Fire & Blood

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Fire & Blood
Fire and Blood.jpg
The US cover of Fire & Blood as posted by George R. R. Martin on his Not a Blog in April, 2018.
Author George R. R. Martin
Country United States
Language English
Series A Song of Ice and Fire
Genre(s) Fantasy
Released

November 20th, 2018[1] (hardcover)

May 5th, 2020[2] (paperback)

Fire & Blood is a complete history of House Targaryen written by George R. R. Martin.[3] Although originally planned for publication after the completion of A Song of Ice and Fire,[4] Martin revealed his intent to publish the history in two volumes after the material had grown too large. The first volume, named Fire & Blood, was released on November 20th, 2018 as a hardcover,[1] and on May 5th as a paperback.[2] Before being titled Fire & Blood, the history was jokingly named the GRRMarillion[5][6] after J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion.

Publication History

Much material published in Fire & Blood originates from the writing of Martin's 2014 book The World of Ice & Fire. The World of Ice & Fire, written from the perspective of Maester Yandel, contains sections from the perspective of Archmaester Gyldayn. These sections were written by Martin on his own; however, he wrote much more than at first intended, and in the end delivered 180,000 words on Targaryen history. The great majority of this[N 1] covered Aegon's Conquest up to the end of the Regency of Aegon III.[7]

As of 2014, more than 200,000 words had been written for Fire & Blood.[8] This entire historical account is said to cover Targaryen history through the reign of Aegon V Targaryen.[9]

In February 2017, Elio Garcia, Martin's co-author of The World of Ice & Fire, reported that he had spoken with Martin at WorldCon 75, held in 2017 in Helsinki, about the first volume of Fire & Blood. Garcia reported that – in addition to the never-published material developed for The World of Ice & Fire – Martin also created entirely new material for the book, having "worked some on just fleshing out a bit" the long reign of King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, which was previously only glossed over in the text known as "Heirs of the Dragon".[10]

On July 22nd, 2017, Martin revealed on his Not a Blog that the material for Fire & Blood had grown so large that the decision had been made to publish the fictional histories of the Targaryen kings in two volumes. The first volume, simply called Fire & Blood, covers the history of Westeros from Aegon's Conquest up to and through the regency of Aegon III Targaryen. In July 2017, Martin reported that the first volume of Fire & Blood was already largely written, whereas the second volume remains largely unwritten.[6] In April 2018, Martin said that Fire & Blood, Volume Two will be completed "a few years down the pike."[1]

When announcing the publication date of Fire & Blood on his Not a Blog, Martin revealed the manuscript to be 989 pages long.[1]

On March 9th, 2022, Martin revealed that he was considering the title Blood & Fire for the second volume.[11]

Contents

Fire & Blood contains the following texts:

King Chapter Notes
Aegon I Targaryen Aegon's Conquest Aegon I Targaryen's Conquest of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.[7] Largely similar to The Reign of the Dragons: The Conquest as it appeared in The World of Ice & Fire.
Reign of the Dragon - The Wars of King Aegon I Previously referred to as The Peace of the Dragon.[12] While Aegon I's reign had briefly been glossed over in The World of Ice & Fire, no parts of these texts had been published before.
Three Heads Had the Dragon - Governance Under King Aegon I
Aenys I Targaryen
and
Maegor I Targaryen
The Sons of the Dragon[13] The reigns of Aegon I's sons, King Aenys I Targaryen and King Maegor I Targaryen, ending with Maegor's death and the ascension of Aenys's son Jaehaerys I Targaryen to the throne. An edited-down version of "The Sons of the Dragon" was released in October 2017 titled "The Sons of the Dragon" in the anthology The Book of Swords.[13]
Jaehaerys I Targaryen Prince into King - The Ascension of Jaehaerys I The long reign of Jaehaerys I, starting at Jaehaerys's regency, and ending with the death of Queen Alysanne Targaryen.
The Year of the Three Brides - 49 AC
A Surfeit of Rulers
A Time of Testing - The Realm Remade
Birth, Death, and Betrayal Under King Jaehaerys I
Jaehaerys and Alysanne - Their Triumphs and Tragedies
The Long Reign - Jaehaerys and Alysanne: Policy, Progeny, and Pain
Jaehaerys I Targaryen
and
Viserys I Targaryen
Heirs of the Dragon - A Question of Succession Previously simply known as Heirs of the Dragon:[14] Detailing the succession crisis Jaehaerys faced in 92 AC and again in 101 AC, and continuing with the reign of Viserys I Targaryen. An abridged version, The Rogue Prince, was previously published in the anthology Rogues in 2014, uses the majority of this text, detailing the reign of Viserys I.[14]
Aegon II Targaryen The Dying of the Dragons - The Blacks and the Greens Previously called simply The Dying of the Dragons.[14] Six chapters on the great civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, ending with the murder of King Aegon II. An abridged version of 30,000 words was included in The Princess and the Queen,[5] which was published in the anthology Dangerous Women in 2013.
The Dying of the Dragons - A Son for a Son
The Dying of the Dragons - The Red Dragon and the Gold
The Dying of the Dragons - Rhaenyra Triumphant
The Dying of the Dragons - Rhaenyra Overthrown
The Dying of the Dragons - The Short, Sad Reign of Aegon II
Aegon III Targaryen Aftermath - The Hour of the Wolf Together with the following four chapters previously referred to as The Boy King and His Regents.[14] Covering Lord Cregan Stark's time at King's Landing.
Under the Regents - The Hooded Hand Together with the previous chapter and the chapter after previously referred to as The Boy King and His Regents.[14] Detailing the reign of Aegon III under the rule of his regents and Hands of the King.
Under the Regents - War and Peace and Cattle Shows
Under the Regents - The Voyage of Alyn Oakenfist
The Lysene Spring and the End of Regency Detailing the final years of Aegon III's regency, following the return of his younger brother, Viserys, and Viserys's wife and her family.

Furthermore, Fire & Blood contains an overview of the entire Targaryen succession, and a family tree depicting the Targaryen family until 136 AC.

Fire & Blood is illustrated in a similar fashion as A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. As told by Martin, the hardcover book contains more than seventy-five black & white illustrations by Doug Wheatley.[15][1] The paperback version contains five additional illustrations.[2]

Previews

At San Diego Comic Con 2018, Random House made a poster available featuring the Targaryen family tree that will appear in Fire & Blood. They additionally provided a signup link for their mailing list giving access to a PDF of the family tree.[16] While this version of the family tree contained several errors,[N 2] the family tree was later republished in a finalized version and released online as PDF, from which all errors were removed.

The Targaryen family tree for Fire & Blood contains several differences compared to the one released in The World of Ice & Fire concerning the thirteen children of Jaehaerys I and Alysanne Targaryen. Prince Valerion, originally Jaehaerys's and Alysanne's ninth child, and Princess Saera, originally their twelfth born child, have been switched in birth order, making Saera the ninth born and Valerion their twelfth born. Four other children have shifted in their birth orders as well. Princess Alyssa was changed from the secondborn to the fifthborn, Princess Daella subsequently from being the fifth born to the eigthborn child, and Princess Maegelle from eighthborn to the sixthborn. Lastly, Prince Aeryn, originally the sixthborn, has been exchanged for Princess Daenerys, who has become the secondborn child of the king and queen. Regarding these changes, Elio Garcia has stated the following:

... George had some new ideas for some of the names and the stories of the children who died young, and corrected some issues that came out of his original birth order (we actually got the names of all the kids quite late in the production of TWoIaF—literally a month before we had to finalize the book—so there was not much time to interrogate it). However, the stories of those who live to adulthood, as published in TWoIaF, do remain the same (just, of course, much more detailed).[17]

On September 2018, on his Not a Blog, George R. R. Martin published a sample from the chapter on the reign of King Jaehaerys I, recounting their royal progress to the north in 58 AC. Alongside the excerpt a portrait of King Jaehaerys I and his sister-wife Alysanne by Doug Wheatley was released.[18]

Behind the Scenes

George R. R. Martin has cited Thomas B. Costain's non-fiction books on the Plantagenet dynasty as an influence for Fire and Blood.[19]

Notes

  1. 160,000 words
  2. For example, Aegon I Targaryen and Rhaenys Targaryen were not connected to one another as spouses.

References