Anyone who’s watched Game of Thrones will tell you it is one of the bloodiest, most brutal and addictive shows currently on air. Many, therefore, expect the heartless killer that is George RR Martin is going to end the show in a deathly apocalypse unlike anything we’ve seen before.

However, the author has said this will not be the case, revealing that, even though he has yet to finish the books, they will end on a “bittersweet” note inspired by the Lord of the Rings.

“I haven’t written the ending yet,” he told Observer. “I’ve said before that the tone of the ending that I’m going for is bittersweet. I mean, it’s no secret that Tolkien has been a huge influence on me, and I love the way he ended Lord of the Rings.

“It ends with victory, but it’s a bittersweet victory. Frodo is never whole again, and he goes away to the Undying Lands, and the other people live their lives. And the scouring of the Shire—brilliant piece of work, which I didn’t understand when I was 13 years old: “Why is this here? The story’s over?” But every time I read it I understand the brilliance of that segment more and more.

“All I can say is that’s the kind of tone I will be aiming for. Whether I achieve it or not, that will be up to people like you and my readers to judge.”

Unlike in the films, the Hobbits from Lord of the Rings did not return to a peaceful Shire at the end. In Tolkien’s epic novel, which Martin was heavily inspired by, the White Wizard Saruman has taken over their home. It is then only over time that the Shire returns to normal once Saruman has been killed.