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I'm starting a reread before the second season of the show starts and just cracked open A Game of Thrones. It's been a while since I read it, and forgot this bit in Bran's opening chapter:

They (the wildlings) had consorted with giants and ghouls, stole girl children in the dead of night, and drank blood from polished horns. And their women lay with the Others during the Long Night to sire terrible half-human children.

This is what Old Nan has told Bran about the wildlings. The crazy thing is, so much of it ended up being true. They do associate with giants and the, uh, dead (unwillingly, perhaps ...). They have stolen girls (Mors Umber sends his regards). The blood-from-a-horn thing is a stretch, but there are horns. So what if the half-human demon hellspawn thing ends up being true, too?

I think Martin has said something to the effect of Nan's "history" stories being the only accurate ones (does this mean the Last Hero interpretation is real but not the Azor Ahai interpretation?), but it never really occurred to me before now just what, as an aggregate, she's said and what the implications are if it does end up being true. There's that bit about the wildlings, which sounds like a children's horror story until you look back and see some truth to it. There are the Nightfort stories, which creep the bejesus out of me but yet also seem to be "coming around again," notably with Walder Frey starring in the role of the guest-right-abusing Rat Cook, and the possibility of Jon or Stannis as contenders for a new Night's King (I say Stannis, some say Jon).

Bran says that Old Nan is always getting him confused with one of the other Brandons, and Catelyn tells Bran that she's so old that all the Brandons just run together. I know there's an idea — I don't subscribe to it, but it's interesting — that Bran is a reincarnation of Brandon the Builder and that the history in ASOIAF is circular.

Nan's stories about the Others also seem eerily prescient. The story she tells is almost like a nasty fairy tale, but it's true. She talks about them taking down newborn children and new mothers and feeding children to their wights. Sounds sort of like Craster and his sons, no?

Anyone else recall any of Old Nan's stories that stick out but haven't really "happened" yet? I know there was a bit about sea monsters. Might that mean ... *Dr. Evil pinkie gesture* ... a kraken? And I'd love to know if these half-Other, half-human things exist.

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I know there was a bit about sea monsters. Might that mean ... *Dr. Evil pinkie gesture* ... a kraken?

The sooner something rises from the deep and drives mortals insane at the mere sight of it, the better.

I want to see a kraken just about as much as I ever wanted to see a dragon. I can safely say that if something as outlandish as all the iron islanders having the same dream the night it came would be one of my favourite scenes ever.

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I love Old Nan's stories . . they are outstanding . . . . what about the King who was cursed because he violated the laws of hospitality?

Yep, that's the Rat Cook. The gods didn't curse him for murder or cannibalism, they cursed him for violating guest rights. He committed his atrocity because he thought an Andal king had slighted him. And he was forced to fill the Nightfort with oodles of his evil little children. Sounds a lot like ol' Walder, no?

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Bran is AA!

Anyone else noticed that there are two sorries about why the first long night ended? One from Essos and one from Westeros, and I like to think that only Westerosi is true, because there is where Others live. When the first time long night fallen Essos have no clue and it was just coincidence that AA stabbed his poor wife while the last hero was doing actual hard work.

I would like Brandon being BtB reborn, but I hope the time isn't cyclic.

I like the story about that clever, brave guy who with all his efforts escaped Giants only to be killed by Others.

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Bran is AA!

Anyone else noticed that there are two sorries about why the first long night ended? One from Essos and one from Westeros, and I like to think that only Westerosi is true, because there is where Others live. When the first time long night fallen Essos have no clue and it was just coincidence that AA stabbed his poor wife while the last hero was doing actual hard work.

I would like Brandon being BtB reborn, but I hope the time isn't cyclic.

I like the story about that clever, brave guy who with all his efforts escaped Giants only to be killed by Others.

I think that the Last Hero and Azor Ahai are probably the same person (I think this is different from Brandon the Builder, though), it's just that the legend is told from two different perspectives, and I tend to put more stock in the perspective of northerners instead of red priests. I don't think the guy actually stabbed his wife, for instance.

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Yet here and there in the fastness of the woods the children still lived in their wooden cities and hollow hills, and the faces in the trees kept watch. So as cold and death filled the earth, the last hero determined to seek out the children, in the hopes that their ancient magics could win back what the armies of men had lost. He set out into the dead lands with a sword, a horse, a dog, and a dozen companions. For years he searched, until he despaired of ever finding the children of the forest in their secret cities. One by one his friends died, and his horse, and finally even his dog, and his sword froze so hard the blade snapped when he tried to use it. And the Others smelled the hot blood in him, and came silent on his trail, stalking him with packs of pale white spiders big as hounds—”

hmm.. now which part of Bran's crew can fit which in here.... Altho Coldhands being that guy would be more fun

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Yeah thats a good find, damn I wished she would have been around more. I havent really given her stories that much focus before but as AM says its quite obvious that they do contain more than a fair share of truth in them. Interesting!

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Yet here and there in the fastness of the woods the children still lived in their wooden cities and hollow hills, and the faces in the trees kept watch. So as cold and death filled the earth, the last hero determined to seek out the children, in the hopes that their ancient magics could win back what the armies of men had lost. He set out into the dead lands with a sword, a horse, a dog, and a dozen companions. For years he searched, until he despaired of ever finding the children of the forest in their secret cities. One by one his friends died, and his horse, and finally even his dog, and his sword froze so hard the blade snapped when he tried to use it. And the Others smelled the hot blood in him, and came silent on his trail, stalking him with packs of pale white spiders big as hounds—”

hmm.. now which part of Bran's crew can fit which in here.... Altho Coldhands being that guy would be more fun

According to Bran the story as Nan tells it ends with the COTF helping.

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Old Nan's stories are unfortunately too few and far between.I would love to listen to more of them.I was quite annoyed when the story of the first hero was interrupted by Tyrion's arrival.

But there is enough there to suggest to me that the Others are sentient and have a story of their own to tell.

And yes,there's bound to be a kraken-hopefully a timely one who brings Euron down.

And their women lay with the Others during the Long Night to sire terrible half-human children.

This has echoes of Biblical stories of the sons of god,earthly women and the Nephelim.Creepy

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Exactly! That should put to rest all of the evil Bran and COTF theories.

Doubt it.The first war on the continent of Westeros was between the COTF and the First Men,who invaded from Essos overland.A pact was negotiated wherein the COTF would confine themselves to forests/woods and men to the rest.

No reason to suspect that the COTF love men.

Bran,I think is a good character,but young and naive.The Varamyr prologue foreshadows the dark side of warging.

And Bloodraven,as a character is morally flawed at best ,as presented.A kinslayer who used sorcery to rule the realm as Hand ,taken from a dungeon and sent to the Night's Watch.

Perhaps he is misunderstood but his history has questions against him.As he himself says-"Black of garb,black of blood"

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Thanks Apple Martini for this thread. I always took the Old Nan Chronicles as being fairly accurate. Old people remember and there was a need to tell stories before there were books to pass knowledge around.

Most fairy tales and legends are rooted in what once was true. As are old songs, singers that travelled were the internet of ye olden days. Of course the songs and fairy tales are not always one one one true, as is internet.

There are some references in the text that Nan's stories are not only told by her but by other people in other parts of Westeros. So I have always considered Old Nan's story as being oral history.

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Old Nan is such a great character - there's no one else quite like her in the series. Her stories do seem to come "true" quite often. It makes me wonder why her, a doddery old women, seems almost prescient. Particularly in a series that has several preists/priestesses etc. making dodgy prophesies and inaccurate predictions. Maybe there's more to her, maybe not.

Bran does seem to resemble the Last Hero. But this could be a red herring. He did find the Children pretty easily (comparatively).

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Hey i have a question about the Others laying with humans:

Did Craster send his sons to be raised(and then breeded) among the Others?? Or did he just sacrifice them to the Others(meaning that the others ate his flesh)

Btw do the Others in ASOIAF remind anyone strangely of the Others in Lost? :P

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Hey i have a question about the Others laying with humans:

Did Craster send his sons to be raised(and then breeded) among the Others?? Or did he just sacrifice them to the Others(meaning that the others ate his flesh)

Well, we don't know - yet. In Old Nan's stories both are named: the Others supposedly produced half-humans and they were feeding their servants with human flesh. I think this last part relates to the wights, who seem to be raised used by the Others as a kind of zombie stormtroopers.

One of Crasters's wife seems to believe the 'sacrificed' sons of Craster were alive and would come to get Gilly's son.

But right now it is speculation.

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