Atlantean Trilogy Archive
Longships sail a gray fjord below glaciers and snowy peaks under green aurora, a frost giant looming among the cliffs.North Sea Region, painted for this archive

Utgard Forest

Place, Forest

The only forest in Jotunland, a thriving white-needled conifer wood along the southern coast that supplies timber for Jotun ships. Dire wolves, snow leopards and polar bears roam it, and escaped slaves report two tribes of Nethermen whom the Jotun hunt for food.

From the book

The Utgard stretches along much of Jotunland's southern coast and is the only woodland known there, so it supplies all the timber for the coastal Jotun's giant raiding ships. Unlike the stripped fells of Anostos, it is said to be a thriving forest of conifers from low juniper to towering firs, spread across great snowy expanses. Its needles are reportedly white rather than green, which the dwarves blame on the lack of sunlight under the land's slate-gray skies.

Like the interior, it harbors dire wolves, snow leopards and polar bears, along with gentler snow hares, sable, reindeer and musk-oxen; fur seals and walruses are seen along the shore, though probably less often here than farther north. Vanir and Aesir warriors who escaped Jotun slave crews say at least two tribes of Nethermen live here, both hostile to the Jotun, who hunt them for meat, and at least one tribe has sometimes helped runaway captives. Whatever the truth, the Utgard is no place to wander carelessly.

At a glance

Region
Southern coast of Jotunland
Fauna
Dire wolves, snow leopards, polar bears, snow hare, sable, reindeer, musk-ox; fur seals and walruses on the coast
Inhabitants
At least two Nethermen tribes
Trees
Conifers from juniper to fir, with white needles