What is dead may never die. The famous Ironborn words, their prayer to the Drowned God, are an homage from Martin to another author, H.P. Lovecraft. They echo words from his work the Cthulhu Mythos: That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die. Similarly, the god worshipped in that is described as being a large, squid-like sea monster, which could also be applied to the kraken, the sigil of House Greyjoy.