Glossary

Adant: the Atherer winter town near Sagol.

Ahks: a Tusco workleader. Eventually, he and his wife settle at Threerivers, where he builds the community flour mill, powered by a windmill.

Ahroe: guardcaptain of Pelbarigan, wife of Stel, mother of Garet. A central figure in The Ends of the Circle and The Dome in the Forest.

Alats: a group occupying the lower Heart River Valley south of the Tusco. While their principal city is Murkal, they also operate five other settlements away from the Heart River.

Annon: chief officer of the Peshtak invasion force. Dies at Threerivers.

Ansy: an Atherer fisherman who eventually discovers the ruins of Galveston, Texas.

Ardena, Unset the: the head of the Arden family at Threerivers. She opposes Udge’s severities with all the vigor of a mother of seven girls. Killed by the Peshtak.

Arit: an Atherer who settles at Threerivers and becomes a schoolteacher. He writes a book of children’s detection stories, Water in the Cave, which becomes famous throughout the Heart River country. Never marries.

Arlin: a guardsman, nephew of the Ardena. Killed by the Peshtak.

Aroth: a Peshtak captured by the Pelbar west of the Heart while guarding hostages. Later a fisherman, and, still later, after suffering frostbitten feet, the chief librarian at Threerivers.

Artess: a Tantal girl born at Threerivers who grows up at Murkal, who eventually settles at Threerivers. Twin sister of Reo.

Ason: young Threerivers water-lifter, muscular but gentle. Later opens and operates a stone quarry, augmenting his supply from the former walls of the city.

Atchun: a Peshtak, brother-in-law of Misque. Dies in a floortrap at Threerivers.

Athe: an Atherer who settles at Threerivers and eventually becomes a commission merchant when Samme opens his river trade.

Atou: the Sentani name for God.

Aven: the Pelbar name for God.

Aylor: an old Atherer fisherman-philosopher who befriends Gamwyn. Shortly after Gamwyn leaves, he sets out to fish in the South Ocean and never returns.

Bival: Southcounsel of Threerivers until replaced. Wife of Warret, A designer of considerable capacity, but quick-tempered until events grind off her edges.

Blu: a Shumai axeman who took over Tor’s running band in The Dome in the Forest, then married Ruthan Tromtrager of the dome and settled with her at Pelbarigan. Serves the Pelbarigan guardsmen as a scout and tracker. Fond of roast woodchuck and popcorn.

Broad Tower: at Threerivers the largest of the four towers, shaped like a Nautilus shell on its side. The home of the Protector. Built extremely sturdily, it is really a separate structure in itself.

Brudoer: the more intense and penetrating of the identical twins whose plight and adventures constitute the main action of this story.

Celeste: a young woman from the dome (see The Dome in the Forest) who settles at Pelbarigan.

Central Committee: the ruling body of each city of the Tusco.

Cilia: Westcounsel of Threerivers, a generally agreeable person distinguished by pliability.

Conn: a man in ah ancient Pelbar legend who travels through time after being hit on the head with a crowbar.

Craydor: designer and builder of Threerivers, a woman with an extraordinary range of talents who believed that design should be applied to all aspects of life, in relation and agreement.

Dardan: close friend of Udge, who replaces Bival as Southcounsel of Threerivers during this story. Short, fat, fond of honey candy, she adjusts easily. Later she marries a Peshtak, whom she obeys in every slight particular. Her first child, however, was fathered by Gind shortly before he was killed.

Darew: an Innanigani convict offered his freedom if he would emigrate to the country of the Atherers and spy on them for the Innanigani authorities. Settling near Sagol, for over fifty years he fed the Innangani traders with a steady stream of meticulously conceived misinformation while enjoying life as an eccentric hermit.

Daun: an Atherer, Aylor’s granddaughter, who eventually marries Reo and bears him eleven children. Later tries to run away by sea to Innanigan but is wrecked on a Caribbean island, formerly Dominica. After suffering many hardships she is rescued by Reo. She is reconciled to him when he promises they will have no more babies.

Daw: a Tusco girl who befriends Gamwyn. She is the only daughter of the Central Committee chairman at U Bend. Dies at High Tower.

Doon: Aylor’s eldest son, a somewhat shiftless Atherer fisherman always in demand for social gatherings because he is a gifted storyteller.

Durc: a Peshtak scout. Dies at Threerivers.

Finge: an old Threerivers woman who dies in the council meeting after having had tea the previous night with Prope.

Gamwyn: the more innocent and guileless of the identical twins whose plight and adventures constitute the main action of this story.

Garet: son of Ahroe and Stel of Pelbarigan. See also The Ends of the Circle.

Gelio: an Atherer and a delegate to the Southocean Federation.

Geryana: a conservative old Threerivers woman. Killed by the Peshtak.

Gind: a member of Udge’s personal guard at Threerivers. He conducts Gamwyn south from Pelbarigan. Killed by the Peshtak. Just over eights months later Dardan bears his child, also called Gind.

Gnau: a Peshtak scout. Dies at Threerivers.

Grogan: a supposed Peshtak beast-god made up on the spot by Gamwyn to convince the Tusco that his folding knife is an amulet.

Haframa, the: before the arrival of Royal, she was the chief physician of Pelbarigan. See also The Dome in the Forest.

Heart River: formerly known by Americans as the Mississippi, renamed by Amanda Pell in one of her rare moments of whimsy.

High Tower: a Tusco city providentially destroyed in the moments before its inhabitants intend to cut off Gamwyn’s foot in a ceremony of punishment.

Innanigan: the largest of the eastern cities, lying south of the former American city of New York.

Isso River: once known as the Missouri, this river flows into the Heart somewhat south of its former course.

Jaiyan: a large Sentani trader who occupies the east bank of the Heart at the northern border, of Tusco country. Fascinated by an organ he has dug from the ruins of an ancient church, he reconstructs it and devotes all his energies to it. Eventually he becomes the organist of Pelbarigan.

Jamin: the retarded son of the Sentani Jaiyan, a gentle, gigantic adolescent. Later an employee in Ason’s stone quarry.

Jestak: a Pelbar of Northwall who was instrumental in uniting the Pelbar with the Shumai and Sentani. See The Breaking of Northwall and The Dome in the Forest.

Kitat: a Peshtak town referred to by Gamwyn in lying to the Tusco. Located in what were once the Pocono Mountains.

Knou: a U Bend Tusco bureaucratic servant. Surviving the fall of U Bend, he is taken by the Siveri in their counterraid and becomes a worker on a Siveri dairy farm, where he discovers that he is allergic to milk.

Koorb: the central settlement of the Sentani, hidden in the hills of what Americans knew as Tennessee.

Lamber: the Eastcounsel of Threerivers. Later an assistant to Bival and the inventor of the tripartite arch.

Lost One, the: the object of the religious searchings of the Atherers, who sought to clarify the finest of the values of the ancients.

Maatha: a kindly Tusco woman, wife of workleader Ahks. Later, she becomes famous at Threerivers for her catfish chowder.

Mall: an old servant to Prope who pours a bitter cup of tea, matching his feelings. He flees north as a refugee but stops at Northwall, where he marries an old Shumai widow and dies on his wedding night.

Misque (pronounced misk): a Peshtak spy who becomes emotionally entangled with her quarry. Later wholly devoted to Brudoer.

Murkal: the largest Alat city. On the Heart River.

Muse: a Siveri captured by the Tusco. He helps in the great escape, during which he is severely hurt. Nonetheless he goes home, marries, and fathers nine children, all girls.

Newall: a minister of Aven at Threerivers whose tendencies are compassionate and reconciling. Later the first Pelbar missionary to the Peshtak.

Nicfad: the military and police arm of the Tusco, a hereditary position.

Nim: a Siveri captured by the Tusco. Not only does he help engineer their mass escape, and lead the Siveri home, but once there, he manages to centralize their defenses and even raise an army against their tormentors.

Northwall: the northernmost of the three Pelbar cities, and at the time of this story the most open to the Shumai and Sentani, who have surrounded it with farms and industries.

Odsem: an old Siveri, once a farmer, next a Tusco slave, then later, as an old man, an inhabitant of Jaiyan’s Station. Killed by the Peshtak.

Oh River: known formerly by Americans as the Ohio.

Oin: an old Atherer weather-reader, also famous for shrimp cakes.

Olla: a former member of the Tusco Central Committee at U Bend, his skull adorns the judgment desk in the white tower, and, later, the bottom of the river.

Onem: a Tusco town west of the Heart, near the edge of the old Shumai winter territory. Raided by Nim to recover Siveri captives, it is never able to rebuild, lacking slaves. Its Nicfad abandon it, going to Ultu, but find that also in ruins.

Osel: a Peshtak. After Royal cures his disease during his incarceration at Pelbarigan, he is freed and carries the Pelbar offer of peace and cure back to Peshtak country. There, he is killed as a traitor, but some believe him and seek to make contact with the Pelbar.

Ossi: an old Threerivers woman. After the Peshtak incursion she becomes an herb gardener.

Ount: a Siveri musician, taken by the Nicfad. He dies at U Bend shortly before the arrival of Gamwyn.

Oyt: an Alat fisherman devoted to the fisherguild and the game of padball.

Pelbar: the Heart River people living in three cities—Northwall, Pelbarigan, and Threerivers.

Pelbarigan: the largest and oldest of the three Pelbar cities, founded by Amanda Pell (or Pel), a former metallurgist from Peoria, Illinois, before the time of the fire.

Pell, Amanda (sometimes spelled Pel): founder of the Pelbar after the time of fire. Ms. Pell was spelunking in the Ozarks at the time of the holocaust. Not only a feminist, but also a disliker of men, she imprinted her views on the society she eventually founded on the east bank of the Heart River. An extremely able administrator, she not only founded a society, made its laws, and gathered its basic scriptures, but she also projected a future direction for its people all in the nine years between the time of fire and her death of radiation sickness.

Peshtak: a violent and often vicious group living in what Americans knew as Pennsylvania, especially in the mountains. Because of pressures from the east, they are beginning to migrate westward into the Heart River country.

Pigeon Island: an island in the Heart about thirty-four ayas south of the former site of St. Louis.

Pion: father of Gamwyn and Brudoer. Husband of Rotag.

Prope: an old Threerivers woman who invites Ossi and Finge to tea, and dies that night of the poison her servant, Mall, put in it.

Ravell: a footloose old Sentani trader who plies the Heart River, generally alone. Known to Bival and others at Threerivers. Held captive for a time by the Tusco.

Rawl: guardian appointed by Udge to replace Wim. Killed by the Peshtak.

Reo: twin brother of Artess, a Tantal born at Threerivers who spends his early years at Murkal. Later fathers eleven children among the Atherers and becomes well known as a deep-sea fisherman.

Ret: a member of Udge’s guard at Threerivers, she helps conduct Gamwyn south from Pelbarigan. Killed by the Peshtak.

Roara: one of six spirits prominent in Tusco superstition. This one is always depicted carrying his head under his left arm.

Rotag: mother of Gamwyn and Brudoer. Wife of Pion.

Royal: an elderly physician at Pelbarigan, whose story is told in The Dome in the Forest. In curing Osel of the Peshtak plague, by an absurdly simple injection, after a great deal of fiddling with instruments, he inadvertently rediscovers the ancient art of homeopathy.

Rute: a Peshtak subcommand who escapes death at Threerivers by having been assigned to guard hostages. He settles at Threerivers, marries a Tusco immigrant, and starts a farm, but his wife proves an unmerciful scold, and he eventually runs away to Black Bull Island.

Sagan: Protector of Pelbarigan and mother of Stel. Ahroe’s mother-in-law.

Sagol: an Atherer settlement on the shore of the South Ocean, east of the Heart, and of the great empty place that was once Biloxi, Mississippi.

Samme (pronounced Sam-may): an Atherer from the mouth of the Heart River. Struck with the possibilities for trade after his trip to Pelbarigan, he begins the water-borne trade between the Pelbar and the eastern cities.

Sandra: a U Bend Tusco Central Committee member and legal counsel. She dies in the fall of the white tower.

Sentani: one of the three central tribal groups of the Heart River country. They are further divided into three groups: the Long Lake Sentani, the Tall Grass Sentani, and the Sentani of Koorb. The last group formerly ran its winter hunts through Pelbar country and now has integrated most markedly with the Pelbar. All Sentani are descended from a group of Explorer Scouts led by a Memphis watchmaker named Antonio Sentani. At the time of fire they were on an outing in a coal mine in Tennessee.

Sepp: a Threerivers beekeeper who goes north with the refugees and sets up his honey operation at Iver in what was once known as Wisconsin.

Shumai: a group occupying most of the old American Great Plains, but rapidly changing from hunters to farmers along the Isso and Heart, especially around Northwall. Originally, all the Shumai were descendants of the children of Aaron Schumaker, a farmer who lived in southwestern Minnesota. After the time of fire they became running hunters, having lost all their former technology.

Siveri: a group living in fie central Appalachians around what was western Virginia and North Carolina. Frequently enslaved by the Tusco until they find means to resist.

Southcounsel: During this period, both Bival and Dardan occupy the position. It is elective, and, like the other quadrant counsels, goes to a woman chosen by the family heads of the quadrant.

Steelet: a Peshtak scout, squadleader of a small band assigned to study Threerivers. Dies at Threerivers.

Stel: husband of Ahroe, the guardcaptain of Pelbarigan. His story is extensively told in The Ends of the Circle and The Dome in the Forest.

Suth: the given name of the Ursana.

Suwor: Northcounsel of Threerivers. After the Peshtak incursion she visits Koorb and is converted to the worship of Atou.

Syle: a Peshtak scout captured and enslaved by the Tusco and befriended by Gamwyn. Later dies at Threerivers.

Tall Grass Sentani: the middle branch of the Sentani who occupy what was once central Illinois and western Indiana. All this land has gone back to the prairie it once was before European disruptions.

Tantal: a group that lives on the south shore of the Bitter Sea near the former American city, of Cleveland. About fifteen years before the disruptions at Threerivers a large force of Tantal invaded the Heart River country and was defeated at Northwall. (See The Breaking of Northwall.)

Threerivers: the southernmost Pelbar city, located near what Americans knew as Grand Tower, Illinois. It is also the youngest of the three Pelbar cities, built by Craydor, an extraordinary genius of design and organization.

Tor: a remarkable Shumai axeman, a central figure in The Dome in the Forest.

Tusco: a group of slaveholding agriculturists inhabiting a portion of the lower Heart River Valley. After the great escape at U Bend, they quickly cease to exist as a viable culture.

U Bend: a large Tusco settlement located on a river bend. This group temporarily enslaves Ravell, then Gamwyn.

Udge: an archconservative Protector of Threerivers until the Peshtak incursion.

Unset: the given name of the Ardena.

Ursana, the: head of the Ursan family and the chief physician of Threerivers at the time Gamwyn is injured. After further training by Royal, she travels north to join the new settlement at Iver.

Urstadge: Many years before the building of Northwall, a Shumai hunter was asked by his eight-year-old son, after a long train of other questions, what was the name of the place they lived in. The reply was “Shumai country.” Naturally the boy wanted to know where Shumai country was. The hunter rose, threw a stick in the fire and said, out of the blue, “Urstadge. The name of it all is Urstadge, and beyond that is only the sea. Nothing is beyond the sea.” Somehow the name stuck and spread, after his friends stopped laughing. The known world, and the unknown beyond it, became Urstadge. Even the Innaniganis and the Baliganis picked it up. In fact, after long discussion, they decided that they had originated the term and invented an etymology for it.

Ustral: a young Peshtak adopted by Pion and Rotag after the invasion. Even at sixteen he could beat Udge at cross squares every time, almost convincing her to abandon her favorite game, which she was used to winning. However, Ustral’s visits were accompanied by small gifts, generally of blackberry preserves, which she relished so much that she came to consider the losses a price worth paying.

Warret: the husband of Bival at Threerivers.

Weel: a son of Aylor, the Atherer, very tall, cadaverously thin, though with an enormous appetite. Eventually he brings the Pelbar windmill and Alat booze to Sagol.

Welle: an Atherer boy and would-be cartographer until, mapping the old Virgin Island of St. Croix, he decides never to leave. He then becomes the island’s only archaeologist, and, during portions of each year, its only inhabitant.

Wim: a guardsman, temporarily appointed guardchief by Udge until her conscience will not let her obey Udge’s vengeful commands. She eventually becomes guard-chief at Iver, the refugee settlement west of the Bitter Sea.