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160-636: The fictional world in which the A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R. R. Martin take place is divided into several continents, known collectively as The Known World. Most of the story takes place on the continent of Westeros and in a large political entity known as the Seven Kingdoms . Those kingdoms are spread across nine regions: the North , the Iron Islands , the Riverlands ,

320-494: A Roman centurion from the Mediterranean would feel, not knowing what threats might come from the north. This experience was so profound that a decade later, in 1991, he wanted to "write a story about the people guarding the end of the world", and ultimately "the things that come out of the [fictional] north are a good deal more terrifying than Scotsmen or Picts ". Martin adjusted the size, length, and magical nature of

480-669: A direwolf at their feet and their swords in their hands. The tombs have been used since the old kings of the North, known as the Kings of Winter, were in power. They ruled since before the arrival of the Andals. To depict Winterfell, both the pilot and season 1 of the television adaptation used the 16th century clock tower and ancient courtyard of Castle Ward in County Down , Northern Ireland. Doune Castle in Stirling , Scotland, which

640-594: A white elephant . At the start of the War of the Five Kings, the castle is in ruin, with only a fraction of it habitable, and held by Lady Shella Whent, the last of her House, who is stripped of Harrenhal when the Lannisters seize her castle. The castle changes hands repeatedly over the course of the novels, many of those holding it meeting unpleasant ends. Riverrun is the ancestral stronghold of House Tully. The castle

800-631: A Scottish castle." The Wall is a huge structure of stone, ice, and magic on the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms. It is home to the Night's Watch , a brotherhood sworn to protect the realms of men from the threats beyond the Wall. The Wall was inspired by Martin's visit to Hadrian's Wall , in the North of England close to the border with Scotland . Looking out over the hills, Martin wondered what

960-658: A better option. Set designer Gemma Jackson said, "A lot of the mosaics in the Eyrie were based on a beautiful chapel I visited in Rome." The interior of the High Hall of the Arryns was filmed at The Paint Hall, occupying one of the four soundstages there. Martin acknowledged that the set differed significantly from its presentation in the books: "In the books, the room is long and rectangular. But [The Paint Hall soundstage] had essentially

1120-583: A classic example of wetland loss from these combined factors. Europe has likely lost nearly half its wetlands. New Zealand lost 90 percent of its wetlands over a period of 150 years. Ecologists recognize that swamps provide ecological services including flood control, fish production, water purification, carbon storage, and wildlife habitats. In many parts of the world authorities protect swamps. In parts of Europe and North America, swamp restoration projects are becoming widespread. The United States government began enforcing stricter laws and management programs in

1280-475: A covered bridge, on the rocky mountain slopes over a very narrow path. The protection of the surrounding mountains gives the Vale itself a temperate climate, fertile meadows, and woods. The snowmelt from the mountains and a constant waterfall that never freezes, named Alyssa's Tears, provide plentiful water. The Vale has rich black soil, wide slow-moving rivers, and hundreds of small lakes. Illegitimate children born in

1440-651: A decade later and that some writers' work was going beyond the mature themes of his novels. Adam Roberts called Martin's series the most successful and popular example of the emerging subgenre of grimdark fantasy. Setting out to write something on an epic scale, Martin projected to write three books of 800 manuscript pages in the very early stages of the series. His original 1990s contract specified one-year deadlines for his previous literary works, but Martin only realized later that his new books were longer and hence required more writing time. In 2000, Martin planned to take 18 months to two years for each volume and projected

1600-403: A dozen years in the fictional past, of which each volume reveals more. Events planned from the beginning are foreshadowed, although Martin is careful not to make the story predictable. The viewpoint characters, who serve as unreliable narrators , may clarify or provide different perspectives on past events. Therefore, what the readers believe to be true may not necessarily be true. Regarding

1760-462: A fictional world in which seasons last for years and end unpredictably. Nearly three centuries before the events of the first novel, the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros were united under the Targaryen dynasty, establishing military supremacy through their control of dragons. The Targaryens ruled for three hundred years, continuing beyond the extinction of the dragons. Their dynasty eventually ended with

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1920-465: A horse as being of one sex and then another. The books are divided into chapters, each one narrated in the third person limited through the eyes of a point of view character, an approach Martin learned himself as a young journalism student. Beginning with nine POV characters in A Game of Thrones , the number of POV characters grows to a total of 31 in A Dance with Dragons (see table). The short-lived one-time POV characters are mostly restricted to

2080-482: A murder mystery. "[Martin's Ice and Fire series] was groundbreaking (at least for me) in all kinds of ways. Above all, the books were extremely unpredictable, especially in a genre where readers have come to expect the intensely predictable. [...] A Game of Thrones was profoundly shocking when I first read it, and fundamentally changed my notions about what could be done with epic fantasy." —Fantasy writer Joe Abercrombie in 2008 George R. R. Martin believes

2240-415: A phase of the journey that ends in closure for most characters. A smaller portion of characters is left with clear-cut cliffhangers to make sure readers come back for the next installment, although A Dance with Dragons had more cliffhangers than Martin originally intended. Both one-time and regular POV characters are designed to have full character arcs ending in tragedy or triumph, and are written to hold

2400-516: A rebellion led by Lord Robert Baratheon , in which Aerys II "the Mad King" Targaryen was killed and Robert proclaimed king of the Seven Kingdoms. At the beginning of A Game of Thrones , 15 years have passed since Robert's rebellion, with a nine-year-long summer coming to an end. The principal story chronicles the power struggle for the Iron Throne among the great Houses of Westeros following

2560-460: A single story published in several volumes. Martin set the A Song of Ice and Fire story in a secondary world inspired by Tolkien's writing. Unlike Tolkien, who created entire languages, mythologies, and histories for Middle-earth long before writing The Lord of the Rings , Martin usually starts with a rough sketch of an imaginary world that he improvises into a workable fictional setting along

2720-600: A single volume in the United States in November 2000, whereas some other-language editions were divided into two, three, or even four volumes. A Storm of Swords debuted at number 12 in the New York Times bestseller list. After A Game of Thrones , A Clash of Kings , and A Storm of Swords , Martin originally intended to write three more books. The fourth book, tentatively titled A Dance with Dragons ,

2880-568: A square space, which they chose to put a round hall in, with a staircase curving up to a throne that was high above." The Westerlands are the Westerosi lands to the west of the Riverlands and north of the Reach. They are ruled by House Lannister of Casterly Rock, formerly Kings of the Rock. People of this region are often called "Westermen." Lannisport, lying hard by Casterly Rock, is the chief town of

3040-514: A temporary bastion called "Aegonfort", which later grew into the massive capital city known as King's Landing . Aided by their three formidable fire-breathing dragons , the Targaryen armies subdued six of the Seven Kingdoms through conquest or treaty, wiping out three of the seven ruling houses that refused to bend their knees, replacing house Durrandon with house Baratheon, house Gardener with house Tyrell, and house Hoare with houses Tully (in

3200-445: A tense or revelational moment, a twist or a cliffhanger , similar to a TV act break . Scriptwriting has also taught him the technique of "cutting out the fat and leaving the muscle", which is the final stage of completing a book, a technique that brought the page count in A Dance with Dragons down almost eighty pages. Dividing the continuous A Song of Ice and Fire story into books is much harder for Martin. Each book shall represent

3360-408: A variety of sources including precipitation, groundwater, tides and/or freshwater flooding. These hydrologic pathways all contribute to how energy and nutrients flow in and out of the ecosystem. As water flows through the swamp, nutrients, sediment and pollutants are naturally filtered out. Chemicals like phosphorus and nitrogen that end up in waterways get absorbed and used by the aquatic plants within

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3520-564: A very high range of mountains on the other. Of course, once again this is fantasy, so my mountains are more like the Himalayas ." In an HBO featurette, Martin stated the lands beyond the wall make up a big part of Westeros, being roughly the size of Canada. The Valley of Thenn is one such location beyond the Wall, and north of that is the Lands of Always Winter, where the Others come from. During

3680-401: A very low property value compared to fields, prairies , or woodlands . They have a reputation for being unproductive land that cannot easily be utilized for human activities, other than hunting , trapping , or fishing. Farmers, for example, typically drained swamps next to their fields so as to gain more land usable for planting crops, both historically, and to a lesser extent, presently. On

3840-452: A world map by the end of the series. He was intentionally vague about the size of the Ice and Fire world, omitting a scale on the maps to discourage prediction of travel lengths based on measured distances. A new map artist was used in A Dance with Dragons so that the maps are available in two versions by James Sinclair and Jeffrey L. Ward, depending on the book. The old maps were redone to match

4000-638: Is a large swamp in the western Siberia area of the Russian Federation . This is one of the largest swamps in the world, covering an area larger than Switzerland . The Atchafalaya Swamp at the lower end of the Mississippi River is the largest swamp in the United States . It is an important example of the southern cypress swamp but it has been greatly altered by logging, drainage, and levee construction. Other famous swamps in

4160-544: Is aided by the historic birth of three dragons , hatched from eggs given to her as wedding gifts. The three dragons soon become not only a symbol of her bloodline and her claim to the throne, but also devastating weapons of war, which help her in the conquest of Slaver's Bay. The story follows her year-long conflict with the region's city states, in which she aims to consolidate power, disrupt the Essosi slave trade, and gather support for her ambitions to reclaim Westeros. Books in

4320-405: Is based on an inverted map of Ireland . The North consists of the northern half of the Seven Kingdoms and is ruled by House Stark from their castle at Winterfell. The North is sparsely populated, but nearly as big as the other six southern kingdoms combined. Martin compared the North to Scotland. The climate is cold overall, with hard winters and mild snows common regardless of the season. Beyond

4480-498: Is betrayed and executed for treason. In response, Robert's brothers Stannis and Renly lay separate claims to the throne. During this period of instability, two of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros attempt to become independent from the Iron Throne: Eddard's eldest son Robb is proclaimed King in the North, while Lord Balon Greyjoy desires to recover the sovereignty of his region, the Iron Islands. The so-called "War of

4640-435: Is home to short, marsh-dwelling crannogmen ruled by House Reed of Greywater Watch, loyal bannermen of House Stark. The Neck's difficult wetland terrain is infested by predatory lizard-lions , restricting the only dryland passage to a causeway commanded by the almost impenetrable stronghold of Moat Cailin, which protected the North from land invasion from the south for thousands of years. The city of White Harbor, located at

4800-663: Is located along one of the "forks" of the Trident and controls access to the interior of Westeros. The castle is bordered on two sides by the Tumblestone River and the Red Fork. The third side fronts on a massive manmade ditch. It was built by Ser Axel Tully on land he received from the Andal King Armistead Vance. The castle is the location of Robb Stark 's great victory over House Lannister and

4960-558: Is the ancestral seat of House Lannister . According to popular legend, the hero known as Lann the Clever tricked the Casterlys into giving up the Rock, and took it for himself. The Rock is renowned as the wealthiest region due to its abundance of gold deposits, and it is one of the strongest castles of the Seven Kingdoms as it's a completely hollowed out mountain taller than even the Wall. It has never been taken in battle, despite attacks by

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5120-451: Is the seat of House Frey , which has grown wealthy by charging a toll of all those who cross for the past six centuries. Because the Freys are both wealthy and numerous, theirs is one of the most powerful houses sworn to House Tully . The castle's strategic position gives House Frey enormous importance in times of war. When Robb Stark goes to The Twins to repair his alliance with House Frey,

5280-440: Is widely credited with broadening the fantasy fiction genre for adult content. Writing for The Atlantic , Amber Taylor assessed the novels as hard fantasy with vulnerable characters to which readers become emotionally attached. CNN found in 2000 that Martin's mature descriptions were "far more frank than those found in the works of other fantasy authors", although Martin assessed the fantasy genre to have become rougher-edged

5440-601: Is written to follow principal landmarks with an ultimate destination, but leaves Martin room for improvisation. On occasion, improvised details significantly affected the planned story. By the fourth book, Martin kept more private notes than ever before to keep track of the many subplots, which became so detailed and sprawling by the fifth book as to be unwieldy. Martin's editors, copy editors, and readers monitor for accidental mistakes, although some errors have slipped into publication. For instance, Martin has inconsistently referred to certain characters' eye colors, and has described

5600-907: The Los Angeles Times remarked that "Martin's devotion to fully inhabiting his characters, for better or worse, creates the unstoppable momentum in his novels and contains an implied criticism of Tolkien's moral simplicity" (see Themes: Moral ambiguity ). Swamp Swamps and marshes are specific types of wetlands that form along waterbodies containing rich, hydric soils. Marshes are wetlands, continually or frequently flooded by nearby running bodies of water, that are dominated by emergent soft-stem vegetation and herbaceous plants. Swamps are wetlands consisting of saturated soils or standing water and are dominated by water-tolerant woody vegetation such as shrubs, bushes, and trees. Swamps are characterized by their saturated soils and slow-moving waters. The water that accumulates in swamps comes from

5760-634: The A Song of Ice and Fire series are first published in hardcover and are later re-released as paperback editions. In the UK, Harper Voyager publishes special slipcased editions. The series has also been translated into more than 30 languages. All page totals given below are for the US first editions. George R. R. Martin was already a successful fantasy and sci-fi author and TV writer before writing his A Song of Ice and Fire book series. Martin had his first short story published in 1971 and his first novel in 1977. By

5920-597: The Iron Throne . As of 2024, more than 90 million copies in 47 languages had been sold. The fourth and fifth volumes reached the top of the New York Times Best Seller lists when published in 2005 and 2011. Among the many derived works are several prequel novellas , two television series , a comic book adaptation , and several card , board , and video games . The series has received critical acclaim for its world-building, characters, and narrative. A Song of Ice and Fire takes place in

6080-514: The Others . Although the characters understand the natural aspects of their world, they do not know or understand its magical elements. Religion, though, has a significant role in the lives of people, and the characters practice many different religions . A Game of Thrones , the first installment of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, has two maps of Westeros. Each new book has added one or two maps so that, as of A Dance with Dragons , seven maps of

6240-532: The Rock of Gibraltar . A Song of Ice and Fire A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of high fantasy novels by the American author George R. R. Martin . He began writing the first volume, A Game of Thrones , in 1991, and published it in 1996. Martin, who originally envisioned the series as a trilogy, has released five out of seven planned volumes. The fifth entry in the series, A Dance with Dragons ,

6400-521: The mouth of the White Knife river, is a thriving port and the fifth largest settlement in the Seven Kingdoms. Illegitimate children born of a noble parent and acknowledged by said parent in the North are given the surname Snow. Winterfell is the ancestral castle of House Stark and the political capital of the North. Located at the geographical center of the North, it has a cold, subarctic climate with snowy winters and cool summers. The castle

6560-898: The prologues and epilogues . David Orr of The New York Times noted the importance of "the Starks (good guys), the Targaryens (at least one good guy, or girl), the Lannisters (conniving), the Greyjoys (mostly conniving), the Baratheons (mixed bag), the Tyrells (unclear), and the Martells (ditto), most of whom are feverishly endeavoring to advance their ambitions and ruin their enemies, preferably unto death". However, as Time 's Lev Grossman noted, readers "experience

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6720-508: The " wildlings " or "Free Folk", a number of human tribes living on the north side of the Wall. The Night's Watch story is told primarily through the point of view of Jon Snow , Lord Eddard Stark's bastard son . Jon follows in the footsteps of his uncle Benjen Stark and joins the Watch at a young age, rising quickly through the ranks. He eventually becomes Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. In

6880-549: The 1970s in efforts to protect and restore these ecosystems. Often the simplest steps to restoring swamps involve plugging drainage ditches and removing levees . Conservationists work to preserve swamps such as those in northwest Indiana in the United States Midwest that were preserved as part of the Indiana Dunes . Swamps can be found on all continents except Antarctica . The largest swamp in

7040-531: The 1997 Hugo Award for Best Novella. The first book was marketed as part of the " Song of Ice and Fire trilogy" in 1996, but by the second book's release, the "trilogy" suffix had been dropped and the series was retitled to A Song of Ice and Fire . The 300 pages removed from the Game of Thrones manuscript served as the opening of the second book, entitled A Clash of Kings . It was released in February 1999 in

7200-729: The Children of the Forest, that eventually was settled by an agreement known as "The Pact". This was the beginning of the Age of Heroes, during which the First Men adopted the religion of the Children of the Forest. Those gods later became known in Westeros as the Old Gods . Eight thousand years before the events of the novels, an enigmatic arctic humanoid species called the Others emerged from

7360-583: The Conqueror. As with Westerosi customs to give bastards a surname showing their origins, illegitimate children born in the Riverlands are given the surname Rivers. Harrenhal is an enormous ruined castle and is the site of many important events in the novels. Harrenhal was built by Harren the Black, after his conquest of the Riverlands, intending to make it the largest fortification ever built in Westeros. The castle has been described as so large that an entire army

7520-856: The Eyrie and the Vale in the event of young Robin Arryn's death. For the CGI compositions of the Vale of Arryn in the TV series, as seen in the establishing shot of the Eyrie and from the sky cells, the visual effects team used images and textures from the Greek rock formations of Meteora . Initially they had been considering the Zhangjiajie Mountains in China, but because the landscape base plates were shot in Northern Ireland, using Meteora resulted in

7680-563: The Eyrie. Lysa refused to align herself with any of the claimants during the War of the Five Kings, but eventually pretends to a possible alliance with House Lannister after Lord Petyr Baelish agrees to marry her. Later Baelish kills Lysa after she attempts to murder her niece, Sansa Stark. As of Feast for Crows , Baelish rules in the Eyrie as the Lord Protector and Regent for the sickly, epileptic Lord Robert "Robin" Arryn, and plans for Sansa to marry Harold Harding, who will become heir to

7840-485: The Five Kings" is in full progress by the middle of the second book, A Clash of Kings . The second part of the story takes place in the far north of Westeros, where an 8,000-year-old wall of ice, simply called " the Wall ", defends the Seven Kingdoms from supernatural creatures known as the Others . The Wall's sentinels, the Sworn Brotherhood of the Night's Watch , also protect the realm from incursions by

8000-418: The Forest , a nature-worshipping Stone Age anthropoid species who carved the faces of their gods in weirwood trees. Some time later, Bronze Age human settlers, known as the First Men, migrated from Essos via a land bridge at the southeastern end of the continent and gradually spread to the entire continent. The First Men's attempts to chop down forests and cultivate the land led to a millennia-long war with

8160-532: The Freys massacre him, his mother, and his army (and in the TV adaptation, his wife): an event known as " The Red Wedding ", which violates native customs of guest right and incurs enmity throughout the Seven Kingdoms, especially in the Riverlands and North. The Vale is the area surrounded almost completely by the Mountains of the Moon in the east of Westeros. The Vale is under the rulership of House Arryn , one of

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8320-547: The Giant's Lance starts directly behind the Gates of the Moon. The Eyrie clings to the mountain and is six hundred feet above Sky. The last part of the climb to the Eyrie is something of a cross between a chimney and a stone ladder, which leads to the Eyrie's cellar entrance. The Eyrie is the smallest of the great castles in the story, consisting of seven slim towers bunched tightly together. It has no stables, kennels, or smithies, but

8480-641: The Iron Islanders and the plans of Robb Stark in the War of the Five Kings. It was held by Lord Tywin Lannister before the War of the Five Kings , but after his death, Queen Regent Cersei Lannister made one of her cousins castellan of the castle. As of A Dance with Dragons , the narrative has not actually taken place in Casterly Rock, yet descriptions of it have been offered by the Lannisters in

8640-539: The Ironmen once ruled over the Riverlands and much of the western coast of Westeros. When Aegon the Conqueror extinguished Harren the Black's line, he chose House Greyjoy as the new rulers of the Ironmen. Pyke is the seat of House Greyjoy . The television adaptation filmed the scenes of Pyke's port at Lordsport Harbour in Ballintoy Harbour , in Northern Ireland's County Antrim . The sea has worn away much of

8800-452: The Land of Always Winter, the northernmost part of Westeros, during the decades-long winter known as "The Long Night". The Children of the Forest and the First Men allied to repel the Others, and then built the Wall barring passage from the far north. The region north of the Wall was since collectively known as the land "Beyond the Wall", and settled by tribal descendants of the First Men known as

8960-448: The POV chapters. West of Casterly Rock is the coastal city of Lannisport. A busy port under the governance of the Lannisters of Casterly Rock, Lannisport thrives as a protected and wealthy city. The city is also home to many lesser Lannisters and other distant cousins with similar surnames, such as Lannys. George R. R. Martin stated on his blog that he drew inspiration for Casterly Rock from

9120-515: The Riverlands was Benedict Justman, but the Justman dynasty died out three centuries later. The Durrandons conquered the Riverlands, but lost rule of it to Harwyn "Hardhand" Hoare, King of the Iron Islands. At the time of Aegon's conquest, the Riverlands were ruled by Harwyn's grandson, Harren the Black, king of the Iron Islands, and the Tullys were local nobles who rebelled against him by joining Aegon

9280-410: The Riverlands) and Greyjoy (on the Iron Islands). Only the defiant Dorne remained independent for almost another two hundred years through asymmetric guerrilla resistance , until it was finally absorbed under the Iron Throne through a marriage-alliance by King Daeron II in 187 AC. The Targaryens built the Iron Throne , forged from the swords of their defeated enemies by dragonfire. They also annexed

9440-407: The United States are the forested portions of the Everglades , Okefenokee Swamp , Barley Barber Swamp , Great Cypress Swamp and the Great Dismal Swamp . The Okefenokee is located in extreme southeastern Georgia and extends slightly into northeastern Florida . The Great Cypress Swamp is mostly in Delaware , but extends into Maryland on the Delmarva Peninsula . Point Lookout State Park on

9600-444: The United States, with a manuscript length (without appendices) of 1,184 pages. A Clash of Kings was the first book of the Song of Ice and Fire series to make the best-seller lists, reaching 13 on The New York Times Best Seller list in 1999. After the success of The Lord of the Rings films, Martin received his first inquiries to the rights of the Song of Ice and Fire series from various producers and filmmakers. Martin

9760-401: The Vale , the Westerlands , the Stormlands , the Reach , the Crownlands , and Dorne . A massive wall of ice and old magic separates the Seven Kingdoms from the largely unmapped area to the north. The vast continent of Essos is located east of Westeros, across the Narrow Sea. The closest foreign nations to Westeros are the Free Cities , a collection of nine independent city-states along

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9920-417: The Vale are given the surname Stone. Based on the German castle of Neuschwanstein , the Eyrie is the seat of House Arryn. It is situated on the Giant's Lance and reachable only by a narrow mule trail, guarded by the Gates of the Moon and three small castles, titled Stone, Snow, and Sky. Travelers must enter the Gates of the Moon and its upper bailey before reaching the narrow path up the mountain. The steps up

10080-426: The Wall for genre demands; Jon Snow 's chapters describe it as approximately 300 miles (480 km) long and 700 feet (210 m) high in general, rising up to a perceived 900 feet (270 m) in spots due to huge foundation blocks. The top is wide enough for a dozen mounted knights to ride abreast (approximately 30 ft or 10 m), while the base is so thick that the Wall's gates are more like tunnels through

10240-474: The Wildlings or Free Folk. Sometime later, the Iron Age humans from Essos called the Andals invaded Westeros, bringing along the Faith of the Seven . One by one, kingdoms of the First Men south of the Neck fell to the Andals, and only the North remained unconquered. The Children of the Forest were slaughtered and disappeared from Andal lands. Over time, seven relatively stable feudal kingdoms were forged across Westeros, although their territories fluctuated over

10400-556: The appendices, he devises a secret about the personality or fate of the family members. However, their backstory remains subject to change until written down in the story. Martin drew most character inspiration from history (without directly translating historical figures) and his own experiences, but also from the manners of his friends, acquaintances, and people of public interest. Martin aims to "make my characters real and to make them human, characters who have good and bad, noble and selfish well-mixed in their natures". Jeff VanderMeer of

10560-414: The battle [...] of Slaver's Bay. And then take it from there." By the middle of 2010, Martin had already finished five chapters of The Winds of Winter from the viewpoints of Sansa Stark , Arya Stark , Arianne Martell , and Aeron Greyjoy , coming to around 100 completed pages. After the publication of A Dance with Dragons in 2011, Martin announced he would return to writing in January 2012. He spent

10720-471: The beginning of A Song of Ice and Fire , Westeros has enjoyed a decade-long summer, and many fear that an even longer and harsher winter will follow. George R. R. Martin set the Ice and Fire story in an alternative world to Earth, a " secondary world ". Martin has also suggested that the world may be larger than the real world planet Earth. The Ice and Fire narrative is set in a post-magic world where people no longer believe in supernatural things such as

10880-420: The book would be published before the sixth season of the HBO show but in early January 2016 Martin confirmed that he had not met an end-of-year deadline that he had established with his publisher for release of the book before the sixth season. He also revealed there had been a previous deadline of October 2015 that he had considered achievable in May 2015, and that in September 2015 he had still considered

11040-409: The book, Martin had not even started writing all characters' stories, and also objected to ending the first book without any resolution for its many viewpoint characters as in previous books. With the characters spread out across the world, a friend suggested that Martin divide the story geographically into two volumes, of which A Feast for Crows would be the first. This approach would give Martin

11200-450: The central statue of a weeping woman believed to be Alyssa Arryn, around low, flowering shrubs. The lord's chambers have doors of solid oak, and plush velvet curtains covering windows of small rhomboid panes of glass. The High Hall has a blue silk carpet leading to the carved weirwood thrones of the Lord and Lady Arryn. The floors and walls are of milk-white marble veined with blue. Daylight enters down through high narrow arched windows along

11360-433: The chambers have been described to be warm and comfortable, with magnificent views of the Vale, the Mountains of the Moon, or the waterfall. The Maiden's Tower is the easternmost of the seven slender towers, so all the Vale can be seen from its windows and balconies. The apartments of the Lady of the Eyrie open over a small garden planted with blue flowers and ringed by white towers, containing grass and scattered statuary, with

11520-400: The characters [are] in very dark places." Martin did not intend to separate the characters geographically again. In 2011, Martin gave three years as a realistic estimate for finishing the sixth book at a good pace, but said ultimately the book "will be done when it's done", acknowledging that his publication estimates had been too optimistic in the past. In 2015 there were indications that

11680-422: The characters as the heart of the story, Martin planned the epic A Song of Ice and Fire to have a large cast of characters and many different settings from the beginning. A Feast for Crows has a 63-page list of characters, with many of the thousands of characters mentioned only in passing or disappearing from view for long stretches. When Martin adds a new family to the ever-growing number of genealogies in

11840-600: The coasts of East Sumatra, Kalimantan (Central, East, South and West Kalimantan provinces), West Papua, Papua New Guinea, Brunei, Peninsular Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak, Southeast Thailand, and the Philippines (Riley et al. ,1996). Indonesia has the largest area of tropical peatland. Of the total 440,000 km (170,000 sq mi) tropical peat swamp, about 210,000 km (81,000 sq mi) are located in Indonesia (Page, 2001; Wahyunto, 2006). The Vasyugan Swamp

12000-404: The context of stand-alone novels. He prefers to write stories about characters from other A Song of Ice and Fire periods of history such as his Tales of Dunk and Egg project, instead of continuing the series directly. Martin said he would love to return to writing short stories, novellas, novelettes, and stand-alone novels from diverse genres such as science fiction, horror, fantasy, or even

12160-613: The continent is therefore unknown, although thought to be continuous with a polar ice cap north of the Shivering Sea known as the White Waste. At the novel's beginning, the majority of Westeros is united under the rule of a single king, whose seat is the "Iron Throne" in the city of King's Landing. The king has a large number of minor direct vassals in area known as the Crownlands, surrounding King's Landing; while each of

12320-435: The death of King Robert in A Game of Thrones . Robert's heir apparent, the 13-year-old Joffrey , is immediately proclaimed king through the machinations of his mother, Queen Cersei Lannister . When Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark , Robert's closest friend and chief advisor, discovers that Joffrey and his siblings are the product of incest between Cersei and her twin brother Ser Jaime Lannister , Eddard attempts to unseat Joffrey, but

12480-499: The delay mainly to his untangling "the Meereenese knot", which the interviewer understood as "making the chronology and characters mesh up as various threads converged on [Daenerys]". Martin also acknowledged spending too much time on rewriting and perfecting the story, but soundly rejected the theories of some of his critics that he had lost interest in the series or would bide his time to make more money. Martin believed in 2012

12640-546: The eastern wall, and there are some fifty high iron sconces where torches may be lit. The Eyrie was held by Lord Jon Arryn, who fostered Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon prior to Robert's Rebellion (also known as the War of the Usurper). After the war, Lord Arryn served as King Robert I Baratheon's Hand of the King (prime minister). After Lord Arryn was assassinated, his wife, Lady Lysa Arryn, took her sickly child, Robert, and fled to

12800-489: The end of A Storm of Swords , running in parallel instead of sequentially, and involve different casts of characters with only little overlap. Martin split Arya's chapters into both books after having already moved the three other most popular characters (Jon Snow, Tyrion, and Daenerys) into A Dance with Dragons . Upon its release in October 2005 in the UK and November 2005 in the US, A Feast for Crows went straight to

12960-448: The end-of-year deadline achievable. He further confirmed that some of the plot of the book might be revealed in the then-upcoming sixth season of Game of Thrones . In February 2016, Martin stated that he dropped all his editing projects except for Wild Cards , and that he would not be writing any teleplays, screenplays, short stories, introductions or forewords before delivering The Winds of Winter . In March 2020, Martin stated that he

13120-608: The ending in broad strokes as well as the future of the main characters, and will finish the series with bittersweet elements where not everyone will live happily ever after. Martin hopes to write an ending similar to The Lord of the Rings that he felt gave the story a satisfying depth and resonance. On the other hand, Martin noted the challenge to avoid a situation like the finale of the TV series Lost , which left some fans disappointed by deviating too far from their own theories and desires. In 2012, Martin had acknowledged his concerns about A Dream of Spring not being completed by

13280-463: The epilogue of A Feast for Crows that the next volume would be released by the next year. However, planned release dates were repeatedly pushed back. Meanwhile, HBO acquired the rights to turn A Song of Ice and Fire into a fantasy drama series in 2007 and aired the first of ten episodes covering A Game of Thrones in April 2011. With around 1600 pages in manuscript length, A Dance with Dragons

13440-544: The fictional world are available in the books. Martin said in 2003 that complete world maps were not made available so that readers may better identify with people of the real Middle Ages who were uneducated about distant places. He also did not "subscribe to the theory put forth in The Tough Guide To Fantasyland ... that eventually the characters must visit every place shown on The Map." He conceded, however, that readers may be able to piece together

13600-399: The final two novels will take readers farther north than any of the previous books, and that the Others will appear. Martin indicated he would not permit another writer to finish the book series. The Winds of Winter will resolve the cliffhangers from A Dance with Dragons early on and "will open with the two big battles that [the fifth book] was building up to, the battle in the ice and

13760-420: The first 200 pages and a two-page story projection as part of a planned trilogy with the novels A Dance with Dragons and The Winds of Winter intended to follow. When Martin had still not reached the novel's end at 1,400 manuscript pages, he felt that the series needed to be four and eventually six books long, which he imagined as two linked trilogies of one long story. Martin chose A Song of Ice and Fire as

13920-549: The first book, the chapter where they find the direwolf pups...just came to me out of nowhere. I was...at work on a different novel, and suddenly I saw that scene. It didn't belong in the novel I was writing, but it came to me so vividly that I had to sit down and write it, and by the time I did, it led to a second chapter, and the second chapter was the Catelyn chapter where Ned has just come back." —George R. R. Martin in 2014 In 1994, Martin gave his agent , Kirby McCauley ,

14080-854: The first season, the HBO team used places that they could decorate with artificial snow for the north of the Wall, but a bigger landscape was chosen for Season 2. "Primary filming for these scenes, which encompass both the Frostfangs and the Fist of the First Men, occurred at the Svínafellsjökull calving glacier in Skaftafell , Iceland, followed by shooting near Smyrlabjörg and Vík í Mýrdal on Höfðabrekkuheiði . Benioff said, "We always knew we wanted something shatteringly beautiful and barren and brutal for this part of Jon's journey, because he's in

14240-538: The forks of the river Trident on Westeros. While they form one of the nine regions of Westeros, the Riverlands' central location and geographic features made the region an inter-kingdom battle zone that changed hands rather than becoming its own 'eighth' kingdom of the Seven Kingdoms. Centrally located between the Westerlands, the Crownlands, the Vale, and the North and lacking the natural defenses of other regions, they have seen frequent warfare. The first ruler to unite

14400-582: The fortress impossible. The Eyrie's dungeons, known as "sky cells", are left open to the sky on one side and have sloping floors that put prisoners in danger of slipping or rolling off the edge. Executions in the Eyrie are carried out via the Moon Door, which opens from the high hall onto a 600-foot drop. The Eyrie is made of pale stone and primarily decorated with the blue and white colors of House Arryn. Elegant details provide warmth and comfort through plentiful fireplaces, carpets, and luxurious fabrics. Many of

14560-616: The ice. The novels' legends claim that the First Men, or more specifically Brandon the Builder with the possible help of children of the forest and giants, constructed the Wall some 8,000 years before the events of the series. The Wall has since been maintained by the Night's Watch to guard the realms of men against threats from beyond, originally the Others, and later against wildling raids. A strip of land known as "the Gift", now stretching 50 leagues (about 150 miles (240 km)) south of

14720-626: The land regions of the riverlands and stormlands around the Blackwater Bay as the Crownlands . House Targaryen remained the ruling house of the Seven Kingdoms for almost three centuries until they were overthrown by a rebellion led by Robert Baratheon in 283 AC, who then became the first king of the Seven Kingdoms not of House Targaryen. Martin took the name Westeros from the Scottish region Wester Ross . The southern half of Westeros

14880-455: The last of the planned six books to be released five or six years later. However, with A Song of Ice and Fire series evolving into the biggest and most ambitious story he has ever attempted writing, he still has two more books to finish as of 2024 . Martin said he needed to be in his own office in Santa Fe, New Mexico to immerse himself in the fictional world and write. As of 2011 , Martin

15040-470: The last quarter of 2002. However, the five-year gap did not work for all characters during writing. On one hand, Martin was unsatisfied with covering the events during the gap solely through flashbacks and internal retrospection. On the other hand, it was implausible to have nothing happen for five years. After working on the book for about a year, Martin realized he needed an additional interim book, which he called A Feast for Crows . The book would pick up

15200-611: The last two books". The TV adaptation used Iceland as filming location for the lands Beyond the Wall. Martin, who has never been to Iceland, said Beyond the Wall was "considerably larger than Iceland and the area closest to my Wall is densely forested, so in that sense it's more like Canada – Hudson Bay or the Canadian forests just north of Michigan . And then as you get further and further north, it changes. You get into tundra and ice fields and it becomes more of an arctic environment. You have plains on one side and

15360-467: The last two volumes of the series will be large books of 1500 manuscript pages each. The sixth book will be called The Winds of Winter , taking the title of the last book of the originally planned trilogy. Displeased with the provisional title A Time for Wolves for the final volume, Martin ultimately announced A Dream of Spring as the title for the seventh book in 2006. Martin said in March 2012 that

15520-562: The local weather being "windy and cold, and damp". The members of this seafaring nation are known in the rest of Westeros as Ironmen, and to themselves as Ironborn. Illegitimate children born in the Iron Islands are given the surname Pyke. For fierce raids, the Ironmen are titled the "terror of the seas". They worship the Drowned God, who "had made them to reave and rape, to carve out kingdoms and write their names in fire and blood and song". The appendix of A Game of Thrones summarizes that

15680-464: The meantime on book tours, conventions, and continued working on his The World of Ice & Fire companion guide and a new Tales of Dunk and Egg novella. In December 2011, Martin posted a chapter from The Winds of Winter from the viewpoint of Theon Greyjoy ; several other chapters have been made public since. Four hundred pages of the sixth novel had been written as of October 2012 , although Martin considered only 200 as "really finished";

15840-909: The mid-1990s, he had won three Hugo Awards , two Nebula Awards , and other awards for his short fiction. Although his early books were well-received within the fantasy fiction community, his readership remained relatively small and Martin took on jobs as a writer in Hollywood in the mid-1980s. He worked principally on the revival of The Twilight Zone throughout 1986 and on Beauty and the Beast until 1990, but he also developed his own TV pilots and wrote feature film scripts. He grew frustrated that his pilots and screenplays were not getting made and that TV-related production limitations like budgets and episode lengths were forcing him to cut characters and trim battle scenes. This pushed Martin back towards writing books, where he did not have to worry about compromising

16000-422: The morality of violence . The story unfolds through a rotating set of subjective points of view , the success or survival of any of which is never assured. Each chapter is told from a limited third-person perspective, drawn from a group of characters that grows from nine in the first novel to 31 by the fifth. The novels are set on the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos . Martin's stated inspirations for

16160-561: The most profound influences to be the ones experienced in childhood. Having read H. P. Lovecraft , Robert E. Howard , Robert A. Heinlein , Eric Frank Russell , Andre Norton , Isaac Asimov , Fritz Leiber , and Mervyn Peake in his youth, Martin never categorized these authors' literature into science fiction, fantasy, or horror and will write from any genre as a result. Martin classified A Song of Ice and Fire as " epic fantasy ", and specifically named Tad Williams ' high fantasy epic Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn as very influential for

16320-648: The narrative are based on events in Scottish history such as the Black Dinner of 1440 and the Massacre of Glencoe in 1692. Martin has also drawn from Roman history for inspiration, comparing Stannis Baratheon to the Roman Emperor Tiberius . Martin has sourced the Massacre of Glencoe and Black Dinner as inspiration for the "Red Wedding", a crucial twist in A Storm of Swords . The story

16480-490: The next few thousand years through constant warfare, and no kingdom remained dominant for long: Three hundred years before the novels begin, the Targaryen dragonlord Aegon the Conqueror and his two sister-wives Visenya and Rhaenys, whose ancestors migrated from Valyria to Dragonstone a century prior, invaded the Westerosi mainland and landed his army at the mouth of the Blackwater Rush. The three assembled

16640-417: The novels count as canon . Martin does not intend to publish his private notes after the series is finished. Martin drew much inspiration from actual history for the series, having several bookcases filled with medieval history for research and visiting historic European landmarks. For an American who speaks only English, the history of England proved the easiest source of medieval history for him, giving

16800-476: The oldest lines of Andal nobility and formerly Kings of Mountain and Vale. Their seat, the Eyrie, is a castle high in the mountains, small but considered unassailable. The only way to reach the Vale is by a mountain road teeming with animals called 'shadowcats', rock slides, and dangerous mountain clans. The mountain road ends at the Vale's sole entrance, the Bloody Gate: a pair of twin watchtowers, connected by

16960-487: The other hand, swamps can (and do) play a beneficial ecological role in the overall functions of the natural environment and provide a variety of resources that many species depend on. Swamps and other wetlands have shown to be a natural form of flood management and defense against flooding. In such circumstances where flooding does occur, swamps absorb and use the excess water within the wetland, preventing it from traveling and flooding surrounding areas. Dense vegetation within

17120-809: The other regions is functionally controlled by a different major noble house, who all wield significant power in their own lands, while owing fealty to the Iron Throne. Martin here drew inspiration from medieval European history, in particular the Hundred Years' War , the Crusades , the Albigensian Crusade , and the Wars of the Roses . The first inhabitants of the continent were the Children of

17280-722: The overall flavor is going to be as much bittersweet as it is happy." In April 2018, Martin commented he had not started working on the book, and in November he said that after The Winds of Winter he would decide what to do next: A Dream of Spring or the second volume of Fire & Blood or one or two stories for the Tales of Dunk and Egg . In May 2019, Martin reiterated he had not started writing A Dream of Spring and would not do so before finishing The Winds of Winter . Regarding A Song of Ice and Fire as his masterpiece, Martin stated he would never write anything on this scale again and would only return to this fictional universe in

17440-561: The overall series title: Martin saw the struggle of the cold Others and the fiery dragons as one possible meaning for "Ice and Fire", whereas the word "song" had previously appeared in Martin's book titles A Song for Lya and Songs the Dead Men Sing , stemming from his obsessions with songs. Martin also named Robert Frost 's 1920 poem " Fire and Ice " and cultural associations such as passion versus betrayal as possible influences for

17600-538: The paths taken by the novels' characters. The story takes place primarily on an elongated continent called Westeros , which is roughly the size of South America . The continent is home to the Seven Kingdoms , also known as "the Realm" or the "Sunset Kingdom", located to the south side of the Wall , a massive man-made ice wall (allegedly fused with magic) 700 feet in height and spanning east–west for 300 miles from coast to coast. The Seven Kingdoms are further divided into

17760-626: The prologue of the pilot episode and in the pivotal scene where the Starks first find the direwolves. Cairncastle , meanwhile, served as the location where Ned Stark beheads the deserter Will. The interior of Winterfell, such as the Tower of the First Keep, the Great Hall, and Catelyn's bedchamber, were filmed at The Paint Hall studio. Set designer Gemma Jackson said, "Winterfell was based on

17920-424: The rangers to the top of the Wall. A castle with real rooms and a working elevator were built near a cliff 400 feet (120 m) high. "Working construction lifts were discovered at a nearby work site and rise 18 feet; CGI fills in the rest to make the wall appear 700 feet high." The area around the elevator was painted white to make it look like ice. Martin was surprised by the height and thought: "Oh I may have made

18080-399: The readers' interest and not be skipped in reading. Main characters are killed off so that the reader will not rely on the hero to come through unscathed and will instead feel the character's fear with each page turn. The unresolved larger narrative arc encourages speculation about future story events. According to Martin, much of the key to A Song of Ice and Fire 's future lies over

18240-471: The realism of historical fiction with the magic appeal of the best fantasies, subduing magic in favor of battles and political intrigue. He also decided to avoid the conventional good versus evil setting typical for the genre, using the fight between Achilles and Hector in Homer 's Iliad , where no one stands out as either a hero or a villain, as an example of what he wants to achieve with his books. Martin

18400-425: The region and one of the great ports and cities of Westeros. The Westerlands are rich in precious metals, mostly gold, which is the source of their wealth. Keeping with Westerosi customs to give bastards a surname showing their origins, illegitimate children born in the Westerlands are given the surname Hill. A stronghold carved from a mountain overlooking the harbor city of Lannisport and the sea beyond, Casterly Rock

18560-590: The rest needed revising. During the Guadalajara International Book Fair in Mexico in early December 2016, Martin offered the following hint as to the tone of this book: "There are a lot of dark chapters right now ... I've been telling you for 20 years that winter was coming. Winter is the time when things die, and cold and ice and darkness fill the world, so this is not going to be the happy feel-good that people may be hoping for. Some of

18720-464: The rock on which Pyke originally stood, so the castle now consists mostly of a main keep on the main island and smaller towers perched on rocks surrounded by sea. Old Wyk is the smallest and holiest island in the Iron Islands. It is where Kingsmoots are held, and where the Grey King slew Nagga, a sea dragon, and made a court of his bones. The Riverlands are the populous and fertile areas surrounding

18880-486: The room to complete his commenced story arcs as he had originally intended, which he still felt was the best approach years later. Martin moved the unfinished characters' stories set in the east (Essos) and north (Winterfell and the Wall) into the next book, A Dance with Dragons , and left A Feast for Crows to cover the events in King's Landing, the Riverlands, Dorne, and the Iron Islands. Both books begin immediately after

19040-412: The scenes shot atop the wall were filmed inside Paint Hall Studios . The composite set (with both exteriors and interiors) consisted of a large section of Castle Black including the courtyard, the ravenry, the mess hall, and the barracks, and used the stone wall of the quarry as the basis for the ice wall that protects Westeros from the dangers that dwell beyond. They also made a functional elevator to lift

19200-416: The series a British rather than a German or Spanish historic flavor. For example, Ned and Robb Stark resemble Richard, 3rd Duke of York , and his son Edward IV , and Queen Cersei resembles both Margaret of Anjou and Elizabeth Woodville . Martin immersed himself in many diverse medieval topics such as clothing, food, feasting, and tournaments to have the facts at hand if needed during writing. The series

19360-515: The series include the Wars of the Roses and The Accursed Kings , a series of French historical novels by Maurice Druon . The work as a whole consists of three interwoven plots: a dynastic war among several families for control of Westeros, the growing threat posed by the powerful supernatural Others from the northernmost region of Westeros, and the ambition of the daughter of the deposed Westerosi king to return from her exile in Essos and assume

19520-568: The series' title. The revised finished manuscript for A Game of Thrones was 1,088 pages long (without the appendices), with the publication following in August 1996. The Wheel of Time author Robert Jordan had written a short endorsement for the cover that was influential in ensuring the book's and hence series' early success with fantasy readers. Blood of the Dragon , a pre-release sample novella drawn from Daenerys's chapters, went on to win

19680-483: The site of his crowning. By the end of A Feast for Crows , Brynden Tully surrenders the castle to Jaime Lannister to spare further bloodshed. Riverrun then passed into the hands of Emmon Frey, an ally of House Lannister. The Twins is a large double castle straddling the Green Fork river; the two halves of the castle are connected by a bridge that is the only crossing of the river for hundreds of miles. The Twins

19840-402: The size of his imagination. Admiring the works of J. R. R. Tolkien in his childhood, he wanted to write an epic fantasy, though he did not have any specific ideas. When Martin was between Hollywood projects in the summer of 1991, he started writing a new science fiction novel called Avalon . After three chapters, he had a vivid idea of a boy seeing a man's beheading and finding direwolves in

20000-560: The snow, which would eventually become the first non-prologue chapter of A Game of Thrones . Putting Avalon aside, Martin finished this chapter in a few days and grew certain that it was part of a longer story. After a few more chapters, Martin perceived his new book as a fantasy story and started making maps and genealogies. However, the writing of this book was interrupted for a few years when Martin returned to Hollywood to produce his TV series Doorways that ABC had ordered but ultimately never aired. "The first scene...chapter one of

20160-477: The so-called " North " and "South" by a swamp -rich isthmus called the Neck . The land north of the Wall still makes up a large chunk of Westeros (being roughly the size of Canada ), but remains largely unmapped and unexplored, especially the ice field region north and west of a massive mountain range called the Frostfangs, which marks the farthest geographic limit of human settlements . The northern extent of

20320-444: The sole author, Martin begins each new book with an outline of the chapter order and may write a few successive chapters from a single character's viewpoint instead of working chronologically. The chapters are later rearranged to optimize character intercutting, chronology, and suspense. Influenced by his television and film scripting background, Martin tries to keep readers engrossed by ending each A Song of Ice and Fire chapter with

20480-532: The southern tip of Maryland contains many swamps and marshes. The Great Dismal Swamp lies in extreme southeastern Virginia and extreme northeastern North Carolina . Both are National Wildlife Refuges . Another swamp area, Reelfoot Lake of extreme western Tennessee and Kentucky , was created by the 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes . Caddo Lake , the Great Dismal and Reelfoot are swamps centered at large lakes. Swamps are often associated with bayous in

20640-408: The story immediately after the third book, and Martin scrapped the idea of a five-year gap. The material of the written 250-page prologue was mixed in as new viewpoint characters from Dorne and the Iron Islands. These expanded storylines and the resulting story interactions complicated the plot for Martin. The manuscript length of A Feast for Crows eventually surpassed A Storm of Swords . Martin

20800-481: The struggle for Westeros from all sides at once", such that "every fight is both triumph and tragedy [...] and everybody is both hero and villain at the same time". Modeled on The Lord of the Rings , the story of A Song of Ice and Fire begins with a tight focus on a small group (with everyone in Winterfell , except Daenerys) and then splits into separate stories. The storylines are to converge again, but finding

20960-490: The style of the new ones. A set of foldout maps was published on October 30, 2012, as The Lands of Ice and Fire ( ISBN   978-0345538543 ). The illustrator and cartographer Jonathan Roberts drew the maps, based on drafts by Martin. The twelve maps in the set are entitled "The Known World", "The West", "Central Essos", "The East", "Westeros", "Beyond The Wall", "The Free Cities", "Slaver's Bay", "The Dothraki Sea", "King's Landing", "Braavos", and "Journeys". The latter tracks

21120-618: The swamp also provides soil stability to the land, holding soils and sediment in place whilst preventing erosion and land loss. Swamps are an abundant and valuable source of fresh water and oxygen for all life, and they are often breeding grounds for a wide variety of species. Floodplain swamps are an important resource in the production and distribution of fish. Two thirds of global fish and shellfish are commercially harvested and dependent on wetlands. Historically, humans have been known to drain and/or fill swamps and other wetlands in order to create more space for human development and to reduce

21280-447: The swamp, purifying the water. Any remaining or excess chemicals present will accumulate at the bottom of the swamp, being removed from the water and buried within the sediment. The biogeochemical environment of a swamp is dependent on its hydrology, affecting the levels and availability of resources like oxygen, nutrients, water pH and toxicity, which will influence the whole ecosystem. Swamps and other wetlands have traditionally held

21440-538: The third volume, A Storm of Swords , the Night's Watch storyline becomes increasingly entangled with the War of the Five Kings. The third storyline follows Daenerys Targaryen , daughter of Aerys II, the last Targaryen king. On the continent of Essos, east of Westeros across the Narrow Sea , Daenerys is married off by her elder brother Viserys Targaryen to a powerful warlord, but slowly becomes an independent and intelligent ruler in her own right. Her rise to power

21600-525: The threat of diseases borne by swamp insects. Wetlands are removed and replaced with land that is then used for things like agriculture, real estate, and recreational uses. Many swamps have also undergone intensive logging and farming, requiring the construction of drainage ditches and canals. These ditches and canals contributed to drainage and, along the coast, allowed salt water to intrude, converting swamps to marsh or even to open water. Large areas of swamp were therefore lost or degraded. Louisiana provides

21760-495: The time the TV series Game of Thrones catches up in its storyline to the novels. In 2015, Martin said that he was not writing A Dream of Spring together with The Winds of Winter , and in early 2016, he said he did not believe A Dream of Spring would be published before the last season of the HBO show. During a question-and-answer session at the 2016 Guadalajara International Book Fair , Martin emphasized: "I'm not going to tell you how I'm going to end my book, but I suspect

21920-482: The top of The New York Times bestseller list. Among the positive reviewers was Lev Grossman of Time , who dubbed Martin "the American Tolkien". However, fans and critics alike were disappointed with the story split that left the fates of several popular characters unresolved after A Storm of Swords ' cliffhanger ending. With A Dance with Dragons said to be half-finished, Martin mentioned in

22080-413: The towers can house 500 men, and the granary can sustain a small household for a year or more. The Eyrie does not keep livestock on hand; all dairy produce, meats, fruits, vegetables, etc., must be brought from the Vale below. Its cellars hold six great winches with long iron chains to draw supplies and occasionally guests from below. Oxen are used to raise and lower them. Winter snows can make supplying

22240-479: The traditional background for epic fantasy. However, where historical fiction leaves versed readers knowing the historical outcome, original characters may increase suspense and empathy for the readers. Yet Martin felt historical fiction, particularly when set during the Middle Ages, had an excitement, grittiness, and a realness to it that was absent in fantasy with a similar backdrop. Thus, he wanted to combine

22400-473: The true North now. It's all real. It's all in camera. We're not doing anything in postproduction to add mountains or snow or anything." The Iron Islands are a group of seven islands to the west of Westeros – Pyke, Great Wyk, Old Wyk, Harlaw, Saltcliffe, Blacktyde, and Orkmont – in Ironman's Bay off the west coast of the continent. Ruled by House Greyjoy of Pyke, the isles are described as bare and barren, with

22560-434: The turning point in this complex series has been difficult for Martin and has slowed down his writing. Depending on the interview, Martin is said to have reached the turning point in A Dance with Dragons , or to not quite have reached it yet in the books. The series' structure of multiple POVs and interwoven storylines was inspired by Wild Cards , a multi-authored shared universe book series edited by Martin since 1985. As

22720-471: The wall in the far north, the climate is polar with heavy snow while further south, it is milder with more rain. The region's northern border is the Gift, a stretch of land 50 leagues wide given to the possession of the Night's Watch . However, due to Wildling raids it is filled with abandoned towns and farms. An isthmus called The Neck separates the North from the South. It is dominated by swamplands and

22880-401: The wall too big!" Martin observed: "It's a pretty spectacular, yet miserable location. It is wet and rainy, and the mud is thick....[it] really gets the actors in the mood of being at the end of the world in all of this cold and damp and chill." A Clash of Kings takes the story to the lands Beyond the Wall, although the first five books do not explore "what lies really north ... but we will in

23040-522: The wall, was given to them in perpetuity thousands of years earlier for cultivation. In A Game of Thrones , of the nineteen castles built along the wall, only three are still manned: Castle Black with 600 men, and the Shadow Tower and Eastwatch-by-the-Sea with 200 men each. Parts of Castle Black have fallen into ruin. The TV series' Castle Black and the Wall were filmed in the abandoned Magheramorne Quarry near Belfast , Northern Ireland , whereas

23200-410: The way. He described his writing as coming from a subconscious level in "almost a daydreaming process", and his stories, which have a mythic rather than a scientific core, draw from emotion instead of rationality. Martin employs maps and a cast list topping 60 pages in the fourth volume, but keeps most information in his mind. His imagined backstory remains subject to change until published, and only

23360-516: The western edge of Essos. The lands along the southern coastline of Essos are called the Lands of the Summer Sea and include Slaver's Bay and the ruins of Valyria . The latter is the former home of the ancestors of House Targaryen . To the south of Essos are the continents of Sothoryos and Ulthos , which in the narrative are largely unexplored. The planet experiences erratic seasons of unpredictable duration that can last for many years. At

23520-907: The world is the Amazon River floodplain, which is particularly significant for its large number of fish and tree species. The Sudd and the Okavango Delta are Africa's best known marshland areas. The Bangweulu Floodplains make up Africa's largest swamp. The Mesopotamian Marshes is a large swamp and river system in southern Iraq , traditionally inhabited in part by the Marsh Arabs . In Asia, tropical peat swamps are located in mainland East Asia and Southeast Asia. In Southeast Asia, peatlands are mainly found in low altitude coastal and sub-coastal areas and extend inland for distance more than 100 km (62 mi) along river valleys and across watersheds. They are mostly to be found on

23680-496: The writing of the series. One of his favorite authors is Jack Vance , although Martin considered the series not particularly Vancean. Martin experienced some harsh winters when living in Dubuque a few years in the 1970s, and suspects these winters had an influence on his writing; "I think a lot of the stuff in A Game of Thrones , the snow and ice and freezing, comes from my memories of Dubuque". The medieval setting has been

23840-445: Was built over a natural hot spring , whose scalding water runs inside the castle walls and warms its halls and rooms as well as the glass garden at its northwestern corner. There are several open pools where heated water collects within the godswood. The hot spring also prevents the ground from freezing. The castle has deep catacombs called "the crypt", where bodies of deceased Starks are entombed behind statues in their likeness with

24000-512: Was eventually published in July 2011 after six years of writing, longer in page count and writing time than any of the preceding four novels. The story of A Dance with Dragons catches up with and goes beyond A Feast for Crows around two-thirds into the book, but nevertheless covers less story than Martin had intended, omitting at least one planned large battle sequence and leaving several character threads ending in cliffhangers. Martin attributed

24160-517: Was in particular influenced by the Hundred Years' War , the Crusades , the Albigensian Crusade , and the Wars of the Roses , although Martin refrained from making any direct adaptations. Martin was also inspired by the French historical novels The Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon , which are about the French monarchy in the 13th and 14th centuries. Martin has also said that important events of

24320-543: Was needed to garrison it. The Great Hall had 35 hearths and seated thousands. Shortly after the castle was completed, Aegon the Conqueror's dragon slew Harren, his sons, and his entire army by setting the castle alight. Since then, the ruins of the castle have been occupied by a variety of houses, all of which eventually became extinct. As a result, the people of Westeros believe the castle is cursed. The logistical and economic difficulties inherent in keeping such an enormous castle maintained and garrisoned has made it something of

24480-556: Was previously featured as Castle Anthrax in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail , was also used for exterior scenes. Saintfield Estates stood in as Winterfell's godswood, an enclosed wooded area where characters can worship the old gods beside trees with faces carved in their bark. A car park stood in for Winterfell's courtyard, and a wine cellar was used to depict the Stark family crypt. Tollymore Forest featured prominently in

24640-468: Was published in 2011. Martin continues to write the sixth novel, titled The Winds of Winter . A seventh novel, A Dream of Spring , is planned to follow. A Song of Ice and Fire depicts a violent world dominated by political realism . What little supernatural power exists is confined to the margins of the known world. Moral ambiguity pervades the books, and their stories continually raise questions concerning loyalty, pride, human sexuality, piety , and

24800-443: Was reluctant to make the necessary deep cuts to get the book down to publishable length, as that would have compromised the story he had in mind. Printing the book in "microtype on onion skin paper and giving each reader a magnifying glass" was also not an option for him. On the other hand, Martin rejected the publishers' idea of splitting the narrative chronologically into A Feast for Crows , Parts One and Two. Being already late with

24960-401: Was several months late turning in the third book, A Storm of Swords . The last chapter he had written was about the "Red Wedding", a pivotal scene notable for its violence (see Themes: Violence and death ). A Storm of Swords was 1,521 pages in manuscript (without appendices), causing problems for many of Martin's publishers around the world. Bantam Books published A Storm of Swords in

25120-407: Was still typing his fiction on an IBM PC compatible computer running MS-DOS with WordStar 4.0 . He begins each day at 10 am with rewriting and polishing the previous day's work, and may write all day or struggle to write anything. Excised material and previous old versions are saved to be possibly re-inserted at a later time. Martin does not consider A Song of Ice and Fire a "series" but

25280-460: Was to establish what had happened in the meantime, initially just as one chapter of Aeron Damphair on the Iron Islands at the Kingsmoot. Since the events on the Iron Islands were to have an impact in the book and could not be told with existing POV characters, Martin eventually introduced three new viewpoints. In 2001, Martin was still optimistic that the fourth installment might be released in

25440-430: Was to focus on Daenerys Targaryen's return to Westeros and the associated conflicts. Martin wanted to set this story five years after A Storm of Swords so that the younger characters could grow older and the dragons could grow larger. Agreeing with his publishers early on that the new book should be shorter than A Storm of Swords , Martin set out to write the novel closer in length to A Clash of Kings . A long prologue

25600-459: Was writing The Winds of Winter every day, and in June he hoped to be done with it in 2021. In October 2022, Martin said that he had written approximately three quarters of the book. Martin is not firm about ending the series with the seventh novel. With his stated goal of telling the story from beginning to end, he will not truncate the story to fit into an arbitrary number of volumes. He knows

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