10 Sources That InspiredGame of Thrones‘ Dark Storytelling

At last , rooter of the Game of Thrones TV series fully understand the anguish that reader of George R.R. Martin ’s novels have long since digest . Why ? Why do these terrible thing happen ? One cause is that Martin ’s source cloth is evenly brutal and horrific . Here are 10 sources that Martin disembowel on for his larger-than-life fantasy tale .

Top image : The Glencoe Massacre by James Hamilton .

Major spoiler here for those who are n’t up to date with the TV series …

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The massive wall that protect Westeros from the Wildlings and the Others is based on the very real Hadrian ’s Wall . As Martin aver in an2000 consultation :

Well , some of it will be let on later so I wo n’t spill the beans about that face of it , but certainly the Wall comes from Hadrian ’s Wall , which I visualise while impose Scotland . I stood on Hadrian ’s Wall and tried to imagine what it would be like to be a R.C. soldier sent here from Italy or Antioch . To remain firm here , to gaze off into the distance , not recognize what might egress from the forest . Of of course phantasy is the stuff of bright color and being heavy than genuine life , so my Wall is bigger and considerably longer and more magical . And , of course , what lies beyond it has to be more than just Scots .

You in all likelihood wo n’t be surprised to hear that Martin borrowed a lot from Tolkien for his epic phantasy serial . Both the idea of a “ junior-grade world , ” in which certain things ( like the seasons ) are very unlike , but also the initial structure . Tolkien was “ my keen model ” for the handling of the character in Song of Ice and Fire , Martinhas said . Lord of the Rings “ start with a pie-eyed focus , and all the characters are together . Then by remainder of the first book the Fellowship splits up , and they have dissimilar adventures . ” asunder from Daenerys , all of Martin ’s characters are together in his first book , and they all split into mathematical group , which eventually split up as well . Adds Martin : “ The spirit was to winnow out , then arch and occur back together . Finding the point where that turn begins has been one of the payoff I ’ve wrestled with . ” Another major influence from Tolkien : the reticent use of trick . You do n’t see Gandalf casting a lot of spells or throwing fireballs in the Lord of the Rings saga . When there ’s risk , Gandalf mostly pulls out his steel .

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Martintold Time Magazinethat writing for internet TV ( including Beauty and the Beast ) taught him the importance of the “ number break . ” This means locomote to a commercial on a moment of “ Apocalypse , a twirl , or a cliff - hanger . ” He wanted the Word of God to keep readers engage , so he “ tried to end every chapter with an act break . ” This does n’t mean he wanted to always end chapters with cliffhanger , though : “ A cliff hanger is a practiced act break up certainly , but it ’s not the only kind of act suspension . It can just be a moment … a eccentric moment , a moment of revelation , it has to terminate with something that produce you want to read more about this character . ”

Martin has admit he was inspired by the Wars of the Roses from 1455 to 1485 — but fan have gone evenfurtherto attraction directparallelsbetween characters and events in his books and literal historical people and events — even thoughMartinhasinsisted“there ’s really no one - for - one case - for - character balance . I care to practice chronicle to season my fantasy , to add grain and verisimilitude , but simply rewrite history with the gens change has no appeal for me . I prefer to re - imagine it all , and take it in new and unexpected way . ” For exemplar , some people see the Starks and Lannisters as the Houses of York and Lancaster , and Bran and Rickon as the “ Princes in the Tower , ” among other things . Robert Baratheon is either Henry IV or Henry V , count on whom you ask .

People havepointed out some similaritiesbetween Williams ’ four - Holy Writ series and Martin ’s seven - Word one . include Mongol - esque knight warriors , monsters in the frozen North , preferred wolves and a boy who likes to execute along the rooftops . And in fact , Martinfreely admitsreading this serial “ was one of the things that inspired me ” to write A Game of Thrones . Fantasy had get “ a speculative repp for being very formulaic and ritual , ” said Martin . “ And I scan The Dragonbone Chair and tell , ‘ My god , they can do something with this cast , ’ and it ’s Tad doing it . It ’s one of my favorite fantasy series . ”

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Martin hasspokenof hisadmirationfor diachronic fiction authors like Bernard Cornwell , Thomas B. Costain , Frank Yerby , Sharon Kay Penman and Philippa Gregory . He tried to get some of the “ grittiness and realism and complexity of historic fiction ” into his phantasy authorship , as a counterpoint to the “ wonder and imagination ” of fantasy works . He felt that Tolkien ’s imitators had created a sort of “ Disneyland Middle Ages , ” and he wanted to lend some pragmatism back to the fantasy genre .

Martin ’s world combine flying lizard and zombi , and often feels like it has component of different subgenres in other ways as well . That carefree approach path to genre believably comes from Martin ’s childhood reading habits . He ’s said that he read Robert E. Howard , J.R.R. Tolkien , Robert A. Heinlein , Eric Frank Russell , and Andre Norton “ jolly much interchangeably ” and that he has always loved skill fiction , repulsion , and fantasy and move between them “ reasonably freely . ” His fatherjust shout out it “ weird stuff . ”And more than that , he sees them as being really similar , say “ I imagine that for science fiction , fancy , and even horror to some extent , the departure are peel - deep … An elf or an alien may in some fashion fulfill the same function , as a literary figure of speech . ”

Martin points to lots of historical precdents he trace on for various aspects of his sex and courting practices in these books . The incest between Jaime And Cersei Lannisteralludes to material historical practice session , let in the practice of incest in the Ptolemaic dynasty of ancient Egypt and the recent European monarchy , which magnificently had a bit of an inbreeding problem . splice off 13 - twelvemonth - old miss , like Daenerys , was acommon practicein the Middle Ages , even if you ca n’t reallyshow this on tv set . And arranged spousal relationship , like most of the unions in these Book , were an fabulously vernacular drill , andpeople never ran off or married the stableboy or else . “ This never fucking happened . It just did n’t , ” says Martin . “ There were thousand , tens of thousand , perhaps hundreds of yard of set wedlock in the nobility through the thousand years of Middle Ages and people went through with them . ”

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Martin devise a few religions for his book series , butthey have their roots in real - lifespan faiths . For example , the Faith of the Seven , based on seven aspects of one god , is derived from the Christian Holy Trinity and the Mother , Maiden , and Crone come from Pagan views . Or in Grecian mythology , it ’s the Fates who personify this aspect , while the Father , Smith and Warrior total from “ abrahamic ” masculine elements . Meanwhile , the Lord of Light , R’hllor , is roughly based on Zoroastrianism and the Cathars ( who were destroyed in the Albigensian Crusade . )

And finally , the Red Wedding isinspired by two upshot in Scottish chronicle : the Black Dinner and the Glencoe Massacre . In the Black Dinner ( 1440 ) , the king of Scotland was fighting the Black Douglas clan , but he still bid William Douglas , the sixth Earl of Douglas , and his comrade safe transit . When he came to Edinburgh , they had a banquet which ended with the Earl being presented with the straits of a black Taurus the Bull ( or boar , depending on the account ) , which was a symbol of death . The Earl and his comrade faced a mock trial before being executed . The Glencoe Massacre was in 1692 , where 38 fellow member of the kinship group were murdered by those who had accept their cordial reception . As for the rule of hospitality , which say a boniface can not harm a guest , Martin says those are directly “ steal from history . ”

The interlocking viewpoints in Martin ’s serial largely came fromhis experience editing the Wild Card series :

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I gained a great pot of experience doing this with the Wild Card serial publication . If you are intimate with it , you ’ll know that every third book was a mosaic book where we had six or seven generator writing from their own characters ’ point of view . We had a common timeline — “ the weather will be sunny , ” “ somebody gets dispatch at twelve noon in the park ” — and then each author would have their own story lines that we would reexamine to verify they all gibe together . I was the editor . It was n’t so much being an editor in chief as the chief wild man at the disturbed house . It was interesting because we had graphic symbol crossing itinerary and play at cross - purposes . So when I set out writing this novel it was really a Wild Cards collaboration with me writing all the parts .

Furtherreading :

https://gizmodo.com/great-quotes-about-writing-from-game-of-thrones-author-5971432

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