Game of Thrones is a phenomenon. As Carolyne Larrington reveals – in this essential companion to George R. R. Martin’s fantasy novels and the HBO mega-hit series based on them – the show is the epitome of water-cooler TV. It is the subject of intense debate in national newspapers; by PhD students asking why Westeros has yet to see an industrial revolution, or whether astronomy explains the continent’s climatic problems and unpredictable solstices (‘winter is coming’); and by bloggers and cultural commentators contesting the series’ startling portrayals of power, sex and gender. 
Yet no book has divulged how George R. R. Martin constructed his remarkable universe out of the Middle Ages. Discussing novels and TV series alike, Larrington explores – among other topics – sigils, giants, dragons and direwolves in medieval texts; ravens, old gods and the weirwood in Norse myth; and a gothic, exotic, idiosyncratic orient in the eastern continent, Essos. From the White Walkers to the Red Woman, from Casterly Rock to the Shivering Sea, this is an indispensable guide to the twenty-first century’s most important fantasy creation.

Who were the Norse gods the mighty Æsyr, led by Óðinn, and the mysterious Vanir? In The Norse Myths we meet this passionate and squabbling pantheon, and learn of the mythological cosmos they inhabit. Passages translated from the Old Norse bring this legendary world to life, from the myths of creation to ragnarök, the prophesied end of the world at the hands of Lokis army of monsters and giants, and everything that comes in between: the problematic relationship between the gods and the giants, in which enmity and trickery are punctuated by marriages and seductions; the (mis) adventures of human heroes and heroines, with their family feuds, revenges, marriages and murders; and the interaction between the gods and mortals, as Óðinn, the Allfather, betrays his human protégés in order to recruit (dead) heroes for his army.Carolyne Larrington describes the myths origins in pre-Christian Scandinavia and Iceland, and their survival in artefacts and written sources, from Old Norse...