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I just recently started watching the game of thrones series and realized several similarities between the Aedra and the Seven.

Akatosh - Father.
Mara - Mother.
Zenithar - Smith.
Dibella - Maiden.
Arkay - Stranger.

I think we need more similarities here.

I guess the Game of Thrones' one was either ripped off, or such role god concepts are simple enough to appear in both series.

They're both based on real-world pantheons, such as the Greek gods. Also the Stranger is nothing like Arkay. In TES, Arkay is seen as a mostly benevolent deity, whose sphere focuses more on the cycle of life and death rather than death itself. In ASoIaF the Stranger is solely a god of Death and other scary concepts, and is one of the aspects of the Many-Faced God. The Seven are similar only in name to the Eight and One, and considering the first book came out in 1996 I'd say it's more likely that TES ripped off Martin than vice versa.

legoless wrote:They're both based on real-world pantheons, such as the Greek gods.

To expand on this:

Goodness gracious. GRRM literally named his gods after some common archetypes of people. As it turns out, gods tend to be imagined with human characteristics.

Literally no pantheon can escape these generalities. GRRM even explores this with the shared aspects of the various religions within his own story.

If Arkay is not Death, perhaps he is Mortality. Living forever is much a curse as a gift, because to cling upon an infinite future carries the cost of the present and the past. To live forever is to leave behind love, valor, hope. Someone who has seen the eons comes to know that these things will disappear in time.

Only someone whose life is temporary can believe that love will last forever. That the only way to know hope is to know danger. Mortality teaches us this. Mortality gives this to us.

This is pretty basic theology/comparative religion. It really shouldn't blow anyone's minds, to be honest. If you find the subject matter interesting enough, I'd suggest reading some Joseph Campbell. His insights as to why some concepts are so common in religion and shamanistic traditions are fascinating, and are the foundation for a lot of how religion is handled in fantasy writing.

AKB wrote:Literally no pantheon can escape these generalities.

Great Old Ones. 'nuff said

Pilaf The Defiler wrote:This is pretty basic theology/comparative religion. It really shouldn't blow anyone's minds, to be honest. If you find the subject matter interesting enough, I'd suggest reading some Joseph Campbell. His insights as to why some concepts are so common in religion and shamanistic traditions are fascinating, and are the foundation for a lot of how religion is handled in fantasy writing.

Jungian archetypes might be worth a look too.

Of GRRM's Seven, the Maiden, Mother and Crone are borrowed 1:1 from Wicca, which in turn got them from Robert Graves's book The White Goddess. The Father reminds me of the Christian God in his judgemental function, but stripped of his absoluteness. Warrior and Smith gods abound in pagan mythologies - Ares/Mars and Hephaistos/Vulcanus from Greek and Roman antiquity, Lemminkäinen and Ilmarinen from the Kalevala, Gwydion and Govannon in the Mabinogion (though Gwydion is more a wizard double-classing in combat). The Stranger is the most interesting invention in my eyes because he stands for the Shadow monotheistic religions like to demonize into a satanic Adversary figure; making him an aspect of the Godhead shows a lot of wisdom IMO.

If we try to project the Seven onto the Nine, Mara fits the mother bill pretty well, but Dibella is rather an anti-Maiden (purity and chastity? hello? ), and Kynareth doesn't strike me as a typical Crone either. It's tempting to make Zenithar and Stendarr the Smith and Warrior, but wouldn't Talos make an even better Warrior god? As for the Stranger, he's clearly not a Divine, not even an Aedra; he's totally Sithis.