[ADwD spoilers] Shout outs to other works

[Always_En_Garde]

Tyrion refers to an incoming storm as a "Bar sinister". This threw me off so I've looked it up and it turns out that Peter Dinklage played a character named Dr. Simon Bar Sinister in a 2007 movie Underdog.

The bar sinister was reputed to be the heraldic mark of difference for a bastard. Thus it was an exceedingly clever and daring name to give a cartoon villain.

[Always_En_Garde]

When the Shy Maiden is turned around on the Rhoyne and sees the Bridge of Dream again, Haldon says that this turn of events is "inconceivable."

Probably just referring to the heraldic device (which sometimes has to do with bastards, incidentally).

I hit enter too soon. Anyway, I said "reputed" because technically a bar sinister is an impossible charge; the closest thing it could be referring to is a 'bend' sinister. And anyway, there's no record of any bastard branch of a family tree being differenced in such a manner. Later writers made up a lot of crap to clutter heraldry up.

[All Men Must Rhyme]

Dolorous Edd always reminded me of Eeyore, but not quite so awesome (or four-legged), so that balances out! (Seriously, Eeyore's voice from the original Disney cartoons is Edd's voice, in my head.)

I was going to post this exact thing haha :P I even picture the sad face while he talks :P

[assjfjgjsgjljljglgjfjsduar]

I was going to post this exact thing haha :P I even picture the sad face while he talks :P

YES ME TOO.

I was reading about Edd and thinking, "Where have I seen this guy before ... ? OMG Eeyore!" :D

[Spidey]

I'm waiting for a grail-shaped beacon to appear over the Citadel...

Sam, arriving at the Citadel: On second thought, let's not go to the Citadel. 'Tis a silly place.

[Mumatil]

No, that´s what they´re going to use against the Others, as a secret weapon. Together with African Swallows, carrying coconuts containing wildfire.

Coconuts the only thing dense enough to contain the demon flames.

[The Oncoming Storm]

King Euron sends the loyal (?) Victarion to bring him the fairest woman, from across the sea...

Now all I can see Dany and Vic accidentally drinking love potion, which, as we know, results in 40-minute duets to very chromatic and heavy music.

[CrypticWeirwood]

Brynden Rivers aka Bloodraven seems like a huge epic nod to Michael Moorcock and Elric of Melniboné.

Very much so, and in many many ways. Here’s the description of the albino Elric:

It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders is milk-white. From the tapering, beautiful head stare two slanting eyes, crimson and moody, and from the loose sleeves of his yellow gown emerge two slender hands, also the colour of bone.

As an albino, Elric is smaller and weaker then normal. Indeed, his health is so frail that he must resort to sorcerous herbs to maintain his strength. Elric is not exactly human; rather, he is from the old race of Melniboné, from the Dragon Isle. Its rulers were dragonriders. Save for Elric, the Melnibonéans seem to have no conscience, which is very much like the dragonlords of old Valyria.

For his albinism, his weakness, and perhaps for his conscience, Elric is something of an outcast from his family. Elric is a great sorceror in his own right, but his special royal bloodline grants him special access to dark forces and “higher powers”, including to Arioch himself, one of the gods of chaos. Elric bears a magical sword of a dark and potent nature, called Stormbringer.

Now look at Brynden Rivers. Like Elric, Bloodraven is also an albino and slight of frame, tracing back to the old race of the cruel dragonlords. Bloodraven has royal blood, and is eventually estranged from his own family. Bloodraven too is a sorceror, and is not afraid of the darkness. And like Elric, Bloodraven bears a fell blade of dark and magical provenance; else why call it Dark Sister?

Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné and Tolkien’s Túrin Turambar both derive in no small part from Kullervo out of the Finnish Kalevala. All bear a dark magical sword that eventually speaks when it takes its bearer’s life. I don’t recall any swords speaking in Martinverse, but this is the only one that does so in Tolkien’s legendarium. It would be interesting to see whether one very special blade may eventually do so in A Song of Ice and Fire.

Perhaps Lightbringer reforged will seem to speak as it plunges into the breast of someone beloved of its owner. Like the Dayne’s sword Dawn, Túrin’s black sword was also forged from a meteorite, but Dawn is pale where Elric’s Stormbringer, Túrin’s Gurthang (“Death’s Iron”), and presumably Bloodraven’s Dark Sister are all dark. The structural similarity in the names of Stormbringer and Lightbringer is unsettling enough, but the connection Germanic “Lightbringer” and Latin “Lucifer” is even spookier.

As Bloodraven loved his sister Shiera Seastar, Túrin loved his sister Nienor, albeit without knowing she was actually his own sister. Both Kullervo’s and Túrin’s sisters eventually commit suicide. I hope that wasn’t — or, if she’s still alive, isn’t to be Shiera’s fate.

For those who find The Lord of the Rings too cheerful a tale, just read Tolkien’s The Children of Húrin, and its conclusion published in The War of the Jewels as “The Wanderings of Húrin”. Their tale of grief is more tragic than anything in A Song of Ice and Fire. I really hope Martin will not end his own tale as darkly as Tolkien did his.

It will be very interesting to see what other echos of Elric, Túrin, and Kullervo we shall eventually find in Martin’s story.

Bloodraven’s one-eyedness and his ravens also remind one of the old god Odin.

Mythology and fantasy fiction have plenty of one-handed gods and heroes whose missing hand is replaced by a hand of gold (or silver), but I don’t know that any of those match up with Jaime.

[Lan the Clever]

At some point in the series, in ACoK, I think, someone mentions gramequins as magical beings that heighten one's magical power. It's been a while since I read it, but if my memory isn't playing tricks, that is a clear reference to sandestins in Jack Vance's Tales of the Dying Earth and Lyonesse Trilogy.

[Mtlima]

In ADWD, Dagon Codd appears very similar to the Innsmouth hybrids from Lovecraft

[nutella23]

I love catching GRRM's Shakespeare shoutouts. The Deepwood Motte battle = Birnam Wood from Macbeth, and Jon-stabbing scene was very Julius Caesar. And of course I giggled at the "fart in your general direction" ref.

[BloodOfKingu]

There was one small scene that seemed like a throwback to A Game of Thrones. It was a Theon chapter (not sure which name he was going by, perhaps The Ghost of Winterfell), where Ramsay gets out of bed, strides naked to the window, and throws open the curtains.

also reminds me of the scene in "life of brian".

[Nick Douglas]

Another possible Shakespeare reference: Cersei's "A lie, a lie, a palpable lie" (LOC 14364/70%) echoes Osric's "A hit, a very palpable hit" from the final battle of Hamlet.

jon to stannis: "the map is not the land" = an inversion of the well-loved borges short short?

The philosophical/mathematical expression "The map is not the territory" has been explored in multiple fictional works including Lewis Carroll's Sylvie and Bruno Concluded and (not mentioned in that Wikipedia link) David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest.

[CorwinTheHeir]

In Dorne, there is a Dalt of Lemonwood. Zelazney's Amber has a Dalt whose colors are yellow and black. He is the illegitamate son of King Oberon,and leads a mercenary army that makes attacks on Amber.