earlier version of Greyhawk using these names.
-Neron March (possibly "Nekon") might
possibly be a predecessor of "Gran March".
-In the comments Jon mentions Walworth
north of the lake and that In published Greyhawk The Shield Lands
appear in the same location and are ruled by the Earl of Walworth. In
the video, Jon mentions that Gygax was named the Earl of Walworth in
Domesday Book #2, and Walworth represents his holdings in the game (and
is also the name of the county that Lake Geneva is in, in Wisconsin).
-I
left out material from the map in the video that I couldn't read, and
several small areas around Blackmoor that don't seem to correspond to
anything significant: March Slove, County of Celate and County of Stabilny.
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