‘All I ever wanted was to fight for a lord I believed in. But the good lords are dead and the rest are monsters.’ Brienne of Tarth, Jaime Lannister, and the Chivalric ‘Other’

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Abstract

Although George R.R. Martin’s Land of Ice and Fire series, and the accompanying HBO television show Game of Thrones, are set in the fantasy land of Westeros, there can be little doubt of its correlation with the medieval world. The aesthetic of the show is rooted in the medieval past, and many of Game of Thrones’ elements mirror in particular the tropes of chivalric romance. The importance of medieval chivalry as an underpinning for the narrative of these texts is therefore clear. But rather than privileging the chivalric ideal, Game of Thrones instead deliberately deconstructs and ultimately undermines the construct of the medieval chivalric hero. It does so in a number of ways. One of these is through the use of various characters who act as knightly ‘others’, those who do not conform to accepted ideas of the medieval hero. Two such characters share an unlikely and somewhat prolonged relationship as they journey through war-torn Westeros – Brienne of Tarth and Jaime Lannister.

A chivalric hero should be honourable, loyal and brave and while some knightly characters in Game of Thrones appear to possess these qualities, it is repeatedly revealed that their adherence to the chivalric ideal is largely superficial. Jaime Lannister is one such example. Depicted early on as the embodiment of the chivalric warrior and knight of the King’s Guard, he is also a corrupt, incestuous murderer. Over the course of the narrative Lannister does, however, go through something of a transformative process. The loss of his sword hand imperils his role in life as warrior and knight. And the more we learn of his backstory, the more that we see the complexity inherent in the man known disparagingly to all as the Kingslayer.

The catalyst for some of this change is arguably the shared experience and companionship of Brienne of Tarth as she escorts Lannister from Stark captivity to King’s Landing. Brienne appears to be everything that Lannister is not. She fights for honour, to protect her lord and those to whom she has sworn allegiance, even when – as she notes in the title’s quote – there appear to be few lords for whom she would wish to fight. But, as the texts make clear, her position as a knight is undermined by her gender. And, as with many individuals in the series who possess essentially ‘good’ qualities, she is time and again undermined and attacked, the very qualities that emphasise her chivalric nature belittled and castigated by those to whom such behaviour is outmoded and unrealistic. And yet there are interesting comparisons between the two figures, and they influence each in different ways the longer they spend time together.

It is, then, the purpose of this paper to examine the depiction of these two knightly figures, and in particular the relationship they share with each other. Considering the place of chivalry as the belief system that links the two together, this paper will analyse the extent to which either character represents the medieval chivalric warrior, or something other.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationQueenship and the Women of Westeros
Subtitle of host publicationFemale Agency and Advice in Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire
EditorsZita Eva Rohr, Lisa Benz
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Chapter4
Pages79
Number of pages103
ISBN (Print)9783030250430
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Keywords

  • Medieval
  • Warfare
  • Chivalry
  • Game of Thrones
  • Female Agency
  • Knights

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