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References and Homages


Ran
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Moderate-time lurker, first-time poster.

Likely these were mentioned before, but somewhere are page 16 or so I went cross-eyed.

But there were two Shakespeare homages in the latest book. One is obvious

Jon Snow getting Julius Caesared just as he is flourishing into power

while the other could be considered a Shakespearean "deep cut" or "B side"

Manderley pulling a complete Titus Andronicus on the Freys with his pies

And the tree camoflage at Deepwood Mott is from Macbeth.

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The people who can't see how "cellar door" might sound euphonious are likely rhotic speakers. Try dropping the r's with an English accent.

Works fine in Boston too!

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For me, the Night's Watch always brought to mind the Knights Templar. Both were formed ostensibly to guard something (The Wall, the Holy Sepulchre). Both were sworn to take no part in the wars of others. Both wore the color black as part of their heraldry. And perhaps most importantly, both swore vows before their God or gods of poverty, chastity and obedience. And both were well equiped compared to most contemporary armed forces. Neither include any levy soldiers, armed only with farming implement and the like.

Interestingly, it's said that the Templars (and the rest of the military orders as well) vow of obedience made them a far more effective fighting force than most, due to the fact that feudal armies of the day, be they christian or muslim tended to be less than well disciplined. It's easy to see a similar dynamic in the Watch's conflicts with the wildlings. The wildlings are described as being fierce fighters but lacking the Watch's discipline.

I think it's likely that Martin used certain aspects of the Templars and other military orders when conceptualizing the Watch, There are far to many similarities to be otherwise.

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ADwD, P. 325 (a Quentyn chapter) : The Windblown's "Beans" said "...real Unsullied. Hacking off some boy's stones with a butcher's cleaver and handing him a pointy hat don't make him Unsullied. That dragon queen's got the real item, the kind that don't break and run when you fart in their general direction."

It doesn't get more Monty Python than that.

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ADwD, P. 325 (a Quentyn chapter) : The Windblown's "Beans" said "...real Unsullied. Hacking off some boy's stones with a butcher's cleaver and handing him a pointy hat don't make him Unsullied. That dragon queen's got the real item, the kind that don't break and run when you fart in their general direction."

It doesn't get more Monty Python than that.

I missed that one, well spotted!
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Is it only me, or Daenerys's wanderings and visions in the House of the Undying really do feel very much David Lynch-like?

And by the way - someone already mentioned similarity between the fates of Ned Stark and Leto Atreides. I believe it goes further than this. While Leto's son Paul became Kwisatz Haderach, Ned's son Jon will quite likely become Azor Ahai. Well, yes, yes, we don't believe Jon is Ned's son, but he himself does, doesn't he? Anyway both babies, Paul Atreides and Jon Snow, were somewhat wrongly born.

I think the more basic explanation for why Paul Atreides and Jon Snow have these similarities is that they both fit the pattern of the epic hero.

http://www.uky.edu/~aubel2/eng104/myth/hero.pdf

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Here's one I didn't see mentioned yet: Qhorin Halfhand/Jon Snow are directly analogous with Dumbledore/Snape, but in this case ACOK is published before HP&THBP.

Dany asking Jorah what he prays for, and he answers, "Home." Reminds me of Dorothy, "There's no place like home."

The description of the house in Braavos with the red door always reminds me of Bilbo's house at Bag End.

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And the tree camoflage at Deepwood Mott is from Macbeth.

That is a good one because it's further reinforced by the circumstances surrounding it. In MacBeth, the forces bringing "Brinum wood...to Dunsinane" are those of Malcolm, the murdered king's eldest son and heir. In Dance, the forces using camoflage belong to Stannis, the murdered king's eldest brother and heir. Also, in both instances they succeed in taking the fortress although the stakes are much higher in MacBeth. I love this reference because MacBeth is one of my favorites and it seems to be very clear and unambiguous.

Edited by Jon Flowers
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That is a good one because it's further reinforced by the circumstances surrounding it. In MacBeth, the forces bringing "Brinum wood...to Dunsinane" are those of Malcolm, the murdered king's eldest son and heir. In Dance, the forces using camoflage belong to Stannis, the murdered king's eldest brother and heir. Also, in both instances they succeed in taking the fortress although the stakes are much higher in MacBeth. I love this reference because MacBeth is one of my favorites and it seems to be very clear and unambiguous.

You remember a lot more of Macbeth than I do, but I suppose since it's your favorite...

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Tyrion often reminds me of Prince Hal in Shakespeare's Henry IV part 1. He loves drinking and screwing around until ACoK when he's given real responsibility as the acting Hand. His defeat of Stannis's assault is similar to Hal's defeat of the very serious Hotspur at the end of part 1.

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[insert sorry if it's been mentioned before sentence here]

I've seen a lot of similarities to Edmund Spenser's Faery Queene. What made me first realize this is that the main character in book 3 is named Britomart. A woman knight, who was stronger and more skilled than most men, on a quest to find her love. I immediately connected this character to Brienne.

Another thing I noticed is that the amount of characters and different quests by all of these characters. The expansiveness of the world is also reminiscent of GRRM's world.

There's probably a lot more to connect between the two but I'm not going in depth as I'm not focused right now.

Yes, I noticed this as well. Here's my quote from the Syrio Forel What's In a Name thread?

quote name='Ravenhair' timestamp='1333210991' post='3093257']

The Dan Haggard interviews Are good. I especially like his comparison of Lancelot and Jaime. I'm an attorney now, but t majored in English. You could use these books to write a thesis or paper that would be a teacher's wet dream. Just think Cersei/Jaime and the Jacob/ Esau comparison from the bible. The comparison of Bran's story to Bran the Blessed from a Welsh story, "Mari somethi ng" and to the Fisher King legend. A comparison of Cersei to Circe, and as some poster noted, Cersei did end up killing Robert with a Boar. Jaime possibly being a reference to the French J'aime--I love. If you really want to go take this far, do some research on Edmund Spenser's poem, The Faerie Queene, and even T. s. Eliot's the Wasteland.

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