A Justiça sub judice - reflexões interdisciplinares: Volume 3

A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE: THE WESTEROS CONQUEST AND USURPATION ANALYZED BY THE PERSPECTIVE FROM JOHN LOCKE’S SECOND TREATISE OF GOVERNMENT

Gabriela Brito Ferreira

Mestre

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Vitor Hugo Duarte das Chagas

Mestre

[email protected]

DOI 10.48021/978-65-252-5364-0-c1

ABSTRACT: This work aims to analyze the literary work of George Martin, based in the perspectives presented in John Locke’s book Second Treatise of Government. A qualitative bibliographical research was used, mainly in the comparisson of the Westeros conquest and its rebellion, among with lockian concepts. Therefore, there’s a focus on answering how conquest and rebellion in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire correspond to the concepts shown in John Locke’s work. In conclusion, the duality commonly found in the works of George Martin makes it possible to see the two wars benefits, as well as the Westeros government’s degenaration.

Keywords: A Song of Ice and Fire; Conquest and Rebellion; John Locke.

1 INTRODUCTION

The present work focuses on two main works, The World of Ice and Fire, which delves into telling stories only mentioned in the original works of this literary world, and John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government. The objective is analyzing both works and how one may come to impact the explanation and development of the other, observing whether both wars, conquest and rebellion, in the fictional World of Westeros, may be understood by Locke’s perspectives.

The work’s justification is the approximation of a literary work and a socio-political work, explaining how huge literature is and how it manages to encompass contemporary themes.

According to the structure designed for this article, the first attempt was the fictional continent of Westeros conquest History. The focus was on the important points, first the battles result, and therefore how each of the six kingdoms came together in a great society, recognizing the Targaryen dynasty as their sovereign. As well as the refusal of the seventh kingdom, Dorne, to bow to face threats and requests from King Aegon Targaryen.

George Martin’s main book used in this article, The World of Ice and Fire, was written in order to clarify stories and passages in the main Song of Ice and Fire books, giving the context that led to Robert’s rebellion from the Conquest, the formation of the Main Houses as we know them in books and the territorial division. Song of Ice and Fire series were written in 1991 and its first book was released in 1996. George Martin, writer and creator of the known world, aims to build a work based on English History, mainly referring to the known events in the War of the Roses.

The second chapter focuses on explaining what the Conquest means in John Locke’s perspective, presenting the main points addressed by the author, about how a Conquest takes place and the rights of the conqueror over the achievements arising from this feat. John Locke was born in 1632, in England. When he was writing this work, he aimed to concept the consequences of the constitution and dissolution of a political society. Thus, he focused on define how the political powers were distributed, and the reasons for constitution, as well as establishing the difference between the concepts of Conquest and Usurpation.

In the third chapter, the work unifies the other two chapters, thus showing the contexts between the events of the conquest and Aegon’s attitudes with the duties and rights directed by Locke in his book, defining conqueror’s behavior.

Finally, the work will analyze the duality that exists in the person of Robert Baratheon while his rebellion, which is seen by Daenerys, heir to the throne, as an act of usurpation of his rights. The act is understood by other character as a way to end the Mad King’s tyranny.

Therefore, uses a qualitative approach over the books mentioned before. It is divided into topics to better elucidate its points. The essay tries to understand the World of Ice and fire using John Locke’s view as a guide.

2 THE CONQUEST’S HISTORY

The conquest’s history is a landmark in the history of Westeros, it takes an extremely important part in the Song of Ice and Fire series. It became the time frame used by George R.R.Martin.

This war was named as the great conquest and established the time rule in which we may find the chronology of Westeros: from b.c. (before the conquest) for the years before this war and a.c. (after the conquest) for the years that followed its events (MARTIN et al, 2014).

According to by Martin et al (2014), the year 114 a.c. was the year of the tragedy that devastated Valyria and it was at that moment that the people who lived in that territory were killed by its complete destruction.

However, there was a single surviving family, the Targaryens. The dragon lords heard the prophecy of one of their daughters, who saw in one of their dreams the destruction of Valyria. A fact that led them, 12 years before Valyria’s destruction, to leave the place to go to Dragonstone, a place that would be known as the Targaryens’ home.

Their headmaster was Aenar Targaryen. He collected all his wealth and dragons and set out for Westeros. After the destruction of Valíria, the Targaryens became the only Dragon lords known in the continent (MARTIN et al, 2014). In the years that followed the Targaryens’ flight, they focused their efforts on returning to the east, while the west did not interest them.

Aegon the conqueror was born in the year 27 BC. and he had two sisters, who would end up as his legitimate wives, the three acted to unify the 7 kingdoms. They all were Dragon lords. The dragons’ names were Balerion, Vhagar and Mexares.

Aegon had a wooden table made representing the map of Westeros, which would be perfect for planning the conquest of the continent and it could show all his future interests throughout the territory. Aegon certainly had planned his conquest.

Martin, García and Antonson (2014) state that the Westeros of Aegon’s youth was divided into seven quarrelsome kingdoms, and there was hardly a time when two or three of these kingdoms were not at war with one another. The vast, cold, stony North was ruled by the Starks of Winterfell. In the deserts of Dorne, the Martell princes held sway. The gold-rich westerlands were ruled by the Lannisters of Casterly Rock, the fertile Reach by the Gardeners of Highgarden. The Vale, the Fingers, and the Mountains of the Moon belonged to House Arryn … but the most belligerent kings of Aegon’s time were the two whose realms lay closest to Dragonstone, Harren the Black and Argilac the Arrogant.

Therefore, Aegon understood that the kingdoms were in constant wars and territorial disputes, which made unpredictable what would happen to the property and land of each of the Lords’ houses an unpredictable fact. Among these houses, a Lord was the trigger for the Conquest war.

Argilac, the arrogant King of Storm’s End, was startled by the recent conquests of the Targaryens. In order to protect himself from any new attack, he offered Aegon his only daughter. However, Aegon was faithful to his wives, he did not accept the marriage proposal and he offered his best friend and champion Orys Baratheon to marry the Storm’s End Lady. However, Argilac thought this proposal was really abusive and sent the hand of Aegon’s messenger in a box as his counter-proposal.

Aegon understood this act as a declaration of war. Thus, he summoned all his vassals to join a council, praying to the seven gods of Westeros. On the seventh day of this council, crows were sent all over the continent stating that from that moment on there was only one king in all Westeros. Those lords who bowed their knees would continue with their titles and lands, but those who defied him would be destroyed and humiliated (MARTIN et al, 2014).

It is not certain how many swords Aegon used in the Conquest, a small army of a maximum of three thousand men went to the Blackwater bay. The first important battle was against Lord Darklyn of Duskendale and Lord Mooton of Maidenpool who joined forces and marched south, but Aegon sent Orys Baratheon to attack them along the way and he himself used Balerion to spread fire on the soldiers. This victory was really important, because Duskendale was the main port of Westeros, since it had a connection with a Narrow Sea.

Aegon sent his troops to Storm’s End, Orys Baratheon helped him and Rhaenys mounted on Meraxes. Another expedition, composed of the naval fleet, was sent to the Valley lands. Among them, were Daemon Velaryon and Queen Visenya, who was mounted on Vhagar. Aegon himself went northwest to Harrenhal, Harren’s giant fortress home. Harren was known as the Black King, from the Trident lands, the most feared between all kings. In these battles, there were countless losses on both sides. All the losses made Aegon’ army decrease a lot. The King Targaryen himself had a surprise attack made by Harren’s sons.

House Tully joined the Targaryen against Harren. After that, the rest of the vassal houses followed them against Harrenhal. Harren with fewer and fewer allies locked himself in his fortress, which was considered the largest in Westeros. Aegon called Harren to surrender, if he did so, he could continue as the Iron Islands’ lord. However, he denied the offer, because he was convinced that his fortress was impenetrable.

At night, Aegon attacked, destroying them all. Harren snubbed that his castle was made of stone and stones don’t burn, however, there was wood inside of it and Harren’s fleet caught fire on the flames of Balerion. The towers that were stone made shone red as candles, and as such they melted little by little and twisting themselves (MARTIN et al, 2014).

Aegon destroyed the house of Harren and the Iron Islands lost their reign, passing its sovereignty to the house Tully from Riverrun, which became the supreme masters of the trident. The other houses in the region became their vassals.

At Storm’s End, the vassals proved to be more faithful, this fact led Argilac to have a huge army. Harren’s defeat soon reached the Stormlord, who understood the hiding strategy as inappropriate. Therefore, he went out into the open field with his soldiers who far surpassed the number of men in the Targaryen army.

The fight, in opposition to what happened to Harren, proved to be deeply bloody and lasting, Orys faced to the storm king equally. A bloody clash resulted with only Baratheon left alive. Argilac died with a sword in his hand and a curse on his lips. Argilac’s daughter Argella, on the other hand, locked herself in the Storm’s End fortress, declaring herself the storm queen. However, she was handed over Orys Baratheon’s guards, chained and naked. Orys decided to assume the motto and symbol of the house Durrandon, as well as their land and took the house heiress as his wife, thus realizing the Baratheon house as it is known and he became the first lord of Storm’s End (MARTIN et al, 2014).

The Reach’s and Casterly Rock’ kings joined in a huge army, which marched to face Aegon’s army. In opposition to what had happened before, they were in full combat conditions in a very dry wheat field and with no possibility of rain. Gardens and Lannisters went into combat, this time, Aegon fought in the air with his sisters. The black dragon set fire on the formation lines and the other two queens flew over the enemy armies and blew fire that easily spread throughout the wheat field. Afterwards, the battle was named Field of Fire.

The whole Garden House died in that battle, the King of Casterly Rock managed to escape, he wanted to survive, so he placed his sword and crown at Aegon’s feet and, as promised, Aegon allowed him to remain as the Casterly Rock lord. Afraid that another enemy would take Highgarden when the Gardens died, Aegon went to the castle and when he arrived there, the quartermaster Tyrell handed him the keys to the castle and swore his