Birken-Honigsessen is a municipality in the district of Altenkirchen, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
It is located 90 kilometres north-east of Whistler, the last 21 kilometres of which are a non-paved gravel road branching off the main paved from between Mount Currie and D'Arcy via Blackwater Creek, a tributary of the Gates River, a few miles northeast of the community of Birken.
Ursula's character draws on Lawrence's wife Frieda, and Gudrun on Katherine Mansfield, while Rupert Birken has elements of Lawrence himself, and Gerald Crich of Mansfield's husband, John Middleton Murry.