Where does the Iron in the Iron Isles come from?

[Syl of Syl]

The Ironborn maintain their livelihood by exacting the iron price. They've got an Iron Fleet and one of the oldest dynasties of Kings had the name Greyiron which dates back before the Andal invasion. But the First Men fought with bronze weapons before the coming of the Andals. How come the Ironborn then have this association with iron? Did they fight with iron weapons while the rest of Westeros was working with bronze? Maybe the Greyiron kings were the first to acquire iron weapons through their reaving in the Summer Seas. They could have acquired the weapons without learning the art of smithing iron I suppose. Yet still it seems something of an anomaly that the isles also are rich in iron ore which is said by some to be the reason for the Iron moniker. And if the Ironborn were mining and smithing iron before the coming of the Andals, how did the lords of mainland Westeros remain so ignorant of this art?

 

[Jaak]

Spreading of iron metallurgy took time. Especially with the social barriers between Ironborn and First Men.

Iron may be the explanation for their reaving culture. Theon explains reaving with poverty of Iron Islands - but this is not a sufficient explanation. Look around Westeros. There are other isles. Bear Isle, Fair Isle, Shield Isles, Arbor, Stepstones, Greenstone, Tarth, Dragonstone archipelago, Skagos... All save Arbour are poor. None are reaving.

[Megorova]

Seems that Ironborn have different ancestors, than the rest of 7K's population. They were not First Men. Based on similarity between First Men and Dothraki, I think, that they had a common ancestor in Essos, prior First Men departed to Westeros. Both were using bronze weapons, both were horsemen, etc. First Men then, same as Dothraki now, weren't using ships or boats, they were traveling only on land. While ancestors of Ironborn were using ships. They arrived from somewhere to Iron Islands, and then something happened with their ships, like with Nymeria's fleet, or Targaryen fleet, or something like that, so they were stranded on those islands, and weren't sailing to mainland (though they made boats, and were able to go from one Iron Island to the next one). So they had iron on those islands, and were making weapons from it, but it was unavailable for inhabitants of mainland, such as First Men, until arrival of Andals, that brought knowledge about iron and use of it to Westeros(mainland).

[Moiraine Sedai]

Wouldn't it be something if it turned out the IB were the ones who fought the Others thousands of years in the past.  The bitter winter confined them to the island for decades and they became sailors.

[Back door hodor]

There are mines In the hills on great wick,  aeron complains that lord(I think goodfoot, but I cant remember off the top) holdfast is inland, away from the sea, he also muses that thier smallfolk are miners and such, I'll look up specifics if anyone is interested, this is just from memory

[CAllDSmith]

On 4/11/2019 at 8:28 AM, Jaak said:

Iron may be the explanation for their reaving culture. Theon explains reaving with poverty of Iron Islands - but this is not a sufficient explanation. Look around Westeros. There are other isles. Bear Isle, Fair Isle, Shield Isles, Arbor, Stepstones, Greenstone, Tarth, Dragonstone archipelago, Skagos... All save Arbour are poor. None are reaving.

Not exactly true, the Stepstones are homes to pirates and corsairs which explicitly raid. Though they don't raid Westeros as much since they keep getting their butts kicked. the Three Sisters (that you didn't mention.) were pirates and now mainly profit from smuggling and wrecking. Skagos did raid in the past. 

As for wealth, Greenstone and Tarth aren't particularly poor, simply average, there's actually a fairly large investment potential in Tarth from what we've seen. Bear Isle could probably be making a decent profit if it weren't for the ironborn and trading with wildlings not being supported. Skagos, while backwoods, also has trade potential in their unicorns and obsidian and there's nothing to indicate they're doing worse than the mountain clansmen. Dragonstone, Driftmark, and Claw Isle are all insanely wealthy under the Targaryens and as the Sea Snake and Salladhor Saan prove, they have the potential to make a killing just taxing passage through their waters. 

[Karneol]

I think it's because of their culture.

Iron is said to be harder than bronze and than copper. From what we have seen and heard of the IB they seem to be more brutal, stubborn and blunted than people from the other 7K.

On 4/12/2019 at 5:11 AM, Back door hodor said:

There are mines In the hills on great wick,  aeron complains that lord(I think goodfoot, but I cant remember off the top) holdfast is inland, away from the sea, he also muses that thier smallfolk are miners and such, I'll look up specifics if anyone is interested, this is just from memory

His name is goodbrother