Any Game of Thrones fan can't help but feel a frisson of excitement on hearing the words "winter is coming". The ominous proclamation is at the heart of the fantasy TV series as the motto of the Stark family and a reminder of the years-long winters which have the power to wipe out the inhabitants of Westeros – if they don't all kill each other first.
The motto has become a key part of the fandom for the show, becoming a recognisable slogan, even to those who have never watched an episode, through its popularity as an online meme. So it's no surprise that when George RR Martin appeared on a panel for an event at the Medill School of Journalism in Chicago, one audience member was keen to find out how he came up with the idea.
What was his inspiration for the series's infamous tagline? As it turns out, it really was just a very cold winter. More specifically, a winter he spent in Chicago in 1967, when he was a university student in the city.
"There was so much snow that winter, you couldn't see. [It was] all snow, all ice, and so very cold," he said, according to Entertainment Weekly. "It was like the trenches during World War I, but they were trenches of ice. I remember walking through the trenches and the tunnels of ice, the wind blowing so you couldn't even see. It's an experience that never left me."
Martin was not so forthcoming on every topic, however. When asked by another audience member if Jon Snow would be returning to the series, as many fans have speculated, despite dying in last season's finale, The Independent reports that he was close-lipped. "No comment on that," he answered, offering the tiniest of hints. "I'm just saying, read the books."
Jon's death in Martin's A Dance With Dragons book is "actually quite different in almost every detail", points out Bustle. Yes, he is stabbed by the Night's Watch in the courtyard of Castle Black, but there are some big differences, largely because many of the characters in the book never made it into the television series.
"Without many of Castle Black's more peripheral supporting characters, showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss were forced to streamline the traumatic event," says Bustle. They even invented an entirely new character to help move things along: Olly the farm boy, who is angry with Jon for showing mercy to the wildlings that slaughtered his village.
In the books, the Night's Watch kills Jon because he wants to lead an army to Winterfell to kill Ramsay Bolton, breaking their vow to take no part in the politics of Westeros. The television series, however, does not offer a specific inciting incident.
But, perhaps most crucially, the description of Jon's apparent death is much more "vague", says Bustle. "When the third dagger took him between the shoulder blades, he gave a grunt and fell face-first into the snow," writes Martin. "He never felt the fourth knife. Only the cold."
The motto has become a key part of the fandom for the show, becoming a recognisable slogan, even to those who have never watched an episode, through its popularity as an online meme. So it's no surprise that when George RR Martin appeared on a panel for an event at the Medill School of Journalism in Chicago, one audience member was keen to find out how he came up with the idea.
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| Game Of Thrones Author George RR Martin Reveals Origin Of Winter Is Coming Motto |
"There was so much snow that winter, you couldn't see. [It was] all snow, all ice, and so very cold," he said, according to Entertainment Weekly. "It was like the trenches during World War I, but they were trenches of ice. I remember walking through the trenches and the tunnels of ice, the wind blowing so you couldn't even see. It's an experience that never left me."
Martin was not so forthcoming on every topic, however. When asked by another audience member if Jon Snow would be returning to the series, as many fans have speculated, despite dying in last season's finale, The Independent reports that he was close-lipped. "No comment on that," he answered, offering the tiniest of hints. "I'm just saying, read the books."
Jon's death in Martin's A Dance With Dragons book is "actually quite different in almost every detail", points out Bustle. Yes, he is stabbed by the Night's Watch in the courtyard of Castle Black, but there are some big differences, largely because many of the characters in the book never made it into the television series.
"Without many of Castle Black's more peripheral supporting characters, showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss were forced to streamline the traumatic event," says Bustle. They even invented an entirely new character to help move things along: Olly the farm boy, who is angry with Jon for showing mercy to the wildlings that slaughtered his village.
In the books, the Night's Watch kills Jon because he wants to lead an army to Winterfell to kill Ramsay Bolton, breaking their vow to take no part in the politics of Westeros. The television series, however, does not offer a specific inciting incident.
But, perhaps most crucially, the description of Jon's apparent death is much more "vague", says Bustle. "When the third dagger took him between the shoulder blades, he gave a grunt and fell face-first into the snow," writes Martin. "He never felt the fourth knife. Only the cold."
