Fire & Blood

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Fire and Blood
Author George R. R. Martin
Country United States
Language English
Series A Song of Ice and Fire
Genre(s) Fantasy

Fire and Blood is a planned complete history of House Targaryen by George R. R. Martin.[1] Fire and Blood is planned for publication after the completion of A Song of Ice and Fire.[2] Before being titled Fire and Blood, the history was jokingly named the GRRMarillion[3] after J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion.

Contents

When Martin wrote his "sidebars" for the World book, they grew into several long chapters, spanning from the beginning of Aegon I's reign to the end of Aegon III's reign:

  • The Targaryen Conquest[4] - the story of the War of Conquest in which Aegon I Targaryen conquered and united the Seven Kingdoms, forging the Iron Throne.
  • The Sons of the Dragon[5] - focused 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[6] - beginning with the succession crisis following Jaehaerys I's death after his 55 year reign, and centered around the reign of Jaehaerys's grandson and successor, Viserys I Targaryen. The story sets up the seeds of the rival court factions centered around Viserys I's daughter Rhaenyra and second wife Alicent Hightower, which would lead to the Dance of the Dragons.
  • The Dying of the Dragons[6] - describing the great Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, between Rhaenyra and her half-brother Aegon II Targaryen
  • Aftermath — The Boy King and His Regents[6] - Rhaenyra's young son [[[Aegon III Targaryen]] inherited the throne and a shattered realm after the Dance ended, leading to a long Regency era in which various court factions intrigued for power.

The chapter on the Targaryen Conquest is about 10,000 words long, and was the first one that Martin wrote. Elio & Linda stated that all of it was released in The World of Ice and Fire.[7]

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.[6]

"The Dying of the Dragons" is an account on the Dance of the Dragons, and roughly 60,000 words in length.[6][N 1] Elio later explained that when Martin gave that figure he was accidentally including "Heirs of the Dragon" in the count.[8] An abridged version of 30,000 words was included in The Princess and the Queen,[3] which was published in the anthology Dangerous Women in 2013.

Similar to The Princess and the Queen, an edited-down version of "Heirs of the Dragon" will be released in October 2017 titled "Sons of the Dragon" in the anthology The Book of Swords.[5]

As of 2014, more than 200,000 words had been written for Fire and Blood.[9] This historical account is said to cover Targaryen history through the reign of Aegon V Targaryen.[10]

In a video released on July 27, 2017, Elio and Linda clarified several figures.[11] Martin actually wrote about 180,000 words of Targaryen history for the World book, of which the vast majority were 160,000 from the Conquest to the end of Aegon II's reign. Only 55,000 appear in the print version of the World book (10,00 on the Targaryen Conquest), though edited versions of some chapters were released in anthologies. After that Martin stopped because he realized he'd written far more than could be included in the World book as intended. The other 20,000 were various background notes stemming from the main novels giving background on the reign of Aerys II, or notes on the future life of Aegon V (which would be covered in future Dunk & Egg stories. He didn't write new material for Aegon IV, but that is because he already wrote extensive unpublished notes years before on Aegon IV's corrupt reign and his many mistresses. Given that the combined "Dying of the Dragons" and "Heirs of the Dragons" are around 80,000 words, the "Regency" chapter is nearly 60,000, and the Conquest is 10,000, this adds up to 150,000. With their new figure that all the chapters from the first half add up to 160,000 words, subtraction reveals that "Sons of the Dragon" as initially written was around 10,000 words long.


On July 22nd, 2017, Martin revealed on his Not a Blog that the material for Fire and 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 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. Targaryen dynasty. Martin reported that the first volume of Fire and Blood is largely written, whereas the second volume remains largely unwritten. Though no publication date has been set yet. but it's likely that we will get the first volume of Fire and Blood in late 2018 or early 2019.[12]

Notes

  1. Previously reported to have a word count of 80,000 (Not A Blog, The Princess and the Queen (August 31, 2013))

References