Ragnarok: this theory puts all other theories to shame

[thehandwipes]

bump.

[Daendrew]

bump.

Don't you know bump it up.... You've got to bump it up.

The ice and fire part of the series is unquestionably very, very heavily influenced by Ragnarok.

He uses many other influences too and his own spin on things. He recently said he was thinking of making a shocking twist that was not forshadowed like his previous moves. So we may all be shocked. He may yet find another route to the apocalypse :)

[Isobel Harper]

I discuss Ragnarok in the Brienne and Sansa parallel thread in my signature. More or less, I surmise that The Ashford Tourney foreshadows Brienne swearing her sword to Sansa as she once did Catelyn. I theorize that the 5th suitor - Valarr - is a portmanteau of "Vidarr" and "Vali." If correct, "Valarr" represents a challenge that Sansa will have to face: choose between a suitor/lover or her family. In Norse mythology, Vidarr and Vali are half-brothers, the parallels in ASoIaF being Aegon and Jon.

Here are some characters that parallel other figures in Norse mythology, in regards to Iðunn and her abduction story:

Iðunn = Sansa. Apples are a common symbol associated with Iðunn; Sansa is also a type of apple. It's a yellow apple.

Bragi = Tyrion. Bragi, Iðunn's husband, is most of all known for fluency of speech and skill with words. Also accused of being her brother’s killer – a parallel to the Lannisters being involved in Robb’s death.

Þjazi = Littlefinger. Þjazi is a giant that disguises himself as an eagle (bird). Littlefinger changes his sigil from a giant to a bird (mockingbird).

Asgard = Kingslanding.

Loki = Dontos. (In this instance, I suppose.)

Þrymheimr = The Vale. Þrymheimr is in a mountain.

[Isobel Harper]

Don't you know bump it up.... You've got to bump it up.

<snip>

Is it odd that I read/sang that to the tune of "Shake it Off" in my head? "Bump it up! Bump it up! Oh, oooh!"

[Daendrew]

Is it odd that I read/sang that to the tune of "Shake it Off" in my head? "Bump it up! Bump it up! Oh, oooh!"

This is the Song of Shakes and Bumps.

This message brought to you by Freyja, the Norse god of fertility and weddings.

I like your line up. I think LF will be a mix of several figures, Loki, Þjazi etc,

In my Secret Second Wall post, also in my signature I talked about the clue GRRM gave that LF got every single lemon in The Vale to make a cake to make Sansa eat the Giant. He wants to use her Stark blood, claim and power to bring down the last line of defense, aside form AA, once the wall falls. When GRRM makes huge exaggerated gestures like getting all the lemons in a whole "kingdom" that is a clue something is up.

But since this is GRRM, he may take the most evil player in the game and make him a hero. We don't know. The Starks will mostly be anti-heroes, sans- Rickon/Sansa, the Lannisters will be the heroes. I even shocked myself when I realzed the Ironborn will be heroes. That post is coming,

Varys, LF, The Children, Bloodraven... they are the hardest nuts to crack,. The biggest clue aside from LF's countless machinations that he is not up to no good is the fact that Varys said only the gods know what he is up to. I think the gods are the enemy. Gods by my Garden of Edenos definition, not the common one. I have since changed my views on The Children in my Garden of Edenos series and Ancestral ice. They may be the main "gods" as the forrest contains both trees.

[Sam with Hooters]

Jett

It is also hard because some gods have many names or are worshiped in may different guises. . This of course gives GRRM plenty ow wriggle room in his story

It terms of the Ragnarok story, most of the key destructive forces seem in play

Of the the three terrible children of Loki we have

1. Hel: probably the Night Queen leading the White walkers and wights. These are the Frost Giants of the myth

2. Joramur the giant serpent is basically an earthquake and I see the Horn of Jorumen as basically causing the earth to shake, thus bringing down the wall

3. Fenrir the terrifying wolf is probably Rickon although I hope not

Other forces of detruction include Giants (Yep got some) and evil dwarf (yep Tyrion),

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Sutre with flaming destructive sword is probably Dany

Why would Jormungandr not be represented by the dragons? Serpent to dragon's not a big reach.

Then you'd have Hel (Night's Queen), Jormungandr (dragons), and Fenrir (the dire wolves). This would imply that all three ultimately derive from the same source, and more importantly:

To remove magic from the world they all must be wiped out.

The Others and the dragons are definitely magical, and the dire wolves may be, too. They certainly show unusual abilities if you pay attention -- telepathically linked to their littermates and able to sense danger to their human bond-mates.

On second thought, I'm naming this the "Loki's Grandchildren" theory. I don't know if anyone's trod this path before (search is still disabled).

[Daendrew]

Why would Jormungandr not be represented by the dragons? Serpent to dragon's not a big reach.

Then you'd have Hel (Night's Queen), Jormungandr (dragons), and Fenrir (the dire wolves). This would imply that all three ultimately derive from the same source, and more importantly:

To remove magic from the world they all must be wiped out.

The Others and the dragons are definitely magical, and the dire wolves may be, too. They certainly show unusual abilities if you pay attention -- telepathically linked to their littermates and able to sense danger to their human bond-mates.

On second thought, I'm naming this the "Loki's Grandchildren" theory. I don't know if anyone's trod this path before (search is still disabled).

Jormungandr is not just a serpent, but the world serpent. And not only that, Jormungandr is a sea serpent that is the world serpent.

Jormungandr Is Joramun. Euron's horn, that Dany will sound is the horn of Joramun. I go into more detail on this in The Hammerhorn of The Waters post (in my signature link) and I have a big post coming maybe in a couple weeks or a month on the Ironborn in the Long Night.

Theon will be redeemed and become King Theon The Redeemer.

[Sam with Hooters]

Drat, thought I was onto something. And it would've fit so well into a "bittersweet ending"-- the Others are wiped out, but the price is all the dragons and dire wolves.

[Daendrew]

Drat, thought I was onto something. And it would've fit so well into a "bittersweet ending"-- the Others are wiped out, but the price is all the dragons and dire wolves.

You might be. Only George knows :)

I am wrong in at least half of my theories. But which half? :)

[JonAhai]

Jon is Tyr, not Jaime. Sure Jaime lost a hand, but Jon had his hand messed up too (he couldn't even draw his sword while he was getting stabbed, remember?). Outside of that, what traits does Jaime have in common with Tyr that Jon doesn't? None. Both are great warriors, but unlike Jaime, Jon had repeatedly put law and duty over personal gain and pleasure (Tyr is important for lawfulness). The only two times Jon attempted to violate his oath he was stopped- once by his friends and once when he was killed. His fling when he was with the Free Folk didn't violate anything as he didn't take a wife.

Why do we assume Jon is Sutr? Nothing but a proposed relationship with Melisandre. Stannis is just as likely. No, more likely, because while Jon "took the Black " Stannis FATHERED a black shadow.

Not to mention, "all I see is Snow" is hard to argue against. There is almost NOTHING in the books that suggest Jaime is Azor Ahai, but Jon is one of the two leading candidates based on actual book evidence.

Bottom line: the theory is probably right in many ways about the general scheme, but it has some details wrong, I think. Specifically who is Tyr/Azor Ahai. It's Jon, not Jaime.

[Luddagain]

No Jon is NOT Tyr although I can see some parallels. I think it is the WHOLE House that represents the God in all its apects, so Lannisters are Tyr - Jaime loses his hand like Tyr, and is a swordsman, Tywin is the god of war, but is also just and a good ruler, just like Tyr. Tyrion is the brains.

Jon is Heimdall, the god of watching, who guards the bridge. Heimdall is the ultimate saviour of humanity and it is his children that repopulate the world.

[sweetsunray]

I don't think the characters represent one Norse god all the time. To make my point: "Lord of Light" and "Sam" are GRRM's wink to a book that he called "One of the five best SF novels ever written" (says so on the cover of the book I have). The book is called "Lord of Light", by GRRM's good friend Zelazny (published in '68). It's actually a SF/fantasy novel.

Basically it's about people that colonize a planet and pretend to be Hindu gods (with the characteristics and elements and so on) and put themselves as higher beings than the original inhabitants they colonize. They have machinery to create reincarnations of these gods over and over, often reincarnating one of the first colonizers. But basically they're just humans with fancy machinery and tenchiques and live in a Hindu avatar. There are several incarnations throughout the book, and in one tale a colonizer may be god A, and in another tale he may be god B (likewise for godesses). There is one rebelious first colonizer who wants to end the power of the humans pretending to be Hindu gods, and that's the one called Lord of Light, Buddha, Mahasamatman. But he decided to drop the Maha and the atman and just goes by the name "Sam". He does eventually start to mimic and reinact Buddha's life, but really is a charlatan, using Siddharta's example to cause rebellion against hte "Hindu gods" (the other colonizers).

On page 14 (6th page of text) the "god" Tak (in ape form) sings a verse to the goddess of the Night Ratri

Guard us from the she-wolf and the wolf, and guard us from the thief, oh Night, and so be good for us to pass."

GRRM has acknowledged that "Lord of Light" and the name "Sam" were used in aSoIaF as a reference to this book, and he certainly admired Zelazny's effort to use Hindu mythology, jumble it around, put it on its head and use it for a subverted version applied on humans. But the important thing to remember is that Lord of Light is not a 1:1 retelling of either Hindu myths or Buddha-Siddartha's life, even though some tidbits of these mythologies are in fact reinacted in the book, just not always in the correct order, or only a tidbit and not the whole story of that god. It's not a 1:1 retelling, but a tool.

With the quote from that book that so much evokes a seeming inspirational image for GRRM in aSoIaF, of Ragnarok and GRRM's tip off to Zelazny's book, I'm inclined to think that GRRM might have felt inspired to do something similar in aSoIaF using Norse mythology (and not just Ragnarok) as Zelazny did with the Hindu mythology. So, GRRM would have certain characters be different "god roles" depending where in the story, nor will tidbits of reinactments follow the chronological order of Norse mythology. It doesn't need to be, because Norse myhtology is cyclical and not chronological, involves resurections, rebirths, etc... And also one god may be "played out" by a different set of characters in Planetos, possibly even simultaneously.

So, any character with a damaged hand may in fact at some point in the story be Tyr. Davos, Jon and Jaime can all be Tyr in the outline and perform a bit of his story.

When Brienne lures Jaime away all by himself to help Sansa who's threatened by the Hound, we are seeing some pieces of one of Tyr's mythologies come together. Although Tyr is not as good as mediating as Forseti (son of Baldr and Nanna), he is a god of war and justice, and Jaime takes up this role to both end the last of the rebellion of the RL houses and bring back law and order. When he has completed this, Jaime is lured away by Brienne who supposedly swore fealty to LS and BwB to catch Jaime.

Tyr is said to kill and be killed by Gram (the dog guarding Hel). Hel is located under one of the three roots of Ygdrassil. And Hel the person is part black and flesh colored, fierce looking (a goddess of death).

Gram-> dog -> the Hound. But the one with the Hound helmet is not Sandor anymore. The Hound was originally Sandor, then Rorge and now Lem of the BwB. GRRM made a specific point of it to make clear to the reader that Lem of the BwB has taken the Hound helmet, and Thoros had warned Lem about wearing it in Brienne's last chapter in aFfC. Hollow Hill is an undeground place with weirwood roots growing everywhere. It therefore fits the description of in Hel. And Lady Stoneheart (not Catelyn) is almost the pure personification of the Stranger (symbol of death within the faith of the series) as well as Hel the goddess.

So, at the end of Jaime's last chapter in aDwD we basically have Tyr (Jaime) lured to Gram (Lem as the Hound) who guards (we're told one of his tasks is to guard the BwB territory) Hel (Hollow Hill) where Hel (Lady Stoneheart) decides who dies and who lives. With those puzzle pieces and if one was to believe that GRRM is using Norse Ragnarok mythology, then a likely prediciton would be that Jaime will duel Lem with his Hound helmet in Hollow Hill by LS' decree, and both Lem and Jaime will die.

Does this mean only Jaime is Tyr, or that Jaime only ever was Tyr? No. Same goes for Hel, the goddess and Hel the place. They can reoccur and be personified by different people. It's entirely possible that Jaime may be revived to be reincarnated into a new Norse role, or it may be the end of him.

This brings me to another Norse personification: Baldr. In the story of Baldr and Nanna we see the triangle Rhaegar-Lyanna-Robert reflected. Baldr and Hodur both covet the same woman Nanna, and battle each other several times, with Nanna switching from one to the other and back. Baldr and Nanna have a son, Forseti, who "presides" (in modern age the name forseti now means "president"). The name means "Lord, prince, ruler." Dolls out justice and is a good mediator (in contrast to Tyr). And so Jon has aspects of Forseti. Baldr is called fair and white. Hodur is called a man of song.

But there's also Baldr who has nightmarish dreams about his death/doom (and yes this would apply to Jaime too). His mother Frigg then asks everything in the realm to promise not to harm her beloved son, except for the mistletoe, because she believes it to be harmless. In this we can see a resemblence with Lyanna asking a theorized promise of Ned regarding her son Jon to keep him safe (if R+L=J is true). Unfortunately, Baldr does come to harm. In a stupid way. All his brothers throw whatever at Baldr, since nothing can harm him. But Loki tricks blind Hodur in throwing mistletoe at Baldr. He dies instantly, stabbed and pierced by the mistletoe. Everybody is devestated and weeping and crying. Frigg calls for a hero who dares to go to Hel and negotiate with Hel to release Baldr back to the living. It is this death that heralds the coming of Ragnarok.

aDwD ends with Jon's Ides of Marsh. He's our beloved hero, a prince of a mother who made Ned promise to keep him safe, and he's stabbed by his "brothers". And we (readers) cry out in devestation: "no, it cannot be, he must be live; we must get him back!" exactly like all of Asgard and Mitgard. And his death is followed with the "Winds of Winter". Ragnarok starts with 3 years of consecutive winter. So, Jon's Ides of Marsh vividly evokes Baldr's death (and much more so than Rhaegar, even though Nanna dies and throws herself on Baldr's funeral pyre from grief), more even to the readers than the characters. The idea alone that he might not return is experienced as a shock and with disbelief.

Does Baldr return? Yes and no. Hermod goes to Hel and tells Hel the goddess of death that all grieve and weep for Baldr and would she not release him. Hel says she will if indeed 'everyone' grieves for Baldr and not one protests to him returning to life. Hermod returns with the message to the gods and they spread the message in all directions so they can prove that everyone wants Baldr back and weeps for the loss of him. One giantess (probably Loki in disguise) though says Hel can keep him, and so Baldr has to remain in Hel, until the end of Ragnarok and a new world begins. And the world always starts anew after Ragnarok (it's cyclical, not linear)

What does this mean? Is GRRM playing Hel and are we the readers the ones who need to prove we want him back? Maybe. Or is GRRM Loki who'll be like the giantess saying, "Nah, Hel can keep him." For I find it hard to pinpoint some character to be Loki - although LF sometimes personifies it. I rather see GRRM as playing for Loki to mess with the heroes, the narrative and the readers. It feels Jon's death in an anology to Baldr's death is more like something that breaks down the 4th wall than something that will be resolved by the characters in-story alone, because most characters in aSoIaF don't know Jon to be weeping for him.

So, either we get him back, ressurrected, before the coming of the Others, OR he'll be as snow white waiting to be kissed back to life after Ragnarok. But what is certain to me is that his stabbing heralds the coming of winter in full and the Others.

Now as to: yeah but the wolves and dragons side with the giants, the destructive side of the story. They're the bad guys. I'm not really buying it. It's true that Ragnarok myths paint them as such, and then one would surmise that Dany and her dragons and the Starks with BR will side with the Others and destroy humanity. But here's the trope and mythology to be messed with. Ragnarok comes to clean up the mess people and the gods make of the world really. It's the Atlantis story. And the Ragnarok myths are told from the pov of the gods who don't like their power wrestled away from them. But the Norse myths has the gods act without honor and prejudiced - they drive the dragon into the sea and bind the wolf without the wolf and the dragon having done anything (they're children still).

aSoIaF is told majorly with first the Targs (the dragons) and then the Starks (the direwolves) being killed, slaughered and driven away or kept as prisoners, even though those children hadn't done anything wrong yet. You can only hunt and exile and poke them for so long, before they decide to fight back. The story of Ragnarok can be turned around and seen as being provoked by the gods. I don't think it necessarily means the dragons and direwolves have to side with the Others.But it does mean that the Houses who played the game of thrones in that dirty way as the gods of Asgard do are in for a beating.

[thehandwipes]

Damn that's some hardcore Norse mythology right there! Nice post!

[AllOfTheHours]

So, any character with a damaged hand may in fact at some point in the story be Tyr. Davos, Jon and Jaime can all be Tyr in the outline and perform a bit of his story.

Loved your post sweetsunray! :) Very detailed and overall awesome. I especially agree with this quote (and the examples you used to support it). I think GRRM incorporates myths into his story in different layers and intensities: he is inspired by myths in a broad sense, he has small hidden homages to myths in his story, and he bases particular characters and events off specific myths very closely.

Plus, sometimes he may explore one myth through many different lenses or in many different characters. This, I think, is a natural outcome of using multiple POVs to tell his story, that he is constantly comparing and contrasting them against each other (and against different mythic characters).

[Daendrew]

The problem with the argument of whether it comes from this mythology or that one misses the point.

They are all one story. They are all different inflections of the same story.

Read The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Or anything else by Campbell.

[sweetsunray]

Damn that's some hardcore Norse mythology right there! Nice post!

Thnx :)

[sweetsunray]

Loved your post sweetsunray! :) Very detailed and overall awesome. I especially agree with this quote (and the examples you used to support it). I think GRRM incorporates myths into his story in different layers and intensities: he is inspired by myths in a broad sense, he has small hidden homages to myths in his story, and he bases particular characters and events off specific myths very closely.

Plus, sometimes he may explore one myth through many different lenses or in many different characters. This, I think, is a natural outcome of using multiple POVs to tell his story, that he is constantly comparing and contrasting them against each other (and against different mythic characters).

Thank you. Yes I agree. GRRM does homage and little retellings here and there, both to literature and mythology. That's why it's so rich. It's as if he's having gazillion short-stiories that he sprinkles around, here, there and everywhere. And, I think it can be used to make a prediction on the short-story narrative within the whole. But it's a trap to try and peg a complete character arc, let alone a complete epic series on one book series or mythology or mythological figure.

Theorizing on the end-game is a lot of fun of course. Especially during a wait of the next book/season.But ime it surely will lead astray. I only managed to predict a whole character's arc once - Desmond in Lost... He was Oddyseus, from start to end. And it's always been one of my favourite epics anyway... hehehehe.

I'll try and see what else of Norse mythologies I can go dig up. The big hunt sounds interesting. I know the Celtic version of it. Not familiar with the Odin version.

[OberynBlackfyre]

What is Ragnarök? It is, quite literally, the song of ice and fire with an important update here

His other blogs are quite good too. This guy I think is on the mark. He is directionally accurate at least (meaning > 51% right, not necessarily 100%), GRRM may have twists and turns to add to the story though. My point is that the archetypes found in Ragnarok/other myths, not necessarily this authors interpretation are key to the unfolding of the story.

There is a reason ASoIF is so addictive and cultish. It is because it is a re-adaptation of a religion that has spoken to and connected with millions of people.

The others may be a weapon. Just as dragons are a weapon of the Targaryens.

It may be the Children using the Others as their weapon. The army of ravens led the Other to find Sam who had the Craster baby. Those were bloodravens ravens and they were none too happy once he killed the Other.

"What is Ragnarök? It is, quite literally, the song of ice and fire. But what is a song? Is a song a battle? Do notes fight one another for dominance, with no care or concern for the overall sound? No. That is discord. A song is harmony -- notes working together in unison. And that is Ragnarök -- the forces of ice & fire uniting as one to attack the world of gods and men. And that is key to understanding what's really going on in George R. R. Martin's epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire... The battle is not Dragons vs. White Walkers. It's Dragons & White Walkers vs. Mankind."

Read this blog for more on the Children, Facelessmen and the prophesy ruse. The Chiildren could not win over men with brawn, so they decided to play the long game and use cunning and intrigue instead.

This lightly altered quote from the blog gave me chills.

"Winter Is coming to make the Night Dark full of terrors so all men must die."

The Children could not defeat the men with brawn, so this author posits that they are using brains; selective misinformation to sabotage humanity and take their revenge.

This interpretation leads to some shocking conclusions. Like Tommen being the prince that was promised and Egg reborn and Jamie being a huge hero. An interesting spin on things when we are surrounded by Jon and Dany theories..

Good theorizing sir! however GRRM has already nodded to the Norse connection, but has clearly stated many times that he is not going to do a 1 for 1 translation on any type of myth or history that he uses. Also a lot of this would make absolutely no sense in the story that GRRM has been writing. The reason there are so many Jon/Dany theories is that you have people who have poured hours into the books, and the most foreshadowing leads to them, as GRRM has even said himself.

[sweetsunray]

Ok, another interesting tidbit. So, I went in search for stuf on Thor. Obviously an anology can be made between Robert Baratheon and Thor - love war, love drinking, warhammer. Except Robert is black of hair and Thor is red of hair. Thor is the god of Storm, strength, protection of mankind, healing and fertility. Robert is the Stormlord, strong as an ox, stands up as protector of the realm against the Mad King's destructive reign, heals the country at least while he lives, and fathers bastards all over the country ("The Seed is strong!").

Ignoring the mentioned analogies for Cersei as Frigg, Thor's wife is called Sif (which probaly just meant "wife of" or something). Sif is the "golden haired" one. She has 3 children with Thor: 2 sons Modi (anger) and Magni (strong), and one daughter Pruor/Thrud (Strength). Both Odin in disguise as Harbard (Greybeard or Hoary beard) and Loki accuse Sif of having a lover aside from Thor. Harbard and Thor have an insult contest (you know like the modern day "Your mother.." and "yeah, but your sister..") and Harbard tries to insult Thor by saying Sif has a lover at home, to which Thor replies something akin to "Sounds like the worst lie eva!" When Loki bursts into a feast of the gods, he starts insulting every one of them in time (being a proper troll i the Lokasenna, aka Loki's flyting). When Sif pours him his mead as a gracious hostess (like Beowulf's Wealthow) and asks him basically, "Well you have to admit you know nothing of harm about me," (paraphrasing and synthesis), he answers her that he knows she has been unfaithful to Thor with him(Loki)- he claims to many of the goddesses there to have had an affair with him. Thor arrives shortly after at the feast and threatens to do his head in for being such a general foul mouth and Loki leaves, for Thor's threats are the sole ones he fears.

So, we have golden haired Sif, having 2 sons and a daughter with Thor, and twice accused of having a lover, though the accusations are part of the insulting-sport and at least in the mythology do not really need to be taken seriously. In another tale, Loki pulls a prank on Sif and cuts off her hair. Thor grabs hold of Loki and he promises to have a golden headpiece made for Sif to replace her lost hair. Along with the headpiece, the dwarves then also make Odin's Spear and Draupnir ring, and Freyr's ship and boar, as well as Thor's hammer. Another note: Grimm relates Sif to the roman Ceres.

So, in relation to Robert as Thor we see golden haired Cersei reflected in Sif: they have 3 children - 2 sons and a daughter - and accused by two men of having a lover. And she had her hair cut off. It's interesting that one son is called "Anger" (Joffrey?) and the remaining son and daughter are both referred to as "strong/strength". Tommen and Myrcella may not be physically strong, but they do show some resilience and endurance capability to bear the exploits of their family. Of course Thor himself is either not present when the accusations are made, or he finds them ridiculous.

Now let's make a jump to Freyr and Freya. They are twins, children of a sea god Njordr and Njordr's unnamed sister. Freya is the goddess of love, sexuality, beauty, fertility, gold, in-your-face-honesty, war, and death. She has a boar by her side. In the same Lokasenna at some point Loki accuses Freya of having mounted her twin brother Freyr. They are the shiny, golden twins. So, here we see a trasnfer from Cercei as Sif to Freya, and Jaime being Freyr instead of Tyr. More importantly is Freyr's story about how he falls hopelessly in love with Gerda, a maiden he thinks he'll never be able to marry; that the gods and elves will forever keep them apart. Freyr has a squire and gives him a horse and magical sword to woo Gerda, and if he succeeds he may keep Freyr's sword (that can slay giants). Severals times Skirnir the squire tries to persuade Gerda to agree to a marriage with Freyr both with gifts (apples, rings) and threats (behead her). She refuses the gifts. She has no need of them, since she shares her father's property, who lacks no gold. To his threats she says "she will not endure any man's coercion", and Skirnir can expect to be battled with. The Skirnir threatens her with his wand, telling her that he can turn her into a spectacle, glared and stared at, harrassed by fiends, to crawl without hope or choice, to live without a man and waste awya with pining and be crushed. Eventually Gerda agrees to meet with Freyr in 9 days to grant him her love. Skirnir hastes back to Freyr to give him the news, with Freyr lamenting how he'll be able to bear the waiting until that day. The place where this divine wedding is to take place is either a grove/forest or an island (there's scholary discussion which of the two it is). And it's later supposed that Gerda is Freyr's wife.

Interesting enough we see the Fretr-Gerda motif reflected in Jaime-Brienne, and especially in Brienne's life. Instead of being threatened with all that Skirnir says will happen to Gerda, she basically already lived it. The search for suitors by her father, all gone to nothing. Her threatening one of her suitors she'll have no man command her unless he can beat her in a fight. Her being as spectacle, gazed at, glared at. The theme of wooing is repeated by her companion in the Riverlands when she's following the Hound's trail. Brienne also takes on Skirnir's role by accepting Oathkeeper from Jaime to look for the fair maiden Sansa. And while Brienne's busy looking and serching, Jaime regularly wonders where she is now, and whether she is having any success, ... like a lamenting Freyr. Unfortunately Freyr is bound to die against the giant Surtr (black) with the flaming sword, without his own magic sword.

[matchesmcfly]

I absolutely love this theory. i don't think we can point to the gods in ragnarok and associated them with characters in asoiaf entirely(i think the inspiration is a little more fluid than that), but i think it's fun to speculate.

 

I've always thought that Bran (fenrir) is going to go awol on bloodraven (odin)  so imagine my delight when i discovered that in ragnarok, fenrir kills odin.

 

maybe it's been pointed out already, but has anyone heard of the 'wild hunt'? there's this pretty famous painting by franz von stuck that depicts wotan (odin) leading the army of the dead(that's not what it's famous for but i digress) which immediately hearkened back to the white walkers and their agenda.

 

i'm thinking bran does bloodraven in, and plays that aspect of odin in the leading of the dead, and either dany or Jon (most like Jon, even though he's supposed to be the sutr analog)  plays the role of vidar in avenging his father, odin (since bloodraven and Jon are first men/dragonseed, might be a little bit of a reach).