Most Precise ASOIAF Timeline in Existence

[PrivateMajor]

See, that doesn't seem to make sense. How can Sam travel from Eastwatch-by-the-Sea to Braavos in 44 days and then from Braavos to Old Town in 1 month?

Winds? What if the winds are blowing hard from east to west?

[Faint]

Winds? What if the winds are blowing hard from east to west?

Half the travel from Braavos to Oldtown is going North to South, and that doesn't even account for getting through the Stepstones, which would necessarily delay the journey. Even if we were being generous, that trip is 3 months at best, especially with what we have to compare it to. Just think how long it took Victarion to make the trip to Meereen. Incidentally, does the timeline actually assume that Sam passed the entire Iron Fleet while traveling in the opposite direction?

[DurararaFTW]

Half the travel from Braavos to Oldtown is going North to South, and that doesn't even account for getting through the Stepstones, which would necessarily delay the journey. Even if we were being generous, that trip is 3 months at best, especially with what we have to compare it to. Just think how long it took Victarion to make the trip to Meereen. Incidentally, does the timeline actually assume that Sam passed the entire Iron Fleet while traveling in the opposite direction?

The Iron Fleet got all scattered and lost, they lost a lot of time finding each other. plus they delayed to pursue and attack other ships as well.

[Whitering]

The entry in 121 is a little confusing because it mentions firing of Slynt, when the previous entries makes it sound like he was already sent to the Wall.

Terrific job though really fun to read through.

[A Man Has Said]

Thanks for this. I've been thinking about this a fair bit lately. It should be said though that I think GRRM deliberately made the time line a bit fuzzy in these novels. That's one of the reasons for the bizarre disconnect between the idea of a year and the seasons. Of course in the real world the year is defined by one course of seasons, one orbit around the sun. *

I'm happy to see that the time it took Robert and his retinue to travel from KL to WF and back is about what I estimated it to be without reference to the text. Based on the rough distance being something a bit over 1,200 mi/1,800km, and the best imaginable travel speed being maybe 30 miles a day? I'm thinking of that bloody wheelhouse that Cersei rode in. That couldn't have moved much faster than a medium walking speed. You'd have to be going from dawn to dusk just to accomplish the 30 miles.

* - ETA:

I think the fuzziness adds realism to the story, as people in different points of view are quite a distance from each other and communication was not that good. You could get news from KL to WF in maybe a week if the raven was strong and the winds favourable. From Essos to Westeros the time for news to reach you could be as much as a year. The best I think was for Dany's wedding, which was 6 months or more despite Robert having an agent in place and it being a high priority. ("a rider was sent from KL") Dany, not having a network to rely on, doesn't hear about Robert's death until a year after the fact. The news of birth of the dragons takes an enormously long time to reach Westeros, but just look where it happened (somewhere south of Vaes Dothrak on the edge of the Dothraki Sea?) and when it first arrives it is treated as a rumor, only to be confirmed much later.

[Faint]

The Iron Fleet got all scattered and lost, they lost a lot of time finding each other. plus they delayed to pursue and attack other ships as well.

Yeah, but it isn't as if Sam didn't get delayed as well. And keep in mind, half the journey the Iron Fleet took was over the same water that Sam was sailing, during the same exact time. I'm also somewhat troubled by the notion that Sam arrived before Jon would have hoped he'd be there, when the latter had no knowledge that Sam had been severely delayed and was not figuring that into his calculations.

For what it's worth, I'm all for the explanation that the author simply screwed this up and is going to have to massively fudge the timeline all over the place. I find that the most likely explanation.

[Visen]

Very cool, lots of work went into that.

:bowdown:

[lcd52]

Based on some previous threads on this forum, this beast of an excel document was born. Let us know what you think!

It's our attempt to map out the exact days of what happens from AGOT-ADWD.

https://docs.google....Fha1ZfNUE#gid=8

Homeric. Truly a masterpiece. Wish I had more adjectives. Thank-you.

[PrivateMajor]

Yeah, but it isn't as if Sam didn't get delayed as well. And keep in mind, half the journey the Iron Fleet took was over the same water that Sam was sailing, during the same exact time. I'm also somewhat troubled by the notion that Sam arrived before Jon would have hoped he'd be there, when the latter had no knowledge that Sam had been severely delayed and was not figuring that into his calculations.

For what it's worth, I'm all for the explanation that the author simply screwed this up and is going to have to massively fudge the timeline all over the place. I find that the most likely explanation.

It's a house of cards, everything is connected...and one big change could bring the whole thing down. One of my intents on posting this here would be that people can chime in to find out where the potential mistakes are so we can edit them in and try to create a clearer picture.

[jarl the climber]

One error I saw at first glance is that Arya abandoned Sandor the day after the fight and it took her about a week to get to Saltpans. So I think the Saltpan timeline is off.

[Whitering]

Another concern 300 Arya 1/22 and 1/23. Arya was at that village for a fortnight, yet they didn't hear about Lysa's death? Is that possible?

[Dr. Pepper]

It's a house of cards, everything is connected...and one big change could bring the whole thing down.

That's for sure! I saw that was the problem Errant Bard had also when constructing his timeline. I like the spreadsheet presentation much better just because of the organization factor. When going through it, I've notice things that aren't quite right (specifically in Dany's dance chapters), but any sort of manipulation of one thing, even if that thing isn't important, starts to cause problems with other things that are important. Just picking out a few major events that I find very important, those are matching up correctly, which I think is what really matters. Lollys' weird pregnancy that doesn't last nine months no matter how one manipulates it doesn't really matter so long as Davos and Tyrion are fighting on the Blackwater on the same day instead of months apart.

But yeah, just my few hours of trying to change one thing with the Dany ADWD stuff has given me a newfound admiration for how incredibly difficult it is for a reader to construct this timeline.

[Faint]

It's a house of cards, everything is connected...and one big change could bring the whole thing down. One of my intents on posting this here would be that people can chime in to find out where the potential mistakes are so we can edit them in and try to create a clearer picture.

Yeah, that's fair enough. I think the three most problematic characters are Arya, Sam and Daenerys. You have to straight out ignore things in their chapters for timeline constructing purposes or the whole thing comes tumbling down. For example, if we take everything Arya says at face value, she should be months ahead of where she is in your timeline. That said, you are correct to use snow falling in the Riverlands to equate her time period with that of Jaime, although, that really doesn't make sense based upon other things that have happened in her chapters. So, basically, we have to toss all that out or risk making the timeline come apart at the seams.

[PrivateMajor]

Yeah, that's fair enough. I think the three most problematic characters are Arya, Sam and Daenerys. You have to straight out ignore things in their chapters for timeline constructing purposes or the whole thing comes tumbling down. For example, if we take everything Arya says at face value, she should be months ahead of where she is in your timeline. That said, you are correct to use snow falling in the Riverlands to equate her time period with that of Jaime, although, that really doesn't make sense based upon other things that have happened in her chapters. So, basically, we have to toss all that out or risk making the timeline come apart at the seams.

I would agree to this, but I have also found that sometimes the more information you get it actually HELPS to piece other things together that normally did not.

It's pretty dang clear that GRRM doesn't have a master timeline somewhere, and if he does...it's rather loose.

[devilrob6]

Awesome work!! Must have taken forever to make this.

I was wondering about one thing. Jon is a bit older than Robb? Because i thought that Ned fathered Robb just before he went off too war and Jon was supposed to be fathered afterwards. Or is this based on R=L=J and Tower of Joy?

[PrivateMajor]

Awesome work!! Must have taken forever to make this.

I was wondering about one thing. Jon is a bit older than Robb? Because i thought that Ned fathered Robb just before he went off too war and Jon was supposed to be fathered afterwards. Or is this based on R=L=J and Tower of Joy?

Yeah that's a good point, I'll bring it up to everyone involved.

[Faint]

We don't know the truth about the difference in age between Robb and Jon. That said, I am assuming Ned's cover story is a lie.

[Bad Hound!]

That's an amazing piece of work - thank you so much. Very well done and easy to read and follow.

But this really brings to mind why I am finding AFFC and ADWD so difficult to read. I think it was a mistake - dare I say it - on GRRM's part to go geographically rather than chronologically. I know why he did it, and he explained many times why, and there are very good reasons, but it makes for a cumbersome read. Of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing, he had to try.

Like or leave it, when you read a story, you intuitively expect the timeline to always move forward, except in the case of flashbacks. But flashbacks as a tool are used sparsely by good writers/scenarists. And GRRM already uses flashbacks within the chapter, when a character reminisces about past events, which is fine and easy to follow.

Having many POVs already makes for a fragmented story, but having on top of that a confusing timeline doesn't help. I think I will not re-read the books until they have been all published (so that's 2025 then! :blushing: ), and then I will use work like the one you've done to read chapters in their chronological order. I am already doing this for my mix re-read of AFFC/ADWD. I think it will be an interesting experience.

[Mladen]

Based on some previous threads on this forum, this beast of an excel document was born. Let us know what you think!

It's our attempt to map out the exact days of what happens from AGOT-ADWD.

https://docs.google....Fha1ZfNUE#gid=8

:bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:

I have looked at it, and I loved it. I`ll be using it a lot. Congratulations on hard work and impressive result.

[PrivateMajor]

:bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:

I have looked at it, and I loved it. I`ll be using it a lot. Congratulations on hard work and impressive result.

Thank you!

I should note that if any of you want to edit the document (it's locked right now, too many vandals) just let me know your e-mail and I would be happy to add you to the "approved editors" list.