One of the most acclaimed fantasy series of all time is Tad Williams’ epic trilogy, Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. Published in three volumes between 1988 and 1993 (although the third book by itself is so huge it is usually published in two volumes), the trilogy was arguably the first post-Tolkien fantasy which attempted to match or even exceed Tolkien in sheer grandeur, scope and scale.

Enormously popular – with sales of well over 30 million and growing, Williams is one of the genre’s biggest-selling authors – the series has been cited as a key influence on George R.R. Martin, Patrick Rothfuss and Brandon Sanderson, among others. Recently, Williams returned to the world of Osten Ard for the first time to publish a sequel trilogy, The Last King of Osten Ard (the second volume of which came out this year) and several related books.

Maps for the original trilogy were created by Williams himself, showing the lands of Osten Ard in some detail. For the Last King trilogy, maps were prepared by Isaac Stewart.

To prepare this map, I carefully consulted all six available Osten Ard novels and combined all of the locations on all of the local, regional maps onto the overall map of the continent.

Memory, Sorrow and Thorn

The Dragonbone Chair (1988) Stone of Farewell (1990) To Green Angel Tower (1993)

The Last King of Osten Ard

The Witchwood Crown (2017) Empire of Grass (2019) The Navigator’s Children (2021, est.)

Related Works

The Burning Man (short story, 1998)

The Heart of What Was Lost (standalone novel, 2017)

The Shadow of What Was Lost (standalone novel, forthcoming)

Brothers of the Sky (standalone novel, forthcoming)

Lady of the Wood (short story, forthcoming

Thank you for reading The Atlas of Ice and Fire. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods, which will also get you exclusive content weeks before it goes live on my blogs.