Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside. It is a tale in which brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk in the night. Six factions struggle for control of a divided land and the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, preparing to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war. Now, from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns. Two great leaders-Lord Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon-who hold sway over an age of enforced peace are dead, victims of royal treachery. Jan leads us through caverns and crags, and I can hear it breathing.A comet the color of blood and flame cuts across the sky. The blueness is the breath of the glacier. Any sort of ice I find back home in New York is clear, lifeless. But if Svínafellsjökull continues to melt and change, Game of Thrones may have to take a cue from the Wildlings and relocate well above the Arctic Circle. Dressing warmly is key, because this far north in Westeros, it’s always cold, and prophecies hint at the weather only getting worse. The black-clad rangers of the Night’s Watch are unable to blend into their surroundings - in my dark parka, leather boots, and bushy fur hat, I’m as screwed as they’d be. This hole will be gone in a few days.”Īn ice hole could prove a helpful fortress against potential harm beyond the Wall, I think to myself. “Glaciers are constantly changing,” Jan tells us. He leads us to an area of the glacier that is more blue than the dark gray, snow-crusted ice further below. If he were a character on Game of Thrones, he’d have a mix of Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish’s wit, Robb Stark’s courage, and Jaime Lannister’s good looks (minus the penchant for incest, I hope). He’s a spritely fellow from the northwestern region of Iceland, but even though he claims his upbringing was isolated and “nothing special,” he speaks five languages fluently and his knowledge of Icelandic geology is beyond extensive. Jan, our glacier guide, has shown us how to attach our crampons, use our ice axes, and the correct way to walk up and down steep glacier slopes. I can’t help but think - if we suddenly encounter a band of White Walkers, will we survive? Today, we are the only group hiking on Svínafellsjökull. It’s only September, but “winter is coming.” The sun is bright, but the ground of this glacier is hard and icy, and the wind is strong, stinging my cheeks. It would be cooler to be a Wildling though, scavenging for food, scouting for shelter from storms, and being an overall badass nomad. I sort of feel like a member of the Night’s Watch as my group of six travelers ascends the glacier, searching for harm against the kingdom I’ve sworn to protect. The size of the Vatnajökull glacier provides ample space to shoot a variety of scenes in one place, while remaining undisturbed by one of Iceland’s major tourism products - geologic hikes. The production team was wise to choose this particular glacier as a filming location.
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