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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. XDTags:
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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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