Fire & Blood

In “A Conversation Between George R. R. Martin and Dan Jones,” Martin describes Fire and Blood as the “GRRMarillion, as a play on Tolkien[‘s Silmarillion]” (732). Like The Silmarillion, Fire and Blood is a key piece of worldbuilding that provides the fictional historical context for the books and shows in Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. According to the Dan Jones interview, the book includes some material from other Martin works, with large portions first published in The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones (2014). Fire and Blood is a fictional history; it lacks many of the storytelling elements that make the five novels in the series popular and beloved. Although there is a main plot line, there are frequent digressions that add to the length of the book.

The marketing for Fire and Blood promises readers that the book will answer many of the questions that remain from the work and television shows. These questions include, “What really happened during the Dance of the Dragons? Why did it become so deadly to visit Valyria after the Doom? What is the origin of Daenerys’s three dragon eggs?” (“About the Book”). With these questions as context, several digressions from the main plotlines of the book make more sense.

The central event of Fire and Blood is the Dance of the Dragons, and the other events are background for the enduring effects of that civil war. Martin reveals that the Targaryen dynasty was born fragmented because Aegon the Conqueror had two very different wives. Visenya Targaryen is a warrior who relies on brute power. She recognizes that winning a land by conquest requires the Targaryens to protect themselves from retaliation with institutions like the Kingsguard. Rhaenys is also a warrior, but she places greater emphasis on shaping the arts and culture of Westeros to entrench Targaryen power. Conflict is built into the Targaryen dynasty from the beginning because of these two approaches to maintaining power. There are also competing lines of succession with multiple potential heirs. Competing heirs become an even greater concern during the reign of Jaehaerys and Alysanne, who produce 13 children, several of whom produce other competing lines of succession. With that information as context, the Dance of the Dragons seems inevitable.

Early chapters help fill in the context for the fall of House Targaryen, but some portions of the book are digressions that inform the plots in other books. Consider the subplot about Elissa Farman transforming herself into Alys Westhill. She steals three eggs from Rhaena Targaryen and sells them to the Sealord of Braavos. This episode is important for fans of the series because these three eggs likely include the one Daenerys Targaryen uses to become Mother of Dragons in another volume. Jaehaerys’s belief that it would be worth going to war over the eggs to prevent the Targaryens losing their dragon monopoly proves prescient.

Martin also provides more background on the Doom of Valyria. While characters throughout the novels in the series frequently mention that Valyria is a land to which no one can or should return, Martin makes vivid what happens when Targaryens try to return to their origins. Aerea Targaryen died a gory death when ‘‘worms with faces…snakes with hands…twisting, slimy, unspeakable things that seemed to writhe and pulse and squirm” cooked her from the inside (248), according to Septon Barth. The septon even speculates that the magic that made creatures like these accounts for the Doom of Valyria. Visceral details like these add to the lore that is so central to engaging fandoms.

Fire and Blood is a fictional history that fills in the blanks in the ancient and official records of the Targaryen dynasty. The promise that it will help readers understand other volumes in the series is one of its major selling points.