‘Game of Thrones’: Clues About the Ironborn and House Greyjoy From Real Viking History (Guest Blog)

“The Vikings were very much better fighters on land than the Ironborn,” Oxford University medieval literature professor Carolyne Larrington writes

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HBO

Those ferocious sea-going raiders, the Ironborn look set to play a crucial part in the seventh season of HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” Yara and Theon Greyjoy have allied themselves with Daenerys Targaryen, but somewhere out on the seas is their murderous uncle Euron, with the rest of the Ironborn fleet.

Conflict seems unavoidable — as the trailers for suggest. Ironborn military power is underpinned by their slender, beautifully designed warships which allow them to strike at will along the Westerosi coastline, and so it’s tempting to compare them with the Vikings, the medieval Scandinavian raiders who brought terror to Europe for three centuries.

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