Fire Eater, on 20 August 2012 - 12:17 PM, said:
Which Brandon does this refer to, Bran or the Brandon in the vision?
Is King Brandon Stark the one being sacrificed?
In the ancient world, ritual regicide was a general tradition. The king of Quilqcare, India would be sacrificed at the end of the twelfth year of his reign. Maybe the King of Winter was sacrificed at the time before winter or when winter was coming.
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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.
It was just Bran, I think. I don't think there's any indication that Bran recognized the man. Also, it's Bran's POV. Bran wouldn't know what that man, who lived centuries ago, had thought, so he wouldn't know if he had tasted blood in his final moments.
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Not directly to the topic, but this is, in the end, a thread aout the old gods and their priests. I've found an interesting example of human sacrifice, which very much resembles the case featured in ADWD. (I've already posted it on some other thread some time ago.)
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The Cimbri were a tribe from Northern Europe, who, together with the Teutones and the Ambrones threatened the Roman Republic in the late 2nd century BC. The Cimbri were probablyGermanic, though some believe them to be of Celtic origin. The ancient sources located their original home in Jutland, in present-day Denmark, which was referred to as the Cimbrian peninsula throughout antiquity.
Strabo gives this vivid description of the Cimbric folklore (Geogr. 7.2.3, trans. H.L. Jones):
Their wives, who would accompany them on their expeditions, were attended by priestesses who were seers; these were grey-haired, clad in white, with flaxen cloaks fastened on with clasps, girt with girdles of bronze, and bare-footed; now sword in hand these priestesses would meet with the prisoners of war throughout the camp, and having first crowned them with wreaths would lead them to a brazen vessel of about twenty amphorae; and they had a raised platform which the priestess would mount, and then, bending over the kettle, would cut the throat of each prisoner after he had been lifted up; and from the blood that poured forth into the vessel some of the priestesses would draw a prophecy, while still others would split open the body and from an inspection of the entrails would utter a prophecy of victory for their own people; and during the battles they would beat on the hides that were stretched over the wicker-bodies of the wagons and in this way produce an unearthly noise.
The Cimbri are depicted as ferocious warriors who did not fear death. The host was followed by women and children on carts. Aged women, priestesses, dressed in white sacrificed the prisoners of war and sprinkled their blood, the nature of which allowed them to see what was to come.
Possibly, this is a source from which GRRM drew inspiration - an old woman, a priestess, sacrifices a captive by cutting his throat, hoping to get a vision of future. Maybe the original First Men tried to help the greenseers to be all-seeing in this way. Although I truly haven't got the impression that the greenseers would need such form of help. Maybe they need it if they try to accomplish something harder than just see?
Well, the only thing Val has in common with those women is gender and white attire. She's far to young to be such a priestess, unless, of course, they begin young in the ASoIaF universe.
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Ye Gods ! I hope not !...Anyway , like Aemon, I think the AA prophecy is just a R'hllor centric version of TPTWP ,or the Last Hero , that they appropriated and added their own flourishes to. I doubt a Nissa Nissa is necessary...( ah well, that's me..Away wit' ye, R'Hllor!) 
