Activities per year
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.
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 language | English |
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Title of host publication | Queenship and the Women of Westeros |
Subtitle of host publication | Female Agency and Advice in Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire |
Editors | Zita Eva Rohr, Lisa Benz |
Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
Chapter | 4 |
Pages | 79 |
Number of pages | 103 |
ISBN (Print) | 9783030250430 |
Publication status | Published - 2019 |
Keywords
- Medieval
- Warfare
- Chivalry
- Game of Thrones
- Female Agency
- Knights
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Iain A. MacInnes
- Centre for History - Senior Lecturer in Scottish History, Programme Leader
Person: Academic - Research and Teaching or Research only
Activities
- 1 Participation in conference
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The Medieval and the Modern World Conference, 2015
MacInnes, I. A. (Speaker)
30 Jun 2015Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Participation in conference