Carte de Norse, Pays de Vanhel

Références

>Old Map Africa With Illustrated Drawings of Animals

-Dessins d'animaux symbolisant les régions.
-Montagnes ombrées en opaque.
-Ombre de la terre sur la mer.

>The Piri Reis Map, drawn on a gazelle skin, found in 1929

-Nombreuses notes dans les espaces libres, dans un sens assez aléatoire.
-Polychrome
-Pas de source précise pour les fleuves.
-Montre la côte sous la banquise, alors qu'elle est glacée depuis des siècles.

>Mapa Antiguo del América del Sur

-La mer est une illustration.

>Une carte des années 1700 avec d'anciens noms

-Rivière en double trait.
-Chemin en pointillés.
-Forêts symbolisées par un arbre.
-Plus symbolique que précis.

How to draw an imaginary map

1. Make a mental image of the place you want to draw, and determine the map scale. Draw a rough sketch focusing on its main features to frame it (coastlines, mountains, bodies of water).

2. Research maps (both actual and fictional) and the Atlas to learn from them and get even more inspired; you can also try random drawing of shapes and lines.

3. Detail the composition, region per region. Include hills, canyons, lakes, rivers, archipelagos, lone islands, forests, vegetation, population, roads, cities, villages, farms, animal herds etc. Create a story for the land you are drawing while you are drawing it that can explain how it works and why.

Tips:
-Leave room for lots of features you may think of later.
-If you want a natural looking map, define and detail distinct regions.
-Consider features from elevation, water, to population.
-Mountains are normally in small clusters or chains. Large clusters should be connected to other areas. The older ones should be rounded by erosion, the younger ones, more pointy.
-Rivers in mountainous areas are usually straighter than rivers in flat areas. Try to make them originate from lakes or areas of higher elevation.
-Take care to detail coastal areas, make certain areas with many peninsulas and bays, and others that are straighter.
-Most major cities are on or near bodies of water, the interior is generally less populated.
-Deserts are much more common in areas of extreme temperatures. This includes regions deep in the interior.
-Rainforests must always coincide with high temperatures and bodies of water.

Fictional maps:
>Christopher Tolkien, The Shire of Middle Earth

>Shelly Shapiro, The Belgariad



Sources:
>How to Draw a Map of an Imaginary Place
>
>[url=http://www.fantasymaps.com/101/]Fantasy mapmaiking 101

Boars
> Dictionnaire de Mythologie et de symbolique nordique et germanique, R-J Thibaud.
> Boars
> For the Celts and Vikings, the boar was a symbol of great courage and integrity.


- Sacred to Freyr.
- Symbole de fécondité, puissance terrestre, combativité, puissance des guerriers et des héros qu'il nourrissait de sa chair au Valhalla (Saehrimnir).
- Les nains forgèrent Hildisvini et Gullinborsti aux soies d'or pour Freya et Freyr pour qu'ils servent à leur transport.
- Lors des fêtes de Jol, on sacrifiait un sanglier, Sonargolt, en demandant aux dieux d'exhaucer les voeux de prospérité et fécondité pour l'année à venir.
- Esteemed by the early Anglo-Saxons and Danes. It took skill and courage to hunt a wild boar, dut to their intelligence, speed and nimbleness. When cornered, their razor-sharp tusks often left men, dogs, and horses mortally wounded. It is small wonder that a boar's head was a dish fit for kings.



-The Welsh monk Asser, biographer of King Ælfred during his lifetime, writes of the battle of Æscedune (Ashdown) in early 871: The king (Ælfred's older brother Æthelred, soon to die) remained long in prayer, and the pagans (Danes) came up quickly, ready to fight. Then Ælfred, second in command, could bear the attacks of the enemy no longer. He must either retreat, or begin the battle without waiting for his brother. At last he led his forces like a wild boar against the enemy, without waiting for his brother's arrival... (Alfred the Great, P.H. Helm).

-The narrow end of the pear-shaped Ælfred Jewel is the head of a boar worked in gold; its open, threaded mouth probably was intended to hold a wand, and the completed jewel used a pointer to aid in reading the king's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care which he sent to his bishops.


-Beowulf (by an unknown writer) refers to a helmet embellished with protective boar images: wonderfully formed, beset with swine-forms so that it / then no blade nor battle-swords to bite were able.... (literal translation from the Old English by John Porter, lines 1452-1454).

-The Viking warrior cult of the Svinfylking was dedicated to the boar, and its elite warriors fought in a wedge-shaped formation, fronted by two especial fighters who formed the Rani, or snout.