Could be in-between the two.
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Question about feudal duties; in medieval Europe lords could hold letters patent from 2 sovereigns i.e. Norman lords as vassals to the king of France via the duchy of Normandy while simultaneously holding lordships in England. Are there any examples of this in asoiaf? Perhaps in marches or the like. And if so how does one determine which oath to hold? Does it come down to simple pragmatism and financial considerations? Thanks Steven! Also, do you have patreon account? I would happily contribute!
Good questions!
- I can’t think of any in ASOIAF, I think GRRM deliberately avoided that situation in order to keep things simple, similar to only using Lord as a title.
- It’s a complicated question of both politics (as you suggest) and law – which title came first (so how free were you to make additional oaths), whether the law of either country recognizes titles in other countries or allows for lords to be vassals to two monarchs, etc.
- I don’t have a Patreon…yet. I’m waiting until the major rewards from the Kickstarter I did have been sent out before starting any new crowdfunding project.
Is there an ETA on the Tyrion chapter? Very excited, it’s one of my favourites!
Soon! Had a ton of grading and a two-day conference this weekend that ate up a lot of my time, but I put in some time writing today. I’m now up to J out of A-N on my outline.
Do you think if Robb had won his independence he would have had to resettle the Westerlings in his new kingdom to keep them safe from Tywin and if so, where do you think he’d move them?
Unless independence comes with the complete downfall of the Lannisters, yes.
How do Lords Paramount of their Region and the King collect taxes? In Dragons, Stags, and Copper Stars? In items like food or cloth or etc.? Do the Stormlands receive less taxes because they have the Marcher Lords and those guys historically didn’t have to give taxes to their liege I think?
- Probably a mix of in cash and in kind, although you can always sell the in-kind stuff if you need the readies and if you don’t need the goods.
- That’s a very astute observation! My answer is, yes and no. Keep in mind, the feudal contracts of the marcher lords would have been written when the Storm Kings were their monarchs, so they wouldn’t have intermediate liege lords, but would owe their fealty to Storm’s End. That wouldn’t change when Aegon came around, so the Baratheons aren’t getting cut out completely. What is the case is that the Marcher Lords (and keep in mind, there are Marcher Lords in the Reach as well) wouldn’t pay as much as other lords, since they get to keep “feudal due, aid, grant, and relief" from their own vassals to pay for their castles out of their own pockets.
How is it that characters like theon, Jaime, or Tyrion have prophetic dreams? Usually such dreams come to valyrian/first men descendants right? Since they are both with some inherent magic…
It’s not just blood, it’s also place and time. Jaime has his dream while sleeping on a weirwood stump, for example.
And Tyrion is one of the three heads of the dragon, and thus magical.
Also, to be super-duper blunt about it: magic gonna magic.
This isn’t to say it doesn’t follow certain rules; it’s not just random. But the higher mysteries in the context of ASOIAF are very clearly, to a certain extent, numinous and unknowable and do not entirely obey hard and fast laws.
Prophetic dreams can come to people for no better reason than that the ineffable forces of the universe, sometimes, touch them. That’s it. There doesn’t need to be some kind of scientific cause and effect.
Yeah, if people want a metaphor, imagine the ripples and displaced from dropping a boulder into a placid like. That’s whats happening with magic here. People with no connection to magic are also being affected and having magical dreams and visions.
Indeed, but if I could build onto this metaphor…
A while back, I was on the Boiled Leather Audio Hour talking about prophecy and what it has to say about free will vs. predestination, and I put forward the theory that these “ripples” are essentially being caused by the trauma of the Red Wedding, rippling backwards in time to those who are sensitive to them for various reasons.
Do we have any idea how big the island of Dragonstone is?
Pretty damn big. Dragonstone is a volcanic island, and the “Dragonmont” volcano was big enough to provide lairs for six dragons. The island has a harbor with docks extensive enough to hold two hundred ships. the port has multiple inns, there are multiple villages on the island
Eyeballing it on the map, it seems to be about 50 miles long and maybe 12 miles across.
How is it that characters like theon, Jaime, or Tyrion have prophetic dreams? Usually such dreams come to valyrian/first men descendants right? Since they are both with some inherent magic…
It’s not just blood, it’s also place and time. Jaime has his dream while sleeping on a weirwood stump, for example.
What’s up with the oily black stone references in both the series and woiaf?
See here.
At the beginning of AGOT, what would be the proper way of adressing Tyrion for another nobleman of equal rank? “My Lord”?
Yes.
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