George R.R. Martin reveals Lady Stoneheart was inspired by Gandalf’s resurrection in Lord of The Rings

George R. R. Martin, the wildly popular Game of Thrones progenitor, is one of the most accomplished novelists of the current generation. He is often called the Tolkien of present times, and looking at his creation, quite rightly so. Martin himself has been influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien a lot, and some of his characters also share some similarities with the legendary writers’ novels.

Gandalf’s resurrection kept George R.R. Martin wondering for days

In an interview with Time magazine, Martin talked about his shock at Gandalf’s death, and his reaction to his subsequent return, “In the next book, he shows up again, and it was six months between the American publications of those books, which seemed like a million years to me. So all that time I thought Gandalf was dead, and now he’s back and now he’s Gandalf the White. And, ehh, he’s more or less the same as always, except he’s more powerful. It always felt a little bit like a cheat to me.”

Lady Stoneheart’s resurrection made more sense

Though Martin is a Tolkien fan, he did not like how Gandalf was brought back. He said, “And as I got older and considered it more, it also seemed to me that death doesn’t make you more powerful. That’s, in some ways, me talking to Tolkien in the dialogue, saying, “Yeah, if someone comes back from being dead, especially if they suffer a violent, traumatic death, they’re not going to come back as nice as ever.” That’s what I was trying to do, and am still trying to do, with the Lady Stoneheart character.”

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