Free Beyond the Wall: Exploring George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, From A Game of Thrones to A Dance with Drago by Unknown Page B

tragedy is the mythos of autumn, which moves linearly from innocence to experience; and irony and satire are the mythos of winter, which moves cyclically within the world of experience. Each mythos is further subdivided into six phases, which may shift into corresponding phases in the adjacent mythos , so that extended narratives can move cyclically through two or more mythoi . Further, while the third phase of romance, representing the quest myth that is the ancient counterpart of modern fantasy, may move on to the later phases of romance, wherein a desired outcome is successfully defended, it may also shift into the third phase of tragedy, in which heroes achieve a certain sort of triumph while also reaching a tragic end in worlds that may then descend further into the dark terrain of experience. In Frye’s vision, then, the happy endings of fantasies may only be preludes to tragedies to follow, tempered solely by the hope that, after a long time, the cycle may continue turning and the narrative will pass through irony and satire to achieve the heartening rebirth of comedy. By this argument, then, all fantasies implicitly lead to tragedies.

     
    One hardly needs to mention that such intimations are central to the somber conclusion of The Lord of the Rings, as characters foresee the end of their magical realm and the ascendancy of the human race in the manner of the third phase of tragedy. In Martin’s epic, an ominous future for his fictional world is conveyed in a literal fashion by means of seasonal imagery that Frye would understand, as the land of Westeros is entering a long, cold winter of unknown duration, and the unchallenged reign of the humans is about to be disturbed by the reappearance of the feared, frigid Others from the North. Martin has also crafted a world in which the iconic animals of fantasy, dragons, are already extinct, although the surprising births of three dragons under the control of Daenerys Targaryen provide a modicum of hope that the species may be revived. Perhaps Martin envisions a conclusion in which, all family conflicts resolved, an admirable global civilization of knights and magic is permanently forged; but considering that his saga is modeled so explicitly on Earth’s medieval past, one might also anticipate that this fantasy world will eventually come to the end, to be succeeded, as in Tolkien, by a fallen world not unlike our own.
    If, then, there are inevitable intimations of such dark possibilities within A Song of Ice and Fire, one alternative would be to take the story backward, into preceding phases of the cycle of romance that are related to comedy. Or, if authors resolve to explore the prehistory of their fantasy worlds for other reasons, they may find themselves naturally impelled toward stories that resemble comedy more than romance. Thus, while one can never be sure precisely what led Martin to begin writing his prequels, it is not surprising to find that, in contrast to the main epic, the resulting stories initially seem to project the lighter tone of an enjoyable diversion, reflecting the spirit of the springtime mythos of comedy.
    The characters of Dunk and Egg, in fact, seem precisely crafted to serve as comic alternatives to the more serious-minded events of the main series. As a bastard who knows nothing about his parents, Dunk is entirely unconnected to the royal families in A Song of Ice and Fire and thus unencumbered by any inherited responsibilities. Though he impresses people with his great height, which is why he names himself “Ser Duncan the Tall,” Dunk does not always seem an especially talented fighter—in the third Dunk and Egg story, “The Mystery Knight,” he is easily defeated by a superior opponent. Neither does he appear to be unusually intelligent—whenever he makes a mistake, he mentally repeats what his knight used to tell him, “ Dunk the lunk, thick as a castle wall ,” and he describes Egg as “ braver than I am, and more clever .”