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What's in a Name? History and Fantasy in Game of Thrones

Uckelman, Sara L.; Murphey, Sonia; Percer, Joseph

What's in a Name? History and Fantasy in Game of Thrones Thumbnail


Authors

Sonia Murphey

Joseph Percer



Contributors

Brian A. Pavlac
Editor

Abstract

Nowhere is the border between history and fantasy more blurred than in people's perceptions of names. People often assume that names in modern fantasy stories are medieval in origin. Some fault for this assumption can be laid at the feet of the Father of Fantasy, J.R.R. Tolkien, because many of his names are in fact genuine medieval names, and many of those which are not are explicitly marked out as such, originating in his constructed Elvish languages. A natural conclusion then is that fantasy names which are not otherwise identified as fantasy are plausibly medieval. This chapter discusses names in the Game of Thrones books and television series, and shows that this conclusion is not warranted. It considers not only the historicity of individual name elements, but also the patterns of the complete names, and their similarity to medieval naming patterns and practices.

Citation

Uckelman, S. L., Murphey, S., & Percer, J. (2017). What's in a Name? History and Fantasy in Game of Thrones. In B. A. Pavlac (Ed.), Game of Thrones versus history : written in blood (241-250). Wiley

Acceptance Date Jul 15, 2016
Online Publication Date Apr 1, 2017
Publication Date Apr 1, 2017
Deposit Date Jul 15, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Publisher Wiley
Pages 241-250
Book Title Game of Thrones versus history : written in blood.
ISBN 9781119249429
Publisher URL http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1119249422.html

Files

Accepted Book Chapter (313 Kb)
PDF

Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.




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