One of the most shocking events for both those who read the books and watched the television series was the infamous Red Wedding. This law can be found going back not only to medieval Ireland and Wales, but back to the Iron Age. In Celtic Law it was the duty of a host to grant a person's request for refuge and it was the host who was expected to provide not only food and shelter, but to also provide protection and insure that their guest did not come to any harm while in their care. In Slavic cultures the offering of bread & salt is a traditional greeting to welcome guests, which is often still done today. ![]() The god Zeus Xenios was the god of strangers and suppliants and breaking the divine oath of hospitium would result in angering the gods. The Greeks and the Romans practiced hospitium, which they believed was a divine right of the guest to receive hospitality and the divine duty of the host to provide it. The idea of the law of hospitality is not unique to the universe of A Song of Ice and Fire, but is steeped deeply in the traditions of our own world. When invoked, neither the guest can harm his host nor the host harm his guest for the length of the guest's stay as they are bound by the ancient law of hospitality – lest they provoke the wrath of the gods both old and new. When a guest, be they common born or noble, eats the food (traditionally bread and salt) and drinks the drink off a host's table beneath the host's roof, the Guest Right is invoked. In Game of Thrones there is the sacred law of hospitality, otherwise known as the Guest Right, which in the world of Westeros can date back thousands of years to the days of the First Men. So why not pour yourself a goblet of Dornish wine, warm yourself by the fire and drape yourself in furs as winter is coming and "you know nothing, John Snow", but when you're done reading you may come to know just enough to survive this all out clash of kings! This week's blog post is going to look at the real historical places, people and events that inspired Game of Thrones. From the War of the Roses, to incestuous marriages, from the Jacobite Wars in Scotland to Roman soldiers on Hadrian's Wall, there are many parallels between our own world's history and the events and customs found in the World of Westeros. ![]() ![]() Martin got much of his inspiration from actual events, battles, customs and places from the pages of medieval European history. The heraldry and history of the houses, the battles and tactics, political plots and alliances made by marriage and broken by blood and betrayal, the languages and customs of each land, it all feels like something we can tangibly reach out, grasp and find within our own history. That is until a dragon shows up and that little voice inside you head goes "oh yeah! This is fantasy." One of the beautiful things about reading the books and watching the hit HBO series is that you can fully immerse yourself in a world that feels so rich and real. The characters feel so real and multifaceted- there are no black and whites, but many contrasting shades of grey the continent of Westeros feels like a place taken right out of our own world's history- in fact sometimes one forgets that the stories told are not actually from our history, but are from a world of fiction. Martin or are glued to the tv screen every week when HBO debuts a new episode, one thing is clear: this is some of the best story telling out there. Whether you have read the Song of Ice and Fire books by George R.R.
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