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]

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

Publication History

Much material which is set to be 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 prospective of Maester Yandel, contains sections from the prospective 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.[6]

As of 2014, more than 200,000 words had been written for Fire & Blood.[7] This entire historical account is said to cover Targaryen history through the reign of Aegon V Targaryen.[8]

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 fake histories of the Targaryen kings in two volumes. The first volume, simply called Fire & Blood, is set to cover the history of Westeros from Aegon's Conquest up to and through the regency of the boy king, Aegon III Targaryen. In July 2017, Martin reported that the first volume of Fire & Blood is largely written already, whereas the second volume remains largely unwritten.[5] 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]

Contents

Thus far, the first volume of Fire & Blood is known to contain the following texts:

  • The Targaryen Conquest: Aegon I Targaryen's Conquest of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.[6]
  • The Peace of the Dragon: Aegon I's reign after his Conquest.[9] While Aegon I's reign is briefly glossed over in The World of Ice & Fire, no parts of the text have yet been published.
  • The Sons of the Dragon:[10] Focuses on the lives 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.
  • Heirs of the Dragon:[11] Glossing over much of the reign of Jaehaerys I, focussing on his children and the succession crisis following the deaths of his heirs, extending until the end of the reign of Jaehaerys's grandson, Viserys I Targaryen.
  • The Dying of the Dragons:[11] The tale of the great civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons.
  • Aftermath — The Boy King and His Regents:[11] Covering the first few years of the reign of Rhaenyra's young son Aegon III, when the realm was ruled by Aegon's regents.

The "Heirs of the Dragon" is about 17,000 words long. It focuses on the children of Jaehaerys I Targaryen and the succession questions following the deaths of his sons. An abridged version, The Rogue Prince, previously published in the anthology Rogues in 2014, uses the majority of this text.[11]

"The Dying of the Dragons" is an account on the Dance of the Dragons, and roughly 60,000 words in length.[11][N 2] An abridged version of 30,000 words was included in The Princess and the Queen,[4] which was published in the anthology Dangerous Women in 2013.

Similarly, 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.[10]

"Aftermath — The Boy King and His Regents", which covers the chaotic court intrigues during the regency of Aegon III Targaryen, has been stated to be "almost as long" as "The Dying of the Dragons" in total word count.[6]

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 "Heirs of the Dragon".[12]

Fire & Blood will be illustrated in a similar fashion as A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. According to Martin, the book is set to contain more than seventy-five black & white illustrations by Doug Wheatley.[13][1]

Notes

  1. 160,000 words
  2. Previously reported to have a word count of 80,000 (Not A Blog: The Princess and the Queen (August 31, 2013)). Elio stated he believes Martin reached 80,000 in prior interviews by accidentally considering the combined word count of both The Dance of the Dragons and The Heirs of the Dragon as one big story.

References