Flesh Metaphor

[Mithras]

“I had bad dreams,” Shireen told him. “About the dragons. They were coming to eat me.”

Many people assume that Shireen will be burned because of this dream. I think that is not necessarily true, given what we know about George’s interpretation of flesh eating.

First of all, the dragons in dreams are seldom literal. They generally refer to Targaryens.

Eating the flesh of a person has this in-text interpretation:

“We had one king, then five. Now all I see are crows, squabbling over the corpse of Westeros.” He [Rodrik] fastened the shutters. “Do not go to Old Wyk, Asha. Stay with your mother. We shall not have her long, I fear.”

“No, I’ll sit the Seastone Chair.”

“Then you are just another crow, screaming for carrion.” Rodrik sat again behind his table.

Flesh is equalized to land and land is the source of power/wealth in a feudal society. So, eating the flesh of a monarch means taking his/her lands/armies/crown whatever.

In one room, a beautiful woman sprawled naked on the floor while four little men crawled over her. They had rattish pointed faces and tiny pink hands, like the servitor who had brought her the glass of shade. One was pumping between her thighs. Another savaged her breasts, worrying at the nipples with his wet red mouth, tearing and chewing.

This vision from HotU is basically the same thing with what the Reader said. The beautiful woman is the corpse of Westeros and several kings in the form of dwarves are eating her flesh.

The next morning she woke stiff and sore and aching, with ants crawling on her arms and legs and face. When she realized what they were, she kicked aside the stalks of dry brown grass that had served as her bed and blanket and struggled to her feet. She had bites all over her, little red bumps, itchy and inflamed. Where did all the ants come from? Dany brushed them from her arms and legs and belly. She ran a hand across her stubbly scalp where her hair had burned away, and felt more ants on her head, and one crawling down the back of her neck. She knocked them off and crushed them under her bare feet. There were so many …

It turned out that their anthill was on the other side of her wall. She wondered how the ants had managed to climb over it and find her. To them these tumbledown stones must loom as huge as the Wall of Westeros. The biggest wall in all the world, her brother Viserys used to say, as proud as if he’d built it himself.

This is basically the same thing with the previous HotU vision. Dany’s body is bit by the ants coming from the other side of the wall during the night. Since George himself likens this wall specifically to the Wall, these ants coming from the other side of the wall refer to the threat of the Others.

Beneath the great grey cliffs a horse was dying noisily, struggling to rise on a broken leg and screaming when he fell. His brother circled round him, then tore out his throat while the horse kicked feebly and rolled his eyes. When he approached the carcass his brother snapped at him and laid back his ears, and he cuffed him with a forepaw and bit his leg. They fought amidst the grass and dirt and falling ashes beside the dead horse, until his brother rolled on his back in submission, tail tucked low. One more bite at his upturned throat; then he fed, and let his brother feed, and licked the blood off his black fur.

Here we see that after the Sack of Winterfell, Summer and Shaggydog fell on a dying horse. They fought over the corpse about the right to feed first. Summer defeated Shaggydog. He fed on the horse and then let his brother feed on it.

It [Winterfell] was not dead, just broken. Like me, he [bran] thought. I’m not dead either.

The horse with the broken leg symbolizes the broken Winterfell, like Bran. So, the symbolism suggests that Bran will return to claim his birthright and after he rebuilds Winterfell (in a magical manner) he will leave his seat to his brother Rickon.

Coming back to Shireen, we should note that she is the rightful heiress of King Robert if (when) Stannis dies. That means her flesh refers to Westeros. She dreamt these dragons after Dany hatched them in the Dothraki Sea, so Dany is one of the dragons who will have her part of the flesh of Shireen.

We have another dream in which the dragons dance and wherever they dance, people die. That is why I think fAegon is another dragon who will have his part of Shireen’s flesh. In fact he already tore apart a large chunk of flesh from Shireen by taking Storm’s End.

Drogon landed on the carcass and sank his claws into the smoking flesh. As he began to feed, he made no distinction between Barsena and the boar.

In Daznak’s pit Barsena was killed and savaged by a boar. While the boar was tearing her apart, Drogon came and killed the boar. After that he devoured both the boar and Barsena.

This is an obvious representation of Robert and the boar. We have many similarities between Barsena and Robert such as black hair, foolhardiness, being killed by a boar, and same root in their names (Barsena-Baratheon). Cersei grows a taste for boar flesh after Robert’s death and there is a song in which she was likened to a sow that killed Robert. Therefore, this boar is Cersei/Lannisters and a dragon will come to end her reign in which she was feeding on the flesh of Robert. After that, the dragon will absorb the remnants of Robert’s and Cersei’s "flesh" to his/her own.

In Westeros the dead of House Targaryen were given to the flames, but who would light her pyre here? My flesh will feed the wolves and carrion crows, she thought sadly, and worms will burrow through my womb.

This is from the final chapter of Dany in ADwD. Whether she dies or lives at the end, it is a foreshadowing that her kingdom will be absorbed into that of the wolves and carrion crows, references to Starks and the NW.

[hardhome]

The title is a bit misleading but it is a nice analysis/metaphor.

[Mithras]

The title is a bit misleading but it is a nice analysis/metaphor.

Changed it a little :thumbsup:

[JonCon's Red Beard]

Shireen has those dreams because there is a bit of Targ blood in her. I believe it has something to do with greyscale, but I haven't yet found any evidence nor relationship (nor I have actually looked for it). There is also another girl with those dreams in Arianne I. She's not a Targaryen but she might have some ancestry.

Agree that feasting on someone's body is a metaphor for overruling. At the end, it's the dragon who feast on everybody else, and I suppose Barrena means that the Dragons will overrule the Stags and Lions.

[Mithras]

Shireen has those dreams because there is a bit of Targ blood in her. I believe it has something to do with greyscale, but I haven't yet found any evidence nor relationship (nor I have actually looked for it). There is also another girl with those dreams in Arianne I. She's not a Targaryen but she might have some ancestry.

Agree that feasting on someone's body is a metaphor for overruling. At the end, it's the dragon who feast on everybody else, and I suppose Barrena means that the Dragons will overrule the Stags and Lions.

When the dragon came, Barsena was already dead. The dragon killed the boar which usurped the monarchy from Barsena. House Baratheon will be a corpse by the end and I expect Shireen to survive as the only legitimate Baratheon. The corpse of Robert's kingdom will feed a dragon and when we think of Shireen's dream, that dragon is Jon and he will marry Shireen in the end IMO.

[Mithras]

The Dothraki despise the Lhazareen. They mock them as Lamb Men since they are peaceful folk. This was repeated by Xaro too.

However, we see a significant Lhazareen under the tutelage of Barristan. He is called The Red Lamb and he is the most ferocious squire of Barristan, which he proves in the Battle of Fire.

A Yunkish nobleman begs him to spare him and collect his ransom. The Red Lamb replies that he has come for blood and kills the man right away.

Actually we know from Dany’s POV that the Lhazareen and the Dothraki were indistinguishable in the eyes of a stranger.

Ser Jorah said the people of this country named themselves the Lhazareen, but the Dothraki called them haesh rakhi, the Lamb Men. Once Dany might have taken them for Dothraki, for they had the same copper skin and almond-shaped eyes. Now they looked alien to her, squat and flat-faced, their black hair cropped unnaturally short.

Indeed, they have the same genetic heritage and the only difference is about their lifestyle and their diets.

Qotho was ever the cruelest of the bloodriders. It was he who laughed. “Does the horse breed with the sheep?”

Something in his tone reminded her of Viserys. Dany turned on him angrily. “The dragon feeds on horse and sheep alike.”

Khal Drogo smiled. “See how fierce she grows!” he said. “It is my son inside her, the stallion who mounts the world, filling her with his fire. Ride slowly, Qotho…if the mother does not burn you where you sit, the son will trample you into the mud. And you, Mago, hold your tongue and find another lamb to mount. These belong to my khaleesi.”

I think the dragon feeding on horse and sheep alike foreshadows the deeds of the stallion who mounts the world. I think Drogon will be declared the Stallion. Drogo attributed the ferocity in Dany to his son Rhaego as the Stallion inside her. According to him, "This is the Stallion talking". Dany by mounting Drogon will unite the Dothraki and the Lhazareen into a single khalassar. The transformation in the Red Lamb is there for this reason.

Once again we see that feeding on flesh metaphor is in agreement with the examples above.

[Janicia]

Nice post!

But I think you are overly optimistic about Shireen. Stannis is unlikely to gain control over Westeros and then pass it to her, and he certainly hasn't yet, so Shireen's flesh doesn't really stand in as Westeros. And I don't think she considers Westeros to be hers in that way, but she still has those terrifying dreams. And she spends a lot of time with Patchface who is creepy as heck and she went to the Wall for a reason.

Maybe its all a misdirection and Shireen gets a happily ever after, but she seems doomed to me.

I think it should also be remembered that GRRM writes literal cannibalism, rape, and necrophilia as well as metaphor.

[Mithras]

About dragon eating a person, check this out.

The fool was all that he had time to think as the quarrel caromed off Viserion’s neck to vanish in the gloom. A line of fire gleamed in its wake—dragon’s blood, glowing gold and red.

The crossbowman was fumbling for another quarrel as the dragon’s teeth closed around his neck.

Viserion's blood is described using the colors of House Lannister. This occurs when Viserion is fired at with a crossbow, something Tyrion has used and relates to using often throughout ADwD. Viserion eats the crossbowman. It is highly foreshadowed that Tyrion will ride Viserion.

Now what do you think will happen to Shireen if she is eaten by a dragon in her dreams (which didnot occur yet by the way). Shireen thought that dragons were coming to eat her. They didnot eat her yet and probably Shireen mistook their intentions.

[Isobel Harper]

Superb analysis! Thanks for the interesting read.

[Isobel Harper]

The Dothraki despise the Lhazareen. They mock them as Lamb Men since they are peaceful folk. This was repeated by Xaro too.

However, we see a significant Lhazareen under the tutelage of Barristan. He is called The Red Lamb and he is the most ferocious squire of Barristan, which he proves in the Battle of Fire.

A Yunkish nobleman begs him to spare him and collect his ransom. The Red Lamb replies that he has come for blood and kills the man right away.

Actually we know from Dany’s POV that the Lhazareen and the Dothraki were indistinguishable in the eyes of a stranger.

Ser Jorah said the people of this country named themselves the Lhazareen, but the Dothraki called them haesh rakhi, the Lamb Men. Once Dany might have taken them for Dothraki, for they had the same copper skin and almond-shaped eyes. Now they looked alien to her, squat and flat-faced, their black hair cropped unnaturally short.

Indeed, they have the same genetic heritage and the only difference is about their lifestyle and their diets.

Qotho was ever the cruelest of the bloodriders. It was he who laughed. “Does the horse breed with the sheep?”

Something in his tone reminded her of Viserys. Dany turned on him angrily. “The dragon feeds on horse and sheep alike.”

Khal Drogo smiled. “See how fierce she grows!” he said. “It is my son inside her, the stallion who mounts the world, filling her with his fire. Ride slowly, Qotho…if the mother does not burn you where you sit, the son will trample you into the mud. And you, Mago, hold your tongue and find another lamb to mount. These belong to my khaleesi.”

I think the dragon feeding on horse and sheep alike foreshadows the deeds of the stallion who mounts the world. I think Drogon will be declared the Stallion. Drogo attributed the ferocity in Dany to his son Rhaego as the Stallion inside her. According to him, "This is the Stallion talking". Dany by mounting Drogon will unite the Dothraki and the Lhazareen into a single khalassar. The transformation in the Red Lamb is there for this reason.

Once again we see that feeding on flesh metaphor is in agreement with the examples above.

I theorize that Dany will unite the khalasars as well, the omen at Raes Dothrak being mistaken for Rhaego in the first place. I wonder what new we might learn about the Dothraki as well as the Lhazareen.