Lars Kjaer

Every year, the arrival of a new season of HBO’s Game of Thrones is greeted by a predictable stream of click-bait articles by historians seeking to attach their bandwagons to the TV and publishing phenomena. The discussions tend to be superficial, bordering on the ridiculous: Is Game of Thrones based more on medieval or early modern history? Which historical example is the precedent for the Red Wedding? For those of us who have spent most of our adult lives waiting for George R.R. Martin to produce new volumes they are also intensely unsatisfactory.