12 Northern Stereotypes Game Of Thrones Gets Completely Right
2. We Built A Massive Wall To Protect Us From The Terrors North Of It
This isn't so much as a stereotype as an influence that we can 100% definitely claim. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Martin said about Hadrian's Wall: "I stood up there and I tried to imagine what it was like to be a Roman legionary, standing on this wall, looking at these distant hills. It was a very profound feeling. For the Romans at that time, this was the end of civilization; it was the end of the world. We know that there were Scots beyond the hills, but they didnt know that. It could have been any kind of monster. But when you write fantasy, everything is bigger and more colorful, so I took the Wall and made it three times as long and 700 feet high, and made it out of ice. Granted, at its highest points, Hadrian's Wall was only 20 feet high, but it ran the breadth of the border to Scotland, it had castles and forts every five miles or so and it was designed to keep pale, terrifying creatures and wild criminals. I jest, Scotland, I adore you. Though, since time immemorial, the Northerners have been terrified of the Scots and to ignore comparisons between them and the Free Folk beyond The Wall would be naive. Also, in the same way that the Wildlings are dismissive to 'kneelers' beyond The Wall, we're all southerners to the Scots.
