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How do you think the Bracken/Blackwood feud manifests itself? Obviously we have the siege of Raventree Hall and taking opposite sides in wars, etc, but in relative peacetime?

We’ve got plenty of historical examples: 

  • the private war between the two houses in -10 AC. 
  • the duel over the hand of Rhaenyra Targaryen in 112 AC. 
  • the Brackens and Blackwoods engaging in rival dynastic politics during the reign of Aegon IV.
  • Otho Bracken killing Quentyn (boy, there’s a name that’s just a death sentence in ASOIAF) Blackwood in the King’s Landing Tourney of 206 AC.
  • The legal case of Bracken v. Blackwood before Hoster Tully in the 270s.

But most of all, there’s just constant private wars: “We’ve had a hundred peaces with the Brackens, many sealed with marriages. There’s Blackwood blood in every Bracken, and Bracken blood in every Blackwood. The Old King’s Peace lasted half a century. But then some fresh quarrel broke out, and the old wounds opened and began to bleed again. That’s how it always happens, my father says. So long as men remember the wrongs done to their forebears, no peace will ever last.“

A hundred peaces means a hundred wars, scattered across six thousand years of history. So every couple of generations, low-level tensions build up and up until there’s a proper war and then it’s off to the races. 

Is it strange that House Flint has so many branch families? The mountain clan Flints, the Widow’s Watch, and the Flints Finger Flints. Are they all part of the same family, or are they breakaway families like the Karstarks? Why don’t we see that more with other Northern houses?

They might be, they might not.

My theory is that Flint was a ubiquitous first name among the First Men, their equivalent to John Smith or what have you.

Their afterlife is about horses, their creation myth is about horses, their justification for violence is about horses, they don’t like the sea because horses, the important pregnancy ritual is about horses, they have sex outside ‘like horses’, their concept of strength and honour are about being able to ride a horse; you can drag nuances out if you insist (or infer them in, more like) but you can’t escape that the entire culture is reducible to one principle: horses.

Show me a horse culture that wasn’t obsessed with horses. Or a cattle-herding culture that didn’t obsess about cows. Or an agricultural society that wasn’t obsessed with the weather. 

I’m thinking this is starting to fall into Reality is Unrealistic territory. 

How powerful is House Greyjoy and the Iron Islands compared to the rest of Westeros? My assumption would be that they are the best naval power, but is that really worth much on Planetos? There doesn’t seem to be much trade between Westeros and Essos, and and most of Westeros’ trade seems to be via the Kings Road.

I wouldn’t say that the Iron Islands have the best naval power in Westeros. They’re substantially out-classed by the Redwyne Fleet and the royal fleet. 

Re the CbC analysis of Arya I, ASOS : Do you believe that level of cartographic knowledge is accurately depicted in the shows Riverlands map given the intercontinental maritime travel of various peoples? There is explicit mention of the ability of the mapmakers of the Summer Isles in the text. In aWoIaF, Yandel states that the explorers of Koj jealously guard their “maps” of Sothoros, possibly indicating that they do share their other charts with outsiders, stimulating cartographic development.

WOIAF says explicitly that “they guard their charts jealously and do not share such knowledge,” so no, I don’t think the cartographic knowledge of the Summer Isles is shared with outsiders.

In medieval times, how prevalent was the use of Hard Labor (chain gangs, etc) as a form of punishment for criminals vs death, mutilation, imprisonment or fines? Also, would you, newly made King of the 7 Kingdoms (congratz BTW!) consider implementing such a system? ==>Initially ,limit your choice to the running of Kings Landing/Crownlands. Thanks for the trouble!

Hard labor wasn’t really used in the Middle Ages, because it involves a lot of the same problems as imprisonment – you still need to confine people when they’re not working, still have to feed, clothe them, you need to hire people to oversee their work, etc. 

Hard labor tended to come about during the Early Modern period, when larger, more powerful nation-states needed cheap labor to build fortifications, provide a labor force for overseas colonies, etc. and could more easily manage a penal labor system. Larger armies and police forces to keep prisoners under guard, bigger tax base to afford prisons to house them in, more bureaucrats to manage them, etc. 

Six prisoners for a city the size of King’s Landing seems odd to me. Do you think imprisonment is being used as a punishment for any crimes, or are they more likely simply being held pending someone deciding what parts to chop off of them?

Given that the Westerosi tend to go in for physical punishments – steal and you lose a hand, rape and you get gelded, kill someone and be hanged, etc. – they probably don’t have a very large penal system. 

Also, it’s six prisoners who Yoren thinks would make acceptable material for the Watch, so he’s going to reject anyone who’s too disabled, too old, etc.