George R.R. Martin Discusses “Rivalry” Between Game Of Thrones And Lord Of The Rings

Author George R.R. Martin has discussed the “rivalry” between Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings, saying he doesn’t understand why people are so wrapped up in comparing the two. He made his comments to The Independent just a few months before the Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon, arrives in August and Amazon’s The Lord of The Rings series, Rings of Power, debuts in September.

Martin said he can relate to the feeling of competitiveness, but he hopes both shows will help elevate fantasy in general. That said, Martin obviously is biased toward Game of Thrones, so he hopes House of the Dragon wins more Emmys. “I hope both shows succeed. I’m competitive enough. I hope we succeed more,” Martin said. “If they win six Emmys, and I hope they do, I hope we win seven. But nonetheless, it’s good for fantasy. I love fantasy. I love science fiction. I want more shows on television.”

For what it’s worth, the original Game of Thrones for HBO won an astounding 59 Emmys, making it one of the most celebrated shows in history, even if the ending didn’t land with everyone.

Also in the interview, Martin said Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series is “kind of a weird deal” because Amazon bought the rights to the appendices but not the more popular (so far, at least) works of JRR Tolkien.

“It’s kind of a weird deal, as you know. Amazon bought Tolkien, but they didn’t actually get any of the books,” Martin said. “They didn’t get Lord of the Rings, they didn’t get The Hobbit, they didn’t even get The Silmarillion. I don’t think they got Farmer Giles of Ham or Leaf by Niggle, but they got the appendices, I guess, and they’re constructing a Second Age story about that. There’s a lot of myth about that, so it’ll be interesting to see what they did.”

Martin has spoken a lot in the past about how Tolkien’s writing affected and inspired his own. In 2019, he told IGN that he looked at The Lord of the Rings before writing A Song of Ice and Fire, and was specifically inspired by Tolkien’s strategic use of magic. “I think a lot of epic fantasy has too much magic. But Middle-earth is suffused with a sense of magic, it’s always on the peripheral and it’s used to set the stage. Gandalf is a wizard, but when Orcs attack, he draws a sword and fights them,” Martin said. “He doesn’t just magically disappear them away, like what happens in so many other stories.”

House of the Dragon premieres August 21 on HBO, while Amazon’s Rings of Power debuts just 12 days later on September 2 via Prime Video. Meanwhile, Martin is still writing the next book, The Winds of Winter, and he recently gave an update in which he admitted it’s “late.”