Any historians/writers in Westeros at the moment ?

[Yanninho]

I often wonder if there are some producers of written content about what's going on as we live it in the saga. Maybe some maesters in Oldtown ?

Some intellectuals may have found their way in fancy courts advising and informing powerful lords, but aside from council members in King's Landing or some few known, we seem to the lack this information.

I know the story takes place in a medieval fantasy world where reading is not the most common skill in the world but literature has to exist in some kind of way.

[BreastplateWithNipples]

History is mostly written after the fact, not while it happens. ;)

So yeah any of the literate people could be the future [ASOIAF-future] historians of the War(s) of the Five Kings.

Much of our knowledge about, e.g., the history of Rome comes from people who were politicians and actors while the big things happened, and only wrote their version of events down years later. Generals or diplomats who were too busy to write books while they were active, but had time and resources in their retirement to write it all down.

[SeanF]

In all likelihood, there are Maesters and Septons who are chronicling these events, just as they chronicled things like Aegon's conquest, Maegor's conflict with the Faith Militant, the Dance of Dragons etc.

And, given his intellectual interests, one could easily imagine Tyrion writing his own history of events, if he survives.

[The hairy bear]

Tyrion says in one chapter that the term "War of the five kings" has been coined by hystorians/maesters. We can be assured that the maesters with the cooper link habe been recording all the recent events.

[Walder Waters]

Regarding the title: I do not think that the fictive maesters titled their work "The World of Ice and Fire", so what is the in-universe title of the book? Or is it indeed the same?

[Walder Waters]

Is it "Dragonkin, Being a History of House Targaryen from Exile to Apotheosis, with a Consideration of the Life and Death of Dragons"?

(Sam's copy fell down and a few pages had gotten muddy, so that some info remain hidden to the reader.)

[Gurkhal]

To be honest I wouldn't be suprised if there are maesters over in the Citadell who are on a kind of duty to record what goes on in Westeros while information is fairly fresh, witnesses can be accessed and so on, for the sake of creating relatively clear historical records of what happened.

[BreastplateWithNipples]

To be honest I wouldn't be suprised if there are maesters over in the Citadell who are on a kind of duty to record what goes on in Westeros while information is fairly fresh, witnesses can be accessed and so on, for the sake of creating relatively clear historical records of what happened.

Perhaps, but the books that Tyrion and the other literate characters refer to don't really give the impression that historiography as practiced in the world of ASOIAF is a particularly well-structured or objective craft. The books are all referred to by their authors and people speak about their biases and omissions in a way that implies that is is well-known they aren't objective at all.

[The hairy bear]

The books are all referred to by their authors and people speak about their biases and omissions in a way that implies that is is well-known they aren't objective at all.

That's exactly what happens with history books nowadays, isn't it?

ETA: Specially the ones that deal with current events. Or can't we find in the bookstores contradictory accounts of what's happening in Irak, Israel/Palestine, Chechenya,...

[Master of Laws]

History is a field of study at the Citadel. Pretty sure there's an archmaester of history somewhere.

[Im no Ser]

We even get a glimpse of academic debate. One Maester disagrees with the name "The War of the Five Kings" on the grounds that Balon didn't crown himself until after Renly died, so there were never actually five kings.

[joluoto]

The Maesters live in a world of their own. If you're not in the Citadel, you wouldn't know what they are debating there. But I actually don't think there's much debate over history. I think very few Maesters really take much interest in it. But it would be interesting to read about Maesters in one book accusing another Maester for being wrong about stuff in his book.

[bertramboso]

I agree with previous posters that the Maesters are recording events as they happen. There will also be another form of recording, though-the bards will be making songs about specific events: the Battle of Black Water Bay, the Red Wedding etc. These songs shouldn't be discounted as faulty sources of information, either; in the real Middle Ages, long-form songs like the "Song of the Cathar Wars" were important modes of transmission for specific events.

[jandslegate]

Samwell Tarly. Just a guess.

[Ibbison from Ibben]

Perhaps we should differentiate between chroniclers and historians.

I'm sure there is a whole department at the Citadel tasked with chronicling events: In this year so-and-so was born, there was drought/flood/plague in these parts of the land, etc. Jaime's work with the White Book would also fall into this category.

As for history, we haven't seen Tywin Lannister or LF giving any interviews, or being careful about preserving documentation for posterity. Much the opposite, really. Varys probably destroys everything his little birds give him when he's done with it. Then he destroys the little birds. No maester even bothered to interview Catelyn or Brienne about Renly's death.

The Weterosi Historical Society really needs to get in contact with Bloodraven or Bran. The weirwoods are going to be the only source of inside information for later generations.