Season four of the show gives us the biggest and most extensive private joke in Game Of Thrones yet, in episode three, Breaker Of Chains. Her army facing off against the ready and waiting slaver city of Meereen, Daenerys Targaryen awaits their response to her arrival. It comes in the form of a champion, riding out from the city gates to challenge her own champion to a one-on-one duel. The Meereenese fighter shouts something insulting in Low Valyrian, which the Khaleesis interpreter Missandei translates for her. The whole scene culminates with Danys own champion taking down the obnoxious challenger in nonchalant but impressive style, leaving the besieged city aghast. What wasnt immediately apparent is that the challenge issued by the Meereenese rider wasnt quite as interpreted by Daenerys lovely assistant. In-house linguist David Peterson was asked by producer D. B. Weiss to add a little reference for the faithful to the episode. The insults issued to the Mother Of Dragons were in fact lifted wholesale from the classic comedy Monty Python And The Holy Grail: specifically, from the scene where the French knight insults King Arthur from a similar besieged position towards the end of the film. Astonishingly, rabid fans actually figured out the gag and were tweeting Peterson himself after the episode aired, demanding to know the full text of the challenge. In a production blog, Peterson admitted that the rider was actually shouting, your mother is a hamster and your father smells of elderberries. Other linguistic references that Peterson has incorporated into the shows High Valeryian and Dothraki tongues are a little sweeter and more personal. The High Valyrian word for cat is kli, named after his own cat, while his wife Erins name forms the root of the Dothraki word for kind. Do you know of more hidden gems, private jokes and pop culture references in Game Of Thrones that weve missed? Let us know about them in the comments!
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
