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Post by deuce on Feb 19, 2017 22:16:48 GMT -5
Where were Stregoicavar and the Black Stone/ruins of Xuthltan located? Here are the clues REH gave us:
There [in the Unaussprechlichen Kulten] among many strange things I found mention of the Black Stone, that curious, sinister monolith that broods among the mountains of Hungary, and about which so many dark legends cluster.
A close scrutiny of guidebooks and travel articles gave me no further information—Stregoicavar, not on any map that I could find, lay in a wild, little-frequented region, out of the path of casual tourists.
I had been casting about for a place to spend a short vacation and I made up my mind. I went to Stregoicavar. A train of obsolete style carried me from Temesvar to within striking distance, at least, of my objective, and a three days’ ride in a jouncing coach brought me to the little village which lay in a fertile valley high up in the fir-clad mountains. The journey itself was uneventful, but during the first day we passed the old battlefield of Schomvaal where the brave Polish-Hungarian knight, Count Boris Vladinoff, made his gallant and futile stand against the victorious hosts of Suleiman the Magnificent, when the Grand Turk swept over eastern Europe in 1526.
Without a leader the gallant little army was cut to pieces, and in the war-swept years which followed, the bones of the noblemen were never recovered. Today the natives point out a huge and moldering pile of ruins near Schomvaal beneath which, they say, still rests all that the centuries have left of Count Boris Vladinoff.
“Look!” He drew me to a latticed window and pointed up at the fir-clad slopes of the brooding blue mountains. “There beyond where you see the bare face of that jutting cliff stands that accursed Stone. Would that it were ground to powder and the powder flung into the Danube to be carried to the deepest ocean!"
I learned then that the present inhabitants of Stregoicavar are not descendants of the people who dwelt there before the Turkish raid of 1526. The victorious Moslems left no living human in the village or the vicinity thereabouts when they passed over.
Selim Bahadur! According to legend this man, who had been a soldier as well as a scribe, had commanded that part of Suleiman’s army which had devastated Stregoicavar; it seemed logical enough; and if so, he had gone straight from the blotted-out countryside to the bloody field of Schomvaal, and his doom.
And I replaced both obscene things in the case, nor did I rest nor sleep nor eat until that case containing them had been weighted with stones and flung into the deepest current of the Danube which, God grant, carried them back into the Hell from which they came.
In my opinion, these are all of the quotes which might have some relevance. It's possible that some are irrelevant. We shall see.  |
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Post by elegos7 on Feb 20, 2017 0:36:14 GMT -5
I also think it is important to locate Stregoicavar. The story takes place in Hungary, and I am a Hungarian, so I have some ideas about the geography of this region. However, as we shall see, the story probably takes place in a region that has been annexed by Romania after WWI (1920). The first step is to get a geographical map of the region to see where the mountains and hills around Temesvar are located. I have inserted one to the end of this post, but several additional maps can be found in higher resolution here: www.freeworldmaps.net/europe/romania/map.htmlOne thing to bear in mind that Temesvar is the Hungarian name of the city, today (and since the end of WWI) it is called Timisoara in Romanian. REH does not mention Romania in his tale, so I think the story takes place a few years before the outbreak of WWI (or maybe even in the first years of WWI), but after the publication of the Golden Goblin Press edition of New York, 1909. I do not think REH could have overlooked this important change in state borders in 1920. As the maps show, the only mountains (Southwestern Carpathians) near Temesvar are located southeast, in the opposite direction of Hungary after 1920. These mountains are also close to the Danube, which is also mentioned several times in the tale. I think this is the region where REH has envisioned the location of his Stregoicavar. Another thing to consider is the movement of the invading Turkish troops in 1526 (see the inserted map, where you can also see Mohács/Mohacz, where the historical battle, mentioned also in The Shadow of the Vulture, took place). I do not know what geography/history books REH used for this story, but I could find nothing about Schomvaal and Count Boris Vladinoff. Probably both the location and the Count are fictitious (just as Stregoicavar). Stregoicavar means something akin to "witch castle". Bram Stoker’s Dracula mentions the (Romanian) word “stregoica”, meaning witch, and “var” means castle in Hungarian. Schomwaal looks like a distorted German word. The movement of the invading Turkish troops in 1526 shows they did not cross the Danube near Temesvar (it was only occupied in 1552). But I highly doubt REH had such detailed military maps. As for Xuthltan, it is a word that has no connection to any language in Central Europe. But of course cities starting with "Xu-" come up often in REH tales, like Xuthal and Xuchotl. REH has called his Muvian ape-god Xultha or Xulthar in "The Isle of the Eons", and the parrot cries "xuthalla" in "Iron Shadows in the moon". It looks like places starting with "Xu-" have to do something with ancient, perhaps Muvian people, that have built those mysterious green-stone cities all over the Hyborian world. I think Xuthltan would deserve a thread of its own.   |
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Post by deuce on Feb 20, 2017 23:58:32 GMT -5
REH does not mention Romania in his tale, so I think the story takes place a few years before the outbreak of WWI (or maybe even in the first years of WWI), but after the publication of the Golden Goblin Press edition of New York, 1909. I do not think REH could have overlooked this important change in state borders in 1920. Hey Elegos!  I really appreciate your expertise as a native Hungarian. However, it's possible that we're running up against REH either accidentally or deliberately getting things wrong on this. We can see him being "anachronistic" in regard to Vikings in Arthurian Britain (which I don't believe was a "mistake", exactly) and also the "buccaneers" of the Caribbean 50yrs too early (which I think was a screw-up). In this case, we have a possible geographical -- as opposed to a historical -- snafu. Try to find the "mountains of Cornwall" --as mentioned in REH's The Lost Race -- on a real-world map. I need to write something on REH's wacky coinage of "German" names at some point. Yeah, I already knew that Boris and "Schomvaal" were fictitious. That doesn't make them wholly irrelevant (IMO), however. IMO, I think we may be looking at some possible mistakes by REH that are throwing us off. Maybe not. In regard to your 1910 to 1919 window for the setting of the tale, it really doesn't look like we can square that with REH's -- and HPL's -- pretty definite history of Justin Geoffrey. Here are the pertinent quotes: "Both of his [Justin's] parents are of this class, and likewise his brothers and sisters. His brother John is a successful banker in Cincinnati. Eustace is the junior partner of a law firm in New York, and William, the younger brother, is in his junior year in Harvard, already showing the ear-marks of a successful bond salesman. Of the three sisters of Justin, one is married to the dullest business man imaginable, one is a teacher in a grade school and the other graduates from Vassar this year."
"Justin was a tireless searcher for knowledge, but it was knowledge of his own choosing. He despised and detested the courses of education given in school and repeatedly condemned the triviality and uselessness of such education.
He refused point blank to go to college. At the time of his death at the age of twenty-one, he was curiously unbalanced. In many ways he was abysmally ignorant." ("The House")
“Ten years ago another American came here and stayed a few days in the village,” said the owner of the tavern where I had put up, “a young fellow and queer-acting—mumbled to himself—a poet, I think.”
I knew he must mean Justin Geoffrey.
“Yes, he was a poet,” I answered, “and he wrote a poem about a bit of scenery near this very village.”
“Indeed?” Mine host’s interest was aroused. “Then, since all great poets are strange in their speech and actions, he must have achieved great fame, for his actions and conversations were the strangest of any man I ever I knew.”
“As is usual with artists,” I answered, “most of his recognition has come since his death.”
“He is dead, then?”
“He died screaming in a madhouse five years ago.” (TBS)
Young Derby’s odd genius developed remarkably, and in his eighteenth year his collected nightmare-lyrics made a real sensation when issued under the title Azathoth and Other Horrors. He was a close correspondent of the notorious Baudelairean poet Justin Geoffrey, who wrote The People of the Monolith and died screaming in a madhouse in 1926 after a visit to a sinister, ill-regarded village in Hungary. (HPL, TTotD) "The House" is a Conrad and Kirowan tale and very likely not that early in their friendship. We know when Dig Me No Grave takes place (March, 1930) and can estimate Children of the Night pretty well (sometime after Feb.1928). All of those clues just don't seem to fit your pre-1920 timeline. Considering that Geoffrey visited Stregoicavar ten years before TBS actually takes place, it would mean that he saw the Stone in 1909 or earlier by your reckoning. Oh well, it gives us something to discuss. Nobody said it would be easy.  |
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Post by elegos7 on Feb 21, 2017 0:58:11 GMT -5
Hey Elegos! I really appreciate your expertise as a native Hungarian. However, it's possible that we're running up against REH either accidentally or deliberately getting things wrong on this. Hi Deuce! The year of death of Justin Geoffrey (supposedly 1926) comes from Lovecraft’s „The Thing on the Doorstep”. I think HPL simply deducted five years from the Weird Tales appearance of REH’s story (1931 Nov). We know from a REH letter to HPL (253. In the Collected Letters volume, ca. January 1934) that REH has actually read „The Thing on the Doorstep”, without making objections to the date of death of Justin Geoffrey. But I think it was either out of politeness, or maybe after three years he has simply forgotten the details of “TBS”. So I would not say we should accept 1926 as the year of death of Justin Geoffrey without any ambiguity, as REH does not specify the year. Even if we accept REH wanted to write a contemporary tale in the fall of 1930, the latest date of Geoffrey's death would be 1925 (five years before the events of "The Black Stone"). You are an expert of Conrad and Kirowan, but the question is how much credence we should award to the fragment “The House”. We do not know whether REH wrote it before, or after “The Black Stone”. REH has written many stories in the fall of 1930, and the exact writing order is not yet established by Patrice Louinet, probably it is impossible to deduce the exact order. He dates “The Children of the Night” to Sep, “The Black Stone” to Nov and “The Thing on the Roof” to Dec. “Dig Me No Grave” and “The House” was also written sometimes in the fall. But if “The House” was written earlier than “The Black Stone”, then any chronological hint in “The Black Stone” overwrites those in “The House” (including possible dates that can be deducted from references to those American universities and the brothers and sisters of Geoffrey). Even if “The House” was written later, it is still an unfinished tale, not meant for publication. Following your earlier rules for Hyborian Age history, facts in a story meant for publication should overwrite facts in an abandoned fragment. You mentioned Patrice has hinted at some discoveries about the early drafts of “Dig Me No Grave” in his recent REHUPA zine. Maybe he will come up with some dating in the future. Why do you think “Children of the Night” takes place sometime after Feb.1928? I am just interested. And of course I would be interested in any alternative location of Stregoicavar. |
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Post by deuce on Feb 21, 2017 18:42:00 GMT -5
The year of death of Justin Geoffrey (supposedly 1926) comes from Lovecraft’s „The Thing on the Doorstep”. I think HPL simply deducted five years from the Weird Tales appearance of REH’s story (1931 Nov). We know from a REH letter to HPL (253. In the Collected Letters volume, ca. January 1934) that REH has actually read „The Thing on the Doorstep”, without making objections to the date of death of Justin Geoffrey. But I think it was either out of politeness, or maybe after three years he has simply forgotten the details of “TBS”. So I would not say we should accept 1926 as the year of death of Justin Geoffrey without any ambiguity, as REH does not specify the year. Even if we accept REH wanted to write a contemporary tale in the fall of 1930, the latest date of Geoffrey's death would be 1925 (five years before the events of "The Black Stone"). Hey Elegos! I think HPL definitely just "deducted" as you say. I also don't think that 1926 should be blindly accepted. However, as you say, REH didn't express disagreement with the date. Surely, if he had envisioned Justin Geoffrey visiting the Stone in 1909 (or even earlier) as you suggest, he might have mentioned that, perhaps? It seems a huge discrepancy. He also ignored HPL's mention of "Hungary", which, considering the context of the Lovecraft quote being 1933, might have been better said to be Romania according your thesis. We have instances of both REH and Clark Ashton Smith acquiescing to Lovecraft's "adjustments" when it came to Mythos matters. A form of abrogation, if you will: infogalactic.com/info/Naskh_(tafsir)I'll also add that "1926" makes a lot of sense in regard to JG dying in a madhouse, wracked by nightmares. Think back to what happened in March, 1926. HPL may even have had that in mind when he chose that year rather than an earlier one. As you point out, I do follow the principle of abrogation when it comes to these things. "Later" trumps "earlier", published supersedes unpublished, complete supplants incomplete, etc. However, even if "The House" was written before the others and represents an earlier vision, that doesn't change the overall relation, timewise, between the life of Geoffrey and the lives of C&K. In "The House", JG still has siblings in college. While there were 7 Geoffrey children, JG was definitely not the oldest. If we say that "The House" took place in 1928 and JG died in 1914, that's still stretching things quite a bit. We definitely know that REH always saw Geoffrey as dying quite young. This is restated in "The Door to the World", which is quite possibly the last yarn REH wrote which mentions Geoffrey. howardworks.com/storyd.htm#door1I freely admit to there being the problems you point out. All I'm saying, is that REH may have meant for Temesvar, Stregoicavar etc to all be in Hungary circa 1930 despite what you've noted. Believe me, this conundrum is nothing compared to trying to square up the Cormac Mac Art chronology. I'll simply ask this: find Arkham or the Miskatonic or Dunwich on a map of Massachussetts. Try to find "mountains" on the map of Cornwall. The Black Stone takes place in that world, that universe. Because Conrad had read The Call of Cthulhu. |
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Post by elegos7 on Feb 22, 2017 0:27:07 GMT -5
We definitely know that REH always saw Geoffrey as dying quite young. This is restated in "The Door to the World", which is quite possibly the last yarn REH wrote which mentions Geoffrey. howardworks.com/storyd.htm#door1I freely admit to there being the problems you point out. All I'm saying, is that REH may have meant for Temesvar, Stregoicavar etc to all be in Hungary circa 1930 despite what you've noted. Hi Deuce, Thanks for your reply. I agree if you want to include all hints from “The House” into a coherent timeline, you probably have to place the death of Justin Geoffrey in the 1920s. The best way to reconcile the facts would be to leave Stregoicavar in the Southwestern Carpathians near Temesvar and the Danube, and disregard the fact that in the 1920s this region no longer belonged to Hungary. Maybe REH and HPL only had world maps published before WWI and were not aware of the changes of state borders in recent years. I still think it was a mistake on REH’s part to mention Temesvar in a contemporary story and miss this detail. The Bran Mak Morn and Cormac Mac Art stories took place hundreds of years in the past, whereas REH’s mythos tales are practically contemporary. If we want to stick with Hungary in the 1920s, an alternative location could be the Mecsek mountain near the city of Pécs and the battlefield of Mohács (although Mecsek is not very high and is not fir-clad). But it is far to the west from Temesvár, with several big cities in between. It makes no sense a visitor (the narrator of TBS) from the west to travel all the way to Temesvár in Romania, and then go back 100 miles to the west to Hungary. On the other hand, this is an area the invading Turks have raided in 1526. The fragment “The Door to the Garden” is very interesting. Here narrator John O’Dare has read Justin Geoffrey’s Towers in the Sky. John O’Dare is visited by Xatha of Balrahar from another world, who recognizes his ring stolen by O’Dare’s ancestor centuries ago. Xatha is pursued by a batlike entity called Begog. It is a pity REH has not finished this tale, which was possibly inspired by HPL's The Silver Key. Do you have any idea what world Xatha may have come from? Does it have to do anything with the dream worlds of HPL? And what makes you think it is possibly the last yarn REH wrote which mentions Geoffrey? I guess the tale was written at the end of 1930 (like probably all the stories mentioning Geoffrey), but why is this tale the last? |
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Post by deuce on Feb 24, 2017 0:05:55 GMT -5
I agree if you want to include all hints from “The House” into a coherent timeline, you probably have to place the death of Justin Geoffrey in the 1920s. The best way to reconcile the facts would be to leave Stregoicavar in the Southwestern Carpathians near Temesvar and the Danube, and disregard the fact that in the 1920s this region no longer belonged to Hungary. Maybe REH and HPL only had world maps published before WWI and were not aware of the changes of state borders in recent years. I still think it was a mistake on REH’s part to mention Temesvar in a contemporary story and miss this detail. Hey Elegos! Other than the "Hungary Question", I really don't see a need to toss out all of the excellent details in "The House". In addition, there is still the "ten years before" quote. That puts Geoffrey's visit back to 1909 at minimum if we say that Hungary had its "real world" borders in TBS. That just does not seem to agree with the general feel of The Black Stone, let alone outside "facts" like those in "The House". Neither Howard nor Lovecraft were experts on Hungary or Eastern Europe. Yes, REH had studied up on the history of the region (mostly Slavic), but all of it was basically Medieval/Renaissance-era stuff. That is actually one reason why I think he simply made a mistake. When I google "Temesvar", it brings up a lot of older books, many times in the context of the Turkish invasions. Usually it is also noted how important Temesvar was in former times. Quite simply, I think that REH and HPL either didn't know or forgot that Temesvar/Timisoara had changed hands. REH in Cross Plains would've been very hard put to find up-to-date references. Lovecraft has less excuse. You might recall that I went for this option back on the Old Forum. As you say, it seems unlikely on several counts and you're the expert. However, what if the Narrator came up the Danube from the east and then took a train from Temesvar? The text doesn't preclude going through several cities unless we really stress the "uneventful" part. One more thing to consider is Schomvaal. Is there any way to turn that into a Hungarian/Magyar name? If not, it implies a little German village. Would that be more likely near the Mecseks or the Carpathians? We're making progress. |
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Post by elegos7 on Feb 24, 2017 12:53:39 GMT -5
However, what if the Narrator came up the Danube from the east and then took a train from Temesvar? The text doesn't preclude going through several cities unless we really stress the "uneventful" part. One more thing to consider is Schomvaal. Is there any way to turn that into a Hungarian/Magyar name? If not, it implies a little German village. Would that be more likely near the Mecseks or the Carpathians? Hi Deuce! It makes no sense for the Narrator to come up the Danube from the east and then take a train from Temesvar. Temesvar is far from the Danube, and to reach Hungary from there in the 1920s, he would have to cross at least one state border. He should have continued his journey on the Danube until he reached Mohacs (where the battle in 1526 took place), a city that lies on the banks of the Danube in Hungary. Schomvaal is a name that means nothing in Hungarian or German. “Sch” occurs often in German ortography, and is pronounced as „sh“ in „ship“, like in Schubert. But neither “Schom” nor “vaal” means anything in German. I am confident that there were no German settlements near the Mecsek in the 16th century. There were German settlements in Transylvania, but nowhere in the vicinity where the Turkish invasion of 1526 occurred. But as you said, REH in Cross Plains would've been very hard put to find up-to-date references to Hungary in the 16th century. It is also possible he wanted a Hungarian village, but did not know how to invent an appropriate word. In “The Shadow of the Vulture” he spelled the battlefield of Mohács as “Mohacz”, an incorrect German spelling. The pronunciation of “Schom” corresponds to the Hungarian word “som” which means "dogwood" (a bush or small tree), and “vaal” could corresponds to "váll" meaning "shoulder". But the two words put together has no meaning in Hungarian. And you also have to consider the name Stregoicavar, which is a compound word made out of Romanian and Hungarian parts. No Romanians have ever lived in the vicinity of Mohács or the Mecsek mountain. As far as I see it now, REH had only very vague notions about the geography and the political situation of Central Europe in the 16th or even in the 20th century. Maybe his only source was Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which takes place in Transylvania and mentions the Hungarian/German/Romanian nationalities living there. He clearly should have done more research before writing “The Black Stone”, but it is understandable he did not have the time to do that. |
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Post by deuce on Mar 1, 2017 21:35:37 GMT -5
Schomvaal is a name that means nothing in Hungarian or German. “Sch” occurs often in German ortography, and is pronounced as „sh“ in „ship“, like in Schubert. But neither “Schom” nor “vaal” means anything in German. Hey Elegos! Keep in mind that I'm just tossing things out there to make sure we cover all the options. There actually is a "Schomburg" in Germany, but nobody seems to know what the "schom" stands for. I've studied placenames since I was a preteen. It is certainly possible to have a placename with elements from two different languages in it. You even end up with tautologies like "Chetwood", which means "wood [Welsh] wood [English]. I'm not saying that is what happened in the case of "Schomvaal" (REH might've thought "vaal" meant "valley" in German), but what about Slavic? REH definitely mentions that the inhabitants of Stregoicavar were of Magyar and Slavic stock. So, is there a chance of a few Slavs being in the vicinity of the likely spot of "Schomvaal"? Even a remote chance -- as in one valley? If so, would "Schomvaal", perhaps Germanized by later settlers, make any sense? We could be looking at a hybrid name incorporating a word from the "pre-Aryan Turanians" here. Just using your much-appreciated expertise. We can't be sure of REH's source for "Mohacz". That could've been the only spelling he had. That is the conclusion I arrived at before I started this thread. I just wanted to work through it with someone who knew the region and languages much better than I did. So, where in the Southwest Carpathians would you place Stregoicavar? Approximately, of course. |
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Post by elegos7 on Mar 2, 2017 0:41:13 GMT -5
Hey Deuce! As for the Slavic origin of Schomvaal, I only know Russian, we should consult a Serbian and Croatian dictionary. “Schom” should be transcribed in Cyrillic as “шoм”, whereas “Vaal” corresponds to “вaл”. The former word does not exist in Russian, but the latter word means “earthwork (structure), rampart, embankment, bulwark (wall etc.)”. I consulted a Serbian-English dictionary, but it does not mention any of these words. The mention of Slavic stock near Stregoicavar could correspond to Serbians, I do not think Croatians lived that far east. I attach a map with the nationalities of Hungary in 1910, where you can see there were practically no Serbians or any Slavs living in a mountainous region south to Temesvár. Of course REH could not have such a map. So if we want to place Stregoicavar close to Temesvar and the Danube, I would propose the “Banat Mountains”, see its Wikipedia entry.  |
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Post by deuce on Mar 3, 2017 21:54:28 GMT -5
Hey Deuce! As for the Slavic origin of Schomvaal, I only know Russian, we should consult a Serbian and Croatian dictionary. “Schom” should be transcribed in Cyrillic as “шoм”, whereas “Vaal” corresponds to “вaл”. The former word does not exist in Russian, but the latter word means “earthwork (structure), rampart, embankment, bulwark (wall etc.)”. I consulted a Serbian-English dictionary, but it does not mention any of these words. The mention of Slavic stock near Stregoicavar could correspond to Serbians, I do not think Croatians lived that far east. I attach a map with the nationalities of Hungary in 1910, where you can see there were practically no Serbians or any Slavs living in a mountainous region south to Temesvár. Of course REH could not have such a map. So if we want to place Stregoicavar close to Temesvar and the Danube, I would propose the “Banat Mountains”, see its Wikipedia entry. Sounds good! We can return to the Schomvaal puzzle later. I find it interesting. So, is the map below pretty much the area where Stregoicavar would likely be, in your opinion?  |
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Post by elegos7 on Mar 3, 2017 22:25:48 GMT -5
So, is the map below pretty much the area where Stregoicavar would likely be, in your opinion? It could be a possible location, with the caveat the very few Slavic (or even Hungarian) people lived in that region a hundred years ago. |
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Post by deuce on Mar 7, 2017 0:47:44 GMT -5
So, is the map below pretty much the area where Stregoicavar would likely be, in your opinion? It could be a possible location, with the caveat the very few Slavic (or even Hungarian) people lived in that region a hundred years ago. Well, give me a region you think would be better. Triangulate/quadrangulate some cities/towns that would demarcate the best region. I mean, there has to be someplace with Magyars, otherwise why were the Hungarians raising hell about Romania getting northern Transylvania? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Vienna_AwardThere were Magyars in that region living right next to Romanians in some cases. Exactly what would (somewhat) plausibly explain a name like "Stregoicavar". There has to be someplace that was in the path of the Turks, was mountainous and had a Magyar population. REH never nailed down whether the inhabitants spoke Magyar or a Slavic tongue, but the best bet would be Magyars. The "Slavic" element could simply be from Slavs who were there when the Magyars showed up in Hungary. The inhabitants then intermarried with Magyar settlers and everybody spoke Magyar. So we can forget trying to find someplace with Serbs/whatever. Meanwhile, it would have to be close enough to a Romanian population to get the "stregoi" name. That name could go all the way back to the Romans. Does that narrow things down? |
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Post by elegos7 on Mar 7, 2017 2:47:28 GMT -5
There has to be someplace that was in the path of the Turks, was mountainous and had a Magyar population. I do not think there is an ideal place that meets all of your criteria. The Turkish army entered Hungary from the south in 1526, where there were no Romanians, and noone else would name a place Stregoicavar. I suspect REH had no access to military or ethnographical maps, and simply made these locations up based on his reading of Dracula. I think he wanted to place Stregoicavar in Transylvania, where Dracula also takes place. And he had no idea that in the mountains of southern Transylvania there were no Slavic settlers, and very few Hungarians (they lived in larger cities on flat lands, like Temesvar). But because of the vicinity of Temesvar, I cannot suggest a better location than the one you highlighted on your map. |
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Post by deuce on Mar 7, 2017 11:18:44 GMT -5
Let's go back to the text. Here's what we have:
A train of obsolete style carried me from Temesvar to within striking distance, at least, of my objective, and a three days’ ride in a jouncing coach brought me to the little village which lay in a fertile valley high up in the fir-clad mountains. The journey itself was uneventful, but during the first day we passed the old battlefield of Schomvaal where the brave Polish-Hungarian knight, Count Boris Vladinoff, made his gallant and futile stand against the victorious hosts of Suleiman the Magnificent, when the Grand Turk swept over eastern Europe in 1526.Wherever the Narrator went, it was about 50-80mi/~100km from a railway. A railway that came from Temesvar/Timisoara. The Narrator never says anything about his distance or time travelled aboard the train. Here's the 1912 map (Temesvar is at the lower right). An even larger version can be found here: alternativetransport.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/austro-hungarian-empire-railway-network-1912-2-2-smallmid-size.png |
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I really appreciate your expertise as a native Hungarian. However, it's possible that we're running up against REH either accidentally or deliberately getting things wrong on this.
