Aligning the Timelines: Witch World

 Back in middle school, here in Central Florida, I discovered the "Witch World" series by Andre Norton, in the form the 7-volume 1977 publication that was in the school library:

The series had already had more volumes by that point, of course, and I sought them out.  But what initially caught my eye was that the inside front and back covers had maps - always an easy way to sell the books to me!

At the time I hadn't realized that she actually lived no more than a few miles away from my family home (similar to the Scott Adams adventure games being published less than a quarter mile away), which probably explains what the books were doing there.

The series came to a conclusion to the overarching storyline in the mid-90s, but the series continued for a brief time afterwards, usually with co-authors.  The passing of Andre Norton in 2005 seemed to bring it to the end.  Which, as a result, the material online on this lengthy and groundbreaking series is rather thin, unfortunately.

I am currently engaged in a reading of certain 'foundational' sci-fi/fantasy material, including some series I've never read before (more on that in another post) but I am currently running through the Witch World series... and I'm hitting an issue with the series that I had when I was younger.

The series actually has two separate parts - a western and eastern continent.  The original seven volumes only had two dealing with the eastern one, but that, in some ways, had more detail, especially in developing a timeline.  The small independent holds of High Hallack are invaded from a nation, Alizon, from across the sea; they are defeated (in fact, the first book begins after the war has ended!).  Some of the stories, in fact, have a rather detailed piecemeal timeline of the war itself (specifically, Year of the Unicorn, The Crystal Gryphon, and the short story "Dragon Scale Silver"), and colorful names of individual years - such as the titular "Year of the Unicorn".  A rough time scale can be set up as a result:

Year of the Crowned Swan

Year of the Moss Wife

Year of the Fire Troll - Invasion begins

Year of the Leopard

(3 unnamed years)

Year of the Gryphon

Year of the Fire Drake

Year of the Hornet - War ends

Year of the Unicorn

Rather nice, eh?  The issue is, though, there's no direct correlation with the eastern continent series.

The world of Witch World has little interaction between the two - apart from the invasion by Alizon, and the Sulcarmen, a seafaring race that has a monopoly on trade between the continent.  Otherwise, there's not much contact.  And there are, frustratingly, mentions of other named years used in the eastern continent - including some matching the western, so we know they use the same system, but not how they relate.

Well after the fact, there are apparently notes by Andre Norton regarding a list of the year names, but there's some discrepancies, and it's written decades after the books - so I'm concentrating on trying to solve the mystery within the context of the books themselves.

Are there some clues?  Well, the first two novels involve the war between Estcarp (on the eastern continent) and the invading alien Kolder; they appear to span only two years.  In the "Year of the Unicorn", it is made clear that the Kolder are the ones sponsoring Alizon's invasion, providing them with advanced weaponry - so there's a rough alignment of the war with the two first books.  But exactly how they align is the problem.

The biggest clue appears to be in The Crystal Gryphon, where it is mentioned that a number of years before the start of the invasion, the Sulcar were rumored to have sufffered a major setback - this seems to allude to the events of the first novel, Witch World, where their main base of operations, Sulcarkeep, self-destructs rather than be taken by invading Kolder forces. However, with the Kolder decisively defeated the following year, this seems to contradict the war starting - in fact, in the same book, a captured Alizonder mentions that their benefactors are currently battling Estcarp a year into the invaders' war.  This would seem to set a lower limit on the year.

In Year of the Unicorn, there is mention that the Alizon forces cease to be resupplied in the Year of the Fire Drake, especially of their Kolder-supplied weapons - this appears to be the upper limit.  Unfortunately, this is still a spread of six years.

Right now, my gut instinct is to say that the cessation of Alizon's supply ships coincides with the second volume, Web of the Witch World - as not only are the Kolder defeated, but Alizon itself attempts to invade Estcarp, and not only fails, but is invaded in turn!  While not permanent, they are briefly occupied; this would seem to be the perfect reason for them to abandon their invasion oversea.  That would place the first novel, Witch World, during the Year of the Gryphon.

From an asethetic standpoint, there's a certain beauty to it - this would place the first three novels in consecutive years (Year of the Unicorn technically starts at the end of the Year of the Hornet).  The next three novels are set over two decades later... but begin with the birth of triplets at the turning of the new year from the Hornet to the Unicorn, based on this scale!

Final note: while I am going through the series slowly (on book four, Three Against Witch World as we speak), I did recall dimly that the first volume of the Hall series did, in fact, have a timeline(!) of the books in it.  I've ordered it, and it's coming soon, so I guess we'll find out if my memory is correct after all...