fenderlove (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fenderlove) wrote2012-04-10 08:04 pm
fenderlove) wrote2012-04-10 08:04 pm
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To the Game of Thrones Fans, a Question:
I haven't had a chance to read A Song of Fire and Ice yet. I bought it, and I hope that the end of the semester will finally give me time to read it. I have a question that came to mind today while I was doing a bit of writing... Do the people of Westeros have names for the days of the week? If so, what are they?
It seems like George R. R. Martin has done a very good job of world-building (I watched the clip about the religions of GOT on YouTube and was very impressed-- Thanks,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shipperx, for linking it a while back!), and I just started thinking about what it takes to build a world from the ground up. I pondered J. R. R. Tolkien for a while too. How do you even name things? How do the people of that world mark the hours? What do they call the months of the year? Do they even have a twelve month cycle? It's astoundingly complex to even begin to try to do. I think sometimes it's easier, in a way, to base things in a half-normal reality setting, like J. K. Rowling or C. S. Lewis. As I was taking a few moments to write in-between my office hours and class, I began to realize that I wish I could be one of these initial-s'appeler'd fantasy writers. I need better initials first... or, you know, actually write something fit for publication. XD
It seems like George R. R. Martin has done a very good job of world-building (I watched the clip about the religions of GOT on YouTube and was very impressed-- Thanks,
shipperx, for linking it a while back!), and I just started thinking about what it takes to build a world from the ground up. I pondered J. R. R. Tolkien for a while too. How do you even name things? How do the people of that world mark the hours? What do they call the months of the year? Do they even have a twelve month cycle? It's astoundingly complex to even begin to try to do. I think sometimes it's easier, in a way, to base things in a half-normal reality setting, like J. K. Rowling or C. S. Lewis. As I was taking a few moments to write in-between my office hours and class, I began to realize that I wish I could be one of these initial-s'appeler'd fantasy writers. I need better initials first... or, you know, actually write something fit for publication. XD
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Gabrielle
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Based on the fact that Martin focussed much of his own research on medieval England I would imagine he is using the Roman calander but I have no idea being as I've never read the books or watched the show but hey... research *grin*.
What is interesting (to me anyway) is that many pre-Christian societies used a lunar calander and had a variety of week lengths from 3 to over 20 and most just used numbering rather than days.
In the fantasy epic I've never written I would go with lunar markings and nights rather than days. Things would be demarked by how close to the full or new moon they fell "I will see you on the day three nights before the full moon in four moons time" Awkward but somehow epically fantasy. The year would be broken up into the seasons with festivals linked to the changes even if it was only a wet season and a dry season with a harvest in their somewhere (people always seem to celebrate the harvest). If I had a god pantheon I might link the festivals to primary gods or something. Some fantasy writers get caught up with the naming of things like that and others just ignore it preferring to concentrate on the lands/people etc. Martin uses Imperial measurements so I figure he's thinking in weeks and months rather than anything more ambitious.
Damn it woman... stop me...
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They may judge their 'year' by constellations or something. I can't remember that it's been mentioned but as they celebrate 'name day' (or rather their birthdays) they must have some system. Strange that I can't think of any mention of it since he's taken the time to detail at least 4 separate religions and even the world's 'ancient' history.
Just to clarify, though, Westeros is just one country. One that was made up of what were once seven different kingdoms. There are other countries/continent in the book. Much of Daenerys story takes place "Across the Narrow Sea" in the continent of Essos where there are the "Free Cities" (various city states) and places like the Dothraki Grass See, Qarth, The Red Waste (dessert), Pentos, Braavos, etc.
Meanwhile, there are people and beyond "The Wall" which is the northern boundary of Westeros. Beyond the Wall
there are monstersare "The Wildlings" (which is what Westerosi refer to them as. They refer to themselves as "the free folk").HBO's Interactive Map of Westeros and Essos:
http://viewers-guide.hbo.com/game-of-thrones/season2/#!/map/
It's always fun to watch the show's opening credits map because the map keeps adding and changing locations based on the story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7L2PVdrb_8
HBO also has a good info page on the various houses involved:
http://viewers-guide.hbo.com/game-of-thrones/season2/#!/guide/houses/
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Most of all of this is ancient history that it's mostly legend to the characters in the story. The Wall (300ft high wall of ice) was built in the distant past to wall out "The Wight Walkers", grumpkins, snarks, giants, and mamoths, etc. These are mostly considered scary tales to tell children. But they do still man the wall, though the attitude in 'current' Westeros is that everything but the Wildlings are either dead or myth.
I become comfused between The Vandals and The First Men and whether there's another name that I forget about, but one of these invaders groups comes off in 'Westeros history' as having been quite Roman Empire-like. This ancient Roman(like) empire was destroyed by fire (volcanoes so think Santorini-like/Pompeii-like disasters) in "the great cataclysm" that brought about the dark ages. Under that old empire, Westeros was an outpost. Many of the Free Cities of Essos share this common heritage in the far distant past. But each city-state is somewhat unique. Pentos, for example, seems to be extremely wealthy and vaguely Mediterranean in nature. Braavos comes off a great deal like Venice when it was a Rennaisance city-state. On the other hand places like Qarth (an oasis city in the middle of "The Red Waste" desert) seems far more middle eastern whereas Mereen with its pyramids has an almost an Egyptian flair.
After the downfall of the ancient Roman-like empire, there was a second invading force of Westeros which is basically the origin of the Targaryen family. They were conqerors who had dragons. The Targaryens ruled Westeros for a 1000 years. They know that dragons were once real because they have skeletons of them that they keep on display ala dinosaurs, but the dragons became ever smaller and more rare over generations until they too died out hundred(s?) of years earlier. Targaryens however, remained obsessed with their relation to dragons and the 'mad king' was obsessed with the thought that he could bring them back.
It was the Targaryens that conquered/united the 7 Kingdoms of Westeros (some being more united than others.) It's somewhat difficult to figure out what some of the kingdoms were, especially in the South which seems to have been united longer than the rest. The North was an independent kingdom until relatively recently. The Iron Islands was as well. Of even more tenuous connection is Dorne which seems to function almost independently and is the least 'Westerosi" of them all (to the point that they haven't even been involved in the story to this point in the television series).
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The Mad King was overthrown a generation earlier by an alliance of House Stark (Kings in the North) and House Baratheon iduring "King Robert's Rebellion". Robert Baratheon became king (although it's implied that Ned Stark could have been but didn't want to be). Robert's rule held the kingdoms united (although the Iron Islands did try to rebell). And all of the Targaryens were killed in the uprising (except a few that you meet over the course of the novels, the most prominent being Princess/Queen/Khaleesi Daenerys Targaryen(icon) who was born and has lived her entire life in exhile "across the narrow sea".
During all time time since 'the ancients' magic has been on the wane. In fact, I'd say that most Westerosi don't believe in the existence of magic and consider things associated with it to be sheer superstition. Which is where the books start. However, the reader realizes from the beginning of the novels that the Wight Walkers are real
mosterswho appear to have the ability to raise the dead into a zombie-esque army. And one Targaryen is actually successful in bringing dragons back to the world. Whether this is cause or effect, who knows, but magic slowly seems to be on the rise.And with King Robert's death... absolutely everything begins to come unravelled...
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They mark time by moons and seasons. And a summer can last 10 years.
And yet I've never heard them say "years" either.
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When it is done well like with Tolkien or Martin it's great, but it's also really rare. It needs to really matter to you I think. If you just make up words from the top of your head, they come out stupid, but if you have a real connection to language it makes sense to expand in that direction. For Martin I think all those names he gives the knights (the late Lord Frey and so on) are what he really loves and is good at.
Tolkien was a linguist, he build the world around the language. Making up languages was his hobby, so he does it more convincingly than any other author since.
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