[The one true king of spoilers for Game of Thrones]

The phrase “Winter is coming” could have been the alternate name of the show Game of Thrones, the television adaptation of the novels of the series titled A Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin. I don’t say that only because of the centrality of the characters belonging to House Stark, but also with respect to the emphasis on the real winter that poses a threat to the civilization in the form of the White Walkers. But I also believe that the motto of the House Stark holds more in itself than prophetic doomsday warnings. It is, like mentioned in the video essay “Game of Thrones Symbolism: Houses & the Starks“, also about the difficulties and challenges we face in life.

The motto acts as a reminder to the people about the presence of a force of nature and how they are directly in contact with it. The use of Winter maybe as an element of nature that doesn’t support life in most forms. Which is why while the house Tyrell might seem similar to the Starks, but their position of power in an relatively warm, fertile part of the world does acts as a huge difference to their approach to politics and relationships.

WINTER AS A FORCE OF NATURE

In many European and western cultures, winter is almost always associated with negative things like death, harshness, difficult life. It might me tempting to see this as one end of a spectrum with the other end being summer, but that is not the case. Summer and Tropical climates on earth are the ones with the highest variety of flora and fauna present on the earth. The richest ecosystems of the earth are usually found within the few degrees north and south of the equator, where usually warm temperatures persists. Furthermore, it was only during the last Ice-age on earth when the Homo sapiens evolved, and by the end of the epoch humans could be found in nearly every part of the planet . The presence of warm climate has always been the biggest factor when it comes to supporting organic life on earth.

Therefore, the Tyrells, like their northern counterparts Starks, have the same connect and bond with their family , are quite connected with the nature part of their existence because of their knowledge of agriculture, and are of the few nobles of Westeros who seem to have something of a moral compass. But because of the abundant bounty provided to them by nature, they have the luxury to indulge themselves in the politics and power play of the country. Sociologically, the prevalent nature has played a huge role in the evolution of the houses. Also, with the Starks being at the periphery of the landmass, their approach to their role in the society have been about “protecting” their subjects, from the extremities of their nature, and also from the white walkers that embody those extremities. The Tyrells on the other hand are blessed with an environment that facilitates growth, that too in a natural organic form. All they need to provide is the adequate amount of nurturing and stable foundation and then, like their motto, all of them can “Grow Strong”.

PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF WINTER

The unyielding north with it’s unforgiving climate acts in putting the people of the north more close to both their roots as well as the nature around them. It is relatively easy to unite the entire north (which is almost as large as rest of the six kingdoms of Westeros combined) with it’s numerous individual houses under the Starks because it is a very difficult place to live in. On the face of weather extremes and tough terrain, a better survival technique is to work together rather than fight among each other, playing petty power games like the southerners. This dynamic itself (and not Ned) is something that lies at the core of values like Honor and commitment that are considered important by many northern houses other than the Starks as well. The phrase “The North Remembers” becomes useful in handling the chaos and confusion of the political north after houses like Freys and Boltons ruthlessly betray Robb Stark (see The Grand Northern Conspiracy for more).

In other literature also, the people living in naturally harsh environments with relative isolation are shown to have much clearer binaries regarding the moral good and bad. The term ‘relative isolation’ here is in terms of political, economic as well as cultural isolation of the North from the rest of the kingdoms.Therefore, the morals of such a society need to be clearly separated because in order for the maximum number of people to survive that kind of environment it is very important that there is no confusion about anything. Killing your guests under your own roof, not fulfilling your oath and many other such deviations are taken as serious mistakes because something like that would push the entire north into utter chaos on top of dealing with the already present problems.

The complexities of human society are removed more as we travel up North. If the Starks weren’t initially adept at playing politics and the game of alliances it was because they were too busy looking after their vast wastelands and looking after the people who live there, to provide them with adequate food and shelter against cold weather. In the same way, The Wildlings are unable to understand any of the customs and traditions of the people living south to them because they live in a more tribal, excluded society in a more difficult environment (The Lands of Always Winter) locked out of the protection from the white walkers.

The Lands of Always Winter

source

Furthermore, they are antagonized by the people of the Westeros because of which they are treated with hostility and arrogance. The Wildlings are dehumanized by the Westerosis for being on the other side of a wall, something over which none of them had any control. The wildlings, therefore, are more close to the Humanistic Naturalism philosophy as they function as a tool to question the arbitrary manner in which European countries during the medieval times and the colonial era drew boundaries and according to their conveniences labelled a certain group of people as unwanted or outsiders.

CONCLUSION

In the end, I think it wouldn’t be wrong to say that winter has been used in the story to convey the plight of people living in relatively difficult parts of nature and how that harshness affect the society and culture of those people. It also helps in shedding light upon how human psychology functions when placed in different levels of environmental comforts and availability of resources. It can be said that our surroundings play an important role in determining the standard of morals and values a society has. This piece of information might be the first step in determining the different cultures and traditions that exists in our world and also in having a better understanding of how and why they clash with each other. Because we all know that the War of the Five Kings was so much more than who would sit on the ugly, uncomfortable Iron Throne.