If the Greyjoys do not sow...

[Oakenfist]

Balon was pretty bloody literal when he slapped Theon upside the head for paying for jewellery and nice clothes.

Those are the exact type of things that an Ironborn would pay the ironprice to own. Jewellery and fancy green lands clothes aren't to be paid for in gold.

[MichaelMertyns]

The Ironborn, since their nations were basically founded on islands of rocks, have had to work hard, fight hard, die hard for everything. They mine iron hard. They eat tough, stringy livestock. Their very religion is founded on the principle that life is suffering above the water and paradise below it.

Balon resented Theon for basically living fat off the Starks without having accomplished anything. The "Iron Price" exists in other cultures of Westeros in different forms - even Tyrion is expected to lead a vanguard, the Torrhens are expected to protect WF, the Meereenese are expected to support slavery. Maesters are expected to read books.

But this is a very thoughtful thread. A+

[zaphodbrx]

Those are the exact type of things that an Ironborn would pay the ironprice to own. Jewellery and fancy green lands clothes aren't to be paid for in gold.

So is there a list? Things that can be bought with the iron price vs things to be bought with gold price?

In Victarion's ADWD chapters, we learn that thralls can only be bought with the iron price. So the iron price list includes jewelry, fancy clothes and thralls.

However it is also said that when Victarion was buying supplies ( food etc ) in Volantis, he was very ashamed of having to pay the gold price. If Volantis had been like a small town or such he would definitely have sacked it and paid the iron price for his supplies.

So clearly the ironborn ideal is to pay the iron price for everything whenever possible. I'm not sure there is a list.

This.

The Greyjoys are the top of the warrior aristocracy. Of course they do not sow. They let others do that for them, and this includes the vast majority of the people on the Iron isles who aren't all highborn and don't have motto animals or family words. :)

Problem with this is that none of the other lords sow either. If they can just have their common people do sowing, then their words make no sense.

In fact one of the secondary Greyjoy motto's 'We take what is ours'. can be interpreted in two different ways.

-We take ( what is ours ). Ie, if you have something of mine, we TAKE it back. ( this is where Theon in the HBO show tells Balon, well why didn't you take what was yours then? )

-(We take ) what is ours. Basically things that are 'ours' is that what we have 'taken'. This is pretty much the same endorsement of the iron price. Everything we have, we have TAKEN, ie, paid the iron price. Well ideally anyway.

So again we come back to the question of how do the Greyjoys get their food.

-If they have their common people do the sowing, their house words are pointless. They are just like any other house.

-If they TAKE the food through raiding, how come no one heard about it?

-Do they buy their food by paying gold price ( trading )? Imagine the shame and humiliation!

Fishing is a solution, but one can't survive on fish alone.

[zaphodbrx]

Another related question, why didn't King Bob set all the thralls free after the rebellion?

[KittensRuleBeetsDrool]

For what it's worth, the sigil of House Harlaw is a scythe. Which means that somebody, somewhere, has to sow, in order for them to reap.

Perhaps connected to this, Rodrik Harlaw has noted that it's time for the Iron Islands to give up the Old Way, which he said died with Black Harren. He told Asha that what the Iron Islands need is more land and that they should be trying to obtain that from grateful allies rather than trying to live off of plunder. It's true that Rodrik was always regarded as a little strange among the Ironborn due to his love of reading, but it seems that he, at least, is prepared to sow.

Given that Rodrik's sister was Balon's wife (and she named her eldest son "Rodrik" after her brother) the conversations around that family dinner table must have been interesting.

[N/A]

"we do not sow" is just a more lordly way of saying "we steal your shit" :ph34r:

but to answer your question They go fishing (The old way is dead)

[joluoto]

1. Thralls, even though only a few have them due to peace, the Thralls can sow. And the Ironborn still regularly sails to the Stepstones for raiding.

2. Fishing. Fish and clams are probably a big part of the Iron Islands diet

3. The old way have withered... Ironborn do sow, even though it's completely against the tradition. There's also trade with the mainland. Peace has certainly made the old ways less relevant.

[Rhaegarsjoy]

Aren't they all pirates?

[anon76returns]

"Hear Us Roar". I imagine the lords of all the other houses yell from time to time, so why aren't the Lannister's words meaningless?

"Ours Is the Fury". So now only the Baratheons/Storm Kings before them get angry? What stupid words!

"Growing Strong". Nice to know, Tyrells. As is every other noble family in Westeros. It's good to be king/lord paramount.

"Fire and Blood". Sure, Targaryens. But without real dragons your fire and blood is the same as every other family's fire and blood.

"Family, Duty, Honor". Oh come on Tullys. Like other nobles don't care about these three things?

"As High as Honor". Come off it, Arryns. The Tullys already claimed honor!

Really, only the Martells can claim words that are literally true and specific to themselves (one wonders if they got new words after the war with Daeron Targaryen, or whether the Martells that welcomed Nymeria already had those words). The Starks have cool words as well, but hardly specific to them and certainly literally true in the most facile of senses. (and you all are welcome for the 6 new thread titles mentioned above- I'll take no credit)

I think the Ironborn in general and the Greyjoys in particular respect reaving/the old way above commerce, but that they aren't literally banned from doing so. As mentioned above, Theon is wearing luxury items, which particularly sets Balon off, and Victarion is on a reaving mission in foreign lands, where one would imagine he would normally be particularly prone to iron pricing everything. But in general day-to-day life, yeah, the Greyjoys probably own thralls that sew & reap, and are happy to accept feudal taxes from other ironborn families that do so as well. They provide for their household by paying the gold price in the markets of Lordsport. None of this makes their words any less meaningless than a Lannister speaking softly or a Baratheon not going berserk. Given the chance, Ironborn will revert to the old way ASAP.