Game of Thrones author: Gandalf inspired me to kill everybody off
George R.R. Martin learned from J.R.R. Tolkien that the stakes are raised when no character is safe.
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Game of Thrones fans who've ever been distressed about a death in the series (Ned Stark! Shireen! HODOR!) now know who to blame, George R.R. Martin says.
Martin, the creator of the Song of Ice and Fire book series that inspired HBO's Game of Thrones , was interviewed in a video for PBS' Great American Read series. He discusses the influence J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series had on him as a young boy growing up in New Jersey.
"It was so totally immersive," Martin recalls of the series, "Tolkien approached this thing as if he was writing history."
Sound familiar? After all, Martin's the one who is about to publish a 989-page history of the Targaryens, one of his fictional families.
And Tokien's work influenced Martin in another way.
(Warning: Spoiler for a 60-plus-year-old book series ahead.)
"And then, Gandalf dies!" Martin exclaims to PBS in the video. "I can't explain the impact that had on me at 13. You can't kill Gandalf!"
But though the death may have upset a young Martin, it improved the book. Martin notes that the death made "the suspense of everything that follows a thousand times greater, 'cause now, anybody could die."
Seeing the connection? Martin is. "Of course, it's had a profound effect on my own willingness to kill characters at the drop of a hat," he said.
Watch your step, Jon Snow, Jaime Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen and the rest. Martin learned from the best, and no one is safe.
