Just a backup in advance of the detumblring
Hey folks, just wanted to let you know that the second paperback is now available on Amazon.com! With Volume II done and dusted, we’re optimistic that Volume I should be heading to print soon, so that you’ll be able to have the whole series on the shelf right next to your well-worn copies of A Song of Ice and Fire. As before, I have an ask for all of you: if you’ve not had a chance to get your…
Here’s what GRRM has to say:
And, by the way, does it snow in the South during the winter?
Yes, some times, in some places. The Mountains of the Moon get quite a lot of snow, the Vale and the riverlands and the west rather less, but some. King’s Landing gets snow infrequently, the Storm Lands and the Reach rarely, Oldtown and Dorne almost never.
So the Reach rarely has snow even during the winter.
Well, keep in mind the specific circumstances in which that happened:
“The garrison had been prepared to sell them to the Usurper, but one night Ser Willem Darry and four loyal men had broken into the nursery and stolen them both, along with her wet nurse, and set sail under cover of darkness for the safety of the Braavosian coast.
She remembered Ser Willem dimly, a great grey bear of a man, half-blind, roaring and bellowing orders from his sickbed. The servants had lived in terror of him, but he had always been kind to Dany. He called her “Little Princess” and sometimes “My Lady,” and his hands were soft as old leather. He never left his bed, though, and the smell of sickness clung to him day and night, a hot, moist, sickly sweet odor. That was when they lived in Braavos, in the big house with the red door. Dany had her own room there, with a lemon tree outside her window. After Ser Willem had died, the servants had stolen what little money they had left, and soon after they had been put out of the big house. Dany had cried when the red door closed behind them forever.”
…At first the magisters and archons and merchant princes were pleased to welcome the last Targaryens to their homes and tables, but as the years passed and the Usurper continued to sit upon the Iron Throne, doors closed and their lives grew meaner. Years past they had been forced to sell their last few treasures, and now even the coin they had gotten from Mother’s crown had gone. In the alleys and wine sinks of Pentos, they called her brother “the beggar king.” Dany did not want to know what they called her.
Darry didn’t have time to organize an entourage of Targaryen loyalists, move the treasury, and instead booked it. And while Darry was alive, Dany and Viserys lived the life of a royal in exile, living in a manse with many servants, intriguing with the Sealord and the Martells, etc.
The downfall started when Darry died and left them without adult supervision and the servants stole their money, leaving them penniless and homeless – note those things are very much linked; with a more substantial entourage of loyal retainers, the looting would have been forestalled and they probably would have stayed in Braavos.
Even when they left, they were taken in by the elite of Essos. However, as with many exiles, once it becomes clear that the new regime isn’t going anywhere, they lost their political cachet and began
to fall into genteel poverty, cushioned by the fact that they still had treasure to spend.
Good question!
There’s a couple factors involved.
First, how far along were the negotiations? If they were still in the preliminary stages, I think there’s a common understanding that everyone’s out there in the marriage market trying to make the best deal for their kid, so no hard feelings. However, if they were about to read the bans and suddenly someone jumps ship, there would be a lot of harmed feelings.
Second, what are the relative power and prestige of the three houses? As we see with the (admittedly extreme) case of the Freys, the Starks, and the Westerlings, a big part of the Freys’ grievance was that they were ditched for a much poorer and weaker house, but one with a more prestigous bloodline, hitting the Freys right in the sore spot. But while the Freys would no doubt be angry regardless, if Robb had married Margaery Tyrell, it would be much harder to kick up a public fuss about that.
Third, what are the previous relations between the various houses? In cases like the Brackens and the Blackwoods where two houses have a notable feud, any spat where one house gains at the the others’ expense is going to be viewed as personal, not business. (Think about how the Brackens and Blackwoods felt about Aegon IV’s mistresses, and then instensify it because you’re talking about more formal unions).
Fourth, how public and/or harsh is the break? Tywin and the Unnamed Dornish Princess’ conflict over marriage proposals between the Lannisters, Martells, and Targaryens got very ugly, escalating into open blood feud, in no small part because there was very little diplomacy in the way that people were turned down, so that the loss of a marriage alliance was compounded by a loss of public face.
Race for the Iron Throne Is In Print!
After meticulously editing for months on end, I am very happy to announce that the paperback edition of Race for the Iron Throne Volume II is now available on Amazon! Technically speaking, this is Part 1 of Volume II, because the physical manuscript turned out to be so long – turns out when you write long essays about each chapter in a doorstop fantasy novel, it adds up – that it would have been…
Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Daenerys II, ASOS
“This beggar queen must understand, such wonders do not come cheaply…Unsullied are the finest foot in all the world, and each represents many years of training. Tell her they are like Valyrian steel, folded over and over and hammered for years on end, until they are stronger and more resilient than any metal on earth.” Synopsis: Daenerys gets given the showfloor pitch by Kraznys mo Nakloz by way…
I’ve talked about this before, but let’s tackle some of these situations:
Close relations: as I’ve discussed here and here, Rickard Karstark is completely full of shit. As GRRM himself says, “The other factor, which you haven’t raised, is degree of kinship. Killing a parent is probably worse than killing a sibling, but either one is a lot worse than killing a distant cousin. Lord Karstark was stretching that aspect of it when he tried to accuse Robb of kinslaying… but of course he was hoping to save his head.” I personally lean more to Karstark at least subconsciously wanting to die via suicide-by-cop, but it’s always good to get validated by Word of Author.
Killing in battle: according to GRRM, “Fighting a battle in which a brother dies might be frowned upon, but killing him with your own hand would be considered far worse.” I would argue that Bloodraven is called a kinslayer throughout Sworn Sword and Mystery Knight, because he organized an ambush and gave very specific orders to kill his half-brother and his half-nephews (as opposed to attacking the Blackfyre vanguard as a unit) – which is strong evidence of intent – and because he took up a bow himself, rather than standing back and giving the order.
Killing in a tourney/duel: Maekar is sometimes called a kinslayer because he definitely struck the killing blow in front of witnesses, and his defense that:
“Some men will say I meant to kill my brother. The gods know it is a lie, but I will hear the whispers till the day I die. And it was my mace that dealt the fatal blow, I have no doubt. The only other foes he faced in the melee were three Kingsguard, whose vows forbade them to do any more than defend themselves. So it was me. Strange to say, I do not recall the blow that broke his skull. Is that a mercy or a curse? Some of both, I think.”
…is hard to assess, given that it’s all about what Maekar’s mindset was.
Giving orders in battle: as GRRM mentions w/r/t to Renly, “another factor might be whether Renly gave any orders in respect to Stannis. Did he command Loras to kill him, or offer a reward to whosoever slew his brother? Did he tell his men to see that his brother was taken alive? Did he not address the issue either way?” And what is it that Renly says before the battle that never was?
“Ser Loras will break them, and after that it will be chaos…when my brother falls, see that no insult is done to his corpse. He is my own blood, I will not have his head paraded about on a spear.”
Yeah, there’s a reason he’s a bad man with good PR.
Unconscious killing: I’ve discussed Stannis here.
GIving orders to an executioner: I’ve looked through various sources, and I haven’t seen an example of kin ordering the execution of kin. We don’t see anyone saying anything in either way about Tywin getting ready to kill Tyrion, but you know what they say about absence of evidence…
That’s a tough one.
We don’t have much in the way of hard textual evidence, and the Riverlands in general are really tricky because they underperform in power given their population and relative prosperity. What we know is that A. the Mallisters have a fleet of six longships and two war galleys (which is not a large fleet, but not a small one either), and B. were able to hold off the main force of the Ironborn during Greyjoy’s Rebellion.
I did an estimate in the past and said that I thought 4,000-5,000 was a reasonable figure. It’s not the most solid estimate I’ve ever done, for the reasons stated above, but I don’t think they’re particularly weaker than the Freys, given their geostrategic location, its economic advantages in trade (to the extent that the Freys are wealthy, most of their trade has to pass through Seagard), and the historical evidence.
As to Seagard itself. It definitely is a port – Theon sails to Pyke from Seagard on a merchant ship from Oldtown – although it’s definitely a port town at most. As for why it has trade despite the Ironborn presence, keep in mind Ironborn piracy has lapsed for long periods of time (several thousand years), and that the presence of pirates tends to presuppose trade since pirates don’t bother to sail where there’s no one to rob, because often geography means that ships have to sail through a given region no matter what. (Think about the real world example of huge amounts of shipping going through certain pirate-infamous locations like the Caribbean or the South China Sea or the Horn of Africa….)
In this case, if you’re going to trade from the North, the Vale, or the Riverlands to the Westerlands or from the Westerlands and even parts of the Reach to the same, it’s faster to go through Seagard and trans-ship down the Blue Fork or portage over to the Kingsroad and then over to White Harbor than to sail all the way around the continent or to take it overland. Not safer, but faster, and since time literally is money when you’re talking about transportation costs and their relationship to profit margins, a lot of folks will go with the faster option.
I think the heralds’ calculations would be a bit complicated:
Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Arya IV, ASOS
credit to Patrick McEvoy
“The lightning lord is everywhere and nowhere, skinny squirrel.”
Synopsis: Arya and the Merry Men go looking for Robin Hood.
SPOILER WARNING: This chapter analysis, and all following, will contain spoilers for all Song of Ice and Fire novels and Game of Thrones episodes. Caveat lector.
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