'Much has been written about the historical resonances of Game of Thrones, but never quite like this. There is deep scholarship at work here, paired with an immersive understanding of the strange and yet strangely familiar lands of Westeros and Essos. Carolyne Larrington is the perfect guide: in luscious prose, she leads us through the Seven Kingdoms and on across the Narrow Sea, at each step exploring the echoes and parallels to be found in our own medieval past. Beautiful, haunting and thought-provoking, this is at once a celebration and an enrichment of George R. R. Martin's world. What more could a fan want?' - Helen Castor, Bye-Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and bestselling author of Blood and Roses (2004), She-Wolves: The Women who Ruled England before Elizabeth (2010) and Joan of Arc: A History (2014)

Carolyne Larrington is Fellow and Tutor in Medieval English Literature at St John's College, Oxford. Her previous books include The Women's Companion to Mythology; The Poetic Edda; King Arthur's Enchantresses: Morgan and her Sisters in Arthurian Tradition (I.B.Tauris 2006, paperback 2014); Magical Tales: Myth, Legend and Enchantment in Children's books (edited with Diane Purkiss); and The Land of the Green Man: A Journey through the Supernatural Landscapes of the British Isles (I.B.Tauris, 2015).

List of AbbreviationsList of IllustrationsIntroductionChapter One: The CentreChapter Two: The NorthChapter Three: The WestChapter Four: Across the Narrow SeaChapter Five: The EastEpilogueNotesList of Further ReadingIndex