The Parallels of Ice and Fire: The Poles of Planetos
A theory that I've always loved in the A Song of Ice and Fire community is the oft-noted connection between the White Walkers to the North of Westeros and beyond the Wall in the Lands of Always Winter and the Demons in the Grey Waste East of the Five Forts in Essos that obey the commands of the Lion of the Night.
Ideas of Ice and Fire summarized the theory far better than I ever could in his excellent video on the subject, but the long and short of it is that there are a lot of parallels between the White Walkers and the Demons of the Grey Waste; after all, it would appear unlikely that it is merely coincidental that there are two groups of Ice/cold related demons living on two places on Planetos.
Now, the obvious first assumption is that Essos and Westeros connect around this point, however GRRM has confirmed that this is not the case. Essos and Westeros are not one continent, but two separate ones. However, if we assume that Planetos is round, then there has to be some place where Essos and the Lands of Always winter are at least close to each other, esspecially if we assume that the North pole is located somewhere around the Lands of Always Winter.
For evidence of this, one has to think of the world as a sphere rather than the rectangle most maps condition us to think of it as. For example, without looking at a map, try to imagine how close Canada and Russia are.
Most people's, myself included, knee jerk reaction is to think of Canada and Russia as fairly far apart from each other. This is because of the rectangular maps we're so used to.
If you look at this map, it looks like Canada and Russia are pretty far apart:
I think a lot of us make the same incorrect assumption here; because on a 2 dimensional map of the world it appears that the Grey Waste is so distant from the Lands of Always Winter, the two continents would have to be connected for them to be able to touch. However, its very possible that Essos curves up to become closer to Westeros and the Lands of Always Winter. Again, the 2-D map is limiting in terms of showing the true way the world would look in the 3rd dimension.
However, one thing that should be noted is that the map above is made by the maesters of Westeros. One thing that has always struck me about the map is how geometric everything looks. Westeros is almost a perfect rectangle, as is Essos. If you look at actual geography, this almost never happens; its incredibly rare to see such perfect rectangles in actual geography.
However, one place that it IS incredibly common to see geometric shapes is medieval maps, or any maps from people with little cartographic abilities. For this I'll be using an extreme example to illustrate my point, however it should be noted that many maps have the same shortcomings that the ones I'm going to mention here do.
The Hereford Mappa Mundi is a map that most historians think originated around 1300. Now, this is in the time range most agree Westeros is around in relation to the real world. William the Conqueror invaded Britain in 1066, so this map would be around 300 years later, coinciding nicely with the fact the books take around 300 AC, or 300 years after Aegon I's conquest of Westeros (the Targaryens are much more closely based on the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt than the Norman invasion of Britain, however there are many similarities between Aegon and William, not the least of which is the fact that they're both called the Conquerors by the people they conquered). In addition, the events of the story mimic a combination of the Wars of the Roses and the Wars of Scottish Independence, which took place between 1455-1487 for the Roses, and 1296–1328 and 1332–1357 for the First and Second Wars of Scottish Independence. Given all of this, I would say that a map from the 1300s seems like it would be a fairly analogue to a map from current day Westeros.
So, back the Hereford Mappa Mundi. It's fairly famous for being the largest medieval map still in existence. In fact, its so famous that there's a really great simulation you can go on for free that expresses some interesting facts about it. Its pretty cool to take a look at if you get the chance. However, one thing a modern viewer will instantly see is how geometric everything is. The entire world is contained in a single circle, with very geometric looking buildings.
If we assume that the map of the known world in Westeros is created in a time analogous to the one that the Mappa Mundi was created in, its really remarkable it exists at all; the maesters must have went into very intricate detail to make one as precise as they did.
However, that does not mean it was perfect. Its very possible that they assumed everything would be fairly geometric, the same way medieval scholars did. If we assume that they had some sort of geometric bias going into making the maps, then we can easily see how even a slight curve upwards for Essos would yield a Grey Waste that is even closer to the Lands of Always Winter than the current ones map is!
However, even if it turns out that Westeros and Essos are perfectly geometric, its still very possible that, on a round planet, the areas beyond the map of the Known World (the Shadowlands, the Lands of Always Winter, etc.) could come close to each other.
Make Sure to tune in Next time of some discussion about ice sheets, ice ages, and Antarctica! Same Terrible Theory Time, Same Terrible Theory Channel!
Edit: Never mind, next time is going to be about the Arctic in Mythology
Ideas of Ice and Fire summarized the theory far better than I ever could in his excellent video on the subject, but the long and short of it is that there are a lot of parallels between the White Walkers and the Demons of the Grey Waste; after all, it would appear unlikely that it is merely coincidental that there are two groups of Ice/cold related demons living on two places on Planetos.
Now, the obvious first assumption is that Essos and Westeros connect around this point, however GRRM has confirmed that this is not the case. Essos and Westeros are not one continent, but two separate ones. However, if we assume that Planetos is round, then there has to be some place where Essos and the Lands of Always winter are at least close to each other, esspecially if we assume that the North pole is located somewhere around the Lands of Always Winter.
For evidence of this, one has to think of the world as a sphere rather than the rectangle most maps condition us to think of it as. For example, without looking at a map, try to imagine how close Canada and Russia are.
Most people's, myself included, knee jerk reaction is to think of Canada and Russia as fairly far apart from each other. This is because of the rectangular maps we're so used to.
If you look at this map, it looks like Canada and Russia are pretty far apart:
Source: Wikimedia Commons
However, when you look at a map of the Arctic specifically, you can see that Canada and Russia are a lot closer than we initially assume just by looking at the traditional map.
Source: US Department of State
As you can see, Canada and Russia are a lot closer than we would have guessed. When thinking about the distances between things, we didn't account for the fact that the earth is not flat (thank R'hllor), but a sphere, and like a sphere can be rotated to be viewed from different perspectives.
Now, let's look at the map of the Known World from ASOIAF:
Source: the Lands of Ice and Fire
I think a lot of us make the same incorrect assumption here; because on a 2 dimensional map of the world it appears that the Grey Waste is so distant from the Lands of Always Winter, the two continents would have to be connected for them to be able to touch. However, its very possible that Essos curves up to become closer to Westeros and the Lands of Always Winter. Again, the 2-D map is limiting in terms of showing the true way the world would look in the 3rd dimension.
However, one thing that should be noted is that the map above is made by the maesters of Westeros. One thing that has always struck me about the map is how geometric everything looks. Westeros is almost a perfect rectangle, as is Essos. If you look at actual geography, this almost never happens; its incredibly rare to see such perfect rectangles in actual geography.
However, one place that it IS incredibly common to see geometric shapes is medieval maps, or any maps from people with little cartographic abilities. For this I'll be using an extreme example to illustrate my point, however it should be noted that many maps have the same shortcomings that the ones I'm going to mention here do.
The Hereford Mappa Mundi is a map that most historians think originated around 1300. Now, this is in the time range most agree Westeros is around in relation to the real world. William the Conqueror invaded Britain in 1066, so this map would be around 300 years later, coinciding nicely with the fact the books take around 300 AC, or 300 years after Aegon I's conquest of Westeros (the Targaryens are much more closely based on the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt than the Norman invasion of Britain, however there are many similarities between Aegon and William, not the least of which is the fact that they're both called the Conquerors by the people they conquered). In addition, the events of the story mimic a combination of the Wars of the Roses and the Wars of Scottish Independence, which took place between 1455-1487 for the Roses, and 1296–1328 and 1332–1357 for the First and Second Wars of Scottish Independence. Given all of this, I would say that a map from the 1300s seems like it would be a fairly analogue to a map from current day Westeros.
So, back the Hereford Mappa Mundi. It's fairly famous for being the largest medieval map still in existence. In fact, its so famous that there's a really great simulation you can go on for free that expresses some interesting facts about it. Its pretty cool to take a look at if you get the chance. However, one thing a modern viewer will instantly see is how geometric everything is. The entire world is contained in a single circle, with very geometric looking buildings.
If we assume that the map of the known world in Westeros is created in a time analogous to the one that the Mappa Mundi was created in, its really remarkable it exists at all; the maesters must have went into very intricate detail to make one as precise as they did.
However, that does not mean it was perfect. Its very possible that they assumed everything would be fairly geometric, the same way medieval scholars did. If we assume that they had some sort of geometric bias going into making the maps, then we can easily see how even a slight curve upwards for Essos would yield a Grey Waste that is even closer to the Lands of Always Winter than the current ones map is!
However, even if it turns out that Westeros and Essos are perfectly geometric, its still very possible that, on a round planet, the areas beyond the map of the Known World (the Shadowlands, the Lands of Always Winter, etc.) could come close to each other.
Make Sure to tune in Next time of some discussion about ice sheets, ice ages, and Antarctica! Same Terrible Theory Time, Same Terrible Theory Channel!
Edit: Never mind, next time is going to be about the Arctic in Mythology
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