132. (April 2024) The Jason Voyage, by Tim Severin — The Tabletop Roleplayers' Book Club

The Jason Voyage Q1: The Travelling Band

Apocryphal — Sat, 04 May 2024 19:36:42 +0000

In The Jason Voyage, Time Severin describes his journey from Greece to Georgia, recreating a fictional (or at least legendary) voyage by Jason sometime in the late bronze age. Both Tim's story and Jason's story (retold at the back of the book) a travelling tales in the vein of The Hobbit, The Odyssey, or Cormac McCarthy's Road. What do you think of this kind of story? is if fun to read? To write? To game? Can you think of any other classic travelling tales?

The Jason Voyage Q2: A Modern Travelogue

Apocryphal — Sat, 04 May 2024 19:41:54 +0000

Believe it or not, this is only the second travelogue we've done here at the club, and the first (The Southern Gates of Arabia by Freya Stark) was so long ago that I don't think Richard or Neil were members at the time. But Clash and Ray and I read that, and it was well-received if I recall.
The question for now (and for the future) is did you like this as a club read? Whether you liked or didn't like this book, would you be interested in doing more travelogues in the future? What do you like (or not like) about them, especially with respect to how might shape your gaming or fiction-writing experiences.

The Jason Voyage Q5+: Add your own question!

Apocryphal — Sat, 04 May 2024 19:53:55 +0000

Anything else you'd like to say or ask about this book? Use this thread!

The Jason Voyage Q4: Other Tim Severin Books

Apocryphal — Sat, 04 May 2024 19:52:49 +0000

At least three of us have read another Tim Severin book, which is partly why I picked this one. Clash has read The Brendan Voyage, recreating a journey from Ireland to the Americas, Richard has read The Sindbad Voyage, recreating a voyage from Arabia to Chine, and I have read The Ulysses Voyage, which charts Odysseus' trip roundabout home from Troy to Ithaca (and travelling in the the very same boat, the Argo, that was used in this voyage). How did The Jason Voyage compare to the other Tim Severin book(s) you've read?

The Jason Voyage Q3: Myth and Fiction

Apocryphal — Sat, 04 May 2024 19:47:40 +0000

Although this book is not a work of fiction itself, it does closely follow one - the mythical travels of Jason and the Argonauts. Did you get a good sense of the story of Jason by following Tim's adventures? What are your key take-aways of the Jason myth? A translation of the myth itself is included at the back of the book - what did you think of it? Would you have preferred a novel format retelling of this story (say, by Mary Renault or along those lines)? Did Tim Severin's 'overlay' of his own voyage add to the story of Jason?

Voyage of the Heroes (documetary video on the Jason Voyage)

NeilNjae — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 07:17:11 +0000

I came across this four-part series on YouTube, of a film following the voyage of Severin's Argo. First part:

About Tim Severin

RichardAbbott — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 07:46:03 +0000

TIM SEVERIN has made a career of retracing the storied journeys of mythical and historical figures. He has sailed a leather boat across the Atlantic in the wake of the Irish monk Saint Brendan, captained an Arab sailing ship from Muscat to China, steered the replica of a Bronze Age galley to seek the landfalls of Jason and the Argonauts and Ulysses, ridden the route of the First Crusade from a castle in Belgium to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, travelled on horseback with the nomads of Mongolia to explore the heritage of Genghis Khan, sailed the Pacific on a bamboo raft to test the theory that ancient Chinese mariners could have travelled to the Americas, retraced the journeys of Alfred Russel Wallace, Victorian pioneer naturalist, through the Spice Islands of Indonesia aboard a native sailing vessel, identified the facts behind the story of Moby Dick the fighting white whale among the native peoples of the Pacific islands, and discovered the origins of the ‘real’ Robinson Crusoe in the adventures of a castaway stranded 300 years ago on a desert island off the coast of Venezuela.

As a historical novelist he has written the best-selling VIKING and HECTOR LYNCH trilogies. The Book of Dreams, the first volume of his SAXON trilogy was published in August 2012

His travels have been the subject of award winning documentary films and a major BBC documentary series, and are collected under the title TIME TRAVELLER. They have been screened on Discovery Channel, Sky Television, and National Geographic TV, and he has written regularly about his expeditions in the National Geographic Magazine. He has won the Thomas Cook Travel Book award, The Book of the Sea Award, a Christopher Prize, the Sykes Medal of the Society of Asian Affairs, and the literary Medal of the Academie de Marine. His replica boats have become museum exhibits. In l986 he was awarded the Gold Medal (Founder's Medal) of the Royal Geographical Society for his research into early voyages, and in 1987 the Livingstone Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. In 1996 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, by Trinity College, Dublin, and in 2003 received an Honorary Doctorate from the National University of Ireland.

He lives in Co. Cork, Ireland.

Cover blurb for The Jason Voyage

RichardAbbott — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 07:45:13 +0000

Legend or fact? Myth or reality?

In the thirteenth century BC, the Greek mythological hero Jason set sail in a galley with a band of Heroes in search of the Golden Fleece. The boat was named Argo, after its builder, and the sailors are known as the Argonauts. But did they exist? And what was the Golden Fleece? Their journey took them from present-day Greece, across the Aegean Sea, through the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmara, through the much feared Bosphorus into the Black Sea, and then along the entire north coast of Turkey, ending up in the state of Georgia. It was there, in ancient Colchis, that Jason found not only the Golden Fleece but also his bride, Medea, after taming the wild bulls, killing the serpent, and planting its teeth in the soil.

Or so the legend has it.

Tim Severin, having sailed in a leather boat from Ireland to America to test the legend of St Brendan, and having linked the seven journeys of Sindbad the Sailor into a single mammoth trip from Arabia to China, set out to investigate the story of Jason. He had a twenty-oar galley built in the Aegean to the exact specifications of a Bronze Age boat and, with his crew of new Argonauts, made the same perilous 1500-mile journey. The oarsmen were aided by Greek, Turkish and Soviet volunteers as they passed through each country's territorial waters. And they underwent extraordinary hardships on the way. But they did prove that, in spite of the dangers and discomfort, Jason could have made the journey in an oared galley, which many experts had considered impossible.

The Jason Voyage is the thrilling story of that journey. It will have an irresistible appeal to scholars as well as lovers of adventure, travel and mystery.