Adapting “Game of Thrones” in Tapestry Form

Telling the story of 8 seasons across 300 feet

Game of Thrones tapestry
First books, then a television show — and now, a tapestry
Tourism NI

The television series Game of Thrones may be over, but its tapestry adaptation lives on. A volunteer team at the Ulster Museum recently completed work on an adaptation of the acclaimed show’s final season, thus completing the tapestry as a whole. The tapestry had previously encompassed the first seven seasons of the show.

The end result is not unlike the famed Baueux Tapestry, albeit with more incest, dragons and undead ice-people. 

Besides being crafted in Northern Ireland, the creation of the tapestry also utilized the region’s local industries. On the Ulster Museum’s description of the work, it notes that “the linen used to form the background of the tapestry has been sourced from Ferguson’s Irish Linen, one of the last surviving linen mills in Northern Ireland.”

Despite the volunteer status of those who worked on the project, there was one thing they had in common with the cast and crew of the show. The Guardian reports that those who worked on the tapestry were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements.

There’s no word as to whether the museum will take on a similar task for the forthcoming Game of Thrones prequel — but given the resiliency of tapestries as a storytelling medium, it wouldn’t come as much of a surprise. 

The tapestry is on display at the Ulster Museum through July 28, and can also be seen online. If George R.R. Martin includes a subplot about tapestries in either of the two remaining volumes of A Song of Ice and Fire, that could bring the whole thing full circle.

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Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…
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