Mormont's Raven: A Reread v2

[Mithras]

The first thread was started by redriver and long locked. Since I could not find the second thread, I want to give a start to the old discussion. I am not sure anybody argued it before but have a look.

Maggy the Frog and Yna the one-eyed prostitute in Braavos. They share a common thing as far as we know. They can taste a drop of your blood and tell your fortune. Now what do you think about this?

Samwell Tarly turned up a few moments later, clutching a stack of books. No sooner had he entered than Mormont’s raven flew at him demanding corn. Sam did his best to oblige, offering some kernels from the sack beside the door. The raven did its best to peck through his palm. Sam yowled, the bird flapped off, corn scattered. “Did that wretch break the skin?” Jon asked.

Sam gingerly removed his glove. “He did. I’m bleeding.”

You said the words, Sam. Remember?”

“I … I’ll try.”

“You won’t try. You will obey.”

“Obey.” Mormont’s raven flapped its great black wings.

Jon was talking of sending Sam to Oldtown and the Raven agreed after tasting blood of Sam. I searched whether the Raven bit Jon and bleed him but I could not find any quote for that. I feel like remembering such a case. Hungry or not, the Raven always wants corn. Way back in AGoT, when Jon came to the LC, the Raven asked for corn again. Even the Old Bear was surprised and complained that he had just fed it.

[ghosts in winterfell]

Very interesting!

[Mithras]

“No,” said Bran, “no, don’t,” but they could not hear him, no more than his father had. The woman grabbed the captive by the hair, hooked the sickle round his throat, and slashed. 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.

Bran could taste the blood through a weirwood. Will he learn this ability too?

[Mithras]

My brothers. My pack. Many a cold night he had slept with his wolves, their shaggy bodies piled up around him to help keep him warm. When I die they will feast upon my flesh and leave only bones to greet the thaw come spring. The thought was queerly comforting. His wolves had often foraged for him as they roamed; it seemed only fitting that he should feed them in the end. He might well begin his second life tearing at the warm dead flesh of his own corpse.

Varamyr was comfortable with the idea of eating the flesh of his corpse in his second life. Archmaester Walgrave, a beacon of ravenlore, wants to feed his corpse to the white ravens. And Mormont's Raven ate the Old Bear's face upon his death.

“Once a horse is broken to the saddle, any man can mount him,” he [Varamyr] said in a soft voice. “Once a beast’s been joined to a man, any skinchanger can slip inside and ride him. Orell was withering inside his feathers, so I took the eagle for my own. But the joining works both ways, warg. Orell lives inside me now, whispering how much he hates you. And I can soar above the Wall, and see with eagle eyes.”

“A wild stallion will buck and kick when a man tries to mount him, and try to bite the hand that slips the bit between his teeth,” Lord Brynden said, “but a horse that has known one rider will accept another. Young or old, these birds have all been ridden. Choose one now, and fly.”

“Someone else was in the raven,” he told Lord Brynden, once he had returned to his own skin. “Some girl. I felt her.”

“A woman, of those who sing the song of earth,” his teacher said. “Long dead, yet a part of her remains, just as a part of you would remain in Summer if your boy’s flesh were to die upon the morrow. A shadow on the soul. She will not harm you.”

“Do all the birds have singers in them?”

“All,” Lord Brynden said. “It was the singers who taught the First Men to send messages by raven … but in those days, the birds would speak the words. The trees remember, but men forget, and so now they write the messages on parchment and tie them round the feet of birds who have never shared their skin.”

It is easier to bond with animals which already shared their skins. Mormont's Raven was heavily skinchanged by Bloodraven. House Mormont (especially their women) has a rumour of skinchanging into bears. I think most of them are unaware of their gifts but their women most probably know that they are skinchangers and do that in secrecy.

I think Old Bear is living his second life in his raven. Surely Bloodraven can go in and out, that does not matter as in the case of Orell's eagle. After some training, Jon should be able to skinchange into the Raven and hear Old Bear's voice.

[XSarellaX]

I don't know if it's important, but it's mentioned that Rhaegar's body was eaten by crows/ravens... I know, I know, crows eat dead bodies all the time, but maybe there's something there?

[Mithras]

I don't know if it's important, but it's mentioned that Rhaegar's body was eaten by crows/ravens... I know, I know, crows eat dead bodies all the time, but maybe there's something there?

I thought he was cremated as all the Targaryens.

[Mithras]

“My mother was godswife before me, and taught me all the songs and spells most pleasing to the Great Shepherd, and how to make the sacred smokes and ointments from leaf and root and berry. When I was younger and more fair, I went in caravan to Asshai by the Shadow, to learn from their mages. Ships from many lands come to Asshai, so I lingered long to study the healing ways of distant peoples. A moonsinger of the Jogos Nhai gifted me with her birthing songs, a woman of your own riding people taught me the magics of grass and corn and horse, and a maester from the Sunset Lands opened a body for me and showed me all the secrets that hide beneath the skin.”

So a Dothraki woman taught MMD the magics of corn. I already gave an example in which it seems like the raven tasted Sam's blood to foresee his future like a proper maegi. That could add an interesting dimension to the favourite word of Mormont's Raven.

[OberynBlackfyre]

I don't know if it's important, but it's mentioned that Rhaegar's body was eaten by crows/ravens... I know, I know, crows eat dead bodies all the time, but maybe there's something there?

where was this mentioned? I think (in the show) and in the book, they say that Rhaegar was burned. I mean it's VERY skimply mentioned in the books, but should be there.

[Wisenan69]

Very interesting!

Agreed. I also believe that Mormont's raven (now Jon's) will be very important in Jon's future. Jon has two great connections with the North and beyond, Ghost and the raven, he's not alone and the wildings believe in him too. Besides, Bran and BR most surely will become his allies. Whatever is about to occur with the WW requires that all forces, especially magical, work together. Can't wait for Winds of Winter......hopefully some mysteries will start to be revealed.

[zev16]

What if BR can warg in mormont's raven and "predict the future" through tasting blood? It could be Bran's mean to help Jon. I mean, it's a bit hard for them to warg in a bird so far from where he is, but he seems kinda too smart to be a simple crow. My other idea is that he's an ex-warg who died, something like Orell and his eagle but at the moment I don't see how this could help Jon, nor how could it help him