BRAN’S GROWING POWERS AFTER his FINAL POV in ADwD

[Tijgy]

On 22-8-2016 at 0:35 AM, ravenous reader said:

Thank you for the enthusiastic response, @Tijgy!  Indeed, you too are one of those valued contributors!  

On 20-8-2016 at 5:27 PM, Tijgy said:

Thank you 

On 22-8-2016 at 0:35 AM, ravenous reader said:

That fits so perfectly with the song 'Brothers of the Kingswood' and Bran as a greenseer!  You really have a finely 'attuned' ear for the nuances of the song filling the good green world of our text -- I name you 'Princess Tijgy of the Green'!  

On 20-8-2016 at 7:48 PM, Feather Crystal said:

And now I want to put in my Member Title "Princess of the Green" 

On 22-8-2016 at 0:35 AM, ravenous reader said:

Basically, 'fell' can either be a verb, noun, or adjective (snip)

Very interesting! I must say these threads are just interesting for a non-English speaker because I also learn here just a lot about the English language. I did not really know fell could have such many meanings. 

On 22-8-2016 at 10:13 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said:

Hi Tijgy, and thank you.    As RR said, you have been a major contributor throughout the thread, you always find cool stuff!  It's good to have all our thoughts in an essay series as we move into V.2 as well.

 

Thanks you too 

On 24-8-2016 at 10:56 PM, ravenous reader said:

From what you've highlighted, it's important to bear in mind that although we referred to the catchy 'quartet of w-s' as weapons, the same 'weapons' can also be comforts to the Starks.  For example, let's remind ourselves of that passage I previously quoted (in the 'plucking' fragment) culminating in Sansa laughing in response to the touch of the cold wind which visits her in the Eyrie, in contrast to the reaction of most others around her who find the same visitation of said 'w-'s unbearable.  Given that Sansa's life has been made a misery ever since Lady died, that she's been cornered into a kind of prison by all and sundry, and that she hardly ever laughs, I find this sequence interesting, hinting at the wisp of some kind of awakening in Sansa, perhaps urged on by representatives of all the elements of wind, wolf, winter and even wood (the moondoor is weirwood) keeping a protective eye on her (and a suspicious one on Baelish, no doubt...the weirwood door can be thought of as an additional 'eye' who witnessed Baelish's crimes and confessions, especially before he pushed Lysa to her death).  It's not surprising that the wind is so active in the Eyrie, considering Sansa's following in Ned's footsteps, the parent whom she resembles most closely in demeanor if not looks. It's likely the wind is long familiar with the Eyrie having possibly followed Ned there when he was sent to be fostered by Jon Arryn (in the same way the loyal direwolves followed their human counterparts south). Like Sansa at this point, Ned sadly also had no direwolf to keep him company-- but the wolfish wind could still reach them both:

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Nice part on Sansa. 

I also believe Sansa is much like her father (who was also too good for that cruel world). And Ned took also a lot of comfort in the cold and memories of his beloved lands in the North. We do have also some parts where he takes comfort from the cold and his memories of the North. 

"The warmth reminded her of Riverrun, of days in the sun with Lysa and Edmure, but Ned could never abide the heat. The Starks were made for the cold, he would tell her, and she would laugh and tell him in that case they had certainly built their castle in the wrong place

(...)

"He crossed the room, pulled back the heavy tapestries, and threw open the high narrow windows one by one, letting the night air into the chamber. The wind swirled around him as he stood facing the dark, naked and empty-handed. 

Needs the cold, this guy. 

"He wanted nothing so much as to seek out the godswood, to kneel before the heart tree and pray for the life of Robert Baratheon, who had been more to a brother to him. (...) Ned would free to go home. The thought of Winterfell brought a wan smile to his face. 

"How long he waited in the quiet of the godswood, he could not say. It was peaceful here. The thick walls shut out the clamor of the castle and he could hear birds singing, the murmur of crickets, leaves rustling in a gentle wind. The heart tree was an oak, brown and faceless, yet Ned Stark still felt the presence of his gods. His leg did not seem to hurt so much. 

"When he had gone, Eddard Stark went to the window and sat brooding.* Robert had left him no choice that he could see. He ought to thank him. It would be good to return to Winterfell. He ought never have left. His sons were waiting there. Perhaps he and Catelyn would make a new son together when he returned, they were not so old yet. And of late he had often found himself dreaming of snow, of the deep quiet of the wolfwood at night."

*Those Starks like to brood near windows. Bran, Sansa, Ned, ...  "The day had been warm and the room was close and stuffy. Ned went to the wind and unfastened the heavy shutter to let in the cool night air. 

"There were no denying the heat; Ned could feel the silk tunic clinging to his chest. Thick, moist air covered the city like a damp woolen blanket, and the riverside had grown unruly as the poor fled their hot, airless warrens to jostle for sleeping places near the water, where the only breath of wind was to be found. 

Poor Ned. He was clearly out of his element there. As someone who prefers to cold over heat, I can really identify with him. 

 

[ravenous reader]

4 hours ago, Tijgy said:

I did not really know fell could have such many meanings. 

Nor did I!  Looking up the different dictionary definitions, archaic and modern, together with their etymological derivations is like doing archaeology into the history of the 'English' people, including all the people they ever colonized, and who reciprocally colonized them both officially and unofficially, in what Winston Churchill called the great 'island race'-- all contributing to this magnificent, ever-hungry, bottomless chimera of a beast we call 'English.'

4 hours ago, Tijgy said:

Poor Ned. He was clearly out of his element there. As someone who prefers to cold over heat, I can really identify with him. 

You have certainly earned and embody your title, dear princess of the north, princess of this windy thread, 'Princess of the Green'!  

4 hours ago, Tijgy said:

Ned took also a lot of comfort in the cold and memories of his beloved lands in the North. We do have also some parts where he takes comfort from the cold and his memories of the North. 

"The warmth reminded her of Riverrun, of days in the sun with Lysa and Edmure, but Ned could never abide the heat. The Starks were made for the cold, he would tell her, and she would laugh and tell him in that case they had certainly built their castle in the wrong place

(...)

"He crossed the room, pulled back the heavy tapestries, and threw open the high narrow windows one by one, letting the night air into the chamber. The wind swirled around him as he stood facing the dark, naked and empty-handed. 

Needs the cold, this guy. 

Your last example is a good one, which I almost included in one of my essays.  It's interesting that when Starks are troubled, for example faced with a difficult question or decision,  they often throw open the windows to let in a cold wind, as if the cold and/or wind itself might help to clear the head and compose the thoughts into a coherent whole.  Another example is one we've already mentioned, when Robb throws open the window of Bran's chamber in order to admit the cold wind and howling healing singing of the wolves, when Bran is lying in a coma.  In that instance too, Catelyn protests, but Robb is quite adamant that he knows what is best for Bran -- and he's right.

4 hours ago, Tijgy said:

"How long he waited in the quiet of the godswood, he could not say. It was peaceful here. The thick walls shut out the clamor of the castle and he could hear birds singing, the murmur of crickets, leaves rustling in a gentle wind. The heart tree was an oak, brown and faceless, yet Ned Stark still felt the presence of his gods. His leg did not seem to hurt so much. 

That's another great example of how healing the wind (and wood) can be for the Starks!

4 hours ago, Tijgy said:

"There were no denying the heat; Ned could feel the silk tunic clinging to his chest. Thick, moist air covered the city like a damp woolen blanket, and the riverside had grown unruly as the poor fled their hot, airless warrens to jostle for sleeping places near the water, where the only breath of wind was to be found. 

Ned senses he is being suffocated to death in the South.

4 hours ago, Tijgy said:

*Those Starks like to brood near windows. Bran, Sansa, Ned, ...  "The day had been warm and the room was close and stuffy. Ned went to the wind and unfastened the heavy shutter to let in the cool night air. 

Indeed, they engage in a kind of clarifying broodiness!  In the example you initially quoted, after a few moments in the cold windy air Ned actually makes up his mind to refuse Robert -- until the knock at the chamber door comes, and with it the 'grey rat' Maester Luwin bringing Littlefinger's poisoned letter in the carved wood box, signifying the trap and ultimately coffin Littlefinger has prepared for him.  Notably, Catelyn tells him to close the window, with which he complies, symbolically shutting them all in a box of Littlefinger's making.  Thereafter, Luwin, Littlefinger's letter (in Lysa's handwriting), and Catelyn all gnaw at his resolve until he caves in and agrees to go South.  As Sweetsunray has pointed out, 'things going south' is also an idiom expressing the idea of things falling apart and ones circumstances deteriorating.  Significantly, as a consequence of this decision, all three of them shut in that room together opening that 'Pandora's box'-- Ned, Luwin, and Catelyn -- are doomed.

Another example, this time in King's Landing, in which Ned, similarly puzzled and troubled, throws open a window in order to admit the cold air, as if he were hoping thereby to gain some kind of inspiration (you picked up this quote; herewith the full quote for our analysis):

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Ned frowned. The man Syrio Forel had come with an excellent reputation, and his flamboyant Braavosi style was well suited to Arya's slender blade, yet still . . . a few days ago, she had been wandering around with a swatch of black silk tied over her eyes. Syrio was teaching her to see with her ears and her nose and her skin, she told him. Before that, he had her doing spins and back flips. "Arya, are you certain you want to persist in this?"

She nodded. "Tomorrow we're going to catch cats."

"Cats." Ned sighed. "Perhaps it was a mistake to hire this Braavosi. If you like, I will ask Jory to take over your lessons. Or I might have a quiet word with Ser Barristan. He was the finest sword in the Seven Kingdoms in his youth."

"I don't want them," Arya said. "I want Syrio."

Ned ran his fingers through his hair. Any decent master-at-arms could give Arya the rudiments of slash-and-parry without this nonsense of blindfolds, cartwheels, and hopping about on one leg, but he knew his youngest daughter well enough to know there was no arguing with that stubborn jut of jaw. "As you wish," he said. Surely she would grow tired of this soon. "Try to be careful."

"I will," she promised solemnly as she hopped smoothly from her right leg to her left.

Much later, after he had taken the girls back through the city and seen them both safe in bed, Sansa with her dreams and Arya with her bruises, Ned ascended to his own chambers atop the Tower of the Hand. The day had been warm and the room was close and stuffy. Ned went to the window and unfastened the heavy shutters to let in the cool night air. Across the Great Yard, he noticed the flickering glow of candlelight from Littlefinger's windows. The hour was well past midnight. Down by the river, the revels were only now beginning to dwindle and die.

He took out the dagger and studied it. Littlefinger's blade, won by Tyrion Lannister in a tourney wager, sent to slay Bran in his sleep. Why? Why would the dwarf want Bran dead? Why would anyone want Bran dead?

The dagger, Bran's fall, all of it was linked somehow to the murder of Jon Arryn, he could feel it in his gut, but the truth of Jon's death remained as clouded to him as when he had started.

Note, before Ned opens the window, we are presented with several images surrounding seeing vs. not seeing clearly, e.g. being blindfolded; seeing with ones ears, nose, and skin, etc.  Syrio is trying to teach Arya 'the true seeing,' which ironically is precisely what Ned needs to learn, although he scoffs at such.  Ned, a direct soldier, who thinks 'what you see is what you get,' has no patience with cartwheels, spins, back flips, hopping on one leg and wearing blindfolds (although soon Ned will be wounded in the leg (hopping on one leg) and shut in the windowless blackness of the Red Keep dungeon (tantamount to being blindfolded), all because he could not keep up with such antics).  Another passage which has relevance in this respect:

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A Game of Thrones - Eddard IV

"Rather too well," Littlefinger said. "I still carry a token of his esteem. Did Brandon speak of me too?"

"Often, and with some heat," Ned said, hoping that would end it. He had no patience with this game they played, this dueling with words.

"I should have thought that heat ill suits you Starks," Littlefinger said. "Here in the south, they say you are all made of ice, and melt when you ride below the Neck."

"I do not plan on melting soon, Lord Baelish. You may count on it." Ned moved to the council table and said, "Maester Pycelle, I trust you are well."

Again, Ned has no patience with the subtleties of 'dueling with words,' an oversight on his part.  After all, words and their expert manipulation have brought him to this point.  Had it not been for the dual (pardon the pun!) missives sent by Littlefinger by proxy, namely the coffin-shaped letter from 'Lysa' as well as the 'dark wings dark words' informing him of Jon Arryn's death, for which Littlefinger is also ultimately responsible, Ned's life may not have 'gone South' in the first place and he wouldn't be out of his comfort zone, in danger of 'melting below the neck like ice' (this is a clever wordplay on 'Neck', hinting at Ned's beheading, by Ice no less, in which I believe Littlefinger also had a hand...or a finger... Don't get me started on Littlefinger; I can't stand the little worm, and eagerly look forward to the day when he is transformed from a grubby caterpillar into a butterfly and takes glorious flight through the Moon Door at the behest of the moon maiden reborn!)  Ned fails to see clearly exactly who his enemies are (the direwolves are on the right track, however, with their penchant for nipping and, in some cases, biting off 'fingers'!).  Symbolically, he fails to understand or use to his benefit the 'Myrish lens' sent to taunt him and lure him South, where Littlefinger's weapons would have an advantage over Ned's own; and now finds himself on the other side of the lens like a bug caught under the focused glare of a beam which threatens to immolate, or melt him.  

Littlefinger's words betray his true motivations.  To those who would argue that the entire sum of Littlefinger's motivation lies in climbing the ladder of ambition for himself, and that Ned is little more than a pawn, whose life or death is immaterial to Littlefinger as long as he advances himself, I say that the metaphor of melting Ned down till there's nothing left betrays an absolute focused hatred of Ned.  Quite independently of his other worldly goals, Petyr Baelish (or whoever he really is) desires on an emotional and spiritual level (as far as that is possible for someone of his psychic makeup) to annihilate him utterly.  

In the passage I quoted, it's 'well past midnight'-- time is running out for Ned. I like to think of it as 'the hour of the eel,' because slimy Littlefinger is still awake!   Ned goes to the window seeking respite, seeking answers.  The shutters fall away, admitting the cool night air -- and what is the first thing he sees..?

'He noticed the flickering glow of candlelight from Littlefinger's windows' across 'the Great Yard' --

This is the divide between life and death; as a courtyard or square, this is the cyvasse board across from which his opponent faces him and his checkered destiny awaits.  Ned is being 'given' the answers-- but words are wind, and sadly Ned can't interpret the significance of either.  The window is open, yet the scales fail to correspondingly drop from his eyes.

4 hours ago, Tijgy said:

"When he had gone, Eddard Stark went to the window and sat brooding.* Robert had left him no choice that he could see. He ought to thank him. It would be good to return to Winterfell. He ought never have left. His sons were waiting there. Perhaps he and Catelyn would make a new son together when he returned, they were not so old yet. And of late he had often found himself dreaming of snow, of the deep quiet of the wolfwood at night."

Again, his dreams should give him some insight into who is threatening him and his wolfswood:

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A Game of Thrones - Eddard VIII

And of late he had often found himself dreaming of snow, of the deep quiet of the wolfswood at night.

And yet, the thought of leaving angered him as well. So much was still undone. Robert and his council of cravens and flatterers would beggar the realm if left unchecked … or, worse, sell it to the Lannisters in payment of their loans. And the truth of Jon Arryn's death still eluded him. Oh, he had found a few pieces, enough to convince him that Jon had indeed been murdered, but that was no more than the spoor of an animal on the forest floor. He had not sighted the beast itself yet, though he sensed it was there, lurking, hidden, treacherous.

The beast itself has not been sighted, but he 'sees' intimations of the beast half-shadowed in dreams, having left a trace of itself on the forest floor.  Methods traditionally used to track animals involve following 'spoor,' usually animal 'footprints,' but can include other signs...such as disturbance of vegetation, even the calls of other animals who can act as 'scouts' and 'beacons' sighting the target elsewhere, as well as faeces/scat (animal droppings) which are distinctive and can be used to identify an animal with remarkable precision, believe it or not!  So, with this in mind --

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A Game of Thrones - Tyrion IV

Just for a moment, he thought he saw a flicker of doubt in her eyes, but what she said was, "Why would Petyr lie to me?"

"Why does a bear shit in the woods?" he demanded. "Because it is his nature. Lying comes as easily as breathing to a man like Littlefinger. You ought to know that, you of all people."

She took a step toward him, her face tight. "And what does that mean, Lannister?"

What does that mean, Catelyn, what does that mean, indeed.

[Tijgy]

On 24-8-2016 at 10:56 PM, ravenous reader said:

If Bran is a 'sword' then he is forged and honed in the crypts and the godswood.  I always thought it funny that Ned confined his quirky son Bran to the godswood in order to 'cleanse' him presumably of the sin of climbing, which is a metaphor for 'flying,' 'skinchanging/warging' (climbing into the skin of animals, humans, and trees), greenseeing, and third-eye capabilities in general. Neither would Bran experience the godswood as a punishment, nor confinement, nor indeed would it 'cleanse' or rid him of his gift in any way; on the contrary, the godswood would only encourage the development of his abilities!  Additionally, 'cleansing' has a watery connotation which reminds me of the integral process during forging of quenching a sword in cold water (provided symbolically by the still cold black pool at the weirwood) after tempering in order to harden the blade and optimize the edge. 

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Bran and Ice

I think it might sense for Ned.  He himself sort of uses it as place to "cleanse himself from taking a man's life". The whole forging of Bran as a sword in the godswood does actually really remind me from what happens when Ned "cleanses himself in the godswood" after an execution: 

From Cat I, AGOT

"Whenever he took a man's life, afterwards he would seek the quiet of the godswood. (...) Catelyn found her husband beneath the weirwood, seated on a moss-covered stone. The greatsword Ice was across his lap, and he was cleaning the blade in those waters black as night. A thousand years of humus lay thick upon the godswood floor, swallowing the sound of her feet, but the red eyes of the weirwood seemed  to follow her as she came (...) 

"The man died well, I'll give him that," Ned said. He had a swatch of oiled leather in one hand. He ran it lightly up the greatsword as he spoke, polishing the metal to a dark glow. "I was glad for Bran's sake. You would have been proud of Bran."

"I am always proud of Bran," Catelyn replied, watching the sword as he stroked it. She could see the rippling deep within the steel, where the metal had been folded back on itself a hundred times in the forging. Catelyn had no love for swords, but she could not deny that Ice had its own beauty. It had been forged in Valyria, before the Doom had come to the old Freehold, when the ironsmiths had worked their metal with spells as well as hammers. Four hundreds years old it was, and as sharp as the day it was forged. The name it bore was older still, a legacy from the age of heroes, when the Starks were Kings in the North.(...) 

"Who else?" Ned lifted Ice, looked down the cool length of it. 

You can here of course see a sort of phallic symbolism: Cat loving Ned's big sword.  Anyway, you might also be able to compare Ice to Bran. Both have been cleansed by Ned in the godswood. Ice is here being cleansed in the black pool. The metal is also described as a "dark glow." There is a "rippling deep within the steel" which reminds me of the dancing and shimmer reflections of the weirwood. Both are magical and both are connected to the Starks and the Kings in the North. Both even bear names from the time of the age of heroes: Brandon and Ice. 

And this connection made the following quote of ravenous reader interesting: 

On 24-8-2016 at 10:56 PM, ravenous reader said:

 The reference to Bran being a squirrel rather than a human, and 'not Ned's son,' is a pointed one, foreshadowing the Starks subsequently 'losing' him to Bloodraven, his substitute father, and the Children of the Forest who were called 'the squirrel people':

Greenseer and the true heir of Winterfell

Going further on this. The squirrel reference does indicate indeed the fact the Starks are losing him to Bloodraven and the greenseers. But this does contrast then the fact of Bran being compared to Ice, a symbol of the Starks. IMO this duality (or paradox?) is actually one of the biggest storylines or questions of identity in Bran's storyline. Who is Bran? Is he the heir and part of the legacy of the Starks who were Kings in the North? Or is he a greenseer and an old god? 

I think this question of this two contrasting(?) identities is most clearly present in his SL of ACOK. In these books you have at one hand his training as the Stark in Winterfell and on the other hand his training as greenseer. From the moment he leaves WF, the focus gets on him being trained as a greenseer. And this is sort of symbolized in the death the two people who trained him as the Stark in Winterfell (Maester Luwin and Ser Rodrik). 

However his connection to Winterfell is not completely dead: The stone is strong, Bran told himself, the roots of the trees go deep, and under the ground the Kings of Winter sit their thrones. So long as those remained, Winterfell remained. It was not dead, just broken. Like me, he thought. I'm not dead either. 

And never forget the fact he is still called as their prince and as the true heir by the Reeds (see my signature). 

Several people do tend ignore the fact Bran has also a deep connection to Winterfell. And when people want to argue the theory Bran will never be KitN or the Lord of Winterfell, they do tend also sometimes to use the argument Bran is too busy with playing greenseer. IMO the one identity does not really exclude the other identity. Bran can be a greenseer and the Lord of Winterfell at the same time. It is not for nothing Winterfell does represent a tree and Bran as warg can skinchange the symbol of his house.  So personally I do see those actually not as two things in contrast. 

A broken sword

Another sad  interesting similarity between the fact Bran is said to be "broken" and the fact Ice is reforged into two swords. (and the Lannisters are responsible for both actions). Firstly, it is possible to say the two swords take also up two contrasting role. While one part gets into the hands of Joffrey and later Tommen, the other part Oathkeeper is placed into the hands of Brienne so she will be able to find and protect the daughters of Ned Starks (aka the lineage of House Stark). One of the dual roles of the "broken" boy and the "broken" sword are both related to the (protection of) the lineage of the Starks. 

Secondly, several elements that refer to the legacy of the Starks are broken. You have first Bran calls himself Bran the Broken, who apparently will have any children and who is presumed to be dead (just like the other male heir Rickon). Further you have Winterfell, the castle of the Starks. In ACOK this castle is turned into a ruin and, it might be called broken, just like Bran the castle is not really dead. Another broken element is Ice. The Lannisters took the sword and reforged it into two swords. They tried to destroy the Starkness of it, but they failed ("Your father had asked for the crimson of your House, and that was that color I set out to infuse into the metal. But Valyrian steel is stubborn. These old swords remember (LOL), it is said, and they do not change easily. I worked half a hundred spells and brightened the red time and time again, but always the color would darken, as if the blade was drinking the sun from it.). The family of Ned Stark is also broken and not longer together. They (the Boltons, the Lannisters) also tried to destroy them, but they also still remain.

All those elements do have the same characteristics. They are part of the Starks'/Ned's line or legacy. The Lannisters, the Boltons and other enemies tried to destroy them. But while they are broken, they are still not destroyed and they still remain. (And they will hopefully be restored  )

I did search some symbolism behind broken swords and I found this:

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Because the sword symbolizes spiritual aggression or a hero's courage, the broken sword is a symbol of these qualities being in a state of destruction. Nevertheless, like a 'buried sword', it is more likely to appear in medieval legends as an inheritance which has to be reconquered by personal valour.  

 https://books.google.be/books?id=_p7DAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA325&lpg=PA325&dq=symbolism+broken+sword&source=bl&ots=7zevqJlyNw&sig=R764khUz-SsQl6de2YLr85D4GNc&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj5wdqs9_DOAhXDORoKHUEyD_8Q6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=symbolism broken sword&f=false

An example of one of those medieval legends is the one of Sigurd. His father's sword was broken during the fight between his father and a dragon. After Sigurd had reforged his father's sword, he revenges the death of his father and names himself as king. This legend was probably used as one of the inspiration for the story of Aragorn, who also reforged his ancestral sword, revenges his father and becomes king... 

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All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king

(From J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the King, Strider)

I am interested if all those different broken legacies of the Starks will be reforged and will be reconquered and if Ned, Robb and Cat will be revenged .

1 hour ago, ravenous reader said:

The beast itself has not been sighted, but he 'sees' intimations of the beast half-shadowed in dreams, having left a trace of itself on the forest floor.  Methods traditionally used to track animals involve following 'spoor,' usually animal 'footprints,' but can include other signs...such as disturbance of vegetation, even the calls of other animals who can act as 'scouts' and 'beacons' sighting the target elsewhere, as well as faeces/scat (animal droppings) which are distinctive and can be used to identify an animal with remarkable precision, believe it or not!  So, with this in mind --

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Interesting read on Ned. And I think the same about LF, who is one of the characters I loath the most (next to Euron). 

As a little intermezzo I also want to refer quickly to a ballade by Goethe, which was used by Schubert as the text of one of his songs: the Erlkönig. 

(There are subtitles and normally you can put them on)

The song is about a father and a son who ride together to home through the wood. In his fever dreams the son sees the Elfking, the symbol of death, who tries to seduce him to another side. In the end the Elfking threatens to take the son with violence. When they arrive at home, the son is dead. 

(The ballade is inspired by something written by the Dane Johann Gottfried Elder, who named the symbol of death as the Elfking. Goethe actually translated wrongly into Erlkönig, which means Alder King). 

Except for the fact the son is here seduced by a tree-like? figure to another side (just like you might say Bran is being seduced by Bloodraven), the words in this ballade are interesting. The night is called windy, the fact while the son sees and hears the Elfking, the father only sees mist, hears only the wind in the leaves, the fact while the son sees the singing and dancing daughters, his father only sees the willows shining in the moonlight. 

When I heard this song this week, I was a little reminded of this thread. (And four minutes of hearing to Schubert is always a great experience). 

[ravenous reader]

3 hours ago, Tijgy said:

As a little intermezzo I also want to refer quickly to a ballade by Goethe, which was used by Schubert as the text of one of his songs: the Erlkönig. 

(There are subtitles and normally you can put them on)

The song is about a father and a son who ride together to home through the wood. In his fever dreams the son sees the Elfking, the symbol of death, who tries to seduce him to another side. In the end the Elfking threatens to take the son with violence. When they arrive at home, the son is dead. 

(The ballade is inspired by something written by the Dane Johann Gottfried Elder, who named the symbol of death as the Elfking. Goethe actually translated wrongly into Erlkönig, which means Alder King). 

Except for the fact the son is here seduced by a tree-like? figure to another side (just like you might say Bran is being seduced by Bloodraven), the words in this ballade are interesting. The night is called windy, the fact while the son sees and hears the Elfking, the father only sees mist, hears only the wind in the leaves, the fact while the son sees the singing and dancing daughters, his father only sees the willows shining in the moonlight. 

When I heard this song this week, I was a little reminded of this thread. (And four minutes of hearing to Schubert is always a great experience). 

Thank you for that!  You know, I'm always up for a little poetic/musical intermezzo.  I really enjoyed it.  My favorite stanza, in light of this thread is this one:

Quote

Mein Vater, mein Vater, und hörest du nicht,	My father, my father, and do you not hear
Was Erlenkönig mir leise verspricht? –	What the Erlking promises me so softly? –
«Sei ruhig, bleibe ruhig, mein Kind;	“Be quiet, stay quiet, my child;
In dürren Blättern säuselt der Wind.» –	In the dry leaves the wind is rustling.” -

The full poem German-English here

I will give further comments on your other observations soon.  

[Wizz-The-Smith]

On ‎02‎/‎09‎/‎2016 at 1:35 PM, Tijgy said:

Very interesting! I must say these threads are just interesting for a non-English speaker because I also learn here just a lot about the English language. I did not really know fell could have such many meanings. 

Hi Tijgy. 

Like @ravenous reader I was surprised at the multiple possibilities around the word 'fell'.  In fact it has sent me on a bit of a quest to uncover some of this particular word play.  Here's a quick explanation of where my search started.  In Seams 'magic seams and portals thread' she found a cool link..

Fell also means seam.  So she posited the idea that Winter'fell' was a 'magic seam' within Westeros' landscape.  And also, were there any more to be found?  I thought of the Riverland's Web and the magic at High Heart.  So...

Fell also means hill.  High Heart is a magic hill, in fact it's a hollow hill.  We see Beric sitting his weirwood throne in the cavern ala Bloodraven.  So what about BR's cave?

BR's cave is also a hollow hill.  The second one associated with magic, with greenseers [or avatar GS's] sitting their weirwood thrones. 

Winterfell has all those underground clues, the crypts and the 'lower levels' so I went looking for caverns like we find in the hollow hills.  I had some joy with what I found.  Here are some other First Men castles with those same clues attached to them.  I think Bran can access all of these places through the caverns at hollowhillnet.com, otherwise known as the partner to the weirnet. 

Here's my post in LML's thread looking at some First Men castles built on top of hollow hills so they can potentially harness the CotF/greenseers magic.........

WINTERFELL

I have been involved in Seams’ Magic portals/seams thread [That’s why I’ve been looking for this stuff] and ‘Fell’ is another term for a hill.  ‘Fell’ is also a type of seam, and Seams has proposed that Winterfell is a ‘magic seam’, thus starting a search for magic portals up and down Westeros.  So a magic hill/seam would support my theory that it’s the hollow hills and caverns that these castles were built/focused around.  

Bran comments on the hills at WF.  'The builders had not even levelled the earth; there were hills and valleys behind the walls of Winterfell.  There was a covered bridge that went from the fourth floor of the bell tower across to the second floor of the rookery.' 

Thus confirming it is built right on top of/around a hill.

The crypts are huge, like the caverns of the hollow hills, and then there is the access to the lower levels.  I totally agree we will very likely find a weirwood throne down there.  I also think that it will be in one of these caverns that have CotF hallmarks stamped all over them. 

STORM’S END

When Davos smuggles Mel under the walls of Storm’s End, we get some clues that perhaps this was also built atop a hollow hill.  Here’s some of that text…

The seaward side of Storm’s End perched upon a pale white cliff, the chalky stone sloping up steeply to half again the height of the massive curtain wall.  A mouth yawned in the cliff, and it was that Davos steered for, as he had sixteen years before.  The tunnel opened on a cavern under the castle, where the storm lords of old had built their landing…………….

Then they were past, engulfed in darkness, and the waters smoothed.  The little boat slowed and swirled.  The sound of their breathing echoed until it seemed to surround them.  Davos had not expected the blackness. 

This cliff is huge and the cavern links to the castle.  It seems the storm lords used one of these caverns to build their landing.  With such an incline to the castle, there must be many a tunnel and probably more caverns.  Surely another weirwood throne is to be found in one of the other caverns underneath Storm’s End.

NIGHTFORT

There is the young weirwood growing there, so perhaps another strong root system, ala the hollow hills.  There is another passage underground, directly accessed from the castle in the form of the well that they use when Sam shows Bran and co. the Black Gate.  The Black Gate itself is magic and made of weirwood.  I wouldn’t be surprised if there was another cavern under there somewhere if one follows the tunnels further. 

And if this was one of the first castles built at the Wall [perhaps before the Wall was there?] the name [FORT:  A fortified building or strategic position] might imply that you have built your castle on high ground, or a hill.  This isn’t always the case throughout history, but a possibility here with our other seemingly strategically placed magic castles. 

HIGHGARDEN

While we haven’t seen anything of Highgarden, Garth the Green did us the honor of building his castle atop a hill overlooking the Mander.  There are always pipers and singers around, and the three weirwoods they have in the godswood are called the ‘Three Singers.’  It seems the singers never really left this place in one way or another.  As you speculated up thread, there has to be a weirwood throne under Highgarden, in a cavern of course.

CASTERLY ROCK

Jaime’s weirwood dream took place underground, and in a cavern.

The steps ended abruptly on echoing darkness.  Jaime had the sense of a vast space before him……  There were watery caverns deep below Casterly Rock, but this one was strange to him. ‘’What place is this?’’

‘’Your place.’’ The voice echoed

It’s not clear exactly where Jaime’s dream is taking place, perhaps the caverns beneath the Rock?  Or as Ravenous Reader suggested, under the bowels of the Red Keep?  The latter would make sense considering the people he encountered in the dream.  Either way we have confirmed caverns under Casterly, and the World book tells us their godswood/weirwood tree is in a cave.

There is even a godswood of sorts, though the weirwood that grows there is a queer, twisted thing whose tangled roots have all but filled the cave where it stands, choking out all other growth.

And of course Casterly is well known as a hollow hill of sorts, with hundreds of tunnels and mine shafts, loads of access underground, caverns included.  The Rock is huge, so perhaps there are caverns deep below, that have been undisturbed for many years?  If so, weirwood throne? 

                                           -----------------------------------------------

In conclusion, the word 'fell' is proving quite an important tool for George to weave his word play throughout this series. 

Fell - [magic] seam

Fell - [magic] hills

On top of this, most of the weirwood's have been 'felled' by the Andels, cutting down their watching eyes.  Nagga 'fell' on Old Wyk, another magic hill.   

If all the hollow hills magic links together, then Bran/BR can access all these places.  There are more as well, but I am still working on them. 

Also, I've really enjoyed your chat with Ravenous Reader.  Forgive my lack of posts, I have been stuck in the hollow hills for a while now.  I always read and enjoy your thoughts though. 

[Tijgy]

On 4-9-2016 at 0:33 AM, Wizz-The-Smith said:

Winterfell has all those underground clues, the crypts and the 'lower levels' so I went looking for caverns like we find in the hollow hills.  I had some joy with what I found.  Here are some other First Men castles with those same clues attached to them.  I think Bran can access all of these places through the caverns at hollowhillnet.com, otherwise known as the partner to the weirnet. 

 

You are brilliant! 

On 4-9-2016 at 0:33 AM, Wizz-The-Smith said:

Also, I've really enjoyed your chat with Ravenous Reader.  Forgive my lack of posts, I have been stuck in the hollow hills for a while now.  I always read and enjoy your thoughts though. 

Thank you. I also love to read yours.

It was an interesting piece on the hollow hills and the castles. Just a little note. Winterfell, the Wall (the Nightfort?) and Storm's End are credited to Bran the Builder. Bran the Builder is also according to the tales in the reach the son of Garth the Greenhand, which supposedly built Highgarden. So you might say those four castles are built by the same family  if you do believe the tales.

[Wizz-The-Smith]

2 hours ago, Tijgy said:

It was an interesting piece on the hollow hills and the castles. Just a little note. Winterfell, the Wall (the Nightfort?) and Storm's End are credited to Bran the Builder. Bran the Builder is also according to the tales in the reach the son of Garth the Greenhand, which supposedly built Highgarden. So you might say those four castles are built by the same family  if you do believe the tales.

Hey there the Princess of the Green. 

Good point about Brandon the Builder perhaps being the Greenhands son, I am looking at the various legends attached to some of these castles at the moment.  I thought Garth the Greenhand built Highgarden as well, but it was actually another one of his sons Garth the Gardener.  If Garth the Greenhand was a greenseer maybe he lived in a cavern below the hill Highgarden is built on?  An easy mistake, there are too many Garth's to keep track of!!! 

Brandon the Builder [or perhaps one of his sons] built the Hightower too, he was a busy boy.    Anyway, nice point about the four castles being built by the same family, and yes, I do believe a lot of the tales have some truth to them. 

[Wizz-The-Smith]

     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?"

PART III:  A PRESENCE IN THE WIND

Hey everyone, hopefully I have been able to show a link between the wind, the trees rustling enabling a voice, and the howling wind being rather wolfish and on the side of the old gods.  Now I would like to investigate the possibility that BR and Bran can inhabit the wind itself. 

The first examples are designed to show where I think BR is in the wind. 

And secondly, the examples of Bran in the wind.  Let’s get going…….

                                              ----------------------------------------------------------

 A cold wind whispered through the trees.  His [Royce’s] great sable cloak stirred behind like something half alive.

Will could feel it.  Four years in the Nights Watch and he had never been so afraid. What was it?

‘’Wind.  Trees rustling.  A wolf.  Which sound is it that unmans you so Gared?’’   [Prologue, AGOT]

Again we start with the AGOT prologue.  The cold wind whispered through the trees just as BR does.  Then the wind makes Royce’s cloak look like something half alive just as BR is.  These clues describe BR’s appearance and abilities, and I think this is the first time he is shown to be a presence in the wind in the series.

Here’s another description of BR in the wind…….   

The elk went where it would, regardless of the wishes of Meera and Jojen on his back.  Mostly he stayed beneath the trees, but where the shore curved away westward he would take the more direct path across the frozen lake, shouldering through snowdrifts taller than Bran as the ice crackled underneath his hooves.  Out there the wind was stronger, a cold north wind that howled across the lake, knifed through their layers of wool and leather, and set them all to shivering.  When it blew into their faces, it would drive the snow into their eyes and leave them as good as blind.

There is a cold north wind howling, which I have tried to link to the wolves/old gods.  Then we get two descriptions in the wind that fit BR’s history.  He was of course knifed in the eye by Bittersteel and this left him as good as blind, losing one of his eyes. 

A wind whispering through trees, the half alive reference on top of the knifed and good as blind descriptions and we start to form a picture of BR.  In support of this example there’s another clue he may be inhabiting the wind in this same chapter…… 

‘’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.   [Bran I, ADWD]

This scene plays out like an introduction of sorts.  As soon as Coldhands had answered the question of ‘who is this three-eyed-crow’, the longhall’s wooden door banged open as the wind howled.  Perfect timing, just as CH’s finishes with ‘The last greenseer’ BR seems to appear by use of the door banging open in the wind.             

                                                   ------------------------------------------------------

The second set of BR examples are spread out across two Arya chapters, both of which are based at High Heart in the Riverland’s.  The Arya chapter that sandwiches this one is important as well, we will briefly look at that afterwards.  George drip feeds us the information this time, and we can link it to BR.  Let’s start with a couple of times the wind is showing that presence at HH…….. 

Yet even so, the hair on the back of her neck stood up that night.  She had been asleep, but the storm woke her.  The wind pulled the coverlet right off her and sent it swirling into the bushes.  When she went after it she heard voices.

Besides the embers of their campfire, she saw Tom, Lem, and Greenbeard talking to a tiny little woman, a foot shorter than Arya and older than Old Nan……… [Arya IV, ASOS]

The wind/BR seem to have a genuine influence on events in this scene.  The coverlet was blown off her, it’s as if the wind wanted Arya [And us] to hear this conversation.    

From up here she could see a storm raging to the north, but High Heart stood above the rain.  It wasn’t above the wind, though; the gusts were blowing so strongly that it felt like someone was behind her, yanking on her cloak.  Only when she turned, no one was there.

Ghosts, she remembered.  High Heart is haunted.  [Arya VIII, ASOS]. 

The gusts of wind are really strong, and are yanking on Arya’s cloak, showing that personification again.  Arya thinks it is ghosts, which we can link to BR as that ghostly figure behind the eyes of the weirwood.        

But we need more clues of BR’s presence at High Heart to be able to link him directly to these examples of wind.  Well there are a lot of BR clues to be found at HH……..

When the wind gusted it blew about her head in a fine cloud.  Her flesh was whiter, the color of milk, and it seemed to Arya that her eyes were red, though it was hard to tell from the bushes.  ‘’The old gods stir and will not let me sleep,’’  

                                                --------------------------------------------------------------

She cackled again. ‘’Look in your fires, pink priest, and you will see.  Not now, though, not here, you’ll see nothing here.  This place belongs to the old gods still…they linger here as I do, shrunken and feeble but not yet dead.

The Ghost of High Heart tells us that the place belongs to the old gods still and that they will not let her sleep, which immediately conjures thoughts of BR.  These gusts of wind seem interested in the GoHH and there is a parallel to drawn.  She is a prophetic albino named ‘The Ghost’ living amongst ww stumps atop a hollow hill and is seemingly an agent of the old gods.  There is also an allusion to her being a CotF, all very much old gods/BR sounding information.

Next, and more descriptively we get the phrase shrunken and feeble but not yet dead which is a perfect description of BR himself.  Withering away in his cave shrunken and feeble, sitting his weirwood throne, whispering in the darkness, and living beyond his mortal years, but not yet dead.    

Talking of BR whispering in the darkness of his cave.  We have already seen the wind whispering through trees, so I think this next clue again backs his presence……   

[Thoros] I did not see them in the flames.  This wedding the old one spoke of, a wedding on the Twins…she has her own ways of knowing things, that one.  The weirwoods whisper in her ear when she sleeps.  If she says your mother is gone to the Twins…’’

In this instance the phrase ‘whisper’ is used to describe the weirwoods influencing her dreams.  And we know that BR specializes in the dream department.  And also whispering it seems.

The Arya chapter that falls in between these two is Arya VI ASOS and also screams BR.  There is another parallel to be drawn, this time involving Beric and again the ubiquitous BR.  We are reintroduced to Beric and throughout the chapter he is described as……...

A one-eyed scarecrow of a man, wearing a ragged black cloak, sitting a weirwood throne in a cave full of weirwood roots.  With tunnels all around, possibly two miles long, all the while there are little children and singers present.

Bloodraven and the clues surrounding his presence are everywhere at HH, and I think it is entirely reasonable to link him to the first two examples I gave.  The wind showing agency and tugging at clothing or blowing off the coverlet.

                                               -----------------------------------------------------------

Moving away from the RL’s, still looking for Bloodraven in the wind……   

It was bitingly cold up here, and the wind pulled at his clothes like an insistent lover.  The top of the Wall was wider than the kingsroad often was, so Tyrion had no fear of falling……   [Tyrion III, AGOT]

There is that biting wind again, and it’s pulling at Tyrion’s clothes.  The description of like an insistent lover may sound a little odd, but describes BR aptly.  He was Shiera Seastar’s lover for many a year and was constantly asking for her hand in marriage only to be rejected.  So the description of an insistent lover is actually a pretty accurate one.

That is the only time the phrase insistent lover has been used to describe the wind.  But what about the word insistent?  Bran/BR’s presence within the ww tree has been described as ghostly, and this next quote shows a distinct similarity between the two descriptions…….

‘’I will’’ Arya said in a small voice.  The wind tugged at her cloak, insistent as a ghost.  It was time she was away…..   [Arya I, AFFC]

The wind is tugging at Arya’s cloak and is described as insistent as a ghost.  This is the second and last time insistent is used to describe the wind, and again it could allude to BR.  I think this is good evidence to link the two.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On their iron spikes atop the gatehouse, the heads waited.
Theon gazed at them silently while the wind tugged on his cloak with small ghostly hands. The miller’s boys had been of an age with Bran and Rickon, alike in size and coloring, and once Reek had flayed the skin from their faces and dipped their heads in tar, it was easy to see familiar features in those misshapen lumps of rotting flesh...

As Theon parades Winterfell contemplating the sight of the miller’s boy’s heads, and his horrific actions, we get a familiar personification.  The wind tugged at Theon’s cloak with ghostly hands ala BR.  Bran is hiding in the crypts at this point, therefore we can probably link this example to BR.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   

The trees were sparser up here, and the wind blew more vigorously, sharp gusts that tugged at her clothing and pushed her hair into her eyes.  [Catelyn VI, AGOT]

Here’s another tugging wind, and the gusts of wind are playing with the clothing again.  Then it pushes Cat’s hair into her eyes, perhaps making her half blind?  As we’ve seen, there are many hints hidden in the wind, so these direct examples to BR are few, likewise Bran, and here is a look at some of the Bran possibilities….    

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

BRAN IN THE WIND

To best understand the clues laid down for Bran in the wind, here is a brief look at some of the bird imagery that has built up throughout his arc.  There are many Bran/bird examples, the following have been taken from Bran II AGOT alone……

The rooftops of Winterfell were Bran’s second home…… -- Straight away we see he is comfortable on the rooftops enabling him a bird’s eye view.

Bran could see all of WF in a glance.  He liked the way it looked, spread out beneath him, only the birds wheeling over his head while all the life of the castle went on below.  Bran could perch here for hours…..  -- Again he is seeing as the birds do, and this time we are told he perches up there, a very bird like description.

They next morning, Bran was nowhere to be seen.  They finally found him fast asleep in the upper branches of the tallest sentinel in the grove…..  – Bran being in the upper branches of the tree could also be perceived as bird like behavior.    

There were crows’ nests atop the broken tower, where no one ever went but him, and sometimes he filled his pockets with corn before he climbed up there and the crows ate right out of his hand…… – Bran is friendly with the crows and feeds them.  Also no one ever went there but him and the crows, and he thinks on the secrets of WF that he and the birds know given the view this vantage point has enabled them.

These two examples are from Jon II AGOT and are self-explanatory…….

She was holding one of his hands.  It looked like a claw.  This was not the Bran he remembered……    

She was cradling one of Bran’s hands.  He took the other, squeezed it.  Fingers like the bones of birds.     

Furthermore, the translation of the name Bran literally means crow or raven in welsh/Gaelic.  And the wicker basket Hodor carries Bran in is very much like a bird's cage, and is often swaying. 

So there is a lot of bird imagery that has built up around Bran, and I think we see some of these hints come to fruition in the form of the clues laid for Bran in the wind.  There are some more familiar hints as well. 

This passage is from Jon VII, and this is the chapter immediately after Bran III ADWD, the ‘last’ time we see him in the series.  A lot happened in that cave, but if you would be so kind, I would like you to recall Bran’s first attempt at flying the skinchanged raven.  It was not very successful and he crashed into the cave wall.  Without further ado, Bran in the wind……       

The sun had broken through near midday, after seven days of dark skies and snow flurries...............
Seven hundred feet up Jon Snow stood looking down upon the haunted forest.  A north wind swirled through the trees below, sending thin white plumes of snow crystals flying from the highest branches, like icy banners………
 
A sudden gust of wind set Edd's cloak to flapping noisily. '' Best go down, m'lord.  This wind's like to push us off the wall, and I never did learn the knack of flying.''
 
The beginning of the chapter has the wind swirling through the trees, and showing a lot of that bird imagery we are looking for.  The thin white plumes of snow crystals are a description of feathers, and they are flying from the highest branches of the trees as birds do. [We’ve seen Bran in those high branches as well]  The gust of wind then sent Edd’s cloak to flapping noisily, we’ve seen the birds do this various times throughout the series.

Following this, I think we get confirmation that we can link this windy bird imagery to Bran directly.  Dolorous Edd says ’This wind’s like to push us off the wall’ which is exactly what happened to Bran back in AGOT. 

And somewhat more recently, [Last chapter in fact] the phrase ‘I never did learn the knack of flying’ again fits with Bran.  His failed flight seems to have been linked in the text almost instantly.  Just a few pages later in fact, although in a different chapter.

After this initial set-up, we also see Bran possibilities in the wind that blows the winch lift at the Wall……..

They rode the winch lift back to the ground.  The wind was gusting cold as the breath of the Ice dragon in the tales Old Nan had told when Jon was a boy.  The heavy cage was swaying.  From time to time it scraped against the Wall, starting small crystalline showers of ice that sparkled in the sunlight as they fell, like shards of broken glass.

As they rode the winch lift back down the wind was gusting again.  I love the cold as the breath of the Ice dragon description as well, this is Jon’s chapter after all.  But more importantly for this line of enquiry, the wind was causing the heavy cage to sway just as Bran is described to have done in his cage/basket on Hodor’s back. 

There is another really good example in A Ghost in Winterfell, ADWD…………..

“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……….Once outside the godswood, the cold descended on him like a ravening wolf had 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 crunches 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”   [A Ghost in WF, ADWD]

We have looked at the first part of this passage in Part I, the leaves enabling a voice essay.  The ghost connection is actually realized instantly in the second passage here, as is Bran in the wind.  Winterfell’s godswood certainly seems haunted in this scene, and Theon did not want to be there.  As Evita has pointed out before, it seems the ghost in WF is Bran.

Once Theon had left the godswood [Away from the eyes of the ww] the cold and wind descended on him like a ravening wolf had caught him in its teeth.  The description ravening wolf could not be more apt for Bran, and he catches Theon in his teeth as we’ve seen the howling wind have a tendency to do.  As Theon stoops through the wind towards the Great Hall we get the ghostly Bran in the wind.  This ghostly wind plucked at Theon’s hood with frozen fingers, this is Bran showing a keen interest in Theon. 

Furthermore, as Ravenous Reader pointed out in her earlier essay, the term plucked is more bird terminology. [Among many other things] We have seen such examples in the series……..

‘They’d even stick the other half in the fire and crisp it up for you, so long as you plucked the feathers yourself.’

                                                    ----------------------------------------------------

Moving away from Westeros, we see a lot of these same clues in the wind as far away as Braavos.  Perhaps to be expected with all the BR hints we already have there, including a bridge of a thousand painted eyes and of course all that mist and fog…..

The mists of Braavos did queer things to sounds as well, she had found.  Half the city will be half-blind tonight.

BR’s association with mist and fog, and the half-blind reference can certainly link him as a presence in Braavos.  But what about Bran?  I mentioned such an example at the end of my second essay……

When at last day came to Braavos, it came grey and dark and overcast.  The girl had hoped for fog, but the gods ignored her prayers as gods so often did.  The air was clear and cold, and the wind had a nasty bite to it.   [The Ugly Little Girl, ADWD]

Here is another example from Braavos in support of this……..                   

She did not intend to enter.  Instead she perched atop a wooden piling twenty yards away as the blustery wind tugged at her cloak with ghostly fingers.  Even on a cold grey day like this, the harbour was a busy place....................  A red priest swept past, his scarlet and crimson robes snapping in the wind.   [The Ugly Little Girl, ADWD]

Arya is described as being perched atop the wood piling, which reminds us of Bran and his bird symbolism.  Next, and as if in confirmation of Bran’s presence, the wind instantly tugs at her cloak with those ghostly fingers we can associate with our ravening wolf.  Also the day is described as cold and grey, both synonymous with the Stark’s.  And we have another clue in the clothing as the priest’s robe snaps in the wind, replicating the howling wind and wolves from earlier examples.

Talking of the howling wind amongst Bran evidence, this next passage is enticing…..    

The winds came howling from the north and drove them slavers inside to huddle round their fires, and whilst they warmed themselves the new king come down on them.  Brandon Stark this was, Edrick Snowbeard’s great grandson………  [Davos IV, ADWD]

The howling winds aid the new king, unbeknownst to him of course, as the wind drives the slavers inside.  George then names this new king Brandon Stark, one of the many past Brandon’s in history.  Though with all we’ve been looking at, this seems to be another subtle hint.  The name Brandon Stark being mentioned alongside, or possibly even associated with the howling north wind seemed a good way to wrap up my essay.

Thank you for reading my three essays [If you got here] I would like to reiterate our eternal thanks to Evita for starting this thread, and for the inspiration I got from her great ideas.  Now in conclusion to this series, here is our co-host Ravenous Reader with her final supporting/progressing essay.    

[Tijgy]

@Wizz-The-Smith I really loved your last essay especially because it tries to find evidence how GRRM personifies the wind by referring to Bloodraven. 

Some little remarks:

On 1-1-2017 at 10:37 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said:

There is a cold north wind howling, which I have tried to link to the wolves/old gods.  Then we get two descriptions in the wind that fit BR’s history.  He was of course knifed in the eye by Bittersteel and this left him as good as blind, losing one of his eyes. 

Very great find about the "knifed"! I forgot the fact he had been knifed in his eye by Bittersteel. So really amazing thing you found here! 

On 1-1-2017 at 10:37 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said:

The Ghost of High Heart tells us that the place belongs to the old gods still and that they will not let her sleep, which immediately conjures thoughts of BR.  These gusts of wind seem interested in the GoHH and there is a parallel to drawn.  She is a prophetic albino named ‘The Ghost’ living amongst ww stumps atop a hollow hill and is seemingly an agent of the old gods.  There is also an allusion to her being a CotF, all very much old gods/BR sounding information.

It is also very interesting how many other agents of the old gods are albinos (which are also the colours of the weirwood trees: red and white) and who are agents or related to ghosts: the GOHH, Ghost, Bloodraven (who is an old relic from the time of the Blackfyre Revolutions), ... Some where later in your essay you also write: "The wind is tugging at Arya’s cloak and is described as insistent as a ghost.  This is the second and last time insistent is used to describe the wind, and again it could allude to BR.  I think this is good evidence to link the two".

On 1-1-2017 at 10:37 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said:

So there is a lot of bird imagery that has built up around Bran, and I think we see some of these hints come to fruition in the form of the clues laid for Bran in the wind.  There are some more familiar hints as well. 

Just a little remark. While Bran has indeed a huge connection to bird imagery, I think you cannot also forget Bloodraven's connection to birds? So I think more clues are needed than just bird imagery to adhere the wind exclusively to Bran  

Like for example 

On 1-1-2017 at 10:37 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said:

And somewhat more recently, [Last chapter in fact] the phrase ‘I never did learn the knack of flying’ again fits with Bran.  His failed flight seems to have been linked in the text almost instantly.  Just a few pages later in fact, although in a different chapter.

 

On 1-1-2017 at 10:37 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said:

The winds came howling from the north and drove them slavers inside to huddle round their fires, and whilst they warmed themselves the new king come down on them.  Brandon Stark this was, Edrick Snowbeard’s great grandson………  [Davos IV, ADWD]

The howling winds aid the new king, unbeknownst to him of course, as the wind drives the slavers inside.  George then names this new king Brandon Stark, one of the many past Brandon’s in history.  Though with all we’ve been looking at, this seems to be another subtle hint.  The name Brandon Stark being mentioned alongside, or possibly even associated with the howling north wind seemed a good way to wrap up my essay.

And this is also brilliant. "Wind coming howling from the north ... The new king ... Brandon Stark this was!" And now I am again hoping this is the foreshadowing of a new king during a long and cruel winter coming to North from the north to recapture his kingdom  

I think it is also interesting to compare to the harsh weather now surrounding Winterfell? Like Old Lord Locke said: 

"The gods have turned against us," old Lord Locke was heard to say in the Great Hall. "This is their wroth. A wind as cold as hell itself and snows that never end. We are cursed." 

Thank for the great work, like always, Wizz!

[ravenous reader]

On 1/1/2017 at 4:37 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said:

Thank you for reading my three essays [If you got here] I would like to reiterate our eternal thanks to Evita for starting this thread, and for the inspiration I got from her great ideas.  Now in conclusion to this series, here is our co-host Ravenous Reader with her final supporting/progressing essay.    

Thank you for that warm introduction from my dear collaborators @Wizz-The-Smith and @Tijgy.  I second that acknowledgement -- We miss you more than you know, @evita mgfs    

PART III:  A PRESENCE IN THE WIND

Hey everyone, hopefully I have been able to show a link between the wind, the trees rustling enabling a voice, and the howling wind being rather wolfish and on the side of the old gods.  Now I would like to investigate the possibility that BR and Bran can inhabit the wind itself. 

The first examples are designed to show where I think BR is in the wind. 

And secondly, the examples of Bran in the wind.  Let’s get going…….

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THE WIND IS ENDOWED WITH A VOICE AND A SABLE COAT 

 A cold wind whispered through the trees.  His [Royce’s] great sable cloak stirred behind like something half alive.

 

It’s interesting that you inserted a name in parentheses (Royce’s) in order to clarify the correct attribution of the personal pronoun ‘his’—an insertion which perhaps indirectly exposes GRRM’s equivocal language!  Read without the help of your parentheses, the ‘his’ in question could just as well refer to the subject of the immediately preceding sentence, namely the wind, which has already been personified in that sentence using the phrase ‘whispered through the trees,’ which as we’ve seen is one manner in which Bloodraven gives voice to his intentions.  Assuming there is someone in the wind, then perhaps that someone wears a ‘great sable cloak,’ a luscious black coat worthy of a great ruler or black sorcerer like Bloodraven (given that a raven is similarly ‘cloaked’ in glossy black pinions, this is an apt image).  Pointing us in this direction, the coat is described as regal with a slinky hint of ‘sin’:

Quote

A Game of Thrones - Prologue                                                                                                         

His cloak was his crowning glory; sable, thick and black and soft as sin.

Together with @evita mgfs, I previously identified the sable as a potentially significant clue, especially considering that a sable is a furtive weasel-like predator (related to the mink, otter, badger and wolverine), otherwise known as a marten (a pun on ‘Martin’), who frequents forests and underground burrows, which happens to be Bloodraven’s ideal greenseeing habitat (we also concluded that 'Waymar,' an amalgamation of GRRM's names, signified 'way more' than is apparent at first glance!)  

Although we encounter many characters who wear sable-trimmed clothing, GRRM puts very few characters in full sable coats.  Apart from the straightforward explanation that few are rich and influential enough to afford such a coat, perhaps there is further underlying symbolism attached. 

The few I identified who wear full coats of the fur include Ser Waymar Royce, Euron, Ramsay Bolton, Tommen and Lady Dustin (by the way, the inclusion of the latter in the ‘full sable’ category hints that she may be far more influential and formidable than hitherto thought, as evidenced in her sharp features and sharp mind; her penetrating, bright eyes, ‘feral smile,’ and imperious, rather predatory utterance, ‘If I were queen, the first thing I would do would be to kill all those grey rats [maesters]’…she also skulks around with Theon in the crypt, an underground burrow for undercover agents of all sorts , ADWD-The Prince of Winterfell and A Ghost in WInterfell).

Of all of these sable-clad figures, the description of Euron wearing the coat stands out, having uncanny echoes of Bloodraven.  Consider the following:

Quote

A Feast for Crows - The Reaver

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 world." Firelight glimmered in Euron's eye. His smiling eye. "Will you take a cup of Lord Hewett's wine? There's no wine half so sweet as wine taken from a beaten foe."

"No." Victarion glanced away. "Cover yourself."

Euron seated himself and gave his cloak a twitch, so it covered his private parts. "I had forgotten what a small and noisy folk they are, my ironborn. I would bring them dragons, and they shout out for grapes."

The description of the wind stirring the sable cloak is remarkably similar to that in the prologue.  In each case, the animation of the sable by the wind gives the coat a life of its own, often at odds with the wishes of the ‘wearer,’ almost as if there were another presence moving in the room or through the trees respectively, shadowing the protagonists. 

Establishing a connection between Euron and Bloodraven, and by implication to the identity of this ‘half alive’ presence seeking to grab the sable in both instances, are all the thickly overlaid elements taken together, as follows: 

•       The ‘sin’ behind the sable coat (more on this later)
•        The one red eye.  Euron has a red leather eye patch analogous to Bloodraven’s red eye.  Moreover, in the newly released TWOW chapter ‘The Forsaken’:

Spoiler

Euron’s true eye is revealed:  ‘the smiling eye hidden. He showed the world his blood eye now, dark and terrible’]

•      The talk of flying dreams which have a remarkable resemblance to the ones Bloodraven (assuming he is indeed the three-eyed crow psychopomp) sent Bran to initiate him into the mysteries of green-dreaming and -seeing, particularly given the ‘leap from some tall tower’ which is precisely what happened to Bran
•       The reference to black magic of ‘the undying’ who drink shade of the evening, made from the ebony tree (suggested by Euron’s bruised blue lips after he’s drunk from the silver cup) is a mirror of Bloodraven whose life and reach is being similarly extended by a tree and is described as ‘half corpse-half tree’… ‘like something half alive’
•       And last but not least, the personified wind.

From what we’ve been able to glean about the wind elsewhere in the text, it’s likely that the wind which swooped in to stir Euron’s sable coat had been keeping an eye and ear on proceedings, perhaps even watching from the open window before gaining access through that window. 

What’s more, the wind tries to undress Euron and rip away his coat, leaving him half naked.  Similarly, the wind in the prologue attempts to do the same to Ser Waymar in conjunction with the trees:  ‘…the rustle of leaves, and muttered curses as reaching branches grabbed at his longsword and tugged on his splendid sable cloak.’  If the presence in the prologue is indeed the same agent as the one accosting Euron, then this is someone who inhabits wind and trees alike—with a predilection for sable cloaks!

As we’ve underscored before, the wind is not a passive observer but an active participant.  Akin to ‘plucking,’ the action of ‘stirring’ is not only a musical device (like the similarly onomatopoeic ‘whispering,’ ‘whistling,’ or ‘rustling’), but also connotes this idea of arousing and meddling, in the idiomatic sense of ‘stirring the pot.’  In fact, the word ‘stir’ itself is derived from the Old English styrian, of Germanic origin, related to German stören ‘disturb.’  Thus, the wind presumably inhabited by Bloodraven seeks to disturb the status quo.

Historically, Bloodraven both as sorcerer and as Hand to various kings did his fair share of meddling.  Often at the center of controversy, he was a figure enmeshed in stirring up much political strife, notably when he slew Aenys Blackfyre who’d come to peacefully attend the Great Council in the matter of the succession, a kinslaying for which Bloodraven was banished to the wall and took the black.  Interestingly, this is yet another point of intersection between Bloodraven and Euron, the latter having murdered Baelor Blacktyde, who’d come to peacefully participate in the Kingsmoot deciding the succession of the Iron Islands.  After having slain Blacktyde, a recapitulation of Blackfyre (even contained in the striking similarity of their names, separated by only two letters), Euron stripped his victim of his black sable coat and appropriated the skin for his own.  He also annexed Blacktyde’s ship ‘Nightflyer.’  These two particular spoils are a further hint respectively at his skinchanging and greenseeing abilities, particularly expressing these gifts in a manner which is considered abomination, i.e. murder, rape, etc., hence ‘poisoned gifts’.  Symbolically, what I'm saying is that wearing a sable has echoes of master skinchangers, wargs, greenseers and kings.

Perhaps there is a game of one-upmanship going on here between the sorcerers Euron and Bloodraven for the top position in the hierarchy represented by the tug-of-war over the coveted sable coat.  In response to the wind tugging on the coat, Euron ‘twitches’ it back.  As Euron says ‘There's no wine half so sweet as wine taken from a beaten foe,’ with reference to the wine and women he’s appropriated from his latest victim, which however could also be a reference to the vanquishing of his brothers Urri, Aeron and Victarion, based on the modus operandi of plunder and rape (note Victarion turns away from the sight of Euron’s naked manhood which is too painful to face for this reason), followed by the theft of the driftwood crown and the seastone chair, which the purloining of the sable coat also represents.   

In fact, the following description of Ser Waymar could equally apply to Euron, as it does to Bloodraven: ‘His cloak was his crowning glory; sable, thick and black and soft as sin.’  In Euron’s case the cloak was literally his ‘crowning’ glory, as a trophy of his having hijacked the Kingsmoot in a hostile takeover on the back of the murder and all his other crimes (the ‘sin’).  In order to make such a fur, after all, an obscene heap of sables must first be slaughtered and flayed, in effect making he who dares to adorn himself with such a costly prize the apex predator.    

Offended by his brother's 'obscene and disturbing nakedness,' Victarion tells him to cover himself; however, the wind has other ideas.  This personified wind with suggestive northern attributes seems annoyed at the cloak and/or its owner, as revealed by its grabbing the garment with unseen ghostly fingers in the style of Bloodraven (finding expression, as we’ve previously observed, via the identified trio of trees, wind and wolves).  

As discussed in our 'plucking' meditations, perhaps the wind, like Victarion, finds Euron obscene, and wishes to reveal Euron's obscenity for the abomination it is.  Alternatively, as I’ve suggested, perhaps the attentions are covetous rather than annoyed -- or both.  Perhaps Bloodraven, finding Euron and Ser Waymar unworthy, wishes to pluck the prize coat away from them in the same manner Euron snatched it from Blacktyde. Were Euron, as has been hypothesized, a failed pupil of Bloodraven’s greenseeing school (by ‘failed’ I’m not necessarily implying a lack of talent, but rather a perversion of intent, e.g. as in the Citadel’s rejection of Qyburn), then Bloodraven might very well be feeling annoyed, or even vengeful, towards him and feel the need to keep a close eye on his activities.  From the viewpoint of a potential ‘sorcerer’s creed’, there may also be an element of reprimand here in response to Euron’s loose talk about flying, which may be construed by Bloodraven as spilling ‘trade secrets,’ arcane knowledge which should be kept under wraps from the general public.  Note that the wind comes gusting in to challenge him the moment Euron starts spilling the beans to his brother about dream initiations and leaping from a tower.  In addition, Bloodraven as a Targaryen bastard, yet blood of the dragon nevertheless, might be taking umbrage with Euron’s brazen talk in this scene of stealing dragons and their eggs. 

With reference to the prologue, there’s another possibility which has occurred to me, that perhaps Ser Waymar aroused the ire of the wind-and-trees, i.e. Bloodraven, simply because he reminded him of Euron (or potentially someone else), prancing about in his sable coat as if he were master of the forest. 

Finally, as we watch the hotly (or icily…) contested battle for the marten coat unfold, let’s remember that on a meta-level he who ultimately wears the coat – the last man standing after devising assaults in Moleskine (a writer's notebook like Ser Waymar's gloves in the prologue), after having slaughtered all our favorite and other characters– is the windy wizard and wily super-predator Mr Martin himself!

 

A VOICE FROM NOWHERE… SPIRITS OF THE AIR

Here’s another example, which we’ve highlighted before, of a wind, or someone using that wind as a vehicle, potentially spying/eavesdropping on proceedings at Winterfell through a window; to reiterate :

Quote

Dance with Dragons - The Prince of Winterfell

She broke off as Roose Bolton rose to his feet, pale eyes shining in the torchlight. "My friends," he began, and a hush swept through the hall, so profound that Theon could hear the wind plucking at the boards over the windows.

Specifically, the word 'plucking' used in conjunction with the wind should alert us to this possibility.

Quote

A Dance with Dragons - The Prince of Winterfell

Theon Greyjoy was no stranger to this godswood. He had played here as a boy, skipping stones across the cold black pool beneath the weirwood, hiding his treasures in the bole of an ancient oak, stalking squirrels with a bow he made himself. Later, older, he had soaked his bruises in the hot springs after many a session in the yard with Robb and Jory and Jon Snow. In amongst these chestnuts and elms and soldier pines he had found secret places where he could hide when he wanted to be alone. The first time he had ever kissed a girl had been here. Later, a different girl had made a man of him upon a ragged quilt in the shade of that tall grey-green sentinel.

He had never seen the godswood like this, though—grey and ghostly, filled with warm mists and floating lights and whispered voices that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. Beneath the trees, the hot springs steamed. Warm vapors rose from the earth, shrouding the trees in their moist breath, creeping up the walls to draw grey curtains across the watching windows.

There is something ironic about Theon believing he could ‘hide’ out in the godswood when he wanted to be ‘alone’ as a boy.  Theon’s oblivious belief that he was unobserved when he lost his virginity is contradicted by the fact that it happened under the watchful gaze of a ‘sentinel’!

Returning to Winterfell as a man, however, Theon becomes dimly aware of being watched by some kind of presence among the mists and trees, disquieting him with ‘grey and ghostly whispered voices that seemed to come from nowhere.’  The grey mists – one of Bloodraven’s known proxies – are personified as having a ‘moist breath,’ i.e. they are breathing!  Strangely, considering Winterfell is an icy domain, the lively presence in the godswood seems to be endowed with a warm-blooded circulation.  With all the warm grey mists, hot steaming springs, warm vapors, moist breath, and obfuscating ghostliness, the gaseous emissions could almost be seen as someone smoking – ‘smoke’ being another of Bloodraven’s symbols and colors. 

Whoever it is, the watchful presence seems to be vigilant of being seen itself, as evidenced in the way the mists ‘creep up the walls to draw grey curtains across the watching windows,’ thereby obscuring the gaze of any unwelcome observers, here the invaders who have violently overtaken the castle (alternatively, the smoky grey presence could also be using the windows to snoop on those within the walls!).  The subversion of the normal direction of gaze relations serves to firmly locate the seer in the wood instead of the castle.

A tip as to the identity of the ghostly presence – the seer of the godswood – is given by the following passage in which the wolves like the creeping mist in the aforementioned example seem to have sprung the bounds of their confines, and now seem to be loping around like sentries on the ‘curtain’ walls, although logically they ought to be restricted to the godswood.  Like the grey mist, the wolves seem to rise on wings to protect and defend their domain:

Quote

A Clash of Kings - Bran I

Hodor said only, "Hodor." That was all he ever said.

And still the direwolves howled. The guards on the walls muttered curses, hounds in the kennels barked furiously, horses kicked at their stalls, the Walders shivered by their fire, and even Maester Luwin complained of sleepless nights. Only Bran did not mind. Ser Rodrik had confined the wolves to the godswood after Shaggydog bit Little Walder, but the stones of Winterfell played queer tricks with sound, and sometimes it sounded as if they were in the yard right below Bran's window. Other times he would have sworn they were up on the curtain walls, loping round like sentries. He wished that he could see them.

He could see the comet hanging above the Guards Hall and the Bell Tower, and farther back the First Keep, squat and round, its gargoyles black shapes against the bruised purple dusk. Once Bran had known every stone of those buildings, inside and out; he had climbed them all, scampering up walls as easily as other boys ran down stairs. Their rooftops had been his secret places, and the crows atop the broken tower his special friends.

Initially, Bran says he wishes he could catch sight of the direwolves who are the watchers on the wall.  While this thought seems to imply that Bran in contrast has been deprived of a privileged perspective, his thought immediately segues into a description of Bran’s intimate knowledge of all the secret places of Winterfell’s buildings, the unique bird’s-eye view he shares with the crows, and his facility for scampering – like the mist and the wolves – up walls.  From these associations, particularly the latter, I would posit that Bran together with Bloodraven are the watchers in the wind.

Back in AGOT, we were introduced to a similar idea of ghostly presences potentially monitoring proceedings at Winterfell, albeit in Sandor’s rasping ridiculing way:

Quote

A Game of Thrones - Tyrion I

"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."

In that same chapter, in addition to being aligned with the Northern spirits of the air and voices from nowhere, Tyrion is uncharacteristically described as ‘wolfish’ (he also walks around Winterfell doing a lot of whistling, which, as I’ve previously highlighted, is the song Starks use to call their wolves, and often used by GRRM to personify the wind). So, are we to conclude from this that the spirits of the air are wolfish?  I’m still not sure why GRRM used Tyrion in particular to convey this message, especially since he seems repeatedly wary of the weird trio: winds, wolves, and woods (or should we say weird quartet: adding in 'winter' to the mix).  Regardless of whether Tyrion is friend or foe (as Jaime says, it’s difficult to tell what side he’s on!) at least Tyrion is sensitive and aware enough to on some level heed the song of the North.

   

                                                   ------------------------------------------------------

The second set of BR examples are spread out across two Arya chapters, both of which are based at High Heart in the Riverland’s. The Arya chapter that sandwiches this one is important as well, we will briefly look at that afterwards.  George drip feeds us the information this time, and we can link it to BR.  Let’s start with a couple of times the wind is showing that presence at HH…….. 

Yet even so, the hair on the back of her neck stood up that night.  She had been asleep, but the storm woke her.  The wind pulled the coverlet right off her and sent it swirling into the bushes.  When she went after it she heard voices.

Besides the embers of their campfire, she saw Tom, Lem, and Greenbeard talking to a tiny little woman, a foot shorter than Arya and older than Old Nan……… [Arya IV, ASOS]

The wind/BR seem to have a genuine influence on events in this scene.  The coverlet was blown off her, it’s as if the wind wanted Arya [And us] to hear this conversation.    

From up here she could see a storm raging to the north, but High Heart stood above the rain.  It wasn’t above the wind, though; the gusts were blowing so strongly that it felt like someone was behind her, yanking on her cloak.  Only when she turned, no one was there.

Ghosts, she remembered.  High Heart is haunted.  [Arya VIII, ASOS]. 

The gusts of wind are really strong, and are yanking on Arya’s cloak, showing that personification again.  Arya thinks it is ghosts,which we can link to BR as that ghostly figure behind the eyes of the weirwood.        

But we need more clues of BR’s presence at High Heart to be able to link him directly to these examples of wind.  Well there are a lot of BR clues to be found at HH……..

When the wind gusted it blew about her head in a fine cloud.  Her flesh was whiter, the color of milk, and it seemed to Arya that her eyes were red, though it was hard to tell from the bushes.  ‘’The old gods stir and will not let me sleep,’’  

That’s a good example, with many of the elements congregating together which we also identified in the prologue and Euron example…’yanking’ on the cloak is similar to ‘stirring’ and ‘plucking’; in the Euron example, the wind also ‘gusts’…I like the play of ‘gusts’ on ‘ghosts’ too…gusts containing ghosts!  There’s also the indication of a power struggle going on, suggested by the idea of a hierarchy of elements, whereby High Heart can stand ‘above the rain’ but no one can stand above the wind.  Therefore, the implication is that the wind is the highest power, mover and shaker!  

                                               -----------------------------------------------------------

 

'THE PAST ISN'T DEAD.  IT'S NOT EVEN PAST'  

(GRRM is a fan of Faulkner, so I'm going with that, despite what Bloodraven says!)

 

Quote

A Dance with Dragons - Bran III

"But," said Bran, "he heard me."

"He heard a whisper on the wind, a rustling amongst the leaves. You cannot speak to him, try as you might. I know. I have my own ghosts, Bran. A brother that I loved, a brother that I hated, a woman I desired. Through the trees, I see them still, but no word of mine has ever reached them. The past remains the past. We can learn from it, but we cannot change it."

 

 

Moving away from the RL’s, looking for more Bloodraven in the wind……   

It was bitingly cold up here, and the wind pulled at his clothes like an insistent lover.  The top of the Wall was wider than the kingsroad often was, so Tyrion had no fear of falling……   [Tyrion III, AGOT]

There is that biting wind again, and it’s pulling at Tyrion’s clothes.  The description of like an insistent lover may sound a little odd, but describes BR aptly.  He was Shiera Seastar’s lover for many a year and was constantly asking for her hand in marriage only to be rejected.  So the description of an insistent lover is actually a pretty accurate one.

That is the only time the phrase insistent lover has been used to describe the wind.  But what about the word insistent?  Bran/BR’s presence within the ww tree has been described as ghostly, and this next quote shows a distinct similarity between the two descriptions……

‘’I will’’ Arya said in a small voice.  The wind tugged at her cloak, insistent as a ghost.  It was time she was away…..   [Arya I, AFFC]

The wind is tugging at Arya’s cloak and is described as insistent as a ghost.  This is the second and last time insistent is used to describe the wind, and again it could allude to BR.  I think this is good evidence to link the two.

‘Like an insistent lover...an insistent ghost’ -- that is so good!  Apropos, another way in which Bloodraven is ‘biting,’ tying in with your focus on the 'biting' wind, quite apart from a certain northern old gods’ wolfishness via the Blackwood line, is via his connection to the ‘Raven’s Teeth’! 

 

DECONSTRUCTING THE BIRDCAGE

BRAN IN THE WIND

To best understand the clues laid down for Bran in the wind, here is a brief look at some of the bird imagery that has built up throughout his arc.  There are many Bran/bird examples, the following have been taken from Bran II AGOT alone……

The rooftops of Winterfell were Bran’s second home…… -- Straight away we see he is comfortable on the rooftops enabling him abird’s eye view.

Bran could see all of WF in a glance.  He liked the way it looked, spread out beneath him, only the birds wheeling over his head while all the life of the castle went on below.  Bran could perch here for hours…..  -- Again he is seeing as the birds do, and this time we are told he perches up there, a very bird like description

They next morning, Bran was nowhere to be seen.  They finally found him fast asleep in the upper branches of the tallest sentinel in the grove…..  – Bran being in the upper branches of the tree could also be perceived as bird like behavior.    

There were crows’ nests atop the broken tower, where no one ever went but him, and sometimes he filled his pockets with corn before he climbed up there and the crows ate right out of his hand…… – Bran is friendly with the crows and feeds them.  Also no one ever went there but him and the crows, and he thinks on the secrets of WF that he and the birds know given the view this vantage point has enabled them.

These two examples are from Jon II AGOT and are self-explanatory…….

She was holding one of his hands.  It looked like a claw.  This was not the Bran he remembered……    

She was cradling one of Bran’s hands.  He took the other, squeezed it.  Fingers like the bones of birds.     

Furthermore, the translation of the name Bran literally means crow or raven in welsh/Gaelic.  And the wicker basket Hodor carries Bran in is very much like a bird's cage, and is often swaying. 

 

Note:  I've previously posted the following piece over on one of the other threads, but it's worth reproducing here -- because I find it central to thinking about Bran's mythic and moral destiny.

I like your delightful comparison with a bird cage! In addition, the wicker basket is basically a kind of nest, woven with plant stalks, branches, or shoots, in which an egg incubates, and after hatching a baby bird nestles. 

We can also identify a further layer of symbolic meaning here that is vaguely disturbing.  At first Hodor carries Bran in a basket which resembles a nest.  Then, with his developing powers, Bran by skinchanging Hodor exchanges the physical nest on Hodor’s back for a virtual one, inside Hodor.  In other words, he’s nesting in Hodor’s body and mind!  Inside Hodor, the ‘basket’ holding Bran may not be ‘swaying’ persé, but is no less precipitous; ‘As Hodor…he crossed the slender stone bridge that arched over the abyss’ (see full quote below) describes Bran’s outer as well as inner journey, which can be a treacherous ascent/descent, including from an ethical perspective. 

Moreover, by exchanging the wicker basket for Hodor who now serves as ‘bird receptacle,’ Bran has in the process essentially put Hodor in a cage of sorts by depriving him of a measure of his own free will (although, as a caveat, it may be debatable to which degree Hodor willingly submits to this arrangement, versus the case of Euron and his ‘mediums’ where it is always a clear-cut invasion/rape).  Arguably, Bran’s greater freedom of movement is bought at the expense of confining or harnessing Hodor, as if he were a horse.  

When he’s travelling around the cavern in Hodor, I found it intriguing that when one of the singers motions to him, Bran-in-the-birdcage-of-Hodor answers with ‘Hodor,’ to which ‘the real Hodor’ – i.e. Hodor-in-the-birdcage-of-Bran’s-making --who is described as ‘stirring down in his pit’ (sounds like a prison to me…in addition to evoking a dragon pit), responds with a ‘Hodor’ only Bran can hear.  The call and response – ‘Hodor’ to ‘Hodor’ – is like a bird call where one bird will call out and elicit a corresponding call from another bird, usually of the same species.  Suffice it to say, there are multiple nested layers and presences at work.

Likewise, the singers and the arch-bird himself presiding over them, Bloodraven, are nesting in the weir roots in which they are described as being ‘enthroned’ rather than encaged.  The description of ‘twisted roots, old bone and rotten wool’ sounds very much like the eclectic composition of gathered items with which birds construct their nests.  And, as with Bran, Bloodraven can be said to symbolically nest or take up root within various trees, animals, people, times and places, and the atmospheric elements like fog and wind. 

As insinuated in the observation that the nest can be a ‘cage’ or a ‘throne,’ depending on ones perspective, there is a dialectic at work between freedom and imprisonment, nurturance and oppression, in Brandon and Brynden’s dark arts.

The weirwood throne is a wicker basket, nest, cage (including ribcage), sacrificial pyre, gallows tree, crucifix, magic wand, lightning conductor, antler rack, crown, dunce's cap, horse, dragon, flaming sword, bridge, and space-time ship (and a few more things besides)!  

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A Dance with Dragons - Bran III

As Hodor he explored the caves. He found chambers full of bones, shafts that plunged deep into the earth, a place where the skeletons of gigantic bats hung upside down from the ceiling. He even crossed the slender stone bridge that arched over the abyss and discovered more passages and chambers on the far side. One was full of singers, enthroned like Brynden in nests of weirwood roots that wove under and through and around their bodies. Most of them looked dead to him, but as he crossed in front of them their eyes would open and follow the light of his torch, and one of them opened and closed a wrinkled mouth as if he were trying to speak. "Hodor," Bran said to him, and he felt the real Hodor stir down in his pit.

Seated on his throne of roots in the great cavern, half-corpse and half-tree, Lord Brynden seemed less a man than some ghastly statue made of twisted wood, old bone, and rotted wool. The only thing that looked alive in the pale ruin that was his face was his one red eye, burning like the last coal in a dead fire, surrounded by twisted roots and tatters of leathery white skin hanging off a yellowed skull.

 

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A Dance with Dragons - Bran I

Bran never said the words aloud, but they were often on his lips as their ragged company trudged through groves of ancient oaks and towering grey-green sentinels, past gloomy soldier pines and bare brown chestnut trees. Are we near? the boy would wonder, as Hodor clambered up a stony slope, or descended into some dark crevice where drifts of dirty snow cracked beneath his feet. How much farther? he would think, as the great elk splashed across a half-frozen stream. How much longer? It's so cold. Where is the three-eyed crow?

Swaying in his wicker basket on Hodor's back, the boy hunched down, ducking his head as the big stableboy passed beneath the limb of an oak. The snow was falling again, wet and heavy. Hodor walked with one eye frozen shut, his thick brown beard a tangle of hoarfrost, icicles drooping from the ends of his bushy mustache. One gloved hand still clutched the rusty iron longsword he had taken from the crypts below Winterfell, and from time to time he would lash out at a branch, knocking loose a spray of snow. "Hod-d-d-dor," he would mutter, his teeth chattering.

The sound was strangely reassuring. 

Hodor's 'one eye frozen shut' is a reference to the one-eyed godlike seer Odin, courtesy @LmL and @Blue Tiger for all that Norse mythology; so by hitching a ride on the ice giant Hodor -- either on an actual wicker basket on his back, or via the virtual 'wicker basket' represented by skinchanging another -- Bran is recapitulating the symbolism of Odin riding his horse Sleipnir up and down the bridge represented by the world tree (weirwood analog) Yggdrasil...traversing the length of the tree is also an analogy for time travel or astral projection into the past and future (the 'down' and 'up' of the tree, respectively).  The stuttering rendition of 'Hod-d-dor' which Bran finds so reassuring is reminiscent of a death rattle!  Bran is negotiating the realm of the under- or otherworld at this point.  He like Bloodraven is 'half-alive' or 'half-dead' depending on your perspective.  I think Bran's the Last Greenseer and also the Last Hero (the latter in conjunction with his soon-to-be-undead brother-cousin Jon).  

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And somewhat more recently [Last chapter in fact] the phrase ‘I never did learn the knack of flying’ again fits with Bran.  His failed flight seems to have been linked in the text almost instantly.  Just a few pages later in fact, although in a different chapter.

Yes, the connection is there, particularly in conjunction with the vivid image of the failed dreamers impaled on the landscape of jagged blue-white spires of ice.

After this initial set-up, we also see Bran possibilities in the wind that blows the winch lift at the Wall……..

They rode the winch lift back to the ground.  The wind was gusting cold as the breath of the Ice dragon in the tales Old Nan had told when Jon was a boy.  The heavy cage was swaying. From time to time it scraped against the Wall, starting small crystalline showers of ice that sparkled in the sunlight as they fell, like shards of broken glass.

As they rode the winch lift back down the wind was gusting again.  I love the cold as the breath of the Ice dragon description as well, this is Jon’s chapter after all.  But more importantly for this line of enquiry, the wind was causing the heavy cage to sway just as Bran is described to have done in his cage/basket on Hodor’s back. 

 

Great connection.  Could the swaying basket represent a swaying bridge? 

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A Game of Thrones - Catelyn II

Sansa would shine in the south, Catelyn thought to herself, and the gods knew that Arya needed refinement. Reluctantly, she let go of them in her heart. But not Bran. Never Bran. "Yes," she said, "but please, Ned, for the love you bear me, let Bran remain here at Winterfell. He is only seven."

"I was eight when my father sent me to foster at the Eyrie," Ned said. "Ser Rodrik tells me there is bad feeling between Robb and Prince Joffrey. That is not healthy. Bran can bridge that distance. He is a sweet boy, quick to laugh, easy to love. Let him grow up with the young princes, let him become their friend as Robert became mine. Our House will be the safer for it."

Bran is associated with bridges on more than one occasion.  His greenseeing power may be thought of as the ultimate bridge -- just as worlds are bridged by Odin via Sleipnir-Yggdrasil -- we just have to figure out in Bran's case exactly what he's going to bridge, and to what end, because this quote by Ned is prophetic.  I predict Bran will one day be known as 'Brandon the Bridger'!

[Wizz-The-Smith]

On ‎09‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 8:58 PM, ravenous reader said:

Together with @evita mgfs, I previously identified the sable as a potentially significant clue, especially considering that a sable is a furtive weasel-like predator (related to the mink, otter, badger and wolverine), otherwise known as a marten (a pun on ‘Martin’), who frequents forests and underground burrows, which happens to be Bloodraven’s ideal greenseeing habitat (we also concluded that 'Waymar,' an amalgamation of GRRM's names, signified 'way more' than is apparent at first glance!)  

Although we encounter many characters who wear sable-trimmed clothing, GRRM puts very few characters in full sable coats.  Apart from the straightforward explanation that few are rich and influential enough to afford such a coat, perhaps there is further underlying symbolism attached. 

The few I identified who wear full coats of the fur include Ser Waymar Royce, Euron, Ramsay Bolton, Tommen and Lady Dustin (by the way, the inclusion of the latter in the ‘full sable’ category hints that she may be far more influential and formidable than hitherto thought, as evidenced in her sharp features and sharp mind; her penetrating, bright eyes, ‘feral smile,’ and imperious, rather predatory utterance, ‘If I were queen, the first thing I would do would be to kill all those grey rats [maesters]’…she also skulks around with Theon in the crypt, an underground burrow for undercover agents of all sorts , ADWD-The Prince of Winterfell and A Ghost in WInterfell).

                                           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~snip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi RR, a great way to finish our essay series, another awesome post.  Good work! 

I love that you've added a sable cloak as well as a voice to the wind, some great thoughts in this section.  I remember your chat with @evita mgfs about the marten and all the possibilities around the sable cloak with fondness, something I shall have to revisit.  Good idea rounding up the characters who wear the full sable, and I agree that Lady Dustin will become more important moving forward.  For all the reasons you mention, but I also get the feeling she is bluffing about hating the Stark's so much [could be wrong] I'm very interested to see how her story arc goes in Winds. 

You nailed all the Euron - Bloodraven parallels, the flying dreams, towers, cloak, red-eye [that Forsaken chapter was dark].  Love the Blacktyde catch as well, that's a cool find and really ties up the parallel nicely.

On ‎09‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 8:58 PM, ravenous reader said:

From what we’ve been able to glean about the wind elsewhere in the text, it’s likely that the wind which swooped in to stir Euron’s sable coat had been keeping an eye and ear on proceedings, perhaps even watching from the open window before gaining access through that window.

Totally agree the wind on the Iron Isles is keeping an eye on proceedings. [Or the wind everywhere for that matter]  Nice point about the window enabling the wind to watch and indeed gain access to the room.  Of course we've seen the wind do this sort of thing before, sometimes even using the gate/door, which is very polite of it. 

In support of a presence in the wind within these Iron Isles chapters is the emotion it seems to show in The Prophet after Aeron confirms Euron's return.  The wind is described as 'keening' which is another meaning for a wail of grief for a dead person, or to lament, mourn, weep, cry etc……… It seems to me the wind is grieving Euron's return. I agree with your take that we can't be absolutely sure if Bloodraven's watchful thousand eyes and one are annoyed, covetous or both, but I think this reaction may hint towards Bloodraven being rather annoyed and probably fearful of what this maniac may unleash on Westeros. [That Forsaken chapter has only strengthened my thoughts on that, it's a dark, dark chapter.  He's crazy]

On ‎09‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 8:58 PM, ravenous reader said:

Returning to Winterfell as a man, however, Theon becomes dimly aware of being watched by some kind of presence among the mists and trees, disquieting him with ‘grey and ghostly whispered voices that seemed to come from nowhere.’  The grey mists – one of Bloodraven’s known proxies – are personified as having a ‘moist breath,’ i.e. they are breathing!  Strangely, considering Winterfell is an icy domain, the lively presence in the godswood seems to be endowed with a warm-blooded circulation.  With all the warm grey mists, hot steaming springs, warm vapors, moist breath, and obfuscating ghostliness, the gaseous emissions could almost be seen as someone smoking – ‘smoke’ being another of Bloodraven’s symbols and colors. 

Whoever it is, the watchful presence seems to be vigilant of being seen itself, as evidenced in the way the mists ‘creep up the walls to draw grey curtains across the watching windows,’ thereby obscuring the gaze of any unwelcome observers, here the invaders who have violently overtaken the castle (alternatively, the smoky grey presence could also be using the windows to snoop on those within the walls!).  The subversion of the normal direction of gaze relations serves to firmly locate the seer in the wood instead of the castle.

A tip as to the identity of the ghostly presence – the seer of the godswood – is given by the following passage in which the wolves like the creeping mist in the aforementioned example seem to have sprung the bounds of their confines, and now seem to be loping around like sentries on the ‘curtain’ walls, although logically they ought to be restricted to the godswood.  Like the grey mist, the wolves seem to rise on wings to protect and defend their domain:

 Love that Theon thought he had some privacy in the godswood, the sentinels are always watching you know.    

Great description of the presence to be felt at Winterfell, Theon's susceptibility to this magic makes for some really descriptive writing and awesome chapters.  Anyway, you set the scene wonderfully...the whispered voices and that eerie feeling Theon gets followed by the grey mists being personified and given 'moist breath' as if it is actually breathing.  Plus the association with the warm-blooded circulation in the hot springs, warm vapours and it's as if the whole place is alive! 

Taking it a little further, Winterfell itself has warm-blooded circulation in the form of the hot spring that pumps its way through Winterfell's veins/walls keeping it warm.  As @evita mgfs posted about, the windows act as eyes, the castle produces strange reactions to sound, like someone is throwing their voice, the huge parts of WF that are positioned in the 'bowels' of the castle, the description of it being like 'a stone tree' and suddenly Winterfell the castle sounds very much alive as well.  Thinking out loud, it's almost like the godswood is the protective rib cage guarding the all important Heart (Tree), the lungs of the castle breathing/blowing the wind where (Bran & BR) it wants.   

Really like the idea that much like the wind, the mist may use the windows in a similar fashion...as access to view what happens inside the castle, but also adding the point that it could well obscure ones view as well.  And the direwolves rising on wings and climbing ala the mist, to protect their domain is great.  Unless you know the secrets of Winterfell, it seems there is nowhere to hide.           

On ‎09‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 8:58 PM, ravenous reader said:

That’s a good example, with many of the elements congregating together which we also identified in the prologue and Euron example…’yanking’ on the cloak is similar to ‘stirring’ and ‘plucking’; in the Euron example, the wind also ‘gusts’…I like the play of ‘gusts’ on ‘ghosts’ too…gusts containing ghosts!  There’s also the indication of a power struggle going on, suggested by the idea of a hierarchy of elements, whereby High Heart can stand ‘above the rain’ but no one can stand above the wind.  Therefore, the implication is that the wind is the highest power, mover and shaker!   

Thanks.    The three chapters I parsed for this old gods in the Riverland's section were full of the little clues we all look out for.  Yanking, stirring, ghostly gusts and ghostly fingers, whispering, Bloodraven parallels, caves, weirwood thrones etc... All very cool.  I like the idea that there may be a play on the words 'gusts' and 'ghosts', that would fit very nicely with some of our discussions on the hidden ghosts that are Bloodraven and Bran, watching while never being seen.  Great thought about the possible hierarchy of the elements as well, again that would fit with everything we think about the wind being the highest power, mover and shaker.  I like it.

On ‎09‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 8:58 PM, ravenous reader said:

‘Like an insistent lover...an insistent ghost’ -- that is so good!  Apropos, another way in which Bloodraven is ‘biting,’ tying in with your focus on the 'biting' wind, quite apart from a certain northern old gods’ wolfishness via the Blackwood line, is via his connection to the ‘Crow’s Teeth’! 

Yes, I like that one too.  @Tijgy broke down a Tyrion chapter and wondered on that seemingly strange description of the wind as an insistent lover, after a chat we realised it matched Bloodraven perfectly.  I then searched the book for the word insistent hoping to get some sort of result, and luckily there it was, a description of the wind as an 'insistent ghost'.  Perfect!  That's one of the joys of this thread, we have identified some of George's key words and techniques, and are able to read/search the books with our third eyes open [to a certain degree].  Good point about the wolfish connection to be found from the Blackwood gene, were they not exiled from the Wolf's Wood?  Maybe not.  And yes, the Crow's Teeth, cool connection. 

On ‎09‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 8:58 PM, ravenous reader said:

I like your delightful comparison with a bird cage! In addition, the wicker basket is basically a kind of nest, woven with plant stalks, branches, or shoots, in which an egg incubates, and after hatching a baby bird nestles. 

We can also identify a further layer of symbolic meaning here that is vaguely disturbing.  At first Hodor carries Bran in a basket which resembles a nest.  Then, with his developing powers, Bran by skinchanging Hodor exchanges the physical nest on Hodor’s back for a virtual one, inside Hodor.  In other words, he’s nesting in Hodor’s body and mind! 

That's a good point, Bran the abomination again.  Yes it is like he's exchanging one cage/nest for another when he skinchange's with Hodor, as you say Bran is no longer swaying, but perhaps poor old Walder cowering in the corner is the one doing the swaying.  Although I do agree that this is nothing like the rape and torture Euron has subjected his brothers too, it is still a invasion of the mind that Hodor obviously finds troubling at some level. 

The bird cage comparison is cool, (others have long speculated that point) but I was pleased to maybe take it a step further and link it to the swaying cage/lift at the Wall as it climbs in that howling wind. 

On ‎09‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 8:58 PM, ravenous reader said:

Could the swaying basket represent a swaying bridge? 

 Yes, absolutely.  I have added the word 'swaying' to the growing list of seemingly key words I now look out for. 

On ‎09‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 8:58 PM, ravenous reader said:

Bran is associated with bridges on more than one occasion.  His greenseeing power may be thought of as the ultimate bridge -- just as worlds are bridged by Odin via Sleipnir-Yggdrasil -- we just have to figure out in Bran's case exactly what he's going to bridge, and to what end, because this quote by Ned is prophetic.  I predict Bran will one day be known as 'Brandon the Bridger'!

Nice.  Something else for us to get our own wolfish teeth into, for Bran's growing powers revisited and on into Winds. 

Thank you again RR for a great read and great time rounding up [almost] everything we have discussed in this thread for our conclusion essay series.  I look forward to more Bran and discussion with friends in 2017!                      

[Tijgy]

Very interesting read, @ravenous reader, like always! 

I liked especially the part on the sable mantles of Bloodraven, Waymar and Euron. 

It reminds of some posts I read of Poor Quentyn on Euron. There is a very clear connection between Euron and Bloodraven. I believe it isn't unlikely Euron was one of earlier apprentice greenseers of Bloodraven. However there went probably something wrong with his education or rather Euron is just a psychopath (and one of the most disgusting persons in the books). 

Anyway it is also really interesting how Euron keeps talking about how many gods he killed and

(spoiler TWOW)

Spoiler

“The bleeding star bespoke the end,” he said to Aeron. “These are the last days, when the world shall be broken and remade. A new god shall be born from the graves and charnel pits.”

Then Euron lifted a great horn to his lips and blew, and dragons and krakens and sphinxes came at his command and bowed before him. “Kneel, brother,” the Crow’s Eye commanded. “I am your king, I am your god. Worship me, and I will raise you up to be my priest.”

“Never. No godless man may sit the Seastone Chair!”

“Why would I want that hard black rock? Brother, look again and see where I am seated.”

Aeron Damphair looked. The mound of skulls was gone. Now it was metal underneath the Crow’s Eye: a great, tall, twisted seat of razor sharp iron, barbs and blades and broken swords, all dripping blood.

Impaled upon the longer spikes were the bodies of the gods. The Maiden was there and the Father and the Mother, the Warrior and Crone and Smith…even the Stranger. They hung side by side with all manner of queer foreign gods: the Great Shepherd and the Black Goat, three-headed Trios and the Pale Child Bakkalon, the Lord of Light and the butterfly god of Naath.

And there, swollen and green, half­-devoured by crabs, the Drowned God festered with the rest, seawater still dripping from his hair. Then, Euron Crow’s Eye laughed again, and the priest woke screaming in the bowels of Silence, as piss ran down his leg. It was only a dream, a vision born of foul black wine.

TWOW, The Forsaken

---

You can indeed say by making Euron wear this cloak Martin gives Euron a godlike appearance. 

However it is interesting that in the same part apart of this cloak Euron is also naked which do actually give him at the same a sort of vulnerability. When he talks about not being able to fly, his master, it is one of the very few moments Euron does show a little vulnerability. Personally I do associate this nakedness actually with the opposite of being a god: a human without any godlike powers.  

"The wind came gusting through the window and stirred his sable cloak." (The Reaver, AFfC)

You can interpret this sentence as Bloodraven trying to interfere, namely show Euron is actually one big lie. While he might pretend to be a god, he isn't. He is a fraud. (don't forget Vic and Euron are here talking about being able to fly or rather not being able to fly). 

"There was something obscene and disturbing about his nakedness". 

Euron is a human, but a very sick and twisted human. You only need to read Aeron's chapters to see how twisted he is. Sometimes people are complaining about how boring Aeron is and how irritating his fanaticism is. But they actually forget his fanaticism is Aeron's way to feel himself strong again because Euron completely messed him up during his childhood. (Forsaken really made me see how strong and brave Aeron actually is. While all those Ironborns with all their weapons are bowing to Euron, Aeron keeps standing up against him).

"Euron seated himself and gave his cloak a twitch, so it covered his private parts".

While Euron keeps talking a game, it just really a facade. This facade where he keeps talking about being a god, is a cover for the fact there isn't one a godlike thing about him, just like Euron covers his private parts (his humanity) with a sable cloak (a skin - reference to the old gods). And Bloodraven is trying to take this sable cloak, the cover of his obscene and disturbing humanity away. 

Bloodraven wants to show Euron is one big fraud. Go Bloodraven! 

BTW you can also say the same thing about his eye patch. His eye patch is a red eye which is a reference to Bloodraven. However this is not really his eye. It is also a cover for his real eye which is dark, terrible and full of malice. He is again here using something godlike to cover his dark and terrible humanity full of malice. Which makes Euron a double fraud.

[ravenous reader]

On 2/4/2017 at 3:01 PM, Tijgy said:

Very interesting read, @ravenous reader, like always! 

Hi @Tijgy!  Thank you for your thoughtful response, as always.  Without the assistance of our dear Princess of the Green, we should surely miss seeing the full extent of 'the truth beneath this world'!  

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I liked especially the part on the sable mantles of Bloodraven, Waymar and Euron. 

It reminds of some posts I read of Poor Quentyn on Euron. There is a very clear connection between Euron and Bloodraven. I believe it isn't unlikely Euron was one of earlier apprentice greenseers of Bloodraven. However there went probably something wrong with his education or rather Euron is just a psychopath (and one of the most disgusting persons in the books). 

He and Littlefinger are up there as the most depraved twosome -- the former more visceral, the latter more cerebral.  The sable coat represents the gratuitous carnage and mass suffering of others that goes into propping up their sense of self. So many sables must be slaughtered to make such a coat.  (Come to think of it, I wouldn't be surprised to see Littlefinger in a sable outfit one of these days!)

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Anyway it is also really interesting how Euron keeps talking about how many gods he killed and

(spoiler TWOW)

  Reveal hidden contents

“The bleeding star bespoke the end,” he said to Aeron. “These are the last days, when the world shall be broken and remade. A new god shall be born from the graves and charnel pits.”

Then Euron lifted a great horn to his lips and blew, and dragons and krakens and sphinxes came at his command and bowed before him. “Kneel, brother,” the Crow’s Eye commanded. “I am your king, I am your god. Worship me, and I will raise you up to be my priest.”

“Never. No godless man may sit the Seastone Chair!”

“Why would I want that hard black rock? Brother, look again and see where I am seated.”

Aeron Damphair looked. The mound of skulls was gone. Now it was metal underneath the Crow’s Eye: a great, tall, twisted seat of razor sharp iron, barbs and blades and broken swords, all dripping blood.

Impaled upon the longer spikes were the bodies of the gods. The Maiden was there and the Father and the Mother, the Warrior and Crone and Smith…even the Stranger. They hung side by side with all manner of queer foreign gods: the Great Shepherd and the Black Goat, three-headed Trios and the Pale Child Bakkalon, the Lord of Light and the butterfly god of Naath.

And there, swollen and green, half­-devoured by crabs, the Drowned God festered with the rest, seawater still dripping from his hair. Then, Euron Crow’s Eye laughed again, and the priest woke screaming in the bowels of Silence, as piss ran down his leg. It was only a dream, a vision born of foul black wine.

TWOW, The Forsaken

---

You can indeed say by making Euron wear this cloak Martin gives Euron a godlike appearance. 

However it is interesting that in the same part apart of this cloak Euron is also naked which do actually give him at the same a sort of vulnerability. When he talks about not being able to fly, his master, it is one of the very few moments Euron does show a little vulnerability. Personally I do associate this nakedness actually with the opposite of being a god: a human without any godlike powers.  

"The wind came gusting through the window and stirred his sable cloak." (The Reaver, AFfC)

You can interpret this sentence as Bloodraven trying to interfere, namely show Euron is actually one big lie. While he might pretend to be a god, he isn't. He is a fraud. (don't forget Vic and Euron are here talking about being able to fly or rather not being able to fly). 

"There was something obscene and disturbing about his nakedness". 

Your point about Martin suggesting Euron's vulnerability is very interesting.  Indeed, it's important to bear in mind that a psychopath, though 'monstrous' in a certain sense, is not really a monster, but a man like any other -- a part of, not apart from, the spectrum of humanity -- and unmasking him is not impossible.  All men are made of water; when you prick them with the pointy end, the water runs out.  Valar morghulis!

At the same time, there is a further dimension to Euron prancing about flashing his brother with his manhood, deliberately I'd say, in order to literally 'rub in his face' and scratch at the memory of how he robbed him of his love by raping her, leading to Victarion jealously reacting by murdering her.  There's a definite suggestion Euron also raped his brothers, didn't he -- the dirty family secret of which none will speak openly, but however haunts them all ('shrieking hinges') nonetheless?  So his prominent exposure of his naked penis to his brother is a display of aggressive male dominance in the 'pecking order of peckers', as it were, which additionally represents a further level of sadism here that is profoundly disturbing.  

It's not enough for Euron to dominate; he also relishes observing firsthand the humiliation and pain of those he perceives to be his opponents (i.e. everyone else on the planet).  That's why he remarks about the wine from a defeated foe tasting the sweetest -- if wine is an analogy for blood (e.g. in the prologue the spray of the deserter's blood in the snow is described as 'summerwine'), then Euron is a human bloodsucker who can be said to figuratively drink the blood of others, reflected in the sable coat embodying the blood of countless 'sables'.  Moreover, he meant for his brother to see him naked and for him to be accosted by the 'stink of sex, blood and wine,' or he would not have summoned Victarion at that particular time; he also makes no attempt to cover himself until Victarion, offended by the sight, tells him to do so.  Euron revels in his sordid display of his own depravity, moreover enjoying how his antisocial impulses have rubbed off on others, followers such as his brother whom he has co-opted to his corrupt cause.  He is remaking the world in his own image -- which requires annihilating the competition, men and gods alike -- so it's not surprising he feels like a god and talks facetiously about 'godliness.'

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Euron is a human, but a very sick and twisted human. You only need to read Aeron's chapters to see how twisted he is. Sometimes people are complaining about how boring Aeron is and how irritating his fanaticism is. But they actually forget his fanaticism is Aeron's way to feel himself strong again because Euron completely messed him up during his childhood. (Forsaken really made me see how strong and brave Aeron actually is. While all those Ironborns with all their weapons are bowing to Euron, Aeron keeps standing up against him).

I'll confess I have not yet read 'Forsaken' (only snippets)!  But, I'd think it's another example of GRRM playing with pitting the power of the 'word' against the brute force of the 'sword.'  Aeron has the 'language of Leviathan', which speaks in the 'rumbling' of the waves; just as Bran has the 'True Tongue' which speaks in the 'rustling' of the leaves.  As a writer and someone who dislikes war (although he ironically writes about it in gory graphic detail all the time), GRRM is concerned with the power of language to move the world -- and its limits, when it comes to taking on tyrants.

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"Euron seated himself and gave his cloak a twitch, so it covered his private parts".

While Euron keeps talking a game, it just really a facade. This facade where he keeps talking about being a god, is a cover for the fact there isn't one a godlike thing about him, just like Euron covers his private parts (his humanity) with a sable cloak (a skin - reference to the old gods). And Bloodraven is trying to take this sable cloak, the cover of his obscene and disturbing humanity away. 

Bloodraven wants to show Euron is one big fraud. Go Bloodraven! 

Yes, it's a 'cover-up,' a 'con-job,' a 'mask', like the eyepatch symbolism you point out later...(the classic account of psychopathy, by the way, is unforgettably entitled 'The Mask of Sanity').  Interestingly, Sansa also gets an intimation of Littlefinger's true nature here, when she muses on where the mask ends and the 'real' Littlefinger begins:

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A Feast for Crows - Sansa I

He saved Alayne, his daughter, a voice within her whispered. But she was Sansa too . . . and sometimes it seemed to her that the Lord Protector was two people as well. He was Petyr, her protector, warm and funny and gentle . . . but he was also Littlefinger, the lord she'd known at King's Landing, smiling slyly and stroking his beard as he whispered in Queen Cersei's ear. And Littlefinger was no friend of hers. When Joff had her beaten, the Imp defended her, not Littlefinger. When the mob sought to rape her, the Hound carried her to safety, not Littlefinger. When the Lannisters wed her to Tyrion against her will, Ser Garlan the Gallant gave her comfort, not Littlefinger. Littlefinger never lifted so much as his little finger for her.

Except to get me out. He did that for me. I thought it was Ser Dontos, my poor old drunken Florian, but it was Petyr all the while. Littlefinger was only a mask he had to wear. Only sometimes Sansa found it hard to tell where the man ended and the mask began. Littlefinger and Lord Petyr looked so very much alike. She would have fled them both, perhaps, but there was nowhere for her to go. Winterfell was burned and desolate, Bran and Rickon dead and cold. Robb had been betrayed and murdered at the Twins, along with their lady mother. Tyrion had been put to death for killing Joffrey, and if she ever returned to King's Landing the queen would have her head as well. The aunt she'd hoped would keep her safe had tried to murder her instead. Her uncle Edmure was a captive of the Freys, while her great-uncle the Blackfish was under siege at Riverrun. I have no place but here, Sansa thought miserably, and no true friend but Petyr.

Ned also thinks of Littlefinger in terms of a mask:

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A Game of Thrones - Eddard XV

I failed you, Robert, Ned thought. He could not say the words. I lied to you, hid the truth. I let them kill you.

The king heard him. "You stiff-necked fool," he muttered, "too proud to listen. Can you eat pride, Stark? Will honor shield your children?" Cracks ran down his face, fissures opening in the flesh, and he reached up and ripped the mask away. It was not Robert at all; it was Littlefinger, grinning, mocking him. When he opened his mouth to speak, his lies turned to pale grey moths and took wing.

 

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BTW you can also say the same thing about his eye patch. His eye patch is a red eye which is a reference to Bloodraven. However this is not really his eye. It is also a cover for his real eye which is dark, terrible and full of malice. He is again here using something godlike to cover his dark and terrible humanity full of malice. Which makes Euron a double fraud.

In terms of Norse mythology, Bloodraven's missing eye represents the personal sacrifice he made like Odin in order to acquire power and knowledge (including poetry -- Odin is the god of poetry as well as war).  What personal sacrifice has Euron ever made?  Even Euron's 'missing eye' is not really missing!  

Unlike Bloodraven, he is mostly interested in sacrificing others, not himself -- an important distinction. Think of the visual of how Bloodraven has allowed himself to become tied to the tree (with the tree piercing through his flesh, as the sword pierced Odin), compared to how Euron ties other people, not himself, to the ship's prow.  Being sacrificed in this way, by being tied to the wooden prow of a ship as a nautical figurehead, is just another way of being tied to a tree.  Interestingly, the aim in both cases of the parallel is to make a sacrifice that will appease and/or harness the elements in order to ensure a successful voyage.  This is what both Euron and Bloodraven are doing, however each in a slightly different way, by attempting to become master of winds!

 

On 1/13/2017 at 1:46 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said:

Hi RR, a great way to finish our essay series, another awesome post.  Good work! 

Thanks Wizz!  Enjoyed collaborating with you on the whole project immensely -- that is until, alas, I 'lost' you to your dogged down-delvings in the insatiable belly of the hollow hills, from which there has been no turning back...  

P.S.  I've figured out where you must be residing...it has to be in that mysterious floating castle at Greywater Watch (likely to be a sort of 'driftwood' structure made of weirwood, like the Bower, don't you think?)...because not even raven(ou)s can find it!

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I love that you've added a sable cloak as well as a voice to the wind, some great thoughts in this section.  I remember your chat with @evita mgfs about the marten and all the possibilities around the sable cloak with fondness, something I shall have to revisit. 

Yes, fond sable memories all round!  

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Good idea rounding up the characters who wear the full sable, and I agree that Lady Dustin will become more important moving forward.  For all the reasons you mention, but I also get the feeling she is bluffing about hating the Stark's so much [could be wrong] I'm very interested to see how her story arc goes in Winds. 

As a barrow gatekeeper of the underworld, it's important that she keep the underground channels and their communicating portals to the world above open and flowing, hence why it was important to open up the crypt, including ensuring Ned's bones don't come to rest in the crypt.  As long as his bones are at large, his spirit is free to wreak vengeance on the invaders of the North -- which I believe is her ultimate aim ('the north remembers' she said pointedly to one of the Freys, if I recall correctly, with a glint in her sharp, 'feral,' rather martenesque eyes).

On 1/13/2017 at 1:46 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said:

Totally agree the wind on the Iron Isles is keeping an eye on proceedings. [Or the wind everywhere for that matter]  Nice point about the window enabling the wind to watch and indeed gain access to the room.  Of course we've seen the wind do this sort of thing before, sometimes even using the gate/door, which is very polite of it. 

Yes, sometimes the wind is 'polite' entering through a door or gate and singing in a melodious voice to announce itself; sometimes, however, it's a bit rude when it dives through the window uninvited to expose people's genitals and whistles!

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In support of a presence in the wind within these Iron Isles chapters is the emotion it seems to show in The Prophet after Aeron confirms Euron's return.  The wind is described as 'keening' which is another meaning for a wail of grief for a dead person, or to lament, mourn, weep, cry etc……… It seems to me the wind is grieving Euron's return. 

It's reminiscent of 'Widow's Wail', which is a sharp instrument, or 'keen' (a synonym for sharp) in other words!  So, the wind is configured as a weapon, in line with our previous observations regarding the Stark 'quartet of w-' ('wind, wolf, wood, and winter').

On another thread, I was talking to @Isobel Harper and @Pain killer Jane about Lady Forlorn, another seemingly despondent Valyrian sword in mourning, with a bright red ruby like a bleeding heart in the pommel, who nevertheless has a sharp, bloodthirsty edge which is never sated in its forlorn 'keening' -- which we posited might be a metaphor for Sansa as an embodiment of that Vale heirloom, who having lost her wolf 'Lady' is likewise a 'Lady Forlorn' who might very well see to a few people getting their comeuppance in future.  Beneath Sansa's -- Lady Forlorn's -- tears, the bitter steel!

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I agree with your take that we can't be absolutely sure if Bloodraven's watchful thousand eyes and one are annoyed, covetous or both, but I think this reaction may hint towards Bloodraven being rather annoyed and probably fearful of what this maniac may unleash on Westeros. [That Forsaken chapter has only strengthened my thoughts on that, it's a dark, dark chapter.  He's crazy]

 Love that Theon thought he had some privacy in the godswood, the sentinels are always watching you know.    

I know -- these are the sly little humorous details GRRM is so good at slipping into the narrative!  

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Great description of the presence to be felt at Winterfell, Theon's susceptibility to this magic makes for some really descriptive writing and awesome chapters.  Anyway, you set the scene wonderfully...the whispered voices and that eerie feeling Theon gets followed by the grey mists being personified and given 'moist breath' as if it is actually breathing.  Plus the association with the warm-blooded circulation in the hot springs, warm vapours and it's as if the whole place is alive! 

Taking it a little further, Winterfell itself has warm-blooded circulation in the form of the hot spring that pumps its way through Winterfell's veins/walls keeping it warm.  As @evita mgfs posted about, the windows act as eyes, the castle produces strange reactions to sound, like someone is throwing their voice, the huge parts of WF that are positioned in the 'bowels' of the castle, the description of it being like 'a stone tree' and suddenly Winterfell the castle sounds very much alive as well.  Thinking out loud, it's almost like the godswood is the protective rib cage guarding the all important Heart (Tree), the lungs of the castle breathing/blowing the wind where (Bran & BR) it wants.   

The idea of someone throwing their voice -- or ventriloquism (literally 'belly-speaking' etymologically) -- in which the voice is usually projected so that it appears to be coming from a place at a distance from the source, usually a puppeteered doll or 'dummy', is a good analogy for what the greenseers are doing, skinchanging trees, animals, other humans and even atmospheric elements like fog and wind.  

In @LmL's conception of the greenseers bringing down the moon, one might even say, assuming this is so, that they were highly-practised 'ventriloquists' who successfully projected their voices into space in order to summon the celestial bodies-- which is tantamount to breathing in that airless void...(Ha -- maybe that's why the 'night was windless'...As a bit of trivia you might enjoy, the other RR (Tolkien) uses the homonym 'windlass,' a winch-mechanism for winding the crossbow which delivered the fatal black arrow used to kill the dragon Smaug!)  I have characterised the greenseers' 'voice-throwing' mechanism, whereby they might summon a moon, as singing in 'The True Tongue,' specifically the 'song of stones' mentioned in TWOIAF mastered by the Last Hero/Brandon the Builder (a tale not worth repeating, etc.).  In this respect, note that it is the 'stones of Winterfell' to which the strange sound effects are attributed.  Winterfell itself, allegedly built by Brandon Stark himself, is singing the song of stones!

Another interesting quote @LynnS has brought to my attention, on 'the secret song' I'd wager is sung by the greenseers:

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The World of Ice and Fire - Ancient History: The Long Night

As the First Men established their realms following the Pact, little troubled them save their own feuds and wars, or so the histories tell us. It is also from these histories that we learn of the Long Night, when a season of winter came that lasted a generation—a generation in which children were born, grew into adulthood, and in many cases died without ever seeing the spring. Indeed, some of the old wives' tales say that they never even beheld the light of day, so complete was the winter that fell on the world. While this last may well be no more than fancy, the fact that some cataclysm took place many thousands of years ago seems certain. Lomas Longstrider, in his Wonders Made by Man, recounts meeting descendants of the Rhoynar in the ruins of the festival city of Chroyane who have tales of a darkness that made the Rhoyne dwindle and disappear, her waters frozen as far south as the joining of the Selhoru. According to these tales, the return of the sun came only when a hero convinced Mother Rhoyne's many children—lesser gods such as the Crab King and the Old Man of the River—to put aside their bickering and join together to sing a secret song that brought back the day.

 

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A Clash of Kings - Bran I

Hodor said only, "Hodor." That was all he ever said.

And still the direwolves howled. The guards on the walls muttered curses, hounds in the kennels barked furiously, horses kicked at their stalls, the Walders shivered by their fire, and even Maester Luwin complained of sleepless nights. Only Bran did not mind. Ser Rodrik had confined the wolves to the godswood after Shaggydog bit Little Walder, but the stones of Winterfell played queer tricks with sound, and sometimes it sounded as if they were in the yard right below Bran's window. Other times he would have sworn they were up on the curtain walls, loping round like sentries. He wished that he could see them.

He could see the comet hanging above the Guards Hall and the Bell Tower, and farther back the First Keep, squat and round, its gargoyles black shapes against the bruised purple dusk. Once Bran had known every stone of those buildings, inside and out; he had climbed them all, scampering up walls as easily as other boys ran down stairs. Their rooftops had been his secret places, and the crows atop the broken tower his special friends.

In line with LmL's hypothesis, note how Bran's train of thought tellingly goes from the direwolves howling in the godswood (who can be understood as greenseer analogs singing to the moon/comet...recently, btw, I've connected the terms 'ragged' and 'shaggy' to one another, thus linking the greenseer with the wolfish ones); to the stones on the ground playing tricks with sound; to the sound rising as a result; to the curtain walls in the sky; again to the wolves who have levitated themselves (by their howling song?) and are now on the wall like sentries (also evoking greenseers via sentinel trees); to the comet -- which is the stone in space.  Stone speaks to stone.  In a sense, the wolves (greenseers) using sound tricks (the 'secret song', 'song of the earth') have leapt up ('loping') to the curtain wall and look beyond ('the curtain of light at the end of the world') to grasp the comet/moon!

The strange sound echoes -- almost 'ghostly' wouldn't you say -- put me in mind of a similar phenomenon which Arya experiences in that other hollow hill/hall of the House of Black and White, in which 'stone gods' together with the water effects of the mysterious black pool are also implicated in the production of sound effects:

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A Dance with Dragons - The Blind Girl

Many of her other duties had remained the same, but as she went about them she stumbled over furnishings, walked into walls, dropped trays, got hopelessly helplessly lost inside the temple. Once she almost fell headlong down the steps, but Syrio Forel had taught her balance in another lifetime, when she was the girl called Arya, and somehow she recovered and caught herself in time.

Some nights she might have cried herself to sleep if she had still been Arry or Weasel or Cat, or even Arya of House Stark … but no one had no tears. Without eyes, even the simplest task was perilous. She burned herself a dozen times as she worked with Umma in the kitchens. Once, chopping onions, she cut her finger down to the bone. Twice she could not even find her own room in the cellar and had to sleep on the floor at the base of the steps. All the nooks and alcoves made the temple treacherous, even after the blind girl had learned to use her ears; the way her footsteps bounced off the ceiling and echoed round the legs of the thirty tall stone gods made the walls themselves seem to move, and the pool of still black water did strange things to sound as well.

I'm glad you can relate to the 'physiology' and 'anatomy' of Winterfell, as personified by GRRM, as if it were one gigantic body (and to the eyes, heart, lungs, bowels and the rest of the organs making up the hollow hills, we can add the vagina and womb, in light of your  interesting recent 'batty' discussion -- see also this post -- with @hiemal).  

The skeletal remains of Nagga's 'ribs' as the 'seat' of the Grey King greenseer can also be thought of in similar terms.  So, to add to all the other symbolic allusions, we can also say that the weirwood throne is a rib cage housing the 'cardiovascular system' of greenseeing, making the resident greenseer encased in the cage its heart, with the lungs likely provided by the tree or Children (trees are often said to be the 'lungs of the earth' in the 'real world' recycling the carbon dioxide and producing oxygen).

And what do we do with our lungs?  We breathe, sigh, cough, laugh, cry, speak -- we sing (the 'song of the earth' of course, but I won't elaborate further on that, since it's been covered so many times, and that tale wouldn't bear repeating, anyway...).  I'll just say that your 'hollow hills' are a musical instrument -- specifically, a woodwind (e.g. whistling, piping, blowing the horn) or string instrument (e.g. plucking a harp) or drums (important greenseeing stuff goes down or is referenced in some way whenever we hear the 'boom doom, boom doom, boom doom...'  triplet intruding into a scene, e.g. when Bran makes contact with Theon via heart tree communion).  

Note that when GRRM repeats even seemingly nonsensical words signifying sound like that in triplet form, it's usually significant.  For example, Patchface's 'oh oh oh' -- 1-2-3 -- which is a kind of hellish doom knell, with which he punctuates all his ominous prophetic announcements; or Jinglebell's bells 'ringing ringing ringing' (again thrice damned); or the three blasts on the horn signifying the arrival of the Others; or the three cracks which broke the world when Dany's dragons were born (the third and most important being Drogon's birth, of course); mirroring the three forgings of Lightbringer; the three unsheathings of the Just Maid, etc.

Some examples of 'boom-doom, boom-doom, boom-doom'...which also resembles the characteristic systole ('boom')-and-diastole ('doom') of the heart beat, to further reinforce the 'tree physiology' concept:

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A Storm of Swords - Catelyn VII

Then the tabletop that the Smalljon had flung over Robb shifted, and her son struggled to his knees. He had an arrow in his side, a second in his leg, a third through his chest. Lord Walder raised a hand, and the music stopped, all but one drum. Catelyn heard the crash of distant battle, and closer the wild howling of a wolf. Grey Wind, she remembered too late. "Heh," Lord Walder cackled at Robb, "the King in the North arises. Seems we killed some of your men, Your Grace. Oh, but I'll make you an apology, that will mend them all again, heh."

Catelyn grabbed a handful of Jinglebell Frey's long grey hair and dragged him out of his hiding place. "Lord Walder!" she shouted. "LORD WALDER!" The drum beat slow and sonorous, doom boom doom. "Enough," said Catelyn. "Enough, I say. You have repaid betrayal with betrayal, let it end." When she pressed her dagger to Jinglebell's throat, the memory of Bran's sickroom came back to her, with the feel of steel at her own throat. The drum went boom doom boomdoom boom doom. "Please," she said. "He is my son. My first son, and my last. Let him go. Let him go and I swear we will forget this . . . forget all you've done here. I swear it by the old gods and new, we . . . we will take no vengeance . . ."

Lord Walder peered at her in mistrust. "Only a fool would believe such blather. D'you take me for a fool, my lady?"

Red Wedding and Catelyn's first step towards becoming Lady Stoneheart.  The vengeful sacrifice of the innocent which brings to mind the lady with white hair in Bran's greenseeing vision who sacrificed the captive with a bronze sickle to the heart tree, whereupon Bran-in-the-tree tasted the blood.  I wonder therefore, given that Jinglebell is a greenseer 'stand-in' sacrificed unfairly by an aggrieved mother, if likewise the unknown man sacrificed at the heart tree was a greenseer unfairly scapegoated for a crime committed by another and murdered by a similarly aggrieved mother who had lost her son.

@GloubieBoulga: In light of what you mentioned on the puns thread, I think the Lady Stoneheart 'underworld judge' character of which you were speaking murdered the wrong person (the ram, lamb, scapegoat) to avenge her also-murdered son; and moreover the implication is that the person falsely accused was a greenseer (the horned lord/'fool' symbolism).  I'm not sure however how the false 'singing bird' fits into it -- that also seems to be greenseer symbolism!

P.S.  Gloubie, the laughter/slaughter pun is a fantastic find!  It ties in with Seams' word/sword pun.  One might say it's a permutation of the latter.    In this very scene I've been describing, laughter and slaughter combine -- in fact, it's a fool (someone whose job it is to evoke laughter) who is being slaughtered, by someone who also eventually dissolves in hysterical laughter at the end, prompting the company to declare her also a fool, or mad, before she too is slaughtered.  It's a vicious cycle of (s)laughter!

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A Storm of Swords - Catelyn VII

Lord Walder snorted. "And why would I let him do that?"

She pressed the blade deeper into Jinglebell's throat. The lackwit rolled his eyes at her in mute appeal. A foul stench assailed her nose, but she paid it no more mind than she did the sullen ceaseless pounding of that drum, boom doom boom doom boom doom. Ser Ryman and Black Walder were circling round her back, but Catelyn did not care. They could do as they wished with her; imprison her, rape her, kill her, it made no matter. She had lived too long, and Ned was waiting. It was Robb she feared for. "On my honor as a Tully," she told Lord Walder, "on my honor as a Stark, I will trade your boy's life for Robb's. A son for a son." Her hand shook so badly she was ringing Jinglebell's head.

Ah -- more musical instruments, the percussion joining in with Jinglebell's dunce's cap 'ringing', a faint echo of the greenseer's weirwood 'helm' or 'crown', e.g. when Bloodraven speaks ('the Lord's words') his words are accompanied by the rustling of leaves.

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Boom, the drum sounded, boom doom boom doom. The old man's lips went in and out. The knife trembled in Catelyn's hand, slippery with sweat. "A son for a son, heh," he repeated. "But that's a grandson . . . and he never was much use."

A man in dark armor and a pale pink cloak spotted with blood stepped up to Robb. "Jaime Lannister sends his regards." He thrust his longsword through her son's heart, and twisted.

Robb had broken his word, but Catelyn kept hers. She tugged hard on Aegon's hair and sawed at his neck until the blade grated on bone. Blood ran hot over her fingers. His little bells were ringing, ringing, ringing, and the drum went boom doom boom.

Finally someone took the knife away from her. The tears burned like vinegar as they ran down her cheeks. Ten fierce ravens were raking her face with sharp talons and tearing off strips of flesh, leaving deep furrows that ran red with blood. She could taste it on her lips.

Are you counting?  1-2-3.  Bingo!

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A Dance with Dragons - A Ghost in Winterfell

Then he heard the horn.

A long low moan, it seemed to hang above the battlements, lingering in the black air, soaking deep into the bones of every man who heard it. All along the castle walls, sentries turned toward the sound, their hands tightening around the shafts of their spears. In the ruined halls and keeps of Winterfell, lords hushed other lords, horses nickered, and sleepers stirred in their dark corners.

The horn that 'wakes the sleepers.'  Sleepers 'stirred'.  Remember the Ghost of High Heart reporting the old gods 'stir' and give her no rest; they infiltrate her dreams with their song...The old gods 'moan'...

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No sooner had the sound of the warhorn died away than a drum began to beat: BOOM doom BOOM doom BOOM doom. And a name passed from the lips of each man to the next, written in small white puffs of breath. Stannis, they whispered, Stannis is here, Stannis is come, Stannis, Stannis, Stannis.

Yet another musical instrument, perhaps the most important of all -- the 'horn'.  Remember, as the 'genius loci' of Winterfell and sacrificial harvest figure, Bran is associated with the cornucopia='the horn of plenty' (together with the snake and libation bowl), in addition to the moaning, summoning horn representing the 'voice' of the weirwood/greenseers.

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A Dance with Dragons - A Ghost in Winterfell

In the godswood the snow was still dissolving as it touched the earth. Steam rose off the hot pools, fragrant with the smell of moss and mud and decay. A warm fog hung in the air, turning the trees into sentinels, tall soldiers shrouded in cloaks of gloom. During daylight hours, the steamy wood was often full of northmen come to pray to the old gods, but at this hour Theon Greyjoy found he had it all to himself.

And in the heart of the wood the weirwood waited with its knowing red eyes. Theon stopped by the edge of the pool and bowed his head before its carved red face. Even here he could hear the drumming, boom DOOM boom DOOM boom DOOM boom DOOM. Like distant thunder, the sound seemed to come from everywhere at once.

GRRM slipped up there, by getting carried away and inserting an extra one (boom DOOM) to make four, instead of three!  Anyway, the way this passage is constructed, with the juxtaposition of the drums and the godswood, it's insinuated that the sound might even be coming from the tree -- especially in that it seems to come from everywhere and nowhere at once (just like in the other Theon passage we highlighted with the ghostly fog and nameless, faceless disembodied voices eerily emanating from the godswood and surrounding Theon!)

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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."

Together with the horn and drums, we now have the tree 'singing' almost -- marked by the 'code' words we've already identified and unpacked, namely 'rustling' and 'whispering'.

However, I still have not yet encountered a satisfactory explanation for why the night was 'windless,' which seems counterintuitive, given all this 'singing'... Perhaps that's something we can tackle in our next 'Bran's growing powers' series, together with the general breathlessness, loss of voice and words catching in throats of the ever-elusive and -crucial Prologue!

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A Dance with Dragons - Jon XII

That night he dreamt of wildlings howling from the woods, advancing to the moan of warhorns

The 'song of the earth' continues -- 'howling from the woods' evoking wolves, winds, greenseers... and '(nenny-)moan' alert...say no more...

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and the roll of drums. Boom DOOM boom DOOM boomDOOM came the sound, a thousand hearts with a single beat.

Reinforcing the physiological parallel, here we have the beat of the drum likened directly to the heartbeat, which we're by association invited to locate within the godswood ('from the woods'), specifically at the heart tree (considering the similarity of the drumbeat in the aforementioned scene with Theon).  But it's even more complicated than that, one 'beat' being composed of many hearts in one:

'A thousand hearts' (1000 being code for Bloodraven/greenseer activity...) beating as one (that's the 'weirnet' operating as a 'hive mind' collective (un)conscious, embraced by its 'rib cage' in which its song hums).  Recall how Robb knew to revive Bran lying in his coma by opening the window to admit the healing song of the pack of wolves singing in unison, which caused Bran's heart to beat stronger, resonating in time with theirs.  Recall too the thousand leaves fluttering as one, or the thousand shades of the green...'heaving' in its rib cage with one voice...the voice of the green see (the 'True Tongue') which is the voice of the green sea ('the language of Leviathan').  I'll remind you of that important passage to which @Tijgy drew our attention, in which the greenseer landscape is presented as one gigantic living body:

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A Clash of Kings - Jon

"Stop acting the boy," he told himself. Clambering atop the piled rocks, Jon gazed off toward the setting sun. He could see the light shimmering like hammered gold off the surface of the Milkwater as it curved away to the south. Upriver the land was more rugged, the dense forest giving way to a series of bare stony hills that rose high and wild to the north and west. On the horizon stood the mountains like a great shadow, range on range of them receding into the blue-grey distance, their jagged peaks sheathed eternally in snow. Even from afar they looked vast and cold and inhospitable.

Closer at hand, it was the trees that ruled. To south and east the wood went on as far as Jon could see, a vast tangle of root and limb painted in a thousand shades of green, with here and there a patch of red where a weirwood shouldered through the pines and sentinels, or a blush of yellow where some broadleafs had begun to turn. When the wind blew, he could hear the creak and groan of branches older than he was. A thousand leaves fluttered, and for a moment the forest seemed a deep green sea, storm-tossed and heaving, eternal and unknowable.

Ghost was not like to be alone down there, he thought. Anything could be moving under that sea, creeping toward the ringfort through the dark of the wood, concealed beneath those trees. Anything. How would they ever know? He stood there for a long time, until the sun vanished behind the saw-toothed mountains and darkness began to creep through the forest.

It also strikes me from your description that Winterfell is a bit like the Umber sigil of the restrained giant in chains (Winterfell as 'giant stone tree...monster in the labyrinth'-type mythology).  Do you think there could be some terrible secret or terrible presence being figuratively and/or literally restrained respectively, associated perhaps with the lowest level of the crypts for example (Black Crow for one has suggested that Winterfell is a prison of sorts containing some dread force which should not be released)?

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Really like the idea that much like the wind, the mist may use the windows in a similar fashion...as access to view what happens inside the castle, but also adding the point that it could well obscure ones view as well.  And the direwolves rising on wings and climbing ala the mist, to protect their domain is great.  Unless you know the secrets of Winterfell, it seems there is nowhere to hide.         

Should one wish to fathom the more obscure aspects of the 'secrets of Winterfell,' I would recommend approaching this wizard I've heard about -- if you can find him...  He's an expert on said 'hollow hills' said to frequent an elusive grotto in which he forges swords and weaves words (and lately fanboy T-shirts)! 

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  Thanks.    The three chapters I parsed for this old gods in the Riverland's section were full of the little clues we all look out for.  Yanking, stirring, ghostly gusts and ghostly fingers, whispering, Bloodraven parallels, caves, weirwood thrones etc... All very cool.  I like the idea that there may be a play on the words 'gusts' and 'ghosts', that would fit very nicely with some of our discussions on the hidden ghosts that are Bloodraven and Bran, watching while never being seen.  Great thought about the possible hierarchy of the elements as well, again that would fit with everything we think about the wind being the highest power, mover and shaker.  I like it.

Yes, I like that one too.  @Tijgy broke down a Tyrion chapter and wondered on that seemingly strange description of the wind as an insistent lover, after a chat we realised it matched Bloodraven perfectly.  I then searched the book for the word insistent hoping to get some sort of result, and luckily there it was, a description of the wind as an 'insistent ghost'.  Perfect!  That's one of the joys of this thread, we have identified some of George's key words and techniques, and are able to read/search the books with our third eyes open [to a certain degree].  Good point about the wolfish connection to be found from the Blackwood gene, were they not exiled from the Wolf's Wood?  Maybe not.  And yes, the Crow's Teeth, cool connection. 

That's a good point, Bran the abomination again.  Yes it is like he's exchanging one cage/nest for another when he skinchange's with Hodor, as you say Bran is no longer swaying, but perhaps poor old Walder cowering in the corner is the one doing the swaying.  Although I do agree that this is nothing like the rape and torture Euron has subjected his brothers too, it is still a invasion of the mind that Hodor obviously finds troubling at some level. 

The latter is a particularly good point.  No doubt when someone takes over the body of another, imposing their volition on that person, it leaves the 'host' or 'victim' of the skinchanging dizzy, reeling or swaying, e.g. Thistle the spearwife who is described 'dancing' in mad frenetic jerks in an attempt to evict the alien presence of Varamyr; or Mance (a greenseer-analog) the 'wicker man' furiously 'dancing' and 'singing' in his burning weirwood cage (another suspended, swaying birdcage), which perversely puts Jon in mind of a song.  

The 'dancing' associated with the weirwood evokes the last 'dance' hanged men do as their limbs uncontrollably jerk around suspended in empty air just after hanging, which may be one reason Yggdrasil the world tree (like weirwood) is configured as a horse Sleipnir (technically, a grey 'gallows horse'), upon which Odin (the quintessential 'seer' figure) who hanged himself on the tree is said to 'ride,' 'galloping' among the worlds (including the underworld).  Incidentally, 'Yggdrasil' is also known as the 'windy tree' or tree of cold winds.

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A Dance with Dragons - Prologue

He summoned all the strength still in him, leapt out of his own skin, and forced himself inside her.

Thistle arched her back and screamed.

Abomination. Was that her, or him, or Haggon? He never knew. His old flesh fell back into the snowdrift as her fingers loosened. The spearwife twisted violently, shrieking. His shadowcat used to fight him wildly, and the snow bear had gone half-mad for a time, snapping at trees and rocks and empty air, but this was worse. "Get out, get out!" he heard her own mouth shouting. Her body staggered, fell, and rose again, her hands flailed, her legs jerked this way and that in some grotesque dance as his spirit and her own fought for the flesh. She sucked down a mouthful of the frigid air, and Varamyr had half a heartbeat to glory in the taste of it and the strength of this young body before her teeth snapped together and filled his mouth with blood. She raised her hands to his face. He tried to push them down again, but the hands would not obey, and she was clawing at his eyes. Abomination, he remembered, drowning in blood and pain and madness. When he tried to scream, she spat their tongue out.

 

A Dance with Dragons - Jon III

Jon watched unblinking. He dare not appear squeamish before his brothers. He had ordered out two hundred men, more than half the garrison of Castle Black. Mounted in solemn sable ranks with tall spears in hand, they had drawn up their hoods to shadow their faces … and hide the fact that so many were greybeards and green boys. The free folk feared the Watch. Jon wanted them to take that fear with them to their new homes south of the Wall.

The horn crashed amongst the logs and leaves and kindling. Within three heartbeats the whole pit was aflame. Clutching the bars of his cage with bound hands, Mance sobbed and begged. When the fire reached him he did a little dance. His screams became one long, wordless shriek of fear and pain. Within his cage, he fluttered like a burning leaf, a moth caught in a candle flame.

Jon found himself remembering a song.

Brothers, oh brothers, my days here are done...

[etc!]

Thus, these passages (among several) are suggesting that greenseeing is a grotesque 'song-and-dance' which is also configured as a sexual encounter (one entity 'mounts' or 'rides' another with much 'sound and fury'...likewise, Sleipnir-Yggdrasil is 'the stallion who mounts the world'), which may not necessarily be mutually consensual by any means.  Also, it's not always so clear as to who is the 'mounter' and who the 'mounted'...

Although one might expect Sleipnir the horse to be the mounted one, in some interpretations of the Yggdrasil-Sleipnir-Odin relationship, Odin as a shamanic practitioner of 'seidr' sorcery is seen as a societal outcast and labelled as 'ergi' (other synonyms argr or ragr), a derogatory expression meaning unmanly or homosexual, specifically designating the 'passive' recipient in intercourse.  From this perspective, the tree and/or horse can be said to mount the 'rider', reversing the usual expectations of who is riding whom!  GRRM may even have had this connotation in mind, albeit unconsciously, in his own rendition of Japanese tentacular porn, whereby the male greenseers are depicted as being physically penetrated by the more 'active' roots of the weirwood tree (also given phallic attributions by being compared to 'milk snakes' or 'grave worms')!  

Please bear in mind, GRRM wrote it -- not me -- I'm just the hapless interpreter of his raunchy imaginings...

Compare these quotes for example to the account of Varamyr 'forcing himself inside' Thistle who 'arches her back' and digs in her nails, etc.:

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A Feast for Crows - The Soiled Knight

She made a whimpering sound, drew him to the bed, and pushed him down. "More, oh more, yes, sweet, my knight, my knight, my sweet white knight, yes you, you, I want you." Her hands guided him inside her, then slipped around his back to pull him closer. "Deeper," she whispered. "Yes, oh." When she wrapped her legs around him, they felt as strong as steel. Her nails raked his back as he drove into her, again and again and again, until she screamed and arched her back beneath him. As she did, her fingers found his nipples, pinching till he spent his seed within her. I could die now, happy, the knight thought, and for a dozen heartbeats at least he was at peace.

He did not die.

 

A Feast for Crows - Cersei VII

But it was no good. She could not feel it, whatever Robert felt on the nights he took her. There was no pleasure in it, not for her. For Taena, yes. Her nipples were two black diamonds, her sex slick and steamy. Robert would have loved you, for an hour. The queen slid a finger into that Myrish swamp, then another, moving them in and out, but once he spent himself inside you, he would have been hard-pressed to recall your name.

She wanted to see if it would be as easy with a woman as it had always been with Robert. Ten thousand of your children perished in my palm, Your Grace, she thought, slipping a third finger into Myr. Whilst you snored, I would lick your sons off my face and fingers one by one, all those pale sticky princes. You claimed your rights, my lord, but in the darkness I would eat your heirs. Taena gave a shudder. She gasped some words in a foreign tongue, then shuddered again and arched her back and screamed. She sounds as if she is being gored, the queen thought. For a moment she let herself imagine that her fingers were a bore's tusks, ripping the Myrish woman apart from groin to throat.

 

A Dance with Dragons - Daenerys III

As the drums reached a crescendo, three of the girls leapt above the flames, spinning in the air. The male dancers caught them about the waists and slid them down onto their members. Dany watched as the women arched their backs and coiled their legs around their partners while the flutes wept and the men thrust in time to the music. She had seen the act of love before; the Dothraki mated as openly as their mares and stallions. This was the first time she had seen lust put to music, though.

On the Norse mythological background as it relates to the shaman's 'effeminization':

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From wikipedia:

Ergi and argr are two Old Norse terms of insult, denoting effeminacy or other unmanly behavior. Argr (also ragr) is "unmanly" and ergi is "unmanliness"; the terms have cognates in other Germanic languages such as earh, earg, arag, arug, and so on.

 

Ergi in the Viking Age[edit]

To accuse another man of being argr was called scolding (see "nīþ"), and thus a legal reason to challenge the accuser in holmgang. If holmgang was refused by the accused, he could be outlawed (full outlawry), as this refusal proved that the accuser was right and the accused was argr (= unmanly, cowardly). If the accused fought successfully in holmgang and had thus proven that he was not argr, the scolding was considered what was in Old English called eacan,[citation needed] an unjustified, severe defamation, and the accuser had to pay the offended party full compensation.

The Gray Goose Laws states:

There are three words—should exchanges between people ever reach such dire limits—which all have full outlawry as the penalty; if a man calls another ragr, stroðinn or sorðinn. As they are to be prosecuted like other fullréttisorð and, what is more, a man has the right to kill in retaliation for these three words. He has the right to kill in retaliation on their account over the same period as he has the right to kill on account of women, in both cases up the next General Assembly. The man who utters these words falls with forfeit immunity at the hands of anyone who accompanies the man about whom they were uttered to the place of their encounter.[1]

The Saleby Runestone uses the term argri konu in a curse.

The practice of seiðr (sorcery) was considered ergi in the Viking Age, and in Icelandic accounts and medieval Scandinavian laws, the term argr had connotations of a receptive, passive role of a freeborn man during homosexual intercourse. There are no written records of how the northern people thought of homosexuality before this conversion. The Historian Greenberg points out:

at first stigmatization did not extend to active male homosexuality. To take revenge on the disloyal priest Bjorn and the mistress Thorunnr in the Gudmundar Saga it was decided to put Thorunnr into bed with every buffon, and to do that to Bjorn the priest, which was considered no less dishonorable, dishonorable to Bjorn, not to his rapists. In the Edda, Sinfjotli insults Gudmundr by asserting that all the einherjar (Odin’s warriors in Valhalla) fought with each other to win the love of Gudmundr (who was male). Certainly he intended no aspersions on the honor of the einherjar. Then Sinfjotli boasts that Gundmundr was pregnant with nine wolf cubs and he, Sinfjotli, was the father. Had the active, male homosexual role been stigmatized, Sinfjotli would hardly have boasted on it.[2]

Saleby Runestone[edit]

Although no runic inscription uses the term ergi, runestone Vg 67 in Saleby, Sweden, includes a curse that anyone breaking the stone would become a rata, translated as a "wretch," "outcast," or "warlock", and argri konu, which is translated as "maleficent woman".[3] Here argri appears to be related to the practice of seiðr[4] and represents the most loathsome term the runemaster could imagine calling someone.[5]

The Björketorp Runestone however, uses the runes forming the word Argiu (ArAgeu), which is just another form for ergi.

Modern usage[edit]

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In modern Scandinavian languages, the lexical root arg- has assumed the meaning "angry", as in Swedish arg, or Norwegian and Danish arrig. In modern Icelandic the word has evolved to "ergilegur," meaning "[to seem/appear] irritable". (There are similarities to the German Ärgerlich, "quick to anger, volatile".) In modern Faroese the adjective argur means "angry/annoyed" and the verb arga means to "taunt" or "bully", the same is found on the modern Dutch verb ergeren, Also in modern Dutch, the word erg has become a fortifier equivalent to English very; the same is true for the old-fashioned adjective arg in German, which means "wicked" (especially in compounds as arglistig "malicious" and arglos "unsuspicious"), but has become a fortifier in the Austrian standard of German. However, the word's original Norse meaning has been preserved in loans into neighboring Finnic languages: Estonian arg and Finnish arka, both meaning "cowardly". It may be the origin of the English verb "irk".

 

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Ergi

In the passage describing Odin’s magic, Snorri uses a specific term,
“ergi” to indicate the shamefulness of seidh magic. In other contexts this
word and its derivatives are usually translated as lust or lewdness,
specifically in the sense of sexual receptiveness. Another translation might
be “desirous of penetration”. The term seems, in fact, to be a close analogue
of the Greek eromenos. Men use the word as an insult, accusing
a foe of having submitted sexually like a woman. It is used to describe Freyja. However the term is also used in contexts relating to magic. What Loki
actually accuses Odin of is not being “womanish”, as it is usually translated,
but of “args athal”– acting in “a sexually receptive way.” The context makes
it clear that what he was doing was working women’s magic.

In Volsathattr, the term is used to describe the vingull–
the horse’s phallus, which is an overt sexual symbol. Magically its purpose
might have been to enable the “luck” or spiritual power of
prosperity/fertility to “penetrate” the physical realm.

These references may help us to understand how effeminacy and passive
homosexuality became equated with magical power. Effective magic requires
the practitioner to unite the powers of the conscious and unconscious, of
intelligence and emotion. In many shamanic traditions, cross-dressing allows
the shaman to walk “between” genders, and to unite or balance within him or
herself the abilities associated with each. Upsetting ordinary gender
assumptions loosens the psyche and allows one to perceive in a new way.

Shamanic and ecstatic religious experience, unlike ceremonial magic,
requires the practitioner to open him or herself to divine power. In its
most extreme form, this loss of consciousness may lead to states in which
the medium becomes compeletely controlled by the possessing deity. Another
form is the ecstatic rapture of mysticism, a state leading some later
Christian theologians to speak of the soul as “feminine” in relation to God.
It is possible to see how early Christian attempts to suppress paganism might
have have focused on these practices (which generated the greatest amount of
magical power) for especial opposition. Female spiritual power was already
suspect, to be suppressed or channeled into specifically subordinate roles
wherever it appeared, and Christian misogyny may have also increased prejudice
against men who worked the kind of magic associated with women.

Late Norse homophobia seems to be inextricably connected to late Norse
misogyny. Femaleness and Magic were both severely repressed and thrust into
the dark, chthonic realm of the unconscious, which therefore became a place of
horror and fear. This represents a major shift from the situation in most
pagan cultures, which recognized and valued chthonic and liminal power, and
saw in it a necessary balancing aspect of spirituality. Perhaps the degree to
which horror of “woman’s magic” is expressed in the Saga period provides a
measure of the prestige in which women’s spiritual power was held in earlier
times.

From:  http://seidh.org/articles/sex-status-seidh/

Bloodraven's relationship with the tree(s)-- he seems to be 'servicing' more than one at a time (the greenseer's cavern is a bit like a brothel...like that other 'hollow hill' venue Mole's Town where the brothers 'dig for treasure' under the pitiless gaze of a sign flickering with one red light, like a solitary eye in the dark):

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A Dance with Dragons - Bran II

Before them a pale lord in ebon finery sat dreaming in a tangled nest of roots, a woven weirwood throne that embraced his withered limbs as a mother does a child.

His body was so skeletal and his clothes so rotted that at first Bran took him for another corpse, a dead man propped up so long that the roots had grown over him, under him, and through him. What skin the corpse lord showed was white, save for a bloody blotch that crept up his neck onto his cheek. His white hair was fine and thin as root hair and long enough to brush against the earthen floor. Roots coiled around his legs like wooden serpents. One burrowed through his breeches into the desiccated flesh of his thigh, to emerge again from his shoulder. A spray of dark red leaves sprouted from his skull, and grey mushrooms spotted his brow. A little skin remained, stretched across his face, tight and hard as white leather, but even that was fraying, and here and there the brown and yellow bone beneath was poking through.

 

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A Dance with Dragons - Bran III

Seated on his throne of roots in the great cavern, half-corpse and half-tree, Lord Brynden seemed less a man than some ghastly statue made of twisted wood, old bone, and rotted wool. The only thing that looked alive in the pale ruin that was his face was his one red eye, burning like the last coal in a dead fire, surrounded by twisted roots and tatters of leathery white skin hanging off a yellowed skull.

 

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A Storm of Swords - Jon VI

Ygritte was much in his thoughts as well. He remembered the smell of her hair, the warmth of her body . . . and the look on her face as she slit the old man's throat. You were wrong to love her, a voice whispered. You were wrong to leave her, a different voice insisted. He wondered if his father had been torn the same way, when he'd left Jon's mother to return to Lady Catelyn. He was pledged to Lady Stark, and I am pledged to the Night's Watch.

He almost rode through Mole's Town, so feverish that he did not know where he was. Most of the village was hidden underground, only a handful of small hovels to be seen by the light of the waning moon. The brothel was a shed no bigger than a privy, its red lantern creaking in the wind, a bloodshot eye peering through the blackness. Jon dismounted at the adjoining stable, half-stumbling from the mare's back as he shouted two boys awake. "I need a fresh mount, with saddle and bridle," 

Bran:

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A Dance with Dragons - Bran III

"Your blood makes you a greenseer," said Lord Brynden. "This will help awaken your gifts and wed you to the trees."

Bran did want to be married to a tree … but who else would wed a broken boy like him? A thousand eyes, a hundred skins, wisdom deep as the roots of ancient trees. A greenseer.

 

Regarding the 'cowering' or 'swaying' motion of the one who is skinchanged, as you've highlighted above, it's interesting that the Bifrost of Norse myth which @Blue Tiger has brought to my attention is etymologically related to 'swaying...shaking...trembling...swinging' like the shimmering evanescence of a rainbow.  In fact, 'Bifrost' or its alternative name 'Bilrost' means 'the trembling way', designating the pathway to heaven used by the gods.  It's a burning bridge of fire in the icy void.  So, when Bran skinchanges the giant Hodor in order to magnify his own power to gigantic proportions, he's essentially using Hodor as a magical weapon.  i.e. Hodor becomes both a flaming bridge whom Bran arguably treads upon, using him to give him legs, as well as a flaming sword whom Bran is effectively 'swinging' -- so you're right, in that sense Hodor is indeed 'swaying' as Bran manipulates him on his journey reaching for the stars.  Like the bridge, Hodor is often described effectively 'trembling...cowering...shivering' like a beaten dog:

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A Dance with Dragons - Bran III

Bran remembered a time when no one could climb as good as him, not even Robb or Jon. Part of him wanted to shout at them for leaving him, and another part wanted to cry. He was almost a man grown, though, so he said nothing. But after they were gone, he slipped inside Hodor's skin and followed them.

The big stableboy no longer fought him as he had the first time, back in the lake tower during the storm. Like a dog who has had all the fight whipped out of him, Hodor would curl up and hide whenever Bran reached out for him. His hiding place was somewhere deep within him, a pit where not even Bran could touch him. No one wants to hurt you, Hodor, he said silently, to the child-man whose flesh he'd taken. I just want to be strong again for a while. I'll give it back, the way I always do.

 

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The bird cage comparison is cool, (others have long speculated that point) but I was pleased to maybe take it a step further and link it to the swaying cage/lift at the Wall as it climbs in that howling wind. 

 Yes, absolutely.  I have added the word 'swaying' to the growing list of seemingly key words I now look out for. Othe

Another important one is 'shimmering' -- which is a swaying reflection of light related to dancing, e.g. doing 'the shimmy'!  Owing to the large number of pertinent examples which will have to remain unexplored until a later date, I'll just mention the reflection of the weirwood tree @Tijgy identified shimmering and dancing in the black pool, before Osha bursts up from the bottomless depths.

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A Clash of Kings - Bran II

No sooner had Hodor entered the godswood than Summer emerged from under an oak, almost as if he had known they were coming. Bran glimpsed a lean black shape watching from the undergrowth as well. "Shaggy," he called. "Here, Shaggydog. To me." But Rickon's wolf vanished as swiftly as he'd appeared.

Hodor knew Bran's favorite place, so he took him to the edge of the pool beneath the great spread of the heart tree, where Lord Eddard used to kneel to pray. Ripples were running across the surface of the water when they arrived, making the reflection of the weirwood shimmer and dance. There was no wind, though. For an instant Bran was baffled.

Again, no wind...most mysterious, and still no answer.  To be continued...

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Nice.  Something else for us to get our own wolfish teeth into, for Bran's growing powers revisited and on into Winds. 

Thank you again RR for a great read and great time rounding up [almost] everything we have discussed in this thread for our conclusion essay series.  I look forward to more Bran and discussion with friends in 2017!                      

Looking most forward -- Here's to the next installment of 'Bran's growing powers'!

[GloubieBoulga]

@ravenous reader great post, lot of things for reflexion. I totally agree with the agressive and dominating Euron. I suspect also that after he stole glory, wife and men to Victarion, he will finally steel his body by skinchanging with him (and also that Arya will be his antagonist - no one against the "all gods", as Sansa form a kind of couple daughter/father with LF)

I particulary appreciate the analogy between the heart in the chest and the greenseer in the weirwoods, I never saw that before, but it make perfect sense. There is the music boumdoum who is a song and in the same time a rythm for dancers. The transe in which you don't anymore possess yourself ! 

And now, reading about lady Forlorn and her heart just make me imagine a possible LF's death by this Lady Forlorn, a pointy end in the heart or a beheading ! 

 

(ps : just for precision about LSH : I think that she won't condemned the wrong person. If we look to her whole arc, she begin's by condemning the wrong person, with Jon, and the Tyrion, but after Renly's death she proclaims Brienne innocent, she makes Jaime free (despite her vengeance's desire); there is a notable evolution, so I think LSH will probably continue in the same way : she will judge "true" and "right" - I mean more true and right than all the others trials we can see in the saga - but it doesn't significate that Jaime risks nothing. And perhaps she will also do some things that Catelyn would never had done)

[Bluetiger]

Thanks for the mention @ravenous reader. Nice title btw.

I fear I'm becoming terribly overrated as 'Norse myth expert', half of what I know comes from searching in the internet few minutes before I make the post. I might find something really important from time to time, but most often it's just random funfact that probably has no meaning connected to ASOIAF. For example the ethymology stuff... 'Mormont' and 'mormonte' (wormwood) might seem to be similar, but I highly doubt that GRRM intended House's name to reference that word. Or that 'bran' meanings in half a dozen langages stuff. GRRM said that he's no Tolkien and doesn't spend as much time thinking about linguistics as JRRT did. 

What I'm trying to say is that we should be careful when dealing with those very deep metaphors, wordplays and symbolism - yes, we can guess that GRRM does in fact reference some ethymology or myth or whatever, but without proof that George certainly knows certain books/poems/works our finds are nothing more than random trivia.

If I could find evidence that GRRM is familiar with 'Golden Bough', we could use all information from that book to analyse ASOIAF. But so far I've failed. That Renly-wren trail seemed to be important, but after following it, I couldn't find direct evidence - he could hear about Wren Day from other source or not at all. All of it might be little more than coincidence or wishful thinking on my behalf.

'White Goddess' trail is interesting, as House Graves of the Reach might be a reference to its author.

Also, I hope that there is some proof that GRRM read Wendy Doniger's books (House Donniger of the Vale).

Anyway, unfortunately I made no progress on my own writing since nie-January, but I've worked on backstory and wrote many pages of notes - I have my 'revange' for nennymoans planned. I tried to find a way to reference both flower anemone (snowdrop) and underwatet anemone by the same symbol and I found the solution - turns out it's pretty easy.

[ravenous reader]

1 hour ago, Blue Tiger said:

Thanks for the mention @ravenous reader. Nice title btw.

Hi Niebieski!  Thanks -- thought I might as well make it official .

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I fear I'm becoming terribly overrated as 'Norse myth expert', half of what I know comes from searching in the internet few minutes before I make the post. I might find something really important from time to time, but most often it's just random funfact that probably has no meaning connected to ASOIAF. For example the ethymology stuff... 'Mormont' and 'mormonte' (wormwood) might seem to be similar, but I highly doubt that GRRM intended House's name to reference that word. Or that 'bran' meanings in half a dozen langages stuff. GRRM said that he's no Tolkien and doesn't spend as much time thinking about linguistics as JRRT did. 

I see our dear, irascible dragon @LmL has been calling you to task...You guys do realise that literature criticism moved on in the 1980s from 'what the author intended'....Derrida, Roland Barthes, the Hermeneutic Circle, etc.?  I don't believe GRRM is always consciously selecting the archetype; nevertheless, the archetype selects him.  Did the 'gardener' really 'intend' every plant to grow in the 'garden' the way it did?   I am not interested in asking GRRM what he intended (he is never straight with us anyway); I will ask his text:

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From wikipedia:

Another instance of Heidegger's use of the hermeneutic circle occurs in his examination of The Origin of the Work of Art (1935–1936). Here Heidegger argues that both artists and art works can only be understood with reference to each other, and that neither can be understood apart from 'art,' which, as well, cannot be understood apart from the former two. The 'origin' of the work of art is mysterious and elusive, seemingly defying logic: "thus we are compelled to follow the circle. This is neither a makeshift or a defect. To enter upon the path is the strength of thought, to continue on it is the feast of thought, assuming thinking is a craft. Not only is the main step from work to art a circle like the step from art to work, but every separate step that we attempt circles this circle. In order to discover the nature of the art that really prevails in the work, let us go to the actual work and ask the work what and how it is."

@YOVMO -- help me out here, please!

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What I'm trying to say is that we should be careful when dealing with those very deep metaphors, wordplays and symbolism - yes, we can guess that GRRM does in fact reference some ethymology or myth or whatever, but without proof that George certainly knows certain books/poems/works our finds are nothing more than random trivia.

I disagree with that.  The language precedes us.  We inherit it -- a communal archaeology of meaning.  Language thus comes along with a lot of baggage -- including as I've intimated, other people's baggage -- from which the artist and the work cannot extricate itself.

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If I could find evidence that GRRM is familiar with 'Golden Bough', we could use all information from that book to analyse ASOIAF. But so far I've failed. That Renly-wren trail seemed to be important, but after following it, I couldn't find direct evidence - he could hear about Wren Day from other source or not at all. All of it might be little more than coincidence or wishful thinking on my behalf.

I don't think we need proof GRRM read the book.  It's a tool detailing common trends in comparative mythology that can aid us in understanding some of the themes GRRM is referencing (e.g. sacrifice of male fertility deity).

As far as wren/Renly, the 'wren' figure reminds me of Littlefinger -- the physically small guy whom everyone underestimated, the 'mockingbird' who infiltrated the Eyrie (eagle's/falcon's nest) by symbolically hiding in the feathers of the other bird -- I also believe he's the father of Robert (the 'robin') Arryn and that he cuckolded Jon Arryn...also related to a bird, 'cuckoo'!

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'White Goddess' trail is interesting, as House Graves of the Reach might be a reference to its author.

Also, I hope that there is some proof that GRRM read Wendy Doniger's books (House Donniger of the Vale).

For sure.  The red sun dipping into a grey-green sea (dragon plus tree).  Wendy Doniger is an expert in comparative mythology and eastern religions, particularly Hinduism.  She, like GRRM, enjoys deconstructing dichotomies, to reveal more of the interpenetrating dualism informing reality, e.g. her classic text about Shiva in which she reconciles the god's neglected erotic aspect (analogous to how the Wild Man aspect of 'Santa' was historically sidelined) with his mainstream ascetic aspect.

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Anyway, unfortunately I made no progress on my own writing since nie-January, but I've worked on backstory and wrote many pages of notes - I have my 'revange' for nennymoans planned. I tried to find a way to reference both flower anemone (snowdrop) and underwatet anemone by the same symbol and I found the solution - turns out it's pretty easy.

Really -- how did you combine them, in a carnivorous plant?  Are you keeping it a secret?!

[ravenous reader]

1 hour ago, GloubieBoulga said:

@ravenous reader great post, lot of things for reflexion.

Hi Gloubie!  I'm sure @Tijgy , @Wizz-The-Smith (and @evita mgfs who is with us in spirit -- Hi Evita! ) join me in welcoming you -- whom I recognized as one of the most original thinkers from your very first post on this forum.  Please also contribute on our upcoming 'Bran's growing powers' continuation thread in future!  It's always been a very friendly and free-flowing group, and we enjoy creative analysis such as yours.  

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I totally agree with the agressive and dominating Euron. I suspect also that after he stole glory, wife and men to Victarion, he will finally steel his body by skinchanging with him (and also that Arya will be his antagonist - no one against the "all gods", as Sansa form a kind of couple daughter/father with LF)

I particulary appreciate the analogy between the heart in the chest and the greenseer in the weirwoods, I never saw that before, but it make perfect sense. There is the music boumdoum who is a song and in the same time a rythm for dancers. The transe in which you don't anymore possess yourself !

Yes indeed.

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And now, reading about lady Forlorn and her heart just make me imagine a possible LF's death by this Lady Forlorn, a pointy end in the heart or a beheading ! 

That's funny.  While LF dreams of plucking 'Lady Forlorn's' (Sansa's) maidenhead (which @Isobel Harper and @Seams have both compared to pricking the hymen with a 'sword' as a kind of 'beheading'); instead, Lady Forlorn will pluck his own head!

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(ps : just for precision about LSH : I think that she won't condemned the wrong person. If we look to her whole arc, she begin's by condemning the wrong person, with Jon, and the Tyrion, but after Renly's death she proclaims Brienne innocent, she makes Jaime free (despite her vengeance's desire); there is a notable evolution, so I think LSH will probably continue in the same way : she will judge "true" and "right" - I mean more true and right than all the others trials we can see in the saga - but it doesn't significate that Jaime risks nothing. And perhaps she will also do some things that Catelyn would never had done)

I hope you're right.  Wights tend to get stuck in a rut -- frozen in time, depending on the last act and last emotion they experienced in life -- which for Catelyn involved sacrificing an innocent (Jinglebell) in a rage of revenge and despair.

[Pain killer Jane]

4 hours ago, ravenous reader said:

It's reminiscent of 'Widow's Wail', which is a sharp instrument, or 'keen' (a synonym for sharp) in other words!  So, the wind is configured as a weapon, in line with our previous observations regarding the Stark 'quartet of w-' ('wind, wolf, wood, and winter').

On another thread, I was talking to @Isobel Harper and @Pain killer Jane about Lady Forlorn, another seemingly despondent Valyrian sword in mourning, with a bright red ruby like a bleeding heart in the pommel, who nevertheless has a sharp, bloodthirsty edge which is never sated in its forlorn 'keening' -- which we posited might be a metaphor for Sansa as an embodiment of that Vale heirloom, who having lost her wolf 'Lady' is likewise a 'Lady Forlorn' who might very well see to a few people getting their comeuppance in future.  Beneath Sansa's -- Lady Forlorn's -- tears, the bitter steel!

Widow's Wail and Lady Forlorn in combination also symbolize Lady Stoneheart as a fury. And Oathkeeper has another symbolism it is relation to the male child that woman swears to have for vengeance in front of the hearttree in one of Bran's visions. 

[LmL]

4 hours ago, ravenous reader said:

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Blue Tiger: What I'm trying to say is that we should be careful when dealing with those very deep metaphors, wordplays and symbolism - yes, we can guess that GRRM does in fact reference some ethymology or myth or whatever, but without proof that George certainly knows certain books/poems/works our finds are nothing more than random trivia.

I disagree with that.  The language precedes us.  We inherit it -- a communal archaeology of meaning.  Language thus comes along with a lot of baggage -- including as I've intimated, other people's baggage -- from which the artist and the work cannot extricate itself.

Oh boy!! I love this debate!! Ooh ooh ooh, teacher pick me! 

So, I fall in between you two. I do not tend to look for 'proof' Martin has read something (i.e. an interview where he says "I drew influence from Zoroastrianism," which is something he has said fwiw). My rule of thumb is to simply look for multiple correlations - specific callouts to a myth or fable. I have found enough influences which are clearly, clearly spelled out to feel safe concluding that "when GRRM uses an influence, he makes multiple clear allusions to the thing referenced." For example, the wren / Renly thing. I read the analysis by BT, and I am on the fence, slightly leaning towards "nay," but we don't really have to wonder. All we need to do is a word search on "wren" and look at those passages. If martin is alluding to wren's day he won't do it simply by calling Renly Renly, according to my way of thinking. He will do something in a passage with 'wren' which alludes to Renly.  

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Blue Tiger: If I could find evidence that GRRM is familiar with 'Golden Bough', we could use all information from that book to analyse ASOIAF. But so far I've failed. That Renly-wren trail seemed to be important, but after following it, I couldn't find direct evidence - he could hear about Wren Day from other source or not at all. All of it might be little more than coincidence or wishful thinking on my behalf.

I don't think we need proof GRRM read the book.  It's a tool detailing common trends in comparative mythology that can aid us in understanding some of the themes GRRM is referencing (e.g. sacrifice of male fertility deity).

@ravenous reader makes a good point. When we are talking about the more common universal myths like the horned nature god or cosmic world axis tree, it is worthwhile to educate ourselves on the general mythology, and we don't necessarily always have to be slaves to the question of "is this specifically referenced in the text?" Now, granted, you know I am a big proponent of using that question as a guide, certainly, and I think it's helpful to distinguish between useful background info (or poems / stories that, say, "remind" you of ASOIAF) and things which we think might be specifically referenced. But at the same time, the more we know about horned lord mythology, the better we can grasp the overall context in which martin is writing his version of this idea, and buffing up on horned lord myth in general will help us eventually spot the specific books or myths he might be calling out to. And I think it's clear the poetry angle has been really enjoyable for a lot of people; that's been a very popular and enthusiastic thread. We have made some discoveries that way also, even if I complain about being a little loose with the analysis (THAT'S A F*CKING JOKE RR CHILL OUT lol)

In general, I tend to think that GRRM is VERY well versed in mythology (from all around the world) and literature, and seems familiar with all the classics, most aspects of the 60's counterculture, a ton of Marvel comics from the 60's and 70's and lots of cartoons and comics in general, obviously all the old sci-fi, obviously Tolkien and Robert Jordan.  Honestly once I found the detailed and specific call-outs to Sun-Wukong and a few mesoamerican deities, I became convinced that it is farrrrrrr more likely we are all underestimating him than the opposite. I think @ravenous reader will agree with me here. I know @Daendrew will too.

In other words, something like the Golden Bough is almost certainly in Martin's purview. I actually wasn't aware of what that book even was until recently, but having looked into it, yeah, it's likely he is familiar with it. And the Mormont / wormwood thing, I wouldn't dismiss that BT. Wormwood is exactly the kind of thing Martin would be interested in. I would like to look into that one more.  

[ravenous reader]

14 hours ago, LmL said:

Oh boy!! I love this debate!! Ooh ooh ooh, teacher pick me! 

Don't worry.  We are all longing to spank you!

14 hours ago, LmL said:

So, I fall in between you two.

Don't make me laugh.  You are a 'moderate'...?

 

14 hours ago, LmL said:

And I think it's clear the poetry angle has been really enjoyable for a lot of people; that's been a very popular and enthusiastic thread. We have made some discoveries that way also, even if I complain about being a little loose with the analysis (THAT'S A F*CKING JOKE RR CHILL OUT lol)

As we've discovered with our Fearless Leader Trump, all we have to do is convince enough people of our point, regardless of merit.  So, I will continue with my 'project' until someone stops me.  (Will that be you, lucifer?)

I have only one thing to say to you 'Lucifer'--

My recalcitrant Nennymoans await you as their Nennymoaner-in-Chief!

14 hours ago, LmL said:

it is farrrrrrr more likely we are all underestimating him than the opposite.

Oh yes.  He is laughing at us.   (and at the same time a little proud).

14 hours ago, LmL said:

Wormwood is exactly the kind of thing Martin would be interested in. I would like to look into that one more.

No doubt, Martin has partaken of the wormwood, as have I...