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Sansa's name


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That's the frustrating part about reading Sansa for me. She thinks she has to rely on Petyr to survive. I wish there would be a page or two of her at least thinking about alternatives instead of going along with whoever.

Sansa literally does that in-books. Re-read her first Feast chapter. Exactly before the quote I put about Sansa's place, she thinks about everyone she could run to, and how it's all but impossible. It's in the text.

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That's the frustrating part about reading Sansa for me. She thinks she has to rely on Petyr to survive. I wish there would be a page or two of her at least thinking about alternatives instead of going along with whoever.

Er, she does that quite a lot. In fact, in her first AFFC chapter, she goes through a long list of family members, etc. who are either dead or held captive or under siege, hence why she can't try to go to them.

She could have recognized her importance as a hostage that needs to be traded for Jaime Lannister that doesn't need to denounce her family, and that she has people like Tyrion and the Hound that would prevent her from being beaten in public.

Except that's not true, because Joffrey beat her in public all the time, and she was expected by everyone at court to pretend to be loyal.

She can walk out of the Eyrie right now if she wanted to, she's not a prisoner anymore.

She also has nowhere to go.

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Am I the only one frustrated that Sansa is victimized the entire series?

Sansa should know Littlefinger isn't to be trusted. She should be looking for other options if she doesn't want Littlefinger to keep making his advances towards her. If a man was kissing and fondling and making unwanton advances towards me I would be looking for any way I could to get out or put him away. Sansa knows Littlefinger has enemies in the Vale, why does she go along with Littlefinger instead of turning to them?

By the start of AFFC, Sansa knows LF isn't to be trusted. The issue it's not so clear by the end of AFFC, though.

She can't really leave the Eyre during AFFC without LF knowing and likely impeding her from leaving. She might be able to do it from the Gates of the Moon, which likely receive more traffic. But:

The Mountain passes are being attacked by the Clans, it's dangerous to move across the place without an armed escort.

She has no money of her own. LF can denounce Alayne as a thief.

If she is recognized, she can not know if she won't be delivered to KL for the reward on her head

She doesn't know what's happening in the North so, even if she makes it to Gulltown with enough money to buy passage somewhere, where will she go?

So, for the time being, she lays low and learns. That has to change during TWOW. She needs to have an objective of her own, she should begin to think of her duties as Lady of Winterfell (as far as she knows) and she should begin to get some information about what's going on in the North (Stannis on campaign, although the details won't reach the Vale, Manderly' son being returned. She barely discovered Jon is LC at the Watch, so Eastwatch might be a possible safehaven - or not, it's full of rapists)

As for LF's enemies, she doesn't know if they wouldn't be her enemies as well. So far, LF is covering her up. She can't know if the Bronze Yohn will do the same.

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I'm of the theory that Sansa and Arya are supposed to invoke the name of their aunt Lyanna. Because both girls have a lot of similar traits to her. Sansa is supposed to be a soft name and Arya a harder name. And yes, both appear to be traditional northern names.

I can't express how much I love this. :commie:

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There is an interesting theory by Dorian the Historian that GRRM has indeed named Sansa after the apple of the same name because in A Song of Ice and Fire Sansa may be modeled after Idunn, the goddess of love and beauty from norse mythology.



Idunn is associated with apples in the mythology. Sansa's voyage to the eyrie with Littlefinger closely resembles how Idunn was abducted by the jötnar Thjazi and hidden away in a mountain fortress represented by a falcon.



http://gameofthronesandnorsemythology.blogspot.de/2013/06/direwolves-wargs-stark-children.html



While I don't buy into the whole of Dorian's theories (he believes that in A Song of Ice and Fire GRRM retells the norse Ragnarök) I think he nailed at least part of the source material GRRM drew from and his site makes for a mind-stretching read.


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There is an interesting theory by Dorian the Historian that GRRM has indeed named Sansa after the apple of the same name because in A Song of Ice and Fire Sansa may be modeled after Idunn, the goddess of love and beauty from norse mythology.

Idunn is associated with apples in the mythology. Sansa's voyage to the eyrie with Littlefinger closely resembles how Idunn was abducted by the jötnar Thjazi and hidden away in a mountain fortress represented by a falcon.

http://gameofthronesandnorsemythology.blogspot.de/2013/06/direwolves-wargs-stark-children.html

While I don't buy into the whole of Dorian's theories (he believes that in A Song of Ice and Fire GRRM retells the norse Ragnarök) I think he nailed at least part of the source material GRRM drew from and his site makes for a mind-stretching read.

Some of my favorite crackpots come from his blog, and it was there I found out the association between Sansa and apples. This particular theory makes sense to me, but some of his are pretty off the wall. Still fun reading.

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Well, I think from the beginning you were a bit off the mark by singling Sansa's name out and not Arya's because Arya most likely does not come from the name Arryn. The without a wolf thing is rather weak IMO because for one, Sansa is pronounced Sawn Suh, not Sæn Sa. But also, she and Arya both lost their wolves that night, Arya before Sansa did. Sure, Arya still has her connection, but she hasn't been with Nymeria since then. And both of them are lost to their identities at this point, but Sansa is much close to "Stark" than Arya who is trying (and failing, I need to add) to get rid of it to become No One.

I disagree with that pronounciation. Nobody in the Seven Kingdoms or even Essos has a Brooklyn accent!

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There is an interesting theory by Dorian the Historian that GRRM has indeed named Sansa after the apple of the same name because in A Song of Ice and Fire Sansa may be modeled after Idunn, the goddess of love and beauty from norse mythology.

Idunn is associated with apples in the mythology. Sansa's voyage to the eyrie with Littlefinger closely resembles how Idunn was abducted by the jötnar Thjazi and hidden away in a mountain fortress represented by a falcon.

http://gameofthronesandnorsemythology.blogspot.de/2013/06/direwolves-wargs-stark-children.html

While I don't buy into the whole of Dorian's theories (he believes that in A Song of Ice and Fire GRRM retells the norse Ragnarök) I think he nailed at least part of the source material GRRM drew from and his site makes for a mind-stretching read.

Wow, good lookin' out with that one. This would seem to make Sansa stand out as perhaps the most important remaining Stark after all of the smoke clears on this story. Arya I am convinced will die (see my thread "Arya's ultimate demise?!"), Bran may remain where he is w/the Children for eternity, Robb is dead, Jon is tied to the Wall resurrected or not, and Rickon is a major question mark. Sansa may well be the wolf that returns to Winterfell...

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FWIW, here's what Histornamia says:

http://histornamia.blogspot.com/2012/09/sansa.html

For what it's worth, Histornamia has the Sanskrit etymology wrong: the Sanskrit word is Śaṃsa, which would be pronounced sham-sa. And even the Italian suggestion there is iffy, since the Italian name Sancia is pronounced with a hard, not a soft "c" if I'm not mistaken, though perhaps a native Italian speaker could confirm this?

The suggestion by James Arryn, below, seems closer, pronunciation-wise, if we want to look for an Italian parallel. Though that brings things back to the "sans a wolf/whatever" suggestion that others have made.

Both Stark girl names sound italian to me.

Senza = without.

Aria = alone, essentially.

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