ravenous reader Posted April 29, 2016 Share Posted April 29, 2016 On 4/22/2016 at 6:35 AM, Tijgy said: During the talk between Bran and Jojen, Jojen is sitting under the weirwood while Bran is sitting against a tall ash with Summer’s head on his lap (Sitting cross-legged under the weirwood). It is very symbolic that Jojen as agent of the Old Gods sits under the weirwood while Bran is told for the first time what his powers really are. Further at the moment Jojen asks Bran about his dreams, “the godswood grew quiet. Bran could hear leaves rustling, and Hodor’s distant splashing from the hot pools.” The rustling leaves gives an indication that the old gods themselves are there at this very special moment. So far in this thread we've identified indications that the old gods are present via signs that can be apprehended by the senses (e.g. rustling, whispering, the faces in the trees, the fog, etc.). I'm wondering whether in addition to these sensory signs there may be other signs that the gods are listening. For example, the gods -- and/or GRRM -- seem to have an ironic sense of humor in their delivery of divine retribution, poetic justice, dramatic irony, karma, fate, comeuppance, call it what you will, which could perhaps be interpreted as a sign of their presence. To illustrate this point, I will consider an exerpt from A Game of Thrones in which Bran begins his journey as a greenseer, i.e. the moment he fell from the window (starting with Bran II which leads into Tyrion I). In this passage there are a number of people who utter ill wishes for Bran while he is lying in his coma (Cersei, Jaime, Joffrey, Sandor) vs. a number who wish him well (chiefly Tyrion, also Myrcella and Tommen). It's interesting to examine how each of those wishes turned out, and therefore what we may infer about the old gods from the outcomes for the respective parties. Quote Faces appeared in the window above him. The queen. And now Bran recognized the man beside her. They looked as much alike as reflections in a mirror. "He saw us," the woman said shrilly. "So he did," the man said. Bran's fingers started to slip. He grabbed the ledge with his other hand. Fingernails dug into unyielding stone. The man reached down. "Take my hand," he said. "Before you fall." Bran seized his arm and held on tight with all his strength. The man yanked him up to the ledge. "What are you doing?" the woman demanded. The man ignored her. He was very strong. He stood Bran up on the sill. "How old are you, boy?" "Seven," Bran said, shaking with relief. His fingers had dug deep gouges in the man's forearm. He let go sheepishly. Jaime's extension in bad faith of his hand to Bran with the disingenuous words 'take my hand' was answered (by the gods?) later by just that, as @evita mgfs has highlighted, the irony of his hand being literally taken from him, by no less than Stark-affiliated men. Moreover, in the passage above Bran appears to already do harm to Jaime's arm/hand, almost as if Bran as 'the chosen one' of the gods is configured here as an agent of their retribution, 'Bran seized his arm...his fingers had dug deep gouges in the man's forearm.' This passage also has a textual resemblance to the one describing Joffrey's death, hinting that Jaime's willingness to sacrifice another man's child was met by the later death of his own child: Quote Joffrey began to claw at his throat, his nails tearing bloody gouges in the flesh. Beneath the skin, the muscles stood out hard as stone. Prince Tommen was screaming and crying. He is going to die, Tyrion realized. He felt curiously calm, though pandemonium raged all about him. Joffrey's 'nails tearing bloody gouges in the flesh...beneath the skin, the muscles stood out hard as stone' echoes Bran's 'fingernails dug into unyielding stone...his fingers had dug deep gouges in the man's forearm.' Quote Ser Meryn pried the king's mouth open to jam a spoon down his throat. As he did, the boy's eyes met Tyrion's. He has Jaime's eyes. Only he had never seen Jaime look so scared. The boy's only thirteen. In the moments just before he dies his gruesome death, Joffrey's resemblance to Jaime is highlighted. Similar to Jaime's thoughts about Bran shortly before he shoves him, Joffrey's youth and vulnerability is emphasized. Perhaps Joffrey is dying because of the sins of the father? Quote Joffrey was making a dry clacking noise, trying to speak. His eyes bulged white with terror, and he lifted a hand . . . reaching for his uncle, or pointing . . . Is he begging my forgiveness, or does he think I can save him? "Noooo," Cersei wailed, "Father help him, someone help him, my son, my son . . ." Joffrey stretches out a hand for help, helplessly, just as Bran stretched out his hand to meet Jaime's, seeking safety to no avail. Quote Tyrion found himself thinking of Robb Stark. My own wedding is looking much better in hindsight. In this moment Tyrion is thinking of Bran's brother Robb Stark. Is Joffrey's death recompense for what was done to Bran and/or Robb? Quote The man looked over at the woman. "The things I do for love," he said with loathing. He gave Bran a shove. 'The things I do for love'...Jaime and Cersei are going to be made to rue those words and their 'loathsome love,' in the name of which they were willing to hurt Bran. If the gods are 'good' -- i.e. ironic -- I suspect the last moments of that 'love' are going to be filled with much mutual loathing! Given that Jaime looks to Cersei for direction, almost as if requesting her consent before proceeding, Cersei is fully implicated in this attempt on Bran's life. Had she not been standing there glowering imperiously, he may not have followed through. The 'loathing' -- which can be read both as self-loathing and loathing towards Cersei -- is a clue which tells us that this is something Jaime does not really want to do, and may not have under other circumstances. Quote Screaming, Bran went backward out the window into empty air. There was nothing to grab on to. The courtyard rushed up to meet him. Somewhere off in the distance, a wolf was howling. Crows circled the broken tower, waiting for corn. Were anyone wondering how the old gods might have been able to witness the proceedings involving Jaime, Cersei and Bran, the presence of the wolf (Summer being empathically/telepathically connected to Bran) and the crows (being among Bloodraven's 1000 eyes) is a strong possibility. On my first readings of this passage, the image of the crows circling the broken tower waiting for corn impressed me as a melancholic elegy for Bran; now, however, this image strikes me as particularly ominous. In so far as crows like vultures are scavenging raptors whose habit it is to circle en masse anticipating someone's demise (they gather to feast on carrion, the dead, dying, sick and wounded), it's significant that they circle the broken tower targeting Jaime and Cersei -- who are henceforth marked for death -- not Bran (who is no longer in the tower). Moreover, by throwing Bran from the tower they thwarted the crows from having their 'corn,' so we can fully expect the 'crows' as emissaries of the gods to extract their due from the twins in future. Quote Chapter Nine Tyrion Somewhere in the great stone maze of Winterfell, a wolf howled. The sound hung over the castle like a flag of mourning. In this section there are many allusions to Bran's coma with which Tyrion notably identifies and is identified. Bran is undergoing a spiritual transitioning not unlike the difficult process of giving birth or being born: the treacherous descent passing through a narrow birth canal and finally ascending reborn. Accordingly, we can find many juxtaposed images of descent and ascent, dark and light, oppression and liberation to signify the arc of this movement. Here, Bran is trapped or imprisoned, trying to negotiate his way through 'the great stone maze.' There is hope however in the transcendent sound of the wolf flying high like a flag 'over' Winterfell, prefiguring Bran the winged wolf's eventual emergence from his coma and as a greenseer (the 'flag' flying over a castle has the ultimate 'birds-eye' perspective). There may also be a pun on the word 'mourning' with 'morning,' likewise signifying the hope that Bran will emerge from the symbolic 'night' of his coma (especially if the other pun holds true 'sun/son'...more on that later). Quote Tyrion Lannister looked up from his books and shivered, though the library was snug and warm. Something about the howling of a wolf took a man right out of his here and now and left him in a dark forest of the mind, running naked before the pack. As a greenseer, Bran will transcend the parameters of 'the here [space] and now [time].' 'The dark forest of the mind' which currently holds him in its thrall will prove his liberation and greatest power. Tyrion's vivid vision of 'running naked before the pack' evokes one of those growing powers, namely Bran's warging powers. Is Tyrion 'channeling' Bran somehow, or could there be some other relevance for him specifically? I leave you to speculate further on the implications for Tyrion of this enigmatic passage! Quote When the direwolf howled again, Tyrion shut the heavy leatherbound cover on the book he was reading, a hundred-year-old discourse on the changing of the seasons by a long-dead maester. He covered a yawn with the back of his hand. His reading lamp was flickering, its oil all but gone, as dawn light leaked through the high windows. He had been at it all night, but that was nothing new. Tyrion Lannister was not much a one for sleeping. Interestingly, Tyrion pays attention to the wolves over the books, hence aligning himself in this moment (this is by no means always the case) with magical vs. 'citadel' knowledge (so, the opposite of Maester Luwin), and with the old gods. Although, the book Tyrion is reading holds special significance for Bran. Bran is undergoing an experience of spiritual transitioning akin to the changing of the seasons. Reading further we are privy to Bran's lively discussions with the three-eyed crow while he is in the coma -- indeed 'a hundred-year-old discourse...[with] a long-dead maester [Bloodraven is presumed to be dead since at least 100 years ago...Dareon tells Aemon so]. The three-eyed crow Bloodraven is a kind of 'psychopomp' or spiritual guide who escorts him through the process. The play on the word 'Winterfell' indicates that it is located at a symbolic nexus between the seasons. 'Winter fell' has the dual interpretation of both Winter's arrival or triumph (as in the sense of the words 'nightfall' and 'befell') as well as its departure or defeat (as in the sense of 'downfall' or 'tree fell'). Similarly, 'the Kings of Winter' can either be equated with Winter, or alternatively be seen as its conquerors, which would make 'Winter' the subjects of their rulers 'the Starks' (in other words, the Starks herald the Spring!) The Starks have one foot in Winter and one in 'Spring'; they straddle these two worlds, elements of both of which may be found at Winterfell itself. For example, Winterfell is geographically situated over geothermal hot 'springs' which are channeled to warm the castle making it habitable for humans and enabling plants to grow in the greenhouse. Thus, fire and ice already coexist in harmony at Winterfell, even without having to factor in the Targaryens! I suspect that Winterfell is one of the magical 'hinges of the world' in addition to the Wall (which would make sense since Bran's namesake built them both). 'Hinges' implies a door which likewise represents a transition from one world to another. GRRM frequently signifies that this transitioning is not easy, hence 'screaming hinges,' 'rusty hinges,' etc. which resist opening, just as Bran resists opening his 'third eye'. In his 'inbetween' state, Bran is stuck between worlds, neither alive nor dead, awake nor asleep. This liminal state of affairs is reflected in the passage's imagery. Like Bran, the septon is described as 'half-asleep'; the time of day is 'dawn' i.e. neither night nor day; the sunlight is 'leaking' not streaming in through the windows; the lamp light is 'flickering,' threatening to go out but not yet extinguished; the oil is 'all but gone,' yet not quite exhausted. But we can take heart for Bran if Tyrion is his 'doppelganger' here; 'Tyrion is not much a one for sleeping'...and neither is Bran! Quote His legs were stiff and sore as he eased down off the bench. He massaged some life back into them and limped heavily to the table where the septon was snoring softly, his head pillowed on an open book in front of him. Tyrion glanced at the title. A life of the Grand Maester Aethelmure, no wonder. "Chayle," he said softly. The young man jerked up, blinking, confused, the crystal of his order swinging wildly on its silver chain. "I'm off to break my fast. See that you return the books to the shelves. Be gentle with the Valyrian scrolls, the parchment is very dry. Ayrmidon's Engines of War is quite rare, and yours is the only complete copy I've ever seen." Chayle gaped at him, still half-asleep. Patiently, Tyrion repeated his instructions, then clapped the septon on the shoulder and left him to his tasks. Outside, Tyrion swallowed a lungful of the cold morning air and began his laborious descent of the steep stone steps that corkscrewed around the exterior of the library tower. It was slow going; the steps were cut high and narrow, while his legs were short and twisted. The rising sun had not yet cleared the walls of Winterfell, but the men were already hard at it in the yard below. In the section above, Tyrion's role as the champion of 'cripples, bastards and broken things' generally, and as Bran's champion specifically, is underscored by the text. Given that there are so many references (more than usual) to his impaired legs, Tyrion seems to identify with Bran's affliction ('his legs were stiff and sore...he massaged some life back into them and limped heavily...began his laborious descent...it was slow going...his legs were short and twisted...'). A 'laborious' descent of that treacherous passage ('steep stone steps that corkscrewed...slow going...cut high and narrow') also evokes the difficult process of labor in the sense of giving birth and being born, as the challenging passageway evokes the birth canal. If there is a pun in the word 'sun' with 'son' as @evita mgfs has previously suggested, then 'the rising sun had not yet cleared the walls of Winterfell' could indicate that Bran the rising 'son' of Winterfell is on the way to being spiritually reborn (Winterfell's own 'sword of the morning'?!), although he has not yet cleared the final hurdle as it were. In this context, it's interesting that one of the roles for a 'psychopomp' is to assist as a kind of spiritual 'midwife' or 'doula' (see below): Quote From Wikipedia: Psychopomps (from the Greek word ψυχοπομπός, psuchopompos, literally meaning the "guide of souls") are creatures, spirits, angels, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls from Earth to the afterlife. Their role is not to judge the deceased, but simply to provide safe passage. Frequently depicted on funerary art, psychopomps have been associated at different times and in different cultures with horses, whip-poor-wills, ravens, dogs, crows, owls, sparrows, cuckoos, and harts. When seen as birds, they are often seen in huge masses, waiting outside the home of the dying. Classical examples of a psychopomp in Greek, Roman and Egyptian mythology are Charon, Vanth, Hermes, Hecate, Mercury and Anubis. In many beliefs, a spirit being taken to the underworld is violently ripped from its body. ... In Jungian psychology, the psychopomp is a mediator between the unconscious and conscious realms. It is symbolically personified in dreams as a wise man or woman, or sometimes as a helpful animal. In many cultures, the shaman also fulfills the role of the psychopomp. This may include not only accompanying the soul of the dead, but also vice versa: to help at birth, to introduce the newborn child's soul to the world. This also accounts for the contemporary title of "midwife to the dying", or "End of Life Doula", which is another form of psychopomp work. Quote Sandor Clegane's rasping voice drifted up to him. "The boy is a long time dying. I wish he would be quicker about it." Why did you say that Sandor?! Perhaps he did not truly mean it, but his flippant, uncharitable words were heard. Sandor's 'rasping voice' is described as 'drifting up to him,' the 'him' in question presumably Tyrion, but one could make a case for the 'gods are listening' (especially at Winterfell)! Sandor curses Bran to the air with his indiscriminate rasping -- and is cursed in return. Hence, Sandor is fated to abandon his boy prince/king and instead become the protector of two Stark children, Sansa and Arya, essentially ensuring that they in turn are 'a long time dying.' Ironically, the gods ensure that Sandor receives the opposite of what he wishes for Bran. So, when Sandor himself is dying in agony and requests the mercy of a quick death from Bran's sister Arya, she refuses him. Indeed, death eludes Sandor many times! He is an unlikely survivor of the holy trial of combat which involved having to face his worst fear, namely fire, and reduced him to a whimpering child -- with echoes of 'the boy is a long time dying' (which makes one wonder about the 'accounting' that takes place between the old gods and the lord of light): Quote A Storm of Swords - Arya VI "Please," Sandor Clegane rasped, cradling his arm. "I'm burned. Help me. Someone. Help me." He was crying. "Please." Arya looked at him in astonishment. He's crying like a little baby, she thought. Arya VII Lord Beric shook his head. "Clegane won his life beneath the hollow hill. I will not rob him of it." "My lord is wise," Thoros told the others. "Brothers, a trial by battle is a holy thing. You heard me ask R'hllor to take a hand, and you saw his fiery finger snap Lord Beric's sword, just as he was about to make an end of it. The Lord of Light is not yet done with Joffrey's Hound, it would seem." While Sandor in his defiance may be done with the gods, the gods are not yet done with him! Thereafter, Sandor comes to serve the new gods (again, there seems to be a connection between the old gods, the lord of light, and the new gods in terms of extracting ones spiritual 'due'). Moreover, Sandor may have been 'reborn' himself in the figure of the gravedigger, condemned to dig the graves of others but 'a long time dying' himself! Underscoring the point that 'the boy is a long time dying,' in the cloister Sandor the cynical and nihilistic weatherbeaten warrior who purports to be done with life, is transformed into a 'novice' (incidentally, this makes Sandor the younger brother twice over, so he's still a strong candidate for the 'valonqar'...) who must serve alongside boys much younger than him. To complete his humbling, Sandor ends up 'lame' and 'half-crippled' like Bran (in similar fashion to Jaime who also cursed Bran, thereby cursing himself): Quote A Feast for Crows - Brienne VI On the upper slopes they saw three boys driving sheep, and higher still they passed a lichyard where a brother bigger than Brienne was struggling to dig a grave. From the way he moved, it was plain to see that he was lame. As he flung a spadeful of the stony soil over one shoulder, some chanced to spatter against their feet. "Be more watchful there," chided Brother Narbert. "Septon Meribald might have gotten a mouthful of dirt." The gravedigger lowered his head. When Dog went to sniff him he dropped his spade and scratched his ear. "A novice," explained Narbert. ... Their supper in the septry was as strange a meal as Brienne had ever eaten, though not at all unpleasant. ... When the Elder Brother excused the musician to take his own meal, Brother Narbert and another proctor took turns reading from The Seven-Pointed Star. By the time the readings were completed, the last of the food had been cleared away by the novices whose task it was to serve. Most were boys near Podrick's age, or younger, but there were grown men as well, amongst them the big gravedigger they had encountered on the hill, who walked with the awkward lurching gait of one half-crippled. ... "Too many corpses, these days." The Elder Brother sighed. "Our gravedigger knows no rest. Rivermen, westermen, northmen, all wash up here. Knights and knaves alike. We bury them side by side, Stark and Lannister, Blackwood and Bracken, Frey and Darry. That is the duty the river asks of us in return for all its gifts, and we do it as best we can. Sometimes we find a woman, though . . . or worse, a little child. Those are the cruelest gifts." 'The duty the river asks of us in return for all its gifts' characterizes the spiritual give-and-take, ebb-and-flow economy of the gods. Included in this philosophy is the idea contained in popular idioms of 'what goes around, comes around' or 'what you sow, so shall you reap' or 'to every action an equal and opposite reaction' -- basically nothing can stay hidden, no utterance unheard, no secret undisclosed, no sin undiscovered, no thought unread. Thus, the corpses dumped in the river wash up again and must be dealt with appropriately. Likewise, figuratively-speaking all the choices we make, for better or for worse, boomerang back to us. 'The cruelest gifts' are those involving the death of a little child, which has a special significance in the Hound/Sandor's case, having killed Mycah at another river the Trident, and having spoken ill of/towards Bran. The latter offense would appear relatively minor comparatively, but words and thoughts matter in the eyes of the gods, even idle threats, and these also call for atonement. In addition to alluding to Sandor's cruelty towards these children, the 'cruelty' of the 'gift' (GRRM's gifts are usually cruel and bittersweet) more enigmatically has the deeper meaning of referring to Sandor himself. Firstly, in response to his cruelty, the universe will treat Sandor cruelly in return. Secondly, this suffering will not necessarily have been in vain, since a certain measure of suffering seems to be essential in order to receive the gift of spiritual enlightenment (just like Bran, Jaime, Arya, Jon, etc.). Sandor's lesson for both Sansa and Arya is to teach each in her own way 'where the heart is'; poignantly, this is also a lesson Sandor, a man who falsely considers himself heartless, must painfully learn for himself. Let's return to our original passage, where the next after Sandor to curse Bran is Joffrey: Quote Tyrion glanced down and saw the Hound standing with young Joffrey as squires swarmed around them. "At least he dies quietly," the prince replied. "It's the wolf that makes the noise. I could scarce sleep last night." As in the case of the poetic justice dispensed for Sandor, it's clear in retrospect that Joffrey too receives the opposite of what he in his malice wishes for Bran. Specifically, Joffrey wishes Bran would 'die quietly' without the howling of wolves or the wailing of women (see later). As we know, Joffrey's own death was anything but a quiet affair, dying so publicly as he did in a humiliating, spluttering coughing fit, surrounded by a cacophony of screaming people, barking dogs, and pandemonium all round. As the gods' final rebuke, in Joffrey's final moments the wailing of women may have been the last thing he ever heard: Quote Spitting out flakes of crust, he coughed and helped himself to another fistful. "Dry, though. Needs washing down." Joff took a swallow of wine and coughed again, more violently. "I want to see, kof, see you ride that, kof kof, pig, Uncle. I want . . . " His words broke up in a fit of coughing. Margaery looked at him with concern. "Your Grace?" "It's, kof, the pie, noth - kof, pie." Joff took another drink, or tried to, but all the wine came spewing back out when another spate of coughing doubled him over. His face was turning red. "I, kof, I can't, kof kof kof kof . . . " Almost in response to his disparagement in life of the 'canine' family of dogs and wolves, Joffrey with his barking cough' is reduced in his dying moments to 'barking' like a dog! It's a very cruel death mirroring the cruelty of the boy. Quote The chalice slipped from his hand and dark red wine went running across the dais. "He's choking," Queen Margaery gasped. Her grandmother moved to her side. "Help the poor boy!" the Queen of Thorns screeched, in a voice ten times her size. "Dolts! Will you all stand about gaping? Help your king!" Thus, Joffrey's 'favorite' sound, the wailing of women commences (Cersei in particular is described as 'wailing') and amplifies in volume as he is dying! (actually, Joffrey is doubly, or multiply, cursed by the Starks, not least for his grandfather Tywin's sin of melting down Ice and his in disrespectfully renaming it 'Widow's Wail'...Indeed, the gods' 'justice' -- what I more accurately prefer to call 'irony' -- seems to be transgenerational, although that may not seem entirely 'fair'). Quote Ser Garlan shoved Tyrion aside and began to pound Joffrey on the back. Ser Osmund Kettleblack ripped open the king's collar. A fearful high thin sound emerged from the boy's throat, the sound of a man trying to suck a river through a reed; then it stopped, and that was more terrible still. "Turn him over!" Mace Tyrell bellowed at everyone and no one. "Turn him over, shake him by his heels!" A different voice was calling, "Water, give him some water!" The High Septon began to pray loudly. Grand Maester Pycelle shouted for someone to help him back to his chambers, to fetch his potions. Joffrey began to claw at his throat, his nails tearing bloody gouges in the flesh. Beneath the skin, the muscles stood out hard as stone. Prince Tommen was screaming and crying. He is going to die, Tyrion realized. He felt curiously calm, though pandemonium raged all about him. They were pounding Joff on the back again, but his face was only growing darker. Dogs were barking, children were wailing, men were shouting useless advice at each other. Half the wedding guests were on their feet, some shoving at each other for a better view, others rushing for the doors in their haste to get away. Ser Meryn pried the king's mouth open to jam a spoon down his throat. As he did, the boy's eyes met Tyrion's. He has Jaime's eyes. Only he had never seen Jaime look so scared. The boy's only thirteen. Joffrey was making a dry clacking noise, trying to speak. His eyes bulged white with terror, and he lifted a hand . . . reaching for his uncle, or pointing . . . Is he begging my forgiveness, or does he think I can save him? "Noooo," Cersei wailed, "Father help him, someone help him, my son, my son . . . " ... Margaery Tyrell was weeping in her grandmother's arms as the old lady said, "Be brave, be brave." Most of the musicians had fled, but one last flutist in the gallery was blowing a dirge. In the rear of the throne room scuffling had broken out around the doors, and the guests were trampling on each other. Ser Addam's gold cloaks moved in to restore order. Guests were rushing headlong out into the night, some weeping, some stumbling and retching, others white with fear. It occurred to Tyrion belatedly that it might be wise to leave himself. When he heard Cersei's scream, he knew that it was over. I should leave. Now. Instead he waddled toward her. His sister sat in a puddle of wine, cradling her son's body. Her gown was tom and stained, her face white as chalk. A thin black dog crept up beside her, sniffing at Joffrey's corpse. To add insult to injury, a dog examines Joffrey's corpse, which ties in with the next lot of preceding curses: Quote Clegane cast a long shadow across the hard-packed earth as his squire lowered the black helm over his head. "I could silence the creature, if it please you," he said through his open visor. His boy placed a longsword in his hand. He tested the weight of it, slicing at the cold morning air. Behind him, the yard rang to the clangor of steel on steel. The notion seemed to delight the prince. "Send a dog to kill a dog!" he exclaimed. "Winterfell is so infested with wolves, the Starks would never miss one." Neither Bran nor Summer was silenced; they both outlived Joffrey. 'Send a dog to kill a dog' does not bode well for the Clegane brothers in future. Sandor's threat to 'silence the creature' was met instead by his own silencing when he ended up at 'the Quiet Isle' having to do penance for his sins (his sins towards Bran among them) in silent contemplation: Quote A Feast for Crows - Brienne VI The tide was going out now, and swiftly. The water that separated the island from the shore was receding, leaving behind a broad expanse of glistening brown mudflats dotted by tidal pools that glittered like golden coins in the afternoon sun. Brienne scratched the back of her neck, where an insect had bitten her. She had pinned her hair up, and the sun had warmed her skin. "Why do they call it the Quiet Isle?" asked Podrick. "Those who dwell here are penitents, who seek to atone for their sins through contemplation, prayer, and silence. Only the Elder Brother and his proctors are permitted to speak, and the proctors only for one day of every seven." Quote Tyrion hopped off the last step onto the yard. "I beg to differ, nephew," he said. "The Starks can count past six. Unlike some princes I might name." Joffrey had the grace at least to blush. Tyrion wisely defends the Starks (the gods are listening!) Joffrey's blushing foreshadows the manner of his death in which his face turned red and then a dark shade of purple. Quote "A voice from nowhere," Sandor said. He peered through his helm, looking this way and that. "Spirits of the air!" The prince laughed, as he always laughed when his bodyguard did this mummer's farce. Tyrion was used to it. "Down here." The tall man peered down at the ground, and pretended to notice him. "The little lord Tyrion," he said. "My pardons. I did not see you standing there." "I am in no mood for your insolence today." Tyrion turned to his nephew. "Joffrey, it is past time you called on Lord Eddard and his lady, to offer them your comfort." Here, we have further possible evidence that 'the gods are listening,' when Sandor refers to those who are eavesdropping on their conversation as 'spirits of the air' and 'a voice from nowhere.' Throughout the text, there are many examples of the old gods' presence in the air/wind/fog and making themselves known in voices that appear to come 'from nowhere' (e.g. to Ned, Theon, Jon, etc.). Sandor's naïve jest is unlikely to please the gods, as is reflected in Tyrion's curt response 'I am in no mood for your insolence..' and Sandor's unwitting admission 'I did not see you standing there'; he does not realize the gravity of his own words! Quote Joffrey looked as petulant as only a boy prince can look. "What good will my comfort do them?" "None," Tyrion said. "Yet it is expected of you. Your absence has been noted." "The Stark boy is nothing to me," Joffrey said. "I cannot abide the wailing of women." Tyrion Lannister reached up and slapped his nephew hard across the face. The boy's cheek began to redden. As already mentioned, in this passage Tyrion is represented -- for whatever reason -- as the champion of the Starks and the old gods (this is reinforced by GRRM's choice of language for Tyrion, e.g. accentuating his crippled legs and strangely referring to him at the conclusion of the chapter using the adjective 'wolfish'). Therefore, when Tyrion slaps Joffrey, the unexpected slap can also be seen as the hand of the gods raised in retaliation and making their displeasure felt at Joffrey's callousness towards the Starks. We've covered the significance of Joffrey not abiding the 'wailing of women'...As is the gods' wont, Joffrey curses himself to receive the opposite of what he wishes. The flaming red cheeks foreshadow Joffrey's poisoning. Quote "One word," Tyrion said, "and I will hit you again." "I'm going to tell Mother!" Joffrey exclaimed. Tyrion hit him again. Now both cheeks flamed. "You tell your mother," Tyrion told him. "But first you get yourself to Lord and Lady Stark, and you fall to your knees in front of them, and you tell them how very sorry you are, and that you are at their service if there is the slightest thing you can do for them or theirs in this desperate hour, and that all your prayers go with them. Do you understand? Do you?" The boy looked as though he was going to cry. Instead, he managed a weak nod. Then he turned and fled headlong from the yard, holding his cheek. Tyrion watched him run. A shadow fell across his face. He turned to find Clegane looming overhead like a cliff. His soot-dark armor seemed to blot out the sun. He had lowered the visor on his helm. It was fashioned in the likeness of a snarling black hound, fearsome to behold, but Tyrion had always thought it a great improvement over Clegane's hideously burned face. "The prince will remember that, little lord," the Hound warned him. The helm turned his laugh into a hollow rumble. A lot of people including Sandor will be made to rue this day, just not in the way they had anticipated the punishment unfolding. The gods are listening; 'the North Remembers.' Quote "I pray he does," Tyrion Lannister replied. "If he forgets, be a good dog and remind him." He glanced around the courtyard. "Do you know where I might find my brother?" "Breaking fast with the queen." "Ah," Tyrion said. He gave Sandor Clegane a perfunctory nod and walked away as briskly as his stunted legs would carry him, whistling. He pitied the first knight to try the Hound today. The man did have a temper. Another mention of Tyrion's 'stunted legs.' Quote A cold, cheerless meal had been laid out in the morning room of the Guest House. Jaime sat at table with Cersei and the children, talking in low, hushed voices. In this series, meals have significance. For example, Meera describes one of Jojen's greendreams as follows, showing that the gods -- who presumably send the prophetic visions -- speak in meal metaphors to convey their message: Quote A Clash of Kings -- Bran V "You were sitting at supper, but instead of the servant Maester Luwin brought you your food. He served you the king's cut off the roast, the meat rare and bloody, but with a savory smell that made everyone's mouth water. The meat he served the Freys was old and grey and dead. Yet they liked their supper better than you liked yours." Being served with a meal can be synonymous with fate or revenge, e.g. the bloody feast at the Red Wedding where Walder Frey intended to right some wrongs "We'll have music, such sweet music, and wine, heh, the red will run, and we'll put some wrongs aright'; then the 'Frey Pies' in retaliation for the Red Wedding; the pigeon pie or alternatively wine which killed Joffrey at his own wedding; or as @evita mgfsmentioned the foreshadowing of the 'summerwine'/blood the Starks will serve up to their enemies in future; etc. So too do the gods serve up 'meals' to the (un)deserving. Accordingly, the 'cold, cheerless meal' which 'had been laid out' by the Starks for Jaime, Cersei, and their children, the morning after Bran had been pushed from the tower, is an indication that the Lannisters are already damned. They talk in 'low, hushed voices,' as if that might prevent the old gods from overhearing, but it will not avail them. In contrast to the other Lannisters, Tyrion arrives later, differentiating him from them, and is served a warm, cheerful, hearty meal according to his own specifications (fish, bread, beer, bacon burned black). In contrast to the others, Tyrion is not damned (in fact, he's been championing the Starks and the old gods throughout and they are well pleased with him at this point), so he is rewarded with a meal which he enjoys. Quote "Is Robert still abed?" Tyrion asked as he seated himself, uninvited, at the table. His sister peered at him with the same expression of faint distaste she had worn since the day he was born. "The king has not slept at all," she told him. "He is with Lord Eddard. He has taken their sorrow deeply to heart." "He has a large heart, our Robert," Jaime said with a lazy smile. There was very little that Jaime took seriously. Tyrion knew that about his brother, and forgave it. During all the terrible long years of his childhood, only Jaime had ever shown him the smallest measure of affection or respect, and for that Tyrion was willing to forgive him most anything. A servant approached. "Bread," Tyrion told him, "and two of those little fish, and a mug of that good dark beer to wash them down. Oh, and some bacon. Burn it until it turns black." The man bowed and moved off. Tyrion turned back to his siblings. Twins, male and female. They looked very much the part this morning. Both had chosen a deep green that matched their eyes. Their blond curls were all a fashionable tumble, and gold ornaments shone at wrists and fingers and throats. Tyrion wondered what it would be like to have a twin, and decided that he would rather not know. Bad enough to face himself in a looking glass every day. Another him was a thought too dreadful to contemplate. Prince Tommen spoke up. "Do you have news of Bran, Uncle?" "I stopped by the sickroom last night," Tyrion announced. "There was no change. The maester thought that a hopeful sign." "I don't want Brandon to die," Tommen said timorously. He was a sweet boy. Not like his brother, but then Jaime and Tyrion were somewhat less than peas in a pod themselves. "Lord Eddard had a brother named Brandon as well," Jaime mused. "One of the hostages murdered by Targaryen. It seems to be an unlucky name." "Oh, not so unlucky as all that, surely," Tyrion said. The servant brought his plate. He ripped off a chunk of black bread. Cersei was studying him warily. "What do you mean?" Tyrion gave her a crooked smile. "Why, only that Tommen may get his wish. The maester thinks the boy may yet live." He took a sip of beer. Tommen and Myrcella wish Bran well; Bran survives. Unlike Sandor, Joffrey, Jaime and Cersei -- who are all granted the opposite of their wishes -- Tommen and Myrcella actually get their wish! From this we can conclude that if there is a logic to the gods' 'justice' or 'irony,' assuming the gods bear some responsibility for the outcome, then the gods favor Bran's welfare and anyone supporting his welfare. However, if the transgenerational theory of the gods' justice holds, then poor Tommen and Myrcella despite their good-naturedness will nevertheless suffer for the sins of their parents, brother and grandfather. We'll have to see how it unfolds for them in the novels. Here again, it's worth noting that Tyrion is described as giving a 'crooked' smile, which evokes Bran's crippling as well as the boomerang of the gods (which is coming for Cersei...). Quote Myrcella gave a happy gasp, and Tommen smiled nervously, but it was not the children Tyrion was watching. The glance that passed between Jaime and Cersei lasted no more than a second, but he did not miss it. Then his sister dropped her gaze to the table. "That is no mercy. These northern gods are cruel to let the child linger in such pain." Here, Cersei disingenuously wishes the 'mercy' of a quick death for Bran (translation: she wants to save her own skin...), and is 'called' on her disingenuousness by the gods who ignore her wish for Bran and prolong his life in spite of her. Moreover, she makes the mistake of cursing 'the northern gods' by name, calling them 'cruel to let the child linger...' Because she was disingenuous, abusing language and the gods alike, the gods in equal cruel measure choose to take her words literally in return, thereby serving her personally a dish of her own 'mercy.' As with Jaime, the gods' answer to someone who is being disingenuous (e.g. when he said 'take my hand') is to take the person's words at face value (so it is a more complicated scenario than simply giving the person the opposite of what they wish, which is normally the case when the person uses language sincerely to express their ill wishes). For the perversity of perverting language, they are answered in kind with a sort of perverse sincerity! Thus, elaborating, the gods were accused by Cersei of being 'cruel' to let a child linger, so they granted her the courtesy of the opposite, in effect treating her with her own definition of 'kindness' for them, which would mean giving a child a quick death. Thus, taking her at her word and being 'sincere' themselves, the gods dealt her lack of sincerity an ironic blow. Fittingly, they subsequently granted her the opposite of 'lingering' for her own children. In a cruel stroke, Joffrey did not linger long, neither in pain, nor in this world. He did receive, as she had wished so 'charitably' for another person's child, the mercy of a quick death and release from excruciating pain. In fact, Joffrey died very young and very abruptly! This facetious statement of Cersei's in full view of the gods does not bode well for her other children, regardless of how one interprets the woodswitch's prophecy. Quote "What were the maester's words?" Jaime asked. The bacon crunched when he bit into it. Tyrion chewed thoughtfully for a moment and said, "He thinks that if the boy were going to die, he would have done so already. It has been four days with no change." "Will Bran get better, Uncle?" little Myrcella asked. She had all of her mother's beauty, and none of her nature. "His back is broken, little one," Tyrion told her. "The fall shattered his legs as well. They keep him alive with honey and water, or he would starve to death. Perhaps, if he wakes, he will be able to eat real food, but he will never walk again." "If he wakes," Cersei repeated. "Is that likely?" "The gods alone know," Tyrion told her. "The maester only hopes." He chewed some more bread. "I would swear that wolf of his is keeping the boy alive. The creature is outside his window day and night, howling. Every time they chase it away, it returns. The maester said they closed the window once, to shut out the noise, and Bran seemed to weaken. When they opened it again, his heart beat stronger." Here again, it's curious how attuned to the old gods and the wolves Tyrion is. 'The gods alone know' -- how true and how different to Cersei's disrespect towards them. Quote The queen shuddered. "There is something unnatural about those animals," she said. "They are dangerous. I will not have any of them coming south with us." She managed to stop one, but Nymeria slipped away...And, by now, there is a whole pack -- no, let's call it a 'horde' -- of wolves in the South! The gods' sense of humor: She had Lady killed, and ended up creating an army in the Riverlands (the canine corps!) who are fated to go up against the Lannisters. Quote Jaime said, "You'll have a hard time stopping them, sister. They follow those girls everywhere." Tyrion started on his fish. "Are you leaving soon, then?" "Not near soon enough," Cersei said. Then she frowned. "Are we leaving?" she echoed. "What about you? Gods, don't tell me you are staying here?" Tyrion shrugged. "Benjen Stark is returning to the Night's Watch with his brother's bastard. I have a mind to go with them and see this Wall we have all heard so much of." Jaime smiled. "I hope you're not thinking of taking the black on us, sweet brother." Tyrion laughed. "What, me, celibate? The whores would go begging from Dorne to Casterly Rock. No, I just want to stand on top of the Wall and piss off the edge of the world." Cersei stood abruptly. "The children don't need to hear this filth. Tommen, Myrcella, come." She strode briskly from the morning room, her train and her pups trailing behind her. Jaime Lannister regarded his brother thoughtfully with those cool green eyes. "Stark will never consent to leave Winterfell with his son lingering in the shadow of death." "He will if Robert commands it," Tyrion said. "And Robert will command it. There is nothing Lord Eddard can do for the boy in any case." "He could end his torment," Jaime said. "I would, if it were my son. It would be a mercy." Oh Jaime, disingenuousness is not viewed with favor by the gods! As if Cersei's wishes were not enough, Jaime seals Joffrey's fate. Indeed, Joffrey did not linger long in the shadow of death; his torment was swiftly ended; and the gods were merciful... Unfortunately, his second son Tommen might also be cursed. Quote "I advise against putting that suggestion to Lord Eddard, sweet brother," Tyrion said. "He would not take it kindly." "Even if the boy does live, he will be a cripple. Worse than a cripple. A grotesque. Give me a good clean death." Here, Jaime is being sincere: cripples and grotesques repulse him, and were this to befall him, he would wish 'a good clean death' for himself. Well -- we all know how the former sentiment turned out, although the latter remains to be seen. In response to his disgust towards Bran (for being in a crippled state he'd directly brought about), Jaime is fated by the Gods to suffer a similar crippling (i.e. losing his swordhand and identity). Regarding the latter wish, it's probably safe to say that the gods will not give him what he wants; Jaime's death will not be 'good' and 'clean.' Quote Tyrion replied with a shrug that accentuated the twist of his shoulders. "Speaking for the grotesques," he said, "I beg to differ. Death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities." Jaime smiled. "You are a perverse little imp, aren't you?" "Oh, yes," Tyrion admitted. "I hope the boy does wake. I would be most interested to hear what he might have to say." His brother's smile curdled like sour milk. "Tyrion, my sweet brother," he said darkly, "there are times when you give me cause to wonder whose side you are on." Tyrion's mouth was full of bread and fish. He took a swallow of strong black beer to wash it all down, and grinned up wolfishly at Jaime, "Why, Jaime, my sweet brother," he said, "you wound me. You know how much I love my family." In response to Jaime's callousness, Tyrion expresses gratitude for his own and Bran's life, despite their disabilities, and he's positive and hopeful for their future, 'Speaking for the grotesques, I beg to differ...Death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities.' Assuming the gods are listening, and are pleased with what they hear, death will evade Tyrion as for Sandor, but for different reasons, and he should lead a full, long life full of adventures and possibilities (if only it weren't for that kinslaying...). Here, at the conclusion of the chapter, Tyrion's alignment with Bran and the old gods is reinforced. Like them, he's 'twisted, grotesque, perverse, wolfish, and impish' -- but he's on the right side of history: Tyrion will get his wish: the boy does wake, and he will have much to say in future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tijgy Posted April 30, 2016 Share Posted April 30, 2016 @ravenous reader Wow, amazing read! With this post and the post by Evita on the Ghost in Winterfell people (not Starks) should really careful with what they say. I want to address some certain posts: - I actually think it is very clear the old gods are kind of biased . They are certainly favoring a certain family (but then this is family is actually a family does believe in them). And is somewhere mentioned where Eddard and Robert are? Are they with Bran or might Eddard be praying in the godswood? - the constant of the howling of the wolves is really interesting. In Bran I, ACOK, it is actually one of the main themes in the chapter or a question Bran asks to several people. I wrote in my analysis: Quote Why do wolves howl? During our research howling wolves are several times used to refer to a possible presence or interference of the old gods. In this chapter it is constantly repeated that the direwolves are howling and even Bran starts to do this. But in this chapter the howling is not meant as a little indicator to the fact the old gods are watching, influencing things, … You can actually say the howling is one of the main subjects in this chapter. In this whole chapter Bran starts to search what is the meaning of this howling. He asked several people “why they howled”. He is starting to search the truth behind this howling as a true “old god”. And he tries to do this by asking this question to several people (Rodrik, Farlen, Gage, Luwin, Osha). But I think the right answer is the answer Bran finds himself: it is either the fact they miss their family or the wolves are expressing the grief felt by the (two-footed) brothers (note: and by them I mean Bran and Rickon of course). Bran does reminds us of some interesting things: - “Summer’s howls were long and sad, full of grief and longing. Shaggydog’s were more savage”: I think here you can say that the wolves express their grief in the same way as their two-footed companions or the wolves are being used as an outled of the boys who are repressing their grief – their grief can be freely outted by those wolves - “And the night the bloody raven had brought word of their father's death, the wolves had known that too.”Summer started to howl before even someone saw the raven. How did Summer know before the raven’s arrival the raven would bring such news? Did the old gods spoke to Summer then? - “Summer had mourned for him, and Shaggydog and Grey Wind had joined in his grief”. The interesting thing is actually that at that thing the howling of the wolves actually made Bran stronger. At that moment they were howling not (only) because of grief but als to strenghten him? In the end Bran thinks that they are mourning something. He just doesn’t know what or whom (“Who are they mourning now?). (note: is there actually at that moment someone or something else the wolves could be mourning for than that Ned’s death?) But he still wonders if he is wrong about this: “Or was this something else, as maester and septon and Old Nan seemed to think?” It is interesting that the wolf starts to howl before Bran falls? Does GRRM just wants to say the old gods are watching? Is it a warning? Is the wolf already grieving for Bran? - At one moment the Old Gods influence Tyrion to ascend the Wall and to look over the Land Beyond the Wal after the Old Bear asked Tyrion for help, for more men because Tyrion is connected to the King and to Tywin (who is considered one of the most powerful men of the realm). At that moment Tyrion actually starts almost to believe in tales of those grumpkins and snarks. Tyrion is reminded of this moment when Thorne goes with the decayed hand of Othor(? IRCC). So this is not the only instance where GRRM shows a sort of bond between Tyrion and the old gods. However Tyrion does not really listen to the pleas of the Night's Watch or the warnings of the old gods. He marries then to a daughter of a North against her will and the wish of her family and actually sides with his family. And then you have the kinslaying business. So in my eyes he might have lost the goodwill of the old gods? - About the 'Kings of Winter' - In analysis of Bran II, ACOK, I did not really discussed it but I believe the whole symbolic of Bran entering the hall as Stark in Winterfell on his horse is very interesting at the beginning of the Harvest Feast. He does this at Winter-fell. Almost all the other times when someone entered hall on a horse is when they were victorious. Ned does this after the Sack of KL, Tywin does this after the Battle of BW, Joffrey and Margaery rode after their victory on their horses through the KL. At their wedding feast Margaery and Joffrey also entered the hall on their horse. And I might be wrong but are horses not technically seen in general as a symbol of war, victory, ...? It is possible to see this a foreshadowing of Bran later becoming Lord of Winterfell. But I think it is also very important this is not only something Bran random does but it is part of an old ceremony/ritual. It is very interesting he does remind himself: "He was old enough to know that it was not truly him they shouted for—it was the harvest they cheered, it was Robb and his victories, it was his lord father and his grandfather and all the Starks going back eight thousand years. Still, it made him swell with pride. For so long as it took him to ride the length of that hall he forgot that he was broken." Bran actually became here a symbol, a symbol for the line of the Starks, for their victories and the harvest which refers to the food the Northerners need to survive and conquer the Winter. It is also interested to look at his and his horse's attire: "Dancer was draped in bardings of snowy white wool emblazoned with the grey direwolf of House Stark, while Bran wore grey breeches and white doublet, his sleeves and collar trimmed with vair. Over his heart was his wolf's-head brooch of silver and polished jet. He would sooner have had Summer than a silver wolf on his breast, but Ser Rodrik had been unyielding." They are clothed in the colors and the sigil of the Stark. However Bran think he as the Stark of Winterfell wants to have Summer next to him when he enters the hall of Winterfell on his horse. I think it is actually important that the real heir of Winterfel has a wolf who is called Summer especially if you know Bran called him that after he saw the heart of Winter (if I recall his vision correctly?) After he sat down, "Bran raised his voice. He bid them welcome in the name of his brother, the King in the North, and asked them to thank the gods old and new for Robb's victories and the bounty of the harvest. "May there be a hundred more," he finished, raising his father's silver goblet." Here you have again the fact they are thanking at the same time victories and the harvest and wishing for more harvests (victories against the Winter?) in the future. It is also interested here of course the ceremonial drinking of Bran from the goblet at this moment which does remind me off Joffrey and Margaery drinking at their wedding? This might be a reference to a symbolic reference to Bran and the North? It is also very interesting to see Bran's answer to the Reed's unusual oath: "Their oath was not one he had been taught. "May your winters be short and your summers bountiful," he said. That was usually a good thing to say. "Rise. I'm Brandon Stark." Further Bran also thinks the following: It had been the night of the welcoming feast, when King Robert had brought his court to Winterfell. Summer still reigned then. (...) And now they are all gone. It was as if some cruel god had reached down with a great hand and swept them all away, the girls to captivity, Jon to the Wall, Robb and Mother to war, King Robert and Father to their graves, and perhaps Uncle Benjen as well . . . For Bran Summer refers to a very nice time. But now Summer has ended and Winter is near, a certain cruel god took his whole family away. And very interesting there is now a certain wolf who calls Summer and who represents for Bran the only thing he has left (Please, you old gods, he prayed, you took Winterfell, and my father, and my legs, please don't take Summer too. No weirwoods grew on that stony island in the lake, yet somehow the old gods must have heard.) You might actually say Summer is the last hope or family Bran has left? To conclude, I agree that the 'Kings of Winter' also can be seen as the conquers of Winter and I hope I did give some proof of this by speculating about the symbolism at the harvest feast (I love that chapter). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wizz-The-Smith Posted April 30, 2016 Share Posted April 30, 2016 Hi RR! Another wonderful post, a very enjoyable read. And so much adding to Evita’s ‘words are wind’ ideas. This is all great stuff. Correct me if I’m wrong but all the examples so far have been said/initiated inside the walls of Winterfell have they not? Including Evita’s examples later in the books. Of course it would make sense that the whole of the North or the magic hinges would be fair game, but something I potentially noticed. A sort of curse that the old gods bestowed on these characters as they blaspheme under their roof/in their territory. This also backs the notion that there are many things to be picked up from the early chapters of AGOT. These clues were laid very early in the piece allowing GRRM to play with them moving forward as you’ve shown. Many of the main characters being in that scene at WF so early in the series gives the author many options on who the old gods may hear offend. Some of the text yourself and Evita have found on this subject is awesome. You later mention………… Were anyone wondering how the old gods might have been able to witness the proceedings involving Jaime, Cersei and Bran, the presence of the wolf (Summer being empathically/telepathically connected to Bran) and the crows (being among Bloodraven's 1000 eyes) is a strong possibility. On my first readings of this passage, the image of the crows circling the broken tower waiting for corn impressed me as a melancholic elegy for Bran; now, however, this image strikes me as particularly ominous. In so far as crows like vultures are scavenging raptors whose habit it is to circle en masse anticipating someone's demise (they gather to feast on carrion, the dead, dying, sick and wounded), it's significant that they circle the broken tower targeting Jaime and Cersei -- who are henceforth marked for death -- not Bran (who is no longer in the tower). Moreover, by throwing Bran from the tower they thwarted the crows from having their 'corn,' so we can fully expect the 'crows' as emissaries of the gods to extract their due from the twins in future. I totally agree with the bolded. In fact I think ‘all’ the crows and ravens at WF are fair game as avenues for the old gods to see and hear what’s going on. I had a conversation with bemused a while back regarding the apparently large number of birds at WF. Here’s that short chat……. Bemused: That so many ravens are in WF is suspicious on its own. Theon assumes they're all Maester Luwin's ravens and tells us Roose has brought 3 maesters to take the birds in hand, but if they were just normal ravens, I think most of them would have simply flown off to their home destinations once the rookery was destroyed. They may be part of the same "unkindness of ravens" that we see with Coldhands and at the cave. Me: ‘’He wished Robb were with them now. I'd tell him I could fly, but he wouldn't believe, so I'd have to show him. I bet that he could learn to fly too, him and Arya and Sansa, even baby Rickon and Jon Snow. We could all be ravens and live in Maester Luwin's rookery.’’ [Bran III, ADWD.] I love that line in Bran III, it opens up the possibility that all/some of those ravens in WF's rookery are inhabited by BR and the other greenseers Bran saw when wondering whilst inside Hodor. I think they were probably in the ravens when Bran got his CH chaperone to the cave as well. [There were loads of them then] Anyway as you suggest, ravens and crows both seem likely vessels for the old gods. There is a cool example of BR watching Arya in the RL’s when inside of a crow………… Arya glanced over her shoulder, but there was nothing behind them but a crow flitting from tree to tree. The only sound was the river. Finally, I would like to say I loved all the Tyrion and Sandor stuff you picked up on, some really astute catches. Great work!! Thanks again RR, your posts continue to enhance this thread beyond measure! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ravenous reader Posted May 1, 2016 Share Posted May 1, 2016 On 4/30/2016 at 7:21 AM, Tijgy said: Wow, amazing read! With this post and the post by Evita on the Ghost in Winterfell people (not Starks) should really careful with what they say. and 23 hours ago, Wizz-The-Smith said: Hi RR! Another wonderful post, a very enjoyable read. And so much adding to Evita’s ‘words are wind’ ideas Thanks for your kind responses Tijgy and Wizz! At your suggestion, I went back and re-read @evita mgfs's Ghost in Winterfell/'Words are Wind' post, which is spot-on with the ideas of poetic justice in my post. Actually, the 'hook' that originally attracted me to this thread in the first place was Evita's comment on another thread about karmic comeuppance in which she discussed the 'take my hand' irony which I've subsequently developed in my post, so shout-out to Evita! 23 hours ago, Wizz-The-Smith said: Correct me if I’m wrong but all the examples so far have been said/initiated inside the walls of Winterfell have they not? Including Evita’s examples later in the books. Of course it would make sense that the whole of the North or the magic hinges would be fair game, but something I potentially noticed. A sort of curse that the old gods bestowed on these characters as they blaspheme under their roof/in their territory. In addition to Winterfell, Evita also brought up the curses that befall various people at Harrenhal. So, we have Bran as the Ghost in Winterfell and Arya as the Ghost in Harrenhal! Historically, Harrenhal was founded by the Ironborn who blasphemed against the laws of hospitality of the old gods in the first place by brutally invading and chopping down all the weirwoods. The spirits of all the violated are said to haunt the castle. And I love the idea of everything having been witnessed by 'the Gods' Eye'...(which recapitulates Sauron's all-knowing vengeful eye in the Lord of the Rings...GRRM can't leave that one-eyed archetype alone!) On 4/30/2016 at 7:21 AM, Tijgy said: I actually think it is very clear the old gods are kind of biased . They are certainly favoring a certain family (but then this is family is actually a family does believe in them). And is somewhere mentioned where Eddard and Robert are? Are they with Bran or might Eddard be praying in the godswood? Tijgy, do you mean where Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon were on the day Bran was pushed from the tower? I believe they were all away hunting, except for Jaime and Cersei who stayed behind for their own reasons. Apart from violating the Starks' hospitality, Jaime and Cersei were also violating the incest taboo, which we have reason to believe is held by the old gods so maybe that was part of why they were cursed. Among others, I'm judging from Ygritte's repeated explanations, in so far as wildlings are related to the old gods, to Jon of the importance of 'stealing' a wife from afar rather than sleeping with ones sister. Also, other examples of incest in the text have not had favorable outcomes for the parties involved (e.g. Targaryens, Craster). On 4/30/2016 at 7:21 AM, Tijgy said: It is interesting that the wolf starts to howl before Bran falls? Does GRRM just wants to say the old gods are watching? Is it a warning? Is the wolf already grieving for Bran? I think all of the above. The wolves seem to anticipate danger in advance, e.g. Grey Wind at the twins. They are some kind of preternatural advanced warning system. It's interesting too that the words associated with wolf communication (howling) and wolf-human intercommunication (whistling) are also words which GRRM uses for his personification of the wind! 23 hours ago, Wizz-The-Smith said: ‘’He wished Robb were with them now. I'd tell him I could fly, but he wouldn't believe, so I'd have to show him. I bet that he could learn to fly too, him and Arya and Sansa, even baby Rickon and Jon Snow. We could all be ravens and live in Maester Luwin's rookery.’’ [Bran III, ADWD.] I love that line in Bran III, it opens up the possibility that all/some of those ravens in WF's rookery are inhabited by BR and the other greenseers Bran saw when wondering whilst inside Hodor. I think they were probably in the ravens when Bran got his CH chaperone to the cave as well. [There were loads of them then] Anyway as you suggest, ravens and crows both seem likely vessels for the old gods. There is a cool example of BR watching Arya in the RL’s when inside of a crow………… Arya glanced over her shoulder, but there was nothing behind them but a crow flitting from tree to tree. The only sound was the river. Love both the quotes you picked up. For some reason David Bowie's song, 'Heroes' came into my mind, but instead of 'heroes' I transposed the word 'ravens,' thus I have 'We could be ravens just for one day..' playing in my mind! On another thread I spoke about the duality and versatility of ravens. Supporting our hypothesis that they represent the soul and conscience of the place, it's particularly noteworthy that the raven is given special guest right status above all other birds and humans (e.g. in contrast to visiting humans, ravens may fly in unbidden, unannounced, and unharried, and are always welcomed no matter the occasion!): On 4/7/2016 at 7:18 AM, ravenous reader said: So, there's the dual association with 'host vs. guest' as well as the more uncomfortable, though undeniable connotation of 'host vs. parasite.' Typically, GRRM deconstructs these dichotomies as well (as he does with 'ice' vs. 'fire' and the like). Consider for example the figure of the 'raven' in which we may identify an intersection of all these roles. Accordingly, the raven -- usually considered a feared predator and scavenger who grips and rips the bodies of others with its sharp beak and talons -- nevertheless serves as host to a warg who takes hold of its body in turn for his own use (Bloodraven, the 'three-eyed' raven who is a combination of the bird's own two eyes plus one for Brynden Rivers!). Continuing this analogy further, the raven is visibly a guest in many castles, where it is housed and fed (i.e. it is the one hosted!) in rookeries, and tended to conscientiously by maesters as if it were a revered guest (it's also one of the fowl species on the premises not slaughtered for food; you could say the ravens are afforded 'guest right'!). In spite of its penchant for flying in unannounced (ravens can only announce themselves, being the ones who usually herald the arrival of others), nonetheless it is a guest who can never be turned away, if not always welcome with their 'dark wings, dark words...' Moreover, in the raven's capacity as the purveyor literally and figuratively of language, bearing message scrolls back and forth and being of the few bird species able to make the leap to uttering human words in human languages -- the raven can also be characterised as the host of language, its own and those of others. Thus, it can be harnessed for 'good' or 'evil' -- the duality of 'the word' itself. Let's not forget, as Tywin that glib general reminds, sometimes wars are won by proxy 'with quills and ravens'..! Given that the raven as a predator or scavenger ('raven' as a verb derives etymologically from the root meaning to 'ravish,' 'pillage', 'rape', 'take as spoils,' etc.) is a kind of parasite or pirate of the skies feeding off the meat of others, I was almost about to say that the raven, like the Ironborn, 'does not sow', however, this wouldn't be strictly true... When the raven used its beak to get into Bran's brain (taken literally, 'it is known' ravens love eating the soft tissues of the eyes and brain preferentially, the eye sockets acting like windows in the otherwise unyielding fortress of the skull, providing easy access for them to the providence within; biologically, the eyes are an outgrowth of brain tissue; poetically put, 'the eyes are the window to the soul') and gouge out his 'third-eye,' in a sense the raven was 'sowing' a seed (of knowledge, enlightenment, transcendence, etc.). Thus, the raven effectively used its sharp beak as a needle or hoe, preparing the path for the seed in the fertile ground of Bran's brain -- now serving as host -- in order to awaken the 'sapling's' latent capacities, and encourage growth. On 4/30/2016 at 7:21 AM, Tijgy said: So this is not the only instance where GRRM shows a sort of bond between Tyrion and the old gods. However Tyrion does not really listen to the pleas of the Night's Watch or the warnings of the old gods. He marries then to a daughter of a North against her will and the wish of her family and actually sides with his family. And then you have the kinslaying business. So in my eyes he might have lost the goodwill of the old gods? Tyrion's role in the story is still confusing. As Jaime says, it's difficult to tell whose side he's on! Then there's the prophecy with him 'snarling' in the midst of the dragons, whatever that is supposed to indicate. To those who interpret this as proof of A+J=T, I say that 'snarling' is a very strange adjective choice for a dragon! It more likely fits a cat, dog, or wolf. You bring up valid points. My personal theory is that no matter how many times Tyrion damns himself by doing something despicable, GRRM the ultimate authority will forgive him, vetoing the old gods or any other, just because Tyrion is his favorite character! On 4/30/2016 at 7:21 AM, Tijgy said: After he sat down, "Bran raised his voice. He bid them welcome in the name of his brother, the King in the North, and asked them to thank the gods old and new for Robb's victories and the bounty of the harvest. "May there be a hundred more," he finished, raising his father's silver goblet." Here you have again the fact they are thanking at the same time victories and the harvest and wishing for more harvests (victories against the Winter?) in the future. ... It is also very interesting to see Bran's answer to the Reed's unusual oath: "Their oath was not one he had been taught. "May your winters be short and your summers bountiful," he said. That was usually a good thing to say. "Rise. I'm Brandon Stark." Further Bran also thinks the following: It had been the night of the welcoming feast, when King Robert had brought his court to Winterfell. Summer still reigned then. (...) And now they are all gone. It was as if some cruel god had reached down with a great hand and swept them all away, the girls to captivity, Jon to the Wall, Robb and Mother to war, King Robert and Father to their graves, and perhaps Uncle Benjen as well . . . For Bran Summer refers to a very nice time. But now Summer has ended and Winter is near, a certain cruel god took his whole family away. And very interesting there is now a certain wolf who calls Summer and who represents for Bran the only thing he has left (Please, you old gods, he prayed, you took Winterfell, and my father, and my legs, please don't take Summer too. No weirwoods grew on that stony island in the lake, yet somehow the old gods must have heard.) You might actually say Summer is the last hope or family Bran has left? To conclude, I agree that the 'Kings of Winter' also can be seen as the conquers of Winter and I hope I did give some proof of this by speculating about the symbolism at the harvest feast (I love that chapter). I agree with your observations. I just hope that neither Summer nor Bran needs to be sacrificed -- which is what I fear may be necessary to end the Long Winter. Pagan customs attending the spring and harvest festivals often included ritual sacrifices to propitiate the gods. Bran being led in on a horse could either mean that he is the Lord of Winterfell, or alternatively that he is the precious sacrifice all adorned being led out to the slaughter (Evita has previously referred to the uncomfortable allusions to 'Lord of the Flies' where the boys stranded on an island regress to these primitive societal expressions). Sorry to be so morbid, but there are these prominent archetypal and literary precedents -- together with GRRM's 'dark side' -- which worry me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tijgy Posted May 1, 2016 Share Posted May 1, 2016 43 minutes ago, ravenous reader said: Tijgy, do you mean where Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon were on the day Bran was pushed from the tower? I believe they were all away hunting, except for Jaime and Cersei who stayed behind for their own reasons. No, I actually meant during the breakfast of the Lannisters. One of them mentioned Robert was with Ned. And Ned would probably with his son who was in coma or praying in the godswood for his son's life? (Just small detail actually. I have a little crack theory the old gods have a little boon for Ned because all those times they shared together talking. Sadly Ned could not really understand those rustling leaves, croaking branches, ...) 49 minutes ago, ravenous reader said: I agree with your observations. I just hope that neither Summer nor Bran needs to be sacrificed -- which is what I fear may be necessary to end the Long Winter. Pagan customs attending the spring and harvest festivals often included ritual sacrifices to propitiate the gods. Bran being led in on a horse could either mean that he is the Lord of Winterfell, or alternatively that he is the precious sacrifice all adorned being led out to the slaughter (Evita has previously referred to the uncomfortable allusions to 'Lord of the Flies' where the boys stranded on an island regress to these primitive societal expressions). Sorry to be so morbid, but there are these prominent archetypal and literary precedents -- together with GRRM's 'dark side' -- which worry me! I personally am afraid Summer might be sacrificed or he would die at the end of Winter? He was born at the last moments of summer IIRC?, he started to grow during autumn, ... It might be poetic when Summer dies, summer the season would start again? And I am completely in denial about a sacrifice regarding Bran . *closes her ears* - Summer's possible death is even to hard to stomach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Donkey of House Kong Posted May 5, 2016 Share Posted May 5, 2016 I just wanted to leave a big THANK YOU to everyone in this thread. The old gods fascinated me since the beginning of the series. I'm just so overwhelmed by all these catches and theories. Just thank you for your work and sharing it!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wizz-The-Smith Posted May 6, 2016 Share Posted May 6, 2016 On 05/05/2016 at 0:50 PM, Ser Donkey of House Kong said: I just wanted to leave a big THANK YOU to everyone in this thread. The old gods fascinated me since the beginning of the series. I'm just so overwhelmed by all these catches and theories. Just thank you for your work and sharing it!!!!!!!!! Hey Ser Donkey of House Kong, welcome to the thread! Great name by the way! Thank you for your compliments, I'm sure I speak for all our contributors when I say it is very much appreciated. I'm glad you've enjoyed our musings, there's some cool stuff surrounding Bran's arc. Also, welcome to the forum! Your forth post graced our/Evita's thread!! You are very welcome, I hope you pop back in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Donkey of House Kong Posted May 8, 2016 Share Posted May 8, 2016 On 6.5.2016 at 0:07 AM, Wizz-The-Smith said: Hey Ser Donkey of House Kong, welcome to the thread! Great name by the way! Thank you for your compliments, I'm sure I speak for all our contributors when I say it is very much appreciated. I'm glad you've enjoyed our musings, there's some cool stuff surrounding Bran's arc. Also, welcome to the forum! Your forth post graced our/Evita's thread!! You are very welcome, I hope you pop back in. Thank you for the welcome! First of all sorry for my english grammer and vocabulary ... it's not my first language. Moreover it's the first time using a forum, so it's all a bit overwhelming! To be honest this thread was the reason to create this account, so that I could show my gratitude!!! At the moment I am re-reading the whole thread and I have to say you have opend my third eye I had never thought and read the books that way. I'm impressed by GRRM's consistency throughout the series and equally by the way the forum, and especially this threat, unveil his hints. I will try my best to develop and share theories, but I assure you I will always be here and read even if I don't make any wind.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wizz-The-Smith Posted May 10, 2016 Share Posted May 10, 2016 On 08/05/2016 at 9:09 PM, Ser Donkey of House Kong said: Thank you for the welcome! First of all sorry for my english grammer and vocabulary ... it's not my first language. Moreover it's the first time using a forum, so it's all a bit overwhelming! To be honest this thread was the reason to create this account, so that I could show my gratitude!!! At the moment I am re-reading the whole thread and I have to say you have opend my third eye I had never thought and read the books that way. I'm impressed by GRRM's consistency throughout the series and equally by the way the forum, and especially this threat, unveil his hints. I will try my best to develop and share theories, but I assure you I will always be here and read even if I don't make any wind.. Hey no problem, thanks for the nice comments. Your English is very good btw, I'm impressed. That is very flattering, that you created your account because of this thread, I'm really glad you've enjoyed it. A re-read of the whole thread could benefit all of us I would suggest, there's some great stuff in here from various posters. But alas, there is so much more to find that I am drawn to the search. I had never read the books this way either, until I read Evita's OP. I picked up on some the techniques and went searching. I am very glad I did, I have learnt a lot, and still learning every day. Don't feel like you have to post theory based posts here, a friendly post is just as welcome. However, if you do have some ideas, or questions then post away. We are friendly, and enjoy hearing anyone's opinion if they have dedicated time to this thread. Thanks Ser Donkey of House Kong, nice to post with you and know that you're reading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wizz-The-Smith Posted May 12, 2016 Share Posted May 12, 2016 Hi everyone! I have recently stumbled across a very interesting essay/theory about Euron Greyjoy written by MadeinMyr on their wordpress page. The essay touches on a lot of the stuff we have mused regards Bran and BR, and a whole lot more. It really is a very good read with some cool ideas about the Crow's Eye and his potential powers. Just a little flavour, it seems Euron had a similar three eyed crow dream to Bran when he was a child. And talks of being able to fly and that his maester told him it was not true. All parallels to Bran's experience of course. Anyway, here's the link....... https://madeinmyr.wordpress.com/2015/02/21/a-black-eye-shining-with-malice-thoughts-concerning-eurons-black-magic-and-potential-dark-powers/ The main reason for me posting this now is that having read this theory, and looked up some Euron stuff off the back of a chat I had with Ravenous Reader, I found some wind. A howling wind at that. With all the cool stuff in the essay linked above and a howling wind in the Iron Islands, I thought it worth another look. So after a chat, Ravenous Reader and I are going to embark on a search for all things old gods [and maybe Euron ] within the Ironborn chapters. I'm excited to have rr on board, this should be fun. Two pairs of eyes analysing these chapters will we hope bring some more cool ideas to the thread. We will stay in book order starting with 'The Prophet AFFC'. I will post that analysis soon. In the meantime I recommend that anyone who hasn't read MadeinMyr's essay linked above, does so as soon as they get the time. It may help to understand some of the stuff rr and I will mention in our Ironborn project as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wizz-The-Smith Posted May 12, 2016 Share Posted May 12, 2016 THE PROPHET Hi everyone. Having spotted some howling wind in the Iron Islands I thought I might analyse these chapters as well. Looking for wind or anything else we are searching for in this thread for that matter. I will start with the Prophet and work my way through the Ironborn chapters sequentially after that. And this time we are going to have two pairs of eyes on these chapters at the same time. I’m very pleased to say that Ravenous Reader will be joining me in this mini project. And I am looking forward to having two different angles on the same chapters. Hopefully we dovetail rather nicely. Let’s jump right in………. THE PROPHET: ANALYSIS I The chapter starts with Damphair performing his duties as the drowned priest, and ‘drowning’ some Ironborn subjects only to resurrect them. What is dead may never die…………… Gormond Goodbrother and an entourage has been sent with the message that ‘The King is dead’. This being Damphair’s brother Balon of course. This obviously troubles Aeron, and he asks how this happened……….. ‘’Was the storm raging when he fell?’’ Aeron demanded of them. ‘’Aye,’’ the youth said, ‘’it was’’ ‘’The Storm God cast him down,’’ the priest announced. This caught my attention as of course the Storm God controls the wind [among other things] in the Ironborn legend/culture. And the Damphair mentions his belief here that it was the wind and therefore the Storm God that has cast Balon down. Thus giving the wind the ability we are searching for in our thread, being able to consciously cast someone of the bridge. Aeron then agrees to ride the six leagues to Hammerhorn and meet with Gorold Goodbrother. Once there he has to bash the door to get attention. But just before that…………….. Gorold’s keep was hulking and blocky, its great stones quarried from the cliff that loomed behind it. Below its walls, the entrances of caves and ancient mines yawned like toothless black mouths. The ‘entrances of caves and ancient mines’ is interesting. We are searching for old gods clues and any cave we have come across seems to have a possible/probable connection to the CotF. We certainly have skinchangers on the Isles in the Farwynd’s,[Far winds. Thanks rr] and possibly a load of petrified weirwood in Nagga’s ribs. But we will get there at some point. As Aeron enters Gorold’s hall he notices it is rather grey…….. The hall was dank and drafty, full of shadows. After some small talk and minor disagreement, Aeron was almost at the door when the maester cleared his throat, and said…………. ‘’Euron Crow’s Eye sits the Seastone Chair.’’ The Damphair turned. The hall had suddenly grown colder. The Crow’s Eye is half a world away. The hall was drafty and suddenly became colder. This may be nothing but thought it worth posting. Any breeze or draft is worthy of another look, and we have seen the cold around the wind before. Although we also know of it to come with the White Walkers, not sure on this one. It seems rather minor anyway. But one thing is certain, we get this draft right before we get a mention of a howling wind. And this howling wind was present just as Balon and Aeron were having an important conversation regarding succession………….. ‘’You were on Pyke not long ago, and saw the King,’’ said Goodbrother. ‘’Did Balon say aught to you of the succession?’’ ‘’Aye’’. They had spoken in the Sea Tower, as the wind howled outside the windows and the waves crashed restlessly below. Balon had shaken his head in despair when he heard what Aeron had to tell him of his last remaining son. ‘’The wolves have made a weakling out of him, as I feared. I pray god that they killed him, so he cannot stand in Asha’s way.’’ So the howling wind was present for this important discussion regards succession. And then we get a wolves’ reference ‘when Balon refers to the Stark’s. This is cool, it is the third example I have found with the wolves being mentioned so closely to the howling wind. And this one ties in the embodiment of northern old gods belief in the Stark family. There is also the ‘words are wind’ notion. Evita and Ravenous Reader will I’m sure have an opinion on this, but I’m thinking that Balon should be really careful what he says here. He does not want to offend anyone, The old gods may be listening and they may just engineer this scenario. The Stark’s have not killed him, and he may well stand in Asha’s way. We’ll have to wait and see, but I’m on the lookout for various characters wants when in the potential presence of the old gods. Next, after much talk of Theon being the rightful heir, Aeron decides to decline a bed and head home. While on his horse………… Aeron closed his eyes and said a silent prayer, and after a while began to drowse in the saddle. The sound came softly, the scream of a rusted hinge. ‘’Urri,’’ he muttered, and woke, fearful. There is no hinge, no door, no Urri. We have posted about BR sending dreams to various characters in our thread. But my reason for posting the link to MadeinMyr’s Euron essay was to put out the theory that the Crow’s Eye may be able to manipulate these powers as well. I recommend you read that great essay if you have not done so already. Anyway, Aeron starts to drowse/sleep and temporarily falls into a dream. The ‘scream of a rusted hinge’ sounds like a door opening reluctantly, or with strain. Perhaps this is a textual clue that these dreams are different to the ones we know BR sends? Is Euron trying to force his way in to his brother’s mind, unwelcome and without his knowledge? Aeron just hears the scream of a rusted hinge, but we can perhaps speculate that these dreams are being sent by someone. It seems like a sort of nightmare, I say it is most likely Euron. I would like to hear Evita’s take on this as well. It was her great catch with the ‘screaming hinges’ on the WF crypt doors and subsequent links in commentary that made me think a little more having read this text. Is this a calling card for not only the Bran link, but a key word surrounding the power the old gods possess? A set up if you will that allows us to link the screaming hinges with these techniques? As we move on, this next bit of text certainly seems to back the notion that the Crow’s Eye is potentially in Aeron’s head/dreams. And is very cleverly worded with a possible double meaning……….. The sound of a door opening, the scream of a rusted iron hinge. Euron had come again. It did not matter. He was the Damphair priest, beloved of the god. The Damphair is considering his worries here, the repetitive dream he has when ‘the door opens and there is a scream of a rusted hinge’ and the second fact is that his troublesome brother is back and sitting the Seastone Chair. But if we as readers remove the ‘full stop’ from the bolded and replace it with a ‘comma’ the sentence reads rather differently. In fact it straight out insinuates that Euron has been the reason for these repetitive door opening/screaming hinge dreams, and he had come again. Anyway, there’s a little dream speculation around the Crow’s Eye potentially worthy of some thought. Next, The Damphair spends the night in a shelter built for him by some followers he has picked up travelling back to the shore. Aeron then considers the options. He thinks Victarion to be the more ‘Godly’ man than Euron and worries for his brother’s acceptance of one another, we then get…………. Outside, beneath the snoring of his drowned men and the keening of the wind, he could hear the pounding of the waves, the hammer of his god calling him to battle. The keening of the wind implies an eerie wailing sound. Or the word ‘keening’ can describe a wail of grief for a dead person, or to lament, mourn, weep, cry etc……… Apart from a draft in Goodbrother’s hall, this is the first time the wind actually appears in these chapters. [The howling wind was referenced in conversation] So is it possible that the wind is wailing in grief at the death of Balon and the subsequent rise of the Crow’s Eye to the Seastone Chair? Aeron and we as readers have only just found out about Balon’s death and his brother’s rise, so the timing seems perfect. The wind is also mentioned closely in the text with Aeron’s god, I think I’ve seen this before. It may be nothing, but I will keep an eye on that moving forward. Anyway, Damphair eventually gets some rest………………. And sleep came easily for once, unbroken by the scream of iron hinges. When he woke the day was bright and windy. The first bolded text confirms the notion mentioned above, that Aeron’s dreams are constantly interrupted by the ‘scream of hinges’. Which I think may be Euron. And the bolding of the word ‘windy’ is just to be thorough and show every example of it in the text. There is nothing exciting with the wind here, but shows that the Islands are indeed windy and perhaps that it is interested in Aeron’s actions after the bad news. Watching his next move if you like. The kingsmoot is the next development in this chapter……………. Seek the hill of Nagga and the bones of the Grey King’s hall, for in that holy place when the moon has drowned and come again we shall make ourselves a worthy king, a godly king. Nagga’s bones sound very much like old weirwood, and seeing as we are looking for any old gods/CotF clues in the chapter, I thought I would post it. But also there is the fact it is considered to be a ‘holy place’ much like High Heart used to be in the RL’s. Perhaps Nagga’s Hill was the Iron Islands equivalent for the children back in their day. We certainly have a cave already, could this be another old weirwood grove, petrified over the years to take a form that looks like ribs? IN CONCLUSION This chapter has quite a lot of subtle possibilities, with different techniques being used. Namely, a windy Storm God casting Balon off the bridge – Entrances of caves and ancient mines at Hammerhorn – A drafty hall, where we hear about – A howling wind outside the Sea Tower on Pyke – Another wolves reference alongside the howling wind – The scream of a rusted hinge in Aeron’s repetitive dreams – The door, screaming hinge, Euron had come again hint – The ‘keening’ of the wind maybe grieving Balon? – And the mention of Nagga’s Hill and the possible weirwood grove, and that it’s a holy place. I really like the two wind examples. Obviously the ‘howling wind’ next to the ‘wolves’ reference was exciting as it’s the third one I have found. But I like the idea of the grieving wind after Balon’s death as well. Add to that the cave entrances and the popular assumption that the ribs at Nagga’s Hill are weirwood and we start to get a familiar picture. There is definitely an old gods/CotF feel about this place imho. Euron, his powers and all that surrounds his arc is still a bit murky. But the screaming hinges and Euron had come again hints are certainly interesting. The next Ironborn chapter is ‘The Kracken’s daughter’, I will analyse that one soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ravenous reader Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 sorry, text struck through Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ravenous reader Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 The text is still partially struck through. I'll keep trying, sorry... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ravenous reader Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 On 5/12/2016 at 5:58 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said: So after a chat, Ravenous Reader and I are going to embark on a search for all things old gods [and maybe Euron ] within the Ironborn chapters. I'm excited to have rr on board, this should be fun. Two pairs of eyes analysing these chapters will we hope bring some more cool ideas to the thread. We will stay in book order starting with 'The Prophet AFFC'. Thank you for that tantalizing introduction, Wizz. I can't wait to get my ravening teeth stuck in! We welcome others to join us in our quest -- the more eyes the better! As Wizz said, our primary aim is to keep an open eye and mind and see where the text may lead us. That said, we are tentatively positing Euron as the 'anti-Bran,' potentially a kind of failed or wayward greenseer apprentice, or in the terms of the 'Skywalker' mythos the renegade 'jedi' gone rogue and cautionary tale in 'the dark side' of power. See the quote below in which the acquisition of such power is alluded to as 'a terrible knowledge.' Certainly Bran is not the first to train at 'flying,' so presumably Bloodraven may have attempted to recruit others in the kingdoms during the century or so he has sojourned in the tree. Many others have failed and fallen as is attested by 'the impaled bones of a thousand other dreamers' who have become gruesomely immortalized in the crystal architecture of the dreamscape: Quote A Game of Thrones - Bran III Bran looked at the crow on his shoulder, and the crow looked back. It had three eyes, and the third eye was full of a terrible knowledge. Bran looked down. There was nothing below him now but snow and cold and death, a frozen wasteland where jagged blue-white spires of ice waited to embrace him. They flew up at him like spears. He saw the bones of a thousand other dreamers impaled upon their points. He was desperately afraid. "Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?" he heard his own voice saying, small and far away. And his father's voice replied to him. "That is the only time a man can be brave." Despite Bloodraven assuming the role of Bran's substitute father figure or mentor, it's significant that Bran still hears the ghost of Ned's voice as his conscience-- some lives, and deaths, cast a long shadow in time and space -- reminding that power comes with a reckoning in how one chooses to respond to the challenge and privilege of that terrible knowledge. This suggests that there are different ways of wielding the same power. So with this in mind, let's turn to 'The Prophet': On 5/12/2016 at 7:24 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said: ’The Storm God cast him down,’’ the priest announced. This caught my attention as of course the Storm God controls the wind [among other things] in the Ironborn legend/culture. And the Damphair mentions his belief here that it was the wind and therefore the Storm God that has cast Balon down. Thus giving the wind the ability we are searching for in our thread, being able to consciously cast someone of the bridge. Another potential connection to the old gods is that the Storm God is also the god of the air and birds. In particular, ravens are mentioned, 'He had no love of maesters. Their ravens were creatures of the Storm God, and he did not trust their healing, not since Urri.' Later, Euron 'the Crow's Eye' is also aligned with the storm. Euron considers himself on a level with the gods, the grandiosely self-styled Storm God himself, quipping that he is 'the godliest man ever' (which is true in the letter if not in spirit: displaying as he does a singleminded devotion simultaneously to the shallow versatility of serving all gods as it serves him, and the pristine insouciance of serving none). On 5/12/2016 at 7:24 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said: ‘’Aye’’. They had spoken in the Sea Tower, as the wind howled outside the windows and the waves crashed restlessly below. Balon had shaken his head in despair when he heard what Aeron had to tell him of his last remaining son. ‘’The wolves have made a weakling out of him, as I feared. I pray god that they killed him, so he cannot stand in Asha’s way.’’ So the howling wind was present for this important discussion regards succession. And then we get a wolves’ reference ‘when Balon refers to the Stark’s. This is cool, it is the third example I have found with the wolves being mentioned so closely to the howling wind. And this one ties in the embodiment of northern old gods belief in the Stark family. The 'howling wind' is not only an embodiment of northern old gods and Starks, it is also linked with greenseeing including its more sinister sorcerous aspects. For example, in the following passage Bloodraven announces himself to Bran with a 'howling black wind' which tears open the door as soon as his name is mentioned (opening the door also hints at a connection to opening ones eye/s and those hinged doors of the mind): Quote A Dance with Dragons - Bran I Meera's gloved hand tightened around the shaft of her frog spear. "Who sent you? Who is this three-eyed crow?" "A friend. Dreamer, wizard, call him what you will. The last greenseer." The longhall's wooden door banged open. Outside, the night wind howled, bleak and black. The trees were full of ravens, screaming. Coldhands did not move. "A monster," Bran said. The ranger looked at Bran as if the rest of them did not exist. "Your monster, Brandon Stark." "Yours," the raven echoed, from his shoulder. Outside the door, the ravens in the trees took up the cry, until the night wood echoed to the murderer's song of "Yours, yours, yours." Besides 'howling,' Bloodraven is also associated with 'screaming' birds (echoes of 'screaming hinges'), more poetically described here as 'the murderer's song.' In this case, 'the murderer's song' might on one level refer to the ravens, a group of which is sometimes called 'a murder of ravens/crows,' but on another level to the murderer Bloodraven himself (who we know murdered his brother and several other relatives, and may now be subsisting on human sacrifice) and/or Coldhands. To return to the 'howling wind-wolf' connection, there are many examples throughout the text of wolves allied with the wind. In addition, there are examples of wolves affiliated with the sea! So, we have 'Grey Wind' Rob's wolf and 'Black Wind' Asha's ship (in the quote above Bloodraven was also associated with a black wind) representing his foster brother and trueborn sister respectively who are aligned in Theon's mind with Theon caught between them. Therefore, as the Ironborn ward of Winterfell plucked from Pyke and transplanted in the North, from a certain perspective Theon is literally a 'sea wolf': Quote A Clash of Kings - Theon I Theon did not need to be told that Black Wind was Asha's longship. He had not seen his sister in ten years, but that much he knew of her. Odd that she would call it that, when Robb Stark had a wolf named Grey Wind. "Stark is grey and Greyjoy's black," he murmured, smiling, "but it seems we're both windy." The priest had nothing to say to that. 'We're both windy'..! Other sea wolf references potentially connecting the Ironborn to the north/old gods: Quote A Feast for Crows - Cersei III It was the wedding that enraged her, though the slow-witted Swyft girl made a safer target. Tommen's hold upon the Iron Throne was not secure enough for her to risk offending Highgarden. Not so long as Stannis Baratheon held Dragonstone and Storm's End, so long as Riverrun continued in defiance, so long as ironmen prowled the seas like wolves. So Jocelyn must needs eat the meal Cersei would sooner have served to Margaery Tyrell and her hideous wrinkled grandmother. Quote A Dance with Dragons - The Wayward Bride The sea was closer, only five leagues north, but Asha could not see it. Too many hills stood in the way. And trees, so many trees. The wolfswood, the northmen named the forest. Most nights you could hear the wolves, calling to each other through the dark. An ocean of leaves. Would it were an ocean of water. Here the wolfswood is compared to 'an ocean,' making the wolves calling to one another sea wolves! Elaborating this metaphor further, if the forest is an ocean, then the weirwood equivalent on the Iron Islands might be 'driftwood'... 'Diftwood' seems to have a spiritual significance: namely, the 'drowned men's' driftwood cudgels, the driftwood crown, Aeron's driftwood shelter constructed by his acolytes, then further afield Sandor's horse Stranger reborn as 'Driftwood' on the Quiet Isle (as to the latter, maybe 'reborn' is the wrong term for the state of mind of that tempestuous stallion, but he undoubtedly came back 'harder and stronger'!) Quote A Feast for Crows - The Drowned Man Aeron knew some Farwynds, a queer folk who held lands on the westernmost shores of Great Wyk and the scattered isles beyond, rocks so small that most could support but a single household. Of those, the Lonely Light was the most distant, eight days' sail to the northwest amongst rookeries of seals and sealions and the boundless grey oceans. The Farwynds there were even queerer than the rest. Some said they were skinchangers, unholy creatures who could take on the forms of sea lions, walruses, even spotted whales, the wolves of the wild sea. Farwynds='far winds'; thanks for the mention Wizz! 'Wynds' has the additional meaning of winding, twisting, narrow, perhaps treacherous path. 'The Lonely Light' evokes the Crone holding her solitary lamp or lantern aloft (or lighthouse in a sea context) to whom the sailors of the sea and pilgrims of life pray for illumination, wisdom and guidance in the literal and spiritual darkness. We're told that the Lonely Light is 'the most distant' island locating it in a liminal, 'boundless,' otherworldly position at the transition of worlds -- this is of course the ideal setting for magic. I found it interesting that of all the possible designations for a group of seals (among them, herd, bob, colony, crash, harem, herd, pod, rookery, spring, and team) GRRM chose 'rookery,' most likely intentionally so that 'rookeries of seals and sealions' in the Iron Islands would remind the reader of the rookeries of ravens in the North ('We could all be ravens and live in Maester Luwin's rookery...'). He immediately reinforces this association by including the important reference, previously touched on by Wizz, to skinchanging among the Iron Islanders, implying that 'the old blood' is still strong among some of them. In case we still don't get it, he includes the mention of 'grey' (the color shared by the Starks in their heraldry and the Greyjoys in their name and their revered Grey King) and finally the phrase 'the wolves of the wild sea' to seal (pardon the pun) the parallel! Regarding seals and skinchanging, check out the myth of the 'selkies,' the seal mermaids (link below). This legend talks of stealing someone's skin, sometimes going so far as to keep his/her skin under lock and key, thereby binding someone to the aggressor against his/her will. It's a popular folk tale, especially on the Faroe Islands; could the Farwynds be GRRM's version thereof? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selkie This legend is alluded to elsewhere. For example: Quote From ADWD -- The Wayward Bride: 'Tris Botley said that the Crow's Eye had used a seal to stand in for her at her wedding.' We are also told that the founder of the Ironborn the Grey King took a mermaid wife, which is similar to the Northern legend of the Night's King taking an 'Other' wife. On 5/12/2016 at 7:24 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said: There is also the ‘words are wind’ notion. Evita and Ravenous Reader will I’m sure have an opinion on this, but I’m thinking that Balon should be really careful what he says here. He does not want to offend anyone, The old gods may be listening and they may just engineer this scenario. The Starks have not killed him, and he may well stand in Asha’s way. We’ll have to wait and see, but I’m on the lookout for various characters wants when in the potential presence of the old gods. Definitely worth keeping an eye on! Apart from the wind which is a tip off, I've noticed whenever 'god,' 'gods,' or 'the gods' are explicitly mentioned by name (e.g. here when Balon 'pray god that they killed him...'), especially when their name is taken in vain or used to express malicious wishes, it's suggested the gods themselves may be present and take a dim view of this blasphemy (remember Tyrion the stand-in 'spirit of the air,' ever-watchful, ever-wakeful, eavesdropping on Winterfell proceedings and commenting to Sandor 'I am in no mood for your insolence...' after Sandor had just maligned Bran), especially taken together with what one may infer by analyzing the outcome of subsequent events. As a further example, there's that passage surrounding the discovery of the direwolves in which Theon flippantly exclaims 'Gods!' while eagerly drawing his sword to kill the wolves and declaring them 'freak' (no prizes for guessing what word that rhymes with...). This disrespect may have invited retribution for Theon who in this crucial moment did not live up to his name 'Theon' meaning 'godly' and his honorary 'sea wolf' status as ward of Winterfell, with the consequence that his name and identity was stripped from him. On 5/12/2016 at 7:24 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said: Aeron closed his eyes and said a silent prayer, and after a while began to drowse in the saddle. The sound came softly, the scream of a rusted hinge. ‘’Urri,’’ he muttered, and woke, fearful. There is no hinge, no door, no Urri. The oxymoron of a 'soft scream,' besides being typical of GRRM's literary techniques and philosophical vision ('if love and hate can mate', ice and fire, etc.), reminded me of the old gods'/Bloodraven's communications which have this quality of combining sound and silence. For example, Bran's shout out to Jon: Quote A Clash of Kings - Jon VII Jon? The call came from behind him, softer than a whisper, but strong too. Can a shout be silent? He turned his head, searching for his brother, for a glimpse of a lean grey shape moving beneath the trees, but there was nothing, only . . . A weirwood. Although, granted, a 'shout' is not equivalent in valence to a 'scream.' Quote Anyway, Aeron starts to drowse/sleep and temporarily falls into a dream. The ‘scream of a rusted hinge’ sounds like a door opening reluctantly, or with strain. Perhaps this is a textual clue that these dreams are different to the ones we know BR sends? Is Euron trying to force his way in to his brother’s mind, unwelcome and without his knowledge? Aeron just hears the scream of a rusted hinge, but we can perhaps speculate that these dreams are being sent by someone. It seems like a sort of nightmare, I say it is most likely Euron. I would like to hear Evita’s take on this as well. It was her great catch with the ‘screaming hinges’ on the WF crypt doors and subsequent links in commentary that made me think a little more having read this text. Is this a calling card for not only the Bran link, but a key word surrounding the power the old gods possess? A set up if you will that allows us to link the screaming hinges with these techniques? The 'screaming hinges' is a topic in itself, and as my posts tend to be lengthy anyway, I won't tackle that one today! Suffice to say, I don't think one can conclude that 'screaming' is a marker for dreams being necessarily different to the ones Bloodraven sends. On the contrary, remember when the three-eyed-crow visited Bran in a dream and opened his third eye in the first place there was quite a bit of screaming and coercion involved, and besides as I've pointed out earlier Bloodraven's ravens (including Mormont's uncanny bird) are often described as 'screaming' to perhaps sound a warning or herald a portent. In any case, 'screaming hinges,' which evokes a door or window opening with difficulty, signifies a painful transition of some kind. Quote A Game of Thrones - Bran III Now, Bran, the crow urged. Choose. Fly or die. Death reached for him, screaming. Bran spread his arms and flew. Wings unseen drank the wind and filled and pulled him upward. The terrible needles of ice receded below him. The sky opened up above. Bran soared. It was better than climbing. It was better than anything. The world grew small beneath him. "I'm flying!" he cried out in delight. I've noticed, said the three-eyed crow. It took to the air, flapping its wings in his face, slowing him, blinding him. He faltered in the air as its pinions beat against his cheeks. Its beak stabbed at him fiercely, and Bran felt a sudden blinding pain in the middle of his forehead, between his eyes. "What are you doing?" he shrieked. The crow opened its beak and cawed at him, a shrill scream of fear, and the grey mists shuddered and swirled around him and ripped away like a veil On 5/12/2016 at 7:24 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said: As we move on, this next bit of text certainly seems to back the notion that the Crow’s Eye is potentially in Aeron’s head/dreams. And is very cleverly worded with a possible double meaning……….. The sound of a door opening, the scream of a rusted iron hinge. Euron had come again. It did not matter. He was the Damphair priest, beloved of the god. The Damphair is considering his worries here, the repetitive dream he has when ‘the door opens and there is a scream of a rusted hinge’ and the second fact is that his troublesome brother is back and sitting the Seastone Chair. But if we as readers remove the ‘full stop’ from the bolded and replace it with a ‘comma’ the sentence reads rather differently. In fact it straight out insinuates that Euron has been the reason for these repetitive door opening/screaming hinge dreams, and he had come again. An association between Euron, the door, the hinges (and unhinging), the fear and the screaming is underscored, regardless of comma or full stop! A further rather sordid double meaning, considered from the perspective of our modern idiom, to the sentence 'Euron had come again' might be the sexual connotation of 'come again,' especially if one takes into account the pervasive implication, supported by many readers, that Euron may have taken pleasure as a youth in raping his siblings. Politically, Euron is Urron Redhand come again, and styles himself as a reincarnation of Aegon the Conqueror in his lust for dragons, world domination, and incestuous leanings. Therefore, it's hardly surprising that Euron's sexuality is characterised in terms of the trope of aggressive sexual conquest as well. In fact, the rape hinge hypothesis is more widely held than the warging hinges one. Such an interpretation might also lend weight to why Aeron subsequently finds Euron's nakedness 'obscene' and 'disturbing' (apart from serving as a shameful reminder of what happened with his wife) while Euron is flagrantly posturing in front of him like a boss in the tower wearing nothing but a predator's (sable) coat. Whichever ones preferred interpretation, having ones mind taken over is just as if not more disturbing than having ones body invaded, so there is a case to be made for both. I won't go into too much detail, since I know Wizz will cover the following important passage later. However, it's worth highlighting the presence of the wind, skinchanging, and Bloodraven elements associated with Euron. Note the wind which 'gusts' and 'stirs,' as well as the pun contained in 'a winding stone stair' (cf. 'Farwynds'...Having spent 'too much' time on @Seams pun thread, I now see puns far and wide!): Quote A Feast for Crows - The Reaver Victarion rose unsteadily. He was a big man, with a large capacity for wine, but even so, he had drunk too much. I beat her to death with mine own hands, he thought, but the Crow's Eye killed her when he shoved himself inside her. I had no choice. He followed the bastard boy from the hall and up a winding stone stair. The sounds of rape and revelry diminished as they climbed, until there was only the soft scrape of boots on stone. The Crow's Eye had taken Lord Hewett's bedchamber along with his bastard daughter. When he entered, the girl was sprawled naked on the bed, snoring softly. Euron stood by the window, drinking from a silver cup. He wore the sable cloak he took from Blacktyde, his red leather eye patch, and nothing else. "When I was a boy, I dreamt that I could fly," he announced. "When I woke, I couldn't . . . or so the maester said. But what if he lied?" Victarion could smell the sea through the open window, though the room stank of wine and blood and sex. The cold salt air helped to clear his head. "What do you mean?" Euron turned to face him, his bruised blue lips curled in a half smile. "Perhaps we can fly. All of us. How will we ever know unless we leap from some tall tower?" The wind came gusting through the window and stirred his sable cloak. There was something obscene and disturbing about his nakedness. "No man ever truly knows what he can do unless he dares to leap." "There is the window. Leap." Victarion had no patience for this. His wounded hand was troubling him. "What do you want?" The sleek black coat Euron's slipped into, having forcibly taken it off another, is a visual representation of skinchanging, and moreover rape (literally, the abomination of forcing ones way into someone's body), mutilation (e.g. the dusky beauty and his mute darkskinned crew) and murder (Euron obtained the coat by chopping Baelor Blacktyde into 7 pieces) with which skinchanging would be synonymous in Euron's mind. The black coat in question is also reminiscent of crows, ravens, and seals, all being host animals for wargs, the latter being connected with skinchangers from the Farwynds. Euron is a creature of halves and ciphers. Underneath the purloined sable (read: martin/Marten) fur coat, Euron is 'obscenely' naked, making him 'half human-half animal.' He gives his curling 'half smile' together with his mismatched eyes which make him 'half blind' (elsewhere we've previously linked this concept to greensight and warging, including in Braavos) and his suspiciously stained blue lips which make him 'half dead,' considering that he's been imbibing shade of the evening among other dubious practices and appears unnaturally preserved (not unlike Bloodraven): Quote A Feast for Crows - The Iron Captain He looks unchanged, Victarion thought. He looks the same as he did the day he laughed at me and left. Euron was the most comely of Lord Quellon's sons, and three years of exile had not changed that. His hair was still black as a midnight sea, with never a whitecap to be seen, and his face was still smooth and pale beneath his neat dark beard. A black leather patch covered Euron's left eye, but his right was blue as a summer sky. His smiling eye, thought Victarion. "Crow's Eye," he said. Euron's name itself is another 'half-smiling' ironic joke associated with him, derived from 'Eu-' the Greek root for 'good.' I like Evita's punning take that he is more related to 'urine,' in keeping with 'all Euron's gifts [both in the senses of presents and talents] are poisoned' (urine as pungent acidic toxic waste byproduct). Likewise, his family name is one of GRRM's jokes, since a 'grey joy' is a contradiction, being anticlimactically sapped of color and depleted of joy, therefore hardly joyous at all. Perhaps, one way in which one may reconcile this interpretation is that Euron derives a perverse joy from engendering joylessness in others (consider the juxtaposition of 'revelry and rape' earlier). Then, his moniker 'the Crow's Eye' might be interpreted to mean not only that he has one crow's eye, but also that he is one of the crow's eyes, namely one of Bloodraven's -- being the three-eyed-crow and former Night's Watch 'crow'-- 1001 eyes (at least one and/or some of which is/are bound to be evil, right?) Elsewhere, we're even told that Tyrion with his mismatched eyes has 'an evil eye' and for those missing an eye, the eye that still sees and/or which others see is named 'the good eye'. In this respect, it's interesting that it is his left eye (in Latin 'left'='sinister' and 'right'='dexter') which Euron covers behind a red leather eyepatch, while the right is blue. Likewise, Ser Waymar Royce's left eye was pierced by the sword, and his right became blue. How about Bloodraven or Beric (I tried to check the Right vs. Left color scheme for them but couldn't find a reference)? Euron proclaims himself 'King Crow's Eye' which evokes Bloodraven who as Lord Commander of the Night's Watch was the King Crow. There are further parallels between Euron Greyjoy and Brynden Rivers. For example, historically, Brynden killing Aenys Blackfyre who'd come to peacefully participate in the Great Council to decide the matter of succession mirrors Euron killing Baelor Blacktyde (Blackfyre and Blacktyde even evoke each other, only being separated by two letters!) who comes to peacefully participate in the Kingsmoot. As an aside, it's interesting that Blacktyde's signature ship 'Nightflyer', which is subsequently taken over by Euron (Euron is generally associated with hostile takeovers), is a nod both to Euron as well as GRRM's novella 'Nightflyers.' Have any of you read/seen that? After reading this review of the film, it sure seems bizarre: https://mossfilm.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/george-r-r-martins-nightflyers-film-review/ From what I was able to gather from a quick perusal of the synopsis, GRRM's 'Nightflyers' deals with a lot of telepathic, telekinetic, and bodysnatching themes which (super)naturally evoke warging (for me, the word 'nightflyers' evokes unwelcome bloodsucking night visitors like vampires, bats, mosquitos, as well as witches, warlocks, and wargs) and Euron, who if we are to interpret the sinister allusions was Aeron's/Urri's unwelcome nightmare of a vicious 'visitor' with those 'screaming hinges' etc. In the eponymous novella, 'Nightflyer' is the name of the spaceship which becomes a deathtrap for almost all on board. Apparently, the protagonist's psychopathic mother has taken over the ship by having inserted her consciousness onto the ship or ship's computer before (not-)dying, becoming a 'ghost in the machine,' and is systematically terrorizing and killing off the crew-- sounds like futuristic warging a-la-Euron-style to me! (Incidentally, the ship's mission is to make contact with an ancient alien race the Volcryn; let's not forget that a synonym for 'alien' is 'other'..!) Just thought the 'Nightflyer' reference was interesting in the context of Euron's speech to his brother about flying. Must say Euron prancing around glibly in Blacktyde's sable coat flapping about him (not unlike a bird) while he's discussing flying and opening ones eyes, in conjunction with the wind's interactions with the coat, also reminded me very much of our other enigmatic one-eyed sable-clad 'friend' Ser Waymar Royce! Thus, once more we return to the beginning... On 5/12/2016 at 7:24 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said: Outside, beneath the snoring of his drowned men and the keening of the wind, he could hear the pounding of the waves, the hammer of his god calling him to battle. The keening of the wind implies an eerie wailing sound. Or the word ‘keening’ can describe a wail of grief for a dead person, or to lament, mourn, weep, cry etc……… Apart from a draft in Goodbrother’s hall, this is the first time the wind actually appears in these chapters. [The howling wind was referenced in conversation] So is it possible that the wind is wailing in grief at the death of Balon and the subsequent rise of the Crow’s Eye to the Seastone Chair? 'The pounding of the waves, the hammer of his god' evokes the Children of the Forest's 'Hammer of the Waters'...as well as the Storm Lord Robert Baratheon and his son Gendry ('Waters,' unofficially). Your observations on 'keening' are most poignant! Further to the sense of lamenting or wailing, one might add the additional sense of 'keen' as sharp-edged, cutting, biting, penetrating. Like a wolf, the wind has teeth! In support, elsewhere in 'the Prophet' chapter the seascape is personified in order to give voice to the gods. For example: Quote My god...speak to me in the rumble of the waves...Sing to me in the language of leviathan...Listen! Listen to the waves! Listen to the god! He is speaking to us... Regarding the Kingsmoot, in a flight of fancy I wondered whether the seagull screaming could have been warged by Bloodraven, screaming (like the hinges) its protest at Euron's hostile takeover of kingsmoot proceedings! Quote AFFC -- The Drowned Man Euron Greyjoy climbed the hill slowly, with every eye upon him. Above the gull screamed and screamed again. No godless man may sit the Seastone Chair, Aeron thought, but he knew that he must let his brother speak. His lips moved silently in prayer. It's striking that the crow's eye who characteristically has his eye on every one, here has every eye upon him! One has to wonder if one of these eyes cast upon him might be one of the thousand-and-one?! On 5/12/2016 at 7:24 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said: Seek the hill of Nagga and the bones of the Grey King’s hall, for in that holy place when the moon has drowned and come again we shall make ourselves a worthy king, a godly king. Nagga’s bones sound very much like old weirwood, and seeing as we are looking for any old gods/CotF clues in the chapter, I thought I would post it. But also there is the fact it is considered to be a ‘holy place’ much like High Heart used to be in the RL’s. Perhaps Nagga’s Hill was the Iron Islands equivalent for the children back in their day. We certainly have a cave already, could this be another old weirwood grove, petrified over the years to take a form that looks like ribs? The parallel of Nagga with both the Targaryens (sea dragon bones on Nagga's Hill echoes dragon skulls housed in Red Keep on Aegon's Hill) and the Starks (petrified weirwood grove or driftwood) is clearly drawn. Moreover, an etymological inspection of the name 'Nagga' reveals that 'naga' is Sanskrit for 'serpent' (in the Harry Potter series, Voldemort's familiar was also called 'Nagini') thus combining the dragon (a winged serpent) and the weirwood (prominent snaky/wormy imagery of the weir roots etc. in Bloodraven's cave/High Heart) in one archetype. The idea that 'flesh decays, but bone endures' symbolizing resilience, collective memory and the seat of power is recapitulated in the context of the weirwoods which are routinely described as 'bone-white' or 'bone-pale' and carved into faces and thrones. Aeron connects 'bones' with the 'soul' and 'truth.' Bones are also related to greendreaming and greenseeing; in the dreamscape which I quoted at the start of the post, the bones of the dreamers are 'impaled' forming part of the icy ragged bone-pale landscape, protruding like trees or hills themselves and reaching out to embrace the dreamer. I agree with you that many holy sites tend to be located on hills, e.g. High Heart, and even Baelor's Sept is located on Visenya's Hill! The Hill of Nagga is located on Old Wyk, and Aeron highlights the importance of turning once again to 'the Old Way,' which made me think of Ned's emphasis on keeping 'the old ways' and naturally also heeding 'the old gods.' Not sure however if Euron is on board with tradition; he seems to be sailing his own course. There is only one way for Euron -- Euron's Way! And woe betide those who seek to stem his dominion. Strangely, Bran is inserted into this chapter and juxtaposed with Euron by the odd phrase 'Euron is no crippled boy' ostensibly referring to the broken boy Theon who might as Balon's eldest surviving son have challenged Euron for the throne, but at a more essential level to Bran who might in future pose a challenge to Euron's more metaphysical aspirations. Considering that the presence of Euron is felt throughout this chapter intrusively interjecting himself into the narrative primarily via Euron's (sub)consciousness, although we have not yet 'met' him in person, at the end of the chapter one is left wondering, to whom exactly does the titular 'the Prophet' refer: Aeron or Euron? Finally, on a lighter note, for those who might feel I've unearthed a few too many winds and words for good taste or sense: Quote A Clash of Kings - Tyrion VI Tyrion remembered a cold night under the stars when he'd stood beside the boy Jon Snow and a great white wolf atop the Wall at the end of the world, gazing out at the trackless dark beyond. He had felt—what?—something, to be sure, a dread that had cut like that frigid northern wind. A wolf had howled off in the night, and the sound had sent a shiver through him. Don't be a fool, he told himself. A wolf, a wind, a dark forest, it meant nothing. And yet . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ravenous reader Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 Sorry, I'm not sure how to fix this struck through text. The program won't even allow me to edit! I will keep trying... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ravenous reader Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 Let's try again: Thank you for that tantalizing introduction, @Wizz-The-Smith. I can't wait to get my ravening teeth stuck in! We welcome others to join us in our quest -- the more eyes the better! As Wizz said, our primary aim is to keep an open eye and mind and see where the text may lead us. That said, we are tentatively positing Euron as the 'anti-Bran,' potentially a kind of failed or wayward greenseer apprentice, or in the terms of the 'Skywalker' mythos the renegade 'jedi' gone rogue and cautionary tale in 'the dark side' of power. See the quote below in which the acquisition of such power is alluded to as 'a terrible knowledge.' Certainly Bran is not the first to train at 'flying,' so presumably Bloodraven may have attempted to recruit others in the kingdoms during the century or so he has sojourned in the tree. Many others have failed and fallen as is attested by 'the impaled bones of a thousand other dreamers' who have become gruesomely immortalized in the crystal architecture of the dreamscape: Quote A Game of Thrones - Bran III Bran looked at the crow on his shoulder, and the crow looked back. It had three eyes, and the third eye was full of a terrible knowledge. Bran looked down. There was nothing below him now but snow and cold and death, a frozen wasteland where jagged blue-white spires of ice waited to embrace him. They flew up at him like spears. He saw the bones of a thousand other dreamers impaled upon their points. He was desperately afraid. "Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?" he heard his own voice saying, small and far away. And his father's voice replied to him. "That is the only time a man can be brave." Despite Bloodraven assuming the role of Bran's substitute father figure or mentor, it's significant that Bran still hears the ghost of Ned's voice as his conscience-- some lives, and deaths, cast a long shadow in time and space -- reminding that power comes with a reckoning in how one chooses to respond to the challenge and privilege of that terrible knowledge. This suggests that there are different ways of wielding the same power. So with this in mind, let's turn to 'The Prophet': On 5/12/2016 at 7:24 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said: ’The Storm God cast him down,’’ the priest announced. This caught my attention as of course the Storm God controls the wind [among other things] in the Ironborn legend/culture. And the Damphair mentions his belief here that it was the wind and therefore the Storm God that has cast Balon down. Thus giving the wind the ability we are searching for in our thread, being able to consciously cast someone of the bridge. Another potential connection to the old gods is that the Storm God is also the god of the air and birds. In particular, ravens are mentioned, 'He had no love of maesters. Their ravens were creatures of the Storm God, and he did not trust their healing, not since Urri.' Later, Euron 'the Crow's Eye' is also aligned with the storm. Euron considers himself on a level with the gods, the grandiosely self-styled Storm God himself, quipping that he is 'the godliest man ever' (which is true in the letter if not in spirit: displaying as he does a singleminded devotion simultaneously to the shallow versatility of serving all gods as it serves him, and the pristine insouciance of serving none). On 5/12/2016 at 7:24 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said: ‘’Aye’’. They had spoken in the Sea Tower, as the wind howled outside the windows and the waves crashed restlessly below. Balon had shaken his head in despair when he heard what Aeron had to tell him of his last remaining son. ‘’The wolves have made a weakling out of him, as I feared. I pray god that they killed him, so he cannot stand in Asha’s way.’’ So the howling wind was present for this important discussion regards succession. And then we get a wolves’ reference ‘when Balon refers to the Stark’s. This is cool, it is the third example I have found with the wolves being mentioned so closely to the howling wind. And this one ties in the embodiment of northern old gods belief in the Stark family. The 'howling wind' is not only an embodiment of northern old gods and Starks, it is also linked with greenseeing including its more sinister sorcerous aspects. For example, in the following passage Bloodraven announces himself to Bran with a 'howling black wind' which tears open the door as soon as his name is mentioned (opening the door also hints at a connection to opening ones eye/s and those hinged doors of the mind): Quote A Dance with Dragons - Bran I Meera's gloved hand tightened around the shaft of her frog spear. "Who sent you? Who is this three-eyed crow?" "A friend. Dreamer, wizard, call him what you will. The last greenseer." The longhall's wooden door banged open. Outside, the night wind howled, bleak and black. The trees were full of ravens, screaming. Coldhands did not move. "A monster," Bran said. The ranger looked at Bran as if the rest of them did not exist. "Your monster, Brandon Stark." "Yours," the raven echoed, from his shoulder. Outside the door, the ravens in the trees took up the cry, until the night wood echoed to the murderer's song of "Yours, yours, yours." Besides 'howling,' Bloodraven is also associated with 'screaming' birds (echoes of 'screaming hinges'), more poetically described here as 'the murderer's song.' In this case, 'the murderer's song' might on one level refer to the ravens, a group of which is sometimes called 'a murder of ravens/crows,' but on another level to the murderer Bloodraven himself (who we know murdered his brother and several other relatives, and may now be subsisting on human sacrifice) and/or Coldhands. To return to the 'howling wind-wolf' connection, there are many examples throughout the text of wolves allied with the wind. In addition, there are examples of wolves affiliated with the sea! So, we have 'Grey Wind' Rob's wolf and 'Black Wind' Asha's ship (in the quote above Bloodraven was also associated with a black wind) representing his foster brother and trueborn sister respectively who are aligned in Theon's mind with Theon caught between them. Therefore, as the Ironborn ward of Winterfell plucked from Pyke and transplanted in the North, from a certain perspective Theon is literally a 'sea wolf': Quote A Clash of Kings - Theon I Theon did not need to be told that Black Wind was Asha's longship. He had not seen his sister in ten years, but that much he knew of her. Odd that she would call it that, when Robb Stark had a wolf named Grey Wind. "Stark is grey and Greyjoy's black," he murmured, smiling, "but it seems we're both windy." The priest had nothing to say to that. 'We're both windy'..! Other sea wolf references potentially connecting the Ironborn to the north/old gods: Quote A Feast for Crows - Cersei III It was the wedding that enraged her, though the slow-witted Swyft girl made a safer target. Tommen's hold upon the Iron Throne was not secure enough for her to risk offending Highgarden. Not so long as Stannis Baratheon held Dragonstone and Storm's End, so long as Riverrun continued in defiance, so long as ironmen prowled the seas like wolves. So Jocelyn must needs eat the meal Cersei would sooner have served to Margaery Tyrell and her hideous wrinkled grandmother. Quote A Dance with Dragons - The Wayward Bride The sea was closer, only five leagues north, but Asha could not see it. Too many hills stood in the way. And trees, so many trees. The wolfswood, the northmen named the forest. Most nights you could hear the wolves, calling to each other through the dark. An ocean of leaves. Would it were an ocean of water. Here the wolfswood is compared to 'an ocean,' making the wolves calling to one another sea wolves! Elaborating this metaphor further, if the forest is an ocean, then the weirwood equivalent on the Iron Islands might be 'driftwood'... 'Diftwood' seems to have a spiritual significance: namely, the 'drowned men's' driftwood cudgels, the driftwood crown, Aeron's driftwood shelter constructed by his acolytes, then further afield Sandor's horse Stranger reborn as 'Driftwood' on the Quiet Isle (as to the latter, maybe 'reborn' is the wrong term for the state of mind of that tempestuous stallion, but he undoubtedly came back 'harder and stronger'!) Quote A Feast for Crows - The Drowned Man Aeron knew some Farwynds, a queer folk who held lands on the westernmost shores of Great Wyk and the scattered isles beyond, rocks so small that most could support but a single household. Of those, the Lonely Light was the most distant, eight days' sail to the northwest amongst rookeries of seals and sealions and the boundless grey oceans. The Farwynds there were even queerer than the rest. Some said they were skinchangers, unholy creatures who could take on the forms of sea lions, walruses, even spotted whales, the wolves of the wild sea. Farwynds='far winds'; thanks for the mention Wizz! 'Wynds' has the additional meaning of winding, twisting, narrow, perhaps treacherous path. 'The Lonely Light' evokes the Crone holding her solitary lamp or lantern aloft (or lighthouse in a sea context) to whom the sailors of the sea and pilgrims of life pray for illumination, wisdom and guidance in the literal and spiritual darkness. We're told that the Lonely Light is 'the most distant' island locating it in a liminal, 'boundless,' otherworldly position at the transition of worlds -- this is of course the ideal setting for magic. I found it interesting that of all the possible designations for a group of seals (among them, herd, bob, colony, crash, harem, herd, pod, rookery, spring, and team) GRRM chose 'rookery,' most likely intentionally so that 'rookeries of seals and sealions' in the Iron Islands would remind the reader of the rookeries of ravens in the North ('We could all be ravens and live in Maester Luwin's rookery...'). He immediately reinforces this association by including the important reference, previously touched on by Wizz, to skinchanging among the Iron Islanders, implying that 'the old blood' is still strong among some of them. In case we still don't get it, he includes the mention of 'grey' (the color shared by the Starks in their heraldry and the Greyjoys in their name and their revered Grey King) and finally the phrase 'the wolves of the wild sea' to seal (pardon the pun) the parallel! Regarding seals and skinchanging, check out the myth of the 'selkies,' the seal mermaids (link below). This legend talks of stealing someone's skin, sometimes going so far as to keep his/her skin under lock and key, thereby binding someone to the aggressor against his/her will. It's a popular folk tale, especially on the Faroe Islands; could the Farwynds be GRRM's version thereof? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selkie This legend is alluded to elsewhere. For example: Quote From ADWD -- The Wayward Bride: 'Tris Botley said that the Crow's Eye had used a seal to stand in for her at her wedding.' We are also told that the founder of the Ironborn the Grey King took a mermaid wife, which is similar to the Northern legend of the Night's King taking an 'Other' wife. On 5/12/2016 at 7:24 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said: There is also the ‘words are wind’ notion. Evita and Ravenous Reader will I’m sure have an opinion on this, but I’m thinking that Balon should be really careful what he says here. He does not want to offend anyone, The old gods may be listening and they may just engineer this scenario. The Starks have not killed him, and he may well stand in Asha’s way. We’ll have to wait and see, but I’m on the lookout for various characters wants when in the potential presence of the old gods. Definitely worth keeping an eye on! Apart from the wind which is a tip off, I've noticed whenever 'god,' 'gods,' or 'the gods' are explicitly mentioned by name (e.g. here when Balon 'pray god that they killed him...'), especially when their name is taken in vain or used to express malicious wishes, it's suggested the gods themselves may be present and take a dim view of this blasphemy (remember Tyrion the stand-in 'spirit of the air,' ever-watchful, ever-wakeful, eavesdropping on Winterfell proceedings and commenting to Sandor 'I am in no mood for your insolence...' after Sandor had just maligned Bran), especially taken together with what one may infer by analyzing the outcome of subsequent events. As a further example, there's that passage surrounding the discovery of the direwolves in which Theon flippantly exclaims 'Gods!' while eagerly drawing his sword to kill the wolves and declaring them 'freak' (no prizes for guessing what word that rhymes with...). This disrespect may have invited retribution for Theon who in this crucial moment did not live up to his name 'Theon' meaning 'godly' and his honorary 'sea wolf' status as ward of Winterfell, with the consequence that his name and identity was stripped from him. On 5/12/2016 at 7:24 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said: Aeron closed his eyes and said a silent prayer, and after a while began to drowse in the saddle. The sound came softly, the scream of a rusted hinge. ‘’Urri,’’ he muttered, and woke, fearful. There is no hinge, no door, no Urri. The oxymoron of a 'soft scream,' besides being typical of GRRM's literary techniques and philosophical vision ('if love and hate can mate', ice and fire, etc.), reminded me of the old gods'/Bloodraven's communications which have this quality of combining sound and silence. For example, Bran's shout out to Jon: Quote A Clash of Kings - Jon VII Jon? The call came from behind him, softer than a whisper, but strong too. Can a shout be silent? He turned his head, searching for his brother, for a glimpse of a lean grey shape moving beneath the trees, but there was nothing, only . . . A weirwood. Although, granted, a 'shout' is not equivalent in valence to a 'scream.' Quote Anyway, Aeron starts to drowse/sleep and temporarily falls into a dream. The ‘scream of a rusted hinge’ sounds like a door opening reluctantly, or with strain. Perhaps this is a textual clue that these dreams are different to the ones we know BR sends? Is Euron trying to force his way in to his brother’s mind, unwelcome and without his knowledge? Aeron just hears the scream of a rusted hinge, but we can perhaps speculate that these dreams are being sent by someone. It seems like a sort of nightmare, I say it is most likely Euron. I would like to hear Evita’s take on this as well. It was her great catch with the ‘screaming hinges’ on the WF crypt doors and subsequent links in commentary that made me think a little more having read this text. Is this a calling card for not only the Bran link, but a key word surrounding the power the old gods possess? A set up if you will that allows us to link the screaming hinges with these techniques? The 'screaming hinges' is a topic in itself, and as my posts tend to be lengthy anyway, I won't tackle that one today! I will have to think more on this and read @evita mgfs and @DarkSister1001 thoughts on the metaphorical implications thereof again. Suffice to say, I don't think one can conclude that 'screaming' is a marker for dreams being necessarily different to the ones Bloodraven sends. On the contrary, remember when the three-eyed-crow visited Bran in a dream and opened his third eye in the first place there was quite a bit of screaming and coercion involved, and besides as I've pointed out earlier Bloodraven's ravens (including Mormont's uncanny bird) are often described as 'screaming' to perhaps sound a warning or herald a portent. In any case, 'screaming hinges,' which evokes a door or window opening with difficulty, signifies a painful transition of some kind. Quote A Game of Thrones - Bran III Now, Bran, the crow urged. Choose. Fly or die. Death reached for him, screaming. Bran spread his arms and flew. Wings unseen drank the wind and filled and pulled him upward. The terrible needles of ice receded below him. The sky opened up above. Bran soared. It was better than climbing. It was better than anything. The world grew small beneath him. "I'm flying!" he cried out in delight. I've noticed, said the three-eyed crow. It took to the air, flapping its wings in his face, slowing him, blinding him. He faltered in the air as its pinions beat against his cheeks. Its beak stabbed at him fiercely, and Bran felt a sudden blinding pain in the middle of his forehead, between his eyes. "What are you doing?" he shrieked. The crow opened its beak and cawed at him, a shrill scream of fear, and the grey mists shuddered and swirled around him and ripped away like a veil On 5/12/2016 at 7:24 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said: As we move on, this next bit of text certainly seems to back the notion that the Crow’s Eye is potentially in Aeron’s head/dreams. And is very cleverly worded with a possible double meaning……….. The sound of a door opening, the scream of a rusted iron hinge. Euron had come again. It did not matter. He was the Damphair priest, beloved of the god. The Damphair is considering his worries here, the repetitive dream he has when ‘the door opens and there is a scream of a rusted hinge’ and the second fact is that his troublesome brother is back and sitting the Seastone Chair. But if we as readers remove the ‘full stop’ from the bolded and replace it with a ‘comma’ the sentence reads rather differently. In fact it straight out insinuates that Euron has been the reason for these repetitive door opening/screaming hinge dreams, and he had come again. An association between Euron, the door, the hinges (and unhinging), the fear and the screaming is underscored, regardless of comma or full stop! A further rather sordid double meaning, considered from the perspective of our modern idiom, to the sentence 'Euron had come again' might be the sexual connotation of 'come again,' especially if one takes into account the pervasive implication, supported by many readers, that Euron may have taken pleasure as a youth in raping his siblings. Politically, Euron is Urron Redhand come again, in addition to styling himself as the reincarnation of Aegon the Conqueror, with his lust for dragons, world domination, and incestuous leanings. Therefore, it's unsurprising that Euron is characterised in terms of the trope of aggressive sexual conquest as well. In fact, the rape hinge hypothesis is more widely held than the warging hinges one. Such an interpretation might also lend weight to why Aeron subsequently finds Euron's nakedness 'obscene' and 'disturbing' (apart from serving as a shameful reminder of what happened with his wife) while Euron is posturing in front of him like a boss in the tower wearing nothing but a predator's (sable) coat. Whichever ones preferred interpretation, having ones mind taken over is just as if not more disturbing than having ones body invaded, so there is a case to be made for both. I won't go into too much detail, since I know Wizz will cover the following important passage later. However, it's worth highlighting the presence of the wind, skinchanging, and Bloodraven elements associated with Euron. Note the wind which 'gusts' and 'stirs,' as well as the pun contained in 'a winding stone stair' (cf. 'Farwynds'...Having spent 'too much' time on @Seams pun thread, I now see puns far and wide!): Quote A Feast for Crows - The Reaver Victarion rose unsteadily. He was a big man, with a large capacity for wine, but even so, he had drunk too much. I beat her to death with mine own hands, he thought, but the Crow's Eye killed her when he shoved himself inside her. I had no choice. He followed the bastard boy from the hall and up a winding stone stair. The sounds of rape and revelry diminished as they climbed, until there was only the soft scrape of boots on stone. The Crow's Eye had taken Lord Hewett's bedchamber along with his bastard daughter. When he entered, the girl was sprawled naked on the bed, snoring softly. Euron stood by the window, drinking from a silver cup. He wore the sable cloak he took from Blacktyde, his red leather eye patch, and nothing else. "When I was a boy, I dreamt that I could fly," he announced. "When I woke, I couldn't . . . or so the maester said. But what if he lied?" Victarion could smell the sea through the open window, though the room stank of wine and blood and sex. The cold salt air helped to clear his head. "What do you mean?" Euron turned to face him, his bruised blue lips curled in a half smile. "Perhaps we can fly. All of us. How will we ever know unless we leap from some tall tower?" The wind came gusting through the window and stirred his sable cloak. There was something obscene and disturbing about his nakedness. "No man ever truly knows what he can do unless he dares to leap." "There is the window. Leap." Victarion had no patience for this. His wounded hand was troubling him. "What do you want?" The sleek black coat Euron's slipped into, having forcibly taken it off another, is a visual representation of skinchanging, and moreover rape (literally, the abomination of forcing ones way into someone's body), mutilation (e.g. the dusky beauty and his mute darkskinned crew) and murder (Euron obtained the coat by chopping Baelor Blacktyde into 7 pieces) with which skinchanging would be synonymous in Euron's mind. The black coat in question is also reminiscent of crows, ravens, and seals, all being host animals for wargs, the latter being connected with skinchangers from the Farwynds. Euron is a creature of halves and ciphers. Underneath the purloined sable (read: martin/Marten) fur coat, Euron is 'obscenely' naked, making him 'half human-half animal.' He gives his curling 'half smile' together with his mismatched eyes which make him 'half blind' (elsewhere we've previously linked this concept to greensight and warging, including in Braavos) and his suspiciously stained blue lips which make him 'half dead,' considering that he's been imbibing shade of the evening among other dubious practices and appears unnaturally preserved (not unlike Bloodraven): Quote A Feast for Crows - The Iron Captain He looks unchanged, Victarion thought. He looks the same as he did the day he laughed at me and left. Euron was the most comely of Lord Quellon's sons, and three years of exile had not changed that. His hair was still black as a midnight sea, with never a whitecap to be seen, and his face was still smooth and pale beneath his neat dark beard. A black leather patch covered Euron's left eye, but his right was blue as a summer sky. His smiling eye, thought Victarion. "Crow's Eye," he said. Euron's name itself is another 'half-smiling' ironic joke associated with him, derived from 'Eu-' the Greek root for 'good.' I like Evita's punning take that he is more related to 'urine,' in keeping with 'all Euron's gifts [both in the senses of presents and talents] are poisoned' (urine as sour toxic waste byproduct). Likewise, his family name is one of GRRM's jokes, since a 'grey joy' is a contradiction, being anticlimactically sapped of color and depleted of joy, therefore hardly joyous at all. Perhaps one way of reconciling the interpretation is that Euron derives a perverse joy out of engendering joylessness in others. Then, his moniker 'the Crow's Eye' might be interpreted to mean not only that he has one crow's eye, but also that he is one of the crow's eyes, namely one of Bloodraven's -- being the three-eyed-crow and former Night's Watch 'crow'-- 1001 eyes (at least one and/or some of which is/are bound to be evil, right?) Elsewhere, we're even told that Tyrion with his mismatched eyes has 'an evil eye' and for those missing an eye, the eye that still sees and/or which others see is named 'the good eye'. In this respect, it's interesting that it is his left eye (in Latin 'left'='sinister' and 'right'='dexter') which Euron covers behind a red leather eyepatch, while the right is blue. Likewise, Ser Waymar Royce's left eye was pierced by the sword, and his right became blue. How about Bloodraven or Beric (I tried to check the Right vs. Left color scheme for them but couldn't find a reference)? Euron proclaims himself 'King Crow's Eye' which evokes Bloodraven who as Lord Commander of the Night's Watch was the King Crow. There are further parallels between Euron Greyjoy and Brynden Rivers. For example, historically, Brynden killing Aenys Blackfyre who'd come to peacefully participate in the Great Council to decide the matter of succession mirrors Euron killing Baelor Blacktyde (Blackfyre and Blacktyde even evoke each other, only being separated by two letters!) who comes to peacefully participate in the Kingsmoot. As an aside, it's interesting that Blacktyde's signature ship 'Nightflyer', which is subsequently taken over by Euron (Euron is generally associated with hostile takeovers), is a nod both to Euron as well as GRRM's novella 'Nightflyers.' Have any of you read/seen that? After reading this review of the film, it sure seems bizarre: https://mossfilm.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/george-r-r-martins-nightflyers-film-review/ From what I was able to gather from a quick perusal of the synopsis, GRRM's 'Nightflyers' deals with a lot of telepathic, telekinetic, and bodysnatching themes which (super)naturally evoke warging (for me, the word 'nightflyers' evokes unwelcome bloodsucking night visitors like vampires, bats, mosquitos, as well as witches, warlocks, and wargs) and Euron, who if we are to interpret the sinister allusions was Aeron's/Urri's unwelcome nightmare of a vicious 'visitor' with those 'screaming hinges' etc. In the eponymous novella, 'Nightflyer' is the name of the spaceship which becomes a deathtrap for almost all on board. Apparently, the protagonist's psychopathic mother has taken over the ship by having inserted her consciousness onto the ship or ship's computer before (not-)dying, becoming a 'ghost in the machine,' and is systematically terrorizing and killing off the crew-- sounds like futuristic warging a-la-Euron-style to me! (Incidentally, the ship's mission is to make contact with an ancient alien race the Volcryn; let's not forget that a synonym for 'alien' is 'other'..!) Just thought the 'Nightflyer' reference was interesting in the context of Euron's speech to his brother about flying. Must say Euron prancing around glibly in Blacktyde's sable coat flapping about him (not unlike a bird) while he's discussing flying and opening ones eyes, in conjunction with the wind's interactions with the coat, also reminded me very much of our other enigmatic one-eyed sable-clad 'friend' Ser Waymar Royce! Thus, once more we return to the beginning... On 5/12/2016 at 7:24 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said: Outside, beneath the snoring of his drowned men and the keening of the wind, he could hear the pounding of the waves, the hammer of his god calling him to battle. The keening of the wind implies an eerie wailing sound. Or the word ‘keening’ can describe a wail of grief for a dead person, or to lament, mourn, weep, cry etc……… Apart from a draft in Goodbrother’s hall, this is the first time the wind actually appears in these chapters. [The howling wind was referenced in conversation] So is it possible that the wind is wailing in grief at the death of Balon and the subsequent rise of the Crow’s Eye to the Seastone Chair? 'The pounding of the waves, the hammer of his god' evokes the Children of the Forest's 'Hammer of the Waters'...as well as the Storm Lord Robert Baratheon and his son Gendry ('Waters,' unofficially). Your observations on 'keening' are most poignant! Further to the sense of lamenting or wailing, one might add the additional sense of 'keen' as sharp-edged, cutting, biting, penetrating. The wind is like a sword, the waves like a hammer. In support, elsewhere in 'the Prophet' chapter, the seascape is personified in order to give voice to the gods. For example: Quote My god...speak to me in the rumble of the waves...Sing to me in the language of leviathan...Listen! Listen to the waves! Listen to the god! He is speaking to us... Regarding the Kingsmoot, in a flight of fancy I wondered whether the seagull screaming could have been warged by Bloodraven, screaming (like the hinges) its protest at Euron's hostile takeover of kingsmoot proceedings! Quote AFFC -- The Drowned Man Euron Greyjoy climbed the hill slowly, with every eye upon him. Above the gull screamed and screamed again. No godless man may sit the Seastone Chair, Aeron thought, but he knew that he must let his brother speak. His lips moved silently in prayer. It's striking that the crow's eye who characteristically has his eye on every one, here has every eye upon him! One has to wonder if one of these eyes cast upon him might be one of the thousand-and-one?! On 5/12/2016 at 7:24 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said: Seek the hill of Nagga and the bones of the Grey King’s hall, for in that holy place when the moon has drowned and come again we shall make ourselves a worthy king, a godly king. Nagga’s bones sound very much like old weirwood, and seeing as we are looking for any old gods/CotF clues in the chapter, I thought I would post it. But also there is the fact it is considered to be a ‘holy place’ much like High Heart used to be in the RL’s. Perhaps Nagga’s Hill was the Iron Islands equivalent for the children back in their day. We certainly have a cave already, could this be another old weirwood grove, petrified over the years to take a form that looks like ribs? The parallel of Nagga with both the Targaryens (sea dragon bones on Nagga's Hill echoes dragon skulls in the Red Keep on Aegon's Hill) and the Starks (petrified weirwood grove or driftwood) is clearly drawn. Moreover, an etymological inspection of the name 'Nagga' reveals that 'naga' is Sanskrit for 'serpent' (in the Harry Potter series, Voldemort's familiar was also called 'Nagini') thus combining the dragon (a winged serpent) and the weirwood (prominent snaky/wormy imagery of the weir roots etc. in Bloodraven's cave/High Heart) in one archetype. The idea that 'flesh decays, but bone endures' symbolizing resilience, collective memory and the seat of power is recapitulated in the context of the weirwoods which are routinely described as 'bone-white' or 'bone-pale' and carved into faces and thrones. Aeron connects 'bones' with the 'soul' and 'truth.' Bones are also related to greendreaming and greenseeing; in the dreamscape which I quoted at the start of the post, the bones of the dreamers are 'impaled' forming part of the icy ragged bone-pale landscape, protruding like trees or hills themselves and reaching out to the dreamer. I agree with you that many holy sites tend to be located on hills, e.g. High Heart, and even Baelor's Sept is located on Visenya's Hill! The Hill of Nagga is located on Old Wyk, and Aeron highlights the importance of turning once again to 'the Old Way,' which made me think of Ned's emphasis on keeping 'the old ways' and naturally also heeding 'the old gods.' Not sure however if Euron is on board with tradition; he seems to be sailing his own course. There is only one way for Euron -- Euron's Way! And woe betide those who seek to stem his dominion. Strangely, Bran is inserted into this chapter and juxtaposed with Euron by the odd phrase 'Euron is no crippled boy' ostensibly referring to the broken boy Theon who might as Balon's eldest surviving son have challenged Euron for the throne, but at a more essential level to Bran who might in future pose a challenge to Euron's more metaphysical aspirations. Considering that the presence of Euron is felt throughout this chapter intrusively interjecting himself into the narrative primarily via Euron's (sub)consciousness, although we have not yet 'met' him in person, at the end of the chapter one is left wondering, to whom exactly does the titular 'the Prophet' refer: Aeron or Euron? Finally, on a lighter note, for those who might feel I've unearthed a few too many winds and words for good taste or sense: Quote A Clash of Kings - Tyrion VI Tyrion remembered a cold night under the stars when he'd stood beside the boy Jon Snow and a great white wolf atop the Wall at the end of the world, gazing out at the trackless dark beyond. He had felt—what?—something, to be sure, a dread that had cut like that frigid northern wind. A wolf had howled off in the night, and the sound had sent a shiver through him. Don't be a fool, he told himself. A wolf, a wind, a dark forest, it meant nothing. And yet . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ravenous reader Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 Sigh... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wizz-The-Smith Posted August 3, 2016 Share Posted August 3, 2016 A RUSTLE OF LEAVES. THE WIND. AND THE HOWL OF WOLVES. Osha studied him. "You asked them and they're answering. Open your ears, listen, you'll hear." Bran listened. "It's only the wind," he said after a moment, uncertain. "The leaves are rustling." "Who do you think sends the wind, if not the [old] gods?" Before we start I would like to thank the inspiration behind this theory/essay series, the wonderful Evita mgfs. Without Evita’s OP, ideas and friendship in the Bran’s growing powers re-read thread I would not have found any of this. Thank you Evita!! INTRODUCTION Hi everyone. As the title suggests I will be looking at the rustling leaves. The howling wolves and wind. And the wind itself in this essay series. I am very pleased to say that I have collaborated with my friend Ravenous Reader on this project, and she will supply supporting essays to each of mine. We hope that our format will be easy to follow, and that our different analysis brings some depth to the subject. I think we may be able to link the three facets of this essay series [trees, wind and wolves] together as working in harmony for the sake of the old gods/BR/Bran. In fact I think this has been set up as early as the AGOT prologue, and in various guises GRRM has laid hints for us to find and follow throughout the novels. The format we will take is as follows… PART I: Rustling leaves enabling a voice. [The best known example, so a good place to start] PART II: The Howling Wind and Wolf Connection. [The wind howling, biting, snapping etc] PART III: A Presence in the Wind. [An attempt to show BR and then Bran are inhabiting the wind] So without further ado, let’s jump right in……. PART I: Rustling leaves enabling a voice Here are a couple of passages from the AGOT prologue that I think are our first clues for the rustling leaves technique.…… A cold wind was blowing out of the north, and made the trees rustle like living things. All day, Will had felt as though something were watching him……. This is the first time the wind is mentioned in the series, and straight away we are told that it makes the leaves rustle and the trees seem like living things. To follow this potential set up, we get plenty of rustling in this chapter, including one that hints at the voice connection…… “Down below, the lordling called out suddenly, “Who goes there?” Will heard uncertainty in the challenge. He stopped climbing; he listened; he watched.“The woods gave answer: the rustle of leaves, the icy rush of the stream, a distant hoot of a snow owl”. The woods gave answer to the question, ‘who goes there?’ as if it had gained a voice. Quickly followed by the rustle of leaves that enables the old gods that voice. In fact Osha tells us about this later in AGOT……. Osha studied him. "You asked them and they're answering. Open your ears, listen, you'll hear." Bran listened. "It's only the wind," he said after a moment, uncertain. "The leaves are rustling." "Who do you think sends the wind, if not the gods?" She seated herself across the pool from him, clinking faintly as she moved. Mikken had fixed iron manacles to her ankles, with a heavy chain between them; she could walk, so long as she kept her strides small, but there was no way for her to run, or climb, or mount a horse. "They see you, boy. They hear you talking. That rustling, that's them talking back." [Bran VI, AGOT] This one is planted right in front of us in the dialogue. Osha explains that the weirwood can see and hear him and confirms that the rustling is them talking back. I think this is perhaps the best known example within the fandom. The other bit of text highlighted was the, who do you think sends the wind, if not the gods? This is the sentence I have used in my quote to open the essay, and backs the notion that there may be some old gods influence on the wind. It certainly supports all that I am proposing. There are other times the weirwoods show the ability to speak, ones well known to the fandom, namely the Ned and Theon examples. With those in mind, here is Bran’s last chapter when he sees Ned through the WF Heart Tree………… "Father." Bran's voice was a whisper in the wind, a rustle in the leaves. "Father, it's me. It's Bran. Brandon." Eddard Stark lifted his head and looked long at the weirwood, frowning, but he did not speak. He cannot see me, Bran realized, despairing. He wanted to reach out and touch him, but all that he could do was watch and listen. I am in the tree. I am inside the heart tree, looking out of its red eyes, but the weirwood cannot talk, so I can't. [Bran III, ADWD] Again there is a rustle in the leaves to facilitate Bran’s voice as a whisper in the wind. Once back in the cave BR explains that no-one could hear him, but the way Ned lifted his head certainly suggests otherwise. As Bran continues his development and training I can see him starting to have more subtle influence than BR thinks possible. In fact I think we see some development in Theon’s ADWD chapters. When Bran sees Ned through the WF Heart Tree he wanted to reach out and touch him, but he could only watch and listen. We will re-visit that notion in our second Theon example. But let’s keep in chapter order for now….. "Theon," a voice seemed to whisper. His head snapped up. "Who said that?" All he could see were the trees and the fog that covered them. The voice had been as faint as rustling leaves, as cold as hate. A god's voice, or a ghost's. How many died the day that he took Winterfell? How many more the day he lost it? The day that Theon Greyjoy died, to be reborn as Reek. Reek, Reek, it rhymes with shriek. Suddenly he did not want to be here. [Prince of Winterfell, ADWD] True to form the voice was associated with the rustling leaves. The next bit of text I highlighted as it comes up again and helps explain some parts of my third essay. Theon thinks of this voice as being a god’s voice, or a ghost’s, which is rather poignant as Bran pretty much is the old gods at this point. The thought it may be a ghost’s voice is also apt considering Theon is being watched and seemingly spoken too by a tree rustling in the wind. There is also a play on the word ghost going on here. We have met two characters with the name Ghost, Jon’s direwolf and The Ghost of High Heart. Both of whom are albinos and likened to the weirwood trees, white skin and red eyes. I think there is a connection between the three which we can link to the ghostly feel around the weirwoods, and also apply to BR and Bran in the form of the wind as it grabs or plucks with ‘ghostly fingers’. We will touch on that again in Part III, ‘a presence in the wind’. Onto the next Theon chapter……………. The night was windless, the snow drifting straight down out of a cold black sky, yet the leaves of the heart tree were rustling his name. "Theon," they seemed to whisper, "Theon." The old gods, he thought. They know me. They know my name. I was Theon of House Greyjoy. I was a ward of Eddard Stark, a friend and brother to his children. "Please." He fell to his knees. "A sword, that's all I ask. Let me die as Theon, not as Reek." Tears trickled down his cheeks, impossibly warm. "I was ironborn. A son … a son of Pyke, of the islands." A leaf drifted down from above, brushed his brow, and landed in the pool. It floated on the water, red, five-fingered, like a bloody hand. ‘’Bran,’’ the tree murmered. They know. The gods know. They saw what I did. And for one strange moment it seemed as if it were Bran’s face carved into the pale trunk of the weirwood, staring down at him with eyes red and wise and sad. Bran’s ghost, he thought, but that was madness. Why should Bran want to haunt him? [A Ghost in Winterfell, ADWD] Looking for any progression in Bran’s powers, the night was windless and yet the leaves were still rustling Theon’s name. Is this evidence that Bran is controlling the tree with more ease now? Has his control over the leaves progressed? With that in mind the next passage is interesting. After the rustling of the leaves Theon clearly heard a voice as he thinks the old gods know him and his name. He then breaks down in a tear laden and heartfelt plea for some kind of mercy. In response Bran seems to send a leaf, red and five-fingered, like a bloody hand to mercifully brush his brow, as if in sympathy. Remembering how Bran wanted to reach out and touch Ned earlier but couldn’t. This seems like he is reaching out to Theon with far more success. Still very subtle but a bloody hand brushes Theon’s brow as well as the tree muttering their names…. Bran says his own name, perhaps hoping to communicate, then Theon sees Bran’s face in the weirwood and again thinks it’s a ghost, Bran’s ghost. That’s twice he has thought of the hidden presence within the weirwood as a ghost. This could apply to BR as well. The leaves rustling enabling the weirwood a voice has been consistent and bears fruit in the passages analysed above. But an author could perhaps play with this technique throughout the books to further hint at this link……. HERE ARE SOME OTHER EXAMPLES In the godswood she found her broomstick sword where she had left it, and carried it to the heart tree. There she knelt. Red leaves rustled. Red eyes peered inside her. The eyes of the gods. "Tell me what to do, you gods," she prayed. For a long moment there was no sound but the wind and the water and the creak of leaf and limb. And then, far far off, beyond the godswood and the haunted towers and the immense stone walls of Harrenhal, from somewhere out in the world, came the long lonely howl of a wolf. Gooseprickles rose on Arya's skin, and for an instant she felt dizzy. Then, so faintly, it seemed as if she heard her father's voice. "When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives," he said. [Arya X, ACOK] This time the red leaves rustled when Arya was praying for the gods advice, and we get the wind and creak of leaf and limb just to emphasise the fact. Then after another sort of old gods voice in the howl of the wolf, Arya hears that faint voice she thinks is her father’s relaying the pack survives line. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Fair." The raven landed on his shoulder. "Fair, far, fear." It flapped its wings, and screamed along with Gilly. The wights were almost on her. He heard the dark red leaves of the weirwood rustling, whispering to one another in a tongue he did not know. [Samwell III, ASOS] Rather than hearing a name or faint voice Sam would recognise, the rustling leaves are whispering in a tongue he didn’t know. Presumably this being the True Tongue. The ravens whisper the True Tongue to Coldhands and of course the CotF use it. It’s said no man can speak the True Tongue so no wonder Sam didn’t understand it. But in fact it seems the True Tongue can perhaps be learnt, but only by a select few. Ravenous Reader will take a further look at this subject in her supporting essay. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The one-armed woman died at evenfall. Gendry and Cutjack dug her grave on a hillside beneath a weeping willow. When the wind blew, Arya thought she could hear the long trailing branches whispering, "Please. Please. Please." The little hairs on the back of her neck rose, and she almost ran from the graveside. [Arya III, ACOK] A different take with this one as it is not a weirwood. Yet when the wind blew, the long trailing branches of the weeping willow gained a voice, a whisper in fact. This creeps Arya out, which is no mean feat. There is subtle variety in set up as well, the word rustle was replaced by the wind blowing through the trailing branches this time. Martin occasionally plays with the normal trees, sometimes having them speak as shown above or they grab and tug, perhaps stand in battle formation… And sometimes the wind is present in some form to make the branches croak and groan, or stir, slightly different descriptions but basically the leaves are rustling. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Silent as a shadow, she told herself as she moved through the trees. In this darkness she dared not run, for fear of tripping on some unseen root or losing her way. On her left Gods Eye lapped calmly against its shores. On her right a wind sighed through the branches, and leaves rustled and stirred. Far off, she heard the howling of wolves. [Arya V, ACOK] This example is slightly different. The leaves are rustling but this time the voice or sigh is attributed to the wind. The rustle and stir of the leaves are still there to enable that wind a voice though. [Whisper, sigh] Once the wind has been attributed a voice we get the howling wolves. The trees, wind and wolves are mentioned closely together in the text many times throughout the books. I think it’s a hint that we can link the howling wind with the howl of the wolves. That will be the subject of my second essay ‘The Howling Wind and Wolf Connection’. But before that, as promised, here is Ravenous Reader with her supporting essay on Part I. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ravenous reader Posted August 3, 2016 Share Posted August 3, 2016 6 hours ago, Wizz-The-Smith said: Before we start I would like to thank the inspiration behind this theory/essay series, the wonderful Evita mgfs. Without Evita’s OP, ideas and friendship in the Bran’s growing powers re-read thread I would not have found any of this. Thank you Evita!! I second that! Thanks for that warm introduction, @Wizz-The-Smith! It’s been a pleasure wordsmithing with you on this essay series – as we’ll show, two voices or more are better than one –developing the seeds of thought that were planted by @evita mgfs in the quintessential ‘Bran’s Growing Powers’ re-read thread. If you’re out there on the wind listening, as I’m sure you must somewhere be: We miss you Evita! This one’s for you: THE LORD’S WORDS 6 hours ago, Wizz-The-Smith said: Osha studied him. "You asked them and they're answering. Open your ears, listen, you'll hear." Bran listened. "It's only the wind," he said after a moment, uncertain. "The leaves are rustling." "Who do you think sends the wind, if not the gods?" She seated herself across the pool from him, clinking faintly as she moved. Mikken had fixed iron manacles to her ankles, with a heavy chain between them; she could walk, so long as she kept her strides small, but there was no way for her to run, or climb, or mount a horse. "They see you, boy. They hear you talking. That rustling, that's them talking back." [Bran VI, AGOT] This is an intimation of Bran’s fate. When he finally meets Bloodraven in the future, this same connection is literally reinforced, namely between a god talking and the ‘rustling of wood and leaf’ as an embodiment of that god: Quote A Dance with Dragons - Bran III The singers made Bran a throne of his own, like the one Lord Brynden sat, white weirwood flecked with red, dead branches woven through living roots. They placed it in the great cavern by the abyss, where the black air echoed to the sound of running water far below. Of soft grey moss they made his seat. Once he had been lowered into place, they covered him with warm furs. There he sat, listening to the hoarse whispers of his teacher. "Never fear the darkness, Bran." The lord's words were accompanied by a faint rustling of wood and leaf, a slight twisting of his head. "The strongest trees are rooted in the dark places of the earth. Darkness will be your cloak, your shield, your mother's milk. Darkness will make you strong." Note that in this passage GRRM refers to Bloodraven by his alternative name ‘Lord Brynden,’ so that his words to Bran are literally ‘the Lord’s words’ -- a clever wordplay on both his title ‘Lord’ and the more common association with a god (e.g. ‘the gospel of the Lord [Jesus Christ]’). The Lord’s teachings are delivered in the susurrations of ‘hoarse whispers’ and ‘faint rustling’ accompanying the articulation of every word. Because he is part tree, every time he speaks or turns his head he rustles! 6 hours ago, Wizz-The-Smith said: "Theon," a voice seemed to whisper. His head snapped up. "Who said that?" All he could see were the trees and the fog that covered them. The voice had been as faint as rustling leaves, as cold as hate. A god's voice, or a ghost's. How many died the day that he took Winterfell? How many more the day he lost it? The day that Theon Greyjoy died, to be reborn as Reek. Reek, Reek, it rhymes with shriek. Suddenly he did not want to be here. [Prince of Winterfell, ADWD] True to form the voice was associated with the rustling leaves. The next bit of text I highlighted as it comes up again and helps explain some parts of my third essay. Theon thinks of this voice as being a god’s voice, or a ghost’s, which is rather poignant as Bran pretty much is the old gods at this point. The thought it may be a ghost’s voice is also apt considering Theon is being watched and seemingly spoken too by a tree rustling in the wind. A ‘ghost’ is also a fitting attribution for Bran specifically, especially with respect to Theon. Firstly, it’s clear that despite all his despicable acts, Theon has a conscience which preys on him, or he wouldn’t agonize about what he’s done to other people: ‘How many died the day that he took Winterfell? How many more the day he lost it?’ One might say Theon is haunted by the things he’s done and the people he’s hurt, hence Bran is Theon’s ghost. Secondly, due to Theon’s actions (ousting Bran from Winterfell and burning the millers’ boys), Bran is widely presumed to be dead, making his continued presence a bit ‘ghostly’! Likewise, his mentor Brynden Rivers is presumed to be dead (having disappeared from the Watch and having surpassed in years his natural expected lifespan). Symbolically there is a certain truth to this ‘death’ too, since ‘Brynden,’ the man he used to be, has been transformed into ‘Bloodraven,’ and his lifespan is being magically prolonged by a tree. Because they are both presumed dead, and therefore essentially invisible to the realm, Bran and Bloodraven have literally and symbolically ‘gone underground.’ ‘Darkness will be your cloak.’ This new status gives them an advantage as secret agents, who may as well be ghosts. As undercover agents, they are the ones who see without being seen, so using the language of a ‘spy’ network is apt. In The World of Ice and Fire, the weirwoods/greenseers are alluded to as such a spy network, at least in the eyes of the First Men: Quote The World of Ice and Fire - Ancient History: The Dawn Age Others, with little evidence, claim that the greenseers—the wise men of the children—were able to see through the eyes of the carved weirwoods. The supposed proof is the fact that the First Men themselves believed this; it was their fear of the weirwoods spying upon them that drove them to cut down many of the carved trees and weirwood groves, to deny the children such an advantage. In surveillance terms, it’s difficult for others to track a ghost, one who has ‘gone off the grid.’ After Theon takes Winterfell, Bran and Rickon and their friends literally go underground by hiding out in the crypts, an ideal cover considering it is a place others prefer not to look into too closely since it is thought to be frequented by Stark ghosts – indeed! Bran’s status as a ghost has been foreshadowed as early as AGOT: Quote A Game of Thrones - Bran II Most of all, he liked going places that no one else could go, and seeing the grey sprawl of Winterfell in a way that no one else ever saw it. It made the whole castle Bran's secret place. His favorite haunt was the broken tower. Once it had been a watchtower, the tallest in Winterfell. A long time ago, a hundred years before even his father had been born, a lightning strike had set it afire. The top third of the structure had collapsed inward, and the tower had never been rebuilt. Sometimes his father sent ratters into the base of the tower, to clean out the nests they always found among the jumble of fallen stones and charred and rotten beams. But no one ever got up to the jagged top of the structure now except for Bran and the crows. In a sense, Bran is the ghost of Winterfell who ‘haunts’ the broken tower, which is a poignant location considering it’s the same tower from which he was pushed, heralding his possible death and beginning his transformation. THE GENIUS LOCI -- THE SPIRIT OF THE PLACE As an aside, there’s also the mythological and literary figure of ‘the genius loci’ or ‘the spirit [i.e. ghost] of the place’ of which I’m reminded, which might be relevant. The following quotes are from Wikipedia: Quote In classical Roman religion, a genius loci (plural genii loci) was the protective spirit of a place. It was often depicted in religious iconography as a figure holding attributes such as a cornucopia, patera (libation bowl) or snake. Many Roman altars found throughout theWestern Roman Empire were dedicated to a particular genius loci. The Roman imperial cults of the Emperor and the imperial house developed in part in connections with the sacrifices made by neighborhood associations (vici) to the local genius. These 265 local districts[1]had their cult organised around the Lares Compitales (guardian spirits or lares of the crossroads), which the emperor Augustus transformed into Lares Augusti along with the Genius Augusti.[2] The Emperor's genius is then regarded as the genius loci of the Roman Empire as a whole…. Brandon Stark, like so many of his namesakes before him, particularly Winterfell’s and House Stark’s founding father, namely Brandon the Builder, is the protective spirit of Winterfell and the heart-- like the heart tree which embodies him—of House Stark. I’m not going to elaborate on the symbolism of the cornucopia, patera/libation bowl or snake, since that’s not my primary intention here. However, you’ll be able to recognize that each of these symbols is applicable, and has already been applied by the author, to Bran. In addition to being a guardian, the genius is a tutelary spirit bringing a wealth of knowledge to bear. In the following poem, cited in the same Wikipedia article, the genius is a kind of architect consultant who instructs the landscape designers. With a bit of a stretch, this is reminiscent of Bran the Builder! And, on a meta-level this might have some relevance, considering GRRM fancies himself a ‘gardener’! With reference to Bran and Bloodraven, the genius governs the natural elements and possesses a directing voice ‘that tells the waters to rise or fall…calls in the country…’ Quote Alexander Pope made the Genius Loci an important principle in garden and landscape design with the following lines from Epistle IV, to Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington: Consult the genius of the place in all; That tells the waters or to rise, or fall; Or helps th' ambitious hill the heav'ns to scale, Or scoops in circling theatres the vale;Calls in the country, catches opening glades, Joins willing woods, and varies shades from shades, Now breaks, or now directs, th' intending lines; Paints as you plant, and, as you work, designs. Pope's verse laid the foundation for one of the most widely agreed principles of landscape architecture. This is the principle that landscape designs should always be adapted to the context in which they are located... The trope of ‘genius loci’ is nothing new in the fantasy genre either: Quote In modern works of fantasy, such as Dungeons and Dragons or The Dresden Files, a genius loci is an intelligent spirit or magical power that resides in a place. Very few genius loci of this form are able to move from their native area, either because they are "part of the land" or because they are bound to it. Genius loci are usually portrayed as being extremely powerful and usually also very intelligent, though there is a great deal of variability on these points. Some versions are nearly omnipotent and omniscient inside the area they inhabit, while others are simply vast, semi-sentient wellsprings of magical energy. This power almost never extends beyond the border of the genius loci. While Bran is immobilized by his paralysis and rooted with Bloodraven in the tree, GRRM seems to have circumvented this ‘rule’ of immobility, i.e. that the influence of the genius loci remains strictly localized or bound to a circumscribed area, by extending the reach of their powers via the liberating concept of the weirwood network and greenseeing abilities. Quote Different settings give different explanations for the existence of genius loci. In most cases, however, the intelligent, magical entity simply develops from the similarly named "spirit of place" over a great deal of time. In other settings, genius loci are formed by powerful magical events, and in others they are the results of ley lines, mana pools, or an equivalent. OTHER GHOSTLY FIGURES AND FINGERS Quote 6 hours ago, Wizz-The-Smith said: There is also a play on the word ghost going on here. We have met two characters with the name Ghost, Jon’s direwolf and The Ghost of High Heart. Both of whom are albinos and likened to the weirwood trees, white skin and red eyes. I think there is a connection between the three which we can link to the ghostly feel around the weirwoods, and also apply to BR and Bran in the form of the wind as it grabs or plucks with ‘ghostly fingers’. We will touch on that again in Part III, ‘a presence in the wind’. Nice catch. The Ghost of High Heart is described as ‘shrunken and feeble but not yet dead.’ In her truncated form and with her distinctive coloring, she’s like a weirwood stump. Similarly, Bran is like a tree which has been ‘felled’ via the fall which took his legs from under him; nevertheless, he like the stump and the ghost still harbors enormous power. In addition, there’s the diminutive, yet daunting figure of ‘Old Nan,’ who while not a pun (as far as I can see…) nor an albino, is a seemingly eternal fixture at Winterfell, who’s a bit of a mystery herself and likes telling ghost stories! She embodies the archetypes of the Crone and the Stranger. I thought of her following the quote you mentioned in one of our discussions, where her wrinkled ‘plucking fingers’ are eerily highlighted. Considering the ‘plucking’ connection to music, among other connotations, which we’ll get into later in the essays, Nan as a storyteller and historical archivist is a kind of ‘singer’ or prophet like the other ‘ghosts.’ GRRM lied to us in the prologue: ‘Dead men’ (i.e. ‘ghosts’) do indeed sing songs! Quote A Clash of Kings - Bran III Bran watched Farlen make his red bitch beg for bones and smiled at Old Nan plucking at the crust of a hot pie with wrinkled fingers. A Game of Thrones - Bran IV The old woman smiled at him toothlessly. "My stories? No, my little lord, not mine. The stories are, before me and after me, before you too." She was a very ugly old woman, Bran thought spitefully; shrunken and wrinkled, almost blind, too weak to climb stairs, with only a few wisps of white hair left to cover a mottled pink scalp. No one really knew how old she was, but his father said she'd been called Old Nan even when he was a boy. She was the oldest person in Winterfell for certain, maybe the oldest person in the Seven Kingdoms. Nan had come to the castle as a wet nurse for a Brandon Stark whose mother had died birthing him. He had been an older brother of Lord Rickard, Bran's grandfather, or perhaps a younger brother, or a brother to Lord Rickard's father. Sometimes Old Nan told it one way and sometimes another. In all the stories the little boy died at three of a summer chill, but Old Nan stayed on at Winterfell with her own children. She had lost both her sons to the war when King Robert won the throne, and her grandson was killed on the walls of Pyke during Balon Greyjoy's rebellion. Her daughters had long ago married and moved away and died. All that was left of her own blood was Hodor, the simpleminded giant who worked in the stables, but Old Nan just lived on and on, doing her needlework and telling her stories. Like the Ghost of High Heart, Nan is a ‘shrunken’ figure. Like Bloodraven, she’s ‘almost blind’—evoking the well-worn trope of the ‘blind seer.’ Similarly, she seems to have an inexhaustible lifespan, and, based on how her stories seem to shift while simultaneously jumbling up the characters with one another, sometimes it seems she’s lived more lives than one! There’s also undeniably something slightly menacing about Nan, as there is with all ghost-like figures who seem so near to death yet never seem to die. In the example above, she plucks at a ‘hot pie,’ an image which has a vaguely cannibalistic feel to it, considering we’re familiar with the human version of ‘Hot Pie.’ In this disquieting vein, the frequent repetition of the sound of her ‘needles’ and ‘doing her needlework’ is meant to remind us of Arya’s version of ‘Needle’ and ‘needlework.’ Then, when Arya infiltrates the ranks as the ‘ghost of Harrenhal,’ one of the aliases she chooses in her undercover assassin-guise is ‘Nan.’ Like Arya, Nan has her needles which go ‘click click click’ like a song of swords… Quote A Game of Thrones - Bran IV "I know a story about a boy who hated stories," Old Nan said with her stupid little smile, her needles moving all the while, click click click, until Bran was ready to scream at her. WHO ENABLES WHOM? I was musing on the title itself of your introductory essay part I ‘Rustling leaves enabling a voice,’ prompting questions about subject and object of said speaking and enabling. In other words, who found a voice and who exactly was enabled? It's interesting to consider that the ‘enabled’ voice in question rather than being a one-sided, unidirectional utterance emanating only from Bran is more accurately characterized as an exchange of voices back and forth – an evocation beyond mere vocalization-- between Bran and Theon. Thus, just as the breath (a kind of wind!) itself is a biphasic movement in which inspiration and expiration inextricably follow each other, so too question gives rise to answer, and vice versa. As you so eloquently highlighted above, the woods ‘give answer’ to the question ‘who goes there?’ In the Bran-Theon interchange, Bran speaks Theon’s name, as if intuiting the answer Reek/Theon needs ahead of the question. The answer Reek’s been looking for, without perhaps realizing it, is ‘Theon,’ his true name with all that entails. The underlying unspoken question Reek/Theon is asking is ‘Who am I?’ although the voiced question is ‘Who said that?’ Later, kneeling before the tree and affirming his true identity, Theon asks for mercy and redemption, to which Bran responds by reaching down and comforting him. Bran is the ‘god’ or ‘ghost’ in question inspiring Theon, who reciprocally as ‘Reek’ has in a sense become a ghost of his former self, the name ‘Theon’ literally meaning ‘godly’ (that reminds me of the injunction, ‘only a godly man can sit the Seastone chair…’). Adding a further dimension, doesn’t this interchange also take place in the eponymous chapter ‘A Ghost in Winterfell’ which again, as in the case of the ‘voice,’ is equivocal regarding the identity of the ghost? The implication is that Bran reaches out to Theon, inspiring him to take charge of his life, and take action against the forces occupying Winterfell. Moreover, Theon gets additional ghostly input by visiting the sacred space of the Winterfell crypts (crypts/caves/hollows/all those chthonic old god spaces). Thus, while Theon may be in the process of shrugging off his ghostly, ghastly ‘Reek’ identity, he also gains other ghostly powers attributable to the Starks and the old gods. As such, Theon is likely to follow in the footsteps of another ghost, his namesake Theon Stark, the hungry wolf (could Theon, like Arya, be a kind of ‘night wolf’ responsible for the mysterious killings of the Boltons and their allies at Winterfell?). Similar to Catelyn's initiation by Summer and the blood-communion following the intrusion of Bran's would-be assassin in which she joins Summer in biting her attacker, of which we've previously spoken at length in the ‘Bran’s growing powers’ thread, Theon has ‘gotten his bite back,’ thanks to Bran’s wolfish facilitation! Blood is also involved in the initiation as evidenced by Bran's blood red hand brushing Theon's forehead, a bit like a priest blessing a congregant seeking communion (after the imbibition of the wine symbolizing the god-blood) by laying hands on his/her head, and thereby symbolically opening the Christian equivalent of his/her third eye. As we’ve previously discussed, although GRRM is a lapsed Catholic, the rich iconography of Catholicism has been indelibly imprinted on him, often breaking through in his writing. Accordingly, he frequently incorporates these elements with corresponding archetypal figures derived from Eastern religions, e.g. Buddha attaining enlightenment sitting under the Bodhi tree, which echoes Bran and Theon in their relations to the weirwood). I've noted in my previously aborted essay (a brief foray into examining ‘winds’ and all that entails in the Iron Islands) that Theon in his split identity is literally the embodiment of a 'seawolf,' substantiated by all those quotes comparing the Ironborn more generally to sea wolves (by the way, a lot of the ideas we've unearthed dovetail with @Feather Crystal's not-so-wild notion of the wheel of time and its inversions; have you been following that discussion, specifically regarding the transposition of north and south, east and west, the sea and the drowned men coming to Winterfell; the essays in question ‘The Prophet’ and 'The Drowned man'?): http://houseofblackandwhite.freeforums.net/thread/38/prophet-affc-chapter-1 and http://houseofblackandwhite.freeforums.net/thread/33/drowned-man-affc-chapter-19 In effect, Bran’s developing powers awaken latent powers in others whom he touches, as demonstrated here by Theon rekindling his lost ‘voice,’ understood as embracing his ‘real’ name, identity, and capacity for self-assertion and self-realization. In this respect, the figurative use of godly/ghostly ‘inspiration’ is clear with its connections to breath/wind/trees as vehicles of language (‘in the beginning there was the Word…’) and spiritual enlightenment, akin to the original meaning of the word ‘enthusiasm,’ which like the derivative of ‘Theon’ contains the god-concept, meaning literally to be filled with and/or possessed by the god. Interestingly, ‘enthusiasm’ or divine inspiration also has a dark side (GRRM’s characteristic meditations on the essential dualism permeating all things), which reminded me of the ‘anti-Bran’ Euron and the more nefarious aspects of skinchanging and greenseeing (for more on Euron as failed apprentice of Bloodraven see @DarkSister1001's thread ‘Euron the abomination’)). According to Wikipedia, one archaic derogatory meaning of ‘enthusiasm’ was ‘religious fervor supposedly resulting directly from divine inspiration, typically involving speaking in tongues and wild, uncoordinated movements of the body…’ The ‘wild, uncoordinated movements’ and ‘speaking in tongues’ reminded me of Varamyr’s violent spiritual assault of the spearwife culminating in her biting off her tongue and ripping off her face in a grotesque ‘song and dance’ (‘dance’ like ‘song’ is used by GRRM to denote love and war, including abominations of both of these). Similarly, Euron's manner of ‘speaking in tongues’ involves removing the tongues and willpower of others (the hinge ‘shrieking’ and the mutilated mutes aboard the ominous Silence). In short, he augments his own voice and power by depriving others of theirs. THE SONG OF THE EARTH In terms of ‘enabling a voice,’ Euron is an advocate of disabling others while enabling himself. He ‘sings’ in dissonant shrieks and has perverted the song. In contrast, we heard Bran and Theon engaging in a more harmonious duet. A further beautiful example of this mutual enabling of voices is when Bran is lying in a coma and the wolves intuitively sing to him and with one another, which elicits a corresponding physiological response—an answer -- in Bran’s heartbeat. I like to think of Bran’s heart singing along with the wolves: Quote A Game of Thrones - Tyrion I "If he wakes," Cersei repeated. "Is that likely?" "The gods alone know," Tyrion told her. "The maester only hopes." He chewed some more bread. "I would swear that wolf of his is keeping the boy alive. The creature is outside his window day and night, howling. Every time they chase it away, it returns. The maester said they closed the window once, to shut out the noise, and Bran seemed to weaken. When they opened it again, his heart beat stronger." A Game of Thrones - Catelyn III Outside the tower, a wolf began to howl. Catelyn trembled, just for a second. "Bran's." Robb opened the window and let the night air into the stuffy tower room. The howling grew louder. It was a cold and lonely sound, full of melancholy and despair. "Don't," she told him. "Bran needs to stay warm." "He needs to hear them sing," Robb said. Somewhere out in Winterfell, a second wolf began to howl in chorus with the first. Then a third, closer. "Shaggydog and Grey Wind," Robb said as their voices rose and fell together. "You can tell them apart if you listen close." Catelyn was shaking. It was the grief, the cold, the howling of the direwolves. Night after night, the howling and the cold wind and the grey empty castle, on and on they went… Note the presence of the wind bringing the healing wolf song which enters via the open window. Robb, being a warg and therefore intimately attuned to Grey Wind and Summer’s summons, knows exactly what his brother needs. This ‘song’ is not a solo; it’s a prayer for two or more voices (you know, the all-important ‘and’ of asoiAf!) This give-and-take, back-and-forth, rhythmic rise-and-fall is the music of the earth and the spheres, which can only truly be appreciated in the fullness of time by those with a long-enough memory and a well-tuned ear: Quote A Clash of Kings - Bran IV The years pass in their hundreds and their thousands, and what does any man see of life but a few summers, a few winters? We look at mountains and call them eternal, and so they seem . . . but in the course of time, mountains rise and fall, rivers change their courses, stars fall from the sky, and great cities sink beneath the sea. Even gods die, we think. Everything changes. Maester Luwin betrays his pessimistic biases here, choosing to focus predominantly on the ‘falling’ rather than the ‘rising’ arc of history. Given that he’s willing to admit the geological reality of the fall along with the rise of mountains, though counterintuitive, then logically the converse might also be conceivable for the other respective elements he lists. Accordingly, stars may rise, and fall; new cities shall emerge from the depths of the ocean, just as the old are swallowed; Spoiler [show spoiler: this idea of the rise-and-fall of civilizations is graphically represented in the opening credits of the HBO show as designed by the aptly-named Angus ‘Wall,’ where cities and towns are shown organically sprouting out of the map and then subsiding one after the other, governed by a system of cogs, gears, and pulleys; finally, the armillary sphere, a mechanical instrument designed to study celestial recurrences, seen in the concluding sequence with its complex mobile system of orbits and axes, hints at even higher-order cyclical variabilities governing events] Gods will be born while others die; even magic waxes and wanes, although Luwin is adamant that’s definitively done and dusted! On a relatively more relatable scale, focusing for example on the trees many of whom are very old compared to human life expectancies, this motion of constant dynamic change – the rise-and-fall --which nevertheless has its own perceptible rhythm can still be discerned by those who ‘listen’, and is poetically described as breathing (e.g. ‘sighing,’ ‘heaving’…) or singing. Regarding ‘those who sing the song of earth,’ as pointed out by @evita mgfs and @wolfmaid7 in the thread (now closed) ‘Those who sing,’ the ‘those’ in question refers more broadly than merely being the exclusive province of the so-called ‘children of the forest’: Quote Quote · But “those” is a plural pronoun, and indefinite for it refers to no one individually with an honorific. · “Those” also is a vague reference, because it has no antecedent for clarity. It seems the singers are “nameless” as individuals, but collectively, they share one name. I love this because, i was trying to drive home and i think Leaf and BR was attempting to do the same thing too, that the term "singers" is limiting and does not really show the magnitude that "Those who sing" include not only the COTF, but also the Direwolves,Crows,Trees etc. Indeed, ‘those who sing’ includes not only various animate beings, including direwolves, dragons, crows, and trees, etc., but also those considered inanimate, for example wind, stone, and rain. In the World of Ice and Fire, we are told: Quote The World of Ice and Fire - Ancient History: The Dawn Age Their song and music was said to be as beautiful as they were, but what they sang of is not remembered save in small fragments handed down from ancientdays. Maester Childer's Winter's Kings, or the Legends and Lineages of the Starks of Winterfell contains a part of a ballad alleged to tell of the time Brandon the Builder sought the aid of the children while raising the Wall. He was taken to a secret place to meet with them, but could not at first understand their speech, which was described as sounding like the song of stones in a brook, or the wind through leaves, or the rain upon the water. The manner in which Brandon learned to comprehend the speech of the children is a tale in itself, and not worth repeating here. But it seems clear that their speech originated, or drew inspiration from, the sounds they heard every day. Thus, the world abounds in many voices, intentions and communications, which at first may be difficult to comprehend. GRRM highlights that these songs fulfil both an aesthetic and pragmatic (Brandon the builder approaches the children for engineering advice) function. THE SILMARILLION Mysteriously, perhaps even those who sing out of tune may contribute something to the grander narrative. Talking of musical allusions, the name 'Marillion' is a nod from George RR Martin to John RR Tolkien (note the consonance, assonance and alliteration in their names!), referencing the latter's posthumously published book 'The Silmarillion' in which Tolkien imagines the creation of the world, including the incorporation of dissonant voices -- 'evil' ones such as Melkor (? Analogous to 'the Great Other') who seduced others such as Sauron (Martin's Euron) -- as an act of singing. The ‘Valar’ might be an analog of the old gods who took natural form on earth, 'becoming bound to that world,' reminiscent of becoming bound to a tree! Quote From wikipedia: The Silmarillion /sɪlməˈrɪlᵻən/ is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic works, edited and published posthumously by his son,Christopher Tolkien, in 1977, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay,[2] who later became a noted fantasy writer. The Silmarillion, along with J. R. R. Tolkien's other works, forms an extensive, though incomplete, narrative that describes the universe of Eä in which are found the lands of Valinor, Beleriand, Númenor, and Middle-earth within which The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place The first section of The Silmarillion, Ainulindalë ("The Music of the Ainur"[7]), takes the form of a primary creation narrative. Eru ("The One"[8]), also called Ilúvatar ("Father of All"), first created the Ainur, a group of eternal spirits or demiurges, called "the offspring of his thought". Ilúvatar brought the Ainur together and showed them a theme, from which he bade them make a great music. Melkor — whom Ilúvatar had given the "greatest power and knowledge" of all the Ainur — broke from the harmony of the music to develop his own song. Some Ainur joined him, while others continued to follow Ilúvatar, causing discord in the music. This happened thrice, with Eru Ilúvatar successfully overpowering his rebellious subordinate with a new theme each time. Ilúvatar then stopped the music and showed them a vision of Arda and its peoples. The vision disappeared after a while, and Ilúvatar offered the Ainur a chance to enter into Arda and govern over the new world. Many Ainur descended, taking physical form and becoming bound to that world. The greater Ainur became known as the Valar, while the lesser Ainur were called the Maiar. The Valar attempted to prepare the world for the coming inhabitants (Elves and Men), while Melkor, who wanted Arda for himself, repeatedly destroyed their work; this went on for thousands of years until, through waves of destruction and creation, the world took shape. Valaquenta ("Account of the Valar"[7]) describes Melkor and each of the 14 Valar in detail, as well as a few of the Maiar. It also reveals how Melkor seduced many Maiar — including those who would eventually become Sauron and the Balrogs — into his service. PLUCKING Now, in order to enrich our understanding of some of the themes we’ve been discussing, let’s turn to an examination of a particular word-choice – ‘plucking.’ This unusual word is repeated throughout the text, and is associated with a suggestive profusion of allusions. This ‘overdetermination of meaning’ is one of GRRM’s signature techniques of which there are a myriad examples in his writing, so without further ado let’s get started… Above, Wizz mentioned the personified wind 'plucking with ghostly fingers’—I love this vivid image! -- connecting it with various ‘ghostly’ presences including the weirwoods, Bran, Bloodraven, the Ghost of High Heart, and ‘Ghost’ Jon’s direwolf, to which I added Nan, the undisputed mistress of the ghost story. Quote A Dance with Dragons - The Prince of Winterfell Suddenly he did not want to be here. Once outside the godswood the cold descended on him like a ravening wolf and caught him in its teeth. He lowered his head into the wind and made for the Great Hall, hastening after the long line of candles and torches. Ice crunched beneath his boots, and a sudden gust pushed back his hood, as if a ghost had plucked at him with frozen fingers, hungry to gaze upon his face. Winterfell was full of ghosts for Theon Greyjoy. In terms of the senses with which GRRM enjoys playing, ‘plucking’ first and foremost evokes the tactile sense – picking, groping, grasping, etc. -- from which an appeal to the other senses, primarily that of sound, but also sight, taste and smell follow. In addition, there are more abstract connotations which can be derived. In line with his emphasis on the sense of touch and how it figuratively relates to having a wider sphere of influence, he gives the wind and trees human-like features with which to pluck, including ‘fingers,’ ‘hands,’ and ‘arms,’ and even ‘teeth,’ the full significance of which we’ll develop further in subsequent essays. However, ‘plucking’ is not exclusive to wind and trees. We will consider a number of different contexts in which this word occurs. Brainstorming on the word ‘plucking,’ we find that it evokes several intertwined themes, which I’ll outline and discuss: Resonating with the ‘song’ analogy I’ve underscored, the word ‘plucks’ connotes someone making music (plucking out a memorable song on a silver-stringed harp, perhaps…). A synonym for ‘plucking’ in this sense would be ‘strumming’ or ‘picking out’ a tune. Unlike Rhaegar whom we never meet in person, most singers we actually encounter in the text, e.g. Marillion and Tom Sevenstrings, pluck on ‘woodharps,’ so that’s a concrete example of wood that sings, perhaps containing a suggestion, by extension, of other kinds of wood e.g. a forest of weirwood trees that may be able to sing as well! As ‘plucking’ is mostly associated with playing a string instrument specifically, there is also an inevitable association with ‘pulling the strings’ or ‘playing someone,’ which links back to Wizz’s highlighted ‘wind plucking with ghostly fingers’ implying some unseen agent manipulating things behind the scenes. Besides those underlined, other synonyms for ‘plucking’ in this sense might be ‘fiddling,’ ‘meddling,’ ‘orchestrating,’ ‘ensnaring,’ or ‘seducing.’ The idea of ‘getting someone to dance to ones tune’ got me thinking about the various strands of the wider web of intrigue. 'Strings for the pulling' may be found on musical instruments, puppets ( @The Fattest Leechhad an interesting take on Pinocchio, remember), spider webs, and with some imagination the roots of the ‘weirnet’ represent a bunch of telecommunication wires/cables. Even the threads or yarns involved in the seemingly harmless activity of sewing, knitting or weaving are potentially alive with metaphorical intrigue. In all of these cases, the ‘strings’ are organised and controlled centrally from a main hub, keeping an eye and ear on proceedings. In a nutshell, ‘plucking’ is finally GRRM’s grand metaphor for the creative process of storytelling. There are some interesting side-effects/ramifications of 'plucking,' in that fiddling with one string may have unforeseen, inadvertent consequences on neighboring strings, or even those farther afield. Perfect control of the music in the hands of one musician is in the end not possible, not even for a master conductor. In ADWD-Tyrion I, Ilyrio says: ‘the world is one great web, and a man dare not touch a single strand lest all the others tremble.’ Another observation is that playing ones music, or finding ones own voice, often requires the reciprocal silencing of others. Previously, I mentioned how Euron augments his own voice by diminishing others, symbolically 'speaks in tongues' by ripping out the tongues of others. In the following quote from AGOT-Eddard VIII, Ned muses on how some truths are bought at the expense of ones own silence, or that of another, while getting a vague inkling that he is being played: ‘Lord Stannis shared the secret Jon Arryn had died for, he was certain of it. The truth he sought might very well be waiting for him on the ancient island fortress of House Targaryen. And when you have it, what then? Some secrets are safer kept hidden. Some secrets are too dangerous to share, even with those you love and trust. Ned slid the dagger that Catelyn had brought him out of the sheath on his belt. The Imp's knife. Why would the dwarf want Bran dead? To silence him, surely. Another secret, or only a different strand of the same web?' ‘Plucks’ also conjures up animal associations: in particular bird/feather imagery (with attendant singing and predation associations) Plucking is eating (including uncomfortable associations of killing, scavenging, savagery, and even cannibalism…e.g. the old Nan example I gave earlier) Plants: Picking/uprooting (e.g. roses and trees) Sexuality, conquest, consummation, de-flowering. Moreover, it’s not coincidental that in GRRM’s world where we’re reminded incessantly that ‘Reek rhymes with freak,’ likewise ‘plucking rhymes with…’ Power, de-throning as de-flowering (e.g. ‘War of the Roses’ analogy Plucking fruits echoes seminal mythological references e.g. apple of discord, garden of eden, snake in the garden, etc., e.g. Littlefinger presenting Sansa with fruit platters and preying on her weakness for lemon cakes. He hopes to ‘pluck’ Sansa by enticing her to ‘pluck’ his sweet (not) fruits. Sansa’s plucking – her ‘agency’ -- is overshadowed by that of Littlefinger. She can’t win by plucking with him; however he is certainly plucking with her! ‘Playing the game’ involves lots of plucking, including all of the above faculties, and being ‘plucky’! e.g. ‘plucks up courage’… so s/he who risks/dares/wages, wins, but also hazards losing much. Notably, cyvasse pieces, including dragons, are frequently plucked -- make of that what you will..! This ties in with my next related point: Theft and capture (in the sense of grabbing, nabbing, abducting…e.g. Lyanna the blue winter rose of Winterfell was plucked by someone), and thereby enriching oneself by depriving another Also used in the sense of daring rescue/escape from danger, e.g. pluck out of the sea Ultimately, one man’s/woman’s life-giving plucking is another’s death (‘plucking’ is sometimes used euphemistically in the sense of ‘removing someone from the board/game’, to use a cyvasse analogy). Although I’ve broken down the different connotations in ‘bullet’ outline above for convenience, it’s important to keep in mind that whenever ‘pluck-’ is used in the text, all of these meanings are potentially implied and work together. ‘Pluck’ is usually used as a transitive verb, implying a system of object relations whereby someone – the subject – is doing the plucking (usually, but not always, the preferable position), while another – the object – is being plucked (again, usually, but not always, an unfortunate state of affairs). Following this paradigm: eager to pluck and avoid being plucked, many ‘birds’ including Bran, Bloodraven, the Crow's Eye, the High Sparrow, etc. are joining this often-raucous chorus. A bird such as ‘Littlefinger’ also enjoys playing others like a fiddle-- fiddling and plucking (it rhymes with…!) around with his little ghostly finger(s) behind the scenes. In illustration, some quotes I’ve plucked from the text for your further enjoyment: In the following, fittingly, Arya – in keeping with her role of wolf predator assassin – is the one doing the plucking rather than being plucked. As such, she is frequently associated with plucking birds and worms. She is the one who ‘plucks the fowl/foul’ (foreshadowing..?!): Quote A Game of Thrones - Arya V Her lord father had taught her never to steal, but it was growing harder to remember why. If she did not get out soon, she would have to take her chances with the gold cloaks. She hadn't gone hungry much since she learned to knock down birds with her stick sword, but she feared so much pigeon was making her sick. A couple she'd eaten raw, before she found Flea Bottom. In the Bottom there were pot-shops along the alleys where huge tubs of stew had been simmering for years, and you could trade half your bird for a heel of yesterday's bread and a "bowl o' brown," and they'd even stick the other half in the fire and crisp it up for you, so long as you plucked the feathers yourself. A Clash of Kings - Arya IV Dobber told Arya to pluck the fowl while Gendry split wood. "Why can't I split the wood?" she asked, but no one listened. Sullenly, she set to plucking a chicken while Yoren sat on the end of the bench sharpening the edge of his dirk with a whetstone. When the food was ready, Arya ate a chicken leg and a bit of onion. A Clash of Kings - Arya X Lord Bolton beckoned her closer. "I am bled sufficiently. Nan, you may remove the leeches." "At once, my lord." It was best never to make Roose Bolton ask twice… The leeches wriggled slowly between her fingers as she plucked them carefully from the lord's body, their pale bodies moist to the touch and distended with blood. They're only leeches, she reminded herself. If I closed my hand, they'd squish between my fingers. A Feast for Crows - Arya I "Let us see." The priest lowered his cowl. Beneath he had no face; only a yellowed skull with a few scraps of skin still clinging to the cheeks, and a white worm wriggling from one empty eye socket. "Kiss me, child," he croaked, in a voice as dry and husky as a death rattle. Does he think to scare me? Arya kissed him where his nose should be and plucked the grave worm from his eye to eat it, but it melted like a shadow in her hand. The yellow skull was melting too, and the kindliest old man that she had ever seen was smiling down at her. "No one has ever tried to eat my worm before," he said. "Are you hungry, child?" Elsewhere, another context where plucking is associated with birds, death, eating, and rescue all at once: Quote A Storm of Swords - Samwell III Ravens! They were in the weirwood, hundreds of them, thousands, perched on the bone-white branches, peering between the leaves. He saw their beaks open as they screamed, saw them spread their black wings. Shrieking, flapping, they descended on the wights in angry clouds. They swarmed round Chett's face and pecked at his blue eyes, they covered the Sisterman like flies, they plucked gobbets from inside Hake's shattered head. There were so many that when Sam looked up, he could not see the moon. "Go," said the bird on his shoulder. "Go, go, go." In contrast to Arya, Sansa is the one who is frequently passed around and plucked (like a fruit, flower, or hen), rather than the one doing the plucking. When she does pluck up the courage to pluck something according to her own taste, however, it inevitably turns out to be something treacherous (poor hapless Sansa; maybe one day, George-willing, she’ll get the art of plucking just right!): Quote A Game of Thrones - Sansa I Dense thickets of half-drowned trees pressed close around them, branches dripping with curtains of pale fungus. Huge flowers bloomed in the mud and floated on pools of stagnant water, but if you were stupid enough to leave the causeway to pluck them, there were quicksands waiting to suck you down, and snakes watching from the trees, and lizard-lions floating half-submerged in the water, like black logs with eyes and teeth. Could these dubious blooms and swamp creatures floating on ‘stagnant water’ represent Sansa’s stagnant ‘love affairs’: Joffrey -- quicksand (he dragged her down, although to be sure, the sand in his hourglass did run through rather fast!); Littlefinger -- snake up a tree pretending to be a bird and preying on other bird’s nests, think the Eyrie (literally an eagle or falcon’s nest); and Tyrion -- half-submerged (half-man) half lizard-half lion...? (if you’re into A+J=T, this is music to the ears; a dragon is basically a lizard with wings, after all…). Quote A Feast for Crows - Alayne I "Four-fourteen, my lady." For a moment she forgot how old Alayne should be. "And I am no child, but a maiden flowered." "But not deflowered, one can hope." Young Lord Hunter's bushy mustache hid his mouth entirely. "Yet," said Lyn Corbray, as if she were not there. "But ripe for plucking soon, I'd say." A Feast for Crows - Alayne II The wind skirled around her, as she bumped and scraped her way down step by step. It seemed to take a lifetime. Then all at once she was at the bottom with Mya and her little lord, huddled beneath a twisted, rocky spire. Ahead stretched a high stone saddle, narrow and icy. Alayne could hear the wind shrieking, and feel it plucking at her cloak. GRRM often deliberately overlays the senses like this. As I explained above, plucking’ evokes both touch and sound, so Sansa feels and hears the effect of plucking on her body. Additionally, the use of ‘skirling’ to describe the wind is interesting in the musical context of ‘plucking,’ considering that ‘skirling’ is a ‘shrill, wailing sound especially of bagpipes.’ Elsewhere, GRRM combines these same elements again: Quote A Game of Thrones - Tyrion V ‘’Open the Moon Door." The press of spectators parted. A narrow weirwood door stood between two slender marble pillars, a crescent moon carved in the white wood. Those standing closest edged backward as a pair of guardsmen marched through. One man removed the heavy bronze bars; the second pulled the door inward. Their blue cloaks rose snapping from their shoulders, caught in the sudden gust of wind that came howling through the open door. Beyond was the emptiness of the night sky, speckled with cold uncaring stars. … "I thank you, my good lady, but I see no need to trouble Lord Robert," Tyrion said politely. "The gods know the truth of my innocence. I will have their verdict, not the judgment of men. I demand trial by combat." A storm of sudden laughter filled the High Hall of the Arryns. Lord Nestor Royce snorted, Ser Willis chuckled, Ser Lyn Corbray guffawed, and others threw back their heads and howled until tears ran down their faces. Marillion clumsily plucked a gay note on his new woodharp with the fingers of his broken hand. Even the wind seemed to whistle with derision as it came skirling through the Moon Door. Here, once again, as Wizz has highlighted, we have the intertwined trio of wind, wood, and wolf, as well as the musical elements associated with all three. Marillion plucks on his woodharp, while the wind together with the people in the hall join in the chorus of sound, ‘chuckling, snorting, guffawing, howling,’ etc. While human attributes are given to the wind, reciprocally atmospheric attributes are given to people, e.g. the laughter in the hall is described as a ‘storm.’ Animal, particularly wolfish attributes are given to both wind and humans. The personified wind, who seems to have a strong personal opinion (it whistles ‘derisively’=mockingly) on proceedings involving Tyrion, enters through the weirwood door (a rather human thing to do, entering through a door, which is moreover made of weirwood indicating an old gods’ presence). Like an additional musician in the hall it accompanies Marillion skirling like a bagpiper and whistling its ‘derisive’ tune, belying the ‘gaiety’ of Marillion’s note. Whistling, a kind of singing, has an additional connection to the old gods, particularly via the wolf element of the trio, in that this is how the Starks call their wolves. Robb Stark, in particular, used whistling as his special call to summon Grey Wind! Like a wolf, the wind in the Eyrie is described as ‘howling’ and ‘snapping,’ and interestingly the Lords of the Vale in attendance at Tyrion’s trial are described rather wolfishly ‘throwing back their heads and howling’ in the presence of the moon(door), almost as if they—like Grey Wind—had answered the call of the wind! (P.S. If you’re getting the wind and wolf mixed up, and you’re confused, it’s because you’re getting the point!) And now for some 'plucking of the heart strings...': Quote A Feast for Crows - Jaime III "Robert's beard was black. Mine is gold." "Gold? Or silver?" Cersei plucked a hair from beneath his chin and held it up. It was grey. "All the color is draining out of you, brother. You've become a ghost of what you were, a pale crippled thing. And so bloodless, always in white." She flicked the hair away. "I prefer you garbed in crimson and gold." Ooh, this is a good one. To Cersei’s mind Jaime is taking on the wrong color – in fact he’s shedding Lannister crimson and donning foreign colors, much as a tree undergoing a seasonal change might do, or a ‘turncloak’-- perhaps hinting that Jaime will eventually cut the ties and go rogue, siding with Cersei’s opponents. ‘Grey’…Starks; ‘ghostly pale white’…like Bloodraven and the other albinos of the north; ‘crippled’… like Bran; and intriguingly ‘silver’…the Targaryen metal...instead of Lannister gold – the treachery of it! Another foreshadowing of Jaime’s ‘turncloakery’: Quote A Game of Thrones - Catelyn X Even at a distance, Ser Jaime Lannister was unmistakable. The moonlight had silvered his armor and the gold of his hair, and turned his crimson cloak to black. He was not wearing a helm. He was there and he was gone again, his silvery armor obscured by the trees once more. Should you subscribe to A+J=J (+-) C as I do, then perhaps Cersei’s superficial observation that he’s a ghost of what he once was – i.e. his lost, real self -- might have the deeper meaning that his shadow identity, of which he’s unaware, is in fact Targaryen: Quote A Feast for Crows - Jaime I The brazier warmed a chamber at the bottom of a shaft where half a dozen tunnels met. On the floor he'd found a scuffed mosaic of the three-headed dragon of House Targaryen done in tiles of black and red. I know you, Kingslayer, the beast seemed to be saying. I have been here all the time, waiting for you to come to me. I think Jaime misheard the dragon: mayhaps it was saying: 'I know you kin-slayer...!' The romance of paternity theorizing aside (don’t get me started…), and back to the business of plucking -- Cersei aggressively plucking Jaime’s hair is a kind of Samson and Delilah story whereby the woman deprives the man of his power by rudely shearing his hair, i.e. an emasculation or symbolic castration which Cersei has indisputably wrought on her younger twin. Because Cersei is a ‘control-freak’ deluxe who still wants to dictate to her twin and brooks no opposition whatsoever, she not only shears his hair she tears it out by the root… in Varys-speak, ‘root and stem’! Quote A Game of Thrones - Sansa V "Treason is a noxious weed," Pycelle declared solemnly. "It must be torn up, root and stem and seed, lest new traitors sprout from every roadside." A Clash of Kings - Tyrion X “…in truth the only part of me he had need of was my manhood. He gave me a potion that made me powerless to move or speak, yet did nothing to dull my senses. With a long hooked blade, he sliced me root and stem, chanting all the while. I watched him burn my manly parts on a brazier.” Indeed, that’s Cersei’s way too: symbolically (and literally perhaps to follow) burning people’s manly parts on a brazier to release their potency for herself. As a general rule, she wants to be the plucker not the plucked! In her twincestuous relationship with Jaime, this manipulation involves suppressing any expression of individualism on his part and disingenuously ‘plucking at his heartstrings’ and the things he does for love, for her own benefit. Ominously for Cersei, however, he is no longer as enamored of her and her pluckings as he once was, as evidenced by how he no longer resembles her so closely in thought, word, deed, or appearance...although as I recall they used to be near-identical as children: Quote I prefer you dappled in sunlight, with water beading on your naked skin. He wanted to kiss her, carry her to her bedchamber, throw her on the bed. . . . she's been fucking Lancel and Osmund Kettleblack and Moon Boy . . . "I will make a bargain with you. Relieve me of this duty, and my razor is yours to command." ‘Razor is yours to command’? Is Jaime is in danger of having his head plucked off? The not-so-hidden threat implicit here is that Cersei will have Jaime ‘plucked’ and ‘flicked away,’ as neatly as she did the offending hair, should he not comply with her wishes, in line with her drive to uproot all resistance including family ties that lie between her and absolute power. Further examples of Cersei’s pluckery: Quote A Feast for Crows - Cersei IV Ser Osney drew back, wary. "I suppose. For a girl. I'd sooner have a woman." "Why not both?" she whispered. "Pluck the little rose for me, and you will not find me to be ungrateful." "The little . . . Margaery, you mean?" Ser Osney's ardor was wilting in his breeches. "She's the king's wife. Wasn't there some Kingsguard who lost his head for bedding the king's wife?" A Feast for Crows - Cersei IX "If it please Your Grace." Beneath the courtesy, there was a faint hint of unease, but he handed her the lute all the same. One does not refuse the queen's request. Cersei plucked a string and smiled at the sound. "Sweet and sad as love. Tell me, Wat . . . the first time you took Margaery to bed, was that before she wed my son, or after?" For a moment he did not seem to understand. When he did, his eyes grew large. "Your Grace has been misinformed. I swear to you, I never—" Here, Cersei takes up a lute embracing the musical aspects of plucking. Of course, you’ll be able to identify by now how multiple connotations of her ‘plucking’ the lute/loot apply. Thanks to Cersei, we can now add a further connotation to my original bulleted list: plucking as torture and extortion. Can you see the lioness’s claws just plucking away…at the lute, and at her victim! Like musicians who deliberately grow their fingernails long, or use a plectrum, in order to pluck the strings with greater facility, Cersei has claws with which to extract each exquisite note from her ‘instrument’. Interestingly, a lute (according to Wikipedia) is described in the language one might use for a human body or human lineage, contributing an additional dimension to Cersei’s craft: Quote Lute (/luːt/[1]) can refer generally to any string instrument having the strings running in a plane parallel to the sound table (in theHornbostel–Sachs system), more specifically to any plucked string instrument with a neck (either fretted or unfretted) and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes. The European lute and the modern Near-Eastern oud descend from a common ancestor via diverging evolutionary paths. Talking of loot, take it from another who knows a thing or two on the subject: Quote A Game of Thrones - Eddard VII Sansa said, "I knew the Hound would win." Littlefinger overheard. "If you know who's going to win the second match, speak up now before Lord Renly plucks me clean," he called to her. Ned smiled. "A pity the Imp is not here with us," Lord Renly said. "I should have won twice as much." A Game of Thrones - Eddard XIII Ned's neck was rigid with tension. For a moment he was so angry that he did not trust himself to speak. Littlefinger laughed. "I ought to make you say it, but that would be cruel … so have no fear, my good lord. For the sake of the love I bear for Catelyn, I will go to Janos Slynt this very hour and make certain that the City Watch is yours. Six thousand gold pieces should do it. A third for the Commander, a third for the officers, a third for the men. We might be able to buy them for half that much, but I prefer not to take chances." Smiling, he plucked up the dagger and offered it to Ned, hilt first. Others who are no strangers to plucking: Quote A Feast for Crows - The Prophet "…but the Crow's Eye was no crippled boy. The decks of Euron's ship were painted red, to better hide the blood that soaked them. Victarion. The king must be Victarion, or the storm will slay us all. Greydon left him when the sun was up, to take the news of Balon's death to his cousins in their towers at Downdelving, Crow Spike Keep, and Corpse Lake. Aeron continued on alone, up hills and down vales along a stony track that drew wider and more traveled as he neared the sea. In every village he paused to preach, and in the yards of petty lords as well. "We were born from the sea, and to the sea we all return," he told them. His voice was as deep as the ocean, and thundered like the waves. "The Storm God in his wrath plucked Balon from his castle and cast him down, and now he feasts beneath the waves in the Drowned God's watery halls." He raised his hands. "Balon is dead! The king is dead! Yet a king will come again! For what is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger! A king will rise!" Some of those who heard him threw down their hoes and picks to follow, so by the time he heard the crash of waves a dozen men walked behind his horse, touched by god and desirous of drowning. There might be some kind of connection and/or parallel between the wind/Old Gods/Blood Raven and the Storm God/Euron which has ‘plucked Balon from his castle and cast him down.’ One might say that Euron is the Eye of the Storm vs. Bloodraven the Eye of the Wind. The Prophet Aeron, in turn, uses the persuasions of his sonorous voice – ‘deep as the ocean and thunderous like waves’ -- to pluck up a few religious recruits ‘touched by god and desirous of drowning.’ In this latter example, Aeron like Euron is painted in godly terms as someone larger than life who is capable of harnessing the power of the elements in order to move others. As with ‘plucked,’ there is a tactile quality implied by the phrase ‘touched by god,’ in addition to its pejorative figurative connotation of someone ‘touched (in the head)’ implying some kind of mental aberration by which he reciprocally has an abnormal grip over the minds of others (not unlike his brother). Next, we turn to the pastime of playing a game of cyvasse and plucking your heart’s desire -- starring some dragons and Tyrion most of all: Quote A Feast for Crows - The Princess In The Tower His tale grows ever stranger. "Is that where Quentyn's gone? To Tyrosh, to court the Archon's green-haired daughter?" Her father plucked up a cyvasse piece. "I must know how you learned that Quentyn was abroad. Your brother went with Cletus Yronwood, Maester Kedry, and three of Lord Yronwood's best young knights on a long and perilous voyage, with an uncertain welcome at its end. He has gone to bring us back our heart's desire." She narrowed her eyes. "What is our heart's desire?" A Dance with Dragons - Tyrion I "You mistake me," Tyrion said again, more loudly. The buttered mushrooms glistened in the lamplight, dark and inviting. "I have no wish to die, I promise you. I have …" His voice trailed off into uncertainty. What do I have? A life to live? Work to do? Children to raise, lands to rule, a woman to love? "You have nothing," finished Magister Illyrio, "but we can change that." He plucked a mushroom from the butter, and chewed it lustily. "Delicious." "The mushrooms are not poisoned." Tyrion was irritated. "No. Why should I wish you ill?" Magister Illyrio ate another. "We must show a little trust, you and I. Come, eat." He clapped his hands again. "We have work to do. My little friend must keep his strength up." Illyrio is a ‘Magister’ meaning master or magician – signifying his mastery of the game. He expresses his lusts via eating. Pluck here represents the danger and allure for those who are bold enough to indulge in playing the ultimate game at the highest level. The mushrooms present a tempting dish ‘glistening in the lamplight, dark and inviting,’ although the picture is ‘dark’ and not without risk. Picking or plucking mushrooms highlights the difficulty in differentiating the poisonous from the edible, the false from the true. Ironically, Tyrion later employs this discrepancy to his advantage, using mushrooms plucked from the grounds of Illyrio’s manse kept in his shoe, in order to ‘get even,’ ensuring the enduring promise of the legacy that 'a Lannister always pays his debts.' Quote Dance with Dragons - Tyrion VI "That's a prophecy even I could make. Ah, supper." Supper was a plate of roasted goat served on a bed of sliced onions. The meat was spiced and fragrant, charred outside and red and juicy within. Tyrion plucked at a piece. It was so hot it burned his fingers, but so good he could not help but reach for another chunk. He washed it down with the pale green Volantene liquor, the closest thing he'd had to wine for ages. "Very good," he said, plucking up his dragon. "The most powerful piece in the game," he announced, as he removed one of Qavo's elephants. "And Daenerys Targaryen has three, it's said." Here, Tyrion plucking his dragon while greedily plucking at ‘charred meat’ which ‘burns’ his fingers behaves as a dragon (...and I do so despise A+J=T, damn!) Additional dragonesque elements are present: the ‘pale green Volantene liquor,’ in light of the color and the fact that Volantis is the oldest colony of Valyria, is reminiscent of his penchant for breathing wildfire over his enemies. With gusto, Tyrion washes down the meat with the pale green liquor, the way he washed down Stannis’s ships and drowned his men using the same. Finally -- our favorite: Quote A Dance with Dragons - Tyrion IX "A Ghiscari crew would eat the dog as well." Mormont pulled the breastplate and backplate apart. "Just tell her." "As you wish." His tunic was soaked with sweat and clinging to his chest. Tyrion plucked at it, wishing for a bit of breeze. The wooden armor was as hot and heavy as it was uncomfortable. Half of it looked to be old paint, layer on layer on layer of it, from a hundred past repaintings. At Joffrey's wedding feast, he recalled, one rider had displayed the direwolf of Robb Stark, the other the arms and colors of Stannis Baratheon. "We will need both animals if we're to tilt for Queen Daenerys," he said. If the sailors took it in their heads to butcher Pretty Pig, neither he nor Penny could hope to stop them … but Ser Jorah's longsword might give them pause, at least. "Is that how you hope to keep your head, Imp?" This is so cool. Tyrion's attempting the reverse of the usual scenario...so instead of a wind plucking at his clothes, here he's the one attempting to create a wind by plucking! He's trying to flap his wings!! Well those are a few examples of the many shades of plucking which I hope have piqued your interest. In the end, I believe GRRM is most interested in how words themselves pluck at something in us, making the unknown known and the known unknowable. In this spirit, therefore, I welcome you to share any further thoughts on the subject (or ‘off’-subject) which this exploration may have stirred in you! ‘Words are wind.’ THE NIGHT WAS WINDLESS 6 hours ago, Wizz-The-Smith said: Onto the next Theon chapter……………. The night was windless, the snow drifting straight down out of a cold black sky, yet the leaves of the heart tree were rustling his name. "Theon," they seemed to whisper, "Theon." The old gods, he thought. They know me. They know my name. I was Theon of House Greyjoy. I was a ward of Eddard Stark, a friend and brother to his children. "Please." He fell to his knees. "A sword, that's all I ask. Let me die as Theon, not as Reek." Tears trickled down his cheeks, impossibly warm. "I was ironborn. A son … a son of Pyke, of the islands." A leaf drifted down from above, brushed his brow, and landed in the pool. It floated on the water, red, five-fingered, like a bloody hand. ‘’Bran,’’ the tree murmered. They know. The gods know. They saw what I did. And for one strange moment it seemed as if it were Bran’s face carved into the pale trunk of the weirwood, staring down at him with eyes red and wise and sad. Bran’s ghost, he thought, but that was madness. Why should Bran want to haunt him? [A Ghost in Winterfell, ADWD] Looking for any progression in Bran’s powers, the night was windless and yet the leaves were still rustling Theon’s name. Is this evidence that Bran is controlling the tree with more ease now? Has his control over the leaves progressed? Great pick-up of the presence of rustling despite the absence of wind! Thereby, GRRM answers the question ‘could it only be the wind?’ In terms of Bran’s development, this would be the equivalent of progressing from using physical means – hitching a ride on the air – as a way to produce a voice, to metaphysical means that may not use air at all, like mental telepathy and telekinesis in order to move the leaves. Spooky indeed! THE TRUE TONGUE AND BRAN THE BUILDER 6 hours ago, Wizz-The-Smith said: "Fair." The raven landed on his shoulder. "Fair, far, fear." It flapped its wings, and screamed along with Gilly. The wights were almost on her. He heard the dark red leaves of the weirwood rustling, whispering to one another in a tongue he did not know. [Samwell III, ASOS] Rather than hearing a name or faint voice Sam would recognise, the rustling leaves are whispering in a tongue he didn’t know. Presumably this being the True Tongue. The ravens whisper the True Tongue to Coldhands and of course the CotF use it. It’s said no man can speak the True Tongue so no wonder Sam didn’t understand it. But in fact it seems the True Tongue can perhaps be learnt, but only by a select few. Ravenous Reader will take a further look at this subject in her supporting essay. It’s ironic that Sam cannot understand the True Tongue, when he is also the one who is credited at the Night’s Watch with teaching the ravens to speak! I think GRRM may have great plans for his reluctant alter-ego Sam of Horn Hill (in light of the importance placed on languages and musical instruments, and as the one born to blow the horn, he is a player to watch). That said, I agree the rustling leaves are the ‘True Tongue,’ or dialect thereof. Therefore, we may deduce that the greenseers also speak and understand the True Tongue, since they use the rustling leaves to communicate. We saw this with Bran, who appears to be quite the budding linguist, progressing in his language studies from speaking in the True Tongue to somehow translating it to the Common Tongue so that Theon and Arya were able to understand. As you so insightfully outlined, there’s evidence that Bran’s undergoing a development in his powers, even though Bloodraven told him it was impossible for whatever reason, starting with more passive powers (listening, watching) to more active ones (speaking, touching) to more sophisticated ones altogether like translating between languages, times, places and people. In the example you used with Arya praying for guidance, Bran -- assuming it is indeed Bran giving answer—is somehow able to channel Ned’s words to her, even though we know from the text when those words were spoken and that Bran could not have been present (actually, he was probably lying in a coma at Winterfell at the time, so presumably he witnessed the exchange on a greenseeing ‘trip’ with Bloodraven). This brings me to a startling conclusion: It’s highly likely that Brandon the Builder was/is a greenseer! Given the passage I cited from A World of Ice and Fire, in which we are told that Bran the Builder was able to learn the True Tongue, which is another name for ‘the song of the earth,’ there are some striking parallels with Bran’s journey: Quote He was taken to a secret place to meet with them, but could not at first understand their speech which was described as sounding like a song of stones in a brook, or the wind through leaves, or the rain upon the water. The manner in which Brandon learned to comprehend the speech of the children is a tale in itself, and not worth repeating here. ‘Not worth repeating’…GRRM is too sly by half! On the contrary, I reckon that’s a tale in itself that is very much worth repeating. In fact, I’d wager it’s been ‘repeated’ several times over. Firstly, GRRM seems quite preoccupied with exploring history’s reiterations, and from what we’ve been gleaning about the time-travel possibilities inherent in greenseeing, there are additional interesting possibilities for repetition. In fact, it’s possible that the ‘tale not worth repeating’ is one we’re being told without realizing it… In any case, Bran seems to be living the same story as his progenitor. Like Brandon the Builder, Bran was also ‘taken to a secret place’ (i.e. Bloodraven’s cave…another repetition ‘Brynden’ [Rivers] is basically a variation on ‘Brandon’) to meet with the Children. Like him, he also found their speech incomprehensible. Since we know that Bran subsequently masters the art of speaking/singing via ‘wind through leaves’=rustling, surely Bran like his forebear must be learning the song of the earth, and by implication the language of the Children, who are ‘those who sing’ that song. It’s probably true that the song of the earth is not limited to greenseers and singers, with evidence that other exceptional beings are capable of almost telephathic communications with the natural world. For example, gifted humans like Jon and Dany can to a degree understand the mute and fiery songs of Ghost and Drogon respectively. However, this aptitude does not come near the level of ‘linguistic’ complexity and mastery of the greenseers. So, if ‘Brandon the Builder’ was fluent in that language, then he was in all likelihood a greenseer. Quote A Clash of Kings - Bran I He could not walk, nor climb nor hunt nor fight with a wooden sword as once he had, but he could still look. He liked to watch the windows begin to glow all over Winterfell as candles and hearth fires were lit behind the diamond-shaped panes of tower and hall, and he loved to listen to the direwolves sing to the stars. Of late, he often dreamed of wolves. They are talking to me, brother to brother, he told himself when the direwolves howled. He could almost understand them . . . not quite, not truly, but almost . . . as if they were singing in a language he had once known and somehow forgotten. I’m glad you brought up the idea that with enough sensitivity, aptitude, and effort another language which may at first seem foreign can be learned—or an ancient one once known on some level rekindled. To quote a question-and-answer brainstorming session between us in which Wizz so poetically remarked, ‘Perhaps the wind was plucking a forgotten tune to compliment the wolves,’ to which I replied, ‘That reminds me of the time where the wolves and wind are learning singing lessons from each other…’ Quote A Storm of Swords - Arya VIII That night the wind was howling almost like a wolf and there were some real wolves off to the west giving it lessons. Notch, Anguy, and Merrit o' Moontown had the watch. Ned, Gendry, and many of the others were fast asleep when Arya spied the small pale shape creeping behind the horses, thin white hair flying wild as she leaned upon a gnarled cane. The woman could not have been more than three feet tall. The firelight made her eyes gleam as red as the eyes of Jon's wolf. He was a ghost too. Arya stole closer, and knelt to watch. HINTS OF ANIMATION 6 hours ago, Wizz-The-Smith said: Silent as a shadow, she told herself as she moved through the trees. In this darkness she dared not run, for fear of tripping on some unseen root or losing her way. On her left Gods Eye lapped calmly against its shores. On her right a wind sighed through the branches, and leaves rustled and stirred. Far off, she heard the howling of wolves. [Arya V, ACOK] This example is slightly different. The leaves are rustling but this time the voice or sigh is attributed to the wind. The rustle and stir of the leaves are still there to enable that wind a voice though. [Whisper, sigh] GRRM invests the wind and trees with increasing degrees of personification. As you point out, at first it’s ‘only’ rustling-plus-wind that could easily be explained away, then later it’s rustling without wind which is a bit more mysterious. Then, the allusion is enlivened even further by substituting alternative words for ‘rustling’ like ‘whispering,’ ‘sighing,’ ‘groaning,’ ‘heaving,’ etc., all of which are usually attributed to a uniquely human voice, personality, and variety of moods. ‘Stirring’ is another word which is related to ‘plucking.’ As we saw in the case of ‘plucking,’ more than one sense, including touch, hearing, and sight, is evoked by ‘stirring.’ The straightforward interpretation is of leaves moving in the wind. Another connotation involves stirring in the sense of ‘awakening,’ or ‘coming to life,’ with a further connotation of ‘stirring the pot,’ meddling etc., especially when taken in conjunction with GRRM’s emphasis on the trees having human-like limbs with which to get involved in the action. If you persevered to get to this point -- or just read in fragments -- thank you very much for reading! Your comments are most welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melifeather Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 3 hours ago, ravenous reader said: I've noted in my previously aborted essay (a brief foray into examining ‘winds’ and all that entails in the Iron Islands) that Theon in his split identity is literally the embodiment of a 'seawolf,' substantiated by all those quotes comparing the Ironborn more generally to sea wolves (by the way, a lot of the ideas we've unearthed dovetail with @Feather Crystal's not-so-wild notion of the wheel of time and its inversions; have you been following that discussion, specifically regarding the transposition of north and south, east and west, the sea and the drowned men coming to Winterfell; the essays in question ‘The Prophet’ and 'The Drowned man'?): http://houseofblackandwhite.freeforums.net/thread/38/prophet-affc-chapter-1 and http://houseofblackandwhite.freeforums.net/thread/33/drowned-man-affc-chapter-19 HOLY COW! First of all, of course I remember evita mgfs...where is that girl any-who? Just stopping by to let you know that I am not ignoring you. There is just so much here to read and digest. I really can't add anything of substance until I know what you guys are doing here. Thank you for linking my essays. The inversion project has taken most of my attention for the last six months, and is only a third of the way complete...I've got a long way to go, and as I go along I find new information that sends me back to make edits and changes to the earlier chapters. I used to hate the Ironborn chapters my first couple reads of the series, but after discovering that the titled chapters were what I call "inversion" chapters, that all changed. Now the Ironborn chapters are my favorites! If I can answer any questions just PM me, or visit me on Hobaw. If there's anything that you think I can contribute to this discussion then I need somebody to give me a short(ish) description of what this thread is all about. Is it still about Bran's growing powers? A friend of mine is currently enmeshed in all things "Bran". Her name is @LynnS on Westeros, and min on Howbaw. She's currently working on compiling evidence of Bran's attempts at meddling in the present in order to change the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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