In the present day, some of the Free Folk (wildlings) who live Beyond the Wall might still know the Old Tongue rune system, for basic tasks such as gravemarkers, but their tribal society is largely illiterate.

The Order of Maesters did originate at Oldtown before the coming of the Andals, but apparently it was still largely an oral tradition – it is clearly stated that books were never written in Old Tongue runes. The North was the only region of the Seven Kingdoms that was not conquered by the Andals, but over the centuries through a process of cultural diffusion the Northmen adopted the language of their Andal neighbors, and along with it their writing system (this mirrors how medieval Scotland managed to rapidly build itself up into a strong kingdom capable of resisting invasion from England to the south by adopting many English cultural customs and administrative practices). It was supplanted by the Common Tongue of the Andals during the coming of the Andals six thousand years ago, and in the present day is very rarely used. The novels describe it as having a basic rune-based writing system, but it was only used for basic tasks such as marking gravestones, not composing prose narrative books. The Old Tongue is the original language of the First Men, the first group of humans to migrate to Westeros. 2.3 Overview: The development of different medieval writing scripts.2.2 Overview: Handwriting in the TV series.A third system, the Old Tongue runes, was supplanted millennia ago by the Common Tongue, along with the spoken language, and few use it in the present day. There are two major writing systems in the parts of the world visited by the narrative: the one used by the Common Tongue of the Andals in Westeros, and the Valyrian glyph system (or systems). The Game of Thrones TV series, however, as an adaptation into a visual medium, can actually portray different writing systems on-screen. Tolkien did for his fictional languages – because as Martin has repeatedly pointed out, Tolkien was a professional linguist, but he is not.

Martin did not invent his own writing systems the way J.R.R. Several different writing systems are described in the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, but because they are not a visual medium, they haven’t been described in any detail. Gilly: ' You know all that from staring at marks on paper?' Samwell Tarly: ' Yes.' Gilly: ' You're like, a wizard.' - Gilly is impressed by Samwell Tarly's mastery of the written word.

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