Summon back the fire-witch to the court of the Crimson King

<\p>Did the young George R.R. Martin listen to King Crimson A LOT?

Is this our fate?

I was taking part last night in a Wine Gala to raise money for the arts in North Bay. It's a regular event – and quite a bash.  These things usually have a theme, and this year's was "medieval and Renaissance."  A lot of people, both volunteers and patrons, were dressed up in costume. In fact my role was to stand around in armor, looking as impressive as possible.

What makes this occasion worthy of comment on this blog is that IT (not information technology, but "it" in appropriate all caps) seemed to be everywhere. And what was it?

Game of Thrones.

It was the music in the air – the soundtrack for the series came over the sound system. It was in smart remarks by performing comedians about "Game of Thrones wear." It was… EVERYWHERE!

Okay, I am a little paranoid and given to making wide generalizations prematurely, but be warned, medievalists, we may be stuck for the rest of our careers with the imagery of Game of Thrones. The sarcastic border guard may just be a premonition.

Be aware… Game of Thrones is coming. Has come. May refuse to go anyway again.

Fun times crossing the border

There haven't been a lot of fun times crossing the border in ten years, but on my way to Kalamazoo for the International Congress on Medieval Studies, I shared a light-hearted moment with a border guard.

He asked me where I was going and I replied that I was attending a conference on the Middle Ages.

He asked for more detail, and I said we studied the entire Middle ages.

"So," he said, "you're going to sit around and watch Game of Thrones."

I laughed and said, "That might be an idea, because I am an episode behind."

Straightfaced, he went on: "Because the Middle Ages were exactly like Game of Thrones."  And with a look he waved me on.

An Irishman can't help himself -- scorn for Game of Thrones

John Doyle in the Globe and Mail:

A second reason is an aversion to medieval-fantasy material that is ludicrously inauthentic when compared with real history and genuine mythology and legend. I’ve no problem with the Arthurian legends because they arise from a bona fide cultural impulse. As an Irishman of a certain age, I could talk to you till your eyes fell out about the magic of An Táin Bó Cúailnge (The Cattle Raid at Cooley), the central story of the Ulster cycle of legends. It’s about an attempt to steal a particularity fertile bull. But it teems with warriors and magicians, dominated by the god-like warrior Cú Chulainn. There are even ravens swirling in the mist. It shares much with Game of Thrones in surface detail but there’s a powerful, authentic poignancy to An Táin, and a rawness to the action, the work of many hands and storytellers, generation after generation. In comparison, Game of Thrones is slick and contrived.