Anythingatall Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 Her loins still ached from the urgency of his lovemaking. It was a good ache. She could feel his seed within her. She prayed that it might quicken there. Catelyn 2 So either Cats loins are super sensitive or "Quicken" has more than one meanings, one of which is "to give life to, to animate, make alive, revive", which has been used since the 14th century. Is how GRRM means it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wavey Sauce Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 meh I wish GRRM would see these threads so he would hurry up and get the next book out, with how bad its getting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jak Scaletongue Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 Jak House of Priest, look at it from my POV, you have just starting reading the first book of a new series in 1991, the first specific reference to time interval is in the fourth chapter all but specifying the length of a Westorosian pregnancy is approx 13 months. I reference back to preceding chapters during my read and all of a sudden the maturity of the older Stark/Snow boys makes sense. I then find a site 20 years later brimming with information some of which I consider inaccurate however there is SSM, the Concordance, Wiki and the Citadel telling me my vision of ASOIAF is wrong in several different ways. An example what of which we are discussing today. As someone who didn't start reading the books until the show (I saw some previews, thought "that sounds cool" and was told it was based on books - well, I like books better, so I read the books instead of watching the show!) - I just assumed Dany/Viserys didn't have a clear understanding of the timeline at the time when they were on the run. And as a woman who had recently given birth at the time I started reading the books, I certainly didn't assume that an 8 year old boy understood the female reproductive system. At first glance, chapter 4 is a Ned POV - I'm at work, so I can't read now, but are you sure it was a Ned chapter? Chapter 3 is the first Dany chapter - is that the one you're talking about? I just want to find the quote you're talking about so that I can read it myself - my memory ain't so good. And how would a 13 month pregnancy make the seeming maturity of Robb/Jon more reasonable? Technically, wouldn't they both be at least 4 months *younger* than we assume? And you're not the only one who being "told" their vision of ASOIAF is "wrong" :) I think everyone's learned that at some point or another while on these boards! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettyCrocker Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 This timeline might help any confusion. It may not be 100% accurate, but it does do it's best with the information provided in the books. According to this timeline, Dany's pregnancy was right on Earthly schedule until the Mirri Maz Durr incedent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mish Windage Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 Maybe "quickening", or targarian births, or dany's Specifically are different in the way that manticores are different? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jak Scaletongue Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 This timeline might help any confusion. It may not be 100% accurate, but it does do it's best with the information provided in the books. According to this timeline, Dany's pregnancy was right on Earthly schedule until the Mirri Maz Durr incedent. Helpful, and much appreciated! But I think they're arguing that Dany's mother's pregnancy was the wonky one; "quickening" = ~3/4 months preg when she left KL + Dany reminiscing that she was born 9 moons after their flight from KL = 13 month pregnancies is the argument as I understand it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jak Scaletongue Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 Double, sorry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonisHenryTudor Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 Although I doubt there is anything there, it is possible for the child to stay longer than 9 months easily. It is highly dangerous for the woman and baby, but some children show no signs of departure after 9 months. One of my kids, the doctors suggested, could have easily stayed in until 10 months or longer. Modern medicine speeds the process up with drugs or c-section. Having said that, I doubt Martin was playing into that specific detail. Some people use words differently, and sometimes not always in the same way that others understand the definition to be. Also Martin has already berated himself over having Tyrion do things that people his stature cannot do ( I don't know the politically correct term...) in GoT. It is possible that something similar happened with Martin's use of quickening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiredup Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 The only real incompetency I see is calling a trimester a semester. But no big deal ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerg Sknab Posted May 12, 2015 Author Share Posted May 12, 2015 The only real incompetency I see is calling a trimester a semester. But no big deal ;) ....chuckle... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Connartist92 Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 If GRRM said time passes the same as it does Earth, why are you trying to argue it doesn't...? "9 moons" is a vague term, it doesn't necessarily mean Dany was born 9 months to the day since they left KL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerg Sknab Posted May 12, 2015 Author Share Posted May 12, 2015 If GRRM said time passes the same as it does Earth, why are you trying to argue it doesn't...? "9 moons" is a vague term, it doesn't necessarily mean Dany was born 9 months to the day since they left KL. Did you read post #20? My preconception of time, science, magic, religion, astronomy etc regarding Westeros and Planetos was well ingrained long before this forum came to be, long before the hype AGOT the TV series same to be, long before GRRM was making the rounds marketing the product while making pronouncements on this and that. My understanding was probably isolated because of the fact I've never bothered reading any of GRMM's ancillary literary product (eg the Dunk and Egg stuff). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blind Beth the Cat Lady Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 Main problem with Dany being a 13-month gestation baby, though, is that her mother and father had no sexual contact for a long time except for once, a week or less before Rhaella left for Dragonstone. So if Aerys is really her dad then it was an approximately 9-month pregnancy. The pinpointing of conception really seems to indicate that "quickening" is meant to mean the very beginning of life rather than first baby kicks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikkel Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 Well I think it's safe to say that the whole "problem" stems from GRRM (or his character, in this case Dany) having a different definition of the word "quickening" than the OP does. You can come up with any number of other explanations, but I'm pretty sure the simplest one is the correct one in this case. If you replace "quickened" with "conceived" (edit grammar as applicable), the whole thing adds up nicely. Then you can go ahead and debate whether quickening can or ought to be used in this context, for what it's worth I always thought it was a synonym for conception, ie the way GRRM used it here, but then I'm not a native speaker. I can understand why this mismatch would put a lot of things out of alignment though, if you base your understanding of how time works in Westeros on something like this, which then turns out to be unreliable, for one reason or another. Note that a character misusing a word doesn't necessarily mean it's not by design, it could also be used to show that character's ignorance of the subject, though I don't think it's the case here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tyrion Targaryen Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 For what it's worth, the World Book (in many different places) refers to the planet that Westeros is located on as "Earth" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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