TIME reports the university will now be offering a new Folklore and Mythology course entitled, ‘The Real Game of Thrones: From Modern Myths to Medieval Models’, which will look at how both George R.R. Martin’s book and the TV show, “echoes and adapts, as well as distorts the history and culture of the ‘medieval world’ of Eurasia from c. 400 to 1500 CE”.
“When I read medieval verse epics with my students, they’d say, ‘Oh, that’s like in Game of Thrones,'” Kirakosian explains.
Game of Thrones is so complex in its own mythology, it would likely take actual scholars to understand exactly how everything connects.
The course will examine in particular “a set of archetypal characters at the heart of Game of Thrones — the king, the good wife, the second son, the adventurer, and so on — with distinct analogues in medieval history, literature, religion, and legend.”