Geographic locations in A Series of Unfortunate Events

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In the children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, there are various fictional geographical locations where events take place.

Contents 1 The Hinterlands 2 Mortmain Mountains 3 Gorgonian Grotto 4 Briny Beach 5 "Olaf Land" 5.1 Coastal Shelf 6 Lake Lachrymose

[edit] The Hinterlands

A Series of Unfortunate Events place
The Hinterlands
First Visit	The Hostile Hospital
Later Visits	The Carnivorous Carnival
Type	desert

The Hinterlands are a fictional area of wasteland/desert appearing in The Hostile Hospital and The Carnivorous Carnival. They are famous for their magnificent purple sunsets. The Baudelaire mention that they had always wanted to see the Hinterlands and were promised by their parents that they would visit one day. The Hinterlands are also home to the Caligari Carnival, which is the only attraction in the area. The Caligari Carnival is at the end of the Rarely Ridden Road.

[edit] Mortmain Mountains

A Series of Unfortunate Events place
Mortmain Mountains
First Visit	The Ersatz Elevator (mentioned), The Slippery Slope
Owned by:	possibly local government, inhabited by lions and snow gnats
Type	mountain range

The Mortmain Mountains is a fictional mountain range in The Slippery Slope. It is first mentioned by Jerome Squalor in The Ersatz Elevator as Mount Fraught, the largest mountain in the range.

This was the area of the Valley of the Four Drafts that the Snow Scouts gather in, and also the location of the penultimate safe place for VFD members, the only other being the Hotel Denouement. When The Man With a Beard but No Hair and the Woman With Hair but No Beard started a fire at the penultimate safe place for the members of VFD, the sugar bowl was tossed out a window down the Stricken Stream, which arises on Mount Fraught and flows to the sea.

The mountain range is home to Snow Gnats and V.F.D. Lions.

The range is very difficult to climb, since it consists of sheer drops and plateaux arranged in a staircase. The range is very cold during winter and false spring, with blizzards and ice further hindering climbing. The Snow Scouts are headed by Bruce and they include many important people including formerly Quigley Quagmire, Carmelita Spats, and possibly the children of C.M. Kornbluth and the Duchess of Winnipeg.

(See also List of VFDs.)

[edit] Gorgonian Grotto

A Series of Unfortunate Events place
Gorgonian Grotto
First Visit	The Grim Grotto
Location	End of Stricken Stream, below (now destroyed) Anwhistle Aquatics
Owned by:	formerly Gregor Anwhistle
Type	Cave

The Gorgonian Grotto is a fictional cave featured in The Grim Grotto. The grotto is located below Anwhistle Aquatics, to which it is linked by vertical tunnels.

The name Gorgonian is an apparent reference to gorgons, deadly creatures of Greek mythology. This refers to the presence of the deadly Medusoid Mycelium in the grotto. Medusa was a Gorgon.

The Baudelaire children, accompanied by Fiona, visit the grotto because they believe that the sugar bowl may have been carried into it via its underwater entrance, after having been thrown into the Stricken Stream. They do not find the sugar bowl, however they do find several items washed up on a beach in the grotto which later become useful. While visiting the grotto, Sunny Baudelaire becomes infected by the Medusoid Mycelium.

[edit] Briny Beach

Briny Beach is a fictional beach where The Bad Beginning begins.

In the first novel, The Bad Beginning, Briny Beach is where the Baudelaire children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, learn from Mr. Poe that their parents have died in a fire which destroyed their home. From then on, the series occasionally mentions the beach in referring to the orphans' ongoing misery and woe. In The Grim Grotto (the eleventh novel), the beach is where the Baudelaires meet Kit Snicket for the first time when she picks them up to take them to Hotel Denouement, leaving behind Mr. Poe, who had come to take the children to the police. This visit, the Baudelaires' second in the series, is alluded to in the "Author's Notes" section of the Rare Edition of The Bad Beginning. These notes also allude to Violet returning to Briny Beach alone for a third time in the series. This however does not occur.

A Series of Unfortunate Events place
Briny Beach
First Visit	The Bad Beginning
Later Visits	The Grim Grotto
Location	in or near The City
Owned by:	possibly local government
Type	beach

The beach’s name is a literary allusion to Lewis Caroll’s famous poem, The Walrus and the Carpenter (from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There), which relates the tale of how two chaps (a walrus and a carpenter) eat a bed of talking oysters to cure their melancholy over the fact that the briny beach is so sandy and unclean (unfortunately, this feast only serves to increase their melancholy). A verse from the poem goes as follows:

“O Oysters, come and walk with us!”

The Walrus did beseech.

“A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,

Along the briny beach:

We cannot do with more than four,

To give a hand to each.”

According to the carpenter in the poem, the briny beach has boiling water (“The time has come to talk of many things: of ... why the sea is boiling hot...”), although it seems unlikely to be true of Briny Beach.

Brine itself is water heavily saturated in salt, such as that found in the sea, and is commonly used in pickling.

[edit] "Olaf Land"

A Series of Unfortunate Events place
"Olaf-Land" (true name unknown)
First Visit	The End
Location	Ocean
Owned by:	Formerly Ishmael, Mr. and Mrs. Baudelaire, the Baudelaire orphans
Type	island

Olaf-Land is the name given by Count Olaf to the island on which most of The End takes place.

All things are supposed to return to its shores, including Esmé's fire dress from the Slippery Slope. The true name of the island is unknown. Count Olaf informally names it "Olaf-Land" after seeing it for the first time, and believing that the inhabitants are primitive, thinking they will accept him as king. None of the island's other inhabitants refer to the island as "Olaf-Land", and Olaf is actually banished to the coastal shelf by Friday when he attempts to establish himself as king. Ishmael is the island's falicator but he keeps the secret of VFD from the other islanders. When Bertrand and Beatrice Baudelaire were the leaders of the island, they attempted to create a utopian society of it. It is the final resting place of Kit Snicket and Count Olaf.

[edit] Coastal Shelf

The coastal shelf is a landform onto which the Baudelaires and Count Olaf are deposited after they have survived a violent storm. The shelf is littered with junk. The Baudelaires are discovered by a six or seven year-old girl named Friday, who takes them to a colony of castaways on a nearby island, leaving Olaf because she thinks he's rude.

After every storm, the islanders search the shelf for wreckage that might be useful. Such a wide variety of things can be found it is said that everything eventually ends up on the island's shores.

[edit] Lake Lachrymose

A Series of Unfortunate Events place
Lake Lachrymose
First Visit	The Wide Window
Size	large enough to have a hurricane
Owned by:	possibly local government, inhabited by Lachrymose Leeches
Type	Lake

Lake Lachrymose a very large lake, affected as it is by Hurricane Herman, a hurricane in the novel. One of the features of the lake is the leeches that inhabit its waters. If anyone goes into Lake Lachrymose within an hour after eating, the Lachrymose Leeches will smell the food and devour them. This is how Ike and possibly Josephine Anwhistle met their end. There are features around the lake, including Curdled Cave (which is for sale), a cliff which formerly held Josephine Anwhistle's house, beaches, and the Town of Lake Lachrymose.

The resort town is bustling during the good weather, but in the bad weather, things are dead. The Anxious Clown restaurant is of particular note, which supposedly has a V.F.D. member disguised as a waiter saying, "I didn't realize this was a sad occasion." The food is horrible, some meals include the Extra Fun Family Appetizer (a bunch of things served up together and fried with a sauce), the Surprising Chicken Salad, and Cheer-up Cheeseburgers. Known customers include Mr. Poe and his sister, Elenora, the Baudelaire orphans, Count Olaf (under the disguise of Captain Sham), Jacques Snicket (possibly), and Lemony Snicket, who had to collect a secret message.

Another place of notice is Damocles Dock, where the Fickle Ferry docks. Captain Sham's Sailboat Rentals is located here. Other places are the Lavender Lighthouse, marking where Curdled Cave, a clothing store called, Look! It Fits!, the Rancorous Rocks, and the Wicked Whirlpool, the last 3 of which are simply things mentioned, and don't play any importance to the story.

It is known that Captain Widdershins patrolled Lake Lachrymose in his submarine, the Queequeg.

Notably, the word "lachrymose" means "tearful", "piteous", or "mournful". It stems from the Latin word "Lacrimosa". This is significant on at least two levels—firstly, it fits with the series' theme of misery perfectly, and secondly (perhaps, more importantly), Lacrimosa is a movement of Mozart's Requiem in D Minor, famously known as the last piece of music he ever penned. Mozart's music is notably employed by the V.F.D. as a form of code.

It is unknown if Lake Lachrymose has any relation to lachrymology.