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Ted Nasmith (along with Alan Lee) defined Middle Earth for me. The images he crafted had as much an impact on my young self as Tolkien’s words, and helped to utterly immerse me in a Fantasy land like few other books have achieved. To say my love for Middle Earth extends beyond the man who wrote the books would be an understatement.
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To see Nasmith turn his eye towards Westeros, the world of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, is an absolute fangasm. I haven’t needed a calendar in years, but one this pretty might just find its way onto the wall of my office.
Can anyone identify all 12 months? I’m guessing December is The Wall, but my eyes aren’t so good and I have a bad habit of skimming over the descriptive prose anyway.
Michelle, I was wondering that myself. It has been so long since I’ve read the series but here is my guess:
January : Winterfell
Feb: Dragonstone or Pyke
Mar: Eyrie
April:Haven’t got a clue.
May:The Red Keep of King’s Landing
June:Riverrun?
July:Highgarden?
Aug:Don’t know. Dragonstone?
Sept:Casterly Rock
Oct:Sunspear
Nov: No idea
Dec: Castle Black and the Wall
I’m sure someone will figure them out. They are great paintings of the castles. The Eyrie is really well done.
Jennifer
All 12? Not off hand, no.
I see the Eyrie (Arryn’s seat of power) March.
Riverrun. June.
Castle Black. (as you said), December.
Winterfell. (January, as shown on left).
Hightower/Oldtown (I forgot the name of that landmark.)October.
Dorne, I’m thinking, specifically the seat of power described in AFfC, another name I can’t recall. (though they spend more time in the Water Gardens, the name I do recall.) August.
I’m pretty sure one is Storm’s End / (Stannis’ seat of power), and I’m guessing that the other one that could be it is the Greyjoy seat of power on Pyke. February / April.
May seems likely to be King’s Landing / Red Keep.
November seems likely to be one of the Free Cities, maybe even Braavos. (Though I would have expected to see the Titan, were it actually Braavos.)
Jennifer: Good guesses. Maybe next time they can do some of the “little places”, like the Inn at the Crossroads, Craster’s Keep, The Twins, and places in the east like Braavos and the rest. Oh, for a good picture of Arya slinking around the canals of Braavos in the dark of night!
Never read a GRRM novel in my puff, but this calendar looks like a doozy all the same. Do want. Nonfangasm?
The cover is the Eyrie (duh :-) ). The big picture is Winterfell. The rest are, from top-left onwards: Storm’s End, the Eyrie, Dragonstone, the Red Keep/King’s Landing, Riverrun, Highgarden, Sunspear, Casterly Rock, the High Tower in Oldtown, Harrenhal and Castle Black/The Wall.
Highgarden and Casterly Rock are interesting, as neither have appeared in the books to date. Both are based on detailed information supplied by GRRM and his co-writers for THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE book, which is what these pics were originally meant for before they were switched to the calendar (they’ll still be in the world book as well, btw).
Btw, you can see all the pics here:
http://www.tednasmith.com/other/grrmartin.html
He’s also done a pic of Pyke, which is probably the double-page centre-spread, and can be seen at the link above.
Heh. Well, naturally you would know where to find that. I’m humbled at my guesses now. ;-)
My favorite it’s April! I loved it!!
Jan: Winterfell
Feb: Storms End
Mar: Eeyrie
Apr: Dragonstone
May: Red Keep at Kings Landing
June: Riverrun
July: Highgarden
Aug: Sunspear
Sept: Casterly Rock
Oct: Hightower of Oldtown
Nov: Harrenhall
Dec: Castle Black