The Names of the Great Houses of Westeros, Explored and Explained

House Arryn

I have always understood the name of House Arryn as be allusion to “Aryan,” which denotes the Indo-European people who invaded northern India in the second century BC. Today, we more commonly associate the term with blonde-haired, blue-eyed Europeans, an idea that first took hold in the 19th century. In the 20th century, the idea of “Aryan supremacy” was an integral part of German nationalism before and during World War II.

I realize I may be the only one to view things this way, but I can’t help but think of the early Andals (and House Arryn was arguably the most important Andal house of the time) looking and behaving exactly as the Nazis imagined their ancestors to look and behave, wrong as they were: White men with light hair, fighting and conquering, bare-chested, convinced of their own moral and martial superiority. That’s not a very charming association, so let’s move on.