Small questions v.10082

[TheCrannogDweller]

A friend of mine wants his "son of Timett" title to be a sarcastic way of saying he needs no notable father, but I didn't think that would be the case

I think Bronn's "Son of...You wouldn't know 'im" would suit your friend's purposes just fine. :D

[RumHam]

Do we know if Owen Merryweather (Hand of Aerys II) is still alive?

If he was then the current Lord Merryweather would not be Lord Merryweather, so I'd say no.

[HexMachina]

There was a winter tourney in 253AC... We have no idea how long that winter lasted, though.

And of course there was a spring during 209AC, The Great Spring Sickness.

And like I listed before, the 7 year summer during Maekars reign (but since Maekar reigned for 12 years, we don't know the exact date), followed by a harsh winter (of unknown length).

The Year of the False Spring in 281AC

Summer from 289AC until 299AC, autumn from beginning 299AC until just over half 300AC, and winter from about the 7th month of 300AC

Winter also.took root in 129/130 AC (I think those are the right dates) during the Dance of Dragons, and prevented Lady Arryn committing her full forces

[Rhaenys_Targaryen]

Winter also.took root in 129/130 AC (I think those are the right dates) during the Dance of Dragons, and prevented Lady Arryn committing her full forces

Ah yes, on Maiden's Day in 130AC, the white raven from the Citadel to announce the winter arrives :)

[Rhaenys_Targaryen]

I got another one. In 209AC, we know it was still spring, but by 211AC, summer has begun. It is still summer in 212AC.

In between the mentioning of Spring in 209AC and Summer in 211AC, we have a 2 year drought,. Would that count as spring, or summer?

[Ser Creighton]

There was a winter tourney in 253AC... We have no idea how long that winter lasted, though.

And of course there was a spring during 209AC, The Great Spring Sickness.

And like I listed before, the 7 year summer during Maekars reign (but since Maekar reigned for 12 years, we don't know the exact date), followed by a harsh winter (of unknown length).

The Year of the False Spring in 281AC

Summer from 289AC until 299AC, autumn from beginning 299AC until just over half 300AC, and winter from about the 7th month of 300AC

Just to add Martin has said that the 5 year time skip would have been the autumn and that he wanted it to be longer like the other seasons.

[mindchap]

A hypothetical question, that presupposes R+L=J.

What would Rheagar have named Jon if he had had the opportunity? If he was thinking of the "three heads of the dragon," and named his first two children Rheanys and Aegon, no doubt he had Visenya in the back of his mind for the third.

Since Jon was a boy, what would that have translated to? Viserys? Viserion maybe? Just wondering.

There's no way to know for sure but I could have seen him naming him Aemon. :)

[Ser Creighton]

There's no way to know for sure but I could have seen him naming him Aemon. :)

He would of Named Jon, Visenya slapped a dress on him died his hair silver and raised him as a girl. May the Prophecy be fulfilled. It would of been the ASOIAF version of this classic.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4VtcOCHePB4

Hey everything is cool man, totally 3 heads of the Dragon here, Aegon, Rheanys , and my second "cough" daughter Visenya who happens to have a deep voice and 4 o'clock shadow and and throat infection that looks just like and Adam's apple. Ha totally on the up and up Prophecy dudes, everything is totally cool.

[Roddy Darwin]

He would of Named Jon, Visenya slapped a dress on him died his hair silver and raised him as a girl. May the Prophecy be fulfilled. It would of been the ASOIAF version of this classic.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4VtcOCHePB4

Hey everything is cool man, totally 3 heads of the Dragon here, Aegon, Rheanys , and my second "cough" daughter Visenya who happens to have a deep voice and 4 o'clock shadow and and throat infection that looks just like and Adam's apple. Ha totally on the up and up Prophecy dudes, everything is totally cool.

Hah! I always pictures Visenya as kind of the manly one.

[The Mountain That Posts]

Just a general question, how does the kingsguard work? In regards to like, schedules and stuff?

In AGoT, you learn that only three(I think it was three) members traveled to Winterfell. Between the king, the queen and their three kids - you would think they'd have at least one guard for each family member at all times(during peace) and a sixth so that one can have an off-day while the others are on duty?

I just have trouble believing that seven kingsguard members would work really, considering they'd naturally need breaks and as characters like Jaime and Loras show us, they do have off-duty days.

Is this an instance of GRRM being unrealistic and us needing to suspense disbelief, or am I missing details?

[TheCrannogDweller]

Has anyone ever asked GRRM who his LEAST favourite character is? :D

[mindchap]

Has anyone ever asked GRRM who his LEAST favourite character is? :D

SSM:

When asked about his favorite/least favorite characters were, he quickly said Tyrion was his favorite character to write and that Bran's chapters were the most difficult and usually the ones left for last in the books released so far. But there aren't any characters that he dislikes per say, as he maintained that he had to be able to 'get into their heads' and 'understand them' in order to be able to tell the story as he wanted. He said the multiple PoV perspective was essential for understanding SOIAF, as he believed it offered a way for not just him, but for the readers to gain multiple perspective on the same events.

[The Mountain That Posts]

So even GRRM hates Bran chapters?

Fucking figures.

[Beatrijs]

I was wondering whether there is any indication about the amount of people that live in Westeros.. It seems to me that because of the wars there are so few people left to rule over, especially in the North and maybe in the Riverlands as well. Is the North a bit 'dead' in terms of people? (Maybe especially so now that winter is here...)

[mindchap]

So even GRRM hates Bran chapters?

Fucking figures.

No, he just has a hard time trying to write from a child's POV.

[HexMachina]

So even GRRM hates Bran chapters?

Fucking figures.

No, he said he struggles to write from a child's PoV, not that he hates his chapters

[The Mountain That Posts]

Shhh, let me have my delusions that GRRM being bored is why those chapters are so lame.

[Rhaenys_Targaryen]

I was wondering whether there is any indication about the amount of people that live in Westeros.. It seems to me that because of the wars there are so few people left to rule over, especially in the North and maybe in the Riverlands as well. Is the North a bit 'dead' in terms of people? (Maybe especially so now that winter is here...)

Ran explained on the forum once a total amount of 40.000.000 people in Westeros, thanks to many calculations that had once done. I'll look for his post ;)

[AlliYoyo]

No, he said he struggles to write from a child's PoV, not that he hates his chapters

Hence the lack of Rickon...

[Rhaenys_Targaryen]

Ran explained on the forum once a total amount of 40.000.000 people in Westeros, thanks to many calculations that had once done. I'll look for his post ;)

Found the explanation:

I can say with absolute certainty that GRRM tries to keep things easy. A year in the series is a year in our world, 24 hours is exactly the same span of time, and a mile in the books is a standard mile. He has enough difficulty keeping track of things not to throw in unique measurements to try and keep track of as well.

OTOH, I think it's probably true that Westeros is not, in fact, the size of South America. Unless there's a lot more of it going North beyond the map than we know, anyways. The Seven Kingdoms-proper seems to be less than the size of Europe itself by maybe 25 percent, but it's very stretched out. I think that that fact has thrown GRRM, so that South America seemed nearer the mark to him than Europe with its rather different appearance.

As to population densities, I'm glad to say that other people have applied medieval population density figures to Westeros before. When I did it, I came up with roughly 40 million there, as well. However, one has to take into account what the books show as differences from our history.

I think one thing that needs to be factored in is that the population of places like the Reach is more diffuse than, say, high medieval France. There's five cities in Westeros, period, according to Martin. There are certainly many more towns and villages than we see on the maps, but the beginnings of real urbanization as seen in France (or Italy) hasn't happened. I'm thinking that's a combination of just being what GRRM wants, and perhaps being motivated by the notion that the supply needs of cities make them exceedingly unattractive whenever a particularly long, harsh winter rolls around.

And the fact that the North seems to have huge swathes of completely empty areas -- the Gift is all but abandoned, the barrowlands are a vast and rather empty plain, etc.; characters regularly travel for days without seeing sight of anyone -- drags the numbers dow; it's as if the population density of Medieval Scandinavia were spread out across the whole of Western Europe. Dorne isn't too populous either, given the desert and the mountains, and not a great deal of evidence that the river valleys are intensely inhabited. Between them, they're half the size of the whole realm.

Josiah Russel estimated that in 1340, Europe had a population of about 75 million. Factoring in that the Seven Kingdoms is approximately 25% smaller, you're down to 60 million. Factoring in the fact that you have to change the proportions to account for the very low densities of the North and Dorne, you cut that down even more. And then factor the evident lack of urbanization and it comes down even more.

So, 40 million, give or take, feels right. The fact that the old, dirty "rule of thumb" happens to fit this pretty well when you look at military mobilization -- a rule of thumb I suspect GRRM is familiar with, and may be the whole extent of his knowledge of medieval demography -- just seems to be an additional support for the figure.