Memorial Day weekend of 2018 was, if you didn’t know, big deal: Con of Thrones 2018 in Dallas, Texas! The event was notable for several reasons:

• The second Con of Thrones in history, with the first one being held in Nashville in 2017

• My first real Con (aside from a few smaller conventions in the Twin Cities area)

• The world premier of my presentation “The Fire From the Ice: How the Grateful Dead’s Music Influenced A Song of Ice and Fire”

While I have quite a bit more writing to do—including an adaptation of my presentation into either an article or series of articles, plus online versions of my annotated lyrics—I’ve decided that I should put together some recommended reading for anyone who attended the presentation and is interested in learning more.

Source Material for The Fire From the Ice:

I had to draw on a number of references in creating this presentation. While the majority of my presentations was original ideas and analysis, I had to draw from a number of other sources to check my facts, see what other ideas are already out there, and dig deeper into the material.

• The 92Y interview from October, 2014, during which Martin first addressed the murky question of whether or not he includes references to the Grateful Dead in his books.

• The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics by David Dodd

• A Box of Rain by Robert Hunter

• A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin (obviously)

• HBO’s Game of Thrones (okay, recommended viewing)

• A World of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson

• Beyond the Wall, edited by James Lowder

• The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

• The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell

And now, there are the articles exploring the influence that the Grateful Dead—and particularly Robert Hunter’s lyrics—had on George R. R. Martin’s writings.

First, I’d like to address that I unfortunately have not seen articles that go beyond the obvious and explore this subject on a deeper level. There are many that address it on a very cursory level, but they often don’t go beyond obvious listiclism. At the risk of seeming self-promotional, I’d like to share the three articles I have written, plus the YouTube video Terrapin Theory by Asheville Deadheads, which is the best deep exploration of the subject that I have found:

• Did a Grateful Dead Song Inspire Arya Stark and Her Story?

• Is There a Connection Between Bran Stark and Uncle John’s Band?

• Ed Sheeran Didn’t Ruin Anything. Game of Thrones is Rooted in Popular Music

• The Terrapin Theory by Asheville Deadheads (a YouTube video)

I will be sharing my presentation online, once I can edit the audio alongside some appropriate visual. I also recorded a podcast with Andy Keahley’s GuitarCast, a music-centered podcast in the Osiris Podcast network. I’ll be updating this post once that is live.

As stated above, I will be writing more articles about this subject. I’d also like to say that I know that many excellent people have given deep thought to this subject (and I met a few at Con of Thrones, including the incredible cosplaying Pam and Terry Cole) but the articles out there I’ve encountered seem to not go very deep. I did agree with a few people (including the aforementioned Pam and Terry) that we will return to this at next year’s Con of Thrones with a fuller panel on the subject matter… assuming, of course, that the CoT organizers agree to it. But why wouldn't they? This is the most fascinating thing ever!

Let's keep talking about the Grateful Dead and Game of Thrones

On a similar note to next year's panel, if anyone is interested in collaborating or working with me on trying to get more documentation and exploration on this subject out there, I’m very interested.

Thank you to everyone who attended Con of Thrones. For those who did not attend but are interested in the links between the Dead and Westeros: I hope you enjoy what I’ve created on the subject so far and know that there is far more to come!