‘Winds Of Winter’ Release Date: ‘Game Of Thrones’ Fans Have A New Theory

“Game of Thrones” Season 7 is finally here, but George R.R. Martin’s sixth book is not. “The Winds of Winter” still has no release date, despite the HBO TV show going well beyond the books at this point. However, fans believe Martin may have an announcement sometime after the Season 7 premiere.

In Martin’s July 13th blog entry, which was also posted to Twitter, he posted a drawing of Valyria. With it came a quote: “Alas, alas, that great city Valyria, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.”

The Twitter post doesn’t reveal much more, but the LiveJournal post is a little more interesting. Martin specifically turned of the comments and only tagged the post with “A Song of Ice and Fire,” hinting that this is definitely related to his book series. He also listed “enigmatic” as his current mood, leading users to believe that there is an enigma that needs to be solved within the post.

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His fans took to Reddit to start speculating, and it was soon pointed out that the quote is actually from the Bible, where it refers to Babylon instead of Valyria (which is the city the Targaryens used to reside in but is now where exiled people with Greyscale go). The quote comes from Revelations 18:10. If we were to use the British formatting of dates, that could hint that “The Winds of Winter” will be released Oct. 18, user REPTARcommaBRO pointed out.

The hyper analytic Reddit users have probably already considered this, but the numbers could also indicate a time. At 10:18 p.m. EDT on Sunday, it will be about 15 minutes after “Game of Thrones” Season 7 premiere ends on the east coast, and that’s probably when a ton of “A Song of Ice and Fire” fans will be online to read post-mortem interviews, reviews and Twitter reactions. It would be an awfully good time to drop a related announcement.

Other fans are looking at the post as a hint that has nothing to do with his books but instead one of the “Game of Thrones” spinoffs that he is a consultant on. Will there be a prequel series about Valyria?

Of course, there could be other meanings for the post. Or perhaps there is no special meaning at all. Martin has previously said that he won’t play beat around the bush when “The Winds of Winter” is finally finished.

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“Look, I’ve said before, and I will say again, I don’t play games with news about the books,” he wrote in a 2014 blog post. “I know how many people are waiting, how long they have been waiting, how anxious they are. I am still working on ‘WINDS.’ When it’s done, I will announce it here. There won’t be any clues to decipher, any codes or hidden meanings, the announcement will be straightforward and to the point. I won’t time it to coincide with Xmas or Valentine’s Day or Lincoln’s Birthday, the book will not rise from the dead with Jesus on Easter Sunday. When it is done, I will say that’s it is done, on whatever day I happen to finish.”

It’s been a few years since Martin wrote that, so he could have had a change of heart. Fans will just have to keep waiting to see if Martin will stick to his word.

Until then, fans at least have “Game of Thrones” Season 7 to keep them busy. The new season premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. EDT on HBO. Unfortunately, it won’t keep them distracted for as long this year. The season will only consist of seven episodes.