George R.R. Martin revealed this week that HBO’s “Iron Throne”–the throne of melted swords that has become a trademark part of the show–is “not the Iron Throne I want my readers to see.”
Martin shared a painting of the Game of Thrones centerpiece by Marc Simonetti, you can visit his post to see that image. Above, we’ve embedded another painting of The Iron Throne by Simonetti from deviantART. Check it out:
That’s the Iron Throne as painted by the amazing Marc Simonetti (and if you haven’t gotten his 2013 Ice & Fire calendar, better hurry, the year’s half over) for the upcoming concordance, THE WORLD OF ICE & FIRE. It’s a rough, not a final version, so what you see in the book will be more polished. But Marc has come closer here to capturing the Iron Throne as I picture it than any other artist to tackle it. From now on, THIS will be the reference I give to every other artist tackling a throne room scene. This Iron Throne is massive. Ugly. Assymetric. It’s a throne made by blacksmiths hammering together half-melted, broken, twisted swords, wrenched from the hands of dead men or yielded up by defeated foes… a symbol of conquest… it has the steps I describe, and the height. From on top, the king dominates the throne room. And there are thousands of swords in it, not just a few.
You can see the HBO Iron Throne in the paperback edition of Game of Thrones (embedded below).
If you are a writer looking to connect with artists for book covers, concept art or website work, you should explore deviantART as well. Start with our What Writers & Publishers Need To Know About deviantART post.