Thanks for the Politics of the Seven Kingdoms essays; they’re great! My question is about the riverlands, part II. How does the ironborn imperial rule of the riverlands compare to the real-world Viking attempts at foreign rule / colonization in England, Ireland, Russia, etc.?

Oh way worse. For one thing, unlike the Ironborn, the Vikings were perfectly happy to farm and trade and craft – one of the big reasons they launched their raids and then their conquests was that they didn’t have enough farmland and wanted to get their hands on more. Likewise, when it came to governance, once they transitioned from raiders and conquerors to kings, they were generally quite effective, whether we’re talking about Cnut’s North Sea Empire or the Norman Kings of Sicily.