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, does 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).

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 by 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 Ages 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). The current head of House Royce also traditionally wears 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 Futhorc 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.

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 and writing system across their domains, which evolved in different directions in different regions after their empire fell. These former colonies stretch from the nine Free Cities in the west, to the cities of Slaver’s Bay in the east. The language of the ancient Freehold, High Valyrian, evolved over the generations into the various Low Valyrian languages spoken by these peoples (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 they diverged into several different writing systems, or at least different writing styles between areas such as Braavos, Volantos, and Meereen in Slaver’s Bay (particularly in the four centuries since the fall of Valyria). The ancient Valyrians ruled a vast and diverse empire, but on the other hand they often ruled with an iron fist, managing to impose their spoken language across a vast area, so they might have been able to impose a very uniform writing system from one end of their empire to the other.

It is unknown how the diversification and mutation from High Valyrian to Low Valyrian affected what writing system people used. In real life, while the Romans did conquer the Greek-speaking eastern half of the Mediterranean, local peoples still generally spoke Greek, and used the Greek alphabet to represent it. The Latin alphabet of the Romans generally took hold in the west, which did not already have a strong indigenous literate tradition. Of course, the Valyrians did not co-opt local elites to the extent that the Romans did so much as they eradicated rival city-states, and forced their enslaved inhabitants to work in their own nearby Valyrian colony-cities. The Rhoynar people used to live in their own city-states in the region of the Free Cities, but their river-cities were entirely destroyed, not incorporated, and the survivors enslaved. Slaves wouldn’t be in as much of a position to affect the writing systems as local elites would.

The southern Free Cities (Volantis, Lys, Myr, Tyrosh) were direct colonies from Valyria, while in the north, Norvos, Qohor, and Lorath were also founded by religious dissidents who came from Valyria. There is some speculation that Pentos existed before the Valyrians conquered it and was originally an Andal city-state (or inhabited by men who were cousins of the Andals). Braavos, however, was founded by a diverse group of slaves escaping from Valyria who originated from many diverse lands, some of which probably had their own writing systems. When Arya Stark arrives in Braavos, however, she notes that the names of ships are written on their hulls in “Valyrian glyphs”. The Braavosi still spoke the Valyrian language – albeit a ‘’drastically’’ divergent Low Valyrian compared to the others – given that their own languages were so diverse that Valyrian was the only common language among the original founders of the city.

Meanwhile, to the east, the old Ghiscari Empire was Valyria’s first major conquest, and the Ghiscari assuredly had their own writing system. It is possible that this Ghiscari writing system, like Greek under the Romans, continued to be used by the local conquered elites, or at least that it influenced their later writing systems after the fall of Valyria. On the other hand, Slaver’s Bay was one of Valyria’s earliest conquests, after the Ghiscari Wars finally ended fully 5,000 years ago, and it is outright stated that ‘’most’’ of the original Ghiscari culture was obliterated in all of that time. Indeed, even the Old Ghiscari spoken language is considered dead in the present day – the local rulers made no attempt to go back to it after Valyria fell, but continued speaking Low Valyrian, even though it is said that once they were independent again they clung to whatever scraps of culture from Old Ghis they could find. The Old Ghiscari writing system therefore probably did not survive, though whether or not it influenced the local writing styles in any way is unknown.

Other writing systems
Other language groups probably have their own writing systems, but they’ve barely been described. This is assuming that all regions with Low Valyrian languages use writing systems that descend from the ancient High Valyrian writng system (for all we know Slaver’s Bay could have switched back to a local Ghiscari writing system).

The Dothraki are officially an illiterate society and have 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 migrated to Dorne switched to using the Common Tongue’s writing system.

It isn't mentioned what writing system Qarth uses. 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. Their scholars closely guard their precious ancient scrolls and rarely let maesters from Westeros have access to them, however, so whatever writing system they use is unknown.

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 griots).

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 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. We do have pictures of it.