James Steller Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 When I think about it again, I wonder just how the giants managed to be driven back beyond the North. They're massive creatures with incredible strength, and they can withstand the cold better than humans can. We've seen what Wun Wun does to a knight armoured in steel plate and mail. The first men only had bronze weapons. How could the first men defeat these giants in combat? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coolbeard the Exile Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 First men were smarter and many times the giants numbers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mat92 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 Could have been a number of things. The pure number of first men could have been too much for them to handle. That being said, there were a lot more giants back then. The war between them happened over a great number of years if I'm not mistaken? Over time, perhaps they had to retreat further and further north as the first men took up more land. There would also be more food available for them the further they got from the first men. We don't know a great deal about them, but it's possible that perhaps giants aren't the most ferocious creatures, and perhaps they avoided war if they could. Wun Wun seems quite reasonable and only attacks when provoked. The other giant/s attacking the wall were likely just following Mance just as everyone else was - because he told them they were going to die otherwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Yozza Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 There were a lot more of the First Men than there were Giants, plus they had arrows. Plus, we've also seen a one-armed Blacksmith kill Mag the Might with only a handful of brothers for backup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aryagonnakill#2 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 It is also possible that the First men took advantage of the wars between Giants and COTF, this could help explain their victories against both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Steller Posted October 23, 2016 Author Share Posted October 23, 2016 4 hours ago, Adam Yozza said: There were a lot more of the First Men than there were Giants, plus they had arrows. Plus, we've also seen a one-armed Blacksmith kill Mag the Might with only a handful of brothers for backup. True, but wouldn't a giant have to be on his hands and knees in that tunnel? That isn't the best position to be in during a fight anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maester of Valyria Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 The First Men had numbers, metal weapons, and intelligence as advantages over the giants. As @aryagonnakill#2 said, the humans may have also used 'divide and conquer' tactics at first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakhearts head Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 7 hours ago, James Steller said: True, but wouldn't a giant have to be on his hands and knees in that tunnel? That isn't the best position to be in during a fight anyway. I love Donal Noye, but we see a true representation of a giant versus a knight in full plate armour with Wun Wun and Ser Patrek of Kings Mountain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[Deleted] Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 Maybe they had lots of brave tailors? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trigger Warning Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 I would imagine it would be quite easy for even a small number of men on horseback to harry a single giant to exhaustion or until they bleed out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mat92 Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 13 hours ago, James Steller said: True, but wouldn't a giant have to be on his hands and knees in that tunnel? That isn't the best position to be in during a fight anyway. Yeah I was going to use the tunnel example in my post, saying how they would be easily able to defeat a giant in certain circumstances. However, I'm not sure how many actual buildings would be in Westeros at that time - I imagine that the CotF and Giants lived in caves or out in the open. It's still possible that there were certain geographical areas that gave the first men a strategic advantage though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canon Claude Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 Honestly I'd like to learn more about the conflict which led to the giants being driven out of Westeros. How did it start? Which group provoked the other first? Was there a war, or just a series of small skirmishes? How did the humans win? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackfyre Bastard Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 I think there's a consensus that numbers were the major factor here. A war of attrition during generations (probably hundreds -or even thousands- of years) coupled with a low birth rate on the part of the giants (very much like their cousins the CotF; I mean, we've never seen giant children), factored to diminish their numbers until they only existed north of the Wall. The World book states that the giants "rang[ed] where they could and [took] what they wanted", so maybe they kept always clashing with the First Men when the former took something from the latter or invaded (without realizing it) FM's territory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gertrude Posted October 25, 2016 Share Posted October 25, 2016 One on one a primitive man couldn't take on a mammoth, but men in packs hunted and killed them regularly. I am not sure that the giants were less intelligent, but I'm pretty certain that the men were more numerous and had better weapons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadows and dust Posted October 25, 2016 Share Posted October 25, 2016 It wasn't a concentrated force against a concentrated force. the giants seems tribal. small tribes warring with themselves as often as not. makes for easy pickings, so long as they never galvanize over a common foe. Seems like they didn't, or at least didn't until it was too late. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Lannister Posted October 25, 2016 Share Posted October 25, 2016 Just imagine how much food a creature as large as a giant would require. If you were to gather an army of them in one place for fighting, those food demands would swell past the point of sustainability for any period of time. Heck you wouldn't even have to fight the giants. If you wanted to kill giants all you would have to do is go after their game for a sustained period of time before they started starving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devilish Posted October 26, 2016 Share Posted October 26, 2016 Both Giants and the children of the forest seem to be anti technology and therefore pro nature. I can see them spreading as thin as possible across all Westeros to make sure that their impact over the environment is as small as can be. That is good for the environment but it makes it difficult to fight an invader. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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