What does the term "A song of ice and fire" mean to you?

This is a great question.

Personally, to me 'A Song of Ice and Fire' is a reference to Rhaegar/Lyanna, and the absolutely chaotic aftermath their union caused. I suppose in a sense Jon Snow could be tossed in there as well, since he was the result of their union, but in my humble opinion (which is just that, an opinion) it's really more of a 'legendary' reference, as opposed to a 'future union'.

In fact, to be honest, if Dany didn't see that 'blue winter rose growing from a chink of ice' vision in the House of the Undying, I'd question those two having any end-game connection at all that wasn't antagonistic. I've read some extremely compelling evidence for very different twists and endings, (some which include Dany dying very heroically after saving Westeros, redeeming the damage done to the realm by some of her ancestors), and including Jon/Sansa. Which I do not personally like due to the 'ick' factor - I want to be clear on that - but considering GRRMs original plan was a Jon/Arya/Tyrion triangle, in which Jon won out, and the last book was going to be titled 'A Time for Wolves', I can see where GRRM may have just altered his original intent. Sansa was NOT in his original scope. He created her later on because he realized the Starks were too 'perfect' as he'd fashioned them - they needed some family conflict to come across more realistically. So he created Sansa, and he altered Arya, and he made sure they did not get along at all.

What I think he did was he actually split his original 'Arya' character into two different people with Sansa's creation. She was always going to have Needle, and she was always going to end up fighting Beyond the Wall - I do believe this will still be the case. She retains the warrior aspects of the original drafting. Sansa, however, seems to have acquired the romantic components. She already married Tyrion, and Jon - well, I can't trust HBO as an accurate representation of things that are canon, but it has me suspicious to say the least.

100% agreement there, phantasmusprodigium!


I have personally decided to hate HBO until the day they give us our rightful Dany/Arya. We shall rage against them, dammit! Rage!

And you can ask anything at any time. The answer is yes, I will be continuing to write. I do apologize for being absent so long.. but I look forward to getting back into writing once I am in a less demanding job again. I know a lot of people are waiting for updates.

I could see the term having multiple meanings, that would definitely make it clever. Ultimately, the series is leading into the war between the living and the dead, with the "ice" being fought against with all sorts of embodiments of fire, as Revan said above. Also, considering R+L culminated in all of the following events of the series, I can see this holding great importance as well. So honestly, I think the series title is supposed to make us, as readers, really think about everything at play in the novels.

And then there's the Rhaegar quote from A Clash of kings about Aegon: "he is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire." So it's supposedly the song that will belong to the prince that was promised, whether it be Dany or Jon or whoever. Clearly the "prince" is going to be important.

So who knowwwws, I enjoy reading everyone's interpretations! I must say, as you all point out, that the term DOES fit into our little ship so very well!

YES! FEEL DAT DANARYA WRATH! (Don't let me be the only one who rants and rages on the board...!)