Uncover all the hidden pop culture references in A Song of Ice and Fire

From Sesame Street to Harry Potter, Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin hid all kinds of cheeky pop culture references in his seminal fantasy series.

Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin is known for writing about death. His A Song of Ice and Fire is wet with blood. Fans know that anyone, including main characters, can die at any moment, and they often do.

That said, the man still likes his jokes, and he’s hidden plenty of sly references throughout A Song of Ice and Fire and in other works set in Westeros, like his Targaryen history Fire & Blood and his Westerosi reference guide A World of Ice and Fire. If you look closely, you’ll find plentiful references to other fantasy series, pop culture, sports teams and more.

We’ve collected some of the most amusing references and collected them here. Let’s turn the page.

Image: Harry Potter/Warner Bros., Game of Thrones/HBO

The time Brienne beat up Harry Potter

In A Feast for Crows, as Brienne and Pod travel the Riverlands, she recalls once defeating two deceiving suitors, unhorsing one while handing the other a “nasty” scar. Readers speculate the encounter is a reference to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, who famously has a scar on his forehead. And they have character names on their side.

Here’s the passage:

"In the melee at Bitterbridge she had sought out her suitors and battered them one by one, Farrow and Ambrose and Bushy, Mark Mullendore and Raymond Nayland and Will the Stork. She had ridden over Harry Sawyer and broken Robin Potter’s helm, giving him a nasty scar."

A coincidence, or does Martin think J.K. Rowling took it too easy on the boy wizard?

Image: The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring/New Line Cinema

The Lord of the Rings

J.R.R. Tolkien is an inspiration to pretty much every fantasy author alive, and Martin has been very open about drawing inspiration from his seminal The Lord of the Rings, even framing A Song of Ice and Fire has “answer” to Tolkien’s story:

"This was maybe my answer to Tolkien, whom, as much as I admire him, I do quibble with. Lord of the Rings had a very medieval philosophy: that if the king was a good man, the land would prosper. We look at real history and it’s not that simple. Tolkien can say that Aragorn became king and reigned for a hundred years, and he was wise and good. But Tolkien doesn’t ask the question: What was Aragorn’s tax policy? Did he maintain a standing army? What did he do in times of flood and famine? And what about all these orcs? By the end of the war, Sauron is gone but all of the orcs aren’t gone – they’re in the mountains. Did Aragorn pursue a policy of systematic genocide and kill them? Even the little baby orcs, in their little orc cradles?"

But Martin may have gone a bit further and slipped explicit references to Tolkien characters directly into his series. To start, there’s Theodan the True, one of the Warrior’s Sons under the Faith of the Seven. Théoden was the name of the king of Rohan in The Lord of the Rings.

"His High Holiness has been expecting you. I am Ser Theodan the True, formerly Ser Theodan Wells. If Your Grace will come with me."

There’s also an island in Westeros called Oakenshield, which shares a name with the dwarf Thorin II Oakenshield from The Hobbit. We’ll even point out that Khal Drogo shares a name with Drogo Baggins, father to Frodo.

Not all of these references may have been intentional, but considering how big of a fan Martin is of Tolkien’s work, we wouldn’t be surprised.

Sesame Street

Lord of the Rings references are to be expected in a fantasy epic, but Sesame Street? As it ends up, Martin did indeed name three members of the Tully family after a trio of beloved Muppets:

Readers learn about Grover Tully and his grandson Elmo in A World of Ice and Fire (they’re also mentioned in Fire & Blood). We also hear about a Kermit Tully, once a Lord of Riverrun. In Fire & Blood, it’s said that Kermit had a brother named Oscar, so it appears Martin is still going back to the Muppet well.

"Then as now, the riverlords were a fractious, quarrelsome lot. Kermit Tully, Lord of Riverrun, was their liege lord, and nominally commander of their host…but it must be remembered that his lordship was but nineteen years of age, and ‘green as summer grass,’ as the northmen might say. His brother Oscar, who had slain three men during the Muddy Mess and been knighted on the battlefield afterward, was still greener, and cursed with the sort of prickly pride so common in second sons."

It’s only a matter of time before we meet Big Bird Tully.

The Three Stooges

Pratfall-prone comedy icons Larry, Curly, and Moe were worked into A Game of Thrones as men-at-arms. They help Lady Catelyn capture the dwarf, Tyrion Lannister, who swears revenge upon all three:

"“The lady did not ask your views, dwarf,” snapped Kurleket, a great fat oaf with short-cropped hair and a pig’s face. He was one of the Brackens, a man-at-arms in the service of Lord Jonos. Tyrion had made a special effort to learn all their names, so he might thank them later for their tender treatment of him. A Lannister always paid his debts. Kurleket would learn that someday, as would his friends Lharys and Mohor…"

“A great fat oak with short-cropped hair and a pig’s face” fits Curly’s description pretty well. I’m gonna guess that Lharys was balding and Mohor had a bowl cut.

Credit: Tor Books

Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time

While awaiting the arrival of Doran Martel, Pod is tasked with identifying as many Dornish sigils as he can. He gets all of the banners right, down to the last:

"Bronn scanned the ranks of the approaching Dornishmen. “The last’s a golden feather on green checks.” “A golden quill, ser. Jordayne of the Tor.”"

House Jordayne of the Tor is a reference to the late author Robert Jordan, and Tor refers to the publisher of his hugely successful Wheel of Time series.

That’s not the only Wheel of Time reference in A Song of Ice and Fire. In A Feast for Crows, we learn that an Archmaester Rigney believes that history is a wheel, repeating over and over. Jordan’s real name was James Oliver Rigney, and the many cycles of history was a long-running theme of his series. Funnily enough, Robert Jordan’s alma mater is The Citadel, a military college in South Carolina.

"“You may read it here. It is old and fragile.” He studied her, frowning. “Archmaester Rigney once wrote that history is a wheel, for the nature of man is fundamentally unchanging. What has happened before will perforce happen again, he said.”"

I wonder if Amazon will slip any references to George R.R. Martin in its upcoming Wheel of Time TV series.

The Flash — “Failure is an Orphan” — Image Number: FLA516b_0385b.jpg — Pictured: Grant Gustin as The Flash — Photo: Jeff Weddell/The CW — © 2019 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved

DC Universe

If you look closely at a paragraph from Brienne’s journey to Maidenpool in A Feast for Crows, you’ll find two — possibly three — references of symbols from the DC Universe, corresponding to Blue Beetle, Green Arrow and possibly the Flash.

"At the portcullis they came upon a dozen guards armed with halberds. Their badges marked them for soldiers of Lord Tarly’s host, though none was Tarly’s own. She saw two centaurs, a thunderbolt, a blue beetle and a green arrow…"

The thunderbolt is up for interpretation, I say it could go either way.

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick watches the first half of an AFC Wild Card game against the Tennessee Titans at Gillette Stadium Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020 in Foxborough, Mass.

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The NFL

George R.R. Martin is a big fan of New York football, writing often about the triumphs and tragedies of the Jets and the Giants. Back in 2007, the undefeated New England Patriots were bested by the New York Giants in the championship, and Martin gladly wrote it into A Dance with Dragons:

"…the fourth and final volume of The Life of the Triarch Belicho, a famous Volantene patriot whose unbroken succession of conquests and triumphs ended rather abruptly when he was eaten by giants."

“Triarch Belicho” is a reference to Bill Belichick, coach of the Patriots.

Then there’s the character Ser Patrek of King’s Mountain. I’ll let Martin explain this one himself:

"Well there’s this guy named Patrick St. Denis, who runs a fantasy website called Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist. And Pat is a big Dallas Cowboys fan. So we would have a standing bet for a number of years about whether the Dallas Cowboys or the New York Giants would do better. And I won the bet the first two years. But finally, in the third year the Cowboys finished ahead of the Giants. And what I had to do if he won the bet was to kill him horribly within the books."

Ser Patrek was a clean-shaven knight who wore a cloak of white fur and a cloth-of-silver surcoat emblazoned with a blue five-pointed star, not unlike the Dallas Cowboys logo. Like Belicho, his death would come at the hands of giants. Ser Patrek was killed by Wun Wun, a nod to past New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms, whose jersey number was 11.

Those are only a few of the more popular Easter eggs readers can find in Westeros. There are plenty of other references out there, both speculative and confirmed. With Martin hard at work on The Winds of Winter, maybe he’s adding more Muppet-themed Tullys as we speak.

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