So technically, Florence Welch never appeared on-screen, but she was tapped by the showrunners to record a version of “Jenny of Oldstones” to play over the end credits of the final season’s second episode. The haunting song, which was sang earlier in the episode by Podrick (Daniel Portman), tells the sad tale of a woman who had a doomed love affair with Prince Duncan Targaryen.
But Welch told The New York Times she had no idea how GOT would even be using her version of the song.
“To be honest, they keep such a tight ship on Game of Thrones, they didn’t tell us what the visual would be,” she said. “We weren’t told what’s going to happen in the episode. We weren’t even told what the episode is called. It was all so top secret, so cloak-and-dagger!”
Given how symbolic the song is, and how much it potentially foreshadows the ending of the series, Welch admitted she’s “Glad” she hadn’t known how important “Jenny of Oldstones” was before recording it.
“I would have been like, ‘[Expletive], we need fanfares, and you’re going to have to get a dragon on here somehow,'” she said. “I might have—as I can do sometimes—overblown it. So I’m glad I didn’t know then, but I’m glad to know now.“
She also revealed the showrunners had actually approached the band in season two to perform “The Rains of Castamere,” which they declined, with The National then being tapped to take over. “I’m glad that they came back to me. I feel really touched to be on the last season, to be the last singer,” Welch said.
Benioff and Weiss’ persistence paid off, with Welch’s take on “Jenny and the Oldstones” earning praise and causing lots of chills ahead of the big battle episode.
“We’ve always been huge fans of Florence’s music,” the showrunners told The New York Times. “So the opportunity to hear her otherworldly voice on our show was always at the forefront of our minds. We’re still pleasantly shocked that she agreed to sing ‘Jenny of Oldstones,’ and we’re in love with the result.”