The iron throne is in Sweden. It is known. Disregarding that Westeros isn’t a city but a continent, Sweden’s fifth largest city is Westra Aros, or Västerås in modern Swedish. It is pronounced exactly the same as Westeros, were you to say it in an English accent.
Västerås is located in the historic region of Västmanland, just like the Westerlands is located in Westeros, and has about 150,000 inhabitants. Much like Westeros, Sweden is a long “continent” with a mild European climate in the south and a harsh cold one in the north, however even during the summers, it can get quite warm up north. One thing to note though is that we do share a mountain chain with Norway, similar to that in the land beyond the wall.
With both the Westerosi and Swedish capital on the eastern coast, and being a long narrow land with mountains, wolves and royals, you can’t help but wonder if George R.R. Martin maybe took a little tiny bit of inspiration from Sweden when writing his books. We know that J.R.R. Tolkien, who fathered the universe in Lord of the Rings, got inspired by Norse culture.
Other “facts” that prove this theory is that the name Stark means “strong” in Swedish (let’s disregard that Iron Man is also named Stark for now), Lannisters are blonde just like many Swedes, and Harrenhal makes you think of a Swedish compound word, Herrehall, which would mean a Lord’s hall and Sweden has many ruin castles just like it. Just take a look at the ruins of Visingsborg’s castle, Mörby’s castle, Bohus’s fortress, Borgholm’s castle, and many more. Sweden also has had its own share of wars and bloodbaths. Luckily THAT is a thing of the past.
Whether or not anything from Game of Thrones has anything to do with Sweden, the few fragments of resemblence is something that amuses us Swedes and hopefully the upcoming prequel will have more of that.