The realm : England and the world in 1314
The iron king : France, the reach, and the curse of the Templars
The lion of England : The real Tywin Lannister
The first men : ancient Britain and Westeros
"You're no son of mine" : Scotland and the she-wolf
"We bow down before no man" : Greece, Sparta, and the real unsullied
Walls of ice and brick : Roman inspirations
Beyond the wall : Scottish history in Game of Thrones
The old gods and the new : religion, magic, and monsters in Martin's world and ours
Winter is coming : the great famine
The seven : Church and sept
Dornish Spain : Moorish Spain and Dorne
Silk ribbons tied round the sword : sellswords, rapers, and the Hundred Years War
The seven kingdoms : the Andals and the Angles
The dance of death : Greyscale, the Black Death, and leprosy
"Cattle die, kindred die, we ourselves shall die" : Viking influences on Game of Thrones
The brethren of the cross : the sept, the church, sparrows, flagellants
The drowned town : Venice and Braavos
The small folk : The Jacquerie and the peasants revolt
Wildfire : Constantinople, the greatest city that was and will be
The mad king : madness and fire
Fire and blood : conquerors, castles, bastards, and dwarves
The death of kings : the tragedy of Richard II
A song of heroic deeds : tournaments and chivalry
The curse of the kingslayer : the house of Percy
"I have other sons" : how England's forgotten civil war inspired Game of Thrones
A golden crown : Henry V, Falstaff, and Robert Baratheon
"I am a knight, I shall die a knight" : William Marshal, the sword of the morning
The witch : Joan of Arc, the woman who stepped into the fire
The sword in the darkness : the Knights Templars and the night's watch
A marriage of fire and milk : Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou
A clash of steel : justice and vengeance
The stallion who mounts the world : Dothraki and Mongols
The smell of blood and roses : York and Somerset
The rock that bestrides the continents : the rise of the Turks
The kings in the north : the Percys and the Nevilles
The sons of the first men : The Tudors
The Black Dinner : The real Red Wedding
The young wolf : York and Lancaster at the bridge of bodies.
