A World Unknown
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| File:Yn Wereyd Unkened.png | |
| Author | Aflurd Wroifer |
|---|---|
| Original title | Yn Wereyd Unkened |
| Country | File:Flag vyv.png Vyvland |
| Language | Vyvlander (original) Translated to English and others |
| Subject | South Vyvland |
| Genre | Travelogue |
| Published | February 1984 |
| Media type | |
A World Unknown (Vyvlander: Yn Wereyd Unkened, pronounced /ən weːɾəud ʊŋˈkeːnəd/) is a Vyvlander travelogue by writer Aflurd Wroifer. The book details the travels of Wroifer in the post-Sanker 'twilight years' of South Vyvland in 1982 and 1983, during which the country was economically and politically collapsing.
Background
The book is a first-hand account of Wroifer's travels across South Vyvland written mostly in the style of a diary. Until setting off on the tour, Wroifer had been an English and History teacher at the Timon-Vlesger-Sgol in the North Vyvlander town of Lanum in Seerm. He had never set foot in South Vyvland before, despite the fact that both of his parents came from near Fomiy.
Plot
Wroifer begins his journey by entering through the now porous border at Krois on 14 November 1982. The city seems to have been unaffected by the collapse of the regime, partly due to the stability given to it by its location on the border with the north. Here, he finds that many people already had jobs in the North and that cross-border connections are thriving.
Wroifer's first destination is Strossen. He decides to take the train, but ends up having to stay one more day in Krois due to the infrequency of the train schedules and his lack of understanding of the ticketing mechanisms. On the trains, he fears that he may be found to be travelling illegally by ticket inspectors and guards. Evading the guards on the train causes him to get off the train at Sangmurz and Krepsted; in the latter he stays the night sheltering in a bus stop and meets a homeless man the next morning at the town's market cross.
Wroifer eventually runs into a ticket inspector while the train is passing through Fe Mels. The inspector quickly establishes that he is a tourist from the north with few documents, but takes no disciplinary action. Later that day in a café near Strossen station, Wroifer meets the ticket inspector, who is out with his wife Jelje. The three talk about the couple's hopes to visit North Vyvland - something they had never been able to do owing to Jelje being banned from foreign travel due to her activist activities while a student.
In early January, Wroifer visits Kampdon, site of the South Vyvlander nuclear test disaster site and one of the few towns still effectively under the control of the Nationalist Movement. Though he is able to get into the town, stay in a small hotel, and enter the 'restricted area', while trying to leave the area he is found by a guard for the rapidly disintegrating Nazonalwakt, South Vyvland's police force. Without necessary papers for travelling to South Vyvland and having trespassed on restricted property, Wroifer is held in a prison cell for two days before being sent back to the North in an armoured vehicle the next morning, arriving in Pohl.
Publishment
The first five chapters of the book were serialised in December 1983 in North Vyvlander newspaper Fe Bysbereer. For many northerners, this was the first glimpse of South Vyvlander life they had encountered, and the paper's sales rose significantly during the serialisation. In February the next year, the book was finally published by Vlud-based publishers Bykandler an Sohns.
Translations
Wroifer himself translated A World Unknown into English; this edition was released in spring 1986. Since then, the book has been translated by others into Geadish, Nevan, Luziycan and Unolian.