Heresy 133 The Weirwoods

[Black Crow]

Welcome to Heresy 133 the latest edition of the thread that takes a sideways look at the Song of Ice and Fire.

Heresy is wide-ranging but is largely about questioning popular assumptions that the Wall and the Nights Watch were created to keep the Others at bay - and that the story is going to end with Jon Snow being identified as Azor Ahai.

Heresy is about trying to figure out what’s really going on, by looking at clues in the text itself with an open mind, and by identifying GRRM’s own sources and inspirations, ranging from Celtic and Norse mythology such as the Cu Chulainn cycle, the Morrigan and the Mabinogion, all the way through to Narnia and the original Land of Always Winter, and perhaps ultimately to recognizing the Heart of Winter not as a place on a map but as Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, for in Westeros Winter and Darkness are one and the same.

Stepping into the world of Heresy might appear confusing, but we are engaged in an exercise in chaos theory. It’s about making connections, sometimes real sometimes thematic, between east and west, between the various beliefs and types of magick - and also about reconciling the dodgy timelines. While most threads in this forum concentrate on a particular issue, we therefore range pretty widely and more or less in free-fall, in an effort to try and reach an understanding of what may really be happening through the resulting collision of ideas. However, beyond the firm belief that things are not as they seem, there is no such thing as an accepted heretic view on Craster’s sons or any of the other topics, and the fiercest critics of some of the ideas discussed on these pages are our fellow heretics

If new to Heresy you may want to start off with this link: http://asoiaf.wester...138-heresy-100/ where you will find a series of essays specially commissioned to celebrate our century by looking closely at some of the major issues. Links are also provided at the end of each of the essays to the relevant discussion thread, and for those made of sterner stuff we also have a link to Wolfmaid's essential guide to Heresy: http://asoiaf.wester...uide-to-heresy/, which provides annotated links to all the previous editions of Heresy.

Those essays were a very successful project orchestrated by Mace Cooterian to celebrate the centennial edition, and by popular request we’re currently running a follow-up with five new topics for the five kings; thus far we have looked at Azor Ahai, and the Wildlings, and now Heresy 133 opens with Snowfyre’s essay on Weirwoods.

The purpose of these special edition threads is to benefit from concentrating on the chosen topic in hand. If there is a new and startling revelation by GRRM which needs to be laid before us, fair enough, but otherwise please stick to the point and normal service will resume in due course.

Don’t be intimidated by the size and scope of Heresy, or by some of the ideas we’ve discussed over the years. We’re very good at talking in circles and we don’t mind going over old ground again, especially with a fresh pair of eyes, so just ask, but be patient and observe the local house rules that the debate be conducted by reference to the text, with respect for the ideas of others, and above all with great good humour.

[Black Crow]

As originally supplied this exhaustive list of weirwoods and references to weirwood was to have followed Snowfyre's essay, but rather than trip up the discussion I've inserted it first, with discussion to follow:

WEIRWOODS in A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE (Books 1 through 5)

There are about 400 instances of the terms “weirwood,” “godswood,” and “heart tree” in the first five books of A Song of Ice and Fire. There are living weirwoods inside godswoods, living weirwoods outside godswoods, and godswoods without any weirwoods at all. There are weirwood stumps and weirwood groves, weirwoods with faces and weirwoods without. Yes, some are red and some are blue. Some are old and some are new. Some are sad, and some are glad, and some are very, very… Well, you get the idea.

Without further ado - here, organized by location, is a list of all the weirwoods appearing thus far in Martin’s text. We start at the top of the map and move south, then take a brief look at godswoods without weirwoods, and finally a list objects made or shaped from weirwood.

(And if I’ve left out any trees… please let me know!)

BEYOND THE WALL

Cave of Skulls

"The cave is warded. They cannot pass." The ranger used his sword to point. "You can see the entrance there. Halfway up, between the weirwoods, that cleft in the rock." (5.13, BRAN)

The roots were everywhere, twisting through earth and stone, closing off some passages and holding up the roofs of others. All the color is gone, Bran realized suddenly. The world was black soil and white wood. The heart tree at Winterfell had roots as thick around as a giant's legs, but these were even thicker. And Bran had never seen so many of them. There must be a whole grove of weirwoods growing up above us. (5.13, BRAN)

Before them a pale lord in ebon finery sat dreaming in a tangled nest of roots, a woven weirwood throne that embraced his withered limbs as a mother does a child… Roots coiled around his legs like wooden serpents. One burrowed through his breeches into the desiccated flesh of his thigh, to emerge again from his shoulder. A spray of dark red leaves sprouted from his skull, and grey mushrooms spotted his brow… a thin white root grew from an empty socket, down his cheek, and into his neck. (5.13, BRAN)

The singers made Bran a throne of his own, like the one Lord Brynden sat, white weirwood flecked with red, dead branches woven through living roots. They placed it in the great cavern by the abyss, where the black air echoed to the sound of running water far below. Of soft grey moss they made his seat. Once he had been lowered into place, they covered him with warm furs. (5.34, BRAN)

Whitetree

“…a monstrous great weirwood… It was the biggest tree Jon Snow had ever seen, the trunk near eight feet wide, the branches spreading so far that the entire village was shaded beneath their canopy. The size did not disturb him so much as the face… the mouth especially, no simple carved slash, but a jagged hollow large enough to swallow a sheep. (2.13, JON)

“An old tree." Mormont sat his horse, frowning… "And powerful." Jon could feel the power. (2.13, JON)

Grove of Nine

“Beyond the Wall [in] the haunted forest… a grove of weirwoods half a league from [Castle Black]” (1.48, JON)

“…a small clearing in the deep of the wood where nine weirwoods grew in a rough circle. The forest floor was carpeted with fallen leaves, blood-red on top, black rot beneath. The wide smooth trunks were bone pale, and nine faces stared inward. The dried sap that crusted in the eyes was red and hard as ruby.” (1.48, JON)

“The weirwoods rose in a circle around the edges of the clearing. There were nine, all roughly of the same age and size. Each one had a face carved into it, and no two faces were alike. Some were smiling, some were screaming, some were shouting at him. In the deepening glow their eyes looked black, but in daylight they would be blood-red…” (5.35, JON)

Unnamed Wildling Village

A huge weirwood grew in the center of this one… but a white tree did not mean Whitetree, necessarily. Hadn't the weirwood at Whitetree been bigger than this one? Maybe he was remembering it wrong. The face carved into the bone pale trunk was long and sad; red tears of dried sap leaked from its eyes. (3.46, SAMWELL)

The tree's not half as big as the one at Whitetree. The red eyes wept blood… (3.46, SAMWELL)

Misc. Haunted Forest

Along the Wall (1.21, TYRION)

…there were places where grey-green sentinels and pale white weirwoods had taken root in the shadow of the Wall itself… (1.21, TYRION)

From the Fist (2.34, JON)

To south and east [of the Fist] the wood went on as far as Jon could see, a vast tangle of root and limb painted in a thousand shades of green, with here and there a patch of red where a weirwood shouldered through the pines and sentinels, or a blush of yellow where some broadleafs had begun to turn. (2.34, JON)

Varamyr’s Last Stand Hut (5.00, PROLOGUE]

…a weirwood armored in ice…

…Varamyr could see the weirwood's red eyes staring down at him from the white trunk. The gods are weighing me. Varamyr Sixskins closed his eyes … He dreamt an old dream…

… The white world turned and fell away. For a moment it was as if he were inside the weirwood, gazing out through carved red eyes…

THE NORTH (South of the Wall, North of the Neck)

In Godswoods, Castles or Keeps (including ruins):

Winterfell (House Stark)

“…an ancient weirwood brood[ing] over a small pool where the waters were black and cold… [its] bark was white as bone, its leaves dark red, like a thousand bloodstained hands. A face… long and melancholy, the deep-cut eyes red with dried sap and strangely watchful.” (1.02, CATELYN)

“The red leaves… a blaze of flame among the green [of the godswood].” (2.56, THEON)

“…pale roots of the heart tree twist[ed] around [Eddard Stark] like an old man’s gnarled arms.” (5.34, BRAN)

“…the heart tree standing like some pale giant frozen in time…”

“…pale limbs, red leaves, and solemn face…” (3.79, JON)

“…the heart tree with its red leaves and scary face…” (4.22, ARYA)

“The weirwood’s carved red eyes stared down at [Ramsay and his bride], its great red mouth open as if to laugh…” (5.37, THE PRINCE OF WINTERFELL)

“…for one strange moment it seemed as if it were Bran’s face carved into the pale trunk of the weirwood, staring down at him with eyes red and wise and sad.” (5.46, A GHOST IN WINTERFELL)

White Harbor / Wolf’s Den (House Manderly)

“…the heart tree had grown so huge and tangled that it had choked out all the oaks and elms and birch and sent its thick, pale limbs crashing through the walls and windows that looked down on it. Its roots were as thick around as a man's waist, its trunk so wide that the face carved into it looked fat and angry.” (5.29, DAVOS)

The Nightfort (Abandoned, Night’s Watch)

“a twisted white weirwood… a crooked weirwood… its bone-white branches reaching for the sun… a queer kind of tree, skinnier than any other weirwood that Bran had ever seen and faceless as well.” (3.56, BRAN)

[sam] was a quarter of the way around the well from Bran and Hodor and six feet farther down, yet Bran could barely see him. He could see the door, though. The Black Gate, Sam had called it, but it wasn't black at all… It was white weirwood, and there was a face on it.

A glow came from the wood, like milk and moonlight, so faint it scarcely seemed to touch anything beyond the door itself, not even Sam standing right before it. The face was old and pale, wrinkled and shrunken. It looks dead. Its mouth was closed, and its eyes; its cheeks were sunken, its brow withered, its chin sagging. If a man could live for a thousand years and never die but just grow older, his face might come to look like that.

The door opened its eyes…. They were white too, and blind. “Who are you?" the door asked, and the well whispered, "Who-who-who-who-who-who-who."

"I am the sword in the darkness," Samwell Tarly said. "I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers. I am the shield that guards the realms of men."

"Then pass," the door said. Its lips opened, wide and wider and wider still, until nothing at all remained but a great gaping mouth in a ring of wrinkles. Sam stepped aside and waved Jojen through ahead of him. Summer followed, sniffing as he went, and then it was Bran's turn. Hodor ducked, but not low enough. The door's upper lip brushed softly against the top of Bran's head, and a drop of water fell on him and ran slowly down his nose. It was strangely warm, and salty as a tear. (3.56, BRAN)

Deepwood Motte (House Glover) (by reference)

Lady Sybelle all but lived in her godswood, praying for her children and her husband's safe return. Another prayer like to go unanswered. Her heart tree is as deaf and blind as our Drowned God. (5.26, THE WAYWARD BRIDE]

Hornwood (House Hornwood) (by reference)

"The monster has tied us a thorny knot," the old knight told Maester Luwin. "Like it or no, Lady Hornwood was his wife. He made her say the vows before both septon and heart tree, and bedded her that very night before witnesses. She signed a will naming him as heir and fixed her seal to it." (2.35, BRAN)

Last Hearth (House Umber) (by reference)

"Can this man Mors be trusted?" asked Stannis … "Your Grace should have him swear an oath before his heart tree." (5.17, JON)

In the Wild, Unenclosed:

On An Island near An Abandoned Crofter’s Village

“…a weirwood gnarled and ancient, its bole and branches white as the surrounding snows… [it had] slitted red eyes and [a] bloody mouth. (5.62, THE SACRIFICE)

Skagos

“Only heart trees see half of what they do on Skagos.” (5.32, REEK)

The Wolfswood

“Even in the wolfswood, you never foundmore than 2 or 3 of the white trees growing together…” (1.48, JON)

Sea Dragon Point

“In the high places, there were weirwood circles left by the children of the forest.” (5.26, THE WAYWARD BRIDE)

THE SOUTH (South of the Neck)

In Godswoods, Castles or Keeps (including ruins):

Riverrun

“…the heart tree [was] a slender weirwood with a face more sad than fierce” (1.71, CATELYN)

The godswood there was a garden, bright and airy, where tall redwoods spread dappled shadows across tinkling streams, birds sang from hidden nests, and the air was spicy with the scent of flowers. (1.02, CATELYN)

Harrenhal

“[Harrenhal’s] godswood covered twenty acres” (2.30, ARYA)

From the branches of other trees in the godswood, “through the leafy canopy… the heart tree… looks just like the one in Winterfell…” (2.47, ARYA)

“…the face carved into its trunk… was a terrible face, its mouth twisted, its eyes flaring and full of hate. “ (2.47, ARYA)

During the Dance of Dragons, in 130 AC… “[Prince Daemon Targaryen] slashed the heart tree in the godswood to mark the passing [of days]. Thirteen marks can be seen upon that weirwood still; old wounds, deep and dark, yet the lords who have ruled Harrenhal since Daemon's day say they bleed afresh every spring.” (TPATQ)

Raventree Hall

“…the heart tree, a weirwood of colossal size whose upper branches could be seen from leagues away, like bony fingers scratching at the sky...” (5.48, JAIME)

“the gnarled limbs of the tree from which the castle took its name… was a weirwood ancient and colossal, ten times the size of the one in the Stone Garden at Casterly Rock. This tree was bare and dead, though…” (5.48, JAIME)

"The Brackens poisoned it," said his host. "For a thousand years it has not shown a leaf. In another thousand it will have turned to stone, the maesters say. Weirwoods never rot." (5.48, JAIME)

“[The ravens] come at dusk and roost all night. Hundreds of them. They cover the tree like black leaves, every limb and every branch. They have been coming for thousands of years. How or why, no man can say, yet the tree draws them every night." (5.48, JAIME)

Casterly Rock

The weirwood at Raventree Hall was… “ten times the size of the one in the Stone Garden at Casterly Rock. [Raventree’s] tree was bare and dead though…” (5.48, JAIME)

Storm’s End

“At Melisandre's urging, [stannis] had dragged the Seven from their Sept at Dragonstone and burned them before the castle gates, and later he had burned the godswood at Storm's End as well, even the heart tree, a huge white weirwood with a solemn face.” (3.05, DAVOS)

Oldtown / Isle of Ravens

“An ancient weirwood filled the yard, as it had since these stones had first been raised. The carved face on its trunk was grown over by the same purple moss that hung heavy from the tree's pale limbs. Half of the branches seemed dead, but elsewhere a few red leaves still rustled, and it was there the ravens liked to perch. The tree was full of them…” (4.45, SAMWELL)

The Whispers

“Most old castles had a godswood. By the look of it, the Whispers had little else… The yard was all weeds and pine needles. Soldier pines were everywhere, drawn up in solemn ranks. In their midst was a pale stranger; a slender young weirwood with a trunk as white as a cloistered maid. Dark red leaves sprouted from its reaching branches.” (4.20, BRIENNE)

In the Wild, Unenclosed:

Isle of Faces, God’s Eye

“In the south the last weirwoods had been cut down or burned out a thousand years ago, except on the Isle of Faces where the green men kept their silent watch…” (1.02, CATELYN)

"…some twelve thousand years ago, the First Men appeared from the east… As the First Men carved out holdfasts and farms, they cut down the faces and gave them to the fire. Horror-struck, the children went to war… The wars went on until the earth ran red with blood of men and children both... Finally the wise of both races prevailed, and the chiefs and heroes of the First Men met the greenseers and wood dancers amidst the weirwood groves of a small island in the great lake called Gods Eye.

"There they forged the Pact...[and] so the gods might bear witness to the signing, every tree on the island was given a face, and afterward, the sacred order of green men was formed to keep watch over the Isle of Faces…” (1.66, BRAN)

xHigh Heart

High Heart, a hill so lofty that from atop it Arya felt as though she could see half the world. Around its brow stood a ring of huge pale stumps, all that remained of a circle of once-mighty weirwoods... There were thirty-one, some so wide that [ARYA) could have used them for a bed. … High Heart had been sacred to the children of the forest, Tom Sevenstrings told her, and some of their magic lingered here still. (3.22, ARYA)

xThe Hollow Hill

The walls were equal parts stone and soil, with huge white roots twisting through them like a thousand slow pale snakes… In one place on the far side of the fire, the roots formed a kind of stairway up to a hollow in the earth where a man sat almost lost in the tangle of weirwood.” (3.34, ARYA)

“the voice came from the man seated amongst the weirwood roots halfway up the wall… A scarecrow of a man, he wore a ragged black cloak speckled with stars and an iron breastplate dinted by a hundred battles. A thicket of red-gold hair hid most of his face, save for a bald spot above his left ear where his head had been smashed in… One of his eyes was gone, Arya saw, the flesh about the socket scarred and puckered, and he had a dark black ring all around his neck.” (3.34, ARYA)

xJaime’s Dream Stump

By evenfall they had left the lake to follow a rutted track through a wood of oak and elm... Jaime stretched out near the fire and propped a rolled-up bearskin against a stump as a pillow for his head...

…The moonlight glimmered pale upon the stump where Jaime had rested his head. The moss covered it so thickly he had not noticed before, but now he saw that the wood was white. It made him think of Winterfell, and Ned Stark's heart tree… (3.44, JAIME)

xRing of White Stumps (Near the Inn by the Lake) [MYSTERY KNIGHT]

…[Dunk and Egg] found themselves in what must once have been a weirwood grove. Only a ring of white stumps and a tangle of bone-pale roots remained to show where the trees had stood, when the children of the forest ruled in Westeros. … Amongst the weirwood stumps, they found two men squatting near a cook fire… [one of whom was] the good Ser Maynard Plumm. (MYSTERY KNIGHT])

xOld Wyk / Nagga’s Bones (?)

Bones, [Aeron] thought. The bones of the soul. Balon's bones, and Urri's. The truth is in our bones, for flesh decays and bone endures. And on the hill of Nagga, the bones of the Grey King’s Hall…” (4.01, THE PROPHET)

…the sacred shore of Old Wyk and the grassy hill above it, where the ribs of Nagga rose from the earth like the trunks of great white trees, as wide around as a dromond's mast and twice as tall. The bones of the Grey King's Hall. Victarion could feel the magic of this place. (4.18, THE IRON CAPTAIN)

…On the crown of the hill four-and-forty monstrous stone ribs rose from the earth like the trunks of great pale trees … (4.19, THE DROWNED MAN)

[Black Crow]

GODSWOODS without WEIRWOODS (explicit or by omission)

King’s Landing

“The night the bird had come from Winterfell, Eddard Stark had taken the girls to the castle godswood, an acre of elm and alder and black cottonwood overlooking the river. The heart tree there was a great oak, its ancient limbs overgrown with smokeberry vines; they knelt before it to offer their thanksgiving, as if it had been a weirwood… (1.25 - EDDARD)

The heart tree was an oak, brown and faceless, yet Ned Stark still felt the presence of his gods. (1.45 – EDDARD)

“…the godswood. No other place in the Red Keep is safe from the eunuch's little birds… or little rats, as I call them. There are trees in the godswood instead of walls. Sky above instead of ceiling. Roots and dirt and rock in place of floor. The rats have no place to scurry. Rats need to hide, lest men skewer them with swords." (3.61, SANSA)

The Eyrie

…a small garden, a circle of dirt and grass planted with blue flowers and ringed on all sides by tall white towers. The builders had intended it as a godswood, but the Eyrie rested on the hard stone of the mountain, and no matter how much soil was hauled up from the Vale, they could not get a weirwood to take root here. So the Lords of the Eyrie planted grass and scattered statuary amidst low, flowering shrubs.” (1.40, CATELYN)

At the center of the garden, beside the statue of the weeping woman that lay broken and half-buried on the ground, she turned her face up to the sky and closed her eyes. She could feel the snow on her lashes, taste it on her lips. It was the taste of Winterfell. The taste of innocence. The taste of dreams. … When Sansa opened her eyes again, she was on her knees. She did not remember falling. It seemed to her that the sky was a lighter shade of grey. Dawn, she thought. Another day. Another new day. It was the old days she hungered for. Prayed for. But who could she pray to? The garden had been meant for a godswood once, she knew, but the soil was too thin and stony for a weirwood to take root. A godswood without gods, as empty as me. (3.80, SANSA)

“The Eyrie was built of fine white stone, and winter's mantle made it whiter still… the castle had seemed as empty as a tomb... No one sang up there, not since Marillion. No one ever laughed too loud. Even the gods were silent. The Eyrie boasted a Sept, but no septon; a godswood, but no heart tree. No prayers are answered here, [sANSA) often thought...” (4.41, SANSA)

Dragonstone

They escorted him not to the Stone Drum, as he'd expected, but under the arch of the Dragon's Tail and down to Aegon's Garden. … Aegon's Garden had a pleasant piney smell to it, and tall dark trees rose on every side. There were wild roses as well, and towering thorny hedges, and a boggy spot where cranberries grew. (3.10, DAVOS)

Castle Darry

"If it please my lord, we have put you in the Plowman's Keep… Your window looks out upon the godswood.” (4.30, JAIME)

The castle yard was full of eyes and ears. To escape them, they sought out Darry's godswood. There were no sparrows there, only trees bare and brooding, their black branches scratching at the sky. A mat of dead leaves crunched beneath their feet… (4.30, JAIME)

Oldstones

The curtain wall of Oldstones had once encircled the brow of the hill like the crown on a king's head. Only the foundation remained, and a few waist-high piles of crumbling stone spotted with lichen… The last light of the setting sun was in [Merrett’s] eyes as he clambered over the mossy hummocks that were all that remained of the keep. Behind was the godswood… [where] Petyr Pimple was hanging from the limb of an oak, a noose tight around his long thin neck. (3.81, EPILOGUE, Merrett Frey)

WEIRWOOD OBJECTS, Cut and Shaped and Used

Building Architecture

Whitewalls

…floors and pillars of milky white marble veined with gold; the rafters overhead were carved from the bone-pale trunks of weirwoods. Dunk could not begin to imagine what all of that had cost. (MYSTERY KNIGHT)

Harrenhal

…Weirwoods that had stood three thousand years were cut down for beams and rafters. (2.07, CATELYN)

(Apparently the Greensfield Keep in the Westerlands was also constructed of weirwood… stay tuned for the forthcoming World book…)

Doors and Furniture

Tobho Mott’s Shop - King’s Landing

“Ned turned off the square where the Street of Steel began and followed its winding path up a long hill… The man they wanted was all the way at the top of the hill, in a huge house of timber and plaster whose upper stories loomed over the narrow street. The double doors showed a hunting scene carved in ebony and weirwood.” (1.25, EDDARD)

House of the Undying - Qarth

“To her right, a set of wide wooden doors had been thrown open. They were fashioned of ebony and weirwood, the black and white grains swirling and twisting in strange interwoven patterns. They were very beautiful, yet somehow frightening … Drogon leapt from her shoulder. He flew to the top of the ebony-and-weirwood door, perched there, and began to bite at the carved wood.” (2.48, DAENERYS)

The Eyrie

“Lady Lysa sat on the dais in a high-backed chair of carved weirwood, alone. To her right was a second chair, taller than her own, with a stack of blue cushions piled on the seat…” (3.80, SANSA)

“…a white weirwood door set in the marble wall. The door was firmly closed, with three heavy bronze bars to hold it in place, but Sansa could hear the wind outside worrying at its edges. When she saw the crescent moon carved in the wood, she planted her feet. The Moon Door.” (3.80, SANSA)

Temple of the Many-Faced God – Braavos

“…a rocky knoll with a windowless temple of dark grey stone at its top. A flight of stone steps led from its doors down to a covered dock… At the top [ARYA) found a set of carved wooden doors twelve feet high. The left-hand door was made of weirwood pale as bone, the right of gleaming ebony. In their center was a carved moon face; ebony on the weirwood side, weirwood on the ebony. The look of it reminded her somehow of the heart tree in the godswood at Winterfell. The doors are watching me, she thought. She pushed upon both doors at once with the flat of her gloved hands, but neither one would budge. Locked and barred. "Let me in, you stupid," she said. "I crossed the narrow sea." She made a fist and pounded. "Jaqen told me to come. I have the iron coin." She pulled it from her pouch and held it up. "See? Valar morghulis." … The doors made no reply, except to open. (4.06, ARYA)

“Eleven servants of the Many-Faced God gathered that night beneath the temple, more than she had ever seen together at one time… They wore their robes of black and white… their tall chairs were carved of ebony and weirwood, like the doors of the temple above. The ebon chairs had weirwood faces on their backs, the weirwood chairs faces of carved ebony.” (5.64, THE UGLY LITTLE GIRL)

"Our brother would have words with you, child," the kindly man told her. "Sit, if you wish." [ARYA) seated herself in a weirwood chair with a face of ebony… she had been too long in the House of Black and White to be afraid of a false face. “ (5.64, THE UGLY LITTLE GIRL)

Other Objects

The High Septon’s staff

– “a weirwood staff topped by a crystal orb” (4.07, CERSEI)

The Magnar’s Spear

– “[a] long weirwood spear” (3.55, JON)

The Kingsguard’s Table

, White Sword Tower - “The table itself was old weirwood, pale as bone, carved in the shape of a huge shield supported by three white stallions. By tradition the Lord Commander sat at the top of the shield, and the brothers three to a side, on the rare occasions when all seven were assembled.“ (3.67, JAIME)

Rattleshirt’s Execution Cage

- “The queen's men had made it from the trees of the haunted forest, from saplings and supple branches, pine boughs sticky with sap, and the bone-white fingers of the weirwoods. They'd bent them and twisted them around and through each other to weave a wooden lattice, then hung it high above a deep pit filled with logs, leaves, and kindling.” (5.10, JON)

Vals’ Weirwood Face Pin

– “Val was clad all in white; white woolen breeches tucked into high boots of bleached white leather, white bearskin cloak pinned at the shoulder with a carved weirwood face, white tunic with bone fastenings.” (5.53, JON)

Marna’s Weirwood Mask

– “The warrior witch Marna removed her weirwood mask just long enough to kiss his gloved hand and swear to be his man or his woman, whichever he preferred.” (5.58, JON)

Weirwood Arrows

– A dark-eyed youth, pale and fierce, sliced three branches off the weirwood and shaped them into arrows. (5.34, BRAN)

(…And maybe a few things I’ve omitted?)

[Black Crow]

So that's the list, but what to make of them all:

WEIRWOODS by Snowfyre

Pale bark, white as bone; gnarled limbs; dark red, five-pointed leaves like a thousand bloodstained hands; thick, twisted roots like an old man's gnarled arms. Some are relatively young and slender. Others ancient and enormous, with features carved into their trunks to display expressive faces, no two alike: solemn and wise, long and sad, twisted and full of hate. Some smiling, some screaming, some shouting. Deep red eyes, dry and crusted, or weeping tears of blood-like sap. Mouths open and gaping to receive offerings of... well, we're not entirely sure.

Once long ago, when I first registered as a user on these boards, I posted a new thread to ask what I thought was a simple question: where are all the weirwoods? I was hoping somebody somewhere might have a list, or be able to point me to a resource. And the answer to my question was... well, crickets. I got no response at all. So, among other things, I plan to answer my own question here.

But first: What is the Weirwood, really? I propose that the weirwood is a symbiont: a life form capable of benefitting from partnership with an unlike organism. The partnership may be mutually beneficial, or one-sided - in the case of the weirwood, we don't yet know for sure. What does seem clear is that the weirwood is capable of partnering with either Singers (COTF) or humans - to form a "heart tree". And the heart tree - as a manifestation of that partnership - is a grafted creature. It is both natural and unnatural - the result of a marriage, or perhaps a forced union, of unlike things: humans (or COTF) and an old power of the earth. Bran, as we know, is to be "wedded" to the trees... and this analogy of a marriage between human and tree may very well prove one embodiment of the Pact sealed by the Singers and the First Men on the Isle of Faces.

The weirwood - in particular, the heart tree - stands in a liminal space, at the intersection of different realities, communities, and life forms... a mediator or guardian of boundaries. In one being, the tree represents a host of apparent opposites: plant and animal, god and man, living and dead, self and other, past and future, sacred and demonic, the family tree and the unnatural bastard, the familiar and the alien, the dream and waking reality. (Easy to see why these trees give Melisandre fits... like dragons, their very existence defies her dualistic faith.)

It turns out that the grafting metaphor is a remarkably useful tool for examining the weirwood, its nature, and its roles in Westeros. Perhaps that should be no surprise, given the many allusions to Shakespeare in Martin's work. For Shakespeare and his contemporaries in early modern literature, the graft was a literary metaphor loaded with competing meanings - both positive and negative - and part of an established cosmology embedding humankind within the natural world. Symbolically, the graft imagines the sudden joining of unlike things - a fusion that may be either disruptive or transformative. In Renaissance texts, the metaphor can be used to represent illegitimate unions, rape, or secret marriages; adoption, bastards or the strengthening of the family lines.

Grafting represents not only a horticultural practice, but also a way of understanding the permeable and productive boundaries between self and other, human and nonhuman, as well as the connections between past, present, and future...

Whether viewed positively or negatively, grafting demands and rewards an understanding for affinities between things, as well as a sense for how these affinities can be turned to new ends... [F]ruit, issue, wealth, bastards, monsters, even salvation, can result from the graft in Renaissance texts. The resulting entity, however, cannot be seen as self-sustaining since it does not reproduce itself-as-itself. Its fruits, if planted, will always revert to the earlier form of the slip. Instability defines the graft even while the process itself promises greater strength and productivity to the symbiotic plant. Perhaps most importantly, grafting elides notions of primogeniture and strict ideas of kinship, introducing uncertainty into Renaissance distinctions between high and low, animal and plant, human and nonhuman.

"A grafted plant is one resulting from desire, perhaps illicit desire, and its products are more like the invasive slip than the original root. In this, the graft contains an element of the changeling and the parasite."

Miranda Wilson, "Bastard Grafts, Crafted Fruits," in The Indistinct Human in Renaissance Literature( 2012) 105-108.

Instability and uncertainty. Disruption and transformation. Changelings and parasites. These words feel appropriate as we begin this review of weirwoods in Martin's text. Five books into this saga, there is still "much and more" we readers do not know about these trees - but by the end of ADWD, it is clear that these old powers are beginning to play a more active role in the story. Things are changing, winter is coming, and the weirwoods are right in the thick of it.

For the sake of discussion... I'm going to highlight just a few of the issues and questions that have stood out to me as I've collected and reviewed appearances of weirwoods in Martin's text. I confess that there are so many weirwoods and references to weirwoods in these books that I have struggled to organize and distill the text into central, digestible themes - at a certain point, it's hard to see the forest for the... uh, trees. So I realize that I'm leaving many relevant and interesting issues out of this OP - and I trust that you all will bring them up and discuss them anyway. Just consider this OP a starter pack.

The subtopics I'll touched on here are:

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• Weirwoods as Powers Old and Dark
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• Weirwoods and Blood Sacrifice
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• Weirwoods and Waking
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• Weirwoods as Giants
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• Weirwoods as Witnesses/Guardians
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• Weirwood Distribution (a teaser... more later, perhaps)
• 
  

--------------------

1. WEIRWOODS AS POWERS OLD AND DARK - Old powers, old gods, old races. I'm not convinced there's a significant distinction to be made between the three - though "old races" is only used once, if I recall correctly. What seems clear is that the phrase "old gods," as used in Westeros, corresponds very closely to the "powers old and dark" referenced by Mirri Maz Duur (MMD) as she performs her bloodmagic. The weirwoods of Westeros are "old," "powerful," and deeply rooted in darkness. And just as MMD "wakes" such powers with her song on the Dothraki Sea, we see signs that the old gods are waking in Westeros.

Here's a collection of quotes that, together, offers some support for this connection:

"Once I begin to sing, no one must enter this tent. My song will wake powers old and dark. The dead will dance here this night. No living man must look on them." - Mirri Maz Duur (1.64, DAENERYS)

"The old powers are waking... the trees have eyes again." - The Halfhand (2.53; 2.68, JON)

"Maesters will tell you that the weirwoods are sacred to the old gods. The singers believe they are the old gods." - Jojen Reed (5.34, BRAN)

"Your blood makes you a greenseer," said Lord Brynden. "This [paste of weirwood seeds] will help awakenyour gifts and wedyou to the trees." (5.34, BRAN)

"The singers carved eyesinto their heart trees to awaken them, and those are the first eyes a new greenseer learns to use... but in time you will see well beyond the trees themselves." - B. Rivers (5.34, BRAN)

"This is bloodmagic, lady. Only death may pay for life." ...Mirri Maz Duur chanted words... a knife appeared in her hand... It looked old; hammered red bronze, leaf-shaped, its blade covered with ancient glyphs. The maegi drew it across the stallion's throat, under the noble head, and the horse screamed and shuddered as the blood poured out of him in a red rush. He would have collapsed, but the men of her khas held him up. "Strength of the mount, go into the rider," Mirri sang as horse blood swirled into the waters of Drogo's bath. "Strength of the beast, go into the man." ... (1.64, DAENERYS)

...as [bran] watched, a bearded man forced a captive down onto his knees before the heart tree. A white-haired woman stepped toward them through a drift of dark red leaves, a bronze sickle in her hand... The woman grabbed the captive by the hair, hooked the sickle round his throat, and slashed. And through the mist of centuries the broken boy could only watch as the man's feet drummed against the earth... but as his life flowed out of him in a red tide, Brandon Stark could taste the blood. (5.34, BRAN)

"There is a power in living wood... a power strong as fire." - Jojen Reed (2.69, BRAN)

[in] Whitetree...a monstrous great weirwood... the biggest tree Jon Snow had ever seen... "An old tree." Mormont sat his horse, frowning... "And powerful." Jon could feel the power... (2.13, JON)

"Never fear the darkness, Bran... the strongest trees are rooted in the dark places of the earth. Darkness will be your cloak, your shield, your mother's milk. Darkness will make you strong." - Brynden Rivers (5.34, BRAN)

"[Winterfell]had grown over the centuries like some monstrous stone tree ... its branches were gnarled and thick and twisted, its roots sunk deep into the earth." (1.08, BRAN)

Bran turned in his basket for one last glimpse of the castle that had been his life... The stone is strong, Bran told himself, the roots of the trees go deep, and under the ground the Kings of Winter sit their thrones. So long as those remained, Winterfell remained. It was not dead... (2.69, BRAN)

"These are bad times to dwell alone in the wild. The cold winds are rising." ... "Let them rise. My roots are sunk deep." - Craster, "a godly man" (2.23, JON)

2. WEIRWOODS AND BLOOD SACRIFICE

"I never knew that northmen made blood sacrifice to their heart trees."

"There's much and more you southrons do not know about the north," Ser Bartimus replied... (5.29, DAVOS)

"...as [bran] watched, a bearded man forced a captive down onto his knees before the heart tree... [and] as his life flowed out of him in a red tide, Brandon Stark could taste the blood. " (5.34, BRAN)

I could scream, Theon thought. Someone will hear. The castle is full of armed men. He would be dead before help reached him, to be sure, his blood soaking into the ground to feed the heart tree. And what would be so wrong with that? (5.46, A GHOST IN WINTERFELL)

While weirwoods have figured prominently in our story from the very beginning, Martin waited until book 5 to explicitly reveal the association of these trees to blood sacrifice. After sharing Bran's own shock at learning of the practice through his weirwood vision, and after reading Davos' conversation with the jailer in White Harbor, we're forced to read back through our text with new eyes and questions. Has blood sacrifice continued to the present time in our story? Has it been going on throughout these books, without our noticing?

I think the answer is yes - though we get very little direct access to blood sacrifice as an intentional practice. Apart from Bran's vision, we get only one instance occurring onstage: the execution of Rickard Karstark at Riverrun. There is another instance that occurs offstage: the "boon" Maester Luwin requests of Osha as Bran and his companions flee Winterfell. Otherwise, there are only hints that Ned Stark participated in the practice... we don't see Ned kill anyone in front of a weirwood, but we are told he consistently washed his sword in the dark pool beneath his heart tree after executions.

We also have a couple of examples that, while not intentional enough to be sacrifices, might qualify as unwitting or incidental "donations" of blood. Arya injures her heel during her needlework in the Harrenhal godswood, then stands one legged before the heart tree and declared "valar morghulis." (Incidental, and seemingly minor... but such a random detail that it's hard not to wonder why Martin includes it.) And at the Whispers, Nimble Dick Crabb and Shagwell the fool both meet gory and gruesome ends beneath a young, faceless weirwood growing inside the castle grounds. (Interestingly, both of these non-intentional blood "donations" is accompanied by an affirmation of respect before the old gods.)

It has been put forward elsewhere that blood sacrifice may serve to "activate" the weirwoods - and that would correspond well with what we know from Mirri Maz Duur about the power and price of bloodmagic. If that idea works... then we really should wonder about the effects these blood sacrifices (and donations) might have on our story moving forward...

Here are the texts for the sacrifices and "donations" mentioned above:

Winterfell

"Catelyn found her husband beneath the weirwood, seated on a moss-covered stone. The great-sword Ice was across his lap, and he was cleaning the blade in those waters black as night." (1.02, CATELYN)

"[ser Ilyn] carried Ice unsheathed. Her father had always cleaned the blade in the godswood after he took a man's head, Sansa recalled, but Ser Ilyn was not so fastidious. There was blood drying on the rippling steel, the red already fading to brown." (2.60, SANSA)

"...Now go." ... Osha gazed up at the weirwood, at the red face carved in the pale trunk. "Andleave you for the gods?" ... "I beg..." The maester swallowed. "...a.... a drink of water, and... another boon. If you would..." ... "Aye." She turned to Meera. "Take the boys." (2.69, BRAN)

Riverrun (Rickard Karstark)

"...the godswood was crowded....a headsman's block had been set up before the heart tree. Rain and leaves fell all around them ... "Rickard Karstark, Lord of Karhold." Robb lifted the heavy axe with both hands. "Here in sight of gods and men, I judge you guilty of murder and high treason. In mine own name I condemn you. With mine own hand I take your life. Would you speak a final word?" ... The axe crashed down. Heavy and well-honed, it killed at a single blow, but it took three to sever the man's head from his body, and by the time it was doneboth living and dead were drenched in blood. Robb flung the poleaxe down in disgust, and turned wordless to the heart tree. He stood shaking with his hands half-clenched and the rain running down his cheeks ... The rain continued all through the morning, lashing the surface of the rivers and turning the godswood grass into mud and puddles. (3.20, CATELYN)

Harrenhal

"The heel of her right foot was bloody where she'd skinned it, so she stood one-legged before the heart tree and raised her sword in salute. "Valar morghulis," she told the old gods of the north." (2.64, ARYA)

The Whispers

Crabb was standing underneath the weirwood... Shagwell dropped from the weirwood, braying laughter... In place of a jester's flail he had a triple morning-star, three spiked balls chained to a wooden haft. He swung it hard and low, and one of Crabb's knees exploded in a spray of blood and bone..."

Brienne lowered Oathkeeper. "Dig a grave. There, beneath the weirwood ... You have two hands. ... Nimble Dick will have a grave. He was a Crabb. This is his place." ... it took the fool the rest of the day to dig down deep enough. Night was falling by the time he was done, and his hands were bloody and blistered."

"She knocked aside [shagwell's] arm and punched the steel into his bowels. "Laugh," she snarled at him. He moaned instead. "Laugh," she repeated, grabbing his throat with one hand and stabbing at his belly with the other. "Laugh!" She kept saying it, over and over, until her hand was red up to the wrist and the stink of the fool's dying was like to choke her. But Shagwell never laughed..."

"Podrick helped her lower Nimble Dick into his hole. By the time they were done the moon was rising. Brienne rubbed the dirt from her hands and tossed two dragons down into the grave... "It was the reward I promised him for finding me the fool... I keep my promises." ... Together, they shoved the dirt on top of Nimble Dick as the moon rose higher in the sky, and down below the ground the heads of forgotten kings whispered secrets. (4.20, BRIENNE)

3. WEIRWOODS, EYES, AND "WAKING"- Old powers and weirwoods take naps, it seems. Bloodraven reports that the singers carved eyes into their heart trees "to awaken them." MMD's song "wake powers old and dark." By the time Jon and Qhorin attempt their return from the Skirling Pass, the Halfhand recognizes something similar taking place north of the Wall: "the old powers are waking," he says, "...[t]he trees have eyes again." The Ghost of High Heart reports that she dreams when "the old gods stir" - though there are no living trees remaining on High Heart, no carved eyes, only stumps.

So what does it really mean that the "old powers are waking... the trees have eyes again?" Is that simply an indication that magic is returning to the world? Is it related to blood sacrifice? MMD's song? Is it a symptom of new strength provided by a fresh graft of human (Bran) to tree? A sign that greenseers are active again after a period of dormancy? Or something else?

"My song will wake powers old and dark." - Mirri Maz Duur (1.64, DAENERYS)

"The old powers are waking... the trees have eyes again." - Q. Halfhand (2.53; 2.68, JON)

"Your blood makes you a greenseer," said Lord Brynden. "This [paste of weirwood seeds] will help awaken your gifts and wed you to the trees." (5.34, BRAN)

"Once you have mastered your gifts, you may look where you will and see what the trees have seen... The singers carved eyes into their heart trees to awaken them, and those are the first eyes a new greenseer learns to use... but in time you will see well beyond the trees themselves." - B. Rivers (5.34, BRAN)

Given the relevance of eyes (carved or opened), can we also connect the three-eyed crow, and Bran's own "third eye?"

Bran looked at the crow on his shoulder, and the crow looked back. It had three eyes, and the third eye was full of a terrible knowledge. (1.17, BRAN)

[The three-eyed crow's] beak stabbed at him fiercely, and Bran felt a sudden blinding pain in the middle of his forehead, between his eyes... the grey mists shuddered and swirled around him and ripped away like a veil, and he saw that the crow was really a woman, a serving woman with long black hair... [who]ran down the steps, shouting, "He's awake, he's awake, he's awake." (1.17, BRAN)

"Fly or die!" cried the three-eyed crow as it pecked at him... It put out his left eye and then his right, and when he was blind in the dark it pecked at his brow, driving its terrible sharp beak deep into his skull. ...[and] when the crow wrenched out its beak all slimy with bits of bone and brain, Bran could see again. (2.16, BRAN)

A weirwood.... seemed to sprout from solid rock, its pale roots twisting up from a myriad of fissures and hairline cracks. The tree was slender compared to other weirwoods he had seen, no more than a sapling, yet it was growing as he watched, its limbs thickening as they reached for the sky. Wary, he circled the smooth white trunk until he came to the face. Red eyes looked at him. Fierce eyes they were, yet glad to see him. The weirwood had his brother's face. Had his brother always had three eyes?... Not always, came the silent shout. Not before the crow. (2.53, JON)

Meanwhile... there are other references to sleepers in need of awakening:

"[T]hey knelt before the weirwoods... I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men." (5.35, JON)

"And Joramun blew the Horn of Winter, and woke giants from the earth." (3.15, JON)

Which brings me to another, related, question...

4. WEIRWOODS AS GIANTS- Old powers, old gods, and trees all awakening. "And Joramun... woke giants." I know we have actual giants in these books. But weirwoods are also described as "giants" with some regularity. And our initial introduction to Mance's search for the Horn of Winter comes from Qhorin Halfhand, who says only that the wildling king was seeking some "power." So these words - "giants" and "power" - are used in reference to both weirwoods and Joramun's horn. Could there be a more significant connection?

And Joramun blew the Horn of Winter, and woke giants from the earth. (3.15, JON)

"[Mance] is seeking something in the high cold places. He is searching for something he needs... Some power." - Q. Halfhand (2.43]

The heart tree at Winterfell had roots as thick around as giant's legs, but these were even thicker. (5.13, BRAN)

...the heart tree stood before him, a pale giant with a carved face and leaves like bloody hands... (5.41, THE TURNCLOAK)

[Tyrion] remembered [the Starks'] godswood... and at the center the heart tree standing like some pale giant frozen in time.... That wood was Winterfell. (2.49, TYRION)

5. WEIRWOODS AS WITNESSES/GUARDIANS - One of the primary roles of the heart tree appears to be that of witness or guardian. To speak or to act in front of a heart tree is to do so "in sight of gods and men" - a reminder that the role these trees play is a function of their nature as grafted beings, unions of the sacred and the profane. Throughout the story we see characters speak oaths and prayers before the carved faces of these trees. Marriages are performed by the uttering of vows before the heart tree. And at one point, Jon even fantasizes about making love to Ygritte beneath the heart tree of Winterfell - an image recalls the Dothraki belief "that all things of importance in a man's life must be done beneath the open sky." The twist, of course, being that in the North they seem to believe that all things of importance must be done beneath the heart tree. Jon's fantasy is a subtle nod to that idea... one of the hints that leave me wondering what Northern traditions Martin has (so far) withheld from his readers. And if lovemaking in the sight of the trees is really a thing, then Sam's sexual encounter with Gilly aboard the Cinnamon Wind deserves a second look. When he tells her he can't take a wife because he said his words "before a heart tree," she responds that "there are no trees" at sea. Was she trying to reassure Sam, telling him the trees will never know? That sex at sea is commitment-free?

This role - witness and guardian of knowledge - is also likely to prove significant from the perspective of storytelling, as our narrative moves forward. Bran has already caught glimpses of history through the Winterfell heart tree. And knowing that such "secret access" to past events may be available, it's worth pointing out that Martin has carved out certain narrative gaps in this story along the way - "offstage" moments in which certain characters are left alone, offstage, with only a weirwood for company. There is Maester Luwin in the Winterfell godswood, for instance - both before Bran and crew emerge from the crypts, and alone with Osha after Bran leaves. And it is hinted that Robb got to know the Riverrun heart tree rather well - after his first attempt to broach the issue of Winterfell's succession, Catelyn observes her son walking into the godswood alone and drawing his sword under the trees. (See 3.35, CATELYN)

Oaths and Vows

Jon said, "My lord father believed no man could tell a lie in front of a heart tree. The old gods know when men are lying." ... "My father believed the same," said the Old Bear. (2.13, JON)

"The old gods live in the wood, and those who honor them say their words amongst the weirwoods..." (5.35, JON)

"...he was a man of the Night's Watch, he had taken a vow... He had said the words before the weirwood, before his father's gods. He could not unsay them..." (3.15, JON)

How long he waited in the quiet of the godswood, [Ned] could not say... "Why here?" Cersei Lannister asked as she stood over him... "So the gods can see." (1.45, EDDARD)

"Rickard Karstark, Lord of Karhold." Robb lifted the heavy axe with both hands. "Here in sight of gods and men, I judge you guilty of murder and high treason. In mine own name I condemn you. With mine own hand I take your life..." (3.20, CATELYN)

"Robb bid farewell to his young queen thrice. Once in the godswood before the heart tree, in sight of gods and men..." (3.45, CATELYN)

Ser Dontos placed a hand on the gnarled bole of the heart tree. He was shaking, she saw. "I vow, with your father's gods as witness, that I shall send you home..." He swore. A solemn oath, before the gods. "Then... I will put myself in your hands, ser..." (2.18, SANSA)

[Jaqen H'ghar] placed a hand in the mouth of the weirwood. "By the seven new gods and the old gods beyond count, I swear it." (2.47, ARYA)

"Can this man Mors be trusted?" asked Stannis ... "Your Grace should have him swear an oath before his heart tree." (5.17, JON)

Love and/or Marriage

"If I could show her Winterfell, give her a flower from the glass gardens, feast her in the Great Hall, and show her the stone kings on their thrones. We could ... love beneath the heart tree while the old gods watched over us. (3.41, JON)

[sam] went to Gilly. "What we did... if I could take a wife, I would sooner have you than any princess or highborn maiden, but I can't. I am still a crow. I said the words, Gilly. I went with Jon into the woods and said the words before a heart tree." ... "The trees watch over us," Gilly whispered, brushing the tears from his cheeks. "In the forest, they see all... but there are no trees here. Only water, Sam. Only water." (4.35, SAMWELL)

"The monster has tied us a thorny knot... Like it or no, Lady Hornwood was his wife. He made her say the vows before both septon and heart tree, and bedded her that very night before witnesses. She signed a will naming him as heir and fixed her seal to it." (2.35, BRAN)

A smile danced across [Ramsay's] face. "Who comes..." Who comes before the god?" ... Ramsay and his bride joined hands and knelt before the heart tree, bowing their heads in token of submission. The weirwood's carved red eyes stared down at them, its great red mouth open as if to laugh. (5.37, THE PRINCE OF WINTERFELL)

And finally, there's the question of...

6. WEIRWOOD DISTRIBUTION (Locations and Settings) - Way back in the second chapter of the first book, Catelyn Stark introduces us, very briefly, to weirwoods and their history. But almost five thousand pages later, it's not clear that her introduction was accurate. From Catelyn's POV, we learn that "in the south the last weirwoods had been cut down or burned out a thousand years ago, except on the Isle of Faces where the green men kept their silent watch." She then contrasts the south with the North, where "every castle" has its godswood, its heart tree, and its carved face. Yet as our story moves on, we discover weirwoods in many castles and keeps south of the Neck, including: Riverrun, Raventree Hall, Casterly Rock, Harrenhal, Storm's End, and even Oldtown. So, what gives? Did Martin change the story along the way? Have all these trees been planted in the last thousand years? How do we reconcile this seeming inconsistency?

Other subtopics I'd address if I had more time and space... but which you Heretics may wish to explore on your own:

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• Weirwoods as Texts (Books, Knowledge, Magic, and Greenseeing)
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• The Pact as The Graft
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• Weirwood Communications (Words are Wind... and Dreams)
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• The Isle of Faces
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• The Knight of the Laughing Tree
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• The "Singer's" Heart Tree (Slitted Eyes, Mouth Full of Blood)
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(Etc...)

[SacredOrderOfGreenMen]

Something that's interesting is the young weirwood growing in the Whispers as seen by Brienne. It hints that weirwood trees grow on their own in wild places if not cut down by humans.

And that Storms End, a house that has kept to the Faith for thousands of years, had a weirwood heart tree.

Meaning that Osha was wrong. The Old gods do have eyes south of the Neck.

I'll post more on this very interesting subject later.

[alienarea]

Maybe the "waking giants" does not refer to giants the species but giants the weirwoods?

Whoever sounded the horn of Joramun woke the old powers again. And if the horn was the broken one found near the fist, maybe Craster was the one to sound it (why?) and started his "business" afterwards?

[King of Winters]

Maybe the "waking giants" does not refer to giants the species but giants the weirwoods?

Whoever sounded the horn of Joramun woke the old powers again. And if the horn was the broken one found near the fist, maybe Craster was the one to sound it (why?) and started his "business" afterwards?

Maybe GRRM will take some inspiration from Shakespear and Tolkien, and have give Weirwoods the ability to move.

Tolkien hoped the trees of Birnam Wood in 'Macbeth' would actually come alive but they didn't, and so because of this he put Ents in LOTR. So maybe Weirwoods will be GRRM's version of Ents.

[TheButcherCrow]

Snowfyre, ye gods :bowdown: Amazing work, really.

Too much to go into at 2:53am but I was drawn to this:

The weirwood - in particular, the heart tree - stands in a liminal space, at the intersection of different realities, communities, and life forms... a mediator or guardian of boundaries. In one being, the tree represents a host of apparent opposites: plant and animal, god and man, living and dead, self and other, past and future, sacred and demonic, the family tree and the unnatural bastard, the familiar and the alien, the dream and waking reality. (Easy to see why these trees give Melisandre fits... like dragons, their very existence defies her dualistic faith.)

Brilliant point and to expand on your illusion to dragons, in old Valyria we have a culture that used old power to elevate themselves almost to godhood. This my idea about the meaning of the sphinx, human and dragon, the gods amongst us. This is true of the singers and their human allies too. Using old power to become something akin to gods. There really is a lovely symmetry between the FM and the Valyrians, the weirwoods and the dragons.

[Melifeather]

There's a wealth of information here, Snowfyre. A lot of research went into gathering this information all together and for that you should be recognized.

My first thought about the faces carved into the trees is not new, because I know I've read others wondering the same thing and that is perhaps there are greenseers under every tree with a face? On the Isle of Faces, it must have taken a great number of greenseers to keep watch over the Pact. Maybe blood sacrifice keeps the greenseer alive?

[wolfmaid7]

Snowy! This is super amazing :bowdown: i absolutely love it,there is so much points to talk about here but i must say i am so glad you brought up these points because this is exactly what they are. Which begs the question about their autonomy in terms of the COTF and the effect the have on the person they've joined to. If Leaf is correct about the treees being able to teach Bran what might he be learning.Surely its not just transfer of info but possibly the synthesis of the info and what to do with it after.

"But first: What is the Weirwood, really? I propose that the weirwood is a symbiont: a life form capable of benefitting from partnership with an unlike organism. The partnership may be mutually beneficial, or one-sided - in the case of the weirwood, we don't yet know for sure."

"Instability and uncertainty. Disruption and transformation. Changelings and parasites. These words feel appropriate as we begin this review of weirwoods in Martin's text. Five books into this saga, there is still "much and more" we readers do not know about these trees - but by the end of ADWD, it is clear that these old powers are beginning to play a more active role in the story. Things are changing, winter is coming, and the weirwoods are right in the thick of it."

[Lord Ravenstark]

I am curious. Dragons need magic to exist, no magic and dragons will die just like the last time waned but when magic came back... boom, dragons are alive again. Weirwood don't need magic, yet they are magical of some sort. I know some people believe that dragons actually brought magic back but no need to worry, it's not about dragons but weirwoods.

Weirwoods, we learnt in 5.34, house the collective "spirit" of greenseers so it's completely believable that they can watch through them like Brandon did. However, we learnt in 1.25 that it's possible to feel the gods through non-weirwood trees. Later on, in 5.00, that the old gods are gods not only of the forests and woods but also of the mountains and streams. Maybe the Weirwood is just better to channel.

"The old powers are waking... the trees have eyes again." - Q. Halfhand (2.53; 2.68, JON)

However they had eyes all the time, or else we wouldn't be able to see Bran's vision of Lyanna (if it's Lyanna of course).

6. WEIRWOOD DISTRIBUTION (Locations and Settings) - Way back in the second chapter of the first book, Catelyn Stark introduces us, very briefly, to weirwoods and their history. But almost five thousand pages later, it's not clear that her introduction was accurate. From Catelyn's POV, we learn that "in the south the last weirwoods had been cut down or burned out a thousand years ago, except on the Isle of Faces where the green men kept their silent watch." She then contrasts the south with the North, where "every castle" has its godswood, its heart tree, and its carved face. Yet as our story moves on, we discover weirwoods in many castles and keeps south of the Neck, including: Riverrun, Raventree Hall, Casterly Rock, Harrenhal, Storm's End, and even Oldtown. So, what gives? Did Martin change the story along the way? Have all these trees been planted in the last thousand years? How do we reconcile this seeming inconsistency?

Lots of things are not written in verbatim. We, in Heresy of all, should have noticed already. Another interpretation of what she said could very well be "most of the weirwoods down South were burned or cut down, some where reintroduced and very few survived" may be or not the case, I wouldn't take every word so... literally?.

That's it for now.

-Weirwood magic, inherent and never faded.

-Weirwoods in the South were never completely destroyed but, if you can use the term for a relative geographical area, extinct in wild.

[Phillip Frye]

Maybe GRRM will take some inspiration from Shakespear and Tolkien, and have give Weirwoods the ability to move.

Tolkien hoped the trees of Birnam Wood in 'Macbeth' would actually come alive but they didn't, and so because of this he put Ents in LOTR. So maybe Weirwoods will be GRRM's version of Ents.

No marching, just whomping.

[Phillip Frye]

(…And maybe a few things I’ve omitted?)

How about those supremely pissed-off-looking wildling-carved non-weirwoods between Mole's Town and Castle Black?

[addicted to snow]

While weirwoods have figured prominently in our story from the very beginning, Martin waited until book 5 to explicitly reveal the association of these trees to blood sacrifice. After sharing Bran's own shock at learning of the practice through his weirwood vision, and after reading Davos' conversation with the jailer in White Harbor, we're forced to read back through our text with new eyes and questions. Has blood sacrifice continued to the present time in our story? Has it been going on throughout these books, without our noticing?

I think the answer is yes - though we get very little direct access to blood sacrifice as an intentional practice. Apart from Bran's vision, we get only one instance occurring onstage: the execution of Rickard Karstark at Riverrun. There is another instance that occurs offstage: the "boon" Maester Luwin requests of Osha as Bran and his companions flee Winterfell. Otherwise, there are only hints that Ned Stark participated in the practice... we don't see Ned kill anyone in front of a weirwood, but we are told he consistently washed his sword in the dark pool beneath his heart tree after executions.

- Another occurrence that might also be considered as evidence of a form of sacrifice would be the human skulls that Jon found half-hidden in a pile of ashes within the mouth of the Great Weirwood @ Whitetree

[Mithras]

Hmm very nice.

The first thing that strikes me is this: Winterfell heart tree looks like a Stark and White Harbour heart tree looks like a Manderly. The heart tree at White Harbour should have been planted much before the arrival of Manderlys and they are basically Andals. We also know that they held the Wolf's Den longest.

We also know that Winterfell heart tree has a traditional solemn Stark face yet during the fArya wedding, Theon noted that it looked as if it is about to laugh. It is clear that Bran was looking from that tree.

Therefore, I think the heart trees are subject to mood swings and they can change to look like their owners. Riverrun heart tree was fierce but sad, exactly how Cat felt.

I am most curious about the Harrenhal heart tree. Was it planted by Harren the Black? Why is it so hateful and angry?

The Raventree weirwood represents Bloodraven perfectly.

I am fully on board with Nagga's bones being the remnants of an ancient weirwood circle. What is most interesting is that the Iron Islands should have been connected to the mainland at some point because currently it does not look like weirwoods naturally grow there. If so, the Iron Islands were formed by a massive Hammer of Waters and it should be before the arrival of First Men to Westeros. Was it a conflict between different factions of CotF? I suspect so because we have the supposedly skinchanger Farwynds who are said to wear the skins of sea animals and it looks like they have a egend about a wondrous land beyond the Sunset Sea. Or maybe it was a conflict between the giants and the CotF because in legends, the people who inhabitated the Iron Islands (like Grey King) were large and strong people.

[Toccs]

I am fully on board with Nagga's bones being the remnants of an ancient weirwood circle. What is most interesting is that the Iron Islands should have been connected to the mainland at some point because currently it does not look like weirwoods naturally grow there. If so, the Iron Islands were formed by a massive Hammer of Waters and it should be before the arrival of First Men to Westeros. Was it a conflict between different factions of CotF?

Natural forces like erosion and sea level rise are also very much in play in GRRM's world. Presumably Ib once connected to mainland Essos, Leng to Yi Ti, Moraq to Qarth and that hidden bay of Braavos can't have always been a bay.

Assuming some ancient conflict that necessitated the use of the most powerful magics known so far, based only on the fact that an island chain is an island chain seems like a bit of a stretch to me.

[Toccs]

To add to the list of examples, concering Weirwood arrows. Bloodraven and his Raven's Teeth used Weirwood arrows. Presumably they were what he used to kill Daemon and his twins on the Redgrass Field.

[Queen‍‍‍‍‍‍ Alysanne‍‍™]

Very nice essay!

I see weirwoods as one of the ways of tapping into the stream of magic in ASOIAF, just like how fire and water are also ways of tapping into that stream.

I am curious. Dragons need magic to exist, no magic and dragons will die just like the last time waned but when magic came back... boom, dragons are alive again. Weirwood don't need magic, yet they are magical of some sort. I know some people believe that dragons actually brought magic back but no need to worry, it's not about dragons but weirwoods.

I agree,I don't think dragons are a representative of magic , I think they are reliant on magic.

I think a better parallel of weirwoods is fire, as both can be used to tap into the stream of magic.

[LynnS]

How about those supremely pissed-off-looking wildling-carved non-weirwoods between Mole's Town and Castle Black?

This is a bit of an anomoly since it's the only occurance of faces carved in trees that are not weirwood. I think it's evidence that human sacrifice still occurs; a drunk, an old man and a strong man (who perhaps didn't want to be sacrificed). The trees are given the countenance of their sacrifice and selected for their physical similarity to the sacrifice. It's not clear if the faces were carved in the tree when Mole's Town was first sacked or when the free folk took up residence afterward. I suspect the sacrifices were original residents of Mole's Town, kneelers in other words. So it seems that in the absence of weirwoods; substitutes will do out of necessity.

Whether or not the gods or greenseers can bear witness or see through any old tree given a set of eyes in another question. Although Mormont's Raven is reviewing the proceedings from the branches of the old chestnut tree.

My impression of the weirwood is that they propagate not only through their seed nuts but through their root system. As Bran mentions they look like giant worms or snakes and as Alleras mentions; you cut a worm in half and you get another worm. I suspect that the larger part of the organism is underground and that some groves are connected by their roots. This would indeed make them giants in another sense and explains how Bran can travel from tree to tree using the wierwood web.

That Theon can see Bran's face instead of the old Stark visage indicates to me that Theon has reached a state where he can look behind the curtain.

I'm not sure if the trees are parasites or symbiotes. It's the CotF and men who use the trees but it wasn't necessary to carve faces into the trees until men came on the scene. It fits that the pact involved the creation of human greenseer; essentially pinned to the trees involving the exchange of flesh and blood, another form of sacrifice.

I do think the wierwood's are Joramun's giants and that Bran and Bloodraven aren't the only greenseers. But did they wake because someone blew the horn of winter or through a string of events like Mirri Maaz Duur calling on the olds gods; the birth of dragons; the arrival of the comet? Did Dany unleash something when she destroyed the House of the Undying?

I do agree with ButcherCrow that the gods are created by men or that men take on the form of gods.

[Hrafntýr]

The Snowfyre Chorus: Thank you for such a beautifully written and thoughtful essay! I really, really like your discussion of the weirwoods as symbionts. As I think on it, though, I wonder if all weirwoods are true symbionts, since we seem to have weirwoods that exist in independence of human/CotF partnership. Though I suppose that true mutualism may not be needed for a relationship to be symbiotic, that it can just imply interrelationship that benefits both species in the relationship? Does the weirwood itself get something out of this relationship, or is it only the medium? Jojen, of course, proclaims that for the singers the weirwoods are themselves the gods, and Bran's vision suggests that the feeding of the weirwoods with the blood of sacrifice is drunk by the tree, though it might beg the question of who or what, exactly, is being fed? Is it the tree? The gods? The singer? I suppose the fact that it could be any or all simply strengthens your point that all these come together in the tree.

Brilliant point and to expand on your illusion to dragons, in old Valyria we have a culture that used old power to elevate themselves almost to godhood. This my idea about the meaning of the sphinx, human and dragon, the gods amongst us. This is true of the singers and their human allies too. Using old power to become something akin to gods. There really is a lovely symmetry between the FM and the Valyrians, the weirwoods and the dragons.

I like the parallel to the figure of the sphinx, though I wonder if there might be a distinction to be made here between the hybrid and the symbiont. The sphinx is an amalgamation of the human and dragon, the two fused so that they are no longer separate or separable, while the weirwood and the species with which it has interrelationships exist independently. Though I wonder if something changes when a face is carved in a weirwood, "wakening" it, since at that point perhaps we see more of a hybrid? Perhaps then the weirwood has certain needs that it wouldn't have had before?

I am curious. Dragons need magic to exist, no magic and dragons will die just like the last time waned but when magic came back... boom, dragons are alive again. Weirwood don't need magic, yet they are magical of some sort. I know some people believe that dragons actually brought magic back but no need to worry, it's not about dragons but weirwoods.

Weirwoods, we learnt in 5.34, house the collective "spirit" of greenseers so it's completely believable that they can watch through them like Brandon did. However, we learnt in 1.25 that it's possible to feel the gods through non-weirwood trees. Later on, in 5.00, that the old gods are gods not only of the forests and woods but also of the mountains and streams. Maybe the Weirwood is just better to channel.

"The old powers are waking... the trees have eyes again." - Q. Halfhand (2.53; 2.68, JON)

However they had eyes all the time, or else we wouldn't be able to see Bran's vision of Lyanna (if it's Lyanna of course).

<snip>

It seems to me that any tree into which eyes have been carved (or perhaps even any species with eyes) has the potential capability to see (just as our act of vision requires the physical apparatus of the visual system), but real seeing also requires the active turning of attention toward the object of vision, which is what is happening when the greenseer actively looks back in time and across space using the "visual apparatus" of the weirwood. So, yes, technically these trees have always had eyes, but Qhorin's statement refers to them actively seeing, using those eyes to see. I have eyes when I'm asleep, but I'm seeing only dreams, but when I wake I'm seeing the external environment, if I turn my attention towards it.

How about those supremely pissed-off-looking wildling-carved non-weirwoods between Mole's Town and Castle Black?

Yes!!! I'm quite fascinated by this. If Ned can feel the gods in the KL godswood, this suggests that the gods are present, even if they don't have the eyes to see or mouths to eat/drink/speak(?). Could any tree species be awakened, so that it, too, is an instrument of sight? I mean, the weirwood is clearly marked out as special, as Snowfyre's essay so clearly demonstrates, but I wonder if this carving of faces in non-weirwoods is anything more than an indication of the human need for a relationship with the gods. Are the gods in those trees, too, and can they see?

Hmm very nice.

The first thing that strikes me is this: Winterfell heart tree looks like a Stark and White Harbour heart tree looks like a Manderly. The heart tree at White Harbour should have been planted much before the arrival of Manderlys and they are basically Andals. We also know that they held the Wolf's Den longest.

We also know that Winterfell heart tree has a traditional solemn Stark face yet during the fArya wedding, Theon noted that it looked as if it is about to laugh. It is clear that Bran was looking from that tree.

Therefore, I think the heart trees are subject to mood swings and they can change to look like their owners. Riverrun heart tree was fierce but sad, exactly how Cat felt.

I am most curious about the Harrenhal heart tree. Was it planted by Harren the Black? Why is it so hateful and angry?

The Raventree weirwood represents Bloodraven perfectly.

<snip>

Here I think the role of the weirwood as medium comes to the fore. It seems to reflect/express the emotions and personalities of those who pray before it as well as those who see through it.

There's probably lots of good reasons for the Harrenhal heart tree to look so hateful and angry, given all the horrible things that have happened there, not to mention the destruction of so many weirwoods in the building of Harrenhal!

To add to the list of examples, concering Weirwood arrows. Bloodraven and his Raven's Teeth used Weirwood arrows. Presumably they were what he used to kill Daemon and his twins on the Redgrass Field.

Definitely. There's also Bran's vision of the dark-eyed youth, presumably Brandon Snow, shaping three weirwood arrows.

Also, a minor point, regarding Arya's one-legged salute to the Harrenhal heart tree. It immediately called to mind for me the Celtic practice of corrguinecht, "sorcery," that involved standing on one leg, upraising (we think) one arm, and closing one eye while making ar verbal attack or curse or "magical wounding" of some sort.