In the companion text A World of Ice and Fire, we are presented with language, imagery, ideas, and concepts that clearly echo medieval traveller’s tales such as The Travels of Marco Polo and Mandeville’s Travels. The Game of Thrones universe offers a particularly applicable lesson aide for instructors interested in teaching medieval travel literature at either a very general or a more advanced level. Studying medieval travel literature is not only entertaining for students, however it is a great way of introducing students to the geographic limits of the “medieval world”, an excellent gateway into the medieval worldview, and finally an accessible introduction to the concept of orientalism, a theory that has massive significance for all sorts of scholarship and applications beyond the classroom. In any survey of the medieval period, the monstrous figures and strange tales of medieval travel literature are bound to capture the attention of students, and should definitely be given at least a cursory glance. Medieval Travel Literature and Orientalism Some common medieval monsters: L-R a skiapod, a cyclopes, a dwarf, a blemmyae, and a cynocephalus
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