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The Iron Throne symbolizes the life-or-death stakes of politics, power, and the “game of thrones.” The throne is made of several swords welded and hammered together. When one sits on the throne, those swords are literally at one’s back, symbolizing how vulnerable power makes a person to “backstabbing” and betrayal. That idea plays out through several characters in the novel. Jaime Lannister kills King Aerys II Targaryen, the king before Robert, betraying him even though Jaime was a member of the Kingsguard and had therefore sworn an oath to protect Aerys with his life. Cersei betrays Robert when he is on the throne, arranging for her relative to ply him with wine when he is on a hunt and causing him to become drunk, putting him in a situation that leads to his death. When Ned gets close to the throne as the protector of the realm, Littlefinger betrays him, an act that ultimately leads to Ned’s death. With that in mind, the Iron Throne is a literal representation of the idea that when someone has power, they are always at risk of being stabbed in the back. Those swords, and the throne, also reinforce the threat of violence in Cersei’s statement, “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.”
Notably, the narration describes the Iron Throne as a “beast made of razor edges and barbs and ribbons of sharp metal” with “points of twisted swords fanning out like talons from the arms of the throne.” Both descriptions employ animal imagery to portray the throne as something menacingly alive. Those descriptions imply that power is a kind of wild animal that threatens to attack if someone cannot tame it. The novel describes the political machinations used by various characters to try and make power more manageable and less likely to consume them. Those efforts, though, are rarely successful. For example, Ned fails to mollify the beast of power for long enough to achieve his aim of installing Stannis on the throne. Instead, in the form of Littlefinger’s betrayal, the “talons” of the throne seize Ned, and Ned is executed. Similarly, Cersei also seems unable to tame and constrain power. Though she successfully installs Joffrey as king, she quickly loses control of him. He executes Ned against her wishes, and his actions destabilize the entire realm by escalating an already devastating war.
The Iron Throne Quotes in A Game of Thrones
The A Game of Thrones quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Iron Throne. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 4: Eddard
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“I want you down in King’s Landing, not up here at the end of the world where you are no damned use to anybody.” Robert looked off into the darkness, for a moment as melancholy as a Stark. “I swear to you, sitting a throne is a thousand times harder than winning one. Laws are a tedious business and counting coppers is worse. And the people … there is no end of them. I sit on that damnable iron chair and listen to them complain until my mind is numb and my ass is raw. They all want something, money or land or justice. The lies they tell … and my lords and ladies are no better. I am surrounded by flatterers and fools. It can drive a man to madness, Ned. Half of them don’t dare tell me the truth, and the other half can’t find it.” […]
Robert was offering [Ned] a responsibility as large as the realm itself.
It was the last thing in the world he wanted.
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Chapter 45: Eddard
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“You should have taken the realm for yourself. It was there for the taking. Jaime told me how you found him on the Iron Throne the day King’s Landing fell, and made him yield it up. That was your moment. All you needed to do was climb those steps, and sit. Such a sad mistake.”
“I have made more mistakes than you can possibly imagine,” Ned said, “but that was not one of them.”
“Oh, but it was, my lord,” Cersei insisted. “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.”
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Chapter 49: Eddard
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Ned produced Robert’s letter. “Lord Varys, be so kind as to show this to my lady of Lannister.”
The eunuch carried the letter to Cersei. The queen glanced at the words. “Protector of the Realm,” she read. “Is this meant to be your shield, my lord? A piece of paper?” She ripped the letter in half, ripped the halves in quarters, and let the pieces flutter to the floor.
“Those were the king’s words,” Ser Barristan said, shocked.
“We have a new king now,” Cersei Lannister replied.
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Ned produced Robert’s letter. “Lord Varys, be so kind as to show this to my lady of Lannister.”
The eunuch carried the letter to Cersei. The queen glanced at the words. “Protector of the Realm,” she read. “Is this meant to be your shield, my lord? A piece of paper?” She ripped the letter in half, ripped the halves in quarters, and let the pieces flutter to the floor.
“Those were the king’s words,” Ser Barristan said, shocked.
“We have a new king now,” Cersei Lannister replied.
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Chapter 58: Eddard
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He damned them all: Littlefinger, Janos Slynt and his gold cloaks, the queen, the Kingslayer, Pycelle and Varys and Ser Barristan, even Lord Renly, Robert’s own blood, who had run when he was needed most. Yet in the end he blamed himself. “Fool,” he cried to the darkness, “thrice-damned blind fool.”
Cersei Lannister’s face seemed to float before him in the darkness. Her hair was full of sunlight, but there was mockery in her smile. “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die,” she whispered. Ned had played and lost, and his men had paid the price of his folly with their life’s blood.
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He damned them all: Littlefinger, Janos Slynt and his gold cloaks, the queen, the Kingslayer, Pycelle and Varys and Ser Barristan, even Lord Renly, Robert’s own blood, who had run when he was needed most. Yet in the end he blamed himself. “Fool,” he cried to the darkness, “thrice-damned blind fool.”
Cersei Lannister’s face seemed to float before him in the darkness. Her hair was full of sunlight, but there was mockery in her smile. “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die,” she whispered. Ned had played and lost, and his men had paid the price of his folly with their life’s blood.
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The Iron Throne Symbol Timeline in A Game of Thrones
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Iron Throne appears in A Game of Thrones. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 12: Eddard
...arrived in King’s Landing shortly after Jaime killed Aerys, Ned found Jaime sitting on the Iron Throne . Jaime got up after a moment and said he had just been keeping it...
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Chapter 43: Eddard
Ned sits on the king’s throne—the Iron Throne —administering the king’s justice while King Robert is off on a hunting trip. Ned hears...
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Chapter 54: Daenerys
...his unborn son a gift too. His son, he says, will one day have the Iron Throne . Drogo says he will cross the sea with his army to ensure that it...
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