Fans of Norah Lofts discussion
How Far to Bethlehem?
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How Far to Bethlehem - the journey
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Re distances from Bethlehem, if I had an atlas available, I'd do this: put the fixed foot (the pointed end) of a compass on Bethlehem and adjust the foot with the pencil for the appropriate distance according to the scale of miles for the relevant map, and then draw an arc through the part of the world where the other site was supposed to be. Would that trick place Jexal in Afghanistan or Iraq?Incidentally, years ago (before 1979, as you'll see!)an Iranian student said to me, rather indignantly, "We are Aryans! How did we get to have black hair and dark eyes? From the Arabs!" Keeping in mind that the Persians were Indo-Europeans and that they had conquered Babylon from the Semitic Babylonians in the 6th century B. C., I agree that Gaspar's band could indeed be some fragment of those conquerors. The darker coloring of people in that part of the world today could be the result of the Arab influx with the spread of Islam more than a thousand years later.
As for those recently discovered (after the publication of HFtB)remains of red-haired people in the ancient Far East, this wouldn't be the first time that a writer has known more than she knew that she knew!
Edited to add: Sorry, I got confused - I saw the 'Dec 05' date at the top and assumed I was looking at this thread in 'newest first' mode, when in fact the post I'm replying to was made in 2010!
Peggy wrote: "I'm no cartographer but I wanted to map out the journeys in this book. Does anyone have an idea what country that Jexal is in? The book says Alexander went through Jexal on his way to India. And ..."
The trouble is, we don't know if those distances are 'crow-fly' or actual routes. If 'crow-fly' then, using the map Barbara linked to (and a metric conversion site!) then 700 miles would give us roughly a line from Alexandria on the Persian Gulf to Trapezunt on the Black Sea. But in that part, Alexander's journey was all firmly through well-known parts of Mesopotamia and Jexal is definitely a back-of-beyond place that no-one has ever heard of. I'd put it further away in Central Asia myself, in the parts labelled Hyrcania, Parthia or Margiana - modern Turkmenistan.
I suspect Gaspar's ethnicity is as imaginary as Jexal itself. He's obviously meant to represent 'Europe' so she's given the people blue eyes and red hair, but there's no way a journey from Pyongyang to Bethlehem would pass through any but the very furthest eastern edges of Europe, if that. His culture seems to be based on the Tartars, doesn't it? But NL does describe Gaspar's sub-group as 'the remnant and the flower' of a larger group, so I think we're meant to suppose they're now extinct.
Light-coloured eyes anyway (don't know about red hair) do crop up in modern Afghanistan, though - think of that famous National Geographic photo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_Girl)
I don't know about where Jexal is, but regarding Gaspar's ethnicity - in my version of the book (Tree of Life, 2007) it states on page 106: "His tribe had brought with them from their remote Mongolian homeland all the rules governing the treatment of horses and had preserved them strictly."This is in reference to Gaspar, just before he leaves Jexal with Melchior, mounted on camels.
Welcome, LadyB, and thank you for sharing this. I looked at my copy and it has the same statement. It's so good to get this clarified.
Thanks Peggy. Actually I just read that chapter last night, and found this site/thread by Googling Jexal! Happy I could clarify one thing at least, but it looks like the location of Jexal won't be as easily solved...
Good point, Lady B. I'm not sure, though, that knowing that Gaspar's tribe originated in Mongolia necessarily tells us much about their ethnicity, given that they clearly don't physically resemble the present-day inhabitants of Mongolia. You do get pockets of anomalous ethnic groups popping up here and there - think of the Ainu of Japan, for example, or the descendants of the Vikings that might have been found in North America if they'd survived.
I've found the red-haired, blue-eyed girl in Esther:...And there was a beautiful red-haired, blue-eyed girl from beyond the Taurus who could not eat anything that Hegai offered. There was no interpreter for her, either. She had been the only candidate to enter for the test at Konia in the North and had been escorted down to Shushan by three gigantic fellows in fur hats, riding small active ponies with flowing tails...
But nobody understood a word she said, nor could anybody make her understand; and when Hegai had racked his brains and produced every single thing which counted in Shushan as food, he had to admit himself defeated. It never occurred to him to offer her a handful of dried corn and a cup of mare's milk, for no one had ever told him about the Kurds who lived with, on and like horses...
Do you think she's one of Gaspar's people? Could he be a Kurd?
Re Gaspar and "Jexal," and comments 25-28 on the other HFTB thread from last December, I just received an email today from an Iranian Turk, who noted that "the historical references described the ancient Turkic people as 'red haired and colored eyed' people."
This entire topic holds endless fascination and speculation for me! I know that authors frequently donate their notes and manuscripts to a university; do you suppose the answers to some of our questions are in a collection of NL papers somewhere? Any clue on how we could find out?
Good thought Peggy , I wonder if Clive L would be approachable. And, following on from what Mary said above about Gaspar maybe being a Kurd, there seems to have been some 1925 research rediscovered and much discussed in 1961 about Kurdish origins and appearance etc. NL might well have been following that mightn't she? I've just spent an enjoyable hour or so looking up various things ( goodness but you've got to love Google! ) and found out things I didn't know before , for instance Shushan is the same place as Susa of Alexandrian fame. That the Konia in Esther , the place where the Kurdish girl from beyond the Taurus mountains was tested, passed and brought to her tragic end in Shushan/Susa really is a place, but more often spelled Konya. And here is a really interesting tribal map of peoples about 100 BC . I think Gaspar may have been a Sarmatian, or a Scythian maybe?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia...
Yes, fascinating, Barbara. Thanks for sharing. I did some googling too--"Iranian Turk red hair blue eyes"-- and was amazed at what came up.
Barbara wrote: "My version of HFTB, a Corgi pb, has distances from Bethlehem at the heading of each chapter. Jexal is described as being 700 miles away , Pyongyang in Korea where Melchior travels from is a huge 6,..."I once took a map and made a 700 mile circle around Bethlehem with a compass trying to find Jexal. No luck. I think it is a fictitious
beautiful city.
What a fascinating piece of research Isabel, thank you . Did any city/place in that circle look like it could have been the inspiration do you think ? Or just totally fictional ? You will see from many of the foregoing posts that we came to the the conclusion that Jexal and the rose jekkal coin were inspired NL creations. Gaspar's ethnicity and origins is still a bit of a mystery, as is how, back in the 70's NL knew about these ancient redhaired people.
Yes, Barbara, I agree the development of the side stories that remain so vividly with us contributed to the genius of this book. Even the animals were important--the poor little pig and the donkey that carried Mary at the end!