You've probably heard the story a thousand times. George R. R. Martin was looking at his pet turtles in a tank, wondering what they were thinking, and decided they were knights and lords fighting over a kingdom. It’s a cute image. But the reality of who george r. r. martin influenced by is a lot darker, bloodier, and more complicated than a bunch of reptiles in a Bayonne, New Jersey, apartment.
If you want to understand why A Song of Ice and Fire feels so different from every other "elves and goblins" story on the shelf, you have to look at the DNA. Martin didn't just wake up and decide to kill Ned Stark for the shock value. He was standing on the shoulders of giants—some who wrote about dragons, and some who wrote about real-life kings who met ends just as messy as anything in the Red Wedding.
The French Connection: Maurice Druon and The Accursed Kings
Most people point to J.R.R. Tolkien as the main guy, and sure, the double "R" in George's name is a tip of the hat. But if you ask George himself, he’ll tell you that the "original Game of Thrones" wasn't set in Middle-earth. It was set in 14th-century France.
He’s obsessed with a series called The Accursed Kings (or Les Rois maudits) by Maurice Druon. Honestly, if you read these books, the parallels are kind of staggering. Druon writes about the downfall of the Capetian dynasty, and it has everything: iron-willed kings, scheming queens, adultery, and a literal curse. Martin famously called it "the original Game of Thrones" in an introduction he wrote for the English reissue.
Where Tolkien gave us a clear line between good and evil, Druon gave Martin the "grey" characters he loves. In Druon's world, everyone is a hero in their own story and a villain in someone else's. That’s the blueprint for Westeros. You don't get a Cersei Lannister without first having a Mahaut of Artois—a real historical figure (and Druon character) who was rumored to be a master poisoner and political manipulator.
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History Isn't Just a Background—It's the Engine
We can't talk about who george r. r. martin influenced by without hitting the history books. He’s a self-proclaimed history nut.
The biggest one is obviously the Wars of the Roses. You’ve got the Yorks (Starks) and the Lancasters (Lannisters). You’ve got a young, "mad" king. You’ve got a massive wall in the north that isn't made of ice, but stone: Hadrian’s Wall. Martin visited it in the 80s, stood on the top, and wondered what a soldier from Italy would feel looking into the "dark woods" of Caledonia. He just turned the woods into a land of eternal winter and the "Scottish barbarians" into White Walkers.
Real Events That Became Iconic Scenes
- The Black Dinner (1440): This is the real-life Red Wedding. The 16-year-old Earl of Douglas and his brother were invited to dinner with the 10-year-old King James II of Scotland. A black bull’s head—the symbol of death—was served, and the boys were dragged out and executed despite the laws of hospitality.
- The Glencoe Massacre: Another brutal violation of "guest right" where the MacDonald clan was slaughtered by their guests, the Campbells.
- The Anarchy: A civil war in England between Stephen and Matilda that basically provided the skeleton for the upcoming House of the Dragon civil war.
The Author Who Proved Fantasy Could Be "Adult"
For a long time, Martin actually stopped reading epic fantasy. He thought it had become too "Disneyland"—too many farm boys finding magic swords and fulfilling prophecies.
Then he read Tad Williams.
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Specifically, the series Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. Martin has said on multiple occasions that this series was what convinced him that epic fantasy could be done for adults. Williams wrote a world that was beautiful but also gritty and slow-burning. If you look closely, you can see the "ghosts" of Williams' work in Westeros. Williams has "Sithi" (ancient, elegant, non-human beings); Martin has the Children of the Forest. Williams has a massive, looming conflict with an icy, supernatural threat; Martin has... well, you know.
Marvel Comics and the Stan Lee Influence
This one usually catches people off guard. Martin wasn't just a bookworm; he was a massive "true believer" in the early days of Marvel. He even had a letter published in Fantastic Four #20 back in 1963.
He credits Stan Lee as one of his greatest literary influences. Why? Because Lee was the first person to give superheroes problems. Spider-Man had to worry about rent and his sick aunt. The Fantastic Four squabbled like a real family. Martin took that "human heart in conflict with itself" (a phrase he borrowed from William Faulkner) and applied it to high fantasy. He realized that a knight in shining armor is way more interesting if he has a mortgage or a secret he’s ashamed of.
Science Fiction and the "Thousand Worlds"
Before he was the "American Tolkien," Martin was a decorated sci-fi and horror writer. He was heavily george r. r. martin influenced by authors like Jack Vance, Robert A. Heinlein, and Roger Zelazny.
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This is why his world feels so "lived in." In sci-fi, you have to build systems—how does the ecology work? How does the economy function? Martin brings that "hard sci-fi" rigor to fantasy. When he describes the food at a feast or the specific heraldry on a shield, he’s using the world-building muscles he developed writing about distant planets in his Thousand Worlds universe.
Moving Beyond the Tropes
So, what do you do with all this? If you're a writer or just a fan trying to understand the "why" behind the books, here is the takeaway. Martin’s brilliance isn't in inventing something out of thin air. It’s in the "remix."
He took the structural integrity of historical fiction, the moral ambiguity of 14th-century French drama, the character-driven stakes of 1960s Marvel comics, and the atmospheric world-building of Tad Williams. He mashed them together until something new—and significantly more violent—was born.
How to apply this logic to your own reading or writing:
- Look outside your genre: If you want to write fantasy, don't just read fantasy. Read history. Read biographies of people like Eleanor of Aquitaine or Richard III.
- Subvert the "Ideal": Take a trope you love (like the "Honorable Hero") and put them in a situation where honor is actually a liability. That’s how we got Ned Stark.
- Embrace the Grey: Next time you’re watching or reading, ask yourself: "What is the antagonist's motivation?" If they don't have a reason beyond "being evil," they aren't a Martin character.
- Connect the World: Realize that geography dictates destiny. Martin’s world-building works because the Wall, the desert of Dorne, and the narrow sea actually affect how the characters think and move.
Westeros isn't just a map. It’s a tapestry woven from the threads of our own messy, complicated history and the daring writers who weren't afraid to let the "bad guys" win once in a while.