Small questions v.10080

[RumHam]

I think his issue with the word is it being spelled like a name. None of your examples are capitalized.

Yeah, I was aware they used the word to refer to dirt/ground. I just never noticed that's what they call the planet. Why do people bother with silly sounding things like Grrth then? Is anyone really gonna get confused between the books and reality if we just call the planet Westeros is on Earth, like the people in universe do?

[Rhaenys_Targaryen]

Tywin in aSoS, Tyrion I :

"Joffrey and Margaery shall marry on the first day of the new year, which as it happens is also the first day of the new century. The ceremony will herald the dawn of a new era."

So either there was a year 0 AC, that seems doubtful, or Tywin and/or GRRM mistakenly place the first year of the fourth century in 300 AC instead of 301 AC.

For each century to last 100 years :

1st century 1 AC - 100 AC

2nd century 101 AC - 200 AC

3rd century 201 AC - 300 AC

4th century 301 AC - 400 AC

Though I don't remember any year fully given in the whole ASOIAF. Who did first assume the wedding was in 300?

Tyrion names it the 300th years since Aegons Conquest, so that's where 300AC came from for Joffrey's wedding:

You don’t expect me to face my sister sober, surely? It’s a new century, my lady. The three hundredth year since Aegon’s Conquest.

Yeah, OK, but if you change "landing" "with "corronation" in my post the point (that is supporting yours) still stands. It's year 1 after the corronation, so the corronation happens in day 1 of year 0.

But we in RL also don't have a year 0. The numbering begins with year 1. The year before was 1BC (Before Christ).

So in Westeros, the day of Aegons coronation was the first day of the first month of 1AC, the day before was the last day of the 12th month of 1BC (Before the Conquest).

Aegon landed 2 years earlier, thus Aegon's Landing takes place in 2BC.

[mindchap]

Yeah, I was aware they used the word to refer to dirt/ground. I just never noticed that's what they call the planet. Why do people bother with silly sounding things like Grrth then? Is anyone really gonna get confused between the books and reality if we just call the planet Westeros is on Earth, like the people in universe do?

Given that the only two instances of it being capitalized occur in the appendices and refer to the same person they could just be typos as well.

[FittleLinger]

Are we positive there is no year 0 in RL? Hah, I mean that might sound stupid, but this means that 3rd year AD is not 3 years After death, but two?

Doesn't it mean that 300 years since Aegon's conquest should be 301?

[mindchap]

Are we positive there is no year 0 in RL? Hah, I mean that might sound stupid, but this means that 3rd year AD is not 3 years After death, but two?

Doesn't it mean that 300 years since Aegon's conquest should be 301?

AD is Anno Domini not After Death, Anno Domini means time of our lord so it would start when that lord is born.

[FittleLinger]

AD is Anno Domini not After Death, Anno Domini means time of our lord so it would start when that lord is born.

Yes, that was a brain fart. Still the thing with year 1 and year 0 is confusing. 300 years after the conquest should be the year 301, if the timecount started on the first day of year 1.

[RumHam]

Given that the only two instances of it being capitalized occur in the appendices and refer to the same person they could just be typos as well.

I actually think it's only capitalized because it's part of his title, but that doesn't really change my point. They still call their planet earth which is news to me.

[Roddy Darwin]

I actually think it's only capitalized because it's part of his title, but that doesn't really change my point. They still call their planet earth which is news to me.

Then again, calling one's planet earth is pretty generic, no?

I mean, the characters talk and think in english, which we either put under suspension of disbelief or "it's like it's been translated for us"

Then naming your planet earth makes sense, since earth means earth. Suspension of disbelief, ooor it's not actually earth, it's just that people on Planetos named their planet after the name of the earth, and it has been translated into earth for us.

I'm not sure I am making any sense here, sorry. (Let's say if we meet civilized sentient aliens, I don't think it'd be completely unlikely if they named their home planet after their word/thing for what they walk on)

[Rhaenys_Targaryen]

Yes, that was a brain fart. Still the thing with year 1 and year 0 is confusing. 300 years after the conquest should be the year 301, if the timecount started on the first day of year 1.

Haha, I even checked wikipedia for you, but there really wasn't a year o in RL.

1AC: the first year after Aegon's Conquest. You don't have the 0th year since a Conquest. When 2AC starts, you've passed a full year since the Conquest, and you have entered the second year.

Tyrion names the wedding day as happening at the 300th year after Conquest, so in the counting of 1AC and 2AC, as here above, that would make the wedding happening at 300AC.

[RumHam]

Then again, calling one's planet earth is pretty generic, no?

I mean, the characters talk and think in english, which we either put under suspension of disbelief or "it's like it's been translated for us"

Then naming your planet earth makes sense, since earth means earth. Suspension of disbelief, ooor it's not actually earth, it's just that people on Planetos named their planet after the name of the earth, and it has been translated into earth for us.

I'm not sure I am making any sense here, sorry. (Let's say if we meet civilized sentient aliens, I don't think it'd be completely unlikely if they named their home planet after their word/thing for what they walk on)

Yeah, I get what you mean.

[Consigliere]

Are we positive there is no year 0 in RL? Hah, I mean that might sound stupid, but this means that 3rd year AD is not 3 years After death, but two?

Doesn't it mean that 300 years since Aegon's conquest should be 301?

It is a bit confusing. As far as I'm aware, in our world the historical year numbering does not contain a year zero but the astromical year numbering does. The quote Rhaenys Targaryen provided [The three hundredth year since Aegon’s Conquest] makes me think that there is no year zero in ASoIaF. Just like the historical numbering system we use, where there is no year zero, 2014 is the 2014^th year and not the 2015^th. Therefore we can conclude that there is no year zero in ASoIaF universe otherwise 300AC would be the 301^st year after conquest.

[Mychel_Redfort]

Haha, I even checked wikipedia for you, but there really wasn't a year o in RL.

1AC: the first year after Aegon's Conquest. You don't have the 0th year since a Conquest. When 2AC starts, you've passed a full year since the Conquest, and you have entered the second year.

Tyrion names the wedding day as happening at the 300th year after Conquest, so in the counting of 1AC and 2AC, as here above, that would make the wedding happening at 300AC.

I agree the Tyrion's quote prove the wedding happens in 300 AC. But then, Tywin and Tyrion misuse the term "new century". If the first year after the Conquest is 1 AC, and for each century to last hundred years, the fourth century should begin in 301 AC, not in 300 AC. It's been the same in RL : a lot of people assumed the 21st century began in 2000 instead of 2001.

[Consigliere]

I agree the Tyrion's quote prove the wedding happens in 300 AC. But then, Tywin and Tyrion misuse the term "new century". If the first year after the Conquest is 1 AC, and for each century to last hundred years, the fourth century should begin in 301 AC, not in 300 AC. It's been the same in RL : a lot of people assumed the 21st century began in 2000 instead of 2001.

This is a good point.

The mention of "300th year" implies that there was no year zero. Yet the term "new century" would only apply to 300AC if there was a year zero. The two phrases are contradictory. As you pointed out alot of people assumed the 21st century began in 2000. I too was under that assumption but as you correctly pointed out it only started in 2001. Perhaps GRRM assumed incorrectly as well hence the mistake.

[Lost Melnibonean]

When Jon meets Craster the older man says he hasn't had good wine in a bear's night. What the heck is a bear's night?

[Mychel_Redfort]

Surely a hibernation, it lasts some months in our world, but on Planetos with the perturbed seasons it could mean some years

[Lost Melnibonean]

Surely a hibernation, it lasts some months in our world, but on Planetos with the perturbed seasons it could mean some years

Thanks!

[Rhaenys_Targaryen]

This is a good point.

The mention of "300th year" implies that there was no year zero. Yet the term "new century" would only apply to 300AC if there was a year zero. The two phrases are contradictory. As you pointed out alot of people assumed the 21st century began in 2000. I too was under that assumption but as you correctly pointed out it only started in 2001. Perhaps GRRM assumed incorrectly as well hence the mistake.

Ah, but if you ask GRRM, I guess he'll probably say "I didn't make a mistake, Tyrion and Tywin made a mistake" :D and all is right in asoiaf universe again... (for as far as that's possible, at least)

[Maester2chainz]

Interesting question I have that I have never seen asked before.

The Iron Bank of Bravos is the go to Bank for loans, that Even the Iron Throne goes to them. However they don't believe in slaves, so that pretty much eliminates doing business in Essos. How could they possibly have this much Gold/ Money when they are limited to doing business is Westeros. The IT owes them millions. Where is their other sources of income coming from.? There is no way merchants can be more wealthy than the IT. They need an entire economy to support the amount of money they have been giving the IT. Do they have other free cities that aren't associated with slaving doing business with them? How is this possible?

[Lost Melnibonean]

Interesting question I have that I have never seen asked before.

The Iron Bank of Bravos is the go to Bank for loans, that Even the Iron Throne goes to them. However they don't believe in slaves, so that pretty much eliminates doing business in Essos. How could they possibly have this much Gold/ Money when they are limited to doing business is Westeros. The IT owes them millions. Where is their other sources of income coming from.? There is no way merchants can be more wealthy than the IT. They need an entire economy to support the amount of money they have been giving the IT. Do they have other free cities that aren't associated with slaving doing business with them? How is this possible?

Who said the Iron Bank refuses to lend to states where the slave trade is legal?

[TheCrannogDweller]

Interesting question I have that I have never seen asked before.

The Iron Bank of Bravos is the go to Bank for loans, that Even the Iron Throne goes to them. However they don't believe in slaves, so that pretty much eliminates doing business in Essos. How could they possibly have this much Gold/ Money when they are limited to doing business is Westeros. The IT owes them millions. Where is their other sources of income coming from.? There is no way merchants can be more wealthy than the IT. They need an entire economy to support the amount of money they have been giving the IT. Do they have other free cities that aren't associated with slaving doing business with them? How is this possible?

Just because the slave-trade is legal in Essos doesn't mean that the whole continent's economy is based on it. In fact, that's only true for the three cities in Slaver's bay.