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In 'Game of Thrones' and its sequels, George R R Martin refers to places as being hundreds or even thousands of leagues apart. I thought a league was three miles, but if so, his characters are travelling around really fast. Is he using 'league' for 'mile'?

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The Roman league was just under a mile and a half, which may be more applicable. I'm not familiar with the context. – Travis Christian Dec 7 '11 at 17:49
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how long do they supposedly take to get places, say 100 leagues away? – Kevin♦ Dec 7 '11 at 18:05
I've read the first two volumes on audiobooks, so it's a bit hard for me to go back and get specifics. However, I've been struck by mentions of "thousands of leagues", journeys that should take months on horseback, so I wondered if "league" meant something smaller. – Charles Anderson Dec 8 '11 at 8:30
@CharlesAnderson that would depend on a lot of factors. At full gallop a mounted horse can do ~30mph; a single rider with spare horses could easily cover a thousand leagues in under a week (if he was willing to ride his horses to exhaustion) – Michael Edenfield Apr 8 at 14:13
@Michael Edenfield But in the book it's armies (travelling at most 30miles per day) that seem to be able to cover hundreds of leagues in very little time. – Charles Anderson Apr 9 at 7:24

2 Answers

up vote 13 down vote accepted

So Spake Martin:

Yes, a league is three miles.

And on the issue of distances and inconsistencies:

I have deliberately tried to be vague about such things, so I don't have obsessive fans with rulers measuring distances on the map and telling me Ned couldn't get from X to Y in the time I say he did.

However, if you really must know, you can figure out the distances for yourself. The Wall is a hundred leagues long. A league is three miles. Go from there.

But if you turn up any mistakes in travel times by using that measure, let it be your secret.

Shhh! We won't tell if you don't!

P.S. Do not click this link.

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Don't Touch It, You Idiot! – gnovice Dec 7 '11 at 20:56
It is nice to note too that they would most likely think of distances as less "point A is x distance from point B" but more, how long it takes to get from point A to B. A day's march, a month's journey, etc. – NominSim Apr 18 '12 at 13:28
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Characters don't travel that fast - its just that describing three weeks of travel isn't very interesting, either on the page or on TV. They skip the travel time unless lots of things happen on the way. Compare how long it takes for Arya to travel from Winterfell to King's Landing. It was virtually instant compared to the whole second book to return.

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