The central hypothesis of the mythical astronomy theory is that many of the ancient legends of Westeros and the rest of the “Planetos” are actually telling us about a world-shaping global cataclysm – the Long Night – through the use of symbolism and metaphor. This is consistent with real-world mythology, which is quite often based on observation of the heavens and the cycles and characteristics of nature.
But it’s not just the ancient legends of A Song of Ice and Fire that tell the story of the Long Night and the War for the Dawn – George has cleverly paralleled the ancient myths with all of the most important and vivid scenes in the main story. Jon and Daenerys may perform deeds which parallel those of Azor Ahai and Nissa Nissa, but that’s only the beginning – Robert and Renly Baratheon are modern versions of Garth the Green, and more than a few characters show parallels to the Night’s King and Queen, just to name a few examples. The bread and butter of the Mythical Astronomy podcast is comparing the various legends and myths to the characters in the main story and their symbolism, and by doing so, we can discover many exciting scenes which contain metaphorical references to the Long Night events.
George R. R. Martin chooses his descriptive language with the utmost intention, and the reoccurring turns of phrase that we find throughout the books create a tapestry of symbolism which is remarkably consistent and highly meaningful. For me, it all started coming together when I noticed that the moon cracks in both the Azor Ahai story and the Qarthine “origin of dragons” story…
For a more thorough discussion of George’s use of symbol, metaphor, and esoterism in ASOIAF, click the ‘methodology’ tab above. Otherwise, just dive on in to the first essay, or you can listen to the podcast version wherever podcasts are found, or you can watch on YouTube (the YouTube versions are embedded at the top of the page of each essay). To be notified when a new essay and podcast are released, please follow the blog here on WordPress or subscribe to Mythical Astronomy of Ice and Fire on iTunes. The podcast RSS feed can be found here.
NEW! White Walkers of the Weirwoods
I’ve mentioned this theory in passing many many times, and now it gets a proper (dare I say ‘definitive’) write-up; this is my best presentation of the evidence that the white walkers come from the weirwoods than I can make. Bonus cameo by the green men 🙂
Garth the Green Man
Who are the green men? Why should anyone care (meaning what do they have to do with the main story)? What does this have to do with the origins of the greenseers and the weirwoods? What secrets does the Isle of Faces hold? Get ready to have you mind blown by the clever folkloric connections between Garth, the weirwoods, and the greenseers. This is some of George’s finest world-building and re-purposing of real world myth anywhere in the series.
The Doom Was an Abolition
In “The Doom was an Inside Job,” I proposed that Aenar Targaryen worked with the Faceless Men to cause the Doom of Valyria, that fiery cataclysm which brought the five thousand year-old Valyrian Empire to a sudden and violent end. The question now is why? Why did Aenar help to cause the destruction of his own nation, the effective genocide of his own people? I think I have the answer…
Shamanic Thunder Horse (Weirwood Compendium 9)
Astral Projection! Weirwoods! Dunk and Egg! Sleipnir and Yggdrasil! It’s all here in Weirwood Compendium 9!
The Others
✧ White Walkers of the Weirwoods
✧ Dawn is the Original Ice: the Last Hero
✧ Dawn is the Original Ice: the Pale Sword
✧ Symbolism of the Others: the Kingsguard
✧ Origin of the Others: Night’s Queen
✧ Night’s King Azor Ahai
✧ A New Night’s King?
✧ Euron, King of the Apocalypse
✧ Night’s King Crowseye
✧ Born to Burn the Others
✧ Lord Snow
✧ Promised to the Others
Great Empire of the Dawn
✧ Dragonlords of Ancient Asshai
✧ Westeros
✧ Metropolis
✧ Dracomorph
✧ Dawnbringers
✧ Origins of the Dothraki
King Bran
✧ Greenseer Kings of Ancient Westeros
✧ Return of the Summer King
✧ The God-on-Earth
End of Ice and Fire
✧ Burn Them All
✧ The Sword in the Tree
✧ The Cold God’s Eye
✧ The Battle of Winterfell
Bloodstone Compendium
✧ Astronomy Explains the Legends of I&F
✧ The Bloodstone Emperor Azor Ahai
✧ Waves of Night & Moon Blood
✧ The Mountain vs. the Viper & the Hammer of the Waters
✧ Tyrion Targaryen
✧ Lucifer means Lightbringer
Sacred Order of Green Zombies A
✧ The Last Hero & the King of Corn
✧ King of Winter, Lord of Death
✧ The Long Night’s Watch
Moons of Ice and Fire
✧ Shadow Heart Mother
✧ Dawn of the Others
✧ Visenya Draconis
✧ The Long Night Was His to Rule
✧ R+L=J, A Recipe for Ice Dragons
The Blood of the Other
✧ Prelude to a Chill
✧ A Baelful Bard & a Promised Prince
✧ The Stark that Brings the Dawn
✧ Eldric Shadowchaser
✧ Prose Eddard
✧ Ice Moon Apocalypse
Weirwood Compendium A
✧ The Grey King & the Sea Dragon
✧ A Burning Brandon
✧ Garth of the Gallows
✧ In a Grove of Ash
Weirwood Goddess
✧ Venus of the Woods
✧ It’s an Arya Thing
✧ The Cat Woman Nissa Nissa
Weirwood Compendium B
✧ To Ride the Green Dragon
✧ The Devil and the Deep Green Sea
✧ Daenerys the Sea Dreamer
✧ A Silver Seahorse
✧ Shamanic Thunder Horse
✧ The Stallion Who Mounts The World
Signs and Portals
✧ Veil of Frozen Tears
✧ Sansa Locked in Ice
Sacred Order of Green Zombies B
✧ The Zodiac Children of Garth the Green
✧ The Great Old Ones
✧ The Horned Lords
✧ Cold Gods and Old Bones
We Should Start Back
✧ AGOT Prologue
✧ LmL on Facebook ✧
Click to open in iTunes
• Tolkienic Song of I&F
• Echoes of I&F
• Plowman’s Keep
• Blue Winter Roses
• Pawn to Player
• Weirwood Leviathan
• Culture Wars of I&F
featured on DiscoveryNews.com
lucifermeanslightbringer 
David, I got yelled at by one of your moderators, lectured, bullied by her friends, and banned from your Discord and blocked from commenting on your Youtube channel all for arguing the Tyrion chimera theory you just published a long video supporting. Your moderator accused me of *supporting SA* just for advancing the theory that Aerys and Joanna had a secret relationship because, according to her, Aerys was king and such a relationship is inherently SA. I wasn’t taking any stance in favor of SH or SA, I was advancing a highly detailed theories based on all the book clues. I was a paying member at that time on both Youtube and Discord to support you (even though I only needed one) and my comments got blocked completely on both of them, even though they were separate paid memberships. I was also one of your original followers going back ten years from when Quinn first recommended you on Ideas of Ice and Fire, which I followed.
This was one of the worst experiences of my life. I have avoided Reddit and Facebook for more than a decade because I don’t like the people talk to each other, the bullying, the nasty trolls, or the hollier-than-thou lecturers. I thought your space was a safe space for someone with ADHD and OCD to have a friendly conversation about theories. Your moderator turned it into a nightmare by being the one to start attacking me nastily and whipping up other members to join in and bully me.
I would like an apology and being reinstated so I can talk about my theories, including my Tyrion merged twin theory I have been promoting for more than five years.
–A Theory of Ice and Fire
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I am going to try to calm down, but I am still very upset a year (?) later. My Mom was dying at the time and I was taking care of her. I would go on the Discord at the time at night to get some relief for my sadness after coming home from helping Mom. I just didn’t expect to get flamed for what I think is a great theory.
I’d been posting in comments on your YouTube page for several years about my own personal theories, and I thought the Discord was a good forum to discuss them. I was especially posting abou my theory that Tyrion is a Targaryen and the third head of the dragon that I emailed a long essay to my friends about in 2012 (and much later revised to he’s a merged twin) several years before I looked at anyone else’s theories or Youtube theories. Also my unique theory that Jaqen is a Targaryen (and the real Aegon) having been switched as a baby on Rhaegar’s orders, and taken to the House of the Undying by a kingsguard on Rhaegar’s orders before returning to the Tower of Joy (in case he lost the war). And also my original theory that Dany has direct Dayne blood is why she can hatch dragons (it having been lost in the Targaryen line) and Jon probably also has Dayne blood so he can become sword of the morning and use Dawn’s magical powers. My preferred version of this is that Arthur Dayne was Rhaella’s Lancelot and the true father of Rhaegar and Dany, with Viserys being Aerys only actual child. I have written a lot about these theories over the years, as well as developing many others, such as that the Faceless men will next take Arya’s speech and send her to be the Black Pearl’s assistant so he can learn non-verbal communication and lip reading watching the Black Pearl interact with men; then that the Faceless men will send her back to Essos with pretty faces as their agent to kill Tomen and Myrcella (making her the younger, prettier girl who takes everything from Cersei) meanwhile she goes through puberty and becomes as beautiful as Lyanna when she puts on her own face, until she eventually reunites with Jaqen and reprises the Lyanna – Rhaegar relationship with him, a Stark and Targaryen in love with a forbidden relationship.
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Hey David. This is BrainFireBob from the old ASoIaF boards. 1) Appreciate the hat-tip. 2) Been looking to reach out to you. Had some ideas I thought you might enjoy weaving in to some of your other stuff
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Thank you for all the content, great work.
I have only one question: Why didnt the Valyrians conquer Westeros?
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Thanks for the videos and writings. I had given up after HBO. The characters were in my heart and in my head and I wasn’t ready for someone to put a new face on them. As a reader only it’s been a long night waiting for the darkness to end. You rekindled an old love, and I’ve revisited the tattered pages of my books with whole new insights I’d love to share – perhaps content for you!
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Do you think that Maegor was a necessary evil? I don’t think so. Maybe, Visenya could have followed her own advice even without the king’s permission or maybe she and Maegor could’ve made an angreemant with Aegon, since Balerion and Vhagar were the biggest dragons in the world, so they could’ve “ended” with the faith without usurping the iron throne.
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Do you think that shiera might be helping Daenerys? What do you think about she and Brynden? I think that she’s a fire moon, since she reminds me of queen Rhaenys.
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Hey dude! No idea if you read these but I stumbled on your videos a few days ago and fell down a huge backlog rabbit hole to say the least 😅 I’ve only ever watched GoT but your videos not only rekindled my interest in the franchise but I’m mostly through Book 1 now. Thank you so much for your wonderful work 💖 hope you’re well
-Jared
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Hey Dave,
So I just wanted to say I’ve enjoyed your channel for years and love that it boosted my fictional and in general my literacy for media, which is awesome! There’s just something I noticed that’s somewhat of a niche that I think is unexplored.
I’ve started reading Elric of Melnibone and some of the parallels are super relevant and are related to ASOIAF, and I feel it’s another layer of symbolic analysis which I think would help a lot. Tim is awesome say using Lovecraftian ideas and I figure I could take some notes or highlight some passages and send them to you, it’s in keeping with the literary tradition you’ve kind of inspired me to look into.
Particularly there are passages relating to Dreams, and Immryr being the dreaming city full of people claiming to literally descend from dragone. A lot of the magic is about not only physical interactions but accessing different planes of the waking and dreaming world and seeing how they intersect and branch apart. I’m still only early on in the series but just wanted to know if you were curious about it, and feel free to email me in case you want to know more!
Much love and keep rocking it,
Shane
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I’m listening to your live event
Thanks
While you praise Garth
I saw comment about ‘praise Garth t-shirt “
I have a design for you
I don’t insta or Facebook etc..
Is there a way to send to you ?
Email?
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Thank you
Link to article
Empress Matilda, George R. R. Martin’s Muse
Like the fictional character she inspired, Matilda was at the center of a civil war, fighting her own relatives for control of the royal throne.
https://flip.it/2ccNr9
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Your discussions referencing the Green Sea and its relation to green seeing brings to mind Gilly’s line (in the tv show) that she thought “sea” and “see” was the same word. It has always nagged at me.
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