I didn't catch last night's episode of Game of Thrones yet, but sounds like some shit went down. Someone also appears to be missing a hand from the looks of this picture (so spoilers please!). Naturally, the closing credits featured a new tune from the Hold Steady, because....why not? Can't you just see Bronn throwing back a couple pints of mead in one of Kings Landings' many fine brothels as Littlefinger observes in a very sinister, meddling way. Maybe the Hold Steady were the house band for the night? As for the song, titled "The Bear & The Maiden Fair," it's so a Hold Steady song, best served with some of the finest beverages that Westeros has to offer. Looks like Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin penned the lyrics, leaving me slightly hesitant to follow along so that I don't figure out the previous owner of the hand in that bear's mouth, but that does mean Craig Finn will have to leave his frequent Kerouac references on the other side of the wall for this tune.
*Nerd Alert* You can listen to the lyrics without spoiling anything. They don't narrate any scene from the show. "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" is just a popular song in Westeros... Martin uses it in a few key scenes to drive home the point that it's not always a "knight in shining armor" that comes to the rescue, but a "bear all black and brown and covered in hair." (Even the more "heroic" knights in the story, Jorah, the Hound, are brutish anti-heroes with troubled pasts.) It's just a song meant to drive home the dark reality that while distressed maidens may wish to be rescued by "knights" they're more typically rescued by "bears," that is... assuming they're lucky enough to be rescued by anyone at all. /*Nerd Alert*
what a nerd. thanks scott.