Westeros

With the first preview of Game of Thrones: The Mad King now having taken place (and to a standing ovation, too!), there has understandably been a great deal of discussion about its revelations and, especially, about which parts of the play are or should be considered “canon”.

Naturally, people have asked us about this because of our long involvement with George and his work, both as long-time fans and lore “experts”, and as collaborators on The World of Ice and Fire, so it may be useful to explain how we understand the situation, based on our experiences and knowledge. Before we start, though, a disclaimer:  we have not directly spoken to George or the creatives about any of the specifics of the play. And, for that matter, we will do so without discussing the substance of the play or spoiling any of its details.

So, we’ve written an article in the Features section of the site delving into the question, and offering up our understanding of the situation.

A very special occasion for collectors and bibliophiles: to mark the 30th anniversary of George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones, the Folio Society has announced a new signed limited edition of the novel, with the fantastic Jonathan Burton once again providing the artwork after having provided the art for the previous ASoIaF editions.

As reported exclusively by People, only 1,000 copies will be produced, each signed by George R.R. Martin. The 872-page single-volume edition features a “dragon-leather” binding, tipped-in artwork, handmade endpapers, a rolled map, and a clamshell box. The Folio Society’s own page also notes an exclusive introduction by Joe Abercrombie.

The Folio Society describes this as their most ambitious Limited Edition to date, produced with British craftspeople including James Cropper for the bespoke endpapers and Ludlow Bookbinders for the binding. Folio editor James Rose told People that the volume looks as if it had been “taken directly from the Citadel library itself.”

Full details below:

A Game of Thrones 30th Anniversary Limited Edition from the Folio Society.

Random House has published the first details on the 2027 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar, revealing the name of the artist involved and the cover image which will be one of the thirteen pieces in the calendar. The calendar will be illustrated by Tyler Jacobson, an award-winning artist who is very well known for his fantasy works in Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons circles in particular—a few years ago a piece of his, a painting of Drizzt do’Uren, sold for $155,000 at auction, setting a record price (which possibly has not been exceeded still).

The art features Beric Dondarrion in battle, with a great depiction of the Dondarrion coat of arms. There’s a suspiciously gigantic figure fighting behind him, who might possibly be Gregor Clegane?

Right around Christmas last year, we revealed the first piece of art from the forthcoming A Song of Ice and Fire 2025 Calendar by Eddie Mendoza.

Now, three new images (meaning a total of four have been released) are available for fans to peruse, depicting the Bridge of Skulls that spans the Gorge at the east end of the Wall, the citadel of Dragonstone with its magic-formed gargoyles and dragons, and finally the palatial Water Gardens that were built by the Prince of Dorne as a gift for his wife, the Princess Daenerys Targaryen, sister to King Daeron the Good.

With House of the Dragon, the now-filming Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and all sorts of other tidbits (we’ll get into those in other posts) drawing renewed attention to George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, a surprising blast from the past showed up when comic illustrator Mike S. Miller—best remembered by GRRM fans as the artist behind the comic adaptations of the Dunk and Egg novellas—tweeted that someone had found the order page for his lithograph of Robert Baratheon and Rhaegar Targaryen at the Ruby Ford… and actually orderd it, which reminded him he still had some of the lithographs floating around.

And now you, too, can order (while supplies last) the first (and, as far as I am aware, only) officially licensed lithograph artwork for A Song of Ice and Fire by visiting Miller’s website and clicking the “Buy Now” link.

For some history on the lithographs, see below!

Details of the A Song of Ice and Fire 2025 Calendar have been released via Edelweiss and Amazon, and now we see that what seems to be one of the images—the cover image for the calendar—has also been released. Illustrated by concept artist and illustrator Eddie Mendoza, who first entered the Ice and Fire-art world with work he did on our own The Rise of the Dragon, next year’s edition of the calendar will focus on landscapes and castles from throughout the vast World of Ice and Fire, as described in the following text:

And the cover appears to be one of these locations, one which has never really been depicted before in the “official” art (outside of a rendition or two in the Fantasy Flight Games Game of Thrones card game): Starfall, the ancient and storied seat of House Dayne. (Yes!)

Towards the end of November, a very interesting post on /r/asoiaf Reddit from a moderator and superfan known as zionius_, revealing three pages that appear to be hand-written notes from George R.R. Martin sketching out plans for A Feast for Crows circa 2003-2004. George’s handwriting is not, perhaps, the easiest, so go to the original post for the transcription from zionius_ and members of the subreddit’s mod team, which does a good job of distilling what they found.

Though some questioned whether these were legitimate, we can say with 100% certainty that they are—George’s hand is unmistakable, and in any case the notes came from be shared by way of Arnold Cha, a serious ASoIaF collector who indicated that he got them from an unimpeachable source in the Santa Fe writing/arts scene. With Arnold’s permission, we’re including the images here, but again, go to the subreddit thread for the transcript!

Back in January, the A Song of Ice and Fire 2024 Calendar was announced featuring artwork from award-winning artist Justin Sweet. Now, two new preview images have been added to listings of the calendar, one depicting a scene from the end of A Dance with Dragons, and one perhaps depicting something from The Winds of Winter... or perhaps something being referenced again in The Wind of Winters.

George R.R. Martin has posted to his “Not a Blog” to discuss the big news that HBO has ordered A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight (a working title, GRRM notes, that is not finalized) straight to series. George goes into some more detail about the project, pointing out that he first floated the Dunk & Egg stories for adaptation seven years ago, so things can move slowly… until they don’t. He also notes that despite reports (spurred by his own remarks that some things had been shelved, and some shifts of the Starling Inc. website that we reported on here), both the 10,000 Ships and Sea Snake shows remain in development. But more on that later.

On A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, George has some particular new details to share:

Just two months away from the release of The Rise of the Dragon, a book we’ve co-authored that takes Fire and Blood, boils it down to the essentials, and fills the rest of the pages with over 180 pieces of glorious, all-new artwork from artists both familiar and brand new to fans of A Song of Ice and Fire. Random House has started the wheels rolling promoting the book by releasing this video with George R.R. Martin where he talks about the book and its connection to House of the Dragon:

We occasionally highlight really great, A Song of Ice and Fire-inspired fan works, and we’re happy to bring attention to the asoiafanimated instagram where a team of Italian animators led by professional animator Giovanni Ariutti. We have a very brief tease, but you should check the Instagram for a longer trailer, with music and all, and that in turn is leading to something even more substantial on August 23rd. See the teaser below, and the full details of the team working on the project:

We’ve been in the midst of a vacation over here a Westeros, but George R.R. Martin has been keeping busy! A recent Not a Blog post goes into some length about the state of the highly-anticipated The Winds of Winter, a post which seems to have been prompted after a recent round of interviews (including this excellent interview by the team at Game of Owns). It’s the lengthiest update he’s given on the book in some years, and is well worth reading closely. And while he’s at it, George reveals how the story has been slowly moving further and further away from what he envisioned years earlier, even as late as when he met with the showrunners of Game of Thrones to discuss his plans.

Over at Not a Blog, George R.R. Martin has provided fans a lengthy update on The Winds of Winter, HBO’s successor shows, and more… and in the process lets the cat out of the bag regarding one project we here at Westeros.org have been working on for the last couple of years.

We’ll provide a quick summary below:

The Three Chroniclers, by Chase Stone.

A brand new calendar has been announced for 2023: the World of Fire and Blood 2023 Calendar, a departure as it focuses on characters and events first described in The World of Ice and Fire and expanded on in Fire and Blood. Another departure: where previous calendars were single-artist affairs, this one will feature multiple artists, including prior calendar artists Marc Simonetti and Magali Villeneuve, as well as artists new to the calendars such as Chase Stone and René Aigner

Aegon the Conqueror and Balerion destroy Harrenhal, by Marc Simonetti. (This post contains affiliate links to Amazon.)

A happy occasion for bibliophiles, as the latest entry in the Folio Society’s A Song of Ice and Fire illustrated editions has now been released: A Feast for Crows in a beautiful, slipcased two-volume edition with beautiful artwork by Jonathan Burton. Below, you’ll find the Folio Society’s video for the launch, as well as a few images they’ve sent to us share!