The Horse Lord's Appendix Removal

[hedgebird]

Hello, gentle readers, I'm back with another round of "Let's Compare Editions".

When I re-read The Mark of the Horse Lord recently, I was both pleased and indignant to discover that all this time, some editions have contained an appendix of "Places Mentioned in the Story" that is not present in the paperback I originally read. It translates the novel's "ancient" or invented place names into their modern equivalents. There was no need for me to have been quite so confused by the finer points of Earra-Ghyll geography as I always was!

Thanks to Internet Archive I was able to look at a few more editions and I have formed a hypothesis which I would like your help in checking. The hypothesis is this: UK editions of The Mark of the Horse Lord are descended from the 1965 Oxford University Press edition and contain this appendix, while most US editions are descended from the 1965 H.Z. Walck edition and don't contain the appendix. (Predicted exceptions: 1. Puffin paperbacks that appeared simultaneously in the UK and US, which I would guess were essentially identical. 2. A UK omnibus which perhaps drops the "extras" to save space.)

Here is a list of the editions I know of, and I'm hoping you folk can clear up some of the question-marked details:

UK editions
1965 Oxford hardcover: map, historical note, and appendix, illustrations by Charles Keeping
1983 Puffin paperback: ???
1987 Chancellor The Best of Rosemary Sutcliff omnibus hardcover: ???
2014 Random House e-book: historical note and appendix, no map or illustrations
2014 Random House paperback: same as e-book?
2017 Folio Society: new illustrations by Felix Miall and introduction by Philip Reeve, not sure about the rest?

US editions
1965 H.Z. Walck hardcover: different map, historical note, but no appendix or illustrations
1983 Puffin paperback: ???
1989 Dell paperback: historical note, afterword by Scott O'Dell, but no map, appendix, or illustrations
2005 Front Street paperback: map and historical note, but no appendix or illustrations
2015 Chicago Review Press paperback: map, historical note, afterword by Scott O'Dell, not sure about appendix?

Translated editions: ???

Broader questions: did you read The Mark of the Horse Lord with or without the appendix, and did you get lost in the Highlands? (If you know which crag is which in the battle of Glen Croe, please explain it to me...) How much do you care about following a story's geography?

Comments

[hedgebird]

Aww, that's so cute. I often wonder how much of an overlap among Sutcliff and Tolkien readers there is generally, because I think there are some significant aesthetic similarities between their work. I just hope MHL didn't disappoint after LoTR!

I've read that much of the mid-20th century idea of ancient pagan religion used in Mark of the Horse Lord might as well be fantasy, lol.

[anna_wing]

I still remember the silver branch with apple bells that the wicked Queen used as her sceptre...

[hedgebird]

I wondered a lot about that thing... why a branch? Is it just like the musical instrument in The Silver Branch?

[anna_wing]

I assumed that there was some sort of religious/cultural significance about apples.

[hedgebird]

Turns out there's a "Silver Branch" Wikipedia page because they're a motif in Irish mythology. Apparently magic apple branches are good for all sorts of things.

[anna_wing]

Also of course if they're bells, you can ring it for "Silence in Court!"...