George Martin, an American novelist, most prominent for his «A Song of Ice and Fire» saga, which was turned into The Game of Thrones series by HBO, arrived to St. Petersburg to take part in the Fantastic Assembly, a gathering of fantasy writers. On August 15, he visited the castle of Vyborg making headlines in the local press and promising to think over a proposal of a Westeros installation in the venue.
Vyborg is a town about 156 km away from St. Petersburg, near the border with Finland to which it used to belong for many years. The castle of Vyborg is the only medieval fortress in Russia that managed to retain an authentic tower, and that was reportedly one of the motives for the George Martin to come here. He is known to be fond of the medieval fortification.
Vyborg founded in 1293 by Sweden was governed by Sweden, Finland and Russia throughout its history. Russia’s rule was repeatedly interrupted, the last time the country has seized the control over then-Finnish Vyborg in 1944 after defeating Finland’s troops during WWII. All this resulted in the creation of a unique atmosphere which makes the town look much more like an ordinary European old city than Russian one.
There was no any special invitation for George Martin, as the museum’s representative said to the press, he arrived on his own accompanied by people from book publishing industry. He tasted Russian drink kvas (containing almost no alcohol) and was reported to say he liked it.
The writer was also told an idea to organize an installation about Westeros, the continent where the Seven Kingdoms exist and which is being torn by tensions between numerous characters all of whom are willing to govern it (which, we bet, Sansa will eventually do). George Martin said he didn’t mind the idea. “These were just preliminary consultations”, the museum’s representative told the 47news.ru news agency. What could be a role of the novelist in the installation stills remains to be cleared. In any case, the Westeros idea seems to be in line with the idea of the organization of a Game of Thrones-themed festival held in Vyborg in 2016.
Back in St. Petersburg, the author of “A Song of Ice and Fire” will conduct a few public meetings, discussions and interviews.
The press and public were kindly asked not to ask any questions about the season 7 of the Game of Thrones – the maestro wouldn’t answer it anyway.
The best kept secret is the one no one knows about or which doesn’t even exist, that’s what we’ve learned from previous six seasons, after all.
Photo credit: http://47news.ru