On which side of the road do they ride in Westeros?

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Dame of Mercia
Posts: 119
Joined: Sun Aug 27, 2017 9:43 am

Mon Dec 31, 2018 8:41 am

I was looking at some videos about the day in 1967 in Sweden when the country changed from being a left-hand drive country to a right-hand drive one. It made sense in a way because its neighbours were right-hand drive countries. https://youtu.be/6iIZ5KvmjSk https://youtu.be/Y8DqAIyuR0Q Apparently people rode on the left in feudal times because most people were right-handed and it was easier to mount one's horse from the left and to reach for one's sword if one rode on the left. If Westeros is loosely based on medieval Britain I suppose Westerosi ought to ride on the left. (I honestly can't remember if it is addressed in the books and it's certainly not important to driving the plot, but my brain works tangentially sometimes). Then, GRRM comes from the USA where people drive on the right. If anybody is interested in a condensed history of left-handed driving (as in on which side of the road people drove) this article is quite useful. https://www.worldstandards.eu/cars/driving-on-the-left/ I should note that I haven't checked the correctness of the article. There are some urban myths out there - I had heard that sinks empty in different directions in the northern and southern hemispheres but apparently that is a load of rubbish.

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