What Countries Do the Houses in Game of Thrones Represent

Caution: This post contains minor spoilers from "Game of Thrones" and "A Vocal of Ice and Fire."

Still reeling from Sunday's flavour 5 finale of "Game Of Thrones"? Understandable. It was cruel!

One mental exercise useful during every traumatic episode of the testify or moment in George R.R. Martin's book serial, "A Song of Ice and Fire," is to remind yourself that Westeros, and the people living there, are not real. It'due south all fiction! Nothing happening on the screen or page actually happened to a living human.

This is easy, of course, when there are dragons or White Walkers on screen. Yet Martin has made it articulate that he did utilize historical events, people and places as the inspiration for some of his earth.

With that in heed, nosotros at The Huffington Mail service decided to play a fun little game: If Westeros did exist, what real world countries would stand for to each of the 7 Kingdoms?

This was not a completely straightforward do. I obvious question: Does Westeros represent Bang-up Britain or Europe? It's shaped similar Great United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland. (Or, more accurately, like a conglomeration of Great Britain and Ireland.) And it'due south correct beyond a narrow straight of ocean from a much larger, more diverse continent, only like Keen United kingdom.

Yet Martin has said that "Westeros is much much MUCH bigger than Great britain. More the size (though non the shape, obviously) of Due south America, I'd say." And though all Seven Kingdoms share a language, the so-called Mutual Natural language, they're extremely diverse in terms of ancestry, history, culture and organized religion -- almost every bit various as Europe. So we decided to presume that Westeros is Europe, and become from there.

Another catchy issue has to exercise with history. Martin drew from the Middle Ages, broadly speaking, in limning out his fantastical world, simply the Middle Ages lasted a long time. Between the fall of the Roman Empire and the discovery of the Americas, the diverse countries of Europe inverse a nifty deal. And many of them didn't exist in anything similar their modernistic form for much, or even whatever, of that period. So for simplicity's sake, we decided to refer to countries in terms that reflect modern-day boundaries, only also to pull from many different points in history when deciding what country to assign.

With no further ado, here's a map illustrating our findings; scroll down to find out the reasoning behind individual picks, arranged from south to n. But hey! This whole thing is totally subjective. So if you disagree with the countries we picked, say and so in the comments!

*NOTE: HuffPost divided the map by houses, only technically the Seven Kingdoms are: The North, The Mountain and Vale, The Isles and Rivers, The Rock, The Reach, The Stormlands and Dorne.

Dorne = Spain

This 1 is pretty obvious: Martin has all but said that Dorne is Spain. The country's mural is much drier and rockier than well-nigh of the rest of the continent. And the Dornish, similar the Castilian, are descendants of people from multiple continents, who are noted, like Moorish Spaniards, for their liberality and tolerance. And their food is spicier and more than exotic than well-nigh of the food in Westeros.

The Accomplish = France

The domicile of House Tyrell is, like France, a vast and fertile state, with a more than pleasant climate than much of the rest of the state. It's home to an island called The Arbor that, like the French regions of Burgundy and Bordeaux, makes what is widely considered the all-time vino in the globe. The urban center of Oldtown is the biggest and most sophisticated in Westeros, much as Paris was for some time the biggest and most sophisticated urban center in Europe. And the inhabitants of The Reach are invested in chivalry, fine art and culture to a significantly greater extent than those in the remainder of Westeros. You could also fence that Margaery Tyrell is the closest affair Westeros has to its own Anne Boleyn -- who, though English language by claret, was more often than not raised in France.

The Stormlands = Wales

We really don't know all that much about The Stormlands. Even though several scenes are ready in or nearly Storm's End, the ancestral home of Business firm Baratheon, we haven't gotten a glimpse of the residuum of the kingdom. But we know that information technology's minor, that the terrain is rough and green and that that weather tends toward the rainy. Much like Wales! There's too a royal connectedness: House Baratheon is (nominally) the ruling family unit of Westeros, and the heir to the throne of Great Britain and Northern Ireland goes by the title "The Prince of Wales."

King's Landing = London

I mean, duh, correct? What else could information technology be?

The Westerlands = England

The most important fact virtually the geography of The Westerlands is that the land is very rich in gold. Its abundance is what made the Lannisters the wealthiest of the Neat Houses. England doesn't exactly take that same reputation, though Ancient Romans did mine a pregnant corporeality of gold there. That said, the English, like the Lannisters, rose to ability largely on the strength of their economy; that's what immune them to get, for several hundred years, the most powerful country in the world. The Westerlands is likewise home to 1 of the great ports of Westeros, Lannisport, which makes the region more focused on maritime trade than some others. Further evidence can be found in the Lannisters' rivalry with the Tyrells and the Starks, which echoes England'south historical rivalry with its southern neighbors in France and its northern neighbors in Scotland.

The Riverlands = Frg

Some accept argued that the real-world analogue closest to the Riverlands is the Low Countries, on the basis of geography -- both are wet and prevarication between several more powerful lands. Simply the history doesn't lucifer upwards at all. The people of the Riverlands are nothing like the trade-focused Dutch. And the equivalents of financial centers of Amsterdam and Antwerp are to be found in Essos, not Westeros.

What really marks the Riverlands is its lack of cocky-rule and the encarmine battles that take been fought on its terrain. These are traits the region shares with the war-torn Deutschland of Medieval Europe. Frg was ravaged by the barbarous Thirty Years War in much the same fashion that the Riverlands is ravaged past the War of the Five Kings. And only as Germany didn't really develop a real cohesive national identity until its unification by Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck in the 19th century, The Riverlands wasn't actually i of the Seven Kingdoms; before Aegon'due south conquest of Westeros, it was ruled by House Hoare of the Iron Islands.

The Vale = Switzerland

The all-time show here is inherent in the geography: The Vale is home to the craggy Mountains of the Moon, which are the closest matter Westeros has to the Alps. In improver, the Knights of the Vale have, at least through the end of "A Trip the light fantastic toe with Dragons," taken no part in the wars that tore Westeros disconnected after the death of King Robert -- information technology'south been sort of a neutral territory. The Switzerland of the Heart Ages was, it must be said, hardly pacifistic, but the land is so well known for its neutrality today that it'southward hardly a stretch to suspect that Martin thought of it when he was developing the Vale.

The Iron Islands = Kingdom of norway

We're not talking most the Norway of today, hither -- the Iron Islands isn't a rich, peaceful country obsessed with Karl Ove Knausgaard. But Martin has said many times that the Ironborn, with their penchant for longships and raids, were inspired by the Vikings, who were based in Scandinavia. The rocky terrain of the Fe Islands is far closer to that of Kingdom of norway, with its fjords and archipelagos, than to fertile Sweden or Denmark.

The Due north = Scotland

This one is implied by the position and shape of the North, which is oh-so-close to Scotland. The Northerners, like the Scottish, share many traits with their southern neighbors, but besides have some crucial differences in terms of religion, culture and genetics. Just as Scottish culture is vivified by the region's ancient Celtic history, Northern culture is vivified by the region's descent from the Starting time Men. The North too shares Scotland'due south independent streak, its historical disdain for outsiders and its cold weather.

The best evidence confronting the identification of The Northward and Scotland is the location of The Wall, which is conspicuously inspired by Hadrian's Wall betwixt England and Scotland. That implies that Scotland is really the part of Westeros beyond the wall. But Hadrian'due south Wall was built long earlier the Heart Ages, when Scotland was dominated by the relatively roughshod Picts. After the Norman Invasion, Scotland was quite closely tied with England; though information technology wasn't ever ruled from London, neither is The Due north always ruled from Rex'due south Landing.

North Of The Wall = Greenland

The case for this ane rests largely on geography; Greenland is as cold and vast every bit the lands North of the Wall, and but as mysterious to the people who live further south. Culturally, the people living across the Wall are so distant and backwards that they had fiddling connection to the rest of Westeros. Just equally Greenlanders had piddling connection to Europe in the Middle Ages. The analogy isn't perfect, of course: Greenland was settled past Vikings, and, every bit far as we know, the Wildlings are not descendants of the Ironborn. It also raises the question of the real-world equivalent of the White Walkers. Maybe polar bears?

"Game Of Thrones"

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Source: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/westeros-europe_n_7565694

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