Mastering the Game of Thrones This page intentionally left blank Mastering the Game of Thrones Essays on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire Edited by Jes Battis and Susan Johnston McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina Also of Interest Blood Relations: Chosen Families in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel,by Jes Battis (McFarland, 2005) Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Mastering the Game of thrones : essays on George R.R. Martin’s A song of ice and fire / edited by Jes Battis and Susan Johnston. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7864-9631-0 (softcover : acid free paper) ♾ ISBN 978-1-4766-1962-0 (ebook) 1. Martin, George R. R. Song of ice and fire. I. Battis, Jes, 1979– editor. II. Johnston, Susan, 1964– editor. III. Game of thrones (Television program) PS3563.A7239S5935 2015 813'.54—dc23 2014044427 British Library cataloguing data are available © 2015 Jes Battis and Susan Johnston. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Cover images © 2015 iStock/Thinkstock Printed in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com For my mother, who watches from beneath her wolf blanket.—Jes For Marcel, shekh ma shieraki anni.—Susan Acknowledgments As the first of its kind, this volume was a challenging if rewarding endeavor. There are a number of people whose support and patience made it possible. Thanks to all of our colleagues in the Department of English at the University of Regina, who offered guidance and kept us sane while we worked. Thanks as well to our extraordinary contributors, who shared their ideas with us, and responded to our queries with grace. It is a privilege and a pleasure to present their fascinating work. Jes would like to thank Bea for keeping him in one piece, Lynda Mae for her medieval knowledge, and Alexis for the many spirited con- versations at the Fireside Pub (where we own the leather couches). Susan would like to thank Marcel, for never letting it show that he was sick of the whole thing, for the insights, and for the coffee; Katy, Elizabeth, and Maggie, for the patience; Nick Ruddick, for unflagging encouragement and holding the oxygen bottle; and Brian and Bridget and David and Susan and all the rest of the Albu- querque gang. These acknowledgments would not be complete without the folks at Tower of the Hand, The Citadel, and the Wiki of Ice and Fire, whose unfailing and unpaid work has made the impossible task of fact- checking merely improb- able. To David Benioff and D.B. Weiss: thanks for transforming adaptation and bringing our imaginations to life. And to George R.R. Martin himself: thank you. Now write like the wind. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgments vi A Note on Editions ix Introduction: On Knowing Nothing Susan Johnston andJes Battis 1 Language and Narration The Languages of Ice and Fire David J. Peterson 15 “Sing for your little life”: Story, Discourse and Character Marc Napolitano 35 What Maesters Knew: Narrating Knowing Brian Cowlishaw 57 Histories “Just songs in the end”: Historical Discourses in Shakespeare and Martin Jessica Walker 71 Dividing Lines: Frederick Jackson Turner’s Western Frontier and George R.R. Martin’s Northern Wall Michail Zontos 92 Philosophies “All men must serve”: Religion and Free Will from the Seven to the Faceless Men Ryan Mitchell Wittingslow 113 “Silk ribbons tied around a sword”: Knighthood and the Chivalric Virtues in Westeros Charles H. Hackney 132 vii viii Table of Contents Bodies Cursed Womb, Bulging Thighs and Bald Scalp: George R.R. Martin’s Grotesque Queen Karin Gresham 151 “A thousand bloodstained hands”: The Malleability of Flesh and Identity Beth Kozinsky 170 A Thousand Westerosi Plateaus: Wargs, Wolves and Ways of Being T.A. Leederman 189 Intimacies Sex and the Citadel: Adapting Same Sex Desire from Martin’s Westeros to HBO’s Bedrooms David C. Nel 205 Beyond the Pale? Craster and the Pathological Reproduction of Houses in Westeros D. Marcel DeCoste 225 Adaptations The Hand of the Artist: Fan Art in the Martinverse Andrew Howe 243 “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies”: Transmedia Textuality and the Flows of Adaptation Zoë Shacklock 262 About the Contributors 281 Index 285 A Note on Editions For ease of reference, we have used the U.S. first edition of each novel of A Song of Ice and Fire, as follows (in order of publication), and abbreviated each title as such: Martin, George R.R. A Game of Thrones. New York: Bantam, 1996. GoT ____. A Clash of Kings.New York: Bantam, 1999. CoK ____. A Storm of Swords. New York: Bantam, 2000. SoS ____. A Feast for Crows. New York: Bantam, 2005. FfC ____. A Dance with Dragons. New York: Bantam, 2011. DwD In addition, all references to the novels will be presented as follows: GoT42 Jon 5: 376 First is the novel, then the chapter number, the name of the character from whose point of view the chapter is written, the count of the chapter from that character’s point of view, then the page number. In the example above, the quote is from page 376 in Chapter 42 of A Game of Thrones, in the fifth chapter nar- rated by Jon. The initial chapter numbers (e.g., GoT42) are based on the chapter tables from Tower of the Hand: http://towerofthehand.com/books/101/. References to HBO’s Game of Thrones, the television series, are abbreviated Thronesand followed by season number and episode number, then episode title, as follows: ThronesS1: Ep.6, “A Golden Crown.” ix