The bear and the maiden fair - an analysis of all bear related themes in aSoIaF

[sweetsunray]

What of shapeshifter folklore? Does it in anyway relate to your earlier essays? It's not a perfect match for a bear, but I found Alutiiq (of Kodiak Island) folklore of a hairy shapeshifter who lives in the wild and can transform between man and animal. It's named Aula'aq or Arula'aq.

 

Sounds like typical bear behaviour to me lol, with the food stores being emptied, as well as the begging. And yes, in old time bear lore, a bear was considered as a skinchanger/shapeshifter. Then he's a bear, then he's a man, then he's a bird. After all, those trappers and campers stay or live in the remote wilderness which is the bear's kingdom.

[Evolett]

Since there's definitely a bear motif in the narrative, GRRM would have to give us at least one example of a correctly performed bear ritual and he does that with the song. So I'm with you all the way on that. I see Brienne's bear pit scene as a comparison to the song and clearly things are not done the way they should be. Vargo Hoat is the only representative of Qohor we've had the dubious pleasure of meeting in some detail and he initiates this pit ritual. We can assume he's aware of the proper ritual and that he only does this because he's a sick bastard. But what if that is not so? There is still a possibility that this is exactly how the ritual is carried out in Qohor. Hoat is a sellsword but he becomes a hunter as well. He hunts and traps the bear with his men, brings the bear to the pit and presides over the event. If we relate this to the Black Goat of Qohor, then Hoat is both hunter and a 'priest' and the intention here is the death of the maiden. The idea that some faction of the Qohori practice a dark bear ritual is not that far-fetched, I think. Of course not all Qohori are involved in dark magical practices but we do have the hint that their reworking of Valyrian Steel swords involves blood sacrifices, perhaps even the killing of children and I believe the references to sorcery and necromancy in connection with the Black Goat God contain some truth. This may or may not include a perversion of the bear ritual but the possibility remains.  

[sweetsunray]

Since there's definitely a bear motif in the narrative, GRRM would have to give us at least one example of a correctly performed bear ritual and he does that with the song. So I'm with you all the way on that. I see Brienne's bear pit scene as a comparison to the song and clearly things are not done the way they should be. Vargo Hoat is the only representative of Qohor we've had the dubious pleasure of meeting in some detail and he initiates this pit ritual. We can assume he's aware of the proper ritual and that he only does this because he's a sick bastard. But what if that is not so? There is still a possibility that this is exactly how the ritual is carried out in Qohor. Hoat is a sellsword but he becomes a hunter as well. He hunts and traps the bear with his men, brings the bear to the pit and presides over the event. If we relate this to the Black Goat of Qohor, then Hoat is both hunter and a 'priest' and the intention here is the death of the maiden. The idea that some faction of the Qohori practice a dark bear ritual is not that far-fetched, I think. Of course not all Qohori are involved in dark magical practices but we do have the hint that their reworking of Valyrian Steel swords involves blood sacrifices, perhaps even the killing of children and I believe the references to sorcery and necromancy in connection with the Black Goat God contain some truth. This may or may not include a perversion of the bear ritual but the possibility remains.  

 

Agreed on the most part, except the hint of the killing of children for Valyrian Steel. It's a "rumor". A rumor is not a definite hint imo, certainly not when immediately with the rumor it is said that there has been no evidence for that. The Qohoric smiths keep the knowledge on how to reforge VS steel a secret. Who wouldn't keep such a valuable smith knowledge secret, with or without blood magic? It puts you ahead of any other commercial smith competition. But as is often the case, when people keep their knowledge secret and guard it very well, outsiders start to suspect something sinister and conspiracy like behind it. We have a real world example of this with regards to the masonry. Originally it developed out of the masonic men who had the knowledge how to build churches sky high without tumbling down at the first ghust of wind. They guarded their trade secrets well and even included religion and rituals into their society, and no outsider ever really knew what it was. So, people started to see something sinister in it. Why keep something so secret if there is not something fishy about it? The result is that several outsides believe the popular portrayal of it involving satanic blood rituals and orgies.

 

Thing is with secret societies, including commercial secrets such as that of masons and in the books of Qohoric smiths is that the knowledge is shared in stages of initiation, and the level of initiation is acquired through the ability of keeping a secret and valuing discretion. You don't even get to be part of it, for a little bit even, without valuing secrecy from the get go. This is the only reason and how secret societies keep their secrets for centuries, even if all that society ever does is have gatherings where they have discussions over matchbox cartons. There is a sense of specialness and power in belonging to a secret society, and the price for it is that you guard your tongue. Secret keeping becomes its own end and goal. Most people find that mind boggling, so they invent evil and immoral reasons and powers behind it. It's like Dead Poet's Society and the Wizard of Oz. He's enveloped with mystery, disguise, and lots of smokescreens to keep his identity secret. In the end he's just some man who happened to fly in on his balloon and couldn't return home. GRRM portrays this type of secret valuing and layered initiation with the Citadel and the maesters, with the House of Black and White and the FM and most likely with the Qohoric smiths.

 

It is possible, but at the moment it's conjecture based on rumors from outsiders who know nothing. I suspect it's a red herring, a smokescreen, and behind it you'll find the real wizard of Oz.

 

BTW: Gendry's good at keeping secrets. And because Tobho Mott is initiated into the VS reforging knowledge, he was picked to keep the identity of Gendry a secret. And imo it's beyond ridiculous the show portrayed Tobho as having informed the gold cloaks on Gendry's whereabouts. Otherwise anyone would just need to hold a knife to his throat to find out how VS is reforged. Pretty sure they were tipped off by someone else.

[sweetsunray]

A hidden bear there was, a bear, a bear! (part 1)

 

Ok, so how can we find this hidden bear? We have several possible clues to go on. Well we know that the bears in Westeros south of the wall are “Black bears” , so he would be black of hair. A bear is very strong and tall, strong willed, possibly dangerous, but in general prefers to be left in peace and can be peaceful. He’s protective, and while intelligent, not witty and glib of tongue. He would be a warrior with a sword, but possibly combined with a smith. He would live in the woods, protecting those living in the forest. Like Tolkien’s Beorn he may be leading or end up leading guerilla fighters (woodmen), and become known as “Lord of the forest” or “King of the forest”, in between the war of the 5 kings and the apocalyptic war with Others. He would be involved or part of a revenge on a bloodline that murdered/abused a bear figure. He would also be tied to a highborn maiden lady or princess he falls for, but one he fears is too far above him, a maiden he would be required to steal, and per the song will put up a fight. This maiden may have flown off, and the bear is either searching for her or waiting for her return.

 

GRRM has hidden him quite well in layers and layers of misdirection and secrets. First of all, the hidden bear has no POV in the books and is rather close mouthed. The largest part of his story is witnessed through the eyes of a character that has rather black and white opinions and views, not enough experience and perspective to pick up on subtle cues, and therefore makes faulty conclusions and beliefs about the hidden bear. Secondly, his parentage is unrelated to bears and so is the sigil that is hammered into us the first part of his story. Thirdly, he already has a hidden identity that demands our focus, making us oblivious of the deeper layered bear persona. I propose that the hidden bear is Gendry, known with most readers as the Bull, a smith and no chance of ever being a lord, let alone a king, since he is not even a recognized bastard, which he is not consciously aware of, and far from being a skilled warrior.

 

Careful reading though, reveals that GRRM actually starts out by showing smithing is his skill, but his heart is that of a warrior, and that he is only successful by combining both. It also shows how the Bull identity is a misdirection, an identity Gendry eventually abandons. In fact, from early aSoS on, GRRM strips Gendry from the last remainders of the Bull identity. It requires reading between the lines, especially through Arya’s POV to figure out Gendry’s psychological journey, which matches that of Wayland as well as Jorah Mormont at times.  So bear with me (pun intended) as I take you on Gendry’s hidden bear journey.

 

Introduction of the hidden bear

 

GRRM introduces Gendry to us as a skilled apprentice armorer in Tobho Mott’s forge when Ned visits it in aGoT, but also clearly as a boy who must be dreaming of becoming a knight or warrior one day and at least has the spirit for the latter, if not yet any professional fighting skill. Ned offers to buy the boy’s helmet, but Gendry refuses stubbornly and declares he made the helmet for himself.

 

Ned turned the helm over in his hands. It was raw steel, unpolished but expertly shaped. "This is fine work. I would be pleased if you would let me buy it."

The boy snatched it out of his hands. "It's not for sale."

Tobho Mott looked horror-struck. "Boy, this is the King's Hand. If his lordship wants this helm, make him a gift of it. He honors you by asking."

"I made it for me," the boy said stubbornly.

…

Ned nodded. He decided that he liked Tobho Mott, master armorer. "If the day ever comes when Gendry would rather wield a sword than forge one, send him to me. He has the look of a warrior.(aGoT, Eddard VI)

 

The background of Tobho and Ned is important to understand the deeper implications of Gendry’s refusal. Tobho is horror struck and apologetic. He is a true craftsman in his heart. He’s not only one of the best in his craft, he’s also a salesman. Selling your craft is an honor to Tobho. But Gendry does not make his armor for others or to sell, he makes it for himself. That’s like Hot Pie only baking for himself. Most likely Gendry’s idol is Dunk (and for many Flea Bottom boys I presume), who was born in Flea Bottom like Gendry, and worked his way up to a hedge knight and finally as Lord Commander of the King’s Guard.

 

Ned though is not a craftsman. He’s a warrior himself, a commander and a lord. He recognizes the desire to fight and is accustomed to making sure the right people end up doing the right job, hence he recognizes not only the ‘look’ of a warrior in Gendry, but the intent or spirit of a warrior in Gendry. Tobho claims Gendry was made to hold a hammer, but knowing his parentage, that includes a warhammer.

 

Gendry’s physical description fits both that of his father, King Robert Baratheon, but also that of Tolkien’s Beorn bear: tall, strong, black of hair, shaggy (like fur) and though still a boy already having strong beard growth. As a grown man his chest won’t be bare.

 

The master called over a tall lad about Robb's age, his arms and chest corded with muscle. "This is Lord Stark, the new Hand of the King," he told him as the boy looked at Ned through sullen blue eyes and pushed back sweat-soaked hair with his fingers. Thick hair, shaggy and unkempt and black as ink. The shadow of a new beard darkened his jaw. "This is Gendry. Strong for his age, and he works hard. Show the Hand that helmet you made, lad." (aGoT, Eddard VI)

 

Compare this with Jorah’s introduction, and note how the physique is compared to that of a bull. In fact, GRRM often uses the verb “bulled” in relation to Jorah.

 

The knight smiled. Ser Jorah [the bear] was not a handsome man. He had a neck and shoulders like a bull, and coarse black hair covered his arms and chest so thickly that there was none left for his head. (aGoT, Daenerys III)

 

And of course there is the Bull identity.

 

Almost shyly, the boy led them to his bench, and a steel helm shaped like a bull's head, with two great curving horns.

…

"Mind your filthy tongue," the master said. "This is the King's own Hand." The boy lowered his eyes. "A smart boy, but stubborn. That helm … the others call him bullheaded, so he threw it in their teeth."

 

We know Gendry made that helmet for himself and in the shape of a bull’s head. The reason for choosing a bull was because his fellow apprentice boys call him bullheaded, because he’s stubborn. It’s as if Gendry has created the proverbial, “Mess with the bull, you mess with the horns.” It’s a typical enough response: when others attempt to disparage or demean you, adopt the image and take pride in it. Bulls are not the sole animals associated with stubbornness though. Bears just as well. Jeor Mormont is described as stubborn. And what is Jorah but stubborn and relentless in his suspicion of Dany’s other advisors and his attempt to return to Mereen and back into Dany’s favor. Should we truly apply the bull on his identity, on account of other boys’ namecalling? That’s like Arya taking on the horse as a sigil, because Jeyne Poole called her Arya Horseface; or a lump, because Hot Pie and Lommy originally call her Lumpyhead; or a squab, because Tom calls her one upon meeting. In aDwD GRRM seems to warn us that the two may be confused with one another. There are two peculiar textual passages that pair the bull and bear in the same image or context.

 

"He fights for you," Reek blurted out. "He's strong."

"Bulls are strong. Bears. I have seen my bastard fight. He is not entirely to blame. Reek was his tutor, the first Reek, and Reek was never trained at arms. Ramsay is ferocious, I will grant you, but he swings that sword like a butcher hacking meat." (aDwD, Reek III)

 

Beasts were still allowed, though. Dany watched an elephant make short work of a pack of six red wolves. Next a bull was set against a bear in a bloody battle that left both animals torn and dying. "The flesh is not wasted," said Hizdahr. "The butchers use the carcasses to make a healthful stew for the hungry. Any man who presents himself at the Gates of Fate may have a bowl." (aDwD, Daenerys IX)

 

Roose thinks of bulls as strong and immediately adds bears with it. And Dany witnesses a fight between a bull and a bear, with neither one as the winner. Much of the associated symbolic meanings of bulls and bears are similar: male fertility, lust, strength, stubbornness, dangerous, fighting prowess, valor or bravery, rage, from the heavens, resurrection. A bull is the symbol within the context of an agricultural civilization, while the bear is a similar symbol within the context of hunters and gatherers in the woods, the wilderness. We meet Gendry in King’s Landing, in the middle of Westeros’ courtly civilization, not in the woods. Hence, he starts out as a Bull.

 

These conceptual pairing passages appear in aDwD, after the last time we see Gendry, who is by then completely stripped of his bull association as I will show. Is GRRM preparing us here for an identity switch from the bull of the city with the bear in the woods?

 

But what about the stag? Isn’t he a Baratheon? No, he isn’t. He’s an unacknowledged bastard. He isn’t even officially a Waters. Even if the whole world would recognize his features as Roberts, the chances of him ever being legitimized and bear the Baratheon name and sigil are very slim. The only son of Robert who has a chance of ever being legitimized is Edric Storm.

 

If we consider Gendry as the hidden bear, not only does Tobho shelter and hide the king’s eldest bastard son, he’s also hiding a bear in his smith to forge for him, who’d rather be a warrior than smith, which is ironically reminiscent of the Wayland situation. Except here it’s for the bear’s safety and a chance in the world, rather than extortion. Knowing Tobho’s connection to Qohor and the hunting scene on his door should conjure a smile on your lips. That the bear doesn’t feel imprisoned is shown by his daring to refuse to sell his produce, the helmet. Our Wayland has his balls intact.

 

I'm pretty sure that many will think for the moment this is somewhat thin. I have a massive amount of evidence, but the only way to present it is by breaking it up book by book. Becauses the evidence builds up this way, foremostly because GRRM first established a false symbolic identity, then had to deconstruct it, and then rebuild.

[sweetsunray]

A hidden bear there was, a bear, a bear! (part 2)

 

From King’s Landing to Harrenhal

 

I mentioned how the smith AND the warrior can be bear roles. Preferably a bear is both - he has to protect the forest game (warrior) as well as produce game (smith).

 

In order to understand what the Warrior and Smith role are in aSoIaF, and how these apply on the proposed hidden bear Gendry, we must turn to the verses of the song of the seven. GRRM gave us the song to determine what role a character takes on in a particular situation. We also know that GRRM does not write one-dimensional characters, so to regard a character only in a fixed role would be taking away from the richness of GRRM’s characters. If he’ll write a red shirt character with Tourette (Shitmouth), then his side and secondary characters are nearly as rich, adaptable, grey suffering from a conflict of the human heart as much as his main characters do. We simply lack their inner thoughts and feelings in writing, and can only go by subtext, actions, behaviour and expressions. One of GRRM’s guides is the song of the seven.

 

The Warrior is prayed to for courage and victory and carries a sword.

 

The Warrior stands before the foe,
protecting us where e'er we go.
With sword and shield and spear and bow,
he guards the little children (song of the seven)

 

The Smith represents crafts and labor in general (not only smithing). He is prayed to when work needs to be done, for strength and carries a hammer.

 

The Smith, he labors day and night,
to put the world of men to right.
With hammer, plow, and fire bright,
he builds for little children (song of the seven)

 

 

Warriors take a stand against enemies, act protectively and guard little children while holding either a sword, shield, spear or bow. Smiths work day and night with hammers and fire, building for little children and trying to make the world right.

 

In aCoK Gendry first takes up solely a warrior role. He stands before foes. He intervenes, protects and guards children. And he attempts to do it with a sword. Donning the warrior role does not mean he must be the one who can win tourneys, or kill the most foes. He must not even be a particular good fighter to be a warrior in heart and spirit. Jaime thought the warrior means being the best fighter, but his dream at the weirwood stub reminded him a warrior’s true purpose – to protect and guard people and children. The Hound is right that most of the knights aren’t Warriors, they are Strangers – they love to kill. So, I’m not claiming he’s a successful or even a good warrior. Obviously he has no training and no sword skill, yet. I only point out that he behaves like a Warrior along the journey with Arya, within the guidelines GRRM has given us through the song.

 

In the second half Gendry takes up solely a smith’s role. He’s hammering at the forge day and night at least, although not to put the world of men to right, nor to build for children. 

 

Gendry the warrior and Bull

 

We can actually see him grow into the warrior role:

• With Joren on King’s Road: initially, Lommy and Hot Pie attempt to bully Arya and to take Needle from her. Twice Gendry interferes on Arya’s behalf verbally: “leave him[Arry] alone”, and “Behind you!”.  (aCoK, Arya I) He has no sword and polishes his helmet without wearing it.
• Yoren gives him Praed’s sword after the sellsword dies. (aCoK, Arya I)
• He intervenes when Rorge and Biter are enticing her into a fight at the inn where the Night Watch recruits can wash, laying his hand on the pommel of the sword, and guides her away from the three criminals. (aCoK, Arya II)
• When Arya comes out of hiding to confront the gold cloaks, Gendry follows from behind the bush and stands beside her with his sword drawn. (aCoK, Arya II)
• Though he claims to have been supposed to become an armorer to those whispering about the Queen looking for him, he starts to wear his bull helmet, after they left King’s Road, making way for farmland mixed with forest, and come upon the burned village where they find Weasel. (aCoK, Arya III)
• He fights alongside Arya against Ser Amory’s goons when they are attacked near the God’s Eye, shattering his sword on skinny man’s helm, tearing it off and making it easier for Arya to kill him. Then he takes the skinny man’s sword instead. (aCoK, Arya IV)
• He carries Weasel into the tunnel (aCoK, Arya IV)
• After Kurz the poacher dies and Cutjack and Tarber abandons them, Gendry takes up the commanding, authoritive role to protect the children: Lommy, Hot Pie, Arry and Weasel. He makes the decisions.  (aCoK, Arya V)

 

During this something happens with his bull identity. Textually he’s only referred to as “The Bull” until after the confrontation with the Gold Cloaks. While he acts protectively and stood against the Gold Cloaks with the cheap sword, he never dons the bull helmet, yet. Then Arya learns his true name, and Arya refers to him in thought as the Bull only twice, but otherwise as Gendry, meanwhile Gendry starts to wear the helmet. While he becomes Gendry in Arya’s mind, Gendry reconciles the Bull with his warrior. Those two identities become one and the same to him.

 

Is this mistaken conjoining of bull with the warrior that ends up breaking him. After the attack the responsibility of keeping four children fed and safe ends up being his. The adult poacher dies, the other two adults abandon them. While he’s only slightly younger than Robb and Jon who end up commanding trained armies and the watch, his army consists of a dying boy who can’t walk anymore, a whiney cook, a crying toddler and fiery Arya. While he shows the ability to command, he lacks skill, training and knowledge. Their escape in a countryside infested with Bloody Mummers and armies of the Mountain that rides is ultimately doomed.
 

"He's going to die, and the sooner he does it, the better for the rest of us. We should just leave him, like he says. If it was you or me hurt, you know he'd leave us." They scrambled down a steep cut and up the other side, using roots for handholds. "I'm sick of carrying him, and I'm sick of all his talk about yielding too. If he could stand up, I'd knock his teeth in. Lommy's no use to anyone. That crying girl's no use either."

"You leave Weasel alone, she's just scared and hungry is all." Arya glanced back, but the girl was not following for once. Hot Pie must have grabbed her, like Gendry had told him.

"She's no use," Gendry repeated stubbornly. "Her and Hot Pie and Lommy, they're slowing us down, and they're going to get us killed. You're the only one of the bunch who's good for anything. Even if you are a girl." (aCoK, Arya V)

 

Though he still ends up acting like a commanding warrior to all four of them, he faces the reality of the impossibility of his task. And his mind turns to that of chance of survival, rather than protecting and guarding children. While he still scouts on the village together with Arya for the others, and he does something stupid to protect Arya’s scouting, here he’s straying from the warrior’s path as he voices his thoughts to Arya about how they could survive. A little later he’s captured, sword and helmet taken away from him.

 

One of the spearmen snatched the helm off Gendry's head and asked him a question, but he must not have liked the answer, because he smashed him across the face with the butt of his spear and knocked him down. The one who'd captured him gave him a kick, while the second spearman was trying on the bull's-head helm. (aCoK, Arya V)

 

 

Bull identity taken. Warrior identity taken. Lommy’s killed. Weasel runs off into the woods, without any chance of survival – food for the wolves most like, if she didn’t starve first. And Arya and Hot Pie are taken as well. For Gendry it means failure. Whatever dreams he had about becoming a hedge knight like Dunk, or a warrior are folly to him now. The loss of the helmet hits him like the news of Dany’s marriage to Hizdar breaks Jorah the bear. Arya seems to understand this impact on Gendry at some subconscious level, because Polliver taking away Needle from her turns her into feeling like a scared mouse. It’s not the loss of the item that her hate represents, but how they both steal each of their’s innate spirit and power.
 

Arya watched and listened and polished her hates the way Gendry had once polished his horned helm. Dunsen wore those bull's horns now, and she hated him for it. She hated Polliver for Needle … (aCoK, Arya VI)

 

Gendry Wayland - the smith in bondage

 

The capture, the eight days of witnessing torture ending in death and the march beats anybody into submission, except the few who were brave enough to defy the Mountain’s men and ended up dead. Tyrion’s thoughts about slavery in aDwD say it well.

 

Slaves were chattels, aye. They could be bought and sold, whipped and branded, used for the carnal pleasure of their owners, bred to make more slaves. In that sense they were no more than dogs or horses. But most lords treated their dogs and horses well enough. Proud men might shout that they would sooner die free than live as slaves, but pride was cheap. When the steel struck the flint, such men were rare as dragon's teeth; elsewise the world would not have been so full of slaves. There has never been a slave who did not choose to be a slave, the dwarf reflected. Their choice may be between bondage and death, but the choice is always there. (aDwD, Tyrion XII)

 

Unlike Jorah who has no acting skill, Gendry’s smithing skill saves his life. Gendry chooses survival, which means bondage, by informing them he’s an apprentice smith. And he clings to his skill for dear life:

• Arya sees him barely, except if she is sent on an errand to the castle’s forge
• He works day and night, hammering away, in the light of the forge’s fire
• Arya observes the hammer seems a part of his arm, and only sees him with a hammer, instead of a sword
• He refuses to give Arya a sword to replace Needle
• He refuses to help her rescue the prisoners
• He is reluctant in helping her escape
• Gendry voluntarily helps/protects Arya once: by informing her Hot Pie was asking questions about Arya having shouted “Winterfell!” during the fight against Ser Amory Lorch, and that he covered for her by saying she was shouting “Go to hell!”

We finally see Gendry at work as a smith

 

As she passed the armory, Arya heard the ring of a hammer. A deep orange glow shone through the high windows. She climbed to the roof and peeked down. Gendry was beating out a breastplate. When he worked, nothing existed for him but metal, bellows, fire. The hammer was like part of his arm. She watched the play of muscles in his chest and listened to the steel music he made. He's strong, she thought. As he took up the long-handled tongs to dip the breastplate into the quenching trough, Arya slithered through the window and leapt down to the floor beside him.

He did not seem surprised to see her. "You should be abed, girl." (aCoK, Arya IX)

 

With bear-lore in the back of our mind, Gendry here is in fact the captured Wayland put to work.  How committed he is to smithing becomes clear when Arya attempts to convince him into helping her free the prisoners. There are two fundamental differences between the two of them. First, Gendry is in a relative safer and more comfortable position than Arya. Gendry belongs the skilled folk of Harrenhal and he has a good master, Lucan. She’s an errand girl, supposedly an unskilled farmgirl, being beaten by the likes of Weese and threatened by Rorge to be raped. Using Tyrion’s observation about the difference in position between slaves, Gendry belongs to the lord-class and Arya to the peasant-class amongst the servants.
 

"Sweets can go fuck himself. He's made for it. We don't take commands from that freak neither."

No, thought Tyrion. Even amongst slaves there were lords and peasants, as he had been quick to learn. (aDwD, Tyrion XI)

 

And there is another difference – Arya has been empowered by Jaqen giving her a choice of three names to kill. Arya isn’t a mouse anymore. She acquired some impacting control over her environment, if she does not like it. Gendry does not have it. All he has is do his job and make no trouble.
 

"Ghazdor's collar," the old man boasted. "Known him since we was born. I'm almost like a brother to him. Slaves like you, sweepings out of Astapor and Yunkai, you whine about being free, but I wouldn't give the dragon queen my collar if she offered to suck my cock for it. Man has the right master, that's better."

Tyrion did not dispute him. The most insidious thing about bondage was how easy it was to grow accustomed to it. The life of most slaves was not all that different from the life of a serving man at Casterly Rock, it seemed to him. True, some slaveowners and their overseers were brutal and cruel, but the same was true of some Westerosi lords and their stewards and bailiffs. Most of the Yunkai'i treated their chattels decently enough, so long as they did their jobs and caused no trouble … and this old man in his rusted collar, with his fierce loyalty to Lord Wobblecheeks, his owner, was not at all atypical. (aDwD, Tyrion XI)

 

Gendry’s conversation with Arya when she attempts to convince him to help her in freeing the prisoners illuminates the reasons why he’s opting for smithing at Harrenhal.

 

"If there's two, that's too many for you and me. You never learned nothing in that village, did you? You try this and Vargo Hoat will cut off your hands and feet, the way he does." Gendry took up the tongs again.

"You're afraid."

"Leave me alone, girl."

…

"Well, you can't get them out, no more'n you could save Lommy." Gendry turned the breastplate with the tongs to look at it closely. "And if we did escape, where would we go?"

"Winterfell," she said at once. "I'd tell Mother how you helped me, and you could stay—"

"Would m'lady permit? Could I shoe your horses for you, and make swords for your lordly brothers?"

Sometimes he made her so angry. "You stop that!"

"Why should I wager my feet for the chance to sweat in Winterfell in place of Harrenhal? You know old Ben Blackthumb? He came here as a boy. Smithed for Lady Whent and her father before her and his father before him, and even for Lord Lothston who held Harrenhal before the Whents. Now he smiths for Lord Tywin, and you know what he says? A sword's a sword, a helm's a helm, and if you reach in the fire you get burned, no matter who you're serving. Lucan's a fair enough master. I'll stay here."

"The queen will catch you, then. She didn't send gold cloaks after Ben Blackthumb!"

"Likely it wasn't even me they wanted."

"It was too, you know it. You're somebody."

"I'm a 'prentice smith, and one day might be I'll make a master armorer . . . if I don't run off and lose my feet or get myself killed." He turned away from her, picked up his hammer once more, and began to bang. (aCoK, Arya IX)

 

His commitment at Harrenhal to smithing is out of fear and self-preservation through the impact of bondage. Gendry believes that escape and survival are impossible. So, in truth his smithing choice has actually little to do with Gendry taking on the Smith role. He’s making swords and armor for the likes of Ser Amory who is no better than the Mountain. Ser Amory, Gregor Clegane and Vargo Hoat are the worst of worst – liars, bloodlusty sadistic callous killers, with two of them being the murderers of Aegon and Rhaenys during the sack of King’s Landing with Robert’s Rebellion. These are monsters, as much as Ramsay is. And so, while he may work day and night, hammering in the light of the forge’s fire, he’s not making a better world nor building for children. 

 

Gendry even displays irrational resentfulness towards Arya for having taken part in the power switch from Ser Amory to Roose Bolton. He blames Arya for the death of Lucan, though she had no decision in it, and in actuality the switch would have occurred with or without the weasel soup.

 

Once, when there had been only half as many heads, Gendry had caught Arya looking at them. "Admiring your work?" he asked.

He was angry because he'd liked Lucan, she knew, but it still wasn't fair. "It's Steelshanks Walton's work," she said defensively. "And the Mummers, and Lord Bolton."

"And who gave us all them? You and your weasel soup."

Arya punched his arm. "It was just hot broth. You hated Ser Amory too."

"I hate this lot worse. Ser Amory was fighting for his lord, but the Mummers are sellswords and turncloaks. Half of them can't even speak the Common Tongue. Septon Utt likes little boys, Qyburn does black magic, and your friend Biter eats people." (aCoK, Arya X)

 

It’s a particular painful resentment from Arya’s POV. Both acted out of self-preservation. With the application of deeper understanding, Gendry would have recognized that Ser Amory could never be a permanent option for her. Arya’s better chance for survival was to seize the opportunity to surround herself with her brother’s bannermen. As for Ser Amory fighting for his lord, that’s like arguing the Mountain is less than a monster than Vargo Hoat, because one performs his atrocities for his lord, and the other for money. And this reasoning also opposes Ben Blackthumb’s claims it does not matter who you serve. Clearly, Gendry’s perception has become warped and irrational. But being captured and basically forced into a type of survival bondage, limits his perspective. He put his faith in Blackthumb’s reassurances and surrendered control over to taking Lucan as an example. Lucan’s death took the last security Gendry clung to away from him. While Theon is physically emasculated by his reekification, Gendry lost his balls (bravery) symbolically, just like Wayland the Smith had them taken.

 

He finally abandons Harrenhal and his bondage after Arya gives his balls back by example. Gendry choice to smith in bondage over death, hoping it would keep him alive and safe, just as the majority of people would. Despite his resentment and anger towards Arya, she visits him a second time. This time she’s basically the Queen of the servants as Bolton’s cupbearer, untouchable even for the Bloody Mummers. And yet, she makes clear she would rather choose death over bondage. She makes clear that with or without his help, she intends to escape, all by her lonesome self if she must. If she does the latter, to Gendry’s mind chances are high she would die in the attempt. And if the Queen B of the servants would risk death in order to be free, then what it would make him by staying and most likely ending up in the bear pit as bear food, as Tyrion and Penny were supposed to be lion’s food.  

 

"What do you want now?" Gendry said in a low angry voice.

"A sword."

"Blackthumb keeps all the blades locked up, I told you that a hundred times. Is this for Lord Leech?"

"For me. Break the lock with your hammer."

"They'll break my hand," he grumbled. "Or worse."

"Not if you run off with me."

"Run, and they'll catch you and kill you."

"They'll do you worse. Lord Bolton is giving Harrenhal to the Bloody Mummers, he told me so."

Gendry pushed black hair out of his eyes. "So?"

She looked right at him, fearless. "So when Vargo Hoat's the lord, he's going to cut off the feet of all the servants to keep them from running away. The smiths too."

"That's only a story," he said scornfully.

"No, it's true, I heard Lord Vargo say so," she lied. "He's going to cut one foot off everyone. The left one. Go to the kitchens and wake Hot Pie, he'll do what you say. We'll need bread or oakcakes or something. You get the swords and I'll do the horses. We'll meet near the postern in the east wall, behind the Tower of Ghosts. No one ever comes there."

"I know that gate. It's guarded, same as the rest."

"So? You won't forget the swords?"

"I never said I'd come."

"No. But if you do, you won't forget the swords?"

He frowned. "No," he said at last. "I guess I won't." (aCoK, Arya X)

 

And so, he does show up with two swords and wearing oiled chainmail, as well as his hammer, looking both the warrior and a smith. After having been solely warrior and solely smith, he decides to take the necessary tools for both roles with him, almost as if he’s preparing to blend both roles.
 

Gendry was quieter, but the swords he was carrying rang together as he moved. …The boys picked their way toward her over tumbled stones. Gendry was wearing oiled chainmail under his cloak, she saw, and he had his blacksmith's hammer slung across his back. (aCoK, Arya X)

 

Recap

 

From the introduction we know that has the skill of a smith (making him a possible Wayland figure) as well as some warrior dream (making him a Beorn figure). His physical traits fit Beorn's bear. He picked the Bull as his personal sigil via the warrior helmet he smithed himself based on his fellow boys calling him bullheaded, though stubornness is equally a feature related to bears. Both the Bull and Bear symbolize similar aspects, just in different cultures - agricultural versus hunter gatherer.

 

On the King's Road, Gendry as Bull grows into a warrior role, abandoning the Smith. Simultaneously he dons his Bull helmet the more he grows into the Warrior, conjoining Bull with Warrior as his chosen identity. But then he loses his Bull helmet at the same time he fails the goal of protecting and keeping Lommy, Hot Pie and Arya safe. His Bull helmet and personal sigil is lost to him forever. Taken into bondage like a slave or chattel to Harrenhal, Gendry uses his skill to save his life. He completely abandons the Warrior, and instead commits to the Smith, but for all the wrong reasons. Here he is the emasculated Wayland as a captive of an evil, extortionist Lord. "Princess" Arya finally gives him enough of his courage back to break free, through choosing the risk of death over bondage herself and alone if she must. When he escapes he takes both tools for the Warrior as well as the Smith with him.

[Evolett]

You make a good case for Gendry as a hidden bear. He's a bit of a mystery to me - I admit to not having really paid much attention to his arc so I shall have to do some re-reading, that's plain. I think you've done a very good job of pointing out his warrior/smith role in the context of the bear. It's easy to see the smith but the warrior in him is not very obvious. The first thought that came to my mind after reading this is a parallel to Azor Ahai. The latter was a smith who forged his own sword and he must have been a warrior to save the world. Gendry forges his own helm early in his apprenticeship and he's gained a lot of experience since then. He's been knighted and has joined the faith of R'hllor, was on hand to kill Biter during Brienne's fateful fight and belongs to the group of men surrounding LSH. Hm, seems significant, Gendry the smith and warrior, linked to Brienne, a maiden, who just happens to wield Oathkeeper, reforged from Ice. He might just be the one to breathe that last ingredient into a sword that could be a potential Lightbringer ;) And perhaps he'll end up wielding it himself. See, this is all your fault, sweetsunray :)

 

I had a very different hidden bear in mind, no theory, just some observations. Hopefully I'll get round to sharing that soon. 

[sweetsunray]

A hidden bear there was, a bear, a bear! (part 3)

 

Escaping to the Brotherhood

 

aSoS shows us how Gendry conjoins Warrior and Smith when he chooses to remain with the Brotherhood. With the Brotherhood he finally has an environment where he can both protect children as well as build for a better world. Not surprisingly for a bear, he grows into his element below a hollow hill – a den - in the middle of a forest.  

 

Once they escape, in aSoS we see Gendry recover rather quickly from the bondage, in less than 24 hours really. This is similar to Jorah’s quick recovery from having been a slave once Tyrion & co escape to the Second Sons.

• First Gendry starts out following Arya on horseback just like Hot Pie. Arya’s in the lead.

• When Hot Pie starts to complain Gendry starts to take on a supportive role, including dark humor.
• Until finally Gendry takes on an assertive, protective role so she can sleep, and he volunteers for the first watch
• After more than a week he rides out from behind a wall to confront Tom & co, longsword drawn, on horseback, in chainmail, looking dangerous.
• He guards the horses at the Inn of the Kneeling Man

 

They rode north, away from the lake, following a rutted farm road across the torn fields and into the woods and streams. Arya took the lead, kicking her stolen horse to a brisk heedless trot until the trees closed in around her. Hot Pie and Gendry followed as best they could. Wolves howled off in the distance, and she could hear Hot Pie's heavy breathing. No one spoke. From time to time Arya glanced over her shoulder, to make sure the two boys had not fallen too far behind, and to see if they were being pursued.

…

By midday Hot Pie had begun to complain. His arse was sore, he told them, and the saddle was rubbing him raw inside his legs, and besides he had to get some sleep. "I'm so tired I'm going to fall off the horse."

Arya looked at Gendry. "If he falls off, who do you think will find him first, the wolves or the Mummers?"

"The wolves," said Gendry. "Better noses."

…

"I'm cold and wet," Hot Pie complained. "We're a long way from Harrenhal now, for sure. We could have us a fire—"

"NO!" Arya and Gendry both said, at the exact same instant. Hot Pie quailed a little. Arya gave Gendry a sideways look. He said it with me, like Jon used to do, back in Winterfell.

…

When they did, she found that her horse had come to a stop and was nibbling at a tuft of grass, while Gendry was shaking her arm. "You fell asleep," he told her.

"I was just resting my eyes."

"You were resting them a long while, then. Your horse was wandering in a circle, but it wasn't till she stopped that I realized you were sleeping. Hot Pie's just as bad, he rode into a tree limb and got knocked off, you should have heard him yell. Even that didn't wake you up. You need to stop and sleep."

"I can keep going as long as you can." She yawned.

"Liar," he said. "You keep going if you want to be stupid, but I'm stopping. I'll take the first watch. You sleep." (aSoS, Arya I)

 

"She's not alone." Gendry rode out from behind the cottage wall, and behind him Hot Pie, leading her horse. In his chainmail shirt with a sword in his hand, Gendry looked almost a man grown, and dangerous. Hot Pie looked like Hot Pie. "Do like she says, and leave us be," warned Gendry. (aSoS, Arya II)

 

I will skip several chapters. They do contain lots of bear hints and themes as well, but for the moment would mostly derail Gendry’s psychological path from Bull to Bear who combines the Smith and Warrior. The important thing of note about Gendry’s quick mental recovery is that he becomes one mind with Arya for a while. Because of this, Arya makes certain assumptions about Gendry, even though their minds separate again once they are captured by the Brotherhood, just as separated as in Harrenhal.

 

Arya is the highborn captive to be ransomed. Gendry is an orphaned, lowborn bastard free to go to Riverrun, or stay at the Inn of the Kneeling Man like Hot Pie. He belongs to the people the Brotherhood aim to protect. Arya regards both herself and Gendry as the Brotherhood’s captives. In reality, she’s the only true captive of the two. We see this, when Arya makes a dash for it on horseback, while Gendry is surprised over it and never makes any attempt to run himself. Arya may be wild and a tomboy, but she has family and Riverrun sort of means home to her. Because of his determination to only smith at Harrenhal, as he claimed at the time, Arya believes that exclusively smithing his desire, his dream, and that since Riverrun is her uncle’s keep he’d love it better than Harrenhal for sure. She is conveniently forgetting that at the time he spoke and made choices out of fear and bondage. And she is also applying a selective memory, even once lapsing back into thinking of him as the Bull.
 

Bella turned to Arya. "Don't he like girls?"

Arya shrugged. "He's just stupid. He likes to polish helmets and beat on swords with hammers." (aSoS, Arya V)

 

She forgets him standing beside her, sword drawn against the Gold Cloaks; fighting beside her at the God’s Eye, carrying Weasel into the tunnel, coming from behind a wall on horseback looking dangerous, and so on. She seems to dismiss these actions, most likely because they weren’t all that successful, while she has seen his produce.

 

Arya’s opinions and beliefs in this phase about Gendry are selective, biased, partly wishful thinking and even plainly wrong, and in this phase completely unreliable. This is evident at Acorn Hall, when Gendry finds himself in a smithy again, and a rather illuminating conversation takes place.

"Arya?" Gendry had followed her out. "Lady Smallwood said there's a smithy. Want to have a look?"

…

"He [Thoros] won't remember me, but he used to come to our forge." The Smallwood forge had not been used in some time, though the smith had hung his tools neatly on the wall. Gendry lit a candle and set it on the anvil while he took down a pair of tongs.

…

"I was talking about Thoros." Gendry reached out with the tongs as if to pinch her face, but Arya swatted them away. "He liked feasts and tourneys, that was why King Robert was so fond of him. And this Thoros was brave. When the walls of Pyke crashed down, he was the first through the breach. He fought with one of his flaming swords, setting ironmen afire with every slash."

"I wish I had a flaming sword." Arya could think of lots of people she'd like to set on fire.

"It's only a trick, I told you. The wildfire ruins the steel. My master sold Thoros a new sword after every tourney. Every time they would have a fight about the price." Gendry hung the tongs back up and took down the heavy hammer. "Master Mott said it was time I made my first longsword. He gave me a sweet piece of steel, and I knew just how I wanted to shape the blade. Only Yoren came, and took me away for the Night's Watch."

"You can still make swords if you want," said Arya. "You can make them for my brother Robb when we get to Riverrun."

"Riverrun." Gendry put the hammer down and looked at her. "You look different now. Like a proper little girl." (aSoS, Arya IV)

 

Disregarding the romantic subtext related to this scene, several interesting subtle things occur. Gendry wants to visit the smithy, inviting Arya along, who assumes his dream is smithing at a keep’s forge.

• He picks up the thongs, pinches them, puts them back where they belong, takes the hammer, and then lays it down when Arya tells him he could make swords for her brother at Riverrun.
• He talks about how Thoros misused swords and steel by putting them alight with wildfire, but then comes to his point: that Thoros was brave, the first to go through the breach of Pyke, despite being a drunken sot. Gendry is not truly talking about smithing. He’s talking about bravery and warriorship.
• Arya is oblivious to this clue and says she wants a flaming sword.
• Still with his mind actually on Thoros being a brave warrior, he mentions that right before he was taken away by Yoren for the watch, Tobho gave him a ‘sweet piece of steel’ to make his first longsword. And Gendry knew already exactly how he wanted to shape it. Though Gendry does not explicitly state he was going to make a sword for himself, it is not difficult to deduce. He made the helmet for himself, of his own design. The sword would have been for himself as well, of his own design. In this conversation, Gendry is actually revealing he wants to be a warrior.
• Again Arya does not realize what Gendry is actually trying to say. She believes he’s only interested in making swords, not wielding one. And utterly convinced of this she wants to cheer him up by telling him he can make swords for Robb.
• Gendry’s reply is simply a repeat of “Riverrun” combined with the action of laying the hammer down, and then completely change the subject. That one word in combination with the action implies that Gendry actually dismisses Riverrun for himself.

Gendry does not go to the smithy to be at his favorite place, but to test whether he still wants to be exclusively a castle’s smith as he claimed at Harrenhal, now that he does not have to fear for his life anymore. He visits the place, tests several tools, meanwhile reminiscing about a warrior he admires for his bravery and remembering the dreams he had about his own sword. And as he does this, he all puts the tools back and lays the hammer down. Riverrun means being only a smith, excluding the warrior. His mental recovery on the road has put him in touch with his warrior again, and this Thoros - who used to frequent Tobho’s shop and met him - might help him.

 

They arrive at Hollow Hills. You probably can’t go deeper into the woods and it’s basically a den.

"If there were wolves hereabouts, we'd know it," groused Lem. "Or lions. These are our woods." (aSoS, Arya II)

 

A huge firepit had been dug in the center of the earthen floor, and its flames rose swirling and crackling toward the smoke-stained ceiling. The walls were equal parts stone and soil, with huge white roots twisting through them like a thousand slow pale snakes. People were emerging from between those roots as she watched; edging out from the shadows for a look at the captives, stepping from the mouths of pitch-black tunnels, popping out of crannies and crevices on all sides. In one place on the far side of the fire, the roots formed a kind of stairway up to a hollow in the earth where a man sat almost lost in the tangle of weirwood.

Lem unhooded Gendry. "What is this place?" he asked.

"An old place, deep and secret. A refuge where neither wolves nor lions come prowling."

Big as the fire was, the cave was bigger; it was hard to tell where it began and where it ended. The tunnel mouths might have been two feet deep or gone on two miles. (aSoS, Arya V)

 

Is there any place more fitting to call home for a bear than the denlike cave system of Hollow Hill in the woods where neither highborn wolf or lion can hunt you? Gendry has found a home, with people like him. Hot Pie is a pie that belongs in the kitchen of an inn. Gendry is a bear that belongs in a den in the woods, not in a castle forge.

 

And then magic happens.

But when the Hound made to step toward his foe, Thoros of Myr stopped him. "First we pray." He turned toward the fire and lifted his arms. "Lord of Light, look down upon us."

Unsmiling, Lord Beric laid the edge of his longsword against the palm of his left hand, and drew it slowly down. Blood ran dark from the gash he made, and washed over the steel.

And then the sword took fire

Arya heard Gendry whisper a prayer…

"Is it wildfire?" Arya asked Gendry.

"No. This is different. This is . . ."

". . . magic?"(aSoS, Arya VI)

 

Though the Hound may have cut down Beric, and Gendry may have seen him die before his very eyes, he has also seen the evidence of all the other deadly wounds and heard all the tales of people having killed Beric, and yet he lives – the spear that went through him, his caved in head, the lost eye, the dark rope mark around his neck. If before Gendry exclaimed she was not alone, facing foes and helped her up to give the men in the crow cages water, at Hollow Hill Gendry takes his first action to stop Arya.

 

Harwin sighed. "R'hllor has judged him innocent."

"Who's Rulore?" She couldn't even say it.

"The Lord of Light. Thoros has taught us—"

She didn't care what Thoros had taught them. She yanked Greenbeard's dagger from its sheath and spun away before he could catch her. Gendry made a grab for her as well, but she had always been too fast for Gendry. (ASoS, Arya VI)

 

The day he begs to join the Brotherhood starts with an attack on the Bloody Mummers at a septry. Both Arya and Gendry witnessed it, ordered to stay back as outsiders. Arya’s hands are itching to be allowed to participate as she watches the attack. And is there anyone who believes that Gendry’s aren’t? A lot of the men fighting were common folk who never fought before in their lives. They need a smith, they need fighters. He would help protect people, women and children as well as build for a better world.

 

"I'll smith for you." Gendry went to one knee before Lord Beric. "If you'll have me, m'lord, I could be of use. I've made tools and knives and once I made a helmet that wasn't so bad. One of the Mountain's men stole it from me when we was taken."

"A smith can find a welcome most anywhere. A skilled armorer even more so. Why would you choose to stay with us?"

Arya watched Gendry screw up his stupid face, thinking. "At the hollow hill, what you said about being King Robert's men, and brothers, I liked that. I liked that you gave the Hound a trial. Lord Bolton just hanged folk or took off their heads, and Lord Tywin and Ser Amory were the same. I'd sooner smith for you."

"We got plenty of mail needs mending, m'lord," Jack reminded Lord Beric. "Most we took off the dead, and there's holes where the death came through."

"You must be a lackwit, boy," said Lem. "We're outlaws. Lowborn scum, most of us, excepting his lordship. Don't think it'll be like Tom's fool songs neither. You won't be stealing no kisses from a princess, nor riding in no tourneys in stolen armor. You join us, you'll end with your neck in a noose, or your head mounted up above some castle gate."

"It's no more than they'd do for you," said Gendry.

"Aye, that's so," said Jack-Be-Lucky cheerfully. "The crows await us all. M'lord, the boy seems brave enough, and we do have need of what he brings us. Take him, says Jack."

“And quick,” suggested Harwin, chuckling, “before the fever passes and he comes back to his senses.”

A wan smile crossed Lord Beric's lips. "Thoros, my sword."

This time the lightning lord did not set the blade afire, but merely laid it light on Gendry's shoulder. "Gendry, do you swear before the eyes of gods and men to defend those who cannot defend themselves, to protect all women and children, to obey your captains, your liege lord, and your king, to fight bravely when needed and do such other tasks as are laid upon you, however hard or humble or dangerous they may be?"

"I do, m'lord."

The marcher lord moved the sword from the right shoulder to the left, and said, "Arise Ser Gendry, knight of the hollow hill, and be welcome to our brotherhood." (aSoS, Arya VII)

 

Since he left Harrenhal with a sword and a hammer his arch in aSoS is to reconcile both the bear-Smith as well as the bear-Warrior. He becomes both. And evidently, the Brotherhood do not take him on for his smithing alone. It’s how he initially sells himself, but Lem clearly talks about Gendry as a warrior and knight: no songs, no stealing kisses, no tourneys. Jack-Be-Lucky assesses his bravery. Harwin mentions fever, and in relation to having seen the battle in the morning, "battle fever" is implied. And Beric himself has him swear to protect women and children and to fight, on top of whatever other tasks they may give him (including smithing). The only one who’s fooled is Arya, later thinking, you could have made swords at Riverrun for my brother, never having realized he already put that idea aside at Acorn Hall.

 

We meet him again at the Crossroads Inn where the orphans live in Brienne’s chapter of aFfC. He smiths there for the Brotherhood and himself, guards the orphans and alerts his brothers of visitors that may need capture. He’s finally working on that sword for himself and he kills the last Bloody Mummer, Biter, with a spear. What a fitting ending for a bear's revenge on the Bloody Mummers - to be speared by a bear.

 

"You're a bastard."

He took it for an insult. "I'm a knight. That sword will be mine own, once it's done."

What would a knight be doing working at a smithy? "You have black hair and blue eyes, and you were born in the shadow of the Red Keep. Has no one ever remarked upon your face?" (aFfC, Brienne VII)

 

"He's dead [Biter]. Gendry shoved a spearpoint through the back of his neck. Drink, m'lady, or I'll pour it down your throat."

…

"Gendry," she wheezed. "I have to talk with Gendry."

"He turned back at the river, m'lady. He's gone back to his forge, to Willow and the little ones, to keep them safe." (aFfC, Brienne VIII)

 

Let’s also not forget that he now operates under the lead of Lady Stoneheart, who’s hanging Freys with a vengeance for the Red Wedding, where a she-bear was killed. Though he does not seem to partake in the hangings himself, his constant angry attitude that Brienne notes and helping the Brotherhood to captives to hang suggest he does not mind aiding in that. Basically, he’s the bear providing the Frey game for the Brotherhood for a bit of bear-revenge.

 

Recap

A bear both protects and produces life in the forest, and thus is both a warrior and a smith, and now able to kill. His home is a den in the forest. His family is the forest life. The bear has a sword of his own forging and he angrily provides Lady Stoneheart with game to hang.

[sweetsunray]

You make a good case for Gendry as a hidden bear. He's a bit of a mystery to me - I admit to not having really paid much attention to his arc so I shall have to do some re-reading, that's plain. I think you've done a very good job of pointing out his warrior/smith role in the context of the bear. It's easy to see the smith but the warrior in him is not very obvious. The first thought that came to my mind after reading this is a parallel to Azor Ahai. The latter was a smith who forged his own sword and he must have been a warrior to save the world. Gendry forges his own helm early in his apprenticeship and he's gained a lot of experience since then. He's been knighted and has joined the faith of R'hllor, was on hand to kill Biter during Brienne's fateful fight and belongs to the group of men surrounding LSH. Hm, seems significant, Gendry the smith and warrior, linked to Brienne, a maiden, who just happens to wield Oathkeeper, reforged from Ice. He might just be the one to breathe that last ingredient into a sword that could be a potential Lightbringer ;) And perhaps he'll end up wielding it himself. See, this is all your fault, sweetsunray :)

 

I had a very different hidden bear in mind, no theory, just some observations. Hopefully I'll get round to sharing that soon. 

 

Thanks :) Well the warrior-smith part is done (that took me 3 posts). Next up, a bear hunt where Gendry is the bear, and Gendry's swan maiden. Yeah, Gendry is pretty much close and tied in relation to a special-sword as well as magical fire place. Though I don't think the magic comes from R'hllor at all. There are way too many pointers and ties to those that fit in the same force that BR is using. But you would need the last Odin essay of "a binding of Norse short stories" for the full reasoning of it.

 

But one-eyed Beric in his weirwood "throne", Jack-Be-Lucky, the one eyed horse, Tom the singer, Ghost of High Heart, God's Eye cries Odin all over. Even the hangings are Odin's way. So is resurrection. Not to forget that Beric himself was a Thor figure originally. While Lady Stoneheart is a type of Hel-goddess with Hollow Hill standing for Hel and the Riverlands for Niflheim (misty lands of 9 rivers). Fire magic is used, but not in service of R'hllor. They don't burn people, and they certainly don't burn weirwoods.

[sweetsunray]

A hidden bear there was, a bear, a bear! (part 4)

 

The bear hunt and the bear song

 

When they finally reach the Trident, Arya and Hot Pie pluck carrots and cabbages from a dead man’s garden at a ruin, while Gendry sleeps in the shade of one of the ruin’s walls, and Tom, Lem and Anguy are about to come upon them. Arya’s second chapter of aSoS has all the elements of the bear hunt ritual (but without the killing part).  

 

From the distance Tom Sevenstrings sing the song “Off to Gulltown.”

 

Off to Gulltown to see the fair maid, heigh-ho, heigh-ho.

I’ll steal a sweet kiss with the point of my blade, heigh-ho, heigh-ho.

I’ll make her my love and we’ll rest in the shade, heigh-ho, heigh-ho.

 

It’s not the bear-song, but it’s about a fair maid, kissing, a sword and resting in the shade (which is what Gendry is doing in fact at that moment).  We could imagine that the 3 hunters in the bear-song might have sung something like it as they dance with the bear to the fair. Tom, Lem and Anguy makes 3 men, and they are in fact hunting people in their woods.

 

The first stanza

 

Proper bear-hunt protocol says that the hunters must first choose which bear to hunt, then go to the bear’s dean, wake him up, and lure him out. From our 3 Brotherhood hunters perspective we learn they were hunting for 3 riders on 3 horses (implied). After all they must be hunting Jaime & co (not knowing it is Jaime), who never came the intended way after ‘Husband’ sold them 3 horses. Husband already had several discussions with Lem about why he could not take on a woman and two men by himself before. As Tom & co are under Greenbeard’s command, it seems that the party of 15 split up, with Tom & co trying to hunt Jaime & co, based on horsetracks.

 

"If there were wolves hereabouts, we'd know it," groused Lem. "Or lions. These are our woods."

"You never knew we were there," said Gendry.

"Now, lad, you shouldn't be so certain of that," said Tom. "Sometimes a man knows more than he says." (aSoS, Arya II)

 

In other words, coming upon horsetracks somewhere, the 3 hunters picked their target.

 

Hidden bear Gendry is sleeping. Though they make their upcoming presence known through singing, Gendry is not yet aware of this. Arya urges Hot Pie to wake Gendry and then to hide behind the ruin’s wall, while she hides behind a willow tree.

 

Arya rose, carrots dangling from her hand. It sounded like the singer was coming up the river road. Over among the cabbages, Hot Pie had heard it too, to judge by the look on his face. Gendry had gone to sleep in the shade of the burned cottage, and was past hearing anything.

…

"Go wake Gendry," Arya told him [Hot Pie]. "Just shake him by the shoulder, don't make a lot of noise." Gendry was easy to wake, unlike Hot Pie, who needed to be kicked and shouted at.

…

"Take Gendry and the horses behind the cottage," she decided. There was part of one wall still standing, big enough, maybe, to conceal two boys and three horses. If the horses don't whinny, and that singer doesn't come poking around the garden.

 

The hunters arrive at the “den”, and one of the horses whickers. And as these 3 hunters wonder aloud what may be hiding behind the wall, Anguy says, “a bear”. Gendry is in fact hiding behind the wall. In words they reveal they are about to shoot arrows across the wall and declare an honest person would “come out” and show his face. It’s odd they say ‘bear’ in the wolf and lion context. ‘Husband’ mentioned ‘fish, wolf or lion’ instead to Jaime and Brienne. GRRM thus wrote bear into this scene on purpose, and even stressing on bears as meat to bring a bear-hunt to mind.

 

"Did you hear that?" a man's voice said. "There's something behind that wall, I would say."

"Aye," replied a second voice, deeper. "What do you think it might be, Archer?"…

"A bear." A third voice, or the first one again?

"A lot of meat on a bear," the deep voice said. "A lot of fat as well, in fall. Good to eat, if it's cooked up right."

"Could be a wolf. Maybe a lion."...

"Makes no matter. Does it?"

"Not so I know. Archer, what do you mean to do with all them arrows?"

"Drop a few shafts over the wall. Whatever's hiding back there will come out quick enough, watch and see."

"What if it's some honest man back there, though? Or some poor woman with a little babe at her breast?"

"An honest man would come out and show us his face. Only an outlaw would skulk and hide."

"Aye, that's so. Go on and loose your shafts, then."

Arya sprang to her feet. "Don't!" She showed them her sword. There were three, she saw. Only three. Syrio could fight more than three, and she had Hot Pie and Gendry to stand with her, maybe. But they're boys, and these are men.

 

Arya jumps out of hiding from behind the willow tree, brandishing her (too heavy) longsword. They propose to take her to a “safe place” and give her some food. Remember that the hunters must play the innocent and lie about their intentions. They also pretend to believe she’s alone, though they knew someone is still hiding behind the wall. That’s when Gendry, the hidden bear, comes out and shows his face, looking pretty much the warrior - dangerous.

 

"Child," said the singer, "put up that sword, and we'll take you to a safe place and get some food in that belly. There are wolves in these parts, and lions, and worse things. No place for a little girl to be wandering alone."

"She's not alone." Gendry rode out from behind the cottage wall, and behind him Hot Pie, leading her horse. In his chainmail shirt with a sword in his hand, Gendry looked almost a man grown, and dangerous. Hot Pie looked like Hot Pie. "Do like she says, and leave us be," warned Gendry.

"Two and three," the singer counted, "and is that all of you? And horses too, lovely horses. Where did you steal them?"

 

Tom counts 2 boys and a girl, on 3 lovely horses, better than the ones ‘Husband’ sold to Jaime, Cleos and Brienne several nights before. Here ends the first stanza of the song as well as the initial part of the ritual bear-hunt: the bear has been found, woken and made to come out.

 

The Second Stanza

 

Now, follows the meeting of the hunters with the bears, and a ritualistic exchange of names, identities and an invitation to the “fair”.  

 

"Will you give us your names like honest men?" the singer asked the boys.

"I'm Hot Pie," Hot Pie said at once.

"Aye, and good for you." The man smiled. "It's not every day I meet a lad with such a tasty name. And what would your friends be called, Mutton Chop and Squab?"

Gendry scowled down from his saddle. "Why should I tell you my name? I haven't heard yours."

…

"Now who are you?" demanded Lem, in the deep voice that Arya had heard through the branches of the willow.

She was not about to give up her true name as easy as that. "Squab, if you want," she said. "I don't care."

The big man laughed. "A squab with a sword," he said. "Now there's something you don't often see."

"I'm the Bull," said Gendry, taking his lead from Arya. She could not blame him for preferring Bull to Mutton Chop.

 

In the bear-song, the bear says, “The fair? Said he, but I'm a bear! All black and brown, and covered with hair!” Here, the bear identifies himself as the Bull, this time without the helmet. He lost the Bull helmet half a book before this, and never got it back and never will. Any bull reference was absent since his loss of the helmet, and Arya hasn’t used the name since the Gold Cloaks. But we do know that Gendry has conjoined the Bull identity with a warrior. He comes from behind the wall, looking very much the warrior. So, he picks up the reference again. And at least in a garden it fits (they left the woods to pick the vegetables).

 

In the broader context of the exchange, ‘the Bull’ is meant to be a misdirection, a lie. Hot Pie is the sole person who gives his true name. Arya says they can call her whatever they like, and thus squab. Gendry acts as suspicious as Arya towards the 3 hunters, and is not revealing his true identity either (she’s not alone). On top of that, GRRM has already told us to consider Arya and Gendry as being of one mind, because of the ‘he said it with me’ in the previous chapter. This implies that Gendry is not using the Bull reference to assert or expose his identity, but that to him too it’s a lie. Gendry therefore has completely shed the Bull. We can therefore conclude that Gendry is not a bull, and put this Gendry=Bull idea forever aside. Which is very fitting, since they are about to journey deep into the woods. In the woods, the same aspects of the bull are represented by a bear.

 

Next follows the invitation to the fair, in this case the Inn of the Kneeling Man.

 

"Riverrun is a long way upstream," said Tom. "A long hungry way. Might be you'd like a hot meal before you set out? There's an inn not far ahead kept by some friends of ours. We could share some ale and a bite of bread, instead of fighting one another."

"An inn?" The thought of hot food made Arya's belly rumble, but she didn't trust this Tom. Not everyone who spoke you friendly was really your friend.

Gendry looked as uncertain as she felt. "What do you mean, friends?" he asked warily.

"Friends. Have you forgotten what friends are?"

"Sharna is the innkeep's name," Tom put in. "She has a sharp tongue and a fierce eye, I'll grant you that, but her heart's a good one, and she's fond of little girls."

"I'm not a little girl," she said angrily. "Who else is there? You said friends."

"Sharna's husband, and an orphan boy they took in. They won't harm you. There's ale, if you think you're old enough. Fresh bread and maybe a bit of meat."

 

The hunters invite the prey to the Inn of the Kneeling Man, which serves a similar purpose for the Brotherhood, just as the crossroads inn does in aFfC when Brienne visits it, and stumbled on the orphans guarded by Gendry. The Inn puts up (smoke) signal to warn a nearby gang of the Brotherhood to come pick up some unaware (but suspicious) travelers. And they refer to each other as “friends” to those travelers.

 

They are not his sons. Stannis told it true, that day he met with Renly. Joffrey and Tommen were never Robert's sons. This boy, though . . . "Listen to me," Brienne began. Then she heard Dog barking, loud and frantic. "Someone is coming."

"Friends," said Gendry, unconcerned.

"What sort of friends?" Brienne moved to the door of the smithy to peer out through the rain. (aFfC, Brienne VII)

 

Just as the 3 bear hunters must pretend to be innocents who would do no one any harm, Tom, Lem and Anguy aim to gain their trust, using ‘honest men’ and ‘friends’ repeatedly, in order to deceive them.

 

Related to the bear-song they mention Sharna as the innkeep. Granted, she is in fact no pretty young maid with honey in her hair for Gendry to have any interest in, but is presented as a fierce but good hearted woman, just as the maiden fair in the song is both fierce but good to love. In any case, “from here to there”, at the fair a woman awaits a bear. And when they do enter the Inn, Sharna is the first they meet within, soon calling ‘Husband’ establishing a wedding has taken place some time or another.

 

The hidden stanza

 

In between the second stanza and the third stanza of the bear song is an actual repressed, hidden stanza – that of the bear kill. In the second stanza, the bear is invited to come to the fair, but protests that he’s a bear. In the third stanza, the 3 boys (aka hunters) dance with the bear to the fair, and yet we never learn of the bear’s consent to the invitation. I already argued that there is in fact a missing stanza, that explains the jump, because after the invitation and meeting, the bear gets killed. We actually witness the missing stanza happening in this Arya chapter.

 

"We've buried many a good man this past year, but we've no wish to bury you, I swear it on my harp. Archer, show her."

The archer's hand moved quicker than Arya would have believed. His shaft went hissing past her head within an inch of her ear and buried itself in the trunk of the willow behind her. By then the bowman had a second arrow notched and drawn. She'd thought she understood what Syrio meant by quick as a snake and smooth as summer silk, but now she knew she hadn't. The arrow thrummed behind her like a bee. "You missed," she said.

"More fool you if you think so," said Anguy. "They go where I send them."

"That they do," agreed Lem Lemoncloak. (aSoS, Arya II)

 

Our 3 hunters may use honeyed words, but in reality they are deadly. Though no one actually gets killed or even harmed, symbolically this part of the text serves as a metaphorical “bear kill”. The hunters have their captives taken to the “fair” by force. There is nothing left for the captives but to concede. It seems voluntarily, just like in the third stanza of the song, but it isn’t.

 

There were a dozen steps between the archer and the point of her sword. We have no chance, Arya realized, wishing she had a bow like his, and the skill to use it. Glumly, she lowered her heavy longsword till the point touched the ground. "We'll come see this inn," she conceded, trying to hide the doubt in her heart behind bold words. "You walk in front and we'll ride behind, so we can see what you're doing."

Tom Sevenstrings bowed deeply and said, "Before, behind, it makes no matter. Come along, lads, let's show them the way. Anguy, best pull up those arrows, we won't be needing them here."

 

The third stanza

 

The 3 hunters and the bear sing and dance merrily to the fair (aka the Inn). Three ride on the road, three walk, from here (the garden) to there (the inn), dancing and singing. Hot Pie even sings the bear-song, lustily and bouncing in his saddle.

 

They set off as she had wanted, walking their horses slowly down the rutted road a dozen paces behind the three on foot. But before very long, somehow they were riding right on top of them. Tom Sevenstrings walked slowly, and liked to strum his woodharp as he went. "Do you know any songs?" he asked them. "I'd dearly love someone to sing with, that I would. Lem can't carry a tune, and our longbow lad only knows marcher ballads, every one of them a hundred verses long."

"We sing real songs in the marches," Anguy said mildly.

"Singing is stupid," said Arya. "Singing makes noise. We heard you a long way off. We could have killed you."

Tom's smile said he did not think so. "There are worse things than dying with a song on your lips." …

Hot Pie shifted his seat. "I know the song about the bear," he said. "Some of it, anyhow."

Tom ran his fingers down his strings. "Then let's hear it, pie boy." He threw back his head and sang, "A bear there was, a bear, a bear! All black and brown, and covered with hair . . ."

Hot Pie joined in lustily, even bouncing in his saddle a little on the rhymes. Arya stared at him in astonishment. He had a good voice and he sang well.

 

The third stanza in the bear-song is the actual only stanza mentioning the 3 boys, who are the 3 hunters. GRRM has Anguy and Lem hunt a duck, and even that little scene mirrors the roles of each of the 3 ritual bear hunters. The singing brings the duck out of hiding (the shaman finds the game). Anguy brings down the duck with an arrow. Lem retrieves it.

 

 This hunting scene does not only serve to reveal the 3 hunting roles, but also the purpose of the bear hunt. The proper ritualistic bear hunt is not just to catch a bear for the bear, but to be blessed with successfully hunting other game the rest of the year. Tom, Lem and Anguy catch themselves a bear, following proper bear hunt protocol, and even before arriving at the fair, they already have game falling in their laps pretty much.

 

A small brook flowed into the Trident a little farther on. As they waded across, their singing flushed a duck from among the reeds. Anguy stopped where he stood, unslung his bow, notched an arrow, and brought it down. The bird fell in the shallows not far from the bank. Lem took off his yellow cloak and waded in knee-deep to retrieve it, complaining all the while…

Tom and Hot Pie resumed their song on the other side of the brook, with the duck hanging from Lem's belt beneath his yellow cloak. Somehow the singing made the miles seem shorter.

 

In the ritual sense the first phase of the bear-hunt is finished. Normally, once the “dead” bear is brought to the village and a wedding has been performed (Sharna & Husband), it is time to eat. The bear of course doesn’t eat. Everybody, except Gendry goes inside the Inn to eat and drink. Gendry remains outside to “protect” the horses. Bears protect forest game. They don’t eat it. He also doesn’t eat with the orphans and guests in Brienne’s chapter in aFfC.

 

They dismounted in front of stables. There were no other horses to be seen, but Arya noticed fresh manure in many of the stalls. "One of us should watch the horses," she said, wary.

Tom overheard her. "There's no need for that, Squab. Come eat, they'll be safe enough."

"I'll stay," Gendry said, ignoring the singer. "You can come get me after you've had some food."

 

"Not for your gods." Gendry stood abruptly. "I have work to do." He stalked out without a bite of food.(aFfC, Brienne VII)

 

The chapter then continues to exposes the layers of lies of Tom, Lem and Anguy. When Anguy toasts to the king, Lem says something peculiar.

 

"Well, here's to His Grace," Anguy the Archer called out cheerfully, lifting a toast. "Seven save the king!"

"All twelve o' them," Lem Lemoncloak muttered. He drank, and wiped the foam from his mouth with the back of his hand.

 

Who are these 12?

 

"Riders!" Gendry's shout was shrill with alarm. The door burst open and there he was. "Soldiers," he panted. "Coming down the river road, a dozen of them."

 

In the second stanza phase, Anguy already mentioned who they were.

 

Anguy the Archer said, "We're king's men."

 

In other words, Lem was saying “Seven save our 12 King’s Men,” and expected the other 12 under the lead of Greenbeard to join them soon at the Inn, which was why they wanted their three captives to linger.

 

Then the chapter seems to indicate that Tom is just attempting to buy the 3 horses – better ones than Husband ‘gave away’ - with his piece of paper. Remembering Anguy’s arrow buzzing beside her ear, and Lem’s conversation to Husband insisting that Husband alone could have taken on Jaime, Brienne and Cleos all by himself and the ‘boy’, and that now Gendry & co are doubly outmatched against 6, Arya attempts to exchange the horses for the skiff to get to Riverrun.
 

They were all watching her; the Archer, big Lem, Husband with his sallow face and shifty eyes. Even Sharna, who stood in the door to the kitchen squinting. They are going to take our horses no matter what I say, she realized. We'll need to walk to Riverrun, unless . . . "We don't want paper." Arya slapped the parchment out of Hot Pie's hand. "You can have our horses for that boat outside. But only if you show us how to work it."

Tom Sevenstrings stared at her a moment, and then his wide homely mouth quirked into a rueful grin. He laughed aloud. Anguy joined in, and then they were all laughing, Lem Lemoncloak, Sharna and Husband, even the serving boy, who had stepped out from behind the casks with a crossbow under one arm. Arya wanted to scream at them, but instead she started to smile . . .

 

Why are they laughing? Why do they think Arya’s proposal to exchange the horses for the boat is so funny?

 

Hot Pie leapt up, knocking over his tankard, but Tom and the others were unpertubed. "There's no cause for spilling good ale on my floor," said Sharna. "Sit back down and calm yourself, boy, there's rabbit coming. You too, girl. Whatever harm's been done you, it's over and it's done and you're with king's men now. We'll keep you safe as best we can."

 

They laugh, because they had no intention even to let the three children make for Riverrun anyhow, even before they knew Squab or Arry was Arya.

 

Conclusion

 

The chapter where Gendry, Arya and Hot Pie meet and end up captured by the Brotherhood follows the first three stanzas and the hidden bear-kill stanza well, and also symbolically matches a proper bear hunt. Admittedly, all three (Gendry, Arya, Hot Pie) have a bear part to play. Gendry is woken up and made to appear from behind the wall, Arya gets an arrow shot at her, and Hot Pie gets to bounce in his saddle while lustily singing on their way to the food fest.

 

But Hot Pie disappears from the story hereafter, staying behind at the Inn to bake bread. Hot Pie = Hot Pie, a baker’s boy. Meanwhile Arya was hiding behind a willow tree, not a wall, and the last section of the chapter and a few other chapters declare Arya not to be a bear, but a swan maiden fair (that's for part 5). Gendry is not a bull – no helmet, and he uses the bull reference as a lie to hide his identity. The hunters pointed out that the bear was hiding behind the wall. The bear does not eat along, and very much acts and looks as the warrior. Gendry’s the bear. Of course, for Gendry this is a bear capture in the reverse - it eventually brings him into the woods, to a den and allows him to be both warrior and smith. It guides him to where he belongs.

[Evolett]

Now that we have all this information on bears, bear rituals and in particular the power inherent in a bear spirit, the question is what does it mean? What role (or hidden role) has the author assigned to the bear?

Just to sum up:

 

• the bear is a leader (Mormont)
• we see the bear in the role of a proctector
• the bear awakens sexual energy / desire
• treating the bear with respect secures advantages for the men carrying out the ritual - but
• it is also possible to secure these advantages through disrespect (extortion)
• a misused bear will exact revenge on the perpetrators

 

There's one more thing I want to draw attention to and which is implied by some of the points on the list: the bear acts as a catalyst in the sense that it  precipitates an event or speeds up a process. Sansa's is a good example for this catalytic effect - we have the men around her suddenly oozing testosterone, while she herself, a maiden, experiences the first signs of desire.  

 

One event of great importance in this context is Jorah's role in 'waking Dany's inner dragon' and the subsequent hatching of her dragons. None of this might have happened if Jorah had not carried her into the tent. This act exposed her to the forces that would kill her baby (the sacrifice) and was the first important step to all that followed. Another interesting thing about this is Jorah's state after entering the tent. He is visibly marked by the experience but the point is, he did not die, go mad or lose his wits. This testifies to the strength of the bear spirit, which is strong enough to withstand other obviously malevolent spirits. And there were many of those spirits in the tent, including the shadow of a wolf (more on this below). All these signs (and others that I mention in previous posts) confirm my suspicions regarding the conscious application or misappropriation of the bear ritual to some yet unknown end by certain parties.

 

 

Getting back to hidden bears. There is a possibility that the Starks also lay claim to totemic bear ancestry. If so it's been well hidden but consider the following:

 

There are a few ‘bear cub’ references to Sansa, which implies that her parents or at least one parent 'is a bear'. The Starks appear to be ‘bear-friendly’, awarding Bear Island to the Mormonts after Rodrick Stark allegedly won a wrestling match against the Ironborn. Interestingly, bears do engage in wrestling matches – lol. Young bears wrestle to hone their fighting skills, adult bears seem to wrestle just for the fun of it and male bears typicllly wrestle in serious fights over territory.

 

Here’s a link with some fine photos of wrestling in action.

 

Looking through the Stark family tree, we find one Beron Stark, a Lord of Winterfell who died while fighting the Ironborn (Ironborn again). The name is suspiciously similar to beorn so I decided to have a look at this Stark. He had quite a lot of children to secure the line, but apparently, not only his widow, but several other Stark ladies who had been widowed in quick succession were involved in a power struggle and tried to claim the children for themselves.

 

The information comes from the Wiki and specifically from a SSM

 

 

[spoiler]February 17, 2006
BOSKONE (BOSTON, MA; FEBRUARY 17-19)
….. He also reminded me of the state of the Starks 100 years ago...
SPOILER: Starks 100 years ago
I was suggesting it would be nice to see the Starks in power, without the current disarray. But GRRM pointed out that things were not so good 90 years either, with a lot of Stark widows struggling for power, with the current lord dying from a wound taken against some Ironborn. Although I could have the reason for his wound up. I'm reading the RPG game book at the moment and I might be mixing things together. There is a lot of Stark kids around though, so ending the line wasn't a problem. I think he said 10 children, from various Starks members.

February 17, 2006
BOSKONE (BOSTON, MA; FEBRUARY 17-19)
1 He mentioned something about five Lady Starks running Winterfell -- the Wolf Women or something like that -- with four of them widows of a bunch of fairly recent former Lord Starks, and the current Lady Stark, whose 30-something husband is fading fast from a wound taken from fighting the Ironborn.
[/spoiler]

 

 

Stark ladies are a complete mystery. We’ve never been introduced to one, they hardly even get a mention, their very existence is confined to the family tree. They were usually recruited from First Men lines and Martin refers to them as the Wolf Women. If Beron Stark was invested with totemic bear ancestry, could it be that these Stark wolf-women were trying to end the bear line by taking away the children? Whatever the case, this SSM confirms my findings regarding the inheritance of the ‘wolf blood’ – the trait is passed down through the female line and without a new infusion of the trait via specially chosen wives, the wolf-blood would be obsolete in the Starks lineage. I’ll leave speculation on the Stark wives for now…

 

So let’s assume the Starks have a claim to totemic bear ancestry. Papa bear is dead and so is older brother bear Robb, leaving the bear cubs unprotected and open to abuse and exploitation. Sansa has been abused and exploited – it remains to be seen if Arya, Bran and Rickon are being exploited by their ‘guardians’.

 

Sansa thinks of her bear furs in terms of protection:

 

When she’d donned it all, she felt as fat and furry as a bear cub. I will be glad of it on the mountain, she had to remind herself. She took one last look at her room before she left. I was safe here, she thought, but down below …

When Alayne returned to the winch room, she found Mya Stone waiting impatiently with Lothor Brune and Mord

 

 

She reminds herself that the furs (and by extension her bear ancestry) will protect her on the mountain itself. The next line can imply that she, as a bear cub, feels safe in her room in the Eyrie but is uncertain if that status will help protect her at the Gates of the Moon. Right in the next line we have a mention of Lothar Brune, whose name conjures up the image of a bear (Brune = Bruno = popular name for a bear). Indeed, Brune saved her from Marillion’s lustful approach at The Fingers, but in a previous chapter she doubts he will save her from LF’s  advances. Brune is LF’s bear, not hers.

 

Okay, considering the powerful nature of the bear spirit, I wonder whether the wolf spirit is kept in check by the bear. Jorah is able to withstand the wolf-shadow spirit in MMD's tent. The wolf-blood itself doesn’t seem to be very healthful for the person cursed by it (Ned seems to think of the trait in terms of an affliction. In Brandon and Lyanna’s he says it led to their deaths). Not all Starks are born with the 'wolf-blood' but those who are, are obviously marked in some way. IMO, the wolf-blood is a taint, similar to the 'madness' in Targaryens so it makes sense to have a protective bear spirit to keep that wolf spirit under control. It then also makes sense for the renegade Stark wives who wish to protect or live out their 'wolf-spirit' to remove their children from the influence of the bear spirit.

 

 

Somewhere in the first chapters of aGoT, we learn that Benjen owns a tattered bearskin, which he offers to Tyrion during the cold journey to the Wall:

 

By the end of the first week, Tyrion’s thighs were raw from hard riding, his legs were cramping badly, and he was chilled to the bone. He did not complain. He was damned if he would give Benjen Stark that satisfaction.

He took a small revenge in the matter of his riding fur, a tattered bearskin, old and musty-smelling. Stark had offered it to him in an excess of Night’s Watch gallantry, no doubt expecting him to graciously decline. Tyrion had accepted with a smile.

 

 

Note the name Benjen. Ben is another bear name, made popular by The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams  (amongst other bear tales). Remember also Mormont's raven who cries Ben Jen, Ben Jen, separating the two words to emphasise each syllable. The bearskin is old and tattered, suggesting it has been around and in use for a long time. 

 

Tyrion continues:

 

He had brought his warmest clothing with him when they rode out of Winterfell, and soon discovered that it was nowhere near warm enough. It was cold up here, and growing colder. The nights were well below freezing now, and when the wind blew it was like a knife cutting right through his warmest woolens. By now, Stark was no doubt regretting his chivalrous impulse. Perhaps he had learned a lesson. The Lannisters never declined, graciously or otherwise. The Lannisters took what was offered.

 

 

If we look at the bearskin in terms of the bear spirit, then Benjen has parted with his protective bear spirit, giving it to Tyrion who now enjoys its warmth and protection against the cold. In fact, Tyrion has no intention of giving it back during the journey. The next quotes serve to illustrate the protective qualities of the bearskin and what happens when Tyrion puts it aside. 

 

He found a comfortable spot just beyond the noise of the camp, beside a swift-running stream with waters clear and cold as ice. A grotesquely ancient oak provided shelter from the biting wind. Tyrion curled up in his fur with his back against the trunk, took a sip of the wine, and began to read about the properties of dragonbone.

 

 

 

Note here also the oak tree, which together with the bearskin and wine also offers protection from the cold and Tyrion, thus fortified, begins to read a book about dragons.

 

The protective value of the bearskin is underscored in the next paragaphs. Jon approaches Tyrion and they talk about dragons. Tyrion puts the skin aside and proceeds to taunt Jon Snow by telling him what kind of men really make up the NW. His narrative seriously upsets Jon who screams at him in anger, rousing Ghost who attacks Tyrion. 

 

Tyrion pushed the bearskin aside and climbed to his feet. “I used to start fires in the bowels of Casterly Rock and stare at the flames for hours, pretending they were dragonfire. Sometimes I’d imagine my father burning. At other times, my sister.” Jon Snow was staring at him, a look equal parts horror and fascination. Tyrion guffawed. “Don’t look at me that way, bastard. I know your secret. You’ve dreamt the same kind of dreams.”

“No,” Jon Snow said, horrified. “I wouldn’t …”

“No? Never?” Tyrion raised an eyebrow. “Well, no doubt the Starks have been terribly good to you. I’m certain Lady Stark treats you as if you were one of her own. And your brother Robb, he’s always been kind, and why not? He gets Winterfell and you get the Wall. And your father … he must have good reasons for packing you off to the Night’s Watch …”

“Stop it,” Jon Snow said, his face dark with anger. “The Night’s Watch is a noble calling!”

 

........

 

And suddenly the wolf was between them. He did not growl. The damned thing never made a sound. He only looked at him with those bright red eyes, and showed him his teeth, and that was more than enough. Tyrion sagged back to the ground with a grunt. “Don’t help me, then. I’ll sit right here until you leave.”

Jon Snow stroked Ghost’s thick white fur, smiling now. “Ask me nicely.”

 

 

 

 

Jon calls Ghost off. The situation deescalates. At this stage Tyrion picks up the bearskin again.

 

“No,” Tyrion admitted, “not me. I seldom even dream of dragons anymore. There are no dragons.” He scooped up the fallen bearskin.

 

 

There's a direct relationship between taking off the bearskin and exposing oneself to danger. This danger arrives in the form of a wolf, which again suggests that the bear spirit is stronger than the wolf and serves to keep the wolf in check. Also interesting is the link between the bearskin and dragons. First, Tyrion dons the bearskin and begins reading a book about dragons. At the end, Tyrion says 'there are no dragons' while the bearskin is still off. Only then does he pick up the skin again. Maybe sounds far-fetched but we have another link between bears and the existence of dragons (Jorah above being one). 

 

I couldn't find a reference to Tyrion giving the bearskin back. Whatever the case, Benjen goes missing shortly after. Did he not get his skin back or did he leave it behind at the Watch? We don't know. 

 

Assuming the Starks lay claim to totemic bear ancestry, it's interesting that Jon leaves the protection of the bear household, under the protection of a bear (Benjen) and is passed on to LC Mormont, definitely a bear, who grooms him to take on a lead bear role. 

 

Lastly, we have Lyanna's close relationship with Benjen, who from a spiritual point of view, may have kept her safe (from her wolf-blood) - they part and she is removed from his protective sphere of influence and is taken by a dragon .....  another dragon link. 

 

 

 

So, there you have my hidden bears ;)

[sweetsunray]

Very interesting, thank you for your additional insights.

 

If we think in ecological terms bears and wolves are some of the most important animals for the forest habitat and life. Though omnivores, black bears hardly ever prey on big animal life. They eat berries, nuts and ant puppae mostly. Their faeces would contain seeds spread all over the forest. The breaking of logs into pieces to get to the puppae enables other life to break it down faster and easier for soil nutritients. And like beavers are the architects of the river flows with their dams, they are the architects of the soil with their den making - digging up earth and bringing it back to the surface.

Wolves hunt deer and elk, maintaining those numbers to a level so that the baby tree shoots don't get overeaten, giving trees the opportunity to grow either for bears to climb in, or for beavers to make dams with. Since the wolves were returned into NP the beavers too have increased in numbers, creating mini-ecosystems of dammed off pools for amphibians to reproduce, etc.

These 3 animals are keystone animals in an ecological sense. A forest without bears or wolves ultimately loses a multitude of diverse animals life and ability to grow or and regenerate. When these keystone animals are gone, man must take on the job to cull the deer and elk, plant trees and play the beaver. 

 

While wolves hold no winter sleep, they often tend to visit dens, per evidence of den cameras, almost as if they are paying their respects to the bear there. They don't kill each other, because they don't compete with one another, but seem to co-exist in a rather harmonous manner, completing one another, unlike the jackals.

 

In the known family tree of the Starks we do not find any marriage between a Stark and Mormont. But that family tree goes back about 200 years only. It is possible a Stark married a she-bear, or a she-wolf with a bear before then, but personally I doubt it. At the moment I do not think the Starks have bear blood in their ancestry. Instead they have co-existed and co-operated as two forces alongside. We may derive some analogy though out of the fact that House Mormont has fallen in she-bear hands for two generations. Jorah was the last of the male descendants and he has no children. When solely women are left to inherit a house, they stand to lose it and hand it to another house through marriage, leading to extinction. Maege and her daughters ensure it remains Mormont with their totemic bears as alledged husbands. It's not the line anymore deserving to keep longclaw, but they do manage to preserve the name through a matrilineal line. The she-wolf widows may have attempted to do something similar for their sons. I do think that the aftermath of the apocalypse may require some type of union between a bear and a wolf. Both will be needed to have life and habitat to grow again to provide for others.

 

Good catch on Lothor Brune. Brune seems like a Norse form of 'brown' (in Dutch 'bruin') and brown is one of the code-words for bear. I rather suspect that Sansa's called the bear-cub because I suspect she will manage to gain the fealty of Lothor against LF and thus she becomes Lothor's bear cub. I suspect she will do this by arranging Lothor in getting his bride, Mya. She already suspects he may be in love with Mya. Mya Stone's story is a bit like Brynhilde and Siegfried.

 

Basically it involves a shieldmaiden (female warrior) who's seduced by a heroic fighter, Siegfried, but then through magic means he forgets she's his love and his promise to wed her, and ends up wedding someone else. Meanwhile his wife's brother desires Brynhilde. However Brynhilde swore to only marry someone who can prove a certain amount of fiercelesness and warrior skill. Only Siegfried was brave and capable of it. But in order to help his brother in law, he dons the man's armor. Brynhilde agrees to marry the brother in law, not knowing it was actually Siegfried in disguise. When she later learns of the ruse through Siegfried's wife, she informs her husband how Siegfried seduced her and took liberties with her. He husband kills Siegfried. She kills Siegfried's toddler son to avoid blood revenge on her own children, and then commits suicide by throwing herself on Siegfried's funeral pyre.

 

Mya is a feisty woman and she let Michel seduce her because she thinks he's the best knight, and he promised to wed her. But Michel got married off to a daughter of the Royce's. Now Lothor Brune has a thing for Mya, but Myranda declares he stands no chance. Meanwhile [spoiler] there's a tourney coming up.[/spoiler] I wouldn't be surprised if Sansa comes up with some scheme of her own for Michel to pretend to be Lothor in one of the challenges, impressing Mya. And for that scheme she'll gain Lothor's loyalty over his loyalty to LF.

[Julia H.]

:bowdown:  :bowdown: sweetsunray and Evolett! Keep these essays coming.

 

Gendry's bear story is perfectly explained. Thank you for your work, sweetsunray!

 

Regarding wolves and bears, those are interesting connections between the direwolves and the bears in the story! I have noticed before that direwolves and bears (the animals) are often mentioned together in the story, symbolizing something dark and dangerous. The first mention is in the Prologue in AGoT:

 

"There's some enemies a fire will keep away," Gared said. "Bears and direwolves and ... and other things..."

 

Later in AGoT, Mormont tells Tyrion:

 

"There are wild things in the woods, direwolves and mammoths and snow bears the size of aurochs, and I have seen darker shapes in my dreams."

 

In Jaime's dream, Brienne asks him:

 

"A cave lion? Direwolves? Some bear? Tell me, Jaime. What lives here? What lives in the darkness?"

 

Characters that are compared to bears:

 

Tyrion Lannister was bundled in furs so thickly he looked like a very small bear.

 

That's in AGoT, when Tyrion is on the Wall (and so it's after borrowing Benjen's bearskin). It is remarkable that Tyrion is compared to a small bear in a place where he meets the Old Bear, especially when we know that in ADwD, he will meet and travel with the Young Bear as well. Does that suggest that he will be protected by the bear spirit one day?

 

Assuming the Starks lay claim to totemic bear ancestry, it's interesting that Jon leaves the protection of the bear household, under the protection of a bear (Benjen) and is passed on to LC Mormont, definitely a bear, who grooms him to take on a lead bear role. 

 

 

Jon Snow also gets Longclaw, which was a bear's "claw", and he keeps the name, saying, "Wolves have claws, as much as bears."

 

And:

 

The Old Bear seemed pleased by that.

 

Jon is symbolically adopted by a "bear", as he gets a "bear weapon", which is, however, turned into a "direwolf weapon".

 

[Zizoz]

I'm about 99% sure that [spoiler]an upcoming tourney in the Vale[/spoiler] is not mentioned in the first five books.

[sweetsunray]

I'm about 99% sure that [spoiler]an upcoming tourney in the Vale[/spoiler] is not mentioned in the first five books.

 

Fixed it

[sweetsunray]

Oh, sweet she was, and pure and fair! The ugly duckling!

 

I will leave the arguments for Gendry as a bear for the moment, though I will come back to that. Instead I will focus for a while on a character that I have as a POV used for Gendry's evidence as a bear - Arya Stark. She will inadvertently lead us back to the hidden bear. Some swan themes may be glaringly obvious plot wise, but just as much as Gendry is a very well rounded bear in symbolism, Arya is very much written out as a maiden by GRRM in very different ways. As a main character she has several plots, references and roles going.

 

I'm not the first to remark on the fact that Arya seems to have the "ugly duckling" role. We all know she was harrassed by Jeyne Poole to believe she's ugly, and yet all expect her to grow into a pretty or beautiful young woman, since Eddard Stark recognizes features of Lyanna in her. But upon my research I actually came upon a swan reference, in her pov. So, I decided to grab the Anderson story book that once was given to my mother in the 50s and actually reread the "Ugly Duckling" story as it was written by Anderson.

 

Anderson's story can be broken down in as follows: (link to ugly duckling)

• A cygnet grows up with a duck family at a castle’s moat. They regard him as a big-sized ugly duck, bully and pester him, and he comes to believe it.  
• Te “ugly duckling” runs off, away from the ducks and hens pecking at him, and the girl that throws the food kicking at him.
• Wild ducks and exclusive male geese accept him friendly enough, though they still regard him as an ugly duckling.
• The wild ducks and geese all get shot by hunters at the lake and reeds.
• A fearsome, big dog with cruel eyes gleaming bares his teeth at him, growling, but eventually takes off. The duckling dares not to move for a while, until eventually it runs off out of the swamp.
• During a storm the cygnet gets taken in by an old woman with a cat and hen at a farmstead that’s half in ruins, with a door swinging on its old and broken hinges.
• The cat and hen act as if they are the lord and lady of the household, think and speak as if they're half the world - the better half of course - that they know better and that the ugly duckling is dumb, and should listen to his wise elders, and not talk back. The hen has "short legs" and the cat can "spark when rubbed the wrong way".
• The cat and hen don’t understand why he wants to swim on a lake, when it’s warm and cozy within. All that is required from them is to do their job: purr and "crackle" (cat) and lay eggs (hen). He is kept by the old woman to see if he can lay duck eggs.
• He decides to leave to swim on the lake and sees swans flying, thinks they’re beautiful and wishes he could join them, but can’t fly yet.
• The lake freezes shut and he’s trapped. Famished and nearly frozen himself he is found by a farmer who takes him home, where he revives and gets well again.
• The children of the farmer are so noisy that they frighten him. He ends up in a bowl of milk, then butter and finally flower, until it looks awful. Scared by all the noise and shrieks, he runs off again.
• The “ugly duckling” spends a winter in a cave by a lake all by himself, suffering increasingly in his isolation, loneliness, cold and hunger.
• With the coming of spring, he does admire the sun and the blooms, but has also come to a point of not wanting to live alone anymore, let alone another winter like it. And yet, he believes it is unavoidable, for surely no one will accept him. He wants to end his shame and misery, by ending his life.
• He sees 3 regal swans and swims towards them, thinking they will peck him to death.. As he bows his head to be executed he discovers he sees his reflection in the water and discovers he’s all grown up and in fact a swan, instead of a duck.
• The other swans welcome him and those who visit the lake say he is the most beautiful swan of all, making him shy, but also happy.

 

Now let's see how Arya's story compares to it.

• Arya does not have the Tully look as the other trueborn siblings, she’s not a proper lady but a tomboy, she often has to point out that she’s a girl, not a boy. And on top of that Jeyne Poole and Sansa call her ‘horsefaced’. She believes she can’t be a proper lady and is ugly, and therefore never paired with the handsome boys. While she thinks it isn't fair and is angry, she also blames herself more than others.

Arya knew which prince she meant: Joffrey, of course. The tall, handsome one. Sansa got to sit with him at the feast. Arya had to sit with the little fat one. Naturally.

...

Septa Mordane called after her. "Arya, come back here! Don't you take another step! Your lady mother will hear of this. In front of our royal princess too! You'll shame us all!"

...

It wasn't fair. Sansa had everything. Sansa was two years older; maybe by the time Arya had been born, there had been nothing left. Often it felt that way. Sansa could sew and dance and sing. She wrote poetry. She knew how to dress. She played the high harp and the bells. Worse, she was beautiful. Sansa had gotten their mother's fine high cheekbones and the thick auburn hair of the Tullys. Arya took after their lord father. Her hair was a lusterless brown, and her face was long and solemn. Jeyne used to call her Arya Horseface, and neigh whenever she came near.

....

Jon had their father's face, as she did. They were the only ones. Robb and Sansa and Bran and even little Rickon all took after the Tullys, with easy smiles and fire in their hair. When Arya had been little, she had been afraid that meant that she was a bastard too. It had been Jon she had gone to in her fear, and Jon who had reassured her. (aGoT, Arya I)

 

She went to the window seat and sat there, sniffling, hating them all, and herself most of all. It was all her fault, everything bad that had happened. Sansa said so, and Jeyne too. ...

"That's enough." Her father's voice was curt and hard. "The septa is doing no more than is her duty, though gods know you have made it a struggle for the poor woman. Your mother and I have charged her with the impossible task of making you a lady." ...

...

It was the third time he had called her "boy." "I'm a girl," Arya objected. (aGoT, Arya II)

 

The older scowled. "Who's this father of yours, boy, the city ratcatcher?" ...

"I'm not a boy," she spat at them. "I'm Arya Stark of Winterfell, and if you lay a hand on me my lord father will have both your heads on spikes. If you don't believe me, fetch Jory Cassel or Vayon Poole from the Tower of the Hand."

...

"Yoren, as it please m'lord. My pardons for the hour." He bowed to Arya. "And this must be your son. He has your look."

"I'm a girl," Arya said, exasperated. (aGoT, Arya III)

 

• Arya contemplates running away. She gets her wish when she must run from the Red Keep surviving in Flea Bottom.

 

If only she could climb like Bran, she thought; shewould go out the window and down the tower, run away from this horrible place, away from Sansa and Septa Mordane and Prince Joffrey, from all of them. Steal some food from the kitchens, take Needle and her good boots and a warm cloak. She could find Nymeria in the wild woods below the Trident, and together they'd return to Winterfell, or run to Jon on the Wall. (aGoT, Arya II)

 

By the time she reached the shadow of the royal sept on the far side of the yard, Arya was cold with sweat, but no one had raised the hue and cry. ... It took her more than an hour to find the low narrow window that slanted down to the dungeon where the monsters waited. (aGoT, Arya IV)

 

• Eventually, she's forced to run and travel with Yoren and the men and boys for the Wall (like the all male geese), pretending to be a boy herself, and through a fight earn her respect amongst the 'gutter rats'. It's rather confusing that now when she pretends to be what normally the majority of the people believe her to be, some Gold Cloak actually sees she's a girl (despite her hair cut). Now she must deny she's a girl.

 

Afterward he told her that from there to Winterfell she'd be Arry the orphan boy. "Gate shouldn't be hard, but the road's another matter. You got a long way to go in bad company. I got thirty this time, men and boys all bound for the Wall, and don't be thinking they're like that bastard brother o' yours." He shook her. "Lord Eddard gave me pick o' the dungeons, and I didn't find no little lordlings down there. This lot, half o' them would turn you over to the queen quick as spit for a pardon and maybe a few silvers. The other half'd do the same, only they'd rape you first. So you keep to yourself and make your water in the woods, alone. That'll be the hardest part, the pissing, so don't drink no more'n you need."

...

Lommy Greenhands wasn't even hurt, yet he stayed as far away from Arya as he could get. "Every time you look at him, he twitches," the Bull told her as she walked beside his donkey. She did not answer. It seemed safer not to talk to anyone. (aCoK, Arya I)

 

Broken Nose guffawed. The officer looked her up and down. "Put the blade away, little girl, no one wants to hurt you."

"I'm not a girl!" she yelled, furious. (aCoK, Arya II) 

• They are being hunted by Gold Cloaks, hunted by a foraging Ser Amory, hunted by the foraging Mountain. Yoren intended to travel for Harrenhal to seek help with House Whent, not even knowing that is only wishful thinking, since Tywin Lannister has taken Harrenhal already. They dig in at the hodlfast with the towerhouse, where KR meets the God's Eye lake, making them basically "sitting ducks" for Ser Amory where The majority get slaughtered. Later Lommy is killed by Raff.

 

When she glimpsed the lake ahead between houses and trees, Arya put her knees into her horse, galloping past Woth and Gendry. She burst out onto the grassy sward beside the pebbled shore. The setting sun made the tranquil surface of the water shimmer like a sheet of beaten copper. It was the biggest lake she had ever seen, with no hint of a far shore.

...

Koss went out the postern gate and brought the goose back, and two chickens as well, and Yoren allowed a cookfire. There was a big kitchen inside the holdfast, though all the pots and kettles had been taken. Gendry, Dobber, and Arya drew cook duty. Dobber told Arya to pluck the fowl while Gendry split wood.

...

They found the gates broken down, the walls partly demolished, and the inside strewn with the unburied dead. One look was enough for Gendry. "They're killed, every one," he said. "And dogs have been at them too, look." (aCoK, Arya V)

 

• They get caught by the Mountain with Dogs for a sigil.

Hot Pie was kneeling too, before the tallest man Arya had ever seen, a monster from one of Old Nan's stories. She never saw where the giant had come from. Three black dogs raced across his faded yellow surcoat, and his face looked as hard as if it had been cut from stone. Suddenly Arya knew where she had seen those dogs before. The night of the tourney at King's Landing, all the knights had hung their shields outside their pavilions. "That one belongs to the Hound's brother," Sansa had confided when they passed the black dogs on the yellow field. "He's even bigger than Hodor, you'll see. They call him the Mountain That Rides."(aCoK, Arya V)

• At the burned village at the God’s Eye, Arya sees black swans gliding over the water and wants to be a swan. She also wants to swim, like the Ugly Duckling yearns for the lake when safe with the cat and hen.

Despondent, she climbed off her horse and knelt by the lake. The water lapped softly around her legs. A few lantern bugs were coming out, their little lights blinking on and off. The green water was warm as tears, but there was no salt in it. It tasted of summer and mud and growing things. Arya plunged her face down into it to wash off the dust and dirt and sweat of the day. When she leaned back the trickles ran down the back of her neck and under her collar. They felt good. She wished she could take off her clothes and swim, gliding through the warm water like an skinny pink otter. Maybe she could swim all the way to Winterfell. (aCoK, Arya IV)

 

To the east, Gods Eye was a sheet of sun-hammered blue that filled half the world. Some days, as they made their slow way up the muddy shore (Gendry wanted no part of any roads, and even Hot Pie and Lommy saw the sense in that), Arya felt as though the lake were calling her. She wanted to leap into those placid blue waters, to feel clean again, to swim and splash and bask in the sun. But she dare not take off her clothes where the others could see, not even to wash them. At the end of the day she would often sit on a rock and dangle her feet in the cool water.

...

Thirty yards from shore, three black swans were gliding over the water, so serene… no one had told them that war had come, and they cared nothing for burning towns and butchered men. She stared at them with yearning. Part of her wanted to be a swan. The other part wanted to eat one.(aCoK, Arya V)

• She is brought to the ruinous Harrenhal, where Goodwife Amabel, Harra and later Weese act as if they are the lords and ladies of Harrenhal themselves, and often refer to her being ugly and themselves as wise. Originally Arya is meant for the kitchens (laying eggs?) by the "clucking" Amabel, but eventually used as an errand girl under Weese who can "purr" and "crack" and has his eyes on her, like a cat.

When Arya's turn came round, Goodwife Amabel clucked in dismay at the sight of her feet, while Goodwife Harra felt the callus on her fingers that long hours of practice with Needle had earned her. "Got those churning butter, I'll wager," she said. "Some farmer's whelp, are you? Well, never you mind, girl, you have a chance to win a higher place in this world if you work hard. If you won't work hard, you'll be beaten. And what do they call you?" ... "I can see why," sniffed Goodwife Amabel. "That hair is a fright and a nest for lice as well. We'll have it off, and then you're for the kitchens." ...

Goodwife Harra slapped her so hard that her swollen lip broke open all over again. "And keep that tongue to yourself or you'll get worse. No one asked your views."...

"Lord Tywin and his knights have grooms and squires to tend their horses, they don't need the likes of you," Goodwife Amabel said. "The kitchens are snug and clean, and there's always a warm fire to sleep by and plenty to eat. You might have done well there, but I can see you're not a clever girl. Harra, I believe we should give this one to Weese."

...

Weese was understeward for the Wailing Tower, a squat man with a fleshy carbuncle of a nose and a nest of angry red boils near one corner of his plump lips. Arya was one of six sent to him. He looked them all over with a gimlet eye. "The Lannisters are generous to those as serve them well, an honor none of your sort deserve, but in war a man makes do with what's to hand. Work hard and mind your place and might be one day you'll rise as high as me. If you think to presume on his lordship's kindness, though, you'll find me waiting after m'lord has gone, y'see." He strutted up and down before them, telling them how they must never look the highborn in the eye, nor speak until spoken to, nor get in his lordship's way. "My nose never lies," he boasted. "I can smell defiance, I can smell pride, I can smell disobedience. I catch a whiff of any such stinks, you'll answer for it. When I sniff you, all I want to smell is fear." (aCoK, Arya VI)

...

She thought of him again the next morning, when lack of sleep made her yawn. "Weasel," Weese purred, "next time I see that mouth droop open, I'll pull out your tongue and feed it to my bitch." He twisted her ear between his fingers to make certain she'd heard, and told her to get back to those steps, he wanted them clean down to the third landing by nightfall.

...

"Weasel." Weese's voice cracked like a whip. She never saw where he came from, but suddenly he was right in front of her. "Give me that. Took you long enough." He snatched the sword from her fingers, and dealt her a stinging slap with the back of his hand. "Next time be quicker about it." (aCoK, Arya VIII)

 

• Hot Pie (as short legged hen) and Gendry (as the cat that can spark if rubbed in the wrong way) don’t understand why Arya wants to escape the ruinous Harrenhal. They have their jobs in the kitchen and forge, get food and aren’t hunted.

 

"I bet we could escape, and Pinkeye wouldn't even notice I was gone," she told Hot Pie.

"I don't want to escape. It's better here than it was in them woods. I don't want to eat no worms. Here, sprinkle some flour on the board."

...

He did not seem surprised to see her. "You should be abed, girl." The breastplate hissed like a cat as he dipped it in the cold water. ... "Why should I wager my feet for the chance to sweat in Winterfell in place of Harrenhal? You know old Ben Blackthumb? He came here as a boy. Smithed for Lady Whent and her father before her and his father before him, and even for Lord Lothston who held Harrenhal before the Whents. Now he smiths for Lord Tywin, and you know what he says? A sword's a sword, a helm's a helm, and if you reach in the fire you get burned, no matter who you're serving. Lucan's a fair enough master. I'll stay here." (aCoK, Arya IX)

 

• Arya still escapes (taking Hot Pie and Gendry along) and manages to reach the Trident, but after the food of Harrenhal ran out many days before that, they venture out into a garden to steal vegetables, and end up taken by the Brotherhood, where she gets a period of reprieve and heal enough to become a little girl again. Initially she is highly suspicious, still hating to be seen as a 'little girl', reminding herself that this one and that one are not her friends, but eventually can interact normally with them, relax, not mind the singing, even share some of the experiences and thereby heal from the horror, until in the end she allows herself to be a little girl that misses her mother. GRRM shows us this in the way he has Arya describe events or people. There is a lot of 'stupid'(stupid songs, stupid little lady) or sometimes a 'silly' added to it, especially in relation to 'little girl', something she loudly protest against being called, but less and less so with each chapter. I give just a few selected examples.

 

Tom Sevenstrings nodded. "Aye, that's like Lord Beric. He'll do right by you, see if he don't."

Lord Beric Dondarrion. Arya remembered all she'd heard at Harrenhal, from the Lannisters and the Bloody Mummers alike. Lord Beric the wisp o' the wood. Lord Beric who'd been killed by Vargo Hoat and before that by Ser Amory Lorch, and twice by the Mountain That Rides. If he won't send me home maybe I'll kill him too. "Why do I have to see Lord Beric?" she asked quietly.

"We bring him all our highborn captives," said Anguy.

Captive. Arya took a breath to still her soul. Calm as still water. She glanced at the outlaws on their horses, and turned her horse's head. Now, quick as a snake, she thought, as she slammed her heels into the courser's flank. Right between Greenbeard and Jack-Be-Lucky she flew, and caught one glimpse of Gendry's startled face as his mare moved out of her way. And then she was in the open field, and running.

...

Arya didn't care what Tom's stupid songs were about. She turned to Harwin. "What did he mean about ransom?"

"We have sore need of horses, milady. Armor as well. Swords, shields, spears. All the things coin can buy. Aye, and seed for planting. Winter is coming, remember?" He touched her under the chin. "You will not be the first highborn captive we've ransomed. Nor the last, I'd hope."

That much was true, Arya knew. Knights were captured and ransomed all the time, and sometimes women were too. But what if Robb won't pay their price? She wasn't a famous knight, and kings were supposed to put the realm before their sisters. And her lady mother, what would she say? Would she still want her back, after all the things she'd done? Arya chewed her lip and wondered.

...

[sharing her experience about the Tickler's torture]

He hesitated. "You know what it means, to be put to the question?"

Arya nodded. "Tickling, they called it. Polliver and Raff and all." She told them about the village by the Gods Eye where she and Gendry had been caught, and the questions that the Tickler had asked. "Is there gold hidden in the village?" he would always begin. "Silver, gems? Is there food? Where is Lord Beric? Which of you village folk helped him? Where did he go? How many men did he have with him? How many knights? How many bowmen? How many were horsed? How are they armed? How many wounded? Where did they go, did you say?" Just thinking of it, she could hear the shrieks again, and smell the stench of blood and shit and burning flesh. "He always asked the same questions," she told the outlaws solemnly, "but he changed the tickling every day."

"No child should be made to suffer that," Harwin said when she was done.

...

Anguy often rode beside her; he was closer to her in age than any of them but Gendry, and he told her droll tales of the Dornish Marches. He never fooled her, though. He's not my friend. He's only staying close to watch me and make sure I don't ride off again. Well, Arya could watch as well. Syrio Forel had taught her how. (aSoS, Arya IV)

...

[Expressing her wish for her father, the bargaining phase of grieving]

Arya stared at the Myrish priest, all shaggy hair and pink rags and bits of old armor. Grey stubble covered his cheeks and the sagging skin beneath his chin. He did not look much like the wizards in Old Nan's stories, but even so . . .

"Could you bring back a man without a head?" Arya asked. "Just the once, not six times. Could you?"... Arya felt tears well in her eyes. Thoros used a lot of words, but all they meant was no, that much she understood.

...

[Voicing and articulating her fears of rejection]

Arya didn't know how much Robb would pay for her, though. He was a king now, not the boy she'd left at Winterfell with snow melting in his hair. And if he knew the things she'd done, the stableboy and the guard at Harrenhal and all . . . "What if my brother doesn't want to ransom me?"

"Why would you think that?" asked Lord Beric.

"Well," Arya said, "my hair's messy and my nails are dirty and my feet are all hard." Robb wouldn't care about that, probably, but her mother would. Lady Catelyn always wanted her to be like Sansa, to sing and dance and sew and mind her courtesies. Just thinking of it made Arya try to comb her hair with her fingers, but it was all tangles and mats, and all she did was tear some out. "I ruined that gown that Lady Smallwood gave me, and I don't sew so good." She chewed her lip. "I don't sew very well, I mean. Septa Mordane used to say I had a blacksmith's hands."

Gendry hooted. "Those soft little things?" he called out. "You couldn't even hold a hammer." (aSoS, Arya VII)

[compare these two descriptions, from the same night. The first bath and dress experience is full of negative judgmental terms. Though the second dress is even a 'worse' dress than before, there is no actual negative judgmental term used. She says it's worse, but the descriptive language betrays she is not as bothered by it]

Arya promptly found herself marched upstairs, forced into a tub, and doused with scalding hot water. Lady Smallwood's maidservants scrubbed her so hard it felt like they were flaying her themselves. They even dumped in some stinky-sweet stuff that smelled like flowers. And afterward, they insisted she dress herself in girl's things, brown woolen stockings and a light linen shift, and over that a light green gown with acorns embroidered all over the bodice in brown thread, and more acorns bordering the hem.

...

It was even worse than before; Lady Smallwood insisted that Arya take another bath, and cut and comb her hair besides; the dress she put her in this time was sort of lilac-colored, and decorated with little baby pearls.

 

"I'm sorry, my lady." Arya suddenly felt bad for her, and ashamed. "I'm sorry I tore the acorn dress too. It was pretty."

"Yes, child. And so are you. Be brave." (aSoS, Arya IV)

• Arya ends up tearing and soiling the dress she’s given, causing a roar of laughter, as if she ended up in a tub of milk, butter and flower.

"Nice, though. A nice oak tree." He stepped closer, and sniffed at her. "You even smell nice for a change."

"You don't. You stink." Arya shoved him back against the anvil and made to run, but Gendry caught her arm. She stuck a foot between his legs and tripped him, but he yanked her down with him, and they rolled across the floor of the smithy. He was very strong, but she was quicker. Every time he tried to hold her still she wriggled free and punched him. Gendry only laughed at the blows, which made her mad. He finally caught both her wrists in one hand and started to tickle her with the other, so Arya slammed her knee between his legs, and wrenched free. Both of them were covered in dirt, and one sleeve was torn on her stupid acorn dress. "I bet I don't look so nice now," she shouted.

...

Harwin took one look at them and burst out laughing, and Anguy smiled one of his stupid freckly smiles and said, "Are we certain this one is a highborn lady?" (aSoS, Arya IV)

• When Tom, Lem and Beric argue over what to do with her, her head pounds with all the noise and she runs outside the “barn/stable”.

His words beat at her ears like the pounding of a drum, and suddenly it was more than Arya could stand. She wanted Riverrun, not Acorn Hall; she wanted her mother and her brother Robb, not Lady Smallwood or some uncle she never knew. Whirling, she broke for the door, and when Harwin tried to grab her arm she spun away from him quick as a snake. (aSoS, Arya VIII)

• She is taken by the Hound, who snarls at her, talks mean, but ultimately does not harm her. Here we get a repeat of the Ugly Duckling's meeting with the mean hunting dog.

 

"You're hurting me," she said, twisting in his grasp. "Let go, I was going to go back, I . . ."

"Back?" Sandor Clegane's laughter was iron scraping over stone. "Bugger that, wolf girl. You're mine." He needed only one hand to yank her off her feet and drag her kicking toward his waiting horse. The cold rain lashed them both and washed away her shouts, and all that Arya could think of was the question he had asked her. Do you know what dogs do to wolves? (aSoS, Arya VIII)

 

Arya was soaked to the bone, saddle-sore, sniffling, and achy. She had a fever too, and sometimes shivered uncontrollably, but when she'd told the Hound that she was sick he'd only snarled at her.

...

"The river was the Trident, girl. The Trident, not the Blackwater. Make the map in your head, if you can. On the morrow we should reach the kingsroad. We'll make good time after that, straight up to the Twins. It's going to be me who hands you over to that mother of yours. Not the noble lightning lord or that flaming fraud of a priest, the monster." He grinned at the look on her face.(aSoS, Arya IX)

 

The Hound eased his dagger into the man's chest almost tenderly, the weight of his body driving the point through his surcoat, ringmail, and the quilting beneath. As he slid the blade back out and wiped it on the dead man, he looked at Arya. "That's where the heart is, girl. That's how you kill a man."...

There were two silver stags in the archer's purse, and almost thirty coppers. His dagger had a pretty pink stone in the hilt. The Hound hefted the knife in his hand, then flipped it toward Arya. She caught it by the hilt, slid it through her belt, and felt a little better....

 

Arya didn't think he'd really cut her tongue out; he was just saying that the way Pinkeye used to say he'd beat her bloody. All the same, she wasn't going to try him. Sandor Clegane was no Pinkeye. Pinkeye didn't cut people in half or hit them with axes. Not even with the flat of axes. (aSoS, Arya XII)

 

• Winter has come, and Arya hides with the FM, at a swamp-lake region, basically emotionally isolated and groomed into becoming “no one”.

 

"Winter is coming," Arya whispered.

"The hard cruel times," her father said. "We tasted them on the Trident, child, and when Bran fell. You were born in the long summer, sweet one, you've never known anything else, but now the winter is truly coming. (aGoT, Arya II)

...

"Who are you?" he would ask her every day.

"No one," she would answer.

...

 

"You should. Stay, and the Many-Faced God will take your ears, your nose, your tongue. He will take your sad grey eyes that have seen so much. He will take your hands, your feet, your arms and legs, your private parts. He will take your hopes and dreams, your loves and hates. Those who enter His service must give up all that makes them who they are. Can you do that?" He cupped her chin and gazed deep into her eyes, so deep it made her shiver.

...

She could feel the hole inside her where her heart had been.(aFfC, Arya II)

 

That night she dreamed she was a wolf again, but it was different from the other dreams. In this dream she had no pack. She prowled alone, bounding over rooftops and padding silently beside the banks of a canal, stalking shadows through the fog. (aFfC, Cat of the Canals)

 

• Also, as Cat of the Canals in Braavos she admires and is fascinated by the courtesans (beautiful, independent women admired by men), as if she regards them as the swans of the female world (and Lynesse, Jorah’s swan maiden is a courtesan in Lys)

The courtesans of Braavos were famed across the world. Singers sang of them, goldsmiths and jewelers showered them with gifts, craftsmen begged for the honor of their custom, merchant princes paid royal ransoms to have them on their arms at balls and feasts and mummer shows, and bravos slew each other in their names. As she pushed her barrow along the canals, Cat would sometimes glimpse one of them floating by, on her way to an evening with some lover. Every courtesan had her own barge, and servants to pole her to her trysts. The Poetess always had a book to hand, the Moonshadow wore only white and silver, and the Merling Queen was never seen without her Mermaids, four young maidens in the blush of their first flowering who held her train and did her hair. Each courtesan was more beautiful than the last. Even the Veiled Lady was beautiful, though only those she took as lovers ever saw her face. (aFfC, Cat of the Canals)

 

• If GRRM is incorporating the “ugly duckling” story, then he’ll have Arya grow up, possibly surrender to be executed, or may even contemplate suicide in a conflict of the heart and mind, over shame of what she has done. But she will discover she has grown into a beautiful woman (on the inside as well), welcomed with open arms. I’m not sure but the courtesans of Braavos may end up helping her somehow. Or the “regality” of swans implies she joins the court. Here follow some quotes of suicides she learns about, about philosophy of death as a gift to end pain, to contemplate the possibility whether GRRM might include Arya becoming pre-suicidal at some point. She learns how Ashara died by Edric Dayne; she considers jumping into the Trident as the ferry crosses, despite the risk of drowning, and thinking that drowning is better than Joffrey; witness to the gift of mercy on the man of Pinkmaiden; Sandor wanting her to give him the gift of mercy; she gives the bravo the gift of mercy to a bravo shortly after entering the House of Black and White; the kindly man explains how death can be an end to pain and suffering when sins and burdens become too much to bear; she remembers the old Northmen claiming they go out to hunt in the middle of winter as an expression to die in the snow.

 

"My father was Ser Arthur's elder brother. Lady Ashara was my aunt. I never knew her, though. She threw herself into the sea from atop the Palestone Sword before I was born."

"Why would she do that?" said Arya, startled...

"She killed herself, though," said Arya uncertainly. "Ned says she jumped from a tower into the sea." (aSoS, Arya VIII)

 

If I jumped over the side, the river would wash me away before the Hound even knew that I was gone. She looked back over a shoulder, and saw Sandor Clegane struggling with his frightened horse, trying to calm him. She would never have a better chance to get away from him. I might drown, though. Jon used to say that she swam like a fish, but even a fish might have trouble in this river. Still, drowning might be better than King's Landing. She thought about Joffrey and crept up to the prow. The river was murky brown with mud and lashed by rain, looking more like soup than water. Arya wondered how cold it would be. I couldn't get much wetter than I am now. She put a hand on the rail.(aSoS, Arya IX)

 

"If I'd had any wine, I'd have drunk it myself," the Hound told him. "I can give you water, and the gift of mercy."

The archer looked at him a long while before he said, "You're Joffrey's dog."

"My own dog now. Do you want the water?"

"Aye." The man swallowed. "And the mercy. Please." (aSoS, Arya XII)

 

His eyes opened. "You remember where the heart is?" he asked in a hoarse whisper.

As still as stone she stood. "I . . . I was only . . ."

"Don't lie," he growled. "I hate liars. I hate gutless frauds even worse. Go on, do it." When Arya did not move, he said, "I killed your butcher's boy. I cut him near in half, and laughed about it after." He made a queer sound, and it took her a moment to realize he was sobbing. "And the little bird, your pretty sister, I stood there in my white cloak and let them beat her. I took the bloody song, she never gave it. I meant to take her too. I should have. I should have fucked her bloody and ripped her heart out before leaving her for that dwarf." A spasm of pain twisted his face. "Do you mean to make me beg, bitch? Do it! The gift of mercy . . . avenge your little Michael . . ." (aSoS, Arya XIII)

 

"Death is not the worst thing," the kindly man replied. "It is His gift to us, an end to want and pain. On the day that we are born the Many-Faced God sends each of us a dark angel to walk through life beside us. When our sins and our sufferings grow too great to be borne, the angel takes us by the hand to lead us to the nightlands, where the stars burn ever bright. Those who come to drink from the black cup are looking for their angels. If they are afraid, the candles soothe them. When you smell our candles burning, what does it make you think of, my child?"

Winterfell, she might have said. I smell snow and smoke and pine needles. I smell the stables. I smell Hodor laughing, and Jon and Robb battling in the yard, and Sansa singing about some stupid lady fair. I smell the crypts where the stone kings sit, I smell hot bread baking, I smell the godswood. I smell my wolf, I smell her fur, almost as if she were still beside me.

...

Arya would look at them as she washed them, wondering what brought them to the black pool. She remembered a tale she had heard from Old Nan, about how sometimes during a long winter men who'd lived beyond their years would announce that they were going hunting. And their daughters would weep and their sons would turn their faces to the fire, she could hear Old Nan saying, but no one would stop them, or ask what game they meant to hunt, with the snows so deep and the cold wind howling. She wondered what the old Braavosi told their sons and daughters, before they set off for the House of Black and White.(aFfC, Arya II)

 

Conclusion

 

Though we know Arya as a she-wolf, a great part of her plot is analogues to the ugly duckling's plot. We solely miss the ending. If a major part of her story is that of the ugly duckling, then this implies we can regard har as a swan in a plot sense.

[sweetsunray]

Evolett,

 

I really liked your summary, and I agree that they do have a catalystic impact, which makes sense, since they are supposed to represent the whole force of nature/forest. Imagine all the spirit of the forest gathering and suddenly be present in a certain situation, or surround a person. It goes back to the women looking through brass rings at the killed bear being brought into the village, and having to pull the bear meet at the feast through a ring first. If you need to take such precautions against a dead animal, then it has serious forces and consequences, catalystic ones. Anyway I certaingly agree on that point.

 

You do mention a nice analogy for the Mormonts winning bear island through wrestling, and how male bears wrestle for territory. But not for the she-bear for example. Originally it was territory to House Woodfoot, and Woodfoot sounds like some name that would fit the long list of euphemisms for 'bear'. Then House Hoare of the IB took it. Harren who built Harrenhal was the last descendant of House Hoare (Harren's brother was with the Night's Watch). The whole Hoare bloodline died with him.

 

Ravos "the Raper" Hoare used Bear Island as his base for reaving campaigns, until Theon Stark (the 'hungry wolf') kicked him out of there. It is not mentioned whoch House governed the island then. Then later another IB Loron Greyjoy took Bear Island again, but Rodrik Stark 'wrestled' it from him, before giving it to the Mormonts.

 

The IB have the exemplary culture of 'stealing', 'taking' and 'raping'. They take what others have worked for and the Iron Way shows utter disdain for working the soils and mines yourself. They are said to often raid Bear Island and they took it twice, which is kind of odd, since it's actually said to be a poor island - woods, bears and fishing. But it would be the area from which they can extort reaving succes, through the bear power.

 

It seems weird at first glance, that it are the Starks (the wolves) who 'wrestle' it away from the IB again, instead of bears. You suggest that's because they might have bear blood. But I think it may have to do with winter. Wolves don't hold a winter sleep. Bears do and are vulnerable during winter sleep. It's during winter the she-bears birth cubs and nourish them, not even coming outside of the den to urinate or scat. They do keep some latrine area in their den though. During fall a bear's heart rate drops even while still foraging for the last layer of fat before denning. They move slower and so on. By the time they actually have dug or chosen their pre-existing den the heart rate is so slow they fall asleep easitly enough. Mind you: they do often wake and they can be woken when something comes around the den. And the she-bear is more lazying around with her bear cubs. The mother is not really sleeping. She's awake when she births, nurses, grabs them when they wander off too far. The point is that bears are vulnerable in winter time. They're sleeping, slower and their fat and body weight is reduced during this time.

 

What are the Stark words: winter is coming. As wolves who do not hold their winter sleep, they basically become the protectors of the bear, his den and territory. They're not the spirits that can provide the game, but they can take over the bear's protection role in wintertime. And for all the big macho and bravado talk of the IB, they prefer to pick their targets at its weakest. They're cowards in that way - kill and take peasants, when the armies are away. They're like the psychopathic conmen who con the old lady out of her small savings and pension, but don't dare to con the top dog, let alone another psychopathic top dog. For all the gold the Westerlands have, the IB go for poor Bear Island, Stoney shores, the North when the majority of its army is in the Riverlands, the islands of the Reach when Tarly and Tyrell are up in KL and with armies in the Crownlands and Riverlands. They're parasites. So when would the IB have stolen Bear Island? In wintertime, no doubt. 

 

It's curious that the Greyjoys actually have skipped Bear Island during their attempt to take the North. Alas, Winter has arrived and there are no wolves at WF anymore to protect the leands, while the bears den.

[sweetsunray]

So, maybe that explains the Bear-Wolf relation you picked up Evolett with Tyrion in his bear skin and looking like a 'little bear' in relation to Jon (dragon/wolf), and why there always must be a Stark (direwolf) at Winterfell and their words are 'Winter is coming', and why they are called 'Kings of Winter'.

 

The North is vast and pretty much overall a wilderness. From the moment we're introduced to Robert in aGoT he wonders what the hell is so interesting about the North. It's woods and woods and wilderness, and so big. It's even worse in winter time. That's when a lot of the game either flies off to warmer regions, or dens and hides. Wolves are the sole keystone animal of such an eco-system that still hunts and protects the territory against invaders (jackals, but also men). So, they guard the realm/game for the bear when the bear sleeps, while the bear protects, provides and ensures the game and fertile forests with the coming of spring and summer, so that the wolves can hunt at heart's content in summer, deer and elk are culled enough so new trees can grow, beavers get to make ponds with their dams, where 'frogs' flourish. But when winter comes, it falls on the Starks to protect the North. And if they are not in seat, then you'll get Ironborn and Boltons and Freys who reave, extort and flay the North... they'd swallow the woods and the wilderness and spit it out until there's nothing left, and the habitat is destroyed.

 

So, the bear and wolf have a type of symbolic symbiotic relation with each other. So, for the plot in the books, we should see less bears in winter time, and instead it's the 'time for wolves'... but with the 'dream of spring' we should see a resurgence of bears.

[sweetsunray]

While I agree with the idea that Sansa and Tyrion take up a bear role at some point, I don't think they are throughout the books. The hidden bear concept is about a character that posesses the bear identity from start to finish, but it's disguised or hidden and not known by the bear. This hidden bear would also have all the features, be well rounded as a bear. Tyrion does not seem to take on a bear role throughout the books. That aside, the bear mentioning with these characters merrit further inspection.

 

Sansa = bear cub

 

I was thinking with regards to Sansa being the bear cub. The first time it's LF who mentions it. I think LF uses the reference as a hint for the bear cub capture, raising and then sacrificing it for the gain. It's interesting that 'bear cub' is used. That's how some cultures performed the bear hunt ritual. Though the bear cub was treated well, not abused, cared for and fed, ultimately it was to be sacrificed. And that would be pretty much LFs MO. He claims her for his daughter, orders lemons for her, gives her all she desires, but most of us expect him to do this for his own ends and not to Sansa's benefit.

 

The second time, she thinks of herself as a bear cub. It's related as you pointed out to feelings of protectiveness, and Lothor Brune having protected her and his Brune name is a hint to 'brown' (bear). But there is also this. She lived in the Eyrie, which is high up in the sky, the heavens so to speak. And she is about to be carried down to the Gates of the Moon. We also have the Hound referring her as a little bird. The bear's spirit returns to the heavens as a bird, but down on the ground it's a bear. Is Sansa/Alayne in this sense about to be 'born' as a bear when she's being taken from the heavens to the ground?

 

Tyrion under bear's protection

 

Julia & Evolett, you made some great observations regarding Tyrion. I never considered the connection to dragons. It seems that being under the bear's protection in relation to a dragon is important. Accepting R+L=J, Jon is a hidden dragon. Not only does Tyrion read about dragons while wearing the bear fur. He's also interacting with a dragon (Jon). When traveling to Dany, a dragon, Tyrion has Jorah with him. Of course, one would wonder that if Tyrion is a targ himself, why he'd need the bear's protection to interact with either Jon or Dany (aaaaagh!)

 

Analogy Arya's escap HH, and Tyrion's escape to Plumm

 

Arya's stay and escape from Harrenhal also is very much mirrored with Tyrion's chapters of captivity at Mereen and escape.

 

• Arya, Gendry and Hot Pie escape Harrenhal: 2 boys and 1 girl
• Penny, Tyrion and Jorah escape slavery: 2 men and 1 woman

•  Gendry is afraid and considers himself a failure, some of his fighting spirit seems broken
• Jorah is a broken man 

• Hot Pie is happy in his kitchen
• Penny is happy to be performing at Daznak’s Pit

• Arya tends to Roose Bolton with Qyburn with his leeches
• Tyrion tends to Yezzan (and Nurse) with Sweets as he’s dying from dysnetheria (pale mare)

• Lord Bolton intends to leave Harrenhal
• Yezzan will die soon

• Arya talks hopefully of Winterfell and Gendry smithing there
• Penny talks of sailing to Qarth and being hailed with gold

• Vargo Hoat keeps people from running by chopping their foot off.
• Nurse flings runaway slaves with slings, and keeps the others pinned with feet bound.

 

• People are thrown in the bear pit with the black bear.
• Lions were supposed to be let loose on Tyrion and Penny in Daznak’s pit.

• Penny has no idea how to fight for Brown Ben Plumm.
• Hot Pie is no good for fighting.

• Arya considered revealing herself to Glover, but hesitated and he left for Darry and Duskendale before she could
• Tyrion considered revealing himself to Dany while in the pit, but hesitates, and the dragon queen has flown off on Drogon

• Arya has arguments with other servants and Elmar Frey regarding rank
• Tyrion has arguments with slave soldiers regarding rank

 

• Arya kills a guard with a dagger and says Valar Morghulis
• Tyrion poisons Nurse with mushrooms and says A Lannister always pays his debts

• Arya , Hot Pie and Gendry get caught by the Brotherhood without Banners (King’s Men)
• Tyrion, Penny and Jorah join Brown Ben Plumm’s Second Sons who switches sides to fight for the Queen

• Gendry actively joins the Brotherhood and gets knighted
• Jorah revives and becomes a warrior

 

• Arya fetches water at a well for Roose at the start of the escape chapter
• Tyrion, Jorah and Penny have to fetch water at a well for their master and use it as an opportunity to escape

 

I used that analogy to point out Gendry's bondage attitude at Harrenhal, but obviously the mirroring goes way further than that. Hot Pie would actually mirror Penny, Jorah and Gendry mirror each other, Arya is mirrored by Tyrion.

[sweetsunray]

:bowdown:  :bowdown: sweetsunray and Evolett! Keep these essays coming.

 

Gendry's bear story is perfectly explained. Thank you for your work, sweetsunray!

 

Regarding wolves and bears, those are interesting connections between the direwolves and the bears in the story! I have noticed before that direwolves and bears (the animals) are often mentioned together in the story, symbolizing something dark and dangerous. The first mention is in the Prologue in AGoT:

 

"There's some enemies a fire will keep away," Gared said. "Bears and direwolves and ... and other things..."

 

Later in AGoT, Mormont tells Tyrion:

 

"There are wild things in the woods, direwolves and mammoths and snow bears the size of aurochs, and I have seen darker shapes in my dreams."

 

In Jaime's dream, Brienne asks him:

 

"A cave lion? Direwolves? Some bear? Tell me, Jaime. What lives here? What lives in the darkness?"

 

Characters that are compared to bears:

 

Tyrion Lannister was bundled in furs so thickly he looked like a very small bear.

 

That's in AGoT, when Tyrion is on the Wall (and so it's after borrowing Benjen's bearskin). It is remarkable that Tyrion is compared to a small bear in a place where he meets the Old Bear, especially when we know that in ADwD, he will meet and travel with the Young Bear as well. Does that suggest that he will be protected by the bear spirit one day?

 

 

Jon Snow also gets Longclaw, which was a bear's "claw", and he keeps the name, saying, "Wolves have claws, as much as bears."

 

And:

 

The Old Bear seemed pleased by that.

 

Jon is symbolically adopted by a "bear", as he gets a "bear weapon", which is, however, turned into a "direwolf weapon".

 

 

 

Julia and Evolett, there is a pattern of bears acting like guides and protectors around Jon (and Dany). The realization came to me during the discussion about Tormund and possibly his ties to either Maege or Alysane Mormont: Tormund and Maege

 

As you both aptly pointed out:

1- Jon sees Tyrion as a small bear all huddled in his furs at the Wall. During their travels to the Wall and Jon's training, Tyrion acts very much as an advizor. He helps Jon see the truth of his future 'brothers' (many are criminals and lowborn), that he should wear the word 'bastard' and the name 'Lord Snow' as his armor, asks about his wolf and pointing out he's keeping himself too much to himself away from Grenn and Pyp, and mentions the desire of 'what lies beyond the wall'.

2 - Then Jeor Mormont becomes his guide, keeping him from deserting, training him to be LC himself one day - harsh lessons at times, but necessary.

 

But then he's taken to the wildlings, and is separated from the bear figure. By the time he returns to Castle Black, Jeor is already long dead. And yet, with the wildlings a new bear figure takes him under his 'wing': Tormund

 

Let's examine some of his "stories"

 

"Is it true you killed a giant once?" he asked Tormund as they rode. Ghost loped silently beside them, leaving paw prints in the new-fallen snow.

"Now why would you doubt a mighty man like me? It was winter and I was half a boy, and stupid the way boys are. I went too far and my horse died and then a storm caught me. A true storm, not no little dusting such as this. Har! I knew I'd freeze to death before it broke. So I found me a sleeping giant, cut open her belly, and crawled up right inside her. Kept me warm enough, she did, but the stink near did for me. The worst thing was, she woke up when the spring come and took me for her babe. Suckled me for three whole moons before I could get away. Har! There's times I miss the taste o' giant's milk, though."

"If she nursed you, you couldn't have killed her."

"I never did, but see you don't go spreading that about. Tormund Giantsbane has a better ring to it than Tormund Giantsbabe, and that's the honest truth o' it." (aSoS; Jon II)

 

Jon thinks giants look much like 'bears'. Tormund's telling a story where he crawled into the belly of a she-giant who was sleeping throughout winter and woke with spring and suckled him as her cub. So, basically he's saying he was born or reborn from what looks more like a she-bear than a giant.

 

In Old Nan's stories, giants were outsized men who lived in colossal castles, fought with huge swords, and walked about in boots a boy could hide in. These were something else, more bearlike than human, and as wooly as the mammoths they rode. Seated, it was hard to say how big they truly were. Ten feet tall maybe, or twelve, Jon thought. Maybe fourteen, but no taller.

 

Was the 'bear' of fifteen feet that Dywen said to have seen perhaps a 'giant'? Giants speak a language, the Old Tongue, but no other, and their weapons are crude. Do they have a wintersleep? They pretty much sound like half-man half-bear... like Tolkien's Beorn. In any case, the question remains is Tormund talking about a giantess or a she-bear?

 

Jon asks Tormund about his other names.

 

 

"So how did you come by your other names?" Jon asked. "Mance called you the Horn-Blower, didn't he? Mead-king of Ruddy Hall, Husband to Bears, Father to Hosts?" It was the horn blowing he particularly wanted to hear about, but he dared not ask too plainly. And Joramun blew the Horn of Winter, and woke giants from the earth. Is that where they had come from, them and their mammoths? Had Mance Rayder found the Horn of Joramun, and given it to Tormund Thunderfist to blow?

"Are all crows so curious?" asked Tormund. "Well, here's a tale for you. It were another winter, colder even than the one I spent inside that giant, and snowing day and night, snowflakes as big as your head, not these little things. It snowed so hard the whole village was half buried. I was in me Ruddy Hall, with only a cask o' mead to keep me company and nothing to do but drink it. The more I drank the more I got to thinking about this woman lived close by, a fine strong woman with the biggest pair of teats you ever saw. She had a temper on her, that one, but oh, she could be warm too, and in the deep of winter a man needs his warmth.

"The more I drank the more I thought about her, and the more I thought the harder me member got, till I couldn't suffer it no more. Fool that I was, I bundled meself up in furs from head to heels, wrapped a winding wool around me face, and set off to find her. The snow was coming down so hard I got turned around once or twice, and the wind blew right through me and froze me bones, but finally I come on her, all bundled up like I was.

"The woman had a terrible temper, and she put up quite the fight when I laid hands on her. It was all I could do to carry her home and get her out o' them furs, but when I did, oh, she was hotter even than I remembered, and we had a fine old time, and then I went to sleep. Next morning when I woke the snow had stopped and the sun was shining, but I was in no fit state to enjoy it. All ripped and torn I was, and half me member bit right off, and there on me floor was a she-bear's pelt. And soon enough the free folk were telling tales o' this bald bear seen in the woods, with the queerest pair o' cubs behind her. Har!" He slapped a meaty thigh. "Would that I could find her again. She was fine to lay with, that bear. Never was a woman gave me such a fight, nor such strong sons neither."

 

Instead of focusing on the she-bear that Tormund stole, focus on what he's telling about himself. He goes out in furs, huddled up much as Tyrion was, looking like a bear. He mentions how he went to sleep during winter. It was such a raging winterstorm for days and days and days with the snow burrying half the village. And the 'next morning' he pretty much describes early spring: stopped snowing, sun is shining. If you fell asleep, and slept through the winter and wake up in spring, your night might have taken months, but to your mind, it is but one long night, and the moment you wake is 'next morning' to the 'last night' when you went to sleep. He also mentions he was 'alone' at Ruddy Hall. All he had to pass the time was drinking mead by himself.

 

The bitten member is actually something that happens to bears. When male bears meet in spring and wrestle fight, they bite at each other's penises to disfigure it enough so that the rival is handicapped in makig offspring. That explains why Tormund says to Jon

 

"Are you certain they never cut your member off?" Tormund gave a shrug, as if to say he would never understand such madness. "Well, you are a free man now, but if you will not have the girl, best find yourself a she-bear. If a man does not use his member it grows smaller and smaller, until one day he wants to piss and cannot find it."

 

A male bear that never gets to mate with a she-bear, is a bear that loses rival fights, and basically gets his penis bitten so often until there's hardly anything left to use.

 

So, basically, Tormund is telling tidbits pointing out that he's a bear. A bear alone in his den in wintertime, having a wintersleep and waking up in spring, mentioning bitten penises, and he was born to a 'mother' who held a wintersleep as well.

 

Tormund is present the moment Jon is presented to Mance. Jon is put with Tormund's troops. After the first attack on CB, he protects and stands for Jon to parlay with Mance. Tormund and his people must hand over their 'wealth', which Tormund calls Jon's 'blood price' for peace. Tormund gives his golden wristbands to Jon. While this does seem to have some extortionist elements, Jon also gives Tormund's people the gift and the new gift to live in, but the gift is also meant to pay taxes or give up some of the food to the NW. Arguably, Jon here 'captured' a bear to surrender his wealth and provide 'game' for the NW. Of course, Jon does give peace and protection agains the Others for it in return. Still, it requires a closer look whether Jon follows bear-hunt/capture protocol.

[Evolett]

On Arya as an ugly duckling - yes, I agree with your assessment 100%. There are two other ugly ducklings on my list - I just have not had time to look into that further but since you're in the swing of things in that respect, take a look at Selyse and Shireen:

 

“Of course, Your Grace. Her apartments are in the King’s Tower as well. This way, if you will?” Queen Selyse nodded, took her daughter by the hand, and permitted him to lead them from the stables. Ser Axell, the Braavosi banker, and the rest of her party followed, like so many ducklings done up in wool and fur.

 

 

Selyse is certainly not the most attractive of women and poor Shireen is disfigured by greyscale. In this quote we find Selyse as the mother duck, followed by her ducklings, including Shireen. 

 

Jon also does not want to be followed by guards, the likes of whom he sees as so many 'ducklings'. 

 

As I said, I haven't had time to check this out but I'm sure there's something there.

 

 

Tormund and his preoccupation with his member has been a point of interest for me as well and your bear investigation will help to unravel some of that, no doubt. So yes, I've spotted that quote and it relates to something else I've been working on - the black goat. I can't put all of that in this thread however but hopefully I'll get round to writing an essay on it sometime soon. 

 

 

You may be right about the wolf replacing the bear in winter  - there's a quote to back this up: (this is the scene where Bran, Meera, Jojen and Hoder spend a night in a cave occupied by a Liddle)

 

Bran started, “I’d bet we’d be there if …”

“… we took the kingsroad,” Meera finished with him.

The Liddle took out a knife and whittled at a stick. “When there was a Stark in Winterfell, a maiden girl could walk the kingsroad in her name-day gown and still go unmolested, and travelers could find fire, bread, and salt at many an inn and holdfast. But the nights are colder now, and doors are closed. There’s squids in the wolfswood, and flayed men ride the kingsroad asking after strangers.”

 

 

In winter, when the bear is sleeping, the wolf does the protecting. But the bolded bit is interesting - a naked maiden scares bears off (according to your analysis). Should a bear come along, he can be chased away by a naked maiden.

 

Later, the Liddle is gone when the kids wake up but he leaves pinecones and blackberry cakes. Bran cannot decide which he likes best and eats both. Now, pinecones are a major source of food for bears (grizzly bears in particular) and so are berries. Pinecones are of particular significance because they represent the divine and the third eye and are associated with spiritual awarenes and perception. Pinecones are the food of spring, which the bears dig out of mounds, hidden by squirrels (the Cotf are likened to squirrels). Blackberries are more of an autumn foodsource. Interesting, not so?

 

From what I see, the bear is primarily associated with fire but there is also a link to ice magic, which is why I suspect something going on there too, perhaps the 'controlling' force which I see surrounding the Starks is a summer thing. Who knows how George has implemented bearlore?

 

Interesting too, that Tormund drinks mead which is basically wine made from honey - and honey is something bears really like.