[Arc]

I'm in the late stages of SoS, and Jon is defending the wall against the Wildlings. But what's got me puzzled, is that Martin describes the wall as being "seven hundred feet" high.

"... the wildlings were shooting at men seven hundred feet above them..."

That can't possibly be right, can it?

That's like 200 metres plus, which would be roughly the height of a decent-sized skyscraper. If that's the case, why would the Night Watch bother shooting arrows down? Wouldn't they all just be peering over the edge trying to figure out if an army was at the bottom or not?

Or more to the point, how could you dump boiling pitch that far, or shoot an arrow down without it losing its trajectory?

*scratching head*

I always pictured the wall as being maybe Great Wall of China sort of size, or the walls of Sar-Sargoth. Although that again doesn't match up to when Jarl and the others climb over it, where it seems bigger again.

[Arty]

Yup, its something like a 45 story building. A little higher than I pictured but not by too much. I believe (but someone please say so if Im wrong) that they were shooting/pouring from lower staircase type places on the wall, not actually from the top? (its been a while, sorry)

[Eventine]

I'm pretty sure they were on top. Seeing as the whole thing is just one big hunk of ice, there isn't going to be any stairway type places halfway up.

[Valada]

Yeah, they were right there on the top. From memory (it often doesn't serve me well) part of the danger/thrill was that, being on the top, there was the risk of falling off. This is mentioned numerous times. I hadn't thought of this point before (the reality aspect of shooting arrows, etc) - interesting point, Arc. Having said that, if you were to drop a rock off such a height (as they do), woah... look out below! And surely once an arrow reached maximum velocity, it would simply continue at this speed?!?! Trajectory I'm not so sure about - I haven't done maths for at least four years!

[Bardos]

Uhm... I've never given a thought about that Wall thing. But indeed 200 metres is too hight.

Well, it's probably one of the exaggerations that happen in fantasy novels.

[Arc]

Well sure, but it's weird because the rest of the time Martin strikes me as trying to be very factually accurate. People's wounds tend to fester rather than mysteriously vanishing, people get cold at night, when it rains people complain, etc.

And the scene where they're on the wall, he is actually describing intimately the battle, including how miniscule the mammoths look from up high - yet at the same time, they're shooting arrows into one particular mammoth's side to annoy it more.

I guess maybe he just didn't think it through fully when he wrote about the height, no big deal. Funny how these bitsy things stick in your mind though. It must be so annoying for the writer when everything gets dissected later on.

[Bardos]

Well, I don't think that there ever was a novel (fiction or not) without one minor little error. I find that this kind of things rarely spoil my enjoyment of the story.

[Arty]

I swear there was some sort of staircase thing halfway up that collapsed or something.

[Valada]

<SPOILER>
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V

Arty, the staircase thing was on the southern side of the wall, and that collapsed during a battle with the small band of whatever-you-callems who came past the wall with Jon (I think). That is, the battle occurred on a different side of the wall to that being described in the above discussion. So correct memory, wrong side of the wall, and therefore not relevant to the battle at issue.

[Bardos]

I'm posting here again.
Oh, my... http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

I wanted to answer here, but last night I was I a (ship)wreck and I forgot...

Bardos(that's me!): Well, it's probably one of the exaggerations that happen in fantasy novels.

Arc: Well sure, but it's weird because the rest of the time Martin strikes me as trying to be very factually accurate. People's wounds tend to fester rather than mysteriously vanishing, people get cold at night, when it rains people complain, etc.

You are right up to some point. But, come to think of it, Martin does have "fantasy exaggerations" in his stories: one that sticks out, imo, is his children. Arya is 9-10 old and does all those things that other characters in aSoIaF cannot. Robb was 14-15 and leading armies and fighting battles on horseback (an older, heavier rider would have surely unhorsed him with the first blow, if not with strenght then simply with his size and weight). Daenerys (sic) is 14 old and thinks like at least 5 older than that. She is more mature than other characters of that story!

But it's fantasy, so this things are acceptable.

Problem is when this kind of "errors" (?) happen in non-fiction --and they do happen. Are they acceptable there?...