To those not of a squeamish nature and who don’t mind the occasional beheading or people being eaten by their own dogs, this Sunday sees the start of the eighth and final series of the epic fantasy Game of Thrones. Based on George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series, it has been described as “alt-history”, borrowing from real historical events and telling a story both rather familiar and completely alien.
Game of Thrones is set in the Realm, a union of Seven Kingdoms that encompasses the southern half of a continent called Westeros, guarded on its northern frontier by a giant wall to keep out the barbarian “Wildlings”. It’s clearly modelled on medieval English history, in particular the War of the Roses, and the main warring clans, the Houses Stark and Lannister, evidently owe something to York and Lancaster. It also throws in aspects drawn from the Hundred Years’ War, as well as ancient Greece and Rome, Byzantium, Mongols and Turks, Scottish Highlanders, Venice, Moorish Spain and Knights Templars.
