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Old Nan's True Name?


Roadside Rose

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I tend to think that Nan is not her real given name. As others above have said, Nan is easily short for Nanny which fits Old Nan's role in caring for the children in Winterfell like a governess.

I think Arya wasn't equating the nickname Nan with being a derivative of Nymeria. Many pet names have little to do with one's given name. She could have chosen any name shorter or easier to pronounce than Nymeria and said it was what someone called her for short. She just chose Nan, maybe because they both start with N or maybe because she was missing Winterfell at the time.

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Tanselle->Tan->Nan (which could be like a nickname. I called my grandma "nana" for example)

Tanselle met Dunk, was rescued by him, and told stories (puppeteer) in addition, Dorne has the blood of the furst men and the Rhoynar (think house Dayne) hence she coukd know stories about the North. Not to mention she lived in the North since like Rickard Stark was a child (she's Aemon's age, give or take)

Finally, although she knows stories they have huge differences with the free folk. If she's like Osha: why does she not use Free Folk instead of wilding, say they slept with Others, and not tell wilding stories (Bael the Bard, Raymun Redbeard, the king who led his people throygh the tunnels?) she knows some stuff, but not at wilding level.

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She is definitely not a wildling like Osha,


He remembered the hearth tales Old Nan told them. The wildlings were cruel men, she said, slavers and slayers and thieves. They 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 in the Long Night to sire terrible half-human children.



She knows about Kings Landing and the dungeons there and the dragon heads,


His father would be the Hand of the King, and they were going to live in the red castle at King’s Landing, the castle the Dragonlords had built. Old Nan said there were ghosts there, and dungeons where terrible things had been done, and dragon heads on the walls.



She knows about the Kingsguard, and it's past members,


Bran was going to be a knight himself someday, one of the Kingsguard. Old Nan said they were the finest swords in all the realm. There were only seven of them, and they wore white armor and had no wives or children, but lived only to serve the king. Bran knew all the stories. Their names were like music to him. Serwyn of the Mirror Shield. Ser Ryam Redwyne. Prince Aemon the Dragonknight. The twins Ser Erryk and Ser Arryk, who had died on one another’s swords hundreds of years ago, when brother fought sister in the war the singers called the Dance of the Dragons. The White Bull, Gerold Hightower. Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning. Barristan the Bold.



She could be from anywhere, but definitely not a wilding.


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  • 5 months later...

When I first heard Hodor's name was Walder, I instantly thought that Old Nan was the mother of Walder Frey, just he is more decrepit than her due to his constant procreation. Nan is 135 and Walder is 90, her youngest son, and the only one of her children not dead, as they are described as all dead. When her husband, Lord Frey, died she moved to Winterfell fearing her psychopathic son.


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When I first heard Hodor's name was Walder, I instantly thought that Old Nan was the mother of Walder Frey, just he is more decrepit than her due to his constant procreation. Nan is 135 and Walder is 90, her youngest son, and the only one of her children not dead, as they are described as all dead. When her husband, Lord Frey, died she moved to Winterfell fearing her psychopathic son.

Which would work great if we didn't already know she went to Winterfell to be a wetnurse. If she had been Lady Frey she might not even have nursed her own children, let alone other peoples'.

I don't think Hodor has to be part Frey based on his name. Walder could be a name that used to be really popular in Westeros but is now considered old fashioned (except by those trying to get in with rich relatives). Kind of like how you don't see many babies named Gertrude anymore. Could be his mom thought it sounded nice. I'd love it if he were named for Ser Walder of Dysney.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Which would work great if we didn't already know she went to Winterfell to be a wetnurse. If she had been Lady Frey she might not even have nursed her own children, let alone other peoples'.

I don't think Hodor has to be part Frey based on his name. Walder could be a name that used to be really popular in Westeros but is now considered old fashioned (except by those trying to get in with rich relatives). Kind of like how you don't see many babies named Gertrude anymore. Could be his mom thought it sounded nice. I'd love it if he were named for Ser Walder of Dysney.

A boy can dream. I never honestly thought she was his mother. Seems kinda weird, especially since she could be the murderer in Winterfell, and one of the victims would be her great-grandson. Nan the Kinslayer, that will be her knight name in TWOW. Her coats of arms will be a pair of knitting needles making a direwolf.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Nymeria? Maybe. Dornish? Unlikely, far too much distance for that. Martell? No way in hell. Servants are servants and nobility is nobility, especially if it's actual royalty.

No. Tanselle is called Tanselle Too-Tall. The girl in that vision was not noted for being exceptionally tall. Old Nan definitely isn't. And the transfer from Tanselle to Nan is far too big.

Furthermore, Dunk wasn't exactly a monk. He had sex all over the Seven Kingdoms.

I don't think we have any evidence of Dunk having sex all over the Seven Kingdoms. The most we have are theories that he is the descendant of literally everyone that is tall, which seems weak to me...

Dunk also seems pretty honorable, particularly in the way he seems to give Egg uncharacteristically wise life lessons out of nowhere, so there is probably even less of a chance that he would break his Kingsguard vows once he became part of Aegon V's Kingsguard.

And no offense to Hodor, but I'd be pretty bummed if the legacy of the great Ser Duncan the Tall ended up being a halfwit stable boy turned mule...

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