Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Harrenhal

I'm gonna talk about the second season of HBO's Game of Thrones today (as it is coming to a close soon). I think that there are two episodes left (at least that's what the preview indicated this last Sunday).
This is an HBO screen capture of the castle of Harrenhal
More specifically, I wanted to talk about Harrenhal because it's one of the important castles that we see in George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy, A Song of Ice and Fire. Last year, I wrote about the Eyrie, and I compared Ted Nasmith's version of the Eyrie to the one that we saw on film. You can find that post HERE if you want to read it. Now, I'm going to do the same treatment for Harrenhal.
This is concept art for Harrenhal
First, a little history.

In the Song of Ice and Fire novels, Harrenhal is a colossal castle consisting of five massive towers (the Tower of Dread, Widow's Tower, Wailing Tower, Tower of Ghosts and Kingspyre Tower) and immense walls.
Concept art, interior of Harrenhal
The castle was built by House Hoare, the ruling house of the Iron Islands which had overrun and conquered the Riverlands. It took three generations to construct. King Harren the Black completed the castle, boasting that it was impregnable.

Painting of Harrenhal by award-winning artist Ted Nasmith
King Harren was betrayed by his bannermen during the War of Conquest and the castle was largely melted by dragonfire: while Harren had thought the castle's walls were tall enough to withstand any assault, he neglected to consider that the Targaryens' dragons could fly right over them. Aegon the Conqueror roasted Harren alive in the tallest tower of the castle, now known as the Kingspyre.  As a result Harrenhal is half-ruined, with stone towers melted and twisted by the flames of the dragons, giving it an ominous and nightmarish appearance. No lord has held the castle for long since Harren's death.

Since Harren's death the castle has passed through a number of other noble houses (Qoherys, Towers, Harroway, Strong and Lothston), each of which has come to ruin. prior to the War of the Five Kings House Whent, loyal vassals to Lord Hoster Tully of Riverrun.

Harrenhal is technically the biggest castle in Westeros.  It is so ridiculously large that the surrounding area cannot possibly produce the necessary food to support the massive army needed to fully man it. Rulers of Harrenhal usually lose money and resources simply by possessing it. As a result, Harrenhal is rarely if ever fully manned.
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So what do you think? Did Ted Nasmith's vision fully capture Harrenhal? Or do you think HBO nailed it with their version? Or do you think the concept art is closer to how you picture a castle would look that got melted by dragon fire?

25 comments:

  1. I love that concept art! I've way behind on GoT so I can't compare the two, but it looks like the artwork has the scale of it pretty well :)

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  2. Haven't read the books so don't know how well either captured it. All of the images here are very cool though.

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  3. I think HBO did a fine job with creating the castle. I can't believe there are only two shows left this season.

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  4. I haven't been watching the series so I'm not sure about the art or the castle but I think he did a good job.

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  5. I love the concept art. Though I'm not sure the TV series captured the size of Harrenhal described in the books - to me it didn't feel any bigger than Winterfell or the Red Keep.

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  6. When do the white walkers do something interesting? I've been waiting since the first episode. So far not even a decent look at one. I'm starting to think George may be dragging this thing out a bit.

    mood
    Moody Writing
    @mooderino
    The Funnily Enough

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  7. I think HBO did a great job depicting Harrenhal, but I absolutely love Nasmith's artwork.

    *boo, only 2 episodes left :(

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  8. i don't quite get the scale of it in the show, probably because they never show us anything outside of the few places Arya visits. But i think they did a good job of capturing how much of a ruin it is

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  9. Not reading, not reading, not reading...

    Just glanced at pictures, because I don't want to accidentally stumble on something I didn't know yet. :P

    Can't wait to watch season two...though I have to wait because I'm a loser who doesn't have cable. :(

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  10. I'm looking forward to watching GoT one of these days -- and maybe even checking out the books.

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  11. I haven't seen Game of Thrones (don't have HBO or cable for that matter), but I do love those paintings of the castle. Although I think the king should've realized about the dragons.

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  12. Well, none of these look the way I envision it, but it's still cool.

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  13. Impressive castles and landscape, but I'm not watching the series, so I can't answer your questions.

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  14. I think the art captured it well and am curious how well you think HBO captured the feel of the books. One of my friends is reading them and I've been thinking of adding them to my summer reading list.

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  15. None of these really match the way I've pictured. Also, where the hell is the Brotherhood Without Banners, and The Bloody Mummers? I could've sworn they were all in book 2.

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  16. Not having seen the show, yet, coupled with the fact that I haven't (and will not) read the books, I have no opinion.

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  17. It sounds like an epic place. I still haven't started watching the second season, I'm leaving it for the summer when I finish ONCE UPON A TIME :)

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  18. I'm gonna confess I just skimmed the post because it's about "Game of Thrones" and the only way I could be less interested in that show is if it starred Tina Fey as a zombie-fighting vampire.

    The pictures were nice, though.

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  19. I don't watch Game of Thrones, but this is fascinating.

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  20. My son wants to read these books. A friend of mine is reading the series and loves it. I haven't read the books or seen the show.

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  21. King Harran the Black reminds me of the builders of the Titanic - the ship that couldn't sink. Sounds like an interesting series.

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  22. Aw, too bad I'm going home before Sunday so i won't be able to not watch it.

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  23. dunno... no tv and not read the books

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  24. From your descriptions and history explanation, I like the concept art best.

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  25. The concept art is pretty awesome... but I did like what HBO did as well:)

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