A Real Dire Wolf

Loved this one. The Dracarys scene was a real "punch the air and shout YES" awesome moment for me when I read the books, and the show made it even better. Is the Pod thing building up to something relevant, or...? As a book reader, pretty much everything the Tyrell women to or about Joffrey seems really ominous. "It is for mothers to protect our sons from the grave." "Would you like to see me [kill something]?" Brrrr! :uhoh:

I doubt that means anything. I don't know if the Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia is old and outdated or just incorrect, but that is not the accurate modern taxonomy of the stoat. The stoat does belong to the weasel family, but that's the family Mustelidae, within the order Carnivora. Famiilies and orders are not the same thing. Orders are much larger, more diverse groupings: the order the weasels and stoats belong to also contains all of the dogs, cats and bears. So I'm not sure what this would mean for Houses Stark, Lannister and Mormont. :P

I think I found a new Tolkien one; I haven't read this whole thread but can'y find it with the forum search tool. This is Bran describing the Wolfswood when he rides there on Dancer for the first time after being crippled. The bolded details (especially coming together in the same sentence like that) reminded me of Mirkwood in The Hobbit, which counts among its most memorable inhabitants giant spiders that trap the heroes in their webs and black squirrels which characters mention as an example of how eerie the place is, implying that they are characteristic of Mirkwood and unusual in the rest of Middle-Earth. So, am I reaching, or do I have something here? Pretty sure that's another historical one: a crannóg was a Celtic dwelling consisting of a fortified artificial island in a lake. Some of them had winding secret paths just like that leading to them. So yeah, not sure what's twee about it. Incidentally, yes, this would be where the term "crannogmen" originates as well. How fitting that Jojen and Meera were in the group that time... http://www.mugdock-country-park.org.uk/builtheritage_moothill.html Frey and Freya are two separate gods, brother and sister.