One of Tolkien’s maps of Middle-Earth
When I started writing fantasy novels, as a teen in high school, the very first thing I did, every time, was create a map. I’d be writing about imaginary places, after all: so I would need a map.
The other day one of my editors, working on Ozias, Prince in Peril, asked why there wasn’t a map to go with it.
Oh, that’s easy! ‘Cause I forgot! I forgot the freakin’ map! How that could be, I don’t know.
The tricky part: the Obann depicted in this map would be 2,000 years older than the one shown in the published maps. (Yes, all the other books in the series have a map!) A lot of names can change in 2,000 years. I trust the physical features won’t change too much–although that can happen in real life, and it ain’t too pleasant when it does.
Sit outside, now, and THINK! Map needed! And there’s no one can provide it… but me.
I often think how in Genesis chapter one four rivers are mentioned, then there is Noah’s Flood that covers the whole world. How did the Euphrates River survive it? Enquiring minds want to know. I do know our God is Sovereign over all things so He made it happen but sometimes we can still wonder why some things happen and other things do not.
It’s an open question as to whether the entire earth was resurfaced at the Flood. My personal opinion is that it was, and that no land features from before the Flood remain intact, but that is merely an opinion. There is a school of thought among some Christian geologists, and other believers in the earth sciences, known as Catastrophic Plate Tectonics, which posits that the vast mega sequences which cover many continents, thousands of feet deep, happened during the Flood, when there were no land masses to restrict tidal activity. The theory also proposes that plate tectonics happened rapidly during the Flood, as “Continental Sprint” and not as “Continental Drift”.
I’m certainly not an earth scientist, but the “Is Genesis History?” series presents a compelling case for these theories. Ironically, living in the desert, I see evidence of the global Flood all around me, on a regular basis. I routinely drive past road cuts where it’s obvious that the soil is a cobble of rounded stones with mid filling in the gaps. Right in the shadows of the impressive Catalina Mountains, is evidence that there used to be a LOT of water here.
At the end of the Flood, mountains rose up, and the sea floor sank, giving us the topography we see today. In some areas, the Ice Age, which I believe to be an after effect of the Flood, served to level the land and provided some of the rich, farmable, crop lands that we see in so many northern plains.
As to the Euphrates, I opine that only the name is the same, but I wasn’t there, so I might be wrong.
Darn! They don’t have it for Mac.
Maps! I love maps!
Do you do the whole thing hand-drawn, or do you scan it and put it in an image editor to enhance?
I love making them by hand, but the layer functions in Photoshop really allowed me to enhance my maps and also to add things like borders and towns during certain eras, or color geographic areas with an overlay that I can hide.
BUT… there’s a really nifty piece of software called Wonderdraft that I found and kinda fell in love with, since it lets you build maps in a snap (no, I’m not affiliated, but I am shilling a bit for it since I love using it so much. If I’m not careful, I can spend too much time building maps when I should be writing!)
You’re about five decades ahead of me, technologically. I have to draw my maps and mail the paper to my editor.
P.S.–Come to think of it, I used to draw maps even when I wasn’t trying to write fantasy.
Since the time Noah disembarked from the Ark, many have wondered and have asked the question, “Where was the land of Eden where the Garden of Eden was planted?” The disappointing answer—no one has a clue! When Noah walked the earth, all four original rivers—the Pison, the Gihon, the Hiddekel (Tigris), and the Euphrates—that flowed out from the Eden river to water the Garden of Eden, were probably still in existence. In the Middle East, there are rivers that people have named after two of the rivers that flowed through the Garden of Eden, the Euphrates, and the Tigris. Same names, but no relationship with those famous streaming quadruplets that flowed through the land of Eden. The present-day Euphrates-Tigris river system has its source in the Taurus Mountains of eastern Turkey. The rivers flow in a south-easterly direction through/by the countries of Syria and Iraq and converge shortly before flowing into the Persian Gulf. The Taurus Mountains, which are the source for those two rivers, did not exist before the Flood. Therefore, those current rivers are not part of Eden’s river system.
Most scholars have an opinion, and many Bible commentaries state that the Garden of Eden was located somewhere in the Middle East, situated somewhere close to where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers flow today. There has been much speculation, time spent in research, and books and articles written on the possible location of the Garden of Eden. However, many do not realize the intensity nor the power of the Flood to rearrange the surface of the earth, to alter and completely change its geology, topography, and appearance. Often a small local flood experienced by a community or town can wash away all landmarks, and alter and change the terrain so much, that those who once lived there may not be able to locate the very spot their house once resided.
– Reindeer Don’t Fly: Exploring the Evidence-Lacking Realm of Evolutionary Philosophy
Exactly! There’s no way to know. I have opinions, and base these on what makes sense to me, but I wasn’t there to see it, and cannot verify my opinions. But indeed, I’ve read Reindeer Don’t Fly and appreciate that it upholds the global nature of the flood.
If the entire world were flooded, the moon would have its effect on the mass of that water, and with no shorelines to stop the tides, I would imagine that the water could have built up quite a bit of momentum, as the earth rotated under the influence of the moon’s gravitational effects. My mental picture is that everything on the surface of the ground was devastated. There are few small skeletal fossils, with larger animals, such as dinosaurs being preserved, and in many cases these lie in areas where many fossils are found near one another.
As you mention, even a small, localized flood can completely change an area, and this being global had to have had unimaginable force. But a vessel riding atop the water, would have been in the best earthly position to be kept safe. I’m sure it wasn’t a pleasure cruise, but the waters may have been relatively calm, once the rains stopped. Hopefully, all of this will be revealed to us in God’s good time. I’d love to know more about it.
You are correct “There’s no way to know. I have opinions…”
And I state that at the beginning of chapter 13. And since I wrote that book, I now have a few different ideas and thoughts. Again, just opinions…
“As you read the next few pages, you will find that my retort is not proof, undeniable scientific evidence, or irrefutable as to the accuracy of my riposte. How could it be, for these events we are discussing are history, and therefore are not repeatable, reproducible, nor testable? It cannot be proved or verified that they happened in a certain prescribed manner by any scientific demonstration. This is the exact same problem evolutionists face when dealing with their religion. I am seeking a reasonable answer, not the definitive answer. However, my response will be vastly superior to theirs, for what you will be reading is a sensible (scientific), logical, and Scriptural response to the mockery of ill-informed, ignorant, and oblivious individuals.”
Jesus mentioned that denying the Flood would come to be, and indeed it has become a common belief, even among people who claim to believe scripture. In the first 11 chapters of Genesis, there are some big events which come along in rapid succession.
Creation, the Fall, the Flood and the Babel dispersion are all huge, events of lasting significance. We can’t pick and choose what parts of the Bible to believe. We live in a post-flood world, and there’s evidence of it, all around.
In the desert southwest of the US, you can see evidence of it all around. I recall driving through an area in southern metro Tucson, where it’s obvious that you are in a dry lakebed. They are not uncommon around here, and 60 – 70 miles east of Tucson lies a huge dry lake that is a designated emergency landing site for the new generation of US spacecraft. This is the desert, and dry as a bone much of the time, but at an earlier time, was obviously flooded.
As you look at some of the river valleys, you can see evidence of where the waterline once was, and I’m talking thousands of feet deep. Grand Canyon is an obvious after effect of the Flood, as it is now believed to have been carved by the rapid release of water from ancient Lake Bonneville, most likely when an ice dam burst. Again, evidence of the Flood.
It was an amazing, miraculous event, but also a harsh judgment against a world that was irreparably corrupted. When God’s final judgment of this wicked world comes to pass, there will certainly be more than 8 survivors, but the Flood gives evidence that God will not tolerate evil indefinitely, and that he will act to save His faithful.
And then there’s the Kuwait River… what’s left of it.
A map, of the earth, from before the flood. Wow, I would surly love to see that!
Also, its good that you have placed a map in your books. May I suggest, a map that covers more of the lands outside of the kingdom, a better perceptive of what that world looked like.
I’ve been thinking it over.