GoT Red Wedding Historical Sources

[JasonZavoda]

I've read that Martin was inspired by two incidents in Scotland; The Black Dinner and The Glencoe Massacre butI was wondering if he'd forgotten about the wedding of King Vortigern to Rowena at Stonehenge? I'm sure Martin must have read about this at some point. It is also similar to the Russian about the first viking ruler who united the Slavic tribes, but Martin may never have heard it while I'm sure he must have read of Hengist and Vortigern.

[rogatny]

Martin gets his inspiration from a lot of places.

One I ran into that I hadn't seen commented on before is he definitely draws from Die Nibelungen, particularly after Siegfried dies. Probably directly from Fritz Lang's silent film adaptation, the second chapter, "Kriemhild's Revenge."

The most obvious analogy is Kriemhild agreeing to marry the barbaric Hun, Etzel, in the hopes of using his armies to get revenge on those that murdered her first husband, Siegfried, and recover Siegfried's treasure hoard (which had been his wedding present to Kriemhild). The mis-matched marriage eventually turns to respect and affinity, if not love and devotion, and the two have a son together. The son is murdered as an infant and Kriemhild orders the feast hall where all her enemies are under siege to be burnt to the ground.

There's an obvious parallel to Dany's marriage to Drogo. There's a "Red Wedding" sequence where the Hunic warriors slaughter the Burgundians after they've become drunk during a feast. There's infanticide strongly resembling the Mountain killing baby Aegon. And finally, the vengeful queen burning her enemies alive is pretty consonant with both Dany and Cersei.