“High in the halls of the kings who are gone
Jenny would dance with her ghosts”
Those haunting lyrics begin “Jenny of Oldstones,” a folk song invented by author George R.R. Martin, creator of “Game of Thrones.” Martin wrote only those two lines, but television brought the song to completion and to life. It’s woven into the story at the end of the final season’s second episode as the defenders of Stark stronghold Winterfell share a night of drinking. Podrick Payne (Daniel Portman) delivers the first lines as a solo before Florence + the Machine closes out the episode with an otherworldly rendition.
The song is a fitting overlay to a heartfelt montage of beloved characters enjoying what might be their final moments together before the battle of Winterfell. But it also hinted at the lore that has underpinned the latest developments of complicated bloodlines and family histories so central to the story. And, of course, there are plenty of fan theories about its significance.
But for all of the mystery of Martin’s complex tapestry of characters and magic that makes “Game of Thrones” the favorite it is, the music created for Westeros is powerful, in part, because it draws on real-life traditions.
Florence Welch’s vocals and the music, created by Ramin Djawadi, are clearly inspired by traditional Celtic ballads. Those songs, such as the popular “Auld Lang Syne” or “The Water is Wide” continue to be sung today not only for their universal themes and captivating tunes, but because singing them connects us to an otherwise inaccessible human past. The same words, sung centuries apart, still resonate.
In the show, “Jenny of Oldstones” not only pushes the narrative arc forward, but the actual singing of a full version of the song adds a new dimension to the show, fleshing out a rich, albeit fictional, history of an already compelling narrative.
Even if Martin had already written the story for the last season and included all of the lyrics to “Jenny of Oldstones,” they would still just be words on a page. Film brought them to life, layering the history and meaning we already recognize in folk songs onto an already vividly imagined Westeros.
