Winning the Game of Thrones: The Host of Characters and their Agendas (15 page)

Tad Williams’s
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn

Lord Willum’s sons, named Josua and Elyas, are always quarreling, as with the feuding brother princes Josua and Elias in Tad Williams’s
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn.
Martin has acclaimed this series as a major reason for why he went forward with his own fantasy saga. House Willum’s arms show a skeletal dragon and three swords, nodding to Williams’s
The Dragonbone Chair
, and the three titular blades of the trilogy. Both series even feature a dwarf riding a wolf (though Martin’s performing dwarf on a dog is satirically meant).

H.P. Lovecraft

Arya passes the Cult of Starry Wisdom, from Lovecraft’s “The Haunter of the Dark.” The Ironborn’s Drowned God echoes the creature Cthulhu from his most famous works, while the common Greyjoy name “Dagon” is a Philistine water god seen in Lovecraft’s stories. The religious saying, “What is dead can never die,” echoes Lovecraft’s “That is not dead which can eternal lie” in
The Call of Cthulhu
. The eastern city Carcosa is likewise from Lovecraft.

Jack Vance

As Martin notes:

Jack Vance is the greatest living SF writer, in my opinion, and one of the few who is also a master of Fantasy. His 
The Dying Earth 
(1950) was one of the seminal books in the history of modern fantasy, and I would rank him right up there with Tolkien, Dunsany, Leiber, and T.H. White as one of the fathers of the genre.
^[39]

The castle Wayfarer’s Rest echoes Liane the Wayfarer in
The Dying Earth,
and the castle Atranta is named for the fantasy world in Vance’s
Bad Ronald
. The arms of both branches of House Vance show dragons, like Vance’s novel
The Dragon Masters
. Other references include the sons of Lord Norbert Vance (who, like Vance, is blind): Ronald the Bad, Kirth (from
The Demon Princes
), Hugo (for his Hugo awards), and Ellery (for the Ellery Queen mysteries he ghost-wrote). The children of his brother Lord Karyl Vance offer more references: Emphyria (referencing
Emphyrio
), Rhialta (referencing
Rhialto the Marvellous
), and Liane. Lann the Clever, ancestor of the Lannisters, likewise echoes Vance’s Cugel the Clever.

Conan the Barbarian

While Robert Baratheon is mostly based out of history, some see a Conan connection. The series by
Robert 
E. Howard features a great battle hero who is unhappy when he takes over from a mad king. Both hero-kings are tall and dark haired with blue eyes, and share a fondness for wenching, drinking and eating. Cimmeria, like the Stormlands, emphasizes “dark shadowy forests and gloomy skies.” And Valusia and Valyria are both great civilizations lost beneath the sea.

The Chronicles of Amber

House Rogers of Amberly with nine unicorns as sigil references Roger Zelazny’s Amber books, in which the nine princes all use the unicorn as their family symbol. “Lord of Light,” R’hllor’s title, is also Zelazny’s most famous novel. The Faceless Men offer another reference, as “walking the pattern” is essential in the Amber books: “...and there is the entrance to the Patternmaker’s Maze. Only those who learn to walk it properly will ever find their way to wisdom, the priests of the Pattern say” (V:844).

Other Series

     
Lord Titus Peake is a reference to Mervyn Peake’s famed
Gormenghast 
trilogy, starring Titus Groan. Their banner has three towers, suggesting the series’ moldering castle. Castle Ghaston Grey may be a similar reference.

     
House Wyl features a black adder on its arms. Martin is known to be a fan of BBC’s
Blackadder.

     
Merrit o’ Moontown from the Brotherhood Without Banners references fantasy writer A. Merritt and his novel
The Moon Pool.
 

     
Khal Drogo crowns Viserys with melted gold much the way Ayesha, She Who Must Be Obeyed from the H. Rider Haggard story “She,” kills her enemies by placing a red-hot iron pot over their heads.

     
Ser Alyn Garner’s shield has three grey owls, a reference to Alan Garner’s
The Owl Service
.

     
Alaric of Eysen: This minstrel references Phyllis Eisenstein and her minstrel character Alaric.
A Game of Thrones
is dedicated to her, as Martin thanks her for making him “put the dragons in.”

     
The names “Beric Dondarrion” and “Qhorin Halfhand” suggest Stephen Donaldson’s Beric Halfhand the Lord Fatherer. Kevan Lannister may reference Kevin Landwaster from Donaldson’s popular
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
.

     
In the book
Thuvia, Maid of Mars
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
,
the titular young lady is often called “Thuvia, Maid of Ptarth.” She has an enormous pet lion, which may allude to Brienne, Maid of Tarth, and Jaime.

     
Lord Horton Redfort of the Vale has four sons: Mychel Redfort and Creighton Redfort may be a Michael Crichton reference.