What State does Covenant live in - educated guess'

[stuartfanning]

From the scant clues in the books what do people think? Does anything remind you of your own State?

[Dromond]

Scant clues, indeed! I grew up in the NE and thought that was it! (PA.)(anywhere with rattlers seem to fit!)

[kevinswatch]

For some reason the words "West Virginia" ring a bell, for no particular reason.-jay

[UrLord]

Texas. I assure you, it's Texas.

[AMOK]

He lives in the state of Misery, uh, I mean Missouri.

[UrLord]

ok, the rattlesnake that bit the little girl in the first chronicles was a Timber Rattlesnake, I believe. These are only found in this area:



Now, we can narrow down even further the number of possible states by thinking about which states are more likely to have uneducated country bumpkins. That puts us more in the midwest and the south.

Texas fits all those requirements, so I win.

[Worm of Despite]

So does Georgia. Now I win.

But seriously, I can't picture Covenant living in a town full of bumpkins. Maybe they were prejudice because of his leprosy, and were ignorant of it, but that proves nothing in the way of whether they're hillbillies or not. Plus, Covenant didn't have a Southern or Texan drawl (god I hope not), thus he was not living in an area where he would acquire one, I'm sure.

That said, I think it's somewhere up in New England.

Heh, couldn't danlo just e-mail SRD and ask him? Then again, I'm pretty sure SRD doesn't want us to know. And again once more: I'm sure he had no intended "real" U.S. state in his mind when he wrote the book. Just a town setting and that was it.

[UrLord]

hey, I've lived in Texas my whole life and have no trace of a southern drawl...many people don't...

" I can't picture Covenant living in a town full of bumpkins"

He lived on a farm. In a "stagnant," "rural..." I think "backwater" was used somewhere, too...town.

But anyway...a farm.

[Guest]

I used to think I didn't have a drawl at all, but then I sent an audio recording of my voice to some Internet friends of mine in the North and they were laughing at me, saying hick this and hick that . . . Maybe you were miraculously spared, but you can never know for sure until you take the "test".

Anyway, that still could be a lot of places. Oh well.

[Worm of Despite]

That was me. KW used to log me in each time I visited, but now I have to do it manually every stinking time, and I tend to forget.

But hey, remember that singer in the bar who thought Covenant was someone else? I wonder if it ever described how she sang. Depending on that, it might tell something about the audience's tastes. I mean, if it is a bumpkin town, then they won't be listening to much else but country.

[UrLord]

Yeah, I've been around the country, (Florida, Iowa, New Jersey) and many people commented on my lack of a southern drawl, so I'm sure. But I don't think it's that miraculous...I know only a few people in my area who speak with the drawl, but then I live in Houston and not a small rural town.

[Guest]

Maine..my friends he lived in Maine

[Revan]

ok, the rattlesnake that bit the little girl in the first chronicles was a Timber Rattlesnake, I believe. These are only found in this area:



Now, we can narrow down even further the number of possible states by thinking about which states are more likely to have uneducated country bumpkins. That puts us more in the midwest and the south.

Texas fits all those requirements, so I win.

LOL! Good narrowing down! hehe... you win... But I don't like to think that he came from Texas...

[aTOMiC]

vermont

[Revan]

But seriously, I can't picture Covenant living in a town full of bumpkins. Maybe they were prejudice because of his leprosy, and were ignorant of it, but that proves nothing in the way of whether they're hillbillies or not. Plus, Covenant didn't have a Southern or Texan drawl (god I hope not), thus he was not living in an area where he would acquire one, I'm sure.

God! Can you imagine what it would be like if we found out he had a Texan drawl? *Shudders*

[DukkhaWaynhim]

The author is from Ohio, neighbor to the state in which I have lived my whole life (Indiana). This doesn't make me an expert, but I can tell you that when Covenant goes "down to the leprosarium in Louisiana," that is exactly the kind of language a Midwesterner would use to talk about going south to Louisiana.
That's inconclusive, sure, but I always pictured the small town as being in down-state Illinois.

Accents? No one starts out thinking they have an accent. Ohio is known for having the hardest-to-place American accent---that's why the most well-known tele-journalism schools are located there, because the phonetic distributions are about even [My wife studied linguistics in college ] Ever notice how NewEnglanders swallow their 'r'? "Parking the car" sounds like "pahking the cah." Well, in the south and rural midwest, all of those same 'r's get sprinkled back in randomly, which is why we have warshing machines instead of washing machines.... proving only that the total number of 'r's in the US remain constant; they've just been shifted around a bit.

But I digress. We can debate the where endlessly, but SRD's intention of making it just up the road from a place we've all been has been met famously.

DW
[Weird, warped, and Whassup?!]

[TRC]

As An Ohio Native who Lived in New Jersey for two years I concur with most of what the former poster has said (and he should definately be a poster child for something).
"Down to" places is quite common vernacular around here even if we are talking about going North.

My job takes me all over the state, into West Virginia, and Kentucky, not yet but prob soon to the state of Dukkha(I mean Indiana). Wow could you imagine being in the state of Dukkha ???that would be like a state of....

Back to the topic. With Donaldson from Northern Ohio, I believe his terrain for The Land reflects A large North east influence .

The Sunbirth Sea =Atlantic Ocean ,the sun rises in the east>
Fouls Creche=New Jersey
Spoiled Plains= Future Remains of New York City
Andelainian Hills=Ohio
Giant Woods =Canada
Southron Wastes= Anything South of The Mason- Dixon Line

Of course these are for now just my opinions, but perhaps in the original manuscripts he is more descriptive and gives away more of a comparison with the world we know vs. the World he created.
And when I make it to Kent to view the originals I will check on it and get back with a little more to back me up.

[Baradakas]

southern drawl? Aw, hail-fahr!!!






-B

[DukkhaWaynhim]

As An Ohio Native who Lived in New Jersey for two years I concur with most of what the former poster has said (and he should definately be a poster child for something).

I'm already the poster-Spawn for the effects of the Illearth Stone. What else would you have me do ?

My job takes me all over the state, into West Virginia, and Kentucky, not yet but prob soon to the state of Dukkha(I mean Indiana). Wow could you imagine being in the state of Dukkha ???that would be like a state of....

...grace, grace and service to the Weird of the Waynhim.

Fouls Creche=New Jersey
Andelainian Hills=Ohio
Giant Woods =Canada
Southron Wastes= Anything South of The Mason- Dixon Line

NJ as Foul's Creche! I've been there, and I've heard it described as NYC's garbage-bin. West NJ - East PA is beautiful, tho.

southern drawl? Aw, hail-fahr!!!

And Bloo-dee Tar-nation!!
DW
[Weird, warped, and wielding dual weapons of insight and obliviousness]

[Rire Grist]

Only clue I can remember - he said he went "down to Lousiana" to the leprosarium. I agree its not the south then - Also, its hilly, so not Ohio, Indiana or something, so I vote for ..... Vermont