Tal, and welcome to Gor, also known as Counter-Urth. This world was created by John Norman who also claims He is but the interpreter of the story. We deal here specifically with the far North of Gor; Torvaldsland. Here you will learn something of the lay of this part of Gor and it peoples.

To truly understand Torvaldsland, One must read about it. Torvaldsland is mentioned in many of the Gor books, but is best described in “Marauders of Gor.”

The words of John Norman will be used here to describe it, as to otherwise puts a bias on the telling, and dilutes, waters or alters it. Even these transcripts taken out of context may alter perceptions of Torvaldsland. So as in Gor itself, beware... Gor is not fair, it just is.

THE LEGEND OF TORVALD (MoG pg 232)

“This” said the Forkbeard, “is his chamber.” His voice shook. “Torvald, “ said he, “sleeps in the Torvaldsberg, and has done so for a thousand years. He waits to be wakened. When his land needs him, he shall awake. He shall then lead us in battle. Again he will lead the men of the north”.

THE LAND (MoG pgs. 55-56, 45)

The stream of Torvald is a current, as a broad river in the sea, pasangs wide, whose temperature is greater than that of the surrounding water. Without it, much of Torvaldsland, bleak as it is, would only be a frozen waste. Torvaldsland is a cruel, harsh, rocky land. It contains many cliffs, inlets and mountains. Its arable soil is thin, and found in patches. The size of the average farm is very small. Good soil is rare and highly prized. Communication between farms is often by sea, in small boats. Without the stream of Torvald, it would probably be impossible to raise cereal crops in sufficient quantity to feed even its relatively sparse population. There is often not enough food under any conditions, particularly in northern Torvaldsland, and famine is not unknown. In such cases men feed on bark, and lichens, and seaweed. It is not strange that the young men of Torvaldsland often look to the sea, and beyond it, for their fortunes. The stream of Torvald is regarded by the men of Torvaldsland as a gift of Thor, bestowed upon Torvald, the legendary founder and hero of the land, in exchange for a ring of gold.

(NOTE: In the latter part of the book, it is revealed that Torvald does indeed still live, well beyond the 400 years of age of most long-lived Goreans.. *S*)

BURIAL

Burial in Torvaldsland has ceremony. One of two ways of burial was found in Marauders of Gor. Burning on a ship, and entombed with offerings.

“Four huge men of Torvaldsland, in long cloaks, clasped about their necks, heads down, bearded, with braided hair, entered, bearing on their shoulders a platform of crossed spears. On this platform, covered with a white shroud, lay a body, a large body. Ivar Forkbeard, I thought to myself, must have been a large man.” (MoG, page 36)

“Torvald was a great captain,” I said. “Perhaps he was burned in his ship, which you have told me was called Black Shark.” I looked about. “It is strange though,” I said, “if that were the case, why this tomb would have been built.” “This is not a tomb,” said Ivar Forkbeard. I regarded him. “This is a sleeping chamber,” he said. “There are no bones of animals here, or of thralls, or urns, or the remains of foodstuffs, offerings.” (MoG, pg 234)

THE TORVALDSMARK

“Five nights from this night,” said Ivar Forkbeard, “on the skerry of Einar by the rune-stone of the Torvaldsmark.”

I had heard of this stone. It is taken by many to mark the border between Torvaldsland and the south. Many of those of Torvaldsland, however take its borders to be much farther extended than the Torvaldsmark. Indeed, some of the men of Torvaldsland regard Torvaldsland to be wherever their ships beach, as they took their country, and their steel, with them.

SKILLS OF THE TORVALDSLANDERS (MoG pages 56)

The men of Torvaldsland sometimes guide their vessels by noting the directions of the waves, breaking against the prow, these correlated with prevailing winds. Sometimes they use the shadows of the gunwales, falling across the thwarts, judging their angles. The sun, too, is used, and, at night, the stars give them suitable compass, even in the open sea.

It is a matter of tradition not to rely on the needle compass, as is done in the south. The Gorean compass points to the Sardar, the home of the Priest-Kings.

The men of Torvaldsland do not use it. They do not need it.

The sextant, however, correlated with sun and stars, is not unknown to them. It is commonly relied upon, however, only in unfamiliar waters.

Even fog banks, and the feeding grounds of whales, and ice floes, in given seasons, in their waters, give the men of Torvaldsland information as to their whereabouts, they utilizing such things as easily, as unconsciously, as a peasant might a mountain, or a hunter a river.

THE SHIPS OF THE TORVALDSLAND (MoG page 56)

The ships of the men of Torvaldsland are swift. In a day, a full Gorean day of twenty Ahn, with a fair wind they can cover from two hundred to two hundred and fifty pasangs.

There had been much fear in Kassau when the ship of Ivar Forkbeard had entered the inlet. But it had come at midday. And on its mast, wound and painted and of painted wood, had hung the white shield. His men had rowed slowly, singing a dirge at the oars. Even the tarnhead at the ship’s prow had been swung back on the great wooden hinges. Sometimes, in light galleys, it is so attached, to remove its weight from the prow’s height, to ensure greater stability in high seas; it is always, however, at the prow in harbor, or when the ship inters an inlet or river to make its strike; in calm seas of course, there is little or no danger in permitting it to surmount the prow generally. that the tarnhead was hinged back, as the ship entered the inlet, was suitable indication like the white shield, that it came in peace.

The ship was a beautiful ship, sleek and well-lined. It was a twenty bencher, but this nomenclature may be confusing. There were twenty benches to a side, with two men to each bench. It carried thus, forty oars, with two men to each oar. Tersites of Port Kar, the controversial inventor and shipwright, had advocated more than one man to an oar but, generally, the southern galleys utilized one man per oar, three oars and the three men on a diagonal bench, facing aft, the oars staggered, the diagonality of the bench permitting the multiplicity of oars. The oars were generally some nineteen feet in length, and narrower than the southern oars, that they might cut and sweep with great speed, more rapidly that the wider bladed oar, and the lightness of the ship, this would produce great speed. As in the southern galleys the keel to beam ratio was designed, too, for swiftness, being generally in the neighborhood of one to eight. Forkbeard’s ship, or serpent, as that are sometimes called, was approximately eight feet Gorean. His ship, like most of the northern ships, did not have a rowing frame, and the rowers sat within the hull proper, facing, of course aft. The thole ports, I noted, had covers on the inside, on swivels, which permitted them to be closed when the ship was under sail. The sail was quite different from the southern ships, being generally squarish, though somewhat wider at the bottom. The mast, like that of the southern ships, could be lowered. It fitted into two blocks of wood, and was wedged in the top black by means of a heavy diagonal wooden plug, driven tight by hammers. The northern ship carries one sail, not several sails, all lanteens, of the southern ships, which must be removed and replaced. It was an all-purpose sail, hung straight from a spar of needle wood. It can be shortened or let out by reefing ropes. At its edges, corner spars can hold it spread from the ship. I doubted that such a ship could sail as close to the wind as a lanteen-rigged ship but the advantage of being able or shorten or let out sail in a matter of moments were not inconsiderable. The sail was striped red and white. The ship, like most of the northern ships, was clinker built, being constructed of overlapping planks, or strakes, the frame then fitted within them. Between the strakes tarred ropes and tar served as caulking. Outside the planks, too, was a coating of painted tar, to protect them from the sea, and the depredations of ship worms. The tar was painted red and black, in irregular lines. The ship at night, mast down, with such colorings, moving inland on a river, among the shadows, would be extremely difficult to detect. It was a raider’s ship.

Another feature of the northern ships is that they have, in effect, a prow on each end. This permits them to be beached, on rollers, more easily. They can be brought to land in either direction, a valuable property in the rocky, swift northern waters. Furthermore this permits the rowers, in reversing position on the benches, to reverse the direction of the ship. This adds considerably to the maneuverability of the craft. It is almost impossible to ram one of the swift ships of the north. (MoG Pg 32, 33)

WEAPONS

A man of Torvaldsland never leaves His house unless He is armed; and, within His house, His weapons are always near at hand, usually hung on the wall behind His couch, at least a foot beyond the reach of a bond-maid whose ankle is chained. Should she, lying on her back, look back and up, she sees, on the wall, the shield, the helmet, the spear and the ax, the sword, in its sheath, of her Master. They are visible symbol of the force by which she is kept in bondage, by which she is kept only a girl, whose belly is beneath His sword. (MoG pg 141, 142)

Spears

“It had a shaft of seven foot Gorean, a head of tapered bronze, some eighteen inches in length. At close range it can pierce a southern shield, shatter its point through a seven-inch beam.” (MoG pg 210)

Shields
The shields were round, and of wood, variously painted, some reinforced with iron bands, others with leather, some with small bronze plates. (MoG pg 32)
a note:.... a Torvaldlander's shield is not strapped to His arm....rather it is held in the hand and is a offencive weapon as well as a shield

Axes
“....Ivar Forkbeard, almost seven feet in height, leaped to his feet, in his right hand clutching a great, curved, single bladed ax of hardened iron.” (MoG pg 39)

“The spine, of course would be immediatly severed; moreover, part of the ax will, if the blow be powerful, emerge from the abdomen. It takes, however, more than one blow to cut a body, that of a man, in two. To strike more than twice, however, is regarded as clumsiness.” (MoG pg 104)

Bows and Arrows
“...the short bow of the Gorean north, with its short, heavy arrows, heavily headed, lacks the range and power of the peasant bow of the south, that now, too, the property of the rencers of the delta, but, at short range, within a hundred and fifty yeard, it can administer a considerable strike. It has, too the advantage that it is more manageable in close quarters than the peasant bow, resembing somewhat the Tuchuk bow of layered horn, in this respect. It is more useful in close combat on a ship, for example, than would be the peasant bow. Too, it is easier to fire it through a thole port, the oar withdawn.” (MoG pg 52)

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