Speculative Geography - Murmansk & Durmstrang

[davewitley]

Happy New Year, everybody!

Steve" <bboy_mn at y...> wrote:

> Well, I couldn't contain myself any longer, I got out my CD-ROM
> Satellite Photo Maps so we could all see what the geograpic area of
> Kola/Murmansk Peninsula of Russia looked like.

> This area has very few roads, rail, or towns. As you can see from 
the
> maps, there are many lakes and easy access to the sea from inland 
as
> well as a lot of wild country side.

I'm not sure what the Kola Peninsula is like now, but in the days of 
the Soviet Union, Murmansk was the country's leading submarine base 
and naval port, and the area one of the most militarised in the 
world.   Despite being one of the most northerly Soviet ports, it is 
the only one to be ice-free all year (even Odessa and, I'm pretty 
sure, Sevastopol, ice up for a couple of months), and that, combined 
with ready Atlantic access, gave it its strategic significance.  It 
probably still has towns and railways not shown on the map.

That would, of course, make access for most muggles pretty 
difficult, which might be an advantage.

> The main reason why I insist that the school is in Russia, is that
> Drumstrang is a European school, and I have trouble seeing true
> Scandinavia as Europe or the location of a European school. My own
> opinion, which I'm sure you are tired of hearing by now, is that
> Scandinavia has it's own tradition of magic separate from Europe 
and
> therefore has it's own schools of magic.

I agree about the location; however, Scandinavia is definitely part 
of Europe.

David