Nuncle Stark Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 In the Sam chapter after the fist of the first men, when Sam is lagging behind the other survivors and eventually Small Paul has to carry him, an Other comes out of the trees riding a dead horse, then kills Small Paul with a "crystal sword". Once stabbed, Paul falls, and because he is so big "the weight of him tore the strange pale sword from the Other's grip." Sam does his stupid, close eyed, giggling run at the Other with his dragonglass blade out, stabs him and falls on his ass. The other dissolves. Then... Nothing! They didn't check for the Other's sword, and it is not mentioned as dissolving/etc. So what happened to it??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eddy of the Godswood Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 Probably melted, or at least warmed up enough to be shatter like normal ice when walked on, without the frigid cold that emanates from White Walkers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Suburbs Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 I've always thought that the description of the Other swords, including the one in the GoT prologue, seemed an awful lot like Dawn, all translucent and shifting colors. I wonder if the Daynes either stole the sword or defeated an early king and then claimed it as their own, and now the Others are marching south to get it back. This would mean Edric Dayne still has a pretty big role to play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nuncle Stark Posted July 2, 2015 Author Share Posted July 2, 2015 Eddy: that is a possibility. Here is another one: the blade did not melt, and is lying there in the forest waiting to be claimed. It could be the Sword of the Morning 2 sword, if only someone had thought to pick it up! Seriously though. We know little about the others, besides how to kill them and that they don't like to be pierced by dragonglass. I thought perhaps it was an editing mistake by GRRM, but it got me thinking about the properties of the Other's weapons, and armor. The blades seem cool. Why should they be like the Others, which means basically a popsicle? Why should the blade melt? We have no proof the others do, unless stabbed by dragonglass. Humans don't use meat bats to pummel people, even though we are made of meat! So the Others might have cool Other smithies, to make weird polar swords, with magic, or some such. Like reverse Valyrian blades, but just as powerful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nuncle Stark Posted July 2, 2015 Author Share Posted July 2, 2015 John: Agreed! The similar descriptions could be hinting at something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nozlym Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 Dawn is a proto-valyrian sword like u see in the house of the undying chapter with danaerys having the visions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nuncle Stark Posted July 2, 2015 Author Share Posted July 2, 2015 Huh! I just skimmed through the house of the undying chapter right now, could not find the section with any blades similar in description. I payed special attention the her vision of the wizards offering her amazing wisdom/magic gifts. Proto-valyrian blade stuff sounds interesting, though. Quote/page number? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nozlym Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. In their hands were swords of pale fire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white and their eyes were Opal and Amethyst, Tourmaline and Jade. "Faster," they cried. "Faster, faster!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nozlym Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 Huh! I just skimmed through the house of the undying chapter right now, could not find the section with any blades similar in description. I payed special attention the her vision of the wizards offering her amazing wisdom/magic gifts. Proto-valyrian blade stuff sounds interesting, though. Quote/page number? it sounds like u havent read The World of Ice and Fire yet, is that so? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nuncle Stark Posted July 2, 2015 Author Share Posted July 2, 2015 Ohhh! Ok yes, that could be it. Very interesting, indeed. And no, I haven't read the World of Ice and Fire yet. Have read literally everything else related to ASOIAF, but not that yet. Drat! Still, we are moving away from the central point: what happened to that Other's sword, if it did not melt? Add another mystery to the myster pile, I guess. I want more cool magical swords to be examined and used in the books :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nozlym Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 Ohhh! Ok yes, that could be it. Very interesting, indeed. And no, I haven't read the World of Ice and Fire yet. Have read literally everything else related to ASOIAF, but not that yet. Drat! Still, we are moving away from the central point: what happened to that Other's sword, if it did not melt? Add another mystery to the myster pile, I guess. I want more cool magical swords to be examined and used in the books :( well if u r an ASOIAF fan than i would be going out tomorrow and buying TWOIAF right away. It is totally worth it. as for the Others sword, its made of ice. it most likely shares the same fate of the wielder who is also made of ice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raining_Steel Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 I believe it must have melted, Sam checked Small Paul's pulse after and if the sword was still in him I think GrrM would have had to mention it.As for what the swords are made of;Shaw: Do you know what substance an Other sword is made from. Martin: Ice. But not like regular old ice. The Others can do things with ice that we can't imagine and make substances of it. http://web.archive.org/web/20051103091500/nrctc.edu/fhq/vol1iss3/00103009.htm/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nuncle Stark Posted July 2, 2015 Author Share Posted July 2, 2015 Raining_Steel: I think you have discovered the answer straight from the horses mouth. Thank you! Hmm. Now I'm wondering...if most of what the Others make it from ice, what about ice dragons? Can they melt too? And what do Others eat? Ice would be boring. Kind of wish there was an Other POV. Or a children of the forest POV. So many questions... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evita mgfs Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 I believe it must have melted, Sam checked Small Paul's pulse after and if the sword was still in him I think GrrM would have had to mention it.As for what the swords are made of;Shaw: Do you know what substance an Other sword is made from. Martin: Ice. But not like regular old ice. The Others can do things with ice that we can't imagine and make substances of it. http://web.archive.org/web/20051103091500/nrctc.edu/fhq/vol1iss3/00103009.htm/ Thank you! I thought it shattered when the Other did. It fell with the Other, but melting works - as long as the cold dissipates. I hope we get to see the Other's caves of ice - their domain! It would be neat - but I hope it's not like Superman's ice cave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nuncle Stark Posted July 2, 2015 Author Share Posted July 2, 2015 Evita: and why would the Other's caves being like Superman's ice cave be a bad thing? I always thought his cave was great! Filled with cool fractal ice, great lighting, Marlon Brando's robed ghost, and all that good stuff ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eddy of the Godswood Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 Eddy: that is a possibility. Here is another one: the blade did not melt, and is lying there in the forest waiting to be claimed. It could be the Sword of the Morning 2 sword, if only someone had thought to pick it up! Seriously though. We know little about the others, besides how to kill them and that they don't like to be pierced by dragonglass. I thought perhaps it was an editing mistake by GRRM, but it got me thinking about the properties of the Other's weapons, and armor. The blades seem cool. Why should they be like the Others, which means basically a popsicle? Why should the blade melt? We have no proof the others do, unless stabbed by dragonglass. Humans don't use meat bats to pummel people, even though we are made of meat! So the Others might have cool Other smithies, to make weird polar swords, with magic, or some such. Like reverse Valyrian blades, but just as powerful.The blades are essentially ice that is at absolute zero or near it. Which is how it shatters swords. When the Others come the cold comes with them, they are the source of the cold that keeps their swords strong.Dawn is Lightbringer, it is known. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falcotron Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 The blades are essentially ice that is at absolute zero or near it. Which is how it shatters swords. When the Others come the cold comes with them, they are the source of the cold that keeps their swords strong.Why would they want their swords near absolute zero? Glassy water or ice XI or some other low-temperature form instead of normal ice Ih would make for worse swords, not better. (Not to mention that, say, 60K would work better for that than near 0K anyway.) More importantly, cooling ice to very low temperatures doesn't sound like the "things that we can't imagine" that GRRM described; it's something people regularly do in labs, and imagined for decades before anyone was able to do it. There are things we can imagine that would make for better swords than normal ice (dope it with the right impurities, subject it to MPa-scale pressures, etc.). But I suspect that what GRRM means by things that we can't imagine is exactly that: either magic, or something physical that hasn't been discovered or even theorized by modern science. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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