Writing systems

Work in Progress

Several different writing systems are described in the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, but because they are not a visual medium, they haven’t been described in any detail. George R.R. Martin did not invent his own writing systems the way J.R.R. Tolkien did for his fictional languages – because as Martin has repeatedly pointed out, Tolkien was a professional linguist, but he is not. The Game of Thrones TV series, however, as an adaptation into a visual medium, can actually portray different writing systems on-screen.

There are two major writing systems in the parts of the world visited by the narrative: the one used by the Common Tongue of the Andals in Westeros, and the Valyrian glyph system (or systems). A third system, the Old Tongue runes, was supplanted millennia ago by the Common Tongue, along with the spoken language, and few use it in the present day.

Old Tongue runes
The Old Tongue is the original language of the First Men, the first group of humans to migrate to Westeros. The novels describe it as having a basic rune-based writing system, but it was only used for basic tasks such as marking gravestones, not composing prose narrative books. It was supplanted by the Common Tongue of the Andals during the Andal Invasion six thousand years ago, and in the present day is very rarely used.

The North was the only region of the Seven Kingdoms that was not conquered by the Andals, but over the centuries through a process of cultural diffusion the Northmen adopted the language of their Andal neighbors, and along with it their writing system (this mirrors how medieval Scotland managed to rapidly build itself up into a strong kingdom capable of resisting invasion from England to the south by adopting many English cultural customs and administrative practices). The Order of Maesters did originate at Oldtown before the Andal Invasion, but apparently it was still largely an oral tradition – it is clearly stated that books were never written in Old Tongue runes.

In the present day, some of the Free Folk (wildlings) who live Beyond the Wall might still know the Old Tongue rune system, for basic tasks such as gravemarkers, but their tribal society is largely illiterate. In the novels, when Jon Snow hands the wildling clan leader Tormund a letter he tells Jon that he can’t read – though this is inconclusive, given that the letter was written in the Common Tongue writing system, which Tormund wouldn’t know even if he did know the Old Tongue rune system. Maesters still know the Old Tongue rune system, and those concerned with history use it in their research about the Age of Heroes, to glean what little they can from gravemarkers left by the ancient First Men.

The most prominent use of Old Tongue runes in the narrative is actually in the heraldry of House Royce, who are very proud of their descent from the First Men (being one of the only major First Men Houses that the Andals did not push out of the Vale when their invasion began there). It is also a tradition for the current head of House Royce to wear bronze armor inscribed with Old Tongue runes. The novels do state that the heraldry of House Royce contains Old Tongue runes, but gives no description of what they look like.

For the TV series, Old Tongue runes are depicted in the on-screen heraldry of House Royce. These first appeared on tournament banners in Season 1, and later more prominently appeared in Season 4 when Lord Yohn Royce, head of House Royce, wore a cloak with his House sigil prominently displayed upon it.

The rune symbols in the TV series appear to have not been invented from scratch, but are simply a re-use of the real-life Anglo-Saxon Furthorc rune system. The Old Tongue language, however, had not yet been invented when this heraldry was designed in Season 1 (and really, only first received even a brief sampling in Season 5), so the actual words spelled out by the runes are in English/Common Tongue.

The sigil of House Royce contains four strings of runes, one around each side. They don't inherently need to form a complete sentence and in-universe might just be a series of abbreviations, etc. Nonetheless, using real-life transliterations of the Anglo-Saxon Furthorc alphabet, the runes in the sigil actually do seem to convey meaning, instead of just being a random string of characters:

The top line (the only one easily readable without tilting your head) transliterates as "RUNS" - perhaps a contraction of "RUNeStone" (Runestone), the castle-seat of House Royce.

The next three lines, proceeding clockwise, actually do seem to form a coherent sentence:


 * RUN:BEFO
 * RE:YOUR
 * BLOOD

Written out longways, including the punctuation breaks, it spells out "Run before your blood" - which certainly seems to be a coherent message instead of just random characters. The full meaning is apparently along the lines of "Run (from our war banner) before (we spill) your blood".

Common Tongue alphabet
The Common Tongue of the Andals is the primary writing system used in Westeros.

Valyrian glyphs
The old Valyrian Freehold ruled much of Essos for thousands of years, half the known world, but it fell in the cataclysmic event known as the Doom of Valyria four centuries before the War of the Five Kings. Essentially analogous to the Roman Republic from real life, the Valyrians imposed their language - High Valyrian - and presumably its writing system across their domains. After the fall of Valyria, the High Valyrian spoken language evolved and diverged in their former colonies into the various Low Valyrian languages (one in each of the Free Cities, and another in Slaver's Bay.

In the novels, the Free Cities are still described as using a writing system based on "Valyrian glyphs", though no description of it has been given. For that matter, it isn't clear if there is still one system, or if it diverged into several variant systems after the fall of Valyria.

David J. Peterson, the official linguist on the TV series who developed the Dothraki and Valyrian languages, has not yet created an official Valyrian glyph writing system. Through Season 5, the TV producers hadn't asked him to write any Valyrian writing props yet, and he isn't going to invest the time in developing it unless he knows it will actually appear on-screen (similarly, the TV producers never asked him to include any of the Braavosi Low Valyrian spoken language in episode dialogue, so he hasn't invented that language yet). Peterson does look forward to being able to invent the Valyrian glyph writing system, and he has invented writing systems for several other projects he has worked on. As Peterson said in April 2013, for a High Valyrian writing system he "was thinking something more like Egyptian’s system of hieroglyphs—not in style, necessarily, but in their functionality. Egyptian had an alphabet, of sorts, a couple of phonetically-based systems, and a logography all layered on top of one another."

It isn't clear if all of the former domains of the Valyrian Freehold still use the same High Valyrian glyph writing system. The Valyrian Freehold was analogous to the Roman Republic, and after the fall of Rome in real life, handwriting styles diverged in the former Roman domains (Italy, Spain, England) that used the Latin alphabet, but there wasn't a shift to entirely new writing systems. The western half of the Roman Empire didn't really have a widespread indigenous writing system before being conquered by the Romans, so it was easy to impose the Latin writing system in those areas - and after its fall, the Germanic invaders that migrated into the lands of the fallen western Empire didn't have a strong literate culture either, so the Latin alphabet continued to be used as the main writing system. In contrast, the Greek-speaking eastern half of the Mediterranean continued to speak Greek after being conquered by the Romans, and because it already had a strong literate culture, the Greek writing system wasn't displaced by the Latin writing system.

In the novels, the Ghiscari Empire assuredly had its own writing system before being conquered by the Valyrians. The Valyrians did impose their spoken language on the Ghiscari city-states in Slaver's Bay, to the point that even after the fall of Valyria some 5,000 years later, the local elites continued to speak a form of Valyrian, because the Old Ghiscari language had long since died out. It is possible that after being conquered by the Valyrians, Slaver's Bay spoke Valyrian but wrote it using the Ghiscari writing system, but given the extinction of even the spoken Ghiscari language, it seems more probable that the Ghiscari writing system died out as well (though it may have influenced the handwriting styles used in Slaver's Bay).

To the west, the southern Free Cities (Volantis, Lys, Myr, and Tyrosh), were founded as direct colonies by Valyria, so they apparently didn't have any indigenous writing systems to compete with. In the north, Norvos, Qohor, and Lorath were also founded as direct Valyrian colonies. There is some indication that Pentos actually predated the Valyrians, and was an Andal city-state they conquered - in which case the Common Tongue alphabet might have influenced their handwriting style.

Braavos would have the most reason among the Free Cities to have a divergent writing system, being founded by a diverse group of slaves who escaped from Valyria, but even so, in the novels it is described that when Arya Stark arrives in Braavos, she sees ship names written on the sides of their hulls in Valyrian glyphs. The founders of Braavos were escaped slaves from many different lands (Summer Islanders, Rhoynar, Ghiscari, Andals, and others), but their only common language was Valyrian so they continued to speak it (diverging into Braavosi Low Valyrian). They probably continued to use the Valyrian glyph writing system for similar reasons.

The Rhoynar people (ancestors of the Dornishmen) used to live in thriving city-states along the Rhoyne River in the region of the modern Free Cities, and they presumably had their own writing system as well. The Valyrians did not conquer and incorporate the Rhoynar city-states and local elites, however, but left their cities in ruins, and enslaved the survivors, so their own rival colonies (the Free Cities) could dominate the area. The Rhoynar writing system therefore apparently went extinct, and didn't influence later writing systems used in the Free Cities.

Other writing systems
Other cultures and language groups in the Known World probably have their own writing systems, but they've barely been described in the narrative: the major writing systems to focus on are Common Tongue (which uses the Latin alphabet and is spelled like English, just as a Fantasy conceit), Old Tongue runes, and the extensive Valyrian glyph system m (or family of systems). Again, it isn't clear if the original High Valyrian glyph system used from Pentos to Meereen later evolved into variant forms after the Freehold's collapse.

Other writing systems can only be briefly touched upon:

The Dothraki are officially an illiterate society that has no writing system, relying entirely upon oral tradition.

The Rhoynar used to have prosperous mercantile city-states in the region of the present-day Free Cities, and assuredly they must have used their own writing system. After they were conquered by the Valyrians, however, their writing system apparently died out. Those Rhoynar that escaped by fleeing to Dorne a thousand years ago converted to the spoken language, writing system, and religion of the Andals in Westeros, abandoning any previous Rhoynar systems as well (though whatever writing system the Rhoynar used might have influenced the specific handwriting variant used in Dorne, combined with their long independence from the Iron Throne).

It isn't mentioned what writing system Qarth uses. They do trade with Slaver's Bay and the Free Cities, and indirectly with Westeros, and its merchants are at least familiar with Valyrian spoken languages and the Common Tongue of the Andals, so logically they are probably at least familiar with those writing systems (i.e., if the Lannisters sent a letter to Qarth asking to purchase silk, the Qartheen merchant guilds would be able to understand it).

The Summer Islands apparently have their own writing system, as mention is made of histories carved into the trees at their temples; but otherwise they seem to prefer using oral histories, recorded in complex rhyming couplets to aid memorization (like real life West African griots). The Summer Islanders are very active maritime traders with an extensive merchant fleet, and Summer Islander ships have been observed from King's Landing to Braavos to Qarth (in fact, the ship seen in Qarth later went to Braavos, then to Oldtown). Summer Islander crews therefore generally seem to be conversant in a variety of languages, and their captains can probably read contracts written in their associated writing systems.

Yi Ti has a very extensive literary culture, the eldest in the world, stretching back continuously to almost the time of the Long Night itself 8,000 years ago. Literacy is a highly praised cultural value in Yi Ti. Their scholars closely guard their precious ancient scrolls, however, and rarely let maesters from Westeros have access to them. The novels haven't described the Yi Tish writing system at all.

The TV series actually invented the secret code-language script known only to Catelyn and Lysa Tully, a game from when they were children, apparently for the unaired pilot episode. It never actually appeared on-screen in the final version and now likely never will. Logically, it may have been too confusing to introduce in the very first episode an invented script which isn't actually a widely used writing system, which would only be used that once, and then never seen again. Nonetheless, production images were circulated of the actual prop letter. It is no longer of any widespread use in-universe, was only a private code-language, and given that it never appeared on-screen it might not be fully canon - however, it does provide an out-of-universe insight into the work that is devoted to prop production.

As for the non-human races, the giants don't have the intellectual capacity for written language, or even complex spoken language (they can talk, but their speech is a simplified pidgin of Old Tongue - they have the intelligence of small children). The Children of the Forest don't seem to have had any writing system - they didn't need one. Their greenseers used their magical powers to directly view the past. The spoken language of the White Walkers has barely been mentioned, only that it sounds like the cracking of ice. The TV series came up with the name "Skroth" for it, but it is developed with sound effects, impossible for a normal human to pronounce. George R.R. Martin has said that the White Walkers are a magical, entirely different kind of "life" altogether, separate from life as we know it, and that they might not even have things like a material culture in the sense that we understand it. They remain utterly enigmatic. Therefore, whether Skroth has any sort of writing system associated with it is also unknown.