Anachronisms in Game of Thrones

[zslane]

So I'm about a third of the way through season 6 of Game of Thrones and I heard a line of dialogue that completely took me out of the story. In truth, it was only the most recent example of the language anachronisms that are absolutely littered throughout the show.

 

Remember when a Starbucks cup made it into a shot and made global headlines? Well, the linguistic equivalent was when Cersei said, and I quote: "Give us the room."

 

Now I realize that the "common tongue of Westeros" is being translated into contemporary English for our benefit, but this is not the way to do it IMO. Tolkien did the same thing in his Middle Earth stories, but he never resorted to modern colloquialisms and/or slang. He understood that conveying the sense that the story took place in a historical past (i.e., equivalent to medieval Europe) required making the language sound, at the very least, old fashioned to a modern ear. Without question, "Give us the room." fails to follow this principle. And it makes me wonder if this sort of thing actually appeared in Martin's original novel text, or if this is just the result of lazy Hollywood adaptation.

[Old Man]

Just now, zslane said:

 lazy Hollywood adaptation.

 

This.

 

Get used to it, it only gets lazier from where you are.

[archer]

On 9/9/2019 at 4:16 PM, zslane said:

So I'm about a third of the way through season 6 of Game of Thrones and I heard a line of dialogue that completely took me out of the story. In truth, it was only the most recent example of the language anachronisms that are absolutely littered throughout the show.

 

Remember when a Starbucks cup made it into a shot and made global headlines? Well, the linguistic equivalent was when Cersei said, and I quote: "Give us the room."

 

Now I realize that the "common tongue of Westeros" is being translated into contemporary English for our benefit, but this is not the way to do it IMO. Tolkien did the same thing in his Middle Earth stories, but he never resorted to modern colloquialisms and/or slang. He understood that conveying the sense that the story took place in a historical past (i.e., equivalent to medieval Europe) required making the language sound, at the very least, old fashioned to a modern ear. Without question, "Give us the room." fails to follow this principle. And it makes me wonder if this sort of thing actually appeared in Martin's original novel text, or if this is just the result of lazy Hollywood adaptation.

 

I've only read the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th novels but I haven't noticed that problem.

 

Now there's a number of words which are used in the novels where I happen to know the specific historical real-world background of that word coming into usage in the English language. So when a particular event or person gave rise to a word which the author chose to use, reading that word takes me out of the immersion momentarily (and sometimes humorously). But even that break in the flow comes mainly because the author is so skilled in immersing me in the story and setting in the first place: in a lesser novel, I might not even notice.

 

But nothing like thoroughly modern phrases in the manuscript, that I remember.

[DShomshak]

I've only read the 1st, 2nd and 3rd books. I didn't notice jarringly contemporary phrases; but I found Martin's occasional variant spelling ("Ser" for "Sir," IIRC, or "wayn" for "wain") obtrusive. I and friends of mine have noticed other writerly tics that are a distinctive style if you like them, laughable if you don't.

 

6th season was past what Martin has written, so "Give us the room" probably didn't come from him.

 

I wouldn't find the expression obtrusive, at least in the way as someone saying "fo' shizzle" or "What am I, chopped liver?" It's simple English words, in a straightforward metonymy (cf."Lend me your ears"). Even if it's actually a new phrase, I see no reason it could not appear at any point in the last 500 years of English usage. But then, I also don't keep up on contemporary usage very well: I don't offhand recall encountering the phrase before, though I probably have.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Clonus]

I'm not as concerned about the anachronism as it just not sounding the way I'd expect Cersei in particular to talk.  It would sound more natural to me coming from a more down to Earth character.