In a recent article published in TIME, it has been reported that the prestigious Harvard University will start a Game of Thrones inspired History course. The course titled “The Real Game of Thrones: From Modern Myths to Medieval Models” will find its way into the academic calendar from this fall.
Beginning this fall the folklore and mythology subject will try to examine how George R.R.Martin written the Ice and Fire book series and Game of Thrones a show based on the same series “echoes and adapts, as well as distorts the history and culture of the ‘medieval world’ of Eurasia from c. 400 to 1500 CE.”
The course will be taught by Sean Gilsdorf, who serves as a medieval historian and Administrative Director and Lecturer in Medieval Studies at the Harvard University. According to him, the proposed course will explore “a set of archetypal characters at the heart of Game of Thrones — the king, the good wife, the second son, the adventurer, and so on — with distinct analogues in medieval history, literature, religion, and legend.”
Professor Sean will be assisted by Racha Kirakosian, an assistant professor at Harvard for German and the Study of Religion. According to her, “The Real Game of Thrones: From Modern Myths to Medieval Models” is an attempt at generating interest among students in the field of medieval studies and humanities courses in general. She says that the idea of associating one of the most popular medieval based fiction with history may be a good idea in bringing back the students in majoring history subjects, which as trends shows is falling each day. Talking from her in class experience Kirakosian says, “When I read medieval verse epics with my students, they’d say, ‘Oh, that’s like in ‘Game of Thrones’. No, if anything at all, it’s the other way around.”
Gilsdorf further says, “Game of Thrones does dramatize nicely some fundamental things going on in medieval courts. Tensions between a queen and the younger women who marry their sons are some ‘Real Housewives of 10th-century Germany’ kind of stuff, where you see these women going after each other.”
For Game of Thrones fans, here is the trailer for the seventh season of the HBO series. HBO will air the first episode of season 7 on 16th of July.