Winter is Coming: Symbols and Hidden Meanings in A Game of Thrones (8 page)

The metal of the mountains will melt into a great flaming river, and the wicked will be destroyed forever. This sounds much like Melisandre’s search for Azor Ahai and his flaming sword as the Others threaten the world of Westeros.

As the contrasting religions of our world battle on the stage of Westeros, each claims to follow the one true way, even the people of Braavos with its thousand different gods. Melisandre insists she has come to lead the great battle against the Other, but as a fundamentalist, she does it by burning statues of the Seven and weirwood groves, to say nothing of human sacrifice. Only the end of the saga can reveal whether her inspiration derives from the true powers of Westeros or from her own delusions and misinterpretations. Will the children of the forest offer the key to their world’s salvation? Or is the secret held by the Faceless Men or Asshai beneath the Shadow? Time will tell.

W
esteros is medieval England, basically speaking. They hold tournaments with a Queen of Love and Beauty and trial by combat. As characters travel, they come across the ruins of Harrenhal, burned by dragonfire in Aegon’s conquest, or encounter an ancestor’s banner in a basement. Everywhere is the history of ages past, in a romanticized way America lacks. In his interview with
OhNoTheyDidn’t.com
, Martin comments:

In 1981, on my first trip outside the United States, I visited England to see my old friend and writer Lisa Tuttle. I spent a month there and we went through the country visiting the most important sites. And when we were to Scotland we visited Hadrian’s Wall. I remember it was the end of the day, near sunset. The tour buses were leaving and we have the wall nearly for ourselves. It was fall and the wind was blowing. When we arrive on the top, I tried to imagine how would be the life of a roman legionary of the first or second century after Christ. That wall was the edge of the known world, and it was protecting the cities from the enemies behind the wall. I experienced a lot of feelings there, looking to the North, and I just used it when I started to write Game of Thrones. However, fantasy needs an active imagination. I couldn’t just describe Hadrian’s Wall. It is pretty amazing but it’s about ten feet tall and it’s made of stone and mud. Fantasy requires more magnificent structures so I exaggerated the attributes of Hadrian’s Wall.

The Wildings are much like the Scots—loosely knit tribes feared by those in “civilized lands” as barbarians. While the conquerors from overseas took over the continent, they stopped at the Wall and built it to keep out those too savage to rule.

The ancient conquerors of Westeros have historical parallels, as they do with the Celts and Christians. Many would call the “First Men” equivalent to the Celts, with the seven kingdoms of the Andals as the Saxons’ seven kingdoms in England. They come from the same place as the Germanic Vandals who pillaged the Roman Empire—The Romans in turn, are seen in the ruins and lost technology of Old Volantis from roads to forged metals. In this scenario, the most recent invaders are the Targaryens or Normans, the successful conquerors of the continent. Martin supports this when he notes that Aegon the Conqueror derives from William the Conqueror, the Norman leader who made himself king of England.
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The British culture we know, from modern English to the classical roots of society, is built on this progression, with the Normans the final conquerors.

The trappings of the series: knights, chivalry, feudalism, noble houses with shield emblems and mottos, all derive from England, as do many Westerosi names such as Sir James Tyrell, the supposed murderer of the English princes in the tower. Jon, Robert, Edmund, Edward/Eddard, Richard/Rickard, Jane/Jeyne, Geoffrey/Joffrey, James/Jaime, Margret/Margaery, Marcella/Myrcella, Thomas/Tommen, Caitlyn/Catelyn, Lisa/Lysa, and Walter/Walder are English names that appear often in the chronicle of medieval England as they do in
Game of Thrones
. (Bran or Brandon by contrast is an Irish name meaning raven or crow.) The Warden of the East, Warden of the West, etc. were important positions in England as well as Westeros.

The Black Plague (appearing first in England in 1348 with several subsequent returns) caused shortages of labor and crops. With feudalism ended, the new system allowed great lords to order minor lords to supply them with troops, equipping them for massive battles, as likewise seen in
Game of Thrones.
Soldiers turned mercenaries after the wars in France likewise supplied extra soldiers eager for battle. While plague is seen occasionally in Martin’s series, the coming of winter is shown as the threat to crops and lives. A famine is certain, as the people of Westeros have been warring rather than planting.

While other parallels appear, the War of the Five Kings, especially the Houses of Stark and Lannister, appears to be a retelling of the English Wars of the Roses (1455–85), between the Houses of Lancaster and York for the English throne. York’s emblem was the white rose, and Lancaster’s the red.

Both houses claimed the throne through descent from the sons of Edward III: York and Lancaster were cousins, and the many repeated family names add confusion to the tale. The Yorks dwelt in the north of England, with the Lancasters farther south.

Rulers of England

House of Lancaster

Henry IV (“Bolingbroke,” son of the Duke of Lancaster), 1399-1413.

Henry V (son of Henry IV), 1413-1422.

Henry VI (son of Henry V, deposed), 1422-1471.

Henry VII (The last scion of this house, raised overseas) 1485-1509

House of York:

Edward IV (son of the Duke of York), 1461-1483.

Edward V (son of Edward IV), 1483.

Richard III (“Crookback,” brother of Edward IV) 1483-1485

Margaret of Anjou, French queen-consort to Henry VI, arguably began the War of the Roses, determined to keep the Duke of York from displacing her family or stealing her regency. Like Cersei, she ruled through a mad young puppet king, battling his corrupt advisors to keep his and her power. In fact, the madness seen in children of incest, like Joffrey and the Targaryens, reflects the madness of many European royal houses of the time—for the same reason.

Margaret’s husband, Henry VI, had ascended to the throne as the age of six months, supervised by a regent council. After his heroic father, Henry V, near-miraculous winner of the Battle of Agincourt, the son was a disappointment to the people. Worse, after gaining his majority, he remained hopelessly childlike, agreeing placidly to every proposal put before him. In personality he seemed much like Cersei’s youngest son Tommen, tractable and obedient to everyone else’s desires. With no initiative and no desire to make war, Henry let his father’s hard-won French territories be reclaimed. And after a particularly shocking loss, he slipped into a catatonic state, “taken and smitten with a frenzy and his wit and reason withdrawn.”
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Margaret took charge of many of his duties. Like Cersei, Margaret found herself ruling through her young son and encouraging his violence. In an incident particularly reminiscent of Lysa Arryn and her son or the bloodthirsty Joffrey, Margaret of Anjou put two knights on trial and asked her son their fate. He ordered beheading.

Sixteen months later, the king recovered and asked the name of his young son, Prince Edward, who’d been brought to greet him. This son, born after eight years of childless marriage, left his mother open to speculation and rumor, much like Cersei’s conspicuously blond children. Leading the spread of these rumors was Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, who, like Stannis, stood next in line.

The Duke of York has interesting parallels with Ned Stark—Richard’s father, the Earl of Cambridge, was beheaded for rebelling against the previous king, King Henry V. He was fostered by Ralph de Neville, Warden of the West March as Jon Arryn was Warden of the East. It was de Neville’s job, among other things, to guard Hadrian’s Wall. The earls in York’s neighboring Northumberland were famed as the “Kings in the North,” a region they ran almost as a hereditary domain.

York marched on London, but his army was outnumbered and he had little support from the nobles. Thus York, like Ned Stark, was placed under house arrest in London and compelled to swear allegiance to the king. However, after the king’s catatonia, York had another chance. A powerful baronial clique, backed by Ralph Neville’s son Richard, the Earl of Warwick and called the “kingmaker,” installed his foster-brother Richard, Duke of York, as “Protector of the Realm” and regent, much as Ned Stark was appointed for the new and unsuited King Joffrey. After the Duke of York went so far as to proclaim himself king, he was named Henry’s heir in a compromise.

As Margaret refused to let her child be swept aside, the land divided into north and south. When Henry supported Margaret, York took up arms for self-protection and matters escalated. The first battle at St. Albans in 1455 resulted in a Yorkist victory and four years of uneasy truce. Civil war resumed in 1459. The Lancastrians surprised and killed York at Wakefield in December, much as Ned dies and leaves the war to his son. In fact, York’s head was stuck on a pike by the Lancastrian armies, though it was removed and buried later.

York’s eldest son and heir, Edward, defeated a Lancastrian force at Mortimer’s Cross and raced to London, beating Margaret’s forces. He was crowned King Edward IV at Westminster. He then pursued Margaret to Towton and won a terribly bloody battle there. A last attempt to claim the throne saw her son, Edward, now seventeen, dying in battle at Tewkesbury, in a heroic moment echoing Rhaegar’s last stand. His father, Henry VI was quietly executed in the Tower of London, and Margaret went into exile. The Lancaster line had become extinguished, save for Henry Tudor (the future Henry VII), living in exile across the sea, like Viserys and Daenerys.

King Edward IV began a time of peace and prosperity, but he was overfond of pleasure and revelry, much like King Robert Baratheon, who’s based on him, as Martin admits.
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Though an active fighter, after the war, he became indolent, caring more for pleasure than politics. He craved popularity, which he cultivated through exotic entertainments as well as his fine manners.

Of course, Martin notes that his characters may be inspired from history, but he takes care to make them his own:

You can do one-for-one conversions of the real-world to fantasy, but if you’re going to do one-for-one, you might as well just write straight historical fiction. Why write about a character who’s exactly like Henry VIII? If you want to do that, then just write about Henry VIII.

It makes more sense to take certain interesting elements of Henry VIII and certain interesting elements of Edward IV, and maybe something from here and something from there, and put them together and use your imagination to create your own character—someone who is uniquely himself and not exactly like someone from history. The same is true of the battles and things like that.
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Certainly King Edward’s descendent Henry VIII was also quite fat, fond of feasting and wenching rather than conquering.

King Edward was actually absent from his final victory as he was busy contracting a secret marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Woodville, Lord Rivers. Politically, this was a weak choice, compared with the French princess King Edward’s advisors were suggesting. (Robb makes a similarly unpolitical marriage in the second season, though King Edward’s was one of many in history.) Edward went on to honor and promote his new in-laws, causing even more vexation. One earl even led a rebellion over the unpopularity of the Woodvilles.

In his last years he was given to self-indulgence and scandalous excesses. He remained popular, even as he sported with his courtiers’ wives and produced numerous bastards. When he died suddenly at age 41, thanks to his stout and inactive lifestyle, illness, or possibly poison, the realm was suddenly destabilized. Like Robert Baratheon, Edward had two brothers who both craved power—one hastily seized power after arranging for his more charming brother’s execution. This cruel brother, known to history and literature as Shakespeare’s villainous Richard III, had the two princes, Edward V and Richard of York, declared illegitimate. As Lord Protector and regent, he locked them in the Tower of London, where they died under mysterious circumstances. Some readers equate Bran and Rickon, apparently murdered to destroy their claim to Winterfell, with these princes.

At last, the future Henry VII sailed from over the sea and battled Richard III’s forces at Bosworth Field in 1485. Victorious, he wed Edward IV’s eldest daughter, Elizabeth, and united the red and white roses to create the Tudor Rose, ending the long feud.

Cersei as Margaret and Robert as Edward IV are close analogies. Likewise, the realm in chaos at King Robert’s death, with his children declared bastards and Starks and Lannisters vying for the throne echoes this time period.

How will this all end? It’s unclear. Richard, Duke of York (basically the Ned Stark character) never inherited England, but his sons Edward IV and Richard III did, followed by Edward’s daughter Elizabeth. Will Ned’s son Jon Snow inherit such a destiny, ending the war by wedding the Targaryen heir, Daenerys? Martin notes, “The Lancasters and Yorks fought themselves to extinction until the Tudors came in. But the Tudors were really a new dynasty; they weren’t Lancasters. So…”
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The War of the Roses ended with a dynastic wedding, with the last scions uniting Lancaster and York and taking the throne. Could this be Sansa and Tyrion? Neither is in the succession for the Iron Throne, but they could decide to stay together, have children, and heal their shattered houses. Tyrion has always wanted someone to love and accept the real him, while Sansa has been blinded by dazzling unworthy knights like Joffrey and Ser Loras. Perhaps they will learn enough to find peace together.