The Princess and the Queen, or, The Blacks and the Greens | |
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Author | George R. R. Martin |
Audio read by | Iain Glen |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Series | A Song of Ice and Fire |
Genre(s) | Fantasy |
Published in | Dangerous Women |
Publisher | Tor Books |
Media type | Novella |
Publication date | December 3, 2013 |
Followed by | "The Rogue Prince" |
The Princess and the Queen, or, the Blacks and the Greens is an epic fantasy novella by American novelist George R. R. Martin, published in the 2013 Tor Books anthology Dangerous Women.[1][2][3] The novella is presented in the form of writings by the fictional historian Archmaester Gyldayn, who is also the "author" of Martin's 2014 novella The Rogue Prince, a direct prequel to The Princess and the Queen.[4] The plot of both The Princess and the Queen and The Rogue Prince is later expanded further in the 2018 novel Fire & Blood, which also spawned a television series in 2022.
A spin-off of Martin's famed A Song of Ice and Fire novel series, The Princess and the Queen is set about 200 years before the events of A Game of Thrones (1996), and chronicles the "continent-burning warfare" of a Targaryen war of succession that explodes between heir to the throne Crown Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (whose supporters are known as "the blacks") and her stepmother Queen Alicent Hightower (supported by "the greens"), who conspired to usurp Rhaenyra and have her half-brother Aegon (Alicent's eldest son) crowned on the Iron Throne instead.[5][6][7] The resulting civil war is called the "Dance of the Dragons" due to the active involvement of dragonriders, and is designated the primary cause for the extinction of dragons in Westeros before the time of A Song of Ice and Fire.