George R.R. Martin's Two Favorite Lord of the Rings Characters Might Reveal The Winds of Winter's Biggest Secrets

George R.R. Martin talked Tolkien again, and it tracks: lifelong fan, not blind to the tropes, and very into the characters who crack under pressure. That lens points straight at A Song of Ice and Fire and, yes, The Winds of Winter.

What Martin Sees In Tolkien (And What He Doesn’t)

Martin has said Tolkien often frames good and evil in stark black-and-white terms. But he makes an exception for two Middle-earth heavyweights he clearly loves: Boromir and Saruman.

His read, via a chat with Time Magazine, goes like this: Boromir is the classic prince-hero type, brave and noble, who still buckles when the One Ring gets in his head. He tries to take the shortcut to save his people, then pays for it and dies doing something genuinely heroic, protecting the vulnerable. Saruman is the White Wizard who spent ages on Team Good — literally ages, since wizards in Tolkien are long-lived beings called Maiar — and still slips into corruption at the end. Martin points to both as cases where, as he puts it, the human heart is at war with itself.

Why That Matters For ASOIAF

Martin’s own books live in that gray zone: motives are muddy, temptation is everywhere, and even the best people can pivot to something ugly if the moment hits wrong. It’s the engine of the series.

The Winds Of Winter: What He’s Actually Said

He hasn’t given much away, but back in 2014 he told Entertainment Weekly (an exchange widely circulated on Reddit):

"We have more deaths, and we have more betrayals. We have more marriages."

Short and cheery. He has also mentioned he’s been writing a lot of Tyrion chapters. That does not mean the show’s Tyrion path equals the book’s — he’s said as much over the years — but it does suggest he’s building to something big for his favorite Lannister.

Who Might Slide In The Next Book (Speculation, Calm Down)

Given Martin’s Tolkien picks and his love of characters who wobble, a few plausible trouble spots:

• Tyrion: lots of page time usually means a pivot, and he’s overdue for a choice that stings.
• Daenerys: the show pushed her into full-bore tyranny; the books may take a different route, but the Iron Throne’s power is exactly the kind of corrupting force Martin likes to test his heroes against.
• Arya: that need for payback is not going away. If her arc mirrors any flavor of Lady Stoneheart’s relentless vengeance, things get dark fast.

Those are possibilities, not guarantees. But between the tease of more deaths and betrayals and his stated admiration for flawed heroes, expect several fan favorites to step somewhere they can’t step back from.

Tolkien’s Fingerprints On Westeros

Martin downplays direct influence, but the echoes are hard to miss. The One Ring and the Iron Throne aren’t the same thing, obviously, yet both are coveted objects that warp people around them and invite treachery under the banner of a greater good. Jon Snow shares that long-lost-heir energy you’d recognize from Aragorn. And the setting’s magic — dwindling dragons, strange and unreliable sorcery — has that distant, mysterious quality Tolkien favored, where power is awe-inspiring and not fully understood.

So, if The Winds of Winter leans into more characters breaking bad (or breaking differently), that’s Martin staying consistent with what he admires most about Tolkien: the moment a hero’s ideals collide with their fear, pride, or desire — and something gives.