Jul 13, 2011

Kissed by Fire

While George R. R. Martin goes out of his way to dispel the themes of courtly romance so prevalent in medieval fantasy, the wildlings are another story. The free folk who live beyond the Wall and worship the Old Gods are completely and utterly romanticized. They are lawless, pray to trees, consort with giants, and talk to animals. Women fight alongside men, titles don't pass from father to son, and lead is taken by whomever has the strength. Their clash with the men of the Night's Watch, who defend the wall from wildlings and worse, is one of the lynchpins of the third book.

EDIT: John Bridges in the comments section made a great point on romanticism. I forgot about Craster, and yes, the wildlings romanticize themselves a lot of the time. I'd argue that Mance Rayder's speech about why he deserted the Night's Watch to become King Beyond the Wall is nothing if not romantic.

Those wildlings born with red hair are said to be kissed by fire, and are held as lucky. Ygritte is largely responsible for relaying the hallmarks of wildling life to Jon Snow.

10 comments:

  1. One of the best yet

    What kind of paper are you painting these on? And whats the scale?

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  2. Thanks! They're all in one of those watercolor Moleskins. I think it's 5x8"

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  3. Oh awesome, the detail made me think they were very large. That's skill

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  4. This is great! Not sure I agree completely about the romanticized notion; there's nothing romantic about Craster's folk, and even the others have a hard-scraped life up there. It seems like they romanticize themselves a bit in comparison with the easy lives of the "knealers" below the Wall.

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  5. i think this is my favorite one yet!!!

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  6. Nice! You definitely captured the quirky, rough-and-tumble cuteness George RR Martin describes in the book.

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  7. This is pretty much how I pictured her, although perhaps you've rendered her a little closer to 'cute as a button.'

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  8. This many comments and no one has declared "you know nothing, Sam Bosma"?

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  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

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