Game of Thrones season 7 comes to a close: Winter has ended too soon for our liking this year, as the penultimate season of Game of Thrones wraps up today for us here in the Middle East (yesterday if you’re reading from the US or Canada). With filming of the six-episode season eight set to start only in October, it’s unlikely the show will be coming back before July next year, especially as the story wades deeper into winter. We’re expecting nothing short of an epic battle (or two) to conclude this wondrous series. Until then, we leave you with this one “epic rap battle of history,” pitting series creator George R. R. Martin against the master of the Lord of the Rings universe, author J.R.R. Tolkien. Whether you’re a fan of one or the other, this is one showdown you’ll want to check out (watch, runtime 2:48).

And if you’re up to date with your Thrones, you might also want to check out this interview with director Alan Taylor, who talks to Deadline Magazine about “the trick” in filming last week’s episode six to make it look as real as possible. “We were not going to be plunging people into water on a frozen lake in Iceland in the winter and then having to reset the ice and do it again,” he says.