Time Span

[ckal]

Hey everyone nice to meet you, first post here.

This has been something that has had me wondering for some time now, especially since I started reading A Game of Thrones (only 134 pages in as of now). I must say that the HBO series was what initially made me aware of GRRM and ASOIAF, and after how wonderful the first season was, I decided to buy the pack of the first four books to read. This whole 'world' has me so hooked and enthralled it reminds me of my massive nerdi-ness for the world of Middle Earth.

One thing has stuck out to me so far, though. Upon watching the first season of the HBO series, I felt that the ages of all the characters just felt perfect. Everyone looked and acted and did things just like I believe a person their age in this world would be doing. Upon reading the first part of the first book, I've learned that all the characters (especially the ones in the show who appeared to be early 20's or late teens) are vastly younger than their HBO counterparts. When applying the ages of the characters from the book, to the actions and happenings of the characters in the show, it doesn't add up to something that would be believable to me.

(side note: I understand and am fine with Dany's age of 13 in the beginning of the book as I've listened to GRRM's in depth reasoning for this).

So here is what I came here for the first time for:

How much time elapses from the beginning of A Game of Thrones to the end of A Dance With Dragons? And if possible, could anyone break down the time span from the beginning to end of each of the 5 books?

I would really appreciate anybody's insight on this. BY THE WAY: While I unfortunately already know a good deal of spoilers as it relates to character deaths in the first few books (damn internet and my curiosity!), PLEASE NO SPOILERS =)

Thank you.

[Crown]

I'm not sure, I think something like 2 or 3 years.

[Ran]

These are off the cuff, and those who've done timelines probably have a clearer sense, but this is in the right ballpark:

AGoT covers the most time -- approximately 1 year.

ACoK seems to cover rough 6 months

ASoS covers about 4 months

AFfC covers about 6 months

ADwD covers about the same six months, and adds one-two months (there's an exception to this that I won't get into because of spoilers)

So, all told, characters are about 2.5 years older than they were at the very start of AGoT.

Just remember that Alexander the Great was leading troops and putting down rebellions at the age of 16, that the Black Prince was just 16 when he won his spurs fighting at the Battle of Crecy, that Joan of Arc raised the siege of Orleans at 17. Life was different then and people really did "mature" quicker, in a sense (at the same time, Barbara Tuchman and others speculated that some of the rash and occasionally baffling political and military decisions recounted in the chronicles may have had as much to do with raging teenage hormones than with any kind of thought).

As to other characters, the younger ones like Arya, just remember that there are child soldiers in Africa and South America at this very moment.

[ckal]

Thank you for the responses.

Ran-

That was something I was thinking about myself...the maturity at a younger age in times from long ago. Although I would personally rather have them be late teens early twenties, I'll learn to live with it =) Really tough for me to see Jon Snow and Robb Stark as 14 y/o ers though, those two are the main ones. At least Theon is a bit older...late teens early twenties I think?

Side question...I know it stated it earlier in AGOT but I had forgotten where...was it 13 years that had passed since The Usurper won the crown?

[Ran]

Fifteen years had passed since the rebellion (in the TV show, it's 17 years).

Bear in mind that Jon and Robb are both 15 before AGoT ends -- they're both 14-going-on-15 when we meet them.

[ckal]

It's been 13 years since Robert was crowned king though, right? I thought I remember that being mentioned several times, and it was 15 years when Ned Stark rode off with Robert Baratheon to war or however the book puts it. Ned was something like late teens when he fought in the Rebellion right?

Yeah, I recently passed the part where Jon Snow has turned 15, and that is less than a quarter of the way through the book.

[zztop]

3 years elapse from the beginning of AGOT to ADWD.

the years in the novels are counted from the invasion of Westeros by Aegon the Conqueror. Than being 1AL (Aegon's Landing)

the events of the books begin in 298AL

the timeline goes like this:

AGOT: 298AL

ACOK: 298-299AL

ASOS: 299-300AL

ADWD: 300AL

(AFFC and ADWD cover parallel timelines with different characters each time, ADWD being a bit longer)

[ckal]

Thanks for the run down zztop.

I wonder how much time the last two books will cover.

[Xtopher]

3 years elapse from the beginning of AGOT to ADWD.

the years in the novels are counted from the invasion of Westeros by Aegon the Conqueror. Than being 1AL (Aegon's Landing)

the events of the books begin in 298AL

the timeline goes like this:

AGOT: 298AL

ACOK: 298-299AL

ASOS: 299-300AL

ADWD: 300AL

(AFFC and ADWD cover parallel timelines with different characters each time, ADWD being a bit longer)

No 5 year leap anymore??

Is that the consequence of the infamous "Meereen Knot"?

[Crown]

No 5 year leap anymore??

Is that the consequence of the infamous "Meereen Knot"?

Yeah.

[Xtopher]

Yeah.

Bummer. Now the writer is stuck with a bunch of 15 year olds behaving like 20 year olds.

[ckal]

So there was a chance the characters would have actually been older for some reason?

Bummer indeed.

[kephv]

It's hard to say for sure but it's possible three years and some months passed between AGoT and Dance.

Once you finish the first four books, check out this thread: http://asoiaf.wester...lobal-timeline/

I don't agree with everything there (then again, it was made before ADwD was out), but it's a lot more specific.

[ckal]

Thanks I'll be sure to do so. I stil have a little under 200 pages left in AGOT so I'll finish that up and start ACOK asap.

[Xtopher]

So there was a chance the characters would have actually been older for some reason?

Bummer indeed.

Yep, The author planned a five year gap but had to avoid it in the end due to an error he made in... was it Storm or Feast? dont recall. Well, that´s why the kids were that young at the beggining of the series, he wanted them to be much older when it ended, now he has wrote himself around that and hopefully it hasnt had any consequences in matters of conclusions and major plot endings.

[Colibri]

Yep, The author planned a five year gap but had to avoid it in the end due to an error he made in... was it Storm or Feast? dont recall. Well, that´s why the kids were that young at the beggining of the series, he wanted them to be much older when it ended, now he has wrote himself around that and hopefully it hasnt had any consequences in matters of conclusions and major plot endings.

It's a pity that the five years gap didn't happen, it would be good to see the characters older and changed by the end, although they will end up changed anyway

[ckal]

Ah man that's really unfortunate.

From the bits and pieces I know of the plot until the 5th book (I don't know all that much), but it almost seems like 2 books to finish the series wouldn't be enough to complete what was seemingly promised/lead to believe would happen in AGOT.

[Son of Shael]

redacted

[Arya Nymeria Stark]

But also, the book tells us that Dany is 13 and she was born on Dragonstone most likely at some point during the rebellion. They say roughly when it was but never when it started or how long it lasted.

[Linda]

The 5 year gap was not scrapped due to an error. GRRM started writing it and found that telling the story with a lot of flashbacks didn't work very well.

The very first plan he had, when he started AGoT, was to have smaller jumps along the way and basically let each book cover more time. That didn't work out once he started writing, which is why he then started thinking about the 5 year gap after ASoS.

Ultimately, the main issues are just that he probably wanted the dragons to grow more slowly and he wanted Arya and Bran to have grown up more. Those seem to be the main characters affected by the lack of a gap or lack of more time being covered within the story.