Winter is Coming by Larrington Carolyne;

Author:Larrington, Carolyne;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Medieval History / visual culture / literature / TV / fantasy / myth / Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire / George R. R. Martin
Publisher: I.B.Tauris
Published: 2016-02-04T05:00:00+00:00

Tyrion’s ruse with the chain, which (in the books) he raises after Stannis’s fleet has sailed into the mouth of the Blackwater River, thus entrapping the ships once they’ve rammed the wildfire-laden vessels and are themselves aflame, may be adapted from the famous chain that the Byzantines deployed to close off the Golden Horn in the face of enemy naval attack. Made of huge wooden links riveted together, the chain could be dragged by ship across one side of the Golden Horn to the other. The bold Viking king of Norway, King Harald Hardrada, who met his end at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066, found a way of getting round the chain. Earlier in his career, around 1042, he found himself in jail in Constantinople. He broke out of prison and abducted the beautiful Maria, a young woman related to the Empress Zoë; then Harald and his Scandinavians, the famous Varangian guard, seized two galleys in the Golden Horn and sailed towards the chain lying across the entrance. Harald’s plan was at least partly successful. While the oarsmen rowed at full tilt, the other crew members ran with all their gear to the back of the ship, tilting the prow in the air, so that the galley had sufficient impetus to leap up onto the chain. At Harald’s command, the oarsmen ceased rowing and the crew ran forwards, tilting the ship over the chain and into clear water. And thus the ingenious Viking sailed off into the Black Sea, dropping off young Maria to be safely escorted back to the Byzantine court. The second galley was not so fortunate; that ship foundered and many men were lost.9 If only Davos Seaworth had managed to think up such a manoeuvre!

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