Becoming No One: Rereading Arya III

[Blisscraft]

Miladen, thank you. Also, thank you for sharing the reference to Andric. I haven't read his work, but I am intrigued now and will seek it out. Perhaps you could suggest a good translation?

The chains are also a part of this series outright in the Maesters' chain. Link upon link. This is a good symbol for the work as a whole as each POV connects and relates to the others and yet each is its own separate and distinct form. It's fascinting and one of the reasons I think ASoIaF is worthy of careful study.

Fantasmas - Thank you for posting and I love the parallels you presented. More to think about.

Ladyinblack - Welcome!

Just an Other and Ice Turtle - Your references to home remind me of Wolf's, You Can't Go Home Again (1940).

[WiDMNDBAMMD]

I like this idea of cicles/chains etc. Arya's journey in her mind seems to be a straight line home but it never is.

I think there's something I also forgot to mention about Gendry/Arya relationship. I don't think it ends in this chapter. Not technically.

I showed how Brienne and Arya were going in opposite directions journey's that paralleled. Now that Gendry and Arya have officially parted ways I see no reason not to look ahead in his story.

Brienne and Arya seem to be opposites of a coin or parallel journeys or somehow connected. Perhaps it is just me thinking too hard to connect dots but there's some strange opposites.

They both meet Thoros in a cave and call him wizard.

they both meet Rorge, Biter. Arya saves their lives and Brienne/Gendry kill them.

They both come across Sandor Clegane, Arya meets him in his tormented life, Brienne meets him after the Hound has died and Sandor Clegane is "at peace"

The kneelers inn they don't mess with Brienne because of how big she is, when Arya arrives at the same place, they take advantage of her small size and her pack.

They both run into Bolton at Harrenhall. Arya is there when he arrives, Brienne is there when he leaves.

They both have to do battle of the crossroads inn.

Arya meets the BwB when Beric leads them, Brienne meets them when they are lead by Stoneheart.

Brienne learns of Arya being alive while at the Quiet Isle, near the Saltpans where some presume she died.

Gendy/Arya and weasel. Arya tries to be a pack leader and mother to the young girl. Until she's captured and the young innocent girl runs off instead of yielding. Arya takes her name and uses it in Harrenhall.

Gendry/Arya and Edric Dayne. Edric seems to share a connection with Arya. He's called Ned like her father though they have different names. He tells her that he and Jon Snow are milk brothers, that his aunt Ashara and her father fell in love at a tourney before the rebellion. Gendry and Arya share a similar connections. Gendry's father fell in love with Arya's aunt before the rebellion. Infact that "love" is one of the causes for the rebellion. Gendry resembles his father and Arya resembles her aunt in many ways.

Gendry/Brienne and Willow. In the next book Brienne will meet Gendry. She'll mistake Gendry for his uncle Renly and call him Lord. Which makes him laugh. When she calls him bastard, he takes offense claiming he's a knight. Gendry will look at her differently than he did Arya or other high born ladies back in Master Mott's shop. He will not trust her because she's a lady and she dresses like a knight. He will call her ugly and get angry at her questions. He saves her life from Biter and Willow's sister treats her wounds. He'll call his father a better king than either of his two sons.

Willow a young girl brown hair, brown eyes the same age as Arya. She helps run the crossroads inn with her older sister Jeyne and Gendry. More than one character notes Willow will rule a home someday with a husband, perhaps Gendry. Brown hair and brown eyes are the same features as another Jeyne who will become "Arya" soon.

So Gendry has teamed up with Willow, as a replacement for Arya. He has a forge, a place to sleep and food.

[Blisscraft]

WMB - Yes, I got caught in the circles of a welcome ear worm, Joni Mitchell's, The Circle Game. Wish I could link to it for you. I am outrageously incompetent with computers. :ohwell:

[Lykos]

Blisscraft, I thought I´d link

so everyone can enjoy it. And here is a link to the wiki page of "The Bridge on the Drina" by Ivo Andrić there is a link to the translation by Lovett F. Edwards at the bottom of the page.

[Mladen]

Blisscraft, I thought I´d link

so everyone can enjoy it. And here is a link to the wiki page of "The Bridge on the Drina" by Ivo Andrić there is a link to the translation by Lovett F. Edwards at the bottom of the page.

For those of you who will engage in reading `The Bridge on Drina`, if you need any help with historical datas, or anything else that would help you understand better this masterpiece, please be free to PM me.

[Blisscraft]

Blisscraft, I thought I´d link

so everyone can enjoy it. And here is a link to the wiki page of "The Bridge on the Drina" by Ivo Andrić there is a link to the translation by Lovett F. Edwards at the bottom of the page.

Thank you, Lykos!

For those of you who will engage in reading `The Bridge on Drina`, if you need any help with historical datas, or anything else that would help you understand better this masterpiece, please be free to PM me.

Thank you, as well, Mladen!

[The Sleeper]

The prophecy about the wolf crying alone in the rain has always bugged me. For one thing Robb was not alone and neither was Grey Wind at the time of their death. Also, if that is the case what does this prophecy tells us that the others don't if that is the case. If it didn't say "her" grief rather than "his" I would have thought it fitted better either of the girls and particularly Sansa as she was very clearly isolated at the time. As is the case I thought it might refer to Bran as he didn't share his knowledge with his companions, or Ghost or Rickon. This still does not explain the purpose of this particular bit of prophecy, as I can't think of a male wolf who howls unheard in rain, literally or metaphorically. Furthermore all the other prophecies seem to be reffering to events that took place within ASOS.

As I was going along along with the reread I came across this: Somewhere far off she heard a wolf howling. It wasn't very loud compared to the camp noise and the music and the low ominous growl of the river running wild, but she heard it all the same. Only maybe it wasn't her ears that heard it.. The sound shivered through Arya like a knife, sharp with rage and grief.

This is from Arya's chapter in the RW and it takes place just before they started palying the "Rains of Castamere" which was the signal for the butchery to begin.

Later, in the next Bran chapter, he knows through a dream that Robb and Grey Wind are dead though he is in denial and Jon sees a direwolf grey and spotted with blood in a dream when Mance Rayder is about to attack Castle Black.

I don't have any clear ideas what this might mean, but as I came across these it seemed to me they might have a conection to this bit of prophecy.

[WiDMNDBAMMD]

The prophecy about the wolf crying alone in the rain has always bugged me. For one thing Robb was not alone and neither was Grey Wind at the time of their death. Also, if that is the case what does this prophecy tells us that the others don't if that is the case. If it didn't say "her" grief rather than "his" I would have thought it fitted better either of the girls and particularly Sansa as she was very clearly isolated at the time. As is the case I thought it might refer to Bran as he didn't share his knowledge with his companions, or Ghost or Rickon. This still does not explain the purpose of this particular bit of prophecy, as I can't think of a male wolf who howls unheard in rain, literally or metaphorically. Furthermore all the other prophecies seem to be reffering to events that took place within ASOS.

As I was going along along with the reread I came across this: Somewhere far off she heard a wolf howling. It wasn't very loud compared to the camp noise and the music and the low ominous growl of the river running wild, but she heard it all the same. Only maybe it wasn't her ears that heard it.. The sound shivered through Arya like a knife, sharp with rage and grief.

This is from Arya's chapter in the RW and it takes place just before they started palying the "Rains of Castamere" which was the signal for the butchery to begin.

Later, in the next Bran chapter, he knows through a dream that Robb and Grey Wind are dead though he is in denial and Jon sees a direwolf grey and spotted with blood in a dream when Mance Rayder is about to attack Castle Black.

I don't have any clear ideas what this might mean, but as I came across these it seemed to me they might have a conection to this bit of prophecy.

I wouldn't take it too literally, Sansa doesn't actually have purple serpents in her hair....

and I would comment about the RW chapter but we're not there yet so... I'll hold my thoughts, but I do believe you've shown evidence of the "lone wolf howling with grief"

[Blisscraft]

The howling wolf is a metaphor. It falls in with The Ned's "the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives" theme throughout the series. As Dalla says, "Prophecy is a sword without a hilt." The metaphor being that its difficult and dangerous to grasp without hurting yourself. This is probably a bit of advise from Martin regarding the nature of prophecy in his books. Also, it seems that much of the prophecy is certainly "double edged," meaning it could be taken in either of two (or perhaps more?) ways. (Everytime a see a reference to a "holwing wolf" I think of the blues singer, Howlin' Wolf). WIsh I could link. . . sigh. . . His music is rather enjoyable late at night after some strong drink with friends.

Glad you brought up the "Sansa" metaphor. The snakes as hair metaphor is certainly an allusion to Medusa. And Medusa's visage so horrifying and terrible that she can turn whoever gazes upon her to stone. Perhaps that is a part of the means that is used to defeat the stone giant? Turn the giant to stone, unmovable and then one good push and "BOMBS AWAY!"

[Ser Arthyr Dracenstein]

I thought the lone wolf Arya hears is Nymeria. Grief that she is alone/seperated/abandoned. This is when Arya wakes up from a dream?

This was the previous chapter, sorry about late posting but just noticed the thread.

[Lummel]

Yes the idea or circles or a chain (

?) is very strong in this chapter. If one was drawing a graph showing those circles they would not only be geographical - Arya shooting round the Riverlands to build up escape velocity to escape Westeros but also round into the past. The most distant past with the arrival of the first men with violence and destruction, the circle of life from acorn to tree to stump, the mythic past of the Harrenhall business that drives the politics of the story leaving us with the mystery of Jon. The remembrance of things past pulls in Thoros (though his madeleine is a fire damaged sword), fire consumes three times, the steel the weirwoods and Beric's remembrances. He alone here in this chapter is the one without a past, the circle runs forward - is the fate that awaits Jon?

[Mladen]

Yes the idea or circles or a chain (

?) is very strong in this chapter.

And it will be even more stronger in Arya`s RW POV. Especially regarding this song.

[Blisscraft]

Yes the idea or circles or a chain (

?) is very strong in this chapter. If one was drawing a graph showing those circles they would not only be geographical - Arya shooting round the Riverlands to build up escape velocity to escape Westeros but also round into the past. The most distant past with the arrival of the first men with violence and destruction, the circle of life from acorn to tree to stump, the mythic past of the Harrenhall business that drives the politics of the story leaving us with the mystery of Jon. The remembrance of things past pulls in Thoros (though his madeleine is a fire damaged sword), fire consumes three times, the steel the weirwoods and Beric's remembrances. He alone here in this chapter is the one without a past, the circle runs forward - is the fate that awaits Jon?

A Proust fan! I knew it. I love it!

If a circle runs forward, is it a wheel? Like the wheel of time? It seems that time can consume (not exactly like fire) but it does consume.

[Lummel]

A Proust fan! I knew it. I love it!

If a circle runs forward, is it a wheel? Like the wheel of time? It seems that time can consume (not exactly like fire) but it does consume.

No, never read him, I just plunder stuff I suppose.

I think the circle does run through time. I'm thinking of Tyrion's conversation with Oberyn in ASOS when he sees how the events of Oberyn's and Elia's visit to Casterly Rock have played out in time.

is driven by these personal dynamics. This is just a chapter in which the pattern of the in-story history is apparent I think.

[1234567]

Arya IX

Arya is with Sandor and they have come across a river swollen beyond its normal reach by the rains. Arya can see the tops of trees through the water. She thinks they look like drowning men.

she glimpsed something pale and swollen, a deer or perhaps a dead horse, moving swiftly downstream. There was a sound too, a low rumble at the edge of hearing, like the sound a dog makes just before he growls.

She notes that although Sandor’s burns are still raw, he doesn’t show any signs of pain.

She asks if it’s the Blackwater, but Sandor tells her it’s a river they must cross and that’s all she needs to know. She reflects that he would sometimes answer her questions and the first day in his captivity he had given her several warnings/threats:

The next time you hit me, I'll tie your hands behind your back,"

"The next time you try and run off, I'll bind your feet together.

Scream or shout or bite me again, and I'll gag you.

We can ride double, or I can throw you across the back of the horse trussed up like a sow for slaughter. Your choice.

"The next time you say that name I'll beat you so bad you'll wish I killed you." (after she mentions Mycah).

On the first night she had waited until he was asleep and then tried to beat his head in with a rock, however he had woken or not been asleep at all and taken the rock from her and warned her

"I'll give you that one," he said, when he flung the rock into the bushes. "But if you're stupid enough to try again, I'll hurt you." <snip> After that, he rolled her in his horse blanket every night when he went to sleep, and tied ropes around her top and bottom so she was bound up as tight as a babe in swaddling clothes.

She thinks she was more defiant than scared at first.

She decides it has to be the Blackwater and that the Hound must be taking her to Joffrey. She is confused by the moss though. When Sandor says that they can’t cross she thinks the BWB will find her. However Sandor mentions there is Old King Andahar’s two-headed waterhorse. Arya thinks

She'd never seen a horse with two heads either, especially not one who could run on water, but she knew better than to ask.

She is glad the rain was no longer in her eyes as if she was crying and reminds herself that Wolves never cry.

Arya is worn out from travelling, sore, achy and has a fever, shivering uncontrollably at times. However Sandor had snapped at her when she said she was sick.

She thinks back to her attempt to steal Stranger and ride off, but the

had almost bitten her face off. He was gentle as an old gelding with his master, but otherwise he had a temper as black as he was.

They reach Harrowtown but find it flooded. The riverbarge to cross the river is still there. Sandor haggles over the cost of crossing, though Arya is puzzled as she knows he has no money. The water horse is set-up and they are told it will cost three gold pieces up front, one for him, one for Stranger and one for the boy. Sandor tells them, that they can have gold on the north or steel on the south.

Arya sees that there are a dozen men and they could overpower him, but that they don’t want to challenge him. Then Sandor says he will pay on “Knight’s Honour”. Arya wants to shout the truth, that he has no gold, and is no Knight but doesn’t. They say to Sandor that his son can warm himself in the cabin.

"I'm not his stupid son!" said Arya furiously. That was even worse than being taken for a boy. She was so angry that she might have told them who she really was, only Sandor Clegane grabbed her by the back of the collar and hoisted her one-handed off the deck. "How many times do I need to tell you to shut your bloody mouth? " He shook her so hard her teeth rattled, then let her fall. "Get in there and get dry, like the man said."

Arya warms herself by the fire, but as soon as they leave she goes back outside. The crossing gets treacherous almost immediately. Sandor is engaged in trying to keep Stranger calm.

Arya thinks

if I jumped over the side, the river would wash me away before the Hound even knew I was gone.

she thinks to how Jon used to say the could swim like a fish, but then realizes

even a fish might have trouble in this river. Still, drowning might be better than King’s Landing.

She has her hand on the rail when shouts make her stop. A huge tree is headed straight for them, coming out of the water like a great kraken. They get clear but one of the limbs of the tree and one man stumbles over the side and is immediately pulled down by under the water. She hopes he may wash up downstream, but knows he won’t and decides not to go swimming.

When they get to the other side of the stream, Sandor gives them the note from the BWB. Naturally the men are less than impressed but can do nothing as Sandor and Arya ride off. Sandor tells Arya that if the BWB want to cross they’ll have to pay and that the ferrymen won’t cross again until the next day. This infuriates Arya and she goes through her death prayer in her head added the Hound three times at the end.

They stop for the night and Sandor utterly fails to light a fire in the wet then kicks his attempts apart saying he hates fires. They sit and eat old bread, moldy cheese and some sausage. Sandor sees Arya looking at his knife and tells her not to even think about it. She says she was, but he just snorts. He then tells he that he never beat Sansa, but

I’ll beat you if you make me. Stop trying to think up ways to kill me. None of it will do you a bit of good.

He then says at least she looks him in the face and asks her what she thinks of it. She tells him she doesn’t because it’s burned and ugly. Sandor offers her cheese in response and tells her that she’s a fool and running off won’t do any good as she’ll be caught by someone worse. She tells him there was no one worse and he says she never met his brother. Arya tells him that she does and recounts being caught and Lommy being killed. Sandor laughs and says he’ll be sure to tell his brother before he kills him. This unsettles Arya who says

"But he's your brother," Arya said dubiously. "Didn't you ever have a brother you wanted to kill?" He laughed again. "Or maybe a sister?"

He must have seen something in her face then, for he leaned closer. "Sansa. That's it, isn't it? The wolf bitch wants to kill the pretty bird."

"No," Arya spat back at him. "Id like to kill you." "Because I hacked your little friend in two? I've killed a lot more than him, I promise you. You think that makes me some monster. Well, maybe it does, but I saved your sister's life too. The day the mob pulled her off her horse, I cut through them and brought her back to the castle, else she would have gotten what Lollys Stokeworth got. And she sang for me. You didn't know that, did you? Your sister sang me a sweet little song."

"You're lying," she said at once.

He tells her she doesn’t know half as much as she thinks and tells her that they have crossed the trident and that she is worth more than the BWB stole and he could sell her to the Lannisters, but he won’t, because he is done with KL and the Lannisters and will offer his sword to Robb, but Arya says she’ll never take him. Sandor says then he’ll pay the ransom, so either way he wins.

And so do you, she-wolf. So stop whimpering and snapping at me, I'm sick of it. Keep your mouth shut and do as I tell you, and maybe we'll even be in time for your uncle's bloody wedding."

Analysis

Arya really is in a pickle in this chapter and Sandor is not the best carer in the world. He is keeping her safe and not selling her back to the Lannisters but at the same time she is really sick and enduring rough travelling conditions. Saying that however him tying her in the blanket is very funny and one of my favourite parts of the book.

Arya and Water

There is water everywhere in this chapter and Arya is literally surrounded by it. The rain even making up for the tears she refuses to shed. Again we have men dying in the water which links Arya to the FM and the water of death in their temple and her role as a servant of death. In this case the water is carrying men to their deaths and although she is not the cause, the journey is only made so that Sandor and her can cross the river. We also have references to her swimming and her natural affinity with water and initial desire to escape her predicament via water.

Arya and the FM

The reference to Stranger the horse named after death almost biting her face off certainly nods to her future involvement with the FM.

Syrio

Again in this chapter Arya thinks of Syrios words

“Quiet as a shadow” when she is thinking of Sandor in her attempt to kill him with the rock.

When they are eating she looks at Sandor and thinks he is “Hard as Stone”.

Syrio my have been a mentor for Arya for a short time, but his influence on her is profound and his teaching have saved her life multiple times.

Arya and Siblings

Again we have Arya reflect on Jon and the fond memories she has of him.

Her comments about Sansa are interesting, because she is both wrong and right. Sansa sang to Sandor but not willingly. Also Sandor saying Sansa sang for him is one of the few times we see him deluding himself.

Arya and Gender

Again Arya is mistaken for a boy and doesn’t like it. However the references to being Sandor’s son, or that anyone could think that annoys her even more.

Foreshadowing

A tangle of roots and limbs poked up out of the water as it came, like the reaching arms of a great kraken.

This ties to a future reference by Arya in AFFC to sea monsters (krakens?) and Braavos

"If I had wings...I'd just fly away, fly up past the moon and the shining stars, and see all the things in Old Nan's stories, dragons and seamonsters and the Titan of Braavos, and maybe I wouldn't ever fly back unless I wanted to."

In this chapter it may just be that there is the obvious connotation that they are on water, but the theme of water is particularly prevalent for Arya and the references to a Kraken could point to an interaction between Arya and either the Greyjoys or an actual Kraken.

Then there are possibly two references to the Red Wedding in the chapter. The first is

even a fish might have trouble in this river. Still, drowning might be better than King’s Landing.

which could refer to Cat as she is thrown into the Trident once she dies and the second is the more obvious

maybe we'll even be in time for your uncle's bloody wedding."

The BWB

The river crossing where Sandor refuses to pay is interesting. Firstly the rivermen are cheating him and he in turn cheats them, but by giving them the note he is actually no different to the BWB. They may act noble by giving notes, but essentially they are driving people to desperate measures by stealing from them. The notes may make them feel better about what they are doing, but in truth it is just a delusion.

[Fire Eater]

Nice job Rapsie.

So for Sansa it's the unkiss, and for Sandor it's the song.

GRRM's response to a kraken attack is "Maybe." We know he gives "No", but if he answers "Yes" to a question about the future of the series it would spoil some of the story, so I would take it that his answer "Maybe" is yes without being yes, so as to keep us in the dark, but it had already been decided a while ago given the foreshadowing.

But I digress, as to the riverboat journey foreshadowing as Ser Wun Wun and others noted, the price is three dragons. Arya will probably be sent to kill Dany or her dragons, but will actually pose as one of Dany's people to cross the Narrow Sea back to Westeros.

The man with the crossbow still stood in the window of the roundtower, she saw.

Tyrion killed Tywin with a crossbow, and associates to using it many times throughout ADwD. So Tyrion will accompany Dany.

The price after the trip is raised to six dragons. By the time Dany arrives in Westeros there will be six dragons: Dany's three dragon, along with Dany herself, Aegon (black dragon) and Jon.

[Ser Pollo Loco]

I think it's the case where The Hound is deluding himself, when he's Sandor on his "death bed" he acknowledges that he took the song

[Mladen]

As always, Rapsie, you excell in these analysis. Nice job, indeed.

I have to admit that in this chapter, I am more interested in Sandor, than in Arya. Not long ago, I was discussing why Sandor chose to take Arya to the Twins, and not pursue Gregor. My idea is that after Sansa`s song at CoK, Sandor`s priorities have shifted. He hates his brother, he wants him dead, but it`s not the same overwhelming hatred he has been feeling for so long. If nothing happened, he would go straight to Harrenhall to find his brother. Instead, he goes to ransom Arya. he talks about money Robb will give him, and title and possibility he will kill Gregor. This doesn`t sound like a man pursuing vengeance. This is a man who tries to rebuild his life. And he sees chance in Starks. For Sansa may pushed him a bit, but he expects of Robb to give him some sort of honest life. We can only grieve lost chance and the fact he never met Robb.

I also would like to mention Stranger. I agree that this horse has some deeper meaning, but for me it was always as something that had brought Sandor to that tree to die (sorry for jumping ahead). Stranger led Sandor metaphorically to his death, and I wonder what will be his horse`s name on return from QI.

Again, Rapsie, well done. It was indeed pleasure reading it.

[WiDMNDBAMMD]

The rain was falling from a black iron sky. Pricking the green and brown torrent with ten thousand swords

This is a Storm of Swords.

[Pod The Impaler]

But I digress, as to the riverboat journey foreshadowing as Ser Wun Wun and others noted, the price is three dragons. Arya will probably be sent to kill Dany or her dragons, but will actually pose as one of Dany's people to cross the Narrow Sea back to Westeros.

Also a reference paying Charon and crossing the Styx - another metaphor for death or a passage to the underworld. Good foreshadowing for Arya's journey to the House of Black and White, as well as Sandor's eventual fate.