In Game of Thrones, most correspondence comes via raven rather than mailman, and they’ve got a saying that goes along with it: ‘Dark wings, dark words.’ That old saying basically translates to ‘Nothing ever comes in the mail these days but bills and lawsuits.’ And if you check out these copies of letters released by HBO as part of their #GoT50 promotion, you’ll see how it mostly holds true.
Among the letters shown from season one of the show, we have news of Jaime Lannister’s capture following the battle of the Whispering Woods, Daenerys Targaryen being married to Khal Drogo, word that King Robert was killed by a boar, and Sansa’s letter north declaring her father a traitor who tried to usurp the crown. The only positive paper here is the announcement for the tournament celebrating Ned Stark’s appointment as hand of the king, and we all know how that turned out.
These are fascinating props from Game of Thrones that show off the attention to detail given to each item that makes it onscreen. You’ll notice different writing styles and grammar depending on what region the letter is sent from, and varying parchment size depending on if this was a letter or delivered by raven. Below we’ve included a couple of the full letters, but you can see them all at HBO’s excellent Making Game of Thrones website.
