El-ahrairah

Could just be a coincidence, but when Jon is passing out food to the wildlings in ADWD there's a bit that goes "The tumult and the shoving died", which sounds rather like the line from Rudyard Kipling's "Recessional": The tumult and the shouting dies The Captains and the Kings depart.

Finally! Bran turns cannibal, Coldhands starts to seem even more fishy, and Jojen still says it's not the day he dies. My appetite for the book is now greatly whetted.

Apparently Westeros is a real place - a town in Sweden goes by the name of [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A4ster%C3%A5s"]Västerås [/url], anglicized [i]Westeros[/i] for example [url="http://books.google.com/books?id=YYoXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA182&lpg=PA182&dq=westeros+bishop+sweden&source=bl&ots=gqxnOaLh0Q&sig=RCulnVaPj9keUtht7Nndwi9KiXU&hl=en&ei=bmavScbzLYH8tgfsyMXQBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result"]here[/url]

I don't believe this a real connection, but as I was rereading [i]The Voyage of the Dawn Treader[/i] for the Nth time, when Lucy Pevensie is in the Magician's house, I was reminded of Dany and the House of the Undying. Both scenes have a young queen far from her home go through a rather creepy dwelling for sorcerers. Both queens are from dynasties that are not native to their countries, no longer rule there, and have (in very different ways) siblings reigning together. Lucy was bade to take the last door on the left, Dany the first on the right. Lucy was served food and drink by dwarves (Dufflepuds) before she entered, Dany was given the "blue drink" by a dwarf likewise. The doors of Coriakin had [i]"strange signs painted in scarlet on the doors - twisty, complicated things which obviously had a meaning and it mightn't be a very nice meaning either "[/i], those of Qarth were [i]"fashioned of ebony and weirwood, the black and white grains swirling and twisting in strange interwoven patterns. They were very beautiful, but somehow frightening." [/i] Lucy sees strange masks and the "bearded glass" while going through the hall, Dany sees many visions in the siderooms. The hall seems to Lucy to be growing longer as she walks, and Dany sees the torches going out behind her. Lucy is tempted by the beautification and eavesdropping spells in the Book, Dany by the fake Wilem Darry and Pyat Pree. Both queens take something forever from the inhabitants of the house: Lucy their invisibility, and Dany their "immortality". After Lucy casts her spell, Aslan tells her "I call all times soon", and before Dany enters, Pyat Pree says "Our little lives are no more than a flicker of a moth's wings to them".

[quote name='Arakano' post='1674931' date='Feb 5 2009, 09.19']There is a mention somewhere that Baelor the Blessed made peace with Dorne by "walking the Boneway barefoot", or something like that. Maybe a reference to (or inspired by) Emperor Heinrich at Canossa? ;)[/quote] Possible, but I think walking unshod is, in both reality and fiction, a general sign of humility, e.g. after the Battle of the Blackwater the newly-dubbed knights walked barefoot around the city. Could Baelor himself might be inspired by the pious, saintly and ascetic Loius IX?

In AGOT the following is spoken by Eddard and Barristan Selmy during the tourney at King's Landing. "None of us is ever ready," he said. "For knighthood?" "For death" In [i]Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn[/i] by Tad Williams I remember a very similar if not identical conversation taking place, with the part of Selmy taken by Sir Camaris. However, I do not have the books on me at the moment, and can not confirm. In [i]The Scourge of God[/i] by S.M. Stirling I believe I have found the first homages [i]to[/i] GRRM. On Page 56: Sandra shrugged. "I [i]do[/i] tend to let the game of thrones become an end in itself," she said. On Page 3, mention is made of a Mother, Maiden, and Crone in a Wicca ceremony. However, I know very little of this religion, and perhaps such feminine personifications are a genuine part of it. Note: GRRM is mentioned in the Acknowledgements.