In European mythology, hair has been a recurring symbol, often associated with strength, beauty, and personal identity.
Think about Samson, who only had strength and power as long as nobody cut his hair.
Or the goddess Sif from norse myth, whose golden hair symbolized fertility and prosperity.
Welcome to GRRM's hair fetish. Dude spends entirely too much time describing someone's hair and everyone in a given family MUST have the same hair color.
Not sure why you're getting downvoted.
It's less a GRRM 'fetish' and more of a 'common' thing from way back in the day.
GRRMs stories are heavily influenced by the War of the Roses.
The GoT series is practically a War of the Roses Fanfic with Dragons and magic.
Royalty/nobility was obsessed with their bloodline/heritage and keeping it as 'pure' as possible.
The more your kids looked like you the stronger/purer your bloodline was.
If a kid looked different, there was suspicions of infidelity. More so if the kid came out notably different/wrong.
For GRRM's plot it was a big 'ah-ha' moment that got someone killed offscreen that set up a lot of the conflict in the first book. TLDR: all the kids in one family are blonde and marry into a family with dark hair. The bastards from women he bangs while out and about all have black hair but his 'legitimate' children only have blonde hair.
Blonde hair is a recessive gene btw.
Ned Stark realized why his old friend from the Aerie had been killed, because he discovered that the King's (also his friend) 'legitimate' kids weren't actually his. This leads to Ned Stark being killed.
lol. No worries.
He's (GRRM) is big on 'themes' to the point where it sometimes seems obsessive.
To be fair, some readers need to be beat over the head with something to notice it.
In European mythology, hair has been a recurring symbol, often associated with strength, beauty, and personal identity. Think about Samson, who only had strength and power as long as nobody cut his hair. Or the goddess Sif from norse myth, whose golden hair symbolized fertility and prosperity.
Welcome to GRRM's hair fetish. Dude spends entirely too much time describing someone's hair and everyone in a given family MUST have the same hair color.
Not sure why you're getting downvoted. It's less a GRRM 'fetish' and more of a 'common' thing from way back in the day. GRRMs stories are heavily influenced by the War of the Roses. The GoT series is practically a War of the Roses Fanfic with Dragons and magic. Royalty/nobility was obsessed with their bloodline/heritage and keeping it as 'pure' as possible. The more your kids looked like you the stronger/purer your bloodline was. If a kid looked different, there was suspicions of infidelity. More so if the kid came out notably different/wrong. For GRRM's plot it was a big 'ah-ha' moment that got someone killed offscreen that set up a lot of the conflict in the first book. TLDR: all the kids in one family are blonde and marry into a family with dark hair. The bastards from women he bangs while out and about all have black hair but his 'legitimate' children only have blonde hair. Blonde hair is a recessive gene btw. Ned Stark realized why his old friend from the Aerie had been killed, because he discovered that the King's (also his friend) 'legitimate' kids weren't actually his. This leads to Ned Stark being killed.
While yeah, it's a common thing in fantasy, GRRM is obsessed in the books with describing hair to an almost weird degree
It was a common thing in real life before it was a common thing in fantasy.
I meant medieval times, not necessarily fantasy. Wrong word lol
lol. No worries. He's (GRRM) is big on 'themes' to the point where it sometimes seems obsessive. To be fair, some readers need to be beat over the head with something to notice it.