What to make of this Theon-Roose/Arya-Lady Smallwood Parallel

[M_Tootles]

Especially bearing in mind @sweetsunray's Valkyrie theory and the idea of Arya the Swan, which I basically think is correct although only part of the puzzle of Arya and The HoB&W/FM, I'm curious as to what thoughts folks might have about the striking parallel between Lady Smallwood cleaning up Arya and Roose wanting to clean up Theon. I'd like to offer a bit more context but the tinfoil is SO deep I think I'll just throw these out mostly naked, with some bolding to emphasize that it's not just the general idea that runs in parallel, but specific imagery.

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"A bath and change of clothes will make you smell sweeter."

"A bath?" Reek felt a clenching in his guts. "I … I would sooner not, m'lord. Please. I have … wounds, I … and these clothes, Lord Ramsay gave them to me, he … he said that I was never to take them off, save at his command …"

"You are wearing rags," Lord Bolton said, quite patiently. "Filthy things, torn and stained and stinking of blood and urine. And thin. You must be cold. We'll put you in lambswool, soft and warm. Perhaps a fur-lined cloak. Would you like that?… Would you prefer to dress in silk and velvet? There was a time when you were fond of such, I do recall." (DWD R III)

 

 

This sounds exactly like what Lady Smallwood tells Arya about her House Bolton clothing:

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"Who dressed the poor child in those Bolton rags?" she demanded of them. "That badge . . . there's many a man who would hang her in half a heartbeat for wearing a flayed man on her breast." 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. (SOS A IV)

 

 

[sweetsunray]

2 minutes ago, M_Tootles said:

Especially bearing in mind @sweetsunray's Valkyrie theory and the idea of Arya the Swan, which I basically think is correct although only part of the puzzle of Arya and The HoB&W/FM, I'm curious as to what thoughts folks might have about the striking parallel between Lady Smallwood cleaning up Arya and Roose wanting to clean up Theon. I'd like to offer a bit more context but the tinfoil is SO deep I think I'll just throw these out mostly naked, with some bolding to emphasize that it's not just the general idea that runs in parallel, but specific imagery.

 

This sounds exactly like what Lady Smallwood tells Arya about her House Bolton clothing:

 

Well, why is Theon given a bath? To give the bride Arya Stark away.

Arya is given a bath in the Acorn Hall chapter, and that chapter ends with a song of a Lord proposing marriage to the tree maiden.

I would say that's the link: a betrothal/wedding for Arya Stark.

[M_Tootles]

Just now, sweetsunray said:

Well, why is Theon given a bath? To give the bride Arya Stark away.

Arya is given a bath in the Acorn Hall chapter, and that chapter ends with a song of a Lord proposing marriage to the tree maiden.

I would say that's the link: a betrothal/wedding for Arya Stark.

Sure. So you'd just say: foreshadowing the Theon/"Arya" wedding? What if I nudged you to think about it in terms of a Faceless Man-Bolton connection?

[sweetsunray]

4 minutes ago, M_Tootles said:

Sure. So you'd just say: foreshadowing the Theon/"Arya" wedding? What if I nudged you to think about it in terms of a Faceless Man-Bolton connection?

No, don't think there will be a Theon-Arya wedding Though he might end up marrying Jeyne Poole What I think it foreshadows is that Arya will end up marrying (someone she's already in love with).

As for the Bolton connection: it seems to suggest the timing when Arya starts to move towards this plotr... after we can throw away the Bolton rags.

When the curtain on the Boltons drop, Arya returns to Westeros, pretty and knowing how to act like a lady (and she probably has flowered by then), and we should expect a growing romantic plot.  

[a black swan]

7 minutes ago, sweetsunray said:

No, don't think there will be a Theon-Arya wedding Though he might end up marrying Jeyne Poole What I think it foreshadows is that Arya will end up marrying (someone she's already in love with).

As for the Bolton connection: it seems to suggest the timing when Arya starts to move towards this plotr... after we can throw away the Bolton rags.

When the curtain on the Boltons drop, Arya returns to Westeros, pretty and knowing how to act like a lady (and she probably has flowered by then), and we should expect a growing romantic plot.  

Wow. This is really good. Any ideas how this will play out? 

[sweetsunray]

Thanks @M_Tootles for finding the bathing parallel. I'd actually say that the "bolded" part about "smelling like flowers" points to Arya "flowering" and it would feel like being "flayed" (can be painful, especially the onset of it). Sansa too dreamed it was painful, involving bloody ribbons and knives.

27 minutes ago, DutchArya said:

Any ideas how this will play out? 

Pretty certain Arya first stop is at the Riverlands - that's where most ghosts of her are (Nymeria, Crossroads Inn, stand-in tree maiden Willow, LS)

This is just speculation out of the top of my hat, in relation to as of yet unpublished insights with regards to the Chthonic Cycle, but all the Starks are "underworld" related characters (Arya as the Valkyrie, Ned as Hades, Catelyn as Isis/Demeter/Ishtar, Lyanna as Persephone, Jon with Dionysus stuff, direwolves = Cerberus and in include Sandor Clegan with that as well, etc). Now we first are introduced to the Crossroads Inn through Catelyn's POV. The goddess of the Crossroads is Hecate (moon phases, magic). And people sacrificed puppies at crossroads to worhsip Hecate. One of the thing Hecate does is help in the search for Persephone, together with Demeter. Crossroads stand for choices and transitions (namely from terrestrial & celestial to underworld/death). Catelyn kidnaps Tyrion from the Crossroads Inn and then makes an underworldy gate voyage to her sister (Ishtar like).

When next we see the Crossroads again, the Riverlands are being turned into a living burning hell by Tywin's Mountain and Ser Amory and the Bloody Mummers. Tyrion arrives with his mountain clans and sees the hostess of the Crossroads Inn hanging. As the story goes on, the Riverlands become more and more the lands of the "hanged men".

We see the Crossroads Inn again, when Sandor and Arya have a drink there and end up killing Polliver, the squire and the Tickler. Arya gets Needle back. Sandor is still the Hound then, but he takes a wound there and afterwards the "Hound" dies (sacrificed puppy?)

And finally so far the Crossroads Inn has become the Orphanage Inn, where Brienne reaches the 9th circle of Inferno (her whole trip to and through the Riverlands is crafted and adapted after Inferno and Purgatory of Dante's Divine Comedy). Brienne meets her Bianca there in the form of Gendry (calling him Renly first, and thinking she's seeing Renly's ghost), but ends up having her face chewed and half eaten by Biter (in the 9th circle Satan has 3 heads and chews on the worst sinners) and is taken to LS (who has a lot of Hel figured in her). She kills the guy wearing the Hound helm (Rorge), and thus we have a sacrifice of a puppy once more. And we have a Willow who bosses other kids around sounding and acting like Arya and has a tree-name, and Brienne thinking she might be Arya, and it's clearly been set up by LS in the hope that some sparrow or someone else might send an orphaned girl in disguise there who's actually Arya, with Gendry as the armorer there to identify her. 

I think Arya will reappear at the Crossroads Inn, and returns to the "living" there. A puppy might get killed there (Lem?). 

Also: after the Acorn dress, Arya's put into even a more ladylike dress - purple with pearls. There is a maiden connection there especially to the Amethyst Empress. And the Crossroads Inn used to have this dragon sign that ended up in the river, washed to the Quiet Isle and ended up rusted.

[Seams]

I've been trying to sort out pigeons today, and came across some passages about Arya in Flea Bottom that might match up with some Theon / Reek details.

First, GRRM uses one of those ambiguous turns of phrase that he loves. While he appears to be indicating that a pigeon is flying away from Arya, I believe he is also saying that her shadow (her soul?) is flying away from her ("it took to the air"). This sounds like Theon giving up his identity as Theon and becoming Reek.

The scent of hot bread drifting from the shops along the Street of Flour was sweeter than any perfume Arya had ever smelled. She took a deep breath and stepped closer to the pigeon. It was a plump one, speckled brown, busily pecking at a crust that had fallen between two cobblestones, but when Arya's shadow touched it, it took to the air.

Theon (as Reek) eats raw rats that he catches. Arya eats "rats with wings," as they are sometimes called in U.S. cities:

She hadn't gone hungry much since she learned to knock down birds with her stick sword, but she feared so much pigeon was making her sick. A couple she'd eaten raw, before she found Flea Bottom.

There's a Hecate connection for Arya at Flea Bottom, too:

Once she was outside the city, she would find berries to pick, or orchards she might raid for apples and cherries. Arya remembered seeing some from the kingsroad on the journey south. And she could dig for roots in the forest, even run down some rabbits. In the city, the only things to run down were rats and cats and scrawny dogs. The pot-shops would give you a fistful of coppers for a litter of pups, she'd heard, but she didn't like to think about that. [All excerpts are from Arya V, AGoT.]

I have no doubt that Arya will head toward the Riverlands, but she might feel the need to touch base at Flea Bottom now, too. We've encountered several characters who speak wistfully of the bowls of brown they used to get in Flea Bottom. For what it's worth, there's another possible wordplay clue to indicate the importance of Flea Bottom: "to leaf tomb" or "leaf to tomb." I think the Winterfell crypt is a symbolic forge important to Theon, and Flea Bottom could be an important forge for Arya. The name Tobho Mott (to Hot Tomb) initially told me that tombs could be forges, but I didn't see the connection to the name Flea Bottom until I was looking at the pigeon stuff today. If Flea Bottom is also a forge/tomb, maybe that tells us why Flea Bottom natives Dunk and Davos are such good weapons.

P.S. The Street of Flour is part of the flow / flower / flour wordplay, either balancing or opposing the "wolf".

[M_Tootles]

2 hours ago, sweetsunray said:

Also: after the Acorn dress, Arya's put into even a more ladylike dress - purple with pearls. There is a maiden connection there especially to the Amethyst Empress. And the Crossroads Inn used to have this dragon sign that ended up in the river, washed to the Quiet Isle and ended up rusted.

 

Bless you. Amethyst = House Dayne, Jon is Brandon and Ashara's son and when that's figured out he's free to bone Arya. Love it.

[M_Tootles]

3 minutes ago, Seams said:

The scent of hot bread drifting from the shops along the Street of Flour was sweeter than any perfume Arya had ever smelled. She took a deep breath and stepped closer to the pigeon. It was a plump one, speckled brown, busily pecking at a crust that had fallen between two cobblestones, but when Arya's shadow touched it, it took to the air.

Theon (as Reek) eats raw rats that he catches. Arya eats "rats with wings," as they are sometimes called in U.S. cities:

She hadn't gone hungry much since she learned to knock down birds with her stick sword, but she feared so much pigeon was making her sick. A couple she'd eaten raw, before she found Flea Bottom.

 

Wonderful. Fucking wonderful. I knew there'd be more if I kept going, but it was SO ancillary to what I'm writing I couldn't justify continuing down the wormhole and figured I'd post and see what people could adduce.

 

3 minutes ago, Seams said:

There's a Hecate connection for Arya at Flea Bottom, too:

Once she was outside the city, she would find berries to pick, or orchards she might raid for apples and cherries. Arya remembered seeing some from the kingsroad on the journey south. And she could dig for roots in the forest, even run down some rabbits. In the city, the only things to run down were rats and cats and scrawny dogs. The pot-shops would give you a fistful of coppers for a litter of pups, she'd heard, but she didn't like to think about that. [All excerpts are from Arya V, AGoT.]

I have no doubt that Arya will head toward the Riverlands, but she might feel the need to touch base at Flea Bottom now, too. We've encountered several characters who speak wistfully of the bowls of brown they used to get in Flea Bottom. For what it's worth, there's another possible wordplay clue to indicate the importance of Flea Bottom: "to leaf tomb" or "leaf to tomb." I think the Winterfell crypt is a symbolic forge important to Theon, and Flea Bottom could be an important forge for Arya. The name Tobho Mott (to Hot Tomb) initially told me that tombs could be forges, but I didn't see the connection to the name Flea Bottom until I was looking at the pigeon stuff today. If Flea Bottom is also a forge/tomb, maybe that tells us why Flea Bottom natives Dunk and Davos are such good weapons.

I don't get the Hecate stuff. While my own current tinfoil owes a TON to greek/roman mythology and religion and shows that most relationships aren't direct analogue but divided between a couple characters, there's usually still a primary relationship and often a bit of a name analogue, and Hecate sort of screams Catelyn, not Arya, doesn't it?

[sweetsunray]

1 hour ago, M_Tootles said:

don't get the Hecate stuff. While my own current tinfoil owes a TON to greek/roman mythology and religion and shows that most relationships aren't direct analogue but divided between a couple characters, there's usually still a primary relationship and often a bit of a name analogue, and Hecate sort of screams Catelyn, not Arya, doesn't it?

Brienne takes the Hecate role, in assisting Catelyn to look for her abducted/missing daughters. But when you see "puppies being killed/sacrificed" think "crossroads moment", a moment of choosing one path over another. Crossroads are the character's free will moments. It's not a decision set in stone or forced onto the character. It's their free will moment.

[sweetsunray]

1 hour ago, M_Tootles said:

Bless you. Amethyst = House Dayne, Jon is Brandon and Ashara's son and when that's figured out he's free to bone Arya. Love it.

I personally go for R+L=J, and I think Gendry is the romantic set-up.

[M_Tootles]

2 hours ago, sweetsunray said:

I personally go for R+L=J, and I think Gendry is the romantic set-up.

Most do. Hopefully my foil will change that.

[M_Tootles]

2 hours ago, sweetsunray said:

Brienne takes the Hecate role, in assisting Catelyn to look for her abducted/missing daughters. But when you see "puppies being killed/sacrificed" think "crossroads moment", a moment of choosing one path over another. Crossroads are the character's free will moments. It's not a decision set in stone or forced onto the character. It's their free will moment.

Hmm... just from wikipedia:

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She was variously associated with crossroads, entrance-ways, dogs, light, magic, witchcraft, knowledge of herbs and poisonous plants, ghosts, necromancy, and sorcery.

Catelyn is heavily associated with the crossroads inn. She's literally our entree into it, she explains going there as a girl all the time, etc. She's a Whent and related to Harrenhal where Jenny dances with her ghosts in the song of ice and fire, the Whent women are heavily associated with witchcraft and sorcery via Mad Danelle Lothston, and obvs Cat's saturated in necromancy.

I get that Demeter goes looking for a daughter, but so does Hecate (it's just that it's Demeter's), and Catelyn does not strike me as a Demeter figure at all except in that one respect. I kinda don't think GRRM deals as much with the higher level gods, except as they inject themselves into the lower level stuff. Like... I feel like it's more like:

Cat is a clear Hecate figure, and one of the things Hecate does is go looking for kidnapped daughters. They happen to be Demeter's, but that's just shuffling the motif deck.

FWIW, Cat's blood's hair is likened to torches.

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Lady Catelyn had turned over her hands, to show Brienne the scars on her palms and fingers where a knife once bit deep into her flesh. Then she had begun to talk about her daughters. "Sansa was a little lady," she had said, "always courteous and eager to please. She loved tales of knightly valor. She will grow into a woman far more beautiful than I, you can see that. I would often brush her hair myself. She had auburn hair, thick and soft . . . the red in it would shine like copper in the light of the torches."

Sure, Brienne helps, and help take the role of Hecate in that sense, absolutely. And yeah, inasmuch as Cat is grinding an axe and continues to hang people, etc., there's a "Demeter's pissed" analogy. But by and large, Cat's Hecate, a dash of Demeter to her and a piece of Hecate to Brienne. At least that's how it feels to me.

[sweetsunray]

I'm sorry, M_Tootles, but I'm not going to discuss Catelyn's connections to Demeter as "she doesn't strike me as" or "it doesn't feel like that" sense. George uses particular phrases, focus, elements in descriptions in POVs time and time again that lead to certain arcehtypes and mythological figures. Catelyn's chthonic connections are multi-fold, and it requires 4-5 essays just about her to cover it all. I'm writing on the second one, but here's the first already, with the evidence for Catelyn's links to Demeter in her second chapter alone as well as Isis

https://sweeticeandfiresunray.wordpress.com/2016/04/10/lady-of-the-golden-sword-of-winterfell/

[M_Tootles]

9 hours ago, sweetsunray said:

I'm sorry, M_Tootles, but I'm not going to discuss Catelyn's connections to Demeter as "she doesn't strike me as" or "it doesn't feel like that" sense. George uses particular phrases, focus, elements in descriptions in POVs time and time again that lead to certain arcehtypes and mythological figures. Catelyn's chthonic connections are multi-fold, and it requires 4-5 essays just about her to cover it all. I'm writing on the second one, but here's the first already, with the evidence for Catelyn's links to Demeter in her second chapter alone as well as Isis

https://sweeticeandfiresunray.wordpress.com/2016/04/10/lady-of-the-golden-sword-of-winterfell/

Read the essay. To be sure, I have no problem with the overall Stark World-as-Underworld thing, at least broadly. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, I found the Persephone and Isis stuff far more persuasive than the Demeter stuff. Like... FAR more. I say not without even really disputing that he might have had your coup-de-grace gold sword-demeter thing in mind. He may have, but he CERTAINLY had the Isis phallus in mind.

Sure, she's a mother, she loses children and gets pissed. As I previously said, I don't dispute that. And she's other to the the Underworld, but so's Persephone, right, at least in a sense? As ever, GRRM shuffles the mythical motif deck, he doesn't just slap a different name on a pre-existing mythic character. And in terms of understanding the deeper backstory, I think Hecate is going to get you a lot farther. Demeter explains the surface level of what's going on now, and that's about it.

[sweetsunray]

4 minutes ago, M_Tootles said:

Read the essay. To be sure, I have no problem with the overall Stark World-as-Underworld thing, at least broadly. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, I found the Persephone and Isis stuff far more persuasive than the Demeter stuff. Like... FAR more. I say not without even really disputing that he might have had your coup-de-grace gold sword-demeter thing in mind. He may have, but he CERTAINLY had the Isis phallus in mind.

Sure, she's a mother, she loses children and gets pissed. As I previously said, I don't dispute that. And she's other to the the Underworld, but so's Persephone, right, at least in a sense? As ever, GRRM shuffles the mythical motif deck, he doesn't just slap a different name on a pre-existing mythic character. And in terms of understanding the deeper backstory, I think Hecate is going to get you a lot farther. Demeter explains the surface level of what's going on now, and that's about it.

Persephone is not an iconic "mother figure". Demeter is and so is Isis. Demeter is an iconic mother when it comes to daughters. Isis is an iconic mother when it comes to sons. Hecate is a virgin and no mother at all. Never said, Hecate is not important to Catelyn's arc. Hecate is to Demeter what Thoth is to Isis.

 

[M_Tootles]

2 minutes ago, sweetsunray said:

Persephone is not an iconic "mother figure". Demeter is and so is Isis. Demeter is an iconic mother when it comes to daughters. Isis is an iconic mother when it comes to sons. Hecate is a virgin and no mother at all. Never said, Hecate is not important to Catelyn's arc. Hecate is to Demeter what Thoth is to Isis.

 

This is where I think we differ, obviously. You're assuming one-to-one relationships, rather than a set of motifs GRRM can assign to different characters. You're saying "well, everybody knows Hecate's a virgin, so that rules out Catelyn." I'm saying it doesn't matter. "Virgin" is just a post-it note that can be assigned to a different suspect. If you seriously think Catelyn is named Catelyn and not supposed to be primarily a Hecate figure I'm not sure what to say. Why is Lysa named Lysa? Because Lysippe, obviously (but what does THAT also tell us about her?), but also to tell us she killed Jon Arryn with the Tears of Lys. It was right there in AGOT. (So maybe I should say: "why are the Tears of Lys named the Tears of Lys. To associate them with Lysa, who refers to Lysippe." Chicken egg, whatever.) Catelyn's name presages her fate, and that fate has everything to do with the motifs associated w/Hecate.

I mean, ultimately this is just a question of emphasis and degree, I think, so NBD.

[sweetsunray]

7 minutes ago, M_Tootles said:

This is where I think we differ, obviously. You're assuming one-to-one relationships, rather than a set of motifs GRRM can assign to different characters.

I'm sorry M_Tootles, but if you read my essay and others (especially the chthonic cycle) you would never ever say that at all. I think we're done here. If you want to write an essay on Catelyn as Hecate, please go ahead. I have my own chthonic essays to write, and yes Hecate will surely be discussed in a Chthonic Catelyn essay when I get to the Crossroads Inn (that was always the plan). 

[M_Tootles]

5 minutes ago, sweetsunray said:

I'm sorry M_Tootles, but if you read my essay and others (especially the chthonic cycle) you would never ever say that at all. I think we're done here. If you want to write an essay on Catelyn as Hecate, please go ahead. I have my own chthonic essays to write, and yes Hecate will surely be discussed in a Chthonic Catelyn essay when I get to the Crossroads Inn (that was always the plan). 

 

No, I don't think you do that normally at all. And obviously you allow that Catelyn displays aspects of more than one god, even Persephone, who you mostly connect to Lyanna. My point is that, at least with regard to this one thing, I think you're being unduly reductionist. Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but you literally just said

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"Persephone is not an iconic 'mother figure'. Demeter is and so is Isis... Hecate is a virgin and no mother at all.

You're demanding certain characteristics be present to draw the analogy between the mythic figure and the character because the character is a mother and that's important to her arc.

And I guess, unless I read it wrong, I'd also say that the Cat essay felt kinda like "it LOOKS like she's a persephone, but REALLY..." whereas I'd say "Cat is pieces of all these things, including Persephone, full stop." Again, maybe I misinterpreted you as conveying more contrast/definition than you intended. In which case it's just emphasis. The essay itself doesn't really read like this, actually, it's just the conclusion:

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While Cat’s first chapter alone would lead us to the conclusion that Cat is Persephone the Wife, where Lyanna was mostly the Maiden and Queen of the Underworld, her second chapter reveals that Cat is in essence more like Demeter, and thus having an innate agenda that juxtaposes that of the underworld.

Up until then, I would almost expect, "OK, in the next part she'll talk about how Cat then becomes like Hecate." But that makes it feel like a settled issue.

I just think Cat's most interesting allusion from the standpoint of dramatic narrative (i.e. not the setup, but where we're going) is Hecate. It's alluded to right away in AGOT in her scene at the Inn. Cat as living mother is done at the end of the first act of the series, 2/3 of the way into book 3 of 7. She's undead shortly into act 2. She's as world-of-the-dead as it gets. Insisting that she "stays Demeter" feels didactic. I'll be happy to be wrong when the next part is out.

Anyway, for me the importance of Catelyn and her blood to the trajectory of ASOIAF is ultimately bound up with House Lothstons and Whent. Hecate is a sender of Madness, right? Goddess of witchcraft and ghosts. We're told very little of Cat's ancestors, but:

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He found himself remembering tales he had first heard as a child at Casterly Rock, of mad Lady Lothston who bathed in tubs of blood and presided over feasts of human flesh within these very walls.

 

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Mad Danelle Lothston herself rode forth in strength from her haunted towers at Harrenhal, clad in black armor that fit her like an iron glove, her long red hair streaming.

 

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Their line was ended in madness and chaos when Lady Danelle Lothston turned to the black arts during the reign of King Maekar I.

 

Seems Hecate to me.

Anyway, like I said in the last post, it's NBD and all good.

[sweetsunray]

I have 4 Cthonic Cycles for the moment. None of them are isolated as they continually build on the previous.

1. Lyanna -> Persephone-maiden but also Despoina (wilder horse version), with hints for Ned and Robert as having Hades respectively Zeus stuff going on. Starts with the crypts and identifying underworld lexicon.

2. Ned and Robert's story: Lyanna haunts Ned with Melinoe dreams. Melinoe is a strange nightmare sent by the underworld to haunt those who broke promises or made false promises (Ned keeps them, but he tends to promise things with different meanings in mind than the one who asks for a promise). ToJ dreams perfectly fits the Ophic hymn description of Melinoe style nightmare. She was a daughter of Persephone. Meanwhile Robert's story is that of one who is cursed by Dionysus and torn to shreds. Shows that Ned himself pretty much turns into a statue like King of Winter in the dungeons when he curses Cersei, Jaime, LF, Varys, Slynt, Selmy and Renly. I start to suggest that perhaps Stark power source is the underworld

3. Catelyn's godswood chapter: godswood is also steeped in udnerworld lexicon already established. Goes into Greek underworld rivers, Hypnose cave, weirwood trees in relation to Yggdrasil and establishes all of WF and not just crypts are underworld, and the North and Beyond the Wall as underworldy realm. Compares Ned Stark to Hades, and forwards Catelyn as Persephone-wife

4. Catelyn's bedroom chapter: Catelyn as Demeter, Eleusan mystery of the box, Pandor's box, Osiris' box, Isis-Osiris link for Catelyn-Ned after Ned's death. As the Hades wife (when Ned's alive), Catelyn has Persephone characteristics. When he's dead, she has Isis features. As mother we see Demeter and Isis emerge depending on the gender of the child.

5. What I'm working now: Catelyn's vigil over Bran and assassination attempt on Bran. Shows how in chapter 2 by the end Ned and Catelyn switch parental and authory roles. Catelyn gets authority over the sons (including sending Jon away). Ned gets authrity over the daughters. With the daughters away, we have Catelyn as Isis mother to her sons (and they all 3 have different aspects of Horus). Bran takes the skygod eye-of-horus portion and sick child that needs to be protected from Set's assassins. Rickon takes the hunter Horus portion and the baby Horus. Robb takes King and War Horus. At the start of chaper 3 Catelyn regards all the underworld symbols as enemies and attempts to keep them away from Bran, but in doing so she is more lifeless and hateful and murderous (talking butchering horses and killing direwolves) than Robb-looking-like-stern-cold-Eddard and Grey-Rat Luwin and life-saving-howling-Summer. Robb tries to show her that the wolves aren't howling horribly, but singing a song in chorus, that sure may be all underworldly, but "life within the underworld". Then she fights catspaw which is a chaotic jumbling of life-death symbolism swithcing between one and the other and at the end of it Catelyn is "transformed" (and baptized in the dead catspaw's blood). Summer is not a shadow anymore, but the room is darkness to her now whereas Summer's eyes glow golden lamplight, etc. Goes further into madness associations and raised hands (Poppy goddes who has an epiphany, and Demeter related) and ends with raised arms Pandora emerging half from the underworld and bringing about doom.

6. Should be Catelyn with Robb as Horus or Catelyn's abduction of Tyrion (which also includes Mesopotanian Astarte, and the Crossroads Hecate symbolism). If I follow the order of the plot I'm doing Catelyn-Tyrion as 6. If I do a Catelyn as mother to sons sequel with Robb as Horus then that is 6. ANd Catelyn-Tyrion becomes 7. Have to finish 5 first. Almost there.

And of course Robb and Bran have other mythological figures than Egyptian Horus going on. But very obviously I can't do it all in one essay can I.