The Dornishman's Wife Foreshadows Abel's Fate

[Lost Melnibonean]

When the reader is first introduced to the Mance, we are also introduced to The Dornishman’s Wife ...

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The Dornishman's wife was as fair as the sun,

and her kisses were warmer than spring.

But the Dornishman's blade was made of black steel,

and its kiss was a terrible thing.

. . .

The Dornishman's wife would sing as she bathed,

in a voice that was sweet as a peach,

But the Dornishman's blade had a song of its own,

and a bite sharp and cold as a leech.

. . .

As he lay on the ground with the darkness around,

and the taste of his blood on his tongue,

His brothers knelt by him and prayed him a prayer,

and he smiled and he laughed and he sung,

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

the Dornishman's taken my life,

But what does it matter, for all men must die,

and I've tasted the Dornishman's wife!"

Jon I, Storm 7

Later, the Mance changed the words of the song ...

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He was still waiting for his porridge when Ramsay swept into the hall with his Bastard's Boys, shouting for music. Abel rubbed the sleep from his eyes, took up his lute, and launched into "The Dornishman's Wife," whilst one of his washerwomen beat time on her drum. The singer changed the words, though. Instead of tasting a Dornishman's wife, he sang of tasting a northman's daughter.

The Turncloak, Dance 41

The last time we saw the Mance, posing as Abel, Theon foretold his fate ...

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"Ramsay will use your women as his prey," he told the singer. "He'll hunt them down, rape them, and feed their corpses to his dogs. If they lead him a good chase, he may name his next litter of bitches after them. You he'll flay. Him and Skinner and Damon Dance-for-Me, they will make a game of it. You'll be begging them to kill you." He clutched the singer's arm with a maimed hand. "You swore you would not let me fall into his hands again. I have your word on that." He needed to hear it again.

"Abel's word," said Squirrel. "Strong as oak." Abel himself only shrugged. "No matter what, my prince.”

. . .

If Abel's scheme went awry, Ramsay would make their dying long and hard. He will flay me from head to heel this time, and no amount of begging will end the anguish. No pain Theon had ever known came close to the agony that Skinner could evoke with a little flensing blade. Abel would learn that lesson soon enough. And for what? Jeyne, her name is Jeyne, and her eyes are the wrong color. A mummer playing a part. Lord Bolton knows, and Ramsay, but the rest are blind, even this bloody bard with his sly smiles. The jape is on you, Abel, you and your murdering whores. You' ll die for the wrong girl.

Theon, Dance 51

In between we learned about Ramsay and Skinner ...

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He remembered how much it had hurt when Lord Ramsay had commanded Skinner to lay his ring finger bare.

. . .

Reek swung down from his saddle and took a knee. "My lord, Moat Cailin is yours. Here are its last defenders."

"So few. I had hoped for more. They were such stubborn foes."

Lord Ramsay's pale eyes shone. "You must be starved. Damon, Alyn, see to them. Wine and ale, and all the food that they can eat. Skinner, show their wounded to our maesters."

"Aye, my lord."

Reek II, Dance 20

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There were things too hurtful to remember, thoughts almost as painful as Ramsay's flaying knife . . .

Reek III, Dance 32

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Roose Bolton's pale eyes were fixed on Theon, as sharp as Skinner's flaying knife.

A Ghost in Winterfell, Dance 46

And notice the similarities between this ...

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But the Dornishman's blade was made of black steel, and its kiss was a terrible thing.

and this . . .

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When you have known the kiss of a flaying knife, a laugh loses all its power to hurt you.

The Prince of Winterfell, Dance 37

Toward the end of Dance, the Mance was in a very, very tight spot ...

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Of Abel, Rowan, Squirrel, and the others there was no sign. He and the girl were alone. If they take us alive, they will deliver us to Ramsay.

Theon, Dance 51

Now, perhaps the Mance was able to hide in the crypts, or maybe he was able to escape Winterfell completely. More likely, however, he was taken alive by Ramsay’s men since we last saw him playing in the Great Hall ...

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Roose Bolton gave an approving nod. "As he says. There will be time enough to fight each other once we are done with Stannis." He turned his head, his pale cold eyes searching the hall until they found the bard Abel beside Theon. "Singer," he called, "come sing us something soothing."

Abel bowed. "If it please your lordship." Lute in hand, he sauntered to the dais, hopping nimbly over a corpse or two, and seated himself cross-legged on the high table. As he began to play—a sad, soft song that Theon Greyjoy did not recognize—Ser Hosteen, Ser Aenys, and their fellow Freys turned away to lead their horses from the hall.

Rowan grasped Theon's arm. "The bath. It must be now."

. . .

"But . . . Abel . . . “

"Abel can fend for himself," murmured Squirrel.

. . .

"Frenya, Holly, go with them," Rowan said. "We will be along with Abel. Do not wait for us." And with that, she whirled and plunged into the snow, toward the Great Hall. Willow and Myrtle hurried after her, cloaks snapping in the wind.

Theon, Dance 51

Then, Jon reads a letter ...

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Bastard, Your false king is dead, bastard. He and all his host were smashed in seven days of battle. I have his magic sword. Tell his red whore. Your false king's friends are dead. Their heads upon the walls of Winterfell. Come see them, bastard. Your false king lied, and so did you. You told the world you burned the King-Beyond-the-Wall. Instead you sent him to Winterfell to steal my bride from me.

I will have my bride back. If you want Mance Rayder back, come and get him. I have him in a cage for all the north to see, proof of your lies. The cage is cold, but I have made him a warm cloak from the skins of the six whores who came with him to Winterfell.

I want my bride back. I want the false king' s queen. I want his daughter and his red witch. I want his wildling princess. I want his little prince, the wildling babe. And I want my Reek. Send them to me, bastard, and I will not trouble you or your black crows. Keep them from me, and I will cut out your bastard' s heart and eat it. Ramsay Bolton, Trueborn Lord of Winterfell.

Jon XIII, Dance 69

The false king was Stannis and Ramsay claimed to have defeated his army and killed him after seven days of battle. He claimed to have taken Stannis’s Lightbringer, and he learned of Melisandre. Of course, he could have learned about her from Stannis’s men, but more likely, he learned about Melisandre from the Mance. Stannis’s friends were Abel’s washer women. Ramsay claimed to have killed them and put their heads on spikes. Ramsay learned that Abel was the Mance, sent by Jon to kidnap the presumed Arya. In addition to Melisandre, Ramsay leanred about Selyse and Shireen, and Val and the Mance’s son. He apparently assumed that Theon had escorted the presumed Arya to the Wall. Of course, this was shocking when we read this in the summer of 2011.

It became even more confusing on 12/28/2011, when ...

Spoiler

the Theon spoiler chapter was released. This was bizarre since Theon was in the crofter’s village with Stannis, and there had been no battle yet with Ramsay, which of course meant that either Ramsay was lying in his letter, or that someone else had written what came to be called in this forum, the pink letter. This spawned a number of theories suggesting that the Mance or Stannis, or several other characters had written the pink letter. But the George stated in his blog where he introduced the chapter ...

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. . . as you will be able to tell from context, it actually takes place before some of the chapters at the end of Dance.

grrm.livejournal.com/257002.html

 

Spoiler

In the spoiler chapter, we saw that Stannis was going to receive an infusion of funds from the Iron Bank, and Justin Massey was to travel to Essos to hire sellswords. And it appeared that Stannis was planning a ruse ...

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"It may be that we shall lose this battle," the king said grimly.  "In Braavos you may hear that I am dead.  It may even be true.  You shall find my sellswords nonetheless."

Theon, Winds

Through Theon, the George tells us what we should expect from Roose ...

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A few steps brought the king around to Theon.  "How many men does Bolton have at Winterfell?"

"Five thousand.  Six.  More."  He gave the king a ghastly grin, all shattered teeth and splinters.  "More than you."

"How many of those is he like to send against us?"

"No more than half."  That was a guess, admittedly, but it felt right to him.  Roose Bolton was not a man to blunder blindly out into the snow, map or no.  He would hold his main strength in reserve, keep his best men with him, trust in Winterfell's massive double wall.  "The castle was too crowded.  Men were at each other's throats, the Manderlys and Freys especially.  It's them his lordship's sent after you, the ones that he's well rid of."

"Wyman Manderly."  The king's mouth twisted in contempt.  "Lord Too-Fat-to-Sit-a-Horse.  Too fat to come to me, yet he comes to Winterfell.  Too fat to bend the knee and swear me his sword, yet now he wields that sword for Bolton.  I sent my Onion Lord to treat with him, and Lord Too-Fat butchered him and mounted his head and hands on the walls of White Harbor for the Freys to gloat over.  And the Freys... has the Red Wedding been forgotten?"

"The north remembers.  The Red Wedding, Lady Hornwood's fingers, the sack of Winterfell, Deepwood Motte and Torrhen's Square, they remember all of it."  Bran and Rickon.  They were only miller's boys.  "Frey and Manderly will never combine their strengths.  They will come for you, but separately.  Lord Ramsay will not be far behind them.  He wants his bride back.  He wants his Reek."  Theon's laugh was half a titter, half a whimper.  "Lord Ramsay is the one Your Grace should fear."

. . .

"Bolton has blundered," the king declared.  "All he had to do was sit inside his castle whilst we starved.  Instead he has sent some portion of his strength forth to give us battle.  His knights will be horsed, ours must fight afoot.  His men will be well nourished, ours go into battle with empty bellies.  It makes no matter.  Ser Stupid, Lord Too-Fat, the Bastard, let them come.  We hold the ground, and that I mean to turn to our advantage."

"The ground?" said Theon.  "What ground?  Here?  This misbegotten tower?  This wretched little village?  You have no high ground here, no walls to hide beyond, no natural defenses."

"Yet." 

Theon, Winds

In context, it appeared that Stannis defeated the Freys and made a deal with the Manderlys to effect a ruse. Apparently, seven days after Roose ordered the Manderlys and the Freys out of Winterfell to fight Stannis, the Manderlys returned with Stannis sword, and false word of Stannis’s defeat.

And during those seven days, we should assume that Ramsay and Skinner tickled all of the Mance’s secrets from him ...

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"If the glamor fails, they will kill you."

The wildling began to scrape the dirt out from beneath his nails with the point of his dagger. "I've sung my songs, fought my battles, drunk summer wine, tasted the Dornishman's wife. A man should die the way he's lived. For me that's steel in hand."

Melisandre, Dance 31

ETA: And this exchange happens right after The Mance introduces himself to Jon ...

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"How did you like the song, lad?"

"Well enough. I'd heard it before."

"But what does it matter, for all men must die, the King-beyond the-Wall said lightly, "and I've tasted the Dornishman's wife."

[aryagonnakill#2]

I thought there was going to be a theory regarding the Dornishmans wife.   Is there more, or is this just your assessment of what took place?  I personally agree with your assessment.

[Lost Melnibonean]

41 minutes ago, aryagonnakill#2 said:

I thought there was going to be a theory regarding the Dornishmans wife.   Is there more, or is this just your assessment of what took place?  I personally agree with your assessment.

The Dornishman's Wife foreshadows Abel's fate. 

[purple-eyes]

Dornishmen's wife is the story between arthur dayne, his famous blade dawn, smiling knight and somebody from brotherhood who stole a kiss from a dornish princess. 

And it is a proof that aegon is son of arthur and elia. 

 

[Banana Beyond the Wall]

I think there's more to it than that. For one, I'm a strong believer of Mance=Rheagar, and we all know how good of a fighter he was. But in one of Jon's POVs, Jon battled three people at one time, and then got his butt kicked by Mance. Mance also went around villages beyond the north fighting the toughest sumbitches out there. We all know how good a fighter Mance is, so even if he is outnumbered, we know he can fight his way through unsuspecting knights.

Also, regarding the Pink Letter. In The Wayword Bride, ADOD, Asha Greyjoy noticed the very strange handwriting by Ramsay Bolton when he sent a letter up from Moat Cailen. Lord Snow, however, doesn't take note of this hand writing, but he is no stranger to reading letters and the sorts (Asha also mentions how maesters have there own handwriting, so that's how we know Ramsays is different).

“ Ramsay Bolton, Lord of Winterfell , he signs himself. But there are other names as well.” Lady Dustin, Lady Cerwyn, and four Ryswells had appended their own signatures beneath his. Beside them was drawn a crude giant, the mark of some Umber. Those were done in maester’s ink, made of soot and coal tar, but the message above was scrawled in brown in a huge, spiky hand. It spoke of the fall of Moat Cailin, of the triumphant return of the Warden of the North to his domains, of a marriage soon to be made. The first words were, “ I write this letter in the blood of ironmen ,” the last, “I send you each a piece of prince. Linger in my lands, and share his fate.”

-Asha, ADOD

Once again, Jon never mentions seeing the standout handwriting that Asha pointed out.

So if Ramsay did not write the letter, it could of been someone else. Probably Mance, since he is the only one that knows he himself is Mance. Which would result in him staying alive, despite the Dornishmans Wife foreshadowing (props on catching that btw, very good find ).

All hypothetical and I might be wrong, but those are my two stags.

[Good Guy Garlan]

23 minutes ago, Banana Beyond the Wall said:

I think there's more to it than that. For one, I'm a strong believer of Mance=Rheagar, and we all know how good of a fighter he was. But in one of Jon's POVs, Jon battled three people at one time, and then got his butt kicked by Mance. Mance also went around villages beyond the north fighting the toughest sumbitches out there. We all know how good a fighter Mance is, so even if he is outnumbered, we know he can fight his way through unsuspecting knights.

Also, regarding the Pink Letter. In The Wayword Bride, ADOD, Asha Greyjoy noticed the very strange handwriting by Ramsay Bolton when he sent a letter up from Moat Cailen. Lord Snow, however, doesn't take note of this hand writing, but he is no stranger to reading letters and the sorts (Asha also mentions how maesters have there own handwriting, so that's how we know Ramsays is different).

“ Ramsay Bolton, Lord of Winterfell , he signs himself. But there are other names as well.” Lady Dustin, Lady Cerwyn, and four Ryswells had appended their own signatures beneath his. Beside them was drawn a crude giant, the mark of some Umber. Those were done in maester’s ink, made of soot and coal tar, but the message above was scrawled in brown in a huge, spiky hand. It spoke of the fall of Moat Cailin, of the triumphant return of the Warden of the North to his domains, of a marriage soon to be made. The first words were, “ I write this letter in the blood of ironmen ,” the last, “I send you each a piece of prince. Linger in my lands, and share his fate.”

-Asha, ADOD

Once again, Jon never mentions seeing the standout handwriting that Asha pointed out.

So if Ramsay did not write the letter, it could of been someone else. Probably Mance, since he is the only one that knows he himself is Mance. Which would result in him staying alive, despite the Dornishmans Wife foreshadowing (props on catching that btw, very good find ).

All hypothetical and I might be wrong, but those are my two stags.

I don't think Mance = Rhaegar, but I do think Mance wrote the pink letter. Well, I think it was Ramsay and Mance, actually. 

[Fire Eater]

Good catch, I think given the tendency for kings in this series to die violently since Aerys, Mance isn't long for this world. I think he will eventually be killed by the Boltons. If he's lucky, he'll die with steel in hand. But thinking Stannis is dead, I think they'll have no more use for him, and he may die screaming. Hopefully, Ramsay doesn't skin him ir make him his new Reek, but something tells me Mance will lose a few scraps of skin.  

5 hours ago, Lost Melnibonean said:

and a bite sharp and cold as a leech.

That pretty much seals it.

[Daemon Blackfyre IV]

I roar every time I hear someone say Mance is Rhaegar if so then where is Mance ? Because Mance has a history at the wall surely the Prince wasn't taking a ship every day to moonlight at the wall lol 

[purple-eyes]

Maybe mance is rhaegar indeed. I can see him stay beyond the wall to avoid Rober after trident. Robert would surely kill him if he found he is still alive. 

So rhaegar lost two children, he had to create them again. 

Then he married to dalla. But dalla died. 

Rhaegar had two dragon heads now. 

So he needed one more woman to have the third head. 

Maybe he can marry val? 

 

 

[LmL]

4 hours ago, purple-eyes said:

Dornishmen's wife is the story between arthur dayne, his famous blade dawn, smiling knight and somebody from brotherhood who stole a kiss from a dornish princess. 

And it is a proof that aegon is son of arthur and elia. 

 

Nah, the Dornishman's blade was made of black steel, not white. 

[LmL]

14 minutes ago, purple-eyes said:

Maybe mance is rhaegar indeed. I can see him stay beyond the wall to avoid Rober after trident. Robert would surely kill him if he found he is still alive. 

So rhaegar lost two children, he had to create them again. 

Then he married to dalla. But dalla died. 

Rhaegar had two dragon heads now. 

So he needed one more woman to have the third head. 

Maybe he can marry val? 

 

 

Nah George said Rhaegar is dead. 

[Knight Of Winter]

7 hours ago, Good Guy Garlan said:

I don't think Mance = Rhaegar, but I do think Mance wrote the pink letter. Well, I think it was Ramsay and Mance, actually. 

Mance as an author I could understand, Ramsay too, but Mance and Ramsay? Can you elaborate?

[shizett]

12 hours ago, Lost Melnibonean said:

Abel bowed. "If it please your lordship." Lute in hand, he sauntered to the dais, hopping nimbly over a corpse or two, and seated himself cross-legged on the high table. As he began to play—a sad, soft song that Theon Greyjoy did not recognize—Ser Hosteen, Ser Aenys, and their fellow Freys turned away to lead their horses from the hall.

I thought the sad song he sings is the song of "winter rose" from Bael the Bard and that is why Theon does not recognize it (like Jon didn't in aCOK). It is a soft hint that they will take refuge in the crypts (all of them or only him).

[Hangover of the Morning]

11 hours ago, purple-eyes said:

Dornishmen's wife is the story between arthur dayne, his famous blade dawn, smiling knight and somebody from brotherhood who stole a kiss from a dornish princess. 

And it is a proof that aegon is son of arthur and elia. 

 

What makes you think that? I don't see the parallels at all. IIRC, Ulmer, who's still very much alive, claims to have stolen a kiss from Elia, while Arthur slain the Smiling Knight. Arthur was instrumental in defeating the brotherhood so I guess we could stretch it and claim that he'd avenged Elia's honour in the end but where's the hint at a romantic relationship between these two?

I'm all for Elia & Arthur but I don't see how the song adds any credence to the theory, let alone it be a proof that Arthur cuckolded his best friend. 

[purple-eyes]

7 hours ago, LmL said:

Nah, the Dornishman's blade was made of black steel, not white. 

Yeah, but there is no vs blade in Dorne. The only famous sword in Dorne is his dawn. 

I guess it is just a cover up. 

It will be too obvious to say white blade. 

[Lost Melnibonean]

1 hour ago, shizett said:

I thought the sad song he sings is the song of "winter rose" from Bael the Bard and that is why Theon does not recognize it (like Jon didn't in aCOK). It is a soft hint that they will take refuge in the crypts (all of them or only him).

I'd like to think that's the case...

[purple-eyes]

14 minutes ago, Hangover of the Morning said:

What makes you think that? I don't see the parallels at all. IIRC, Ulmer, who's still very much alive, claims to have stolen a kiss from Elia, while Arthur slain the Smiling Knight. Arthur was instrumental in defeating the brotherhood so I guess we could stretch it and claim that he'd avenged Elia's honour in the end but where's the hint at a romantic relationship between these two?

I'm all for Elia & Arthur but I don't see how the song adds any credence to the theory, let alone it be a proof that Arthur cuckolded his best friend. 

Ulmer claimed and boasted that but I always feel if he is really the one who badly injured white bull and stole a kiss from elia plus jewels,  then he will be killed like others, not pardoned and sent to wall. 

Smiling knight is more possible considering he is mountain of that time and actually mountain raped elia in the end. Plus in that song there is indeed "he smiled" and he had "brothers". 

A outlaw man tasted a dornish woman, then a dornish man killed him with a special blade. I mean it does sound like arthur, smiling knight and elia. Probably the closest case in the whole series. I can not think another dornish man like this. 

 

 

 

 

. 

 

[Hangover of the Morning]

2 minutes ago, purple-eyes said:

Ulmer claimed and boasted that but I always feel if he is really the one who badly injured white bull and stole a kiss from elia plus jewels,  then he will be killed like others, not pardoned and sent to wall. 

Smiling knight is more possible considering he is mountain of that time and actually mountain raped elia in the end. Plus in that song there is indeed "he smiled" and he had "brothers". 

A outlaw man tasted a dornish woman, then a dornish man killed him with a special blade. I mean it does sound like arthur, smiling knight and elia. Probably the closest case in the whole series. I can not think another dornish man like this. 

It's such a minor and unimportant event in the story so I don't' see any reason why would GRRM be misleading us with switching Ulmer for the Smiling Knight. There's absolutely no plausible way that someone could come to that conclusion based on the info given and either way the outcome changes nothing. 

If anything, Ulmer was probably lying about the kiss to boast to the NW brothers. Might be that he was actually incompetent or galant during the ambush, which earned him a plea from the Princes when he asked to be given the Black. Elia was known to have a gentle heart, after all. Maybe he was still really young at that time. Even Tyrion who was found guilty of regicide and kinslaying might have been able to take the black. Either way I don't see how Ulmer surviving is so out of the ordinary. I think George simply wanted to have a surviving  member of the Kingswood Brotherhood as a means to convey some of their stories through him. 

I never got the impression that the "black steel" in the song was meant to be a synonym for a special one of a kind sword. It's either a symbolic connection of the blade being the death of the hero of the song or a hint that the blade was poisoned. Even if black steal could only be interpreted as Valyrian steel, I still don't see a problem. There might not be any Valyrian daggers in Dorne (or there might) but doesn't mean that the author of the song wouldn't embellish his story a bit. Also, just my hunch, but I'd say the song's probably a bit older than Arthur and Elia.  

[Artos Cold]

12 hours ago, purple-eyes said:

Dornishmen's wife is the story between arthur dayne, his famous blade dawn, smiling knight and somebody from brotherhood who stole a kiss from a dornish princess. 

And it is a proof that aegon is son of arthur and elia. 

 

[TerrorVoid]

Nope. Are you seriously consider that Mance was just siting there awaiting to be captured and tortured, while he knew, that his crew is going for a kidnap and he is a bait?

I'm pretty sure that Mance right now has defeated Ramsay:
1) He had sausages which disable dogs
2) He is right near back door
3) He knows the way to the crypts
4) Only one man can walk trough crypt ladder
5) Mance is the strongest fighter in WF by far. 

There is not a single chance he got caught.