A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
"A Game of Thrones" is the first novel in the acclaimed fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R. R. Martin. Set in the fictional land of Westeros, the story unfolds during a time of political turmoil, as factions vie for control of the Iron Throne amid the looming threat of a harsh winter and supernatural forces. The novel centers around key characters, including Eddard "Ned" Stark, the honorable lord of Winterfell, and his family, who find themselves embroiled in dangerous intrigues after King Robert Baratheon visits their home. As secrets unravel, including infidelity within the royal family, Ned's pursuit of truth leads to dire consequences, marking the beginning of a brutal struggle for power.
Simultaneously, the narrative follows Daenerys Targaryen, the last scion of a deposed dynasty, as she seeks to reclaim her family's throne in the east, navigating her own personal challenges and transformations. The intertwining lives of these characters paint a complex picture of loyalty, betrayal, and the quest for power, inviting readers to explore themes of honor and morality in a richly detailed world. With its intricate plotting and multifaceted characters, "A Game of Thrones" sets the stage for an epic saga that examines the darker aspects of human nature within a fantastical context.
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Subject Terms
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
- Born: September 20, 1948
- Birthplace: Bayonne, New Jersey
First Published: 1996
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Fantasy
Time of plot: Approximately three hundred years after Aegon I’s conquest of the Seven Kingdoms
Locale: The fictional continents of Westeros and Essos
Principal Characters
Eddard "Ned" Stark, the lord of Winterfell
Catelyn Stark, his wife
Robb Stark, their eldest son
Sansa Stark, the Starks’ elder daughter
Arya Stark, the Starks’ younger daughter
Bran Stark, the Starks’ second son
Rickon Stark, the Starks’ youngest son
Jon Snow, the illegitimate son of Eddard Stark
Robert Baratheon, the king of Westeros
Cersei Lannister, Robert’s wife and the queen of Westeros
Joffrey Baratheon, Cersei’s son and the heir to the throne
Jaime Lannister, Cersei’s twin brother and Joffrey’s biological father
Tyrion Lannister, Cersei’s brother
Daenerys Targaryen, the exiled daughter of the late King Aerys II Targaryen
The Story
The fictional land of Westeros is on the brink of great change. The long summer is ending, and a winter that could last decades is around the corner. Along the great ice wall that separates Westeros from the wild north, dead bodies have come back to life to attack the living, but Westeros is in political turmoil and not prepared to react to the threat. Instead, the political intrigue revolves around who sits on Westeros’s famed Iron Throne. Its current occupant is King Robert Baratheon, who waged a war and won the throne from the "Mad King" Aerys II Targaryen approximately fifteen years earlier.
King Robert travels north to convince his old friend Eddard "Ned" Stark to take the role of the Hand of the King, the top adviser to the king, as Jon Arryn, the previous Hand, has died. The king and his party stay at Ned’s castle, Winterfell. While they are there, Ned’s son Bran discovers that Cersei is cheating on King Robert with her twin brother, Jaime Lannister. In order to keep his incestuous affair a secret, Jaime pushes Bran from the tower window where he had been spying, and Bran is left crippled and comatose. Ned’s wife, Catelyn, convinces her husband to take the position of King’s Hand, and he travels south with his two daughters to join the court at King’s Landing. Catelyn receives a letter from her sister Lysa, Jon Arryn’s widow, who accuses the Lannisters of murdering her late husband.
While Ned is gone, an assassin makes an attempt on Bran’s life, and Catelyn keeps the dagger as evidence. She travels south by boat to inform Ned of her suspicions of the Lannisters. When she arrives in King’s Landing, her childhood friend Lord Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, now one of the king’s councilors, tells her that the dagger belonged to Tyrion Lannister, one of the queen’s brothers. Catelyn heads north to return to Winterfell, but on the way she happens upon Tyrion and takes him prisoner. She travels east to Lysa Arryn’s castle, the Eyrie, in order to bring Tyrion to justice for the attempt on Bran’s life. There, Tyrion is imprisoned, but he demands trial by combat to clear his name. The sellsword Bronn champions him and wins, and Tyrion is set free.
In King’s Landing, Ned attempts to discover if Jon Arryn’s death was murder and who tried to kill Bran. With the help of Baelish, Ned discovers that Robert fathered several illegitimate children, and he begins to meet with them. He discovers that Cersei has been sleeping with her brother, and that none of her children are Robert’s. Ned tells Robert’s brother Renly about Cersei’s deception and sends a letter to Robert’s other brother, Stannis. Before he can tell the king, there is a hunting accident in which King Robert is mortally wounded by a boar. Ned tells the queen that he knows her secret, and after Robert dies of his wounds, Cersei has Ned imprisoned for treason. Lord Baelish, who had promised to secure guardsmen for Ned instead pays them to turn on him. Cersei’s son Joffrey becomes king despite his illegitimacy, and the kingdom is fractured. Ned’s son Robb has declared war against the Lannisters over their treachery and is proclaimed King in the North. He wins several battles and takes Jaime Lannister prisoner. Tyrion and his clansmen join the forces of his father, Tywin Lannister. Robert’s brother Renly escapes King’s Landing to avoid the conflict. When Ned is brought before King Joffrey to be sentenced, Cersei and Joffrey’s advisers urge mercy, but Joffrey has Ned beheaded, ensuring that the war will continue.
In the north, Jon Snow, Ned’s illegitimate son, joins the Night’s Watch, the men who guard the Wall in the north. He becomes steward to the commander of the Night’s Watch, Jeor Mormont. The corpses of two men of the Night’s Watch are discovered and brought inside the castle. The corpses come to life at night and try to take Mormont’s life, but Jon saves him by setting the corpse on fire. Jon’s uncle Benjen has gone missing on a trip north of the Wall and so does a search party sent after him, and Mormont tells him that he and Jon will join a party riding north to find out what happened to them.
Meanwhile, Daenerys "Dany" Targaryen and her older brother Viserys travel in the eastern continent of Essos, looking for a way to reclaim the Iron Throne of Westeros. Viserys marries Dany to a powerful equestrian warrior named Khal Drogo, the leader of a people known as the Dothraki, in the hopes of securing the Dothraki forces in return. Viserys is so impatient to be repaid for Dany that he breaks a Dothraki taboo and insults Khal Drogo, who kills him. During a battle, Khal Drogo is wounded. Dany convinces one of their captured slaves, a sorceress, to bandage the wound, but the sorceress instead secretly causes the wound to fester. When Khal Drogo is near death, Dany pleads with the sorceress to use black magic to bring him back. The sorceress does, but Dany does not realize that the magic’s price is her unborn child. With her husband and her child both dead, she has the sorceress burned as part of Khal Drogo’s funeral pyre. Dany also takes the three dragon eggs that were given to her as a wedding present and burns them on the pyre; then she walks into the flames herself, but she is unharmed. The dragon eggs open and she becomes mother to the first dragons to be born in centuries.
Bibliography
Frankel, Valerie Estelle. Women in Game of Thrones: Power, Conformity and Resistance. Jefferson: McFarland, 2014. Print.
Jacoby, Henry, and William Irwin, eds. Game of Thrones and Philosophy: Logic Cuts Deeper Than Swords. Hoboken: Wiley, 2012. Print.
Martin, George R. R. The Lands of Ice and Fire. New York: Bantam, 2012. Print.
Wood, Brian, and Patricia Meredith. The Art of George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. Roseville: Fantasy Flight Games, 2005. Print.