So far, I’ve noticed references to at least two other writers of Epic Fantasy in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. The first was quite simply the use of the name Vance on one of Westeros’ noble families, and the second (which I admittedly didn’t discover myself, I’m ashamed to say) is the much more direct mention of a certain scholar, named Robert Jordayne, who argued that time moved in a circle, kinda like a wheel.

Today, I suspect I’ve found another one, although it’s fairly circumstantial and probably just a freak accident of sorts. Or, in other words, a product of my flawed memory and stubborn refusal to check sources.

Now, I might just be mixing this up with some kind of Arthurian legend or other, or they could just have the same inspirations, but I seem to remember a legend or something like that in ASOIAF of knight called “the Laughing Knight“. And as I was reading Magician’s Gambit, the thrid book of Eddings’ The Belgariad, just now, the knight Mandorallen took up the habit of laughing as he rode into battle, as a precaution against fear.

Meh. A quick bout of googling brought me nothing, and a search in Wikipedia’s list of ASOIAF characters only brought up the Laughing Storm and the Knight of the Laughing Tree. Looks like a dead end…