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The Maiden Fair and the Fair Maid, Heigh-ho, Hey-nonny-hey, Sigh No More Ladies


Lost Melnibonean

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Part I

The first time we heard of The Bear and Maiden Fair was in the Hedge Knight, published after Game, and before Clash, and it was sung in Clash at the harvest feast in Winterfell, but we didn't learn the lyrics until Olenna had Butterbumps sing it to hide her plotting with Margaery and Sansa, and we got the lyrics interspersed with the dialogue...

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"She's terrified, Grandmother, just look at her."

The old woman called to Butterbumps. "Fool! Give us a song. A long one, I should think. ‘The Bear and the Maiden Fair' will do nicely."

"It will!" the huge jester replied. "It will do nicely indeed! Shall I sing it standing on my head, my lady?"

"Will that make it sound better?"

"No."

"Stand on your feet, then. We wouldn't want your hat to fall off. As I recall, you never wash your hair."

"As my lady commands." Butterbumps bowed low, let loose of an enormous belch, then straightened, threw out his belly, and bellowed. "A bear there was, a bear, a BEAR! All black and brown, and covered with hair . . . "

Lady Olenna squirmed forward. "Even when I was a girl younger than you, it was well known that in the Red Keep the very walls have ears. Well, they will be the better for a song, and meanwhile we girls shall speak freely."

"But," Sansa said, "Varys . . . he knows, he always . . . "

"Sing louder!" the Queen of Thorns shouted at Butterbumps. "These old ears are almost deaf, you know. Are you whispering at me, you fat fool? I don't pay you for whispers. Sing!"

Sansa I, Storm 6

Here, we have the introduction, where the ugly bear is brought to the fair, along with three boys and a goat, and Sansa admits that Joffrey is a monster, but Olenna confirms that Margaery will wed Joffrey anyway...

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" . . . THE BEAR!" thundered Butterbumps, his great deep voice echoing off the rafters. "OH, COME, THEY SAID, OH COME TO THE FAIR! THE FAIR? SAID HE, BUT I'M A BEAR! ALL BLACK AND BROWN, AND COVERED WITH HAIR!"

The wrinkled old lady smiled. "At Highgarden we have many spiders amongst the flowers. So long as they keep to themselves we let them spin their little webs, but if they get underfoot we step on them." She patted Sansa on the back of the hand. "Now, child, the truth. What sort of man is this Joffrey, who calls himself Baratheon but looks so very Lannister? "

"AND DOWN THE ROAD FROM HERE TO THERE. FROM HERE! TO THERE! THREE BOYS, A GOAT, AND A DANCING BEAR!"

Sansa felt as though her heart had lodged in her throat. The Queen of Thorns was so close she could smell the old woman's sour breath. Her gaunt thin fingers were pinching her wrist. To her other side, Margaery was listening as well. A shiver went through her. "A monster," she whispered, so tremulously she could scarcely hear her own voice. "Joffrey is a monster. He lied about the butcher's boy and made Father kill my wolf. When I displease him, he has the Kingsguard beat me. He's evil and cruel, my lady, it's so. And the queen as well."

Lady Olenna Tyrell and her granddaughter exchanged a look. "Ah," said the old woman, "that's a pity."

Oh, gods, thought Sansa, horrified. If Margaery won't marry him, Joff will know that I'm to blame. "Please," she blurted, "don't stop the wedding . . . "

"Have no fear, Lord Puff Fish is determined that Margaery shall be queen. And the word of a Tyrell is worth more than all the gold in Casterly Rock. At least it was in my day. Even so, we thank you for the truth, child."

" . . . DANCED AND SPUN, ALL THE WAY TO THE FAIR! THE FAIR! THE FAIR!" Butterbumps hopped and roared and stomped his feet.

Sansa I, Storm 6

Note that Vargo Hoat called the Goat died of a wound Brienne inflicted when she bit his ear. Brienne killed three of the Goat’s Bloody Mummers at the Whispers, and she later killed Rorge, whom Arya described as “squat and thick, with huge hands. Black hair covered his arms and legs and chest, even his back.” Arya II, Clash 5. Interestingly, “the only song Dunk knew all the way through” was The Bear and the Maiden Fair. The Sworn Sword.

After the bear arrives at the fair, we meet the maiden fair, and Margaery invites Sansa to Highgarden...

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"Sansa, would you like to visit Highgarden?" When Margaery Tyrell smiled, she looked very like her brother Loras. "All the autumn flowers are in bloom just now, and there are groves and fountains, shady courtyards, marble colonnades. My lord father always keeps singers at court, sweeter ones than Butters here, and pipers and fiddlers and harpers as well. We have the best horses, and pleasure boats to sail along the Mander. Do you hawk, Sansa?"

"A little," she admitted.

"OH, SWEET SHE WAS, AND PURE, AND FAIR! THE MAID WITH HONEY IN HER HAIR!"

"You will love Highgarden as I do, I know it." Margaery brushed back a loose strand of Sansa's hair. "Once you see it, you'll never want to leave. And perhaps you won't have to."

"HER HAIR! HER HAIR! THE MAID WITH HONEY IN HER HAIR!"

"Shush, child," the Queen of Thorns said sharply. "Sansa hasn't even told us that she would like to come for a visit."

"Oh, but I would," Sansa said. Highgarden sounded like the place she had always dreamed of, like the beautiful magical court she had once hoped to find at King's Landing.

" . . . SMELLED THE SCENT ON THE SUMMER AIR. THE BEAR! THE BEAR! ALL BLACK AND BROWN AND COVERED WITH HAIR."

"But the queen," Sansa went on, "she won't let me go . . . "

"She will. Without Highgarden, the Lannisters have no hope of keeping Joffrey on his throne. If my son the lord oaf asks, she will have no choice but to grant his request."

"Will he?" asked Sansa. "Will he ask?"

Lady Olenna frowned. "I see no need to give him a choice. Of course, he has no hint of our true purpose."

Sansa I, Storm 6

As Sansa is invited to Highgarden, the maiden fair smells the sweet scent of honey on the summer air. But we still have the ugly bear, and Sansa thinks of Cersei. Olenna explains, however, that they can force the issue, and the sweet scent is still in the air...

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"HE SMELLED THE SCENT ON THE SUMMER AIR!"

Sansa wrinkled her brow. "Our true purpose, my lady?"

"HE SNIFFED AND ROARED AND SMELLED IT THERE! HONEY ON THE SUMMER AIR!"

"To see you safely wed, child," the old woman said, as Butterbumps bellowed out the old, old song, "to my grandson."

Wed to Ser Loras, oh . . . Sansa's breath caught in her throat. She remembered Ser Loras in his sparkling sapphire armor, tossing her a rose. Ser Loras in white silk, so pure, innocent, beautiful. The dimples at the corner of his mouth when he smiled. The sweetness of his laugh, the warmth of his hand. She could only imagine what it would be like to pull up his tunic and caress the smooth skin underneath, to stand on her toes and kiss him, to run her fingers through those thick brown curls and drown in his deep brown eyes. A flush crept up her neck.

"OH, I'M A MAID, AND I'M PURE AND FAIR! I'LL NEVER DANCE WITH A HAIRY BEAR! A BEAR! A BEAR! I'LL NEVER DANCE WITH A HAIRY BEAR!"

Sansa I, Storm 6

And there it is, Sansa believes she will go to Highgarden to wed Loras, and she will never have to dance with the ugly bear.

Oh, but wait, what’s this...

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"Would you like that, Sansa?" asked Margaery. "I've never had a sister, only brothers. Oh, please say yes, please say that you will consent to marry my brother."

The words came tumbling out of her. "Yes. I will. I would like that more than anything. To wed Ser Loras, to love him . . . "

"Loras?" Lady Olenna sounded annoyed. "Don't be foolish, child. Kingsguard never wed. Didn't they teach you anything in Winterfell? We were speaking of my grandson Willas. He is a bit old for you, to be sure, but a dear boy for all that. Not the least bit oafish, and heir to Highgarden besides."

Sansa felt dizzy; one instant her head was full of dreams of Loras, and the next they had all been snatched away. Willas? Willas? "I," she said stupidly. Courtesy is a lady's armor. You must not offend them, be careful what you say. "I do not know Ser Willas. I have never had the pleasure, my lady. Is he . . . is he as great a knight as his brothers?"

" . . . LIFTED HER HIGH INTO THE AIR! THE BEAR! THE BEAR!"

"No," Margaery said. "He has never taken vows."

Her grandmother frowned. "Tell the girl the truth. The poor lad is crippled, and that's the way of it."

"He was hurt as a squire, riding in his first tourney," Margaery confided. "His horse fell and crushed his leg."

"That snake of a Dornishman was to blame, that Oberyn Martell. And his maester as well."

"I CALLED FOR A KNIGHT, BUT YOU'RE A BEAR! A BEAR! A BEAR! ALL BLACK AND BROWN AND COVERED WITH HAIR!"

"Willas has a bad leg but a good heart," said Margaery. "He used to read to me when I was a little girl, and draw me pictures of the stars. You will love him as much as we do, Sansa."

"SHE KICKED AND WAILED, THE MAID SO FAIR, BUT HE LICKED THE HONEY FROM HER HAIR. HER HAIR! HER HAIR! HE LICKED THE HONEY FROM HER HAIR!"

"When might I meet him?" asked Sansa, hesitantly.

"Soon," promised Margaery. "When you come to Highgarden, after Joffrey and I are wed. My grandmother will take you."

"I will," said the old woman, patting Sansa's hand and smiling a soft wrinkly smile. "I will indeed."

Sansa I, Storm 6

As Sansa learns that she will be wed to Willas, not Loras, the ugly bear lifts her into the air, and as she kicks and wails, the ugly bear licks the honey from her hair. (“Jonquil, Jonquil, open your sweet eyes, these Tyrells care nothing for you. It's your claim they mean to wed." Sansa II, Storm 16.) But, hey, it’s a whole lot better than Sansa’s current predicament, and the Queen of Thorns thinks she’s going to get her cheese...

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"THEN SHE SIGHED AND SQUEALED AND KICKED THE AIR! MY BEAR! SHE SANG. MY BEAR SO FAIR! AND OFF THEY WENT, FROM HERE TO THERE, THE BEAR, THE BEAR, AND THE MAIDEN FAIR." Butterbumps roared the last line, leapt into the air, and came down on both feet with a crash that shook the wine cups on the table. The women laughed and clapped.

"I thought that dreadful song would never end," said the Queen of Thorns. "But look, here comes my cheese."

Sansa I, Storm 6

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Part II

So, we can associate Brienne and Sansa to the maiden fair. What about the fair maid?

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“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." The song swelled louder with every word.

Arya II, Storm 13

This sure sounds like a murder ballad. So, who gets whacked? Brienne, Sansa, or Arya?

And then we have The False and the Fair...

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The lord he came a-riding upon a rainy day, hey-nonny, hey-nonny, hey-nonny-hey

The lady sat a-sewing upon a rainy day, hey-nonny, hey-nonny, hey-nonny-hey

...

The lady lay a-kissing, upon a mound of hay hey-nonny, hey-nonny, hey-nonny-hey

Sansa VII, Storm 80

The way the song is presented in the text, it appears that the first two lines have the lord come a-riding, and the lady sitting and sewing. There appear to be other unspecified lines and then the lady ends up kissing, presumably, the lord. Since Marilion cuts off his song when the guards pound on the door, we don’t know how it ends.

The song appears to be an allusion to Sigh No More Ladies in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Sigh No More is intended to console a woman hurt by a man’s affairs with others. It suggests that women should accept such infidelity and the accompanying deceit since such behavior in men is unavoidable. Sigh No More Ladies seems directed at Lysa, who has just seen Petyr kissing Sansa, which reminds her of Petyr’s preference for Catelyn. The plot of Much Ado Abount Nothing also seems directed at Lysa, in which Claudio learns that the maiden Hero did not actually have an affair, just as we get confirmation that Petyr never actually had intimate relations with Catelyn. Interestingly, before Claudio realizes that Hero is innocent, he agrees to marry a near copy of Hero.

So, is The False and the Fair just a backdrop for Petyr and Lysa, or is Lord Petyr going to come a-riding some more? And if he does, who is the lady a-sewing that will lay a-kissing?

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Oh this is pretty interesting.  Just  a few observations.

Could the Bear and the Maiden fair sort of track the story of Sansa and Littlefinger?

Three boys and a goat invite the bear to the fair.  He resists because he doesn't belong there.  Similarly, LF is low born and doesn't belong in King's Landing.  But Jon Arryn is the one who invited LF to King's Landing but he himself is a "goat" in the sense that LF uses him for his own purposes.  LF is really behind the murder of this "goat."

LF is also behind the murder of at least 3 boys, Hugh of the Vale who is killed at the Hand's Tourney.  It is strongly suggested that LF rigged the lists so Hugh faced the Mountain in order to convince Ned the Lannisters had him killed to hide evidence.  LF also was behind the murder of King Joffrey with the hairnet.  Lastly, he is responsible for the death of Marillion.  Alternatively, he is responsible for the impending deaths of the KettleBLACKS, who are mostly described as hairy, as well as Dontos, another Goat of sorts.

Eventually the bear makes it to the "fair" potentially King's Landing.  This is somewhat reminiscent of Sansa meeting Little Finger at the Hand's Tourney.  

When the song starts, the maiden is "Sweet and pure with honey in her hair" just as Sansa is very naive and innocent.  

But the bear could smell her on the summer air.  Catch this on little finger:

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Littlefinger looked like a boy who had just taken a furtive bite from a honeycomb. He was trying to watch for bees, but the honey was so sweet. "Harrenhal and all its lands and incomes," he mused. "With a stroke, you'd make me one of the greatest lords in the realm. Not that I'm ungrateful, my lord, but—why?"

So there is an association between LF and liking "honey."

As the song progresses, the bear cannot help himself and he forces the Maid to dance with him and licks the honey out of the Maid's hair.

Once LF spirits Sansa out of King's Landing, he claims she is his daughter.  As part of the ruse, Sansa changes the color of her hair.  Little Finger has, in a sense "licked the color" out of her hair.

In the Bear and the Maiden fair, the maid falls for the bear after he licks the color out of her hair and they run off together.  Obviously none of us are rooting for that ending.

So I like LM's suggestion about the significance of the other songs marillion sings.  "The False and the Fair" perfectly fits LF and Sansa.  

In that song, the Lord rides off to Gulltown to steal a kiss from the maid.  Gulltown is the seat of house Royce.  In the song, a Lord rides there to force a kiss at knifepoint, a metaphor for rape or taking what one wants by force

We don't know how it ends, but I do love the concept of Sansa being central to LF's undoing.  A few other options would be Brienne, who literally fought and killed a bear.  Or the Hound, "the knight" that the maid called for but got a hair bear instead.  The hound fits that nicely.  I suppose Jorah Mormont could fit this too, but it seems Dany is his maiden fair.

On a completely separate note:

The archetype of the jester is that he is wise and knows more that most of the nobility would believe.  Consider Mushroom in the World Book, Dontos as Littlefinger's cats paw or many of Shakespeare's jesters.  There are a couple of hints here that make me think Butterbumps might know more than he lets on.

First, during the song, Varys is discussed openly.  QoT mentions that they have "spiders in highgarden" who are allowed to "spin their webs" but squash them if they get underfoot.  But like many nobles in ASOIA, the QoT is likely to overlook the low born like Bumps.  Would she even notice if he got underfoot.  

Second, the song mentions "honey in her hair" many times.  This is after Dontos, another fool, has given Sansa the hairnet she wears to Joff's wedding.  We later learn that the QoT was involved in that plot.  Is this a suggestion that Butter Bumps might know something about this plot?

I would love to learn more about Bumps and what information he really has...  Nice post LM!

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Nice OP. There's another song that might fit here - 'Seasons of my Love', which also uses that striking imagery of [something] in the maid's hair (leaving innuendo aside!). The summer maiden is fair and has sunlight in her hair - is she a honey blonde? Or is it the missing spring maiden, who strictly speaking should have the light of dawn in her hair? - but that won't scan. Maybe it's the sweetness of spring instead.

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13 hours ago, Lord Martin said:

Second, the song mentions "honey in her hair" many times.  This is after Dontos, another fool, has given Sansa the hairnet she wears to Joff's wedding.  We later learn that the QoT was involved in that plot.  Is this a suggestion that Butter Bumps might know something about this plot?

I would love to learn more about Bumps and what information he really has...  Nice post LM!

Me too! The QoT says Butterbumps must hide his hair under hat because he never washes it. That could hint he's hiding his identity - same as Sansa hides her identity by hiding her distinctive hair.

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On 8/25/2016 at 11:54 AM, Springwatch said:

Nice OP. There's another song that might fit here - 'Seasons of my Love', which also uses that striking imagery of [something] in the maid's hair (leaving innuendo aside!). The summer maiden is fair and has sunlight in her hair - is she a honey blonde? Or is it the missing spring maiden, who strictly speaking should have the light of dawn in her hair? - but that won't scan. Maybe it's the sweetness of spring instead.

Around the middle of Game, we learned that Tyrion’s true love, Tysha, sang a song to him...

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"Do you know this song?" he asked.

"You hear it here and there, in inns and whorehouses."

"Myrish. ‘The Seasons of My Love.' Sweet and sad, if you understand the words. The first girl I ever bedded used to sing it, and I've never been able to put it out of my head."

Tyrion VI, Game 42

As he lay with Shae the first time on the eve of the Battle of the Green Fork, he whistled the tune in Tyrion VIII, Game 62. 

As Tyrion lay near death after the Battle of the Blackwater, we learned a line from the song...

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They would kiss for hours, and spend whole days doing no more than lolling in bed, listening to the waves, and touching each other. Her body was a wonder to him, and she seemed to find delight in his. Sometimes she would sing to him. I loved a maid as fair as summer, with sunlight in her hair. "I love you, Tyrion," she would whisper before they went to sleep at night. "I love your lips. I love your voice, and the words you say to me, and how you treat me gentle. I love your face."

Tyrion XV, Clash 67

This was reiterated early in Storm...

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"No. If I've given offense, forgive me. I had my own love once, and we had a song as well." I loved a maid as fair as summer, with sunlight in her hair.

Tyrion II, Storm 12

And we recalled Lancel singing the song to Cersei...

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Through the door came the soft sound of the high harp, mingled with a trilling of pipes. The singer's voice was muffled by the thick walls, yet Tyrion knew the verse. I loved a maid as fair as summer, he remembered, with sunlight in her hair . . .

Tyrion VI, Clash 25

Interestingly, Tyrion wonders whether Jaime thinks of Cersei with this first verse in mind...

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Is this the Cersei that Jaime sees? When she smiled, you saw how beautiful she was, truly.I loved a maid as fair as summer, with sunlight in her hair.

Tyrion VI, Clash 25

We also recalled that he learned what must be the third line of the song...

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Shae stood in the door behind him, dressed in the silvery robe he'd given her. I loved a maid as white as winter, with moonglow in her hair.

Tyrion X, Clash 44

Since winter is opposite to summer, Shae is opposite to Tysha. While that caught my eye, it was the second line that made my head turn...

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After a time the candle guttered and went out. Moonlight slanted between the slats of the shutters, laying pale silvery bars across her father's face. She could hear the soft whisper of his labored breathing, the endless rush of waters, the faint chords of some love song drifting up from the yard, so sad and sweet. "I loved a maid as red as autumn," Rymund sang, "with sunset in her hair."

Catelyn VII, Clash 55

This was right before Catelyn played matchmaker with Jaime and Brienne the Beauty.

So, we have Tyrion and Tysha followed by Tyrion and Shae, and we have Jaime and Cersei followed by Jaime and Brienne. 

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  • 4 months later...
5 hours ago, Lost Melnibonean said:

Does anybody else get a Shakespearean vibe from Braavos? Braavos is described like Venice through Shakespeare's lens, no? 

Yes.  What were you referring to specifically?

By the way, this is a great post (P.S. @Isobel Harper  In light of our previous 'hey nonny nonny' discussion, you might like this thread in general!):

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On 8/25/2016 at 11:54 AM, Springwatch said:

Nice OP. There's another song that might fit here - 'Seasons of my Love', which also uses that striking imagery of [something] in the maid's hair (leaving innuendo aside!). The summer maiden is fair and has sunlight in her hair - is she a honey blonde? Or is it the missing spring maiden, who strictly speaking should have the light of dawn in her hair? - but that won't scan. Maybe it's the sweetness of spring instead.

Around the middle of Game, we learned that Tyrion’s true love, Tysha, sang a song to him...

Quote

 

"Do you know this song?" he asked.

"You hear it here and there, in inns and whorehouses."

"Myrish. ‘The Seasons of My Love.' Sweet and sad, if you understand the words. The first girl I ever bedded used to sing it, and I've never been able to put it out of my head."

 

Tyrion VI, Game 42

As Tyrion lied near death after the Battle of the Blackwater, we learned a line from the song...

Quote

They would kiss for hours, and spend whole days doing no more than lolling in bed, listening to the waves, and touching each other. Her body was a wonder to him, and she seemed to find delight in his. Sometimes she would sing to him. I loved a maid as fair as summer, with sunlight in her hair. "I love you, Tyrion," she would whisper before they went to sleep at night. "I love your lips. I love your voice, and the words you say to me, and how you treat me gentle. I love your face."

Tyrion XV, Clash 67

This was reiterated early in Storm...

Quote

"No. If I've given offense, forgive me. I had my own love once, and we had a song as well." I loved a maid as fair as summer, with sunlight in her hair.

Tyrion II, Storm 12

And we recalled Lancel singing the song to Cersei...

Quote

Through the door came the soft sound of the high harp, mingled with a trilling of pipes. The singer's voice was muffled by the thick walls, yet Tyrion knew the verse. I loved a maid as fair as summer, he remembered, with sunlight in her hair . . .

Tyrion VI, Clash 25

Interestingly, Tyrion wonders whether Jaime thinks of Cersei with this first verse in mind...

Quote

Is this the Cersei that Jaime sees? When she smiled, you saw how beautiful she was, truly.I loved a maid as fair as summer, with sunlight in her hair.

Tyrion VI, Clash 25

We also recalled that he learned what must be the third line of the song...

Quote

Shae stood in the door behind him, dressed in the silvery robe he'd given her. I loved a maid as white as winter, with moonglow in her hair.

Tyrion X, Clash 44

Since winter is opposite to summer, Shae is opposite to Tysha. While that caught my eye, it was the second line that made my head turn...

Quote

After a time the candle guttered and went out. Moonlight slanted between the slats of the shutters, laying pale silvery bars across her father's face. She could hear the soft whisper of his labored breathing, the endless rush of waters, the faint chords of some love song drifting up from the yard, so sad and sweet. "I loved a maid as red as autumn," Rymund sang, "with sunset in her hair."

Catelyn VII, Clash 55

This was right before Catelyn played matchmaker with Jaime and Brienne the Beauty.

So, we have Tyrion and Tysha followed by Tyrion and Shae, and we have Jaime and Cersei followed by Jaime and Brienne. 

How do you interpret the summer (sun light--blonde), autumn (sunset light--red) and winter (moon light--white) in the hair?  What do the different maids and seasons signify on a symbolic level in your opinion?  For one, the latter seems to be associated with death, given Cat overhearing the song while watching her father dying and hearing the song of the river coming to claim its own.

You seem very well versed in songs and poems -- I wish you would leave something on my poetry thread!  :) (you can be as irreverent-- even 'arrogant' -- as you like!)

 

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12 minutes ago, ravenous reader said:

Yes.  What were you referring to specifically?

By the way, this is a great post (P.S. @Isobel Harper  In light of our previous 'hey nonny nonny' discussion, you might like this thread in general!):

How do you interpret the summer (sun light--blonde), autumn (sunset light--red) and winter (moon light--white) in the hair?  What do the different maids and seasons signify on a symbolic level in your opinion?  For one, the latter seems to be associated with death, given Cat overhearing the song while watching her father dying and hearing the song of the river coming to claim its own.

You seem very well versed in songs and poems -- I wish you would leave something on my poetry thread!  :) (you can be as irreverent-- even 'arrogant' -- as you like!)

 

I wish I were better versed in songs and poetry. 

As to the Shakespearean vibe, I was really thinking about the multitude of colorful bit players, the dueling bravos, and of course the competing playwrights and companies. Also, weren't a good portion of Shakespeare's plays set in Italy? I can think of two that were set in Venice, which, aside from the weather, seems to be part of the inspiration for Braavos. 

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32 minutes ago, Lost Melnibonean said:

I wish I were better versed in songs and poetry. 

As to the Shakespearean vibe, I was really thinking about the multitude of colorful bit players, the dueling bravos, and of course the competing playwrights and companies. Also, weren't a good portion of Shakespeare's plays set in Italy? I can think of two that were set in Venice, which, aside from the weather, seems to be part of the inspiration for Braavos. 

Yes, Venice, Verona, Messina, Rome....

I was re-reading AFFC and I had the same thought: Braavos looks a lot like Venice. Even the atmosphere...

 

It could be an interesting thread:  inspiration for places :P 

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  • 1 year later...

In response to this. Sorry it's a bit rambling. 

On ‎8‎/‎25‎/‎2016 at 5:13 PM, Lost Melnibonean said:
On ‎8‎/‎25‎/‎2016 at 11:54 AM, Springwatch said:

Nice OP. There's another song that might fit here - 'Seasons of my Love', which also uses that striking imagery of [something] in the maid's hair (leaving innuendo aside!). The summer maiden is fair and has sunlight in her hair - is she a honey blonde? Or is it the missing spring maiden, who strictly speaking should have the light of dawn in her hair? - but that won't scan. Maybe it's the sweetness of spring instead.

Around the middle of Game, we learned that Tyrion’s true love, Tysha, sang a song to him...

Quote

 

"Do you know this song?" he asked.

"You hear it here and there, in inns and whorehouses."

"Myrish. ‘The Seasons of My Love.' Sweet and sad, if you understand the words. The first girl I ever bedded used to sing it, and I've never been able to put it out of my head."

 

Tyrion VI, Game 42

As Tyrion lied near death after the Battle of the Blackwater, we learned a line from the song...

Quote

They would kiss for hours, and spend whole days doing no more than lolling in bed, listening to the waves, and touching each other. Her body was a wonder to him, and she seemed to find delight in his. Sometimes she would sing to him. I loved a maid as fair as summer, with sunlight in her hair. "I love you, Tyrion," she would whisper before they went to sleep at night. "I love your lips. I love your voice, and the words you say to me, and how you treat me gentle. I love your face."

Tyrion XV, Clash 67

This was reiterated early in Storm...

Quote

"No. If I've given offense, forgive me. I had my own love once, and we had a song as well." I loved a maid as fair as summer, with sunlight in her hair.

Tyrion II, Storm 12

And we recalled Lancel singing the song to Cersei...

Quote

Through the door came the soft sound of the high harp, mingled with a trilling of pipes. The singer's voice was muffled by the thick walls, yet Tyrion knew the verse. I loved a maid as fair as summer, he remembered, with sunlight in her hair . . .

Tyrion VI, Clash 25

Interestingly, Tyrion wonders whether Jaime thinks of Cersei with this first verse in mind...

Quote

Is this the Cersei that Jaime sees? When she smiled, you saw how beautiful she was, truly.I loved a maid as fair as summer, with sunlight in her hair.

Tyrion VI, Clash 25

We also recalled that he learned what must be the third line of the song...

Quote

Shae stood in the door behind him, dressed in the silvery robe he'd given her. I loved a maid as white as winter, with moonglow in her hair.

Tyrion X, Clash 44

Since winter is opposite to summer, Shae is opposite to Tysha. While that caught my eye, it was the second line that made my head turn...

Quote

After a time the candle guttered and went out. Moonlight slanted between the slats of the shutters, laying pale silvery bars across her father's face. She could hear the soft whisper of his labored breathing, the endless rush of waters, the faint chords of some love song drifting up from the yard, so sad and sweet. "I loved a maid as red as autumn," Rymund sang, "with sunset in her hair."

Catelyn VII, Clash 55

This was right before Catelyn played matchmaker with Jaime and Brienne the Beauty.

So, we have Tyrion and Tysha followed by Tyrion and Shae, and we have Jaime and Cersei followed by Jaime and Brienne. 

Edited December 14, 2016 by Lost Melnibonean

I have Lannisters on the brain lately, so maybe keep this mind. I noticed that all of these are connected to Lannisters so I’m seeing it as an extension of some themes which keep coming up with them. 

 Lannister men in general seem to fall in love very hard and they become highly susceptible to influence for good or bad. Tytos was being seduced by Ellyn Reyne because she had aspirations of the Reynes gaining control of Casterly Rock, but he was so devoted to his wife, he resisted. Upon her death, he was despondent, but later fell for and came under the influence a commoner who came to too much power. Tywin only smiled for Joanna and never remarried. He was later found with Shae for all of his preaching against Tyrion’s whoring. Jaime has Cersei who influenced him in the negative and Brienne who influences him in the positive. Tyrion had Tysha and later Shae. They also tend to confuse whores and wives allowing for them to be easily fooled when they fall. Jorah and Lynesse are an extension of this. The only characters described with spun gold hair are Lannisters and Lynesse is consistent with the wife/whore confusion which is so pervasive when it comes to Lannisters. They even met at a tourney in Lannisport. Not sure if she has Lannister blood or if she’s just a symbolic Lannister. Jorah certainly falls like a Lannister man. I think it's possible honey and gold are part of the same theme as gold also compels people to do unwise things in pursuit of it.  

A bear is compelled to honey, often against better judgement. The Bear and the Maiden Fair is what the Bear hopes to happen perhaps why bears tend to forget the potential for the sting later. Things in the hair in general seem to go along with this idea, that of drawing a man in possibly against his better judgement in an attempt at gaining influence over a man. Perhaps hair is a snare? A thing that gets tangled and entangles? 

Don’t laugh too hard, but I really see it like this though it's much darker in ASOIAF:

 

When Catelyn is killed, she mourns her hair, as Ned loved her hair. Lysa is swarmed with suitors who clearly only want her status and money and the only beauty left to her is her hair. Sansa had poison in her hair at the purple wedding. Dany's hair is part of the lure for Jorah and lots others. 

Jon is still entangled in Ygritte's kissed by fire hair well into ADWD. I might be in a minority here, but I think Jon was manipulated by Ygritte though I think her feelings were sincere later. When one needs to get to the other side of the Wall to just survive, having the KitN’s brother raised at Winterfell is quite useful and may prove to be essential. Mel has similar fire and copper in her hair and she ensnares, as well.

 

ASOS Jaime IX Cersei has her hair in a gemstone net (remember, Sansa’s was poisonous) when she tries to snare Jaime to her side. Her hair was bound when she tells him the truth that she’s lied to him a thousand times.

She stood beside the open window, looking over the curtain walls and out to sea. The bay wind swirled around her, flattening her gown against her body in a way that quickened Jaime's pulse. It was white, that gown, like the hangings on the wall and the draperies on his bed. Swirls of tiny emeralds brightened the ends of her wide sleeves and spiraled down her bodice. Larger emeralds were set in the golden spiderweb that bound her golden hair. The gown was cut low, to bare her shoulders and the tops of her breasts. She is so beautiful. He wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms.

"Cersei." He closed the door softly. "Why are you here?"

"Where else could I go?" When she turned to him there were tears in her eyes. "Father's made it clear that I am no longer wanted on the council. Jaime, won't you talk to him?"

His sister fought back tears. "Jaime, you're my shining knight. You cannot abandon me when I need you most! He is stealing my son, sending me away . . . and unless you stop him, Father is going to force me to wed again!"

"You great golden fool. He's lied to you a thousand times, and so have I." She bound up her hair again, and scooped up the hairnet from the bedpost where she'd hung it. "Think what you will. The little monster is in a black cell, and soon Ser Ilyn will have his head off. Perhaps you'd like it for a keepsake." She glanced at the pillow. "He can watch over you as you sleep alone in that cold white bed. Until his eyes rot out, that is."

TWOW Alayne Spoilers

Spoiler

TWOW Alayne I

Petyr put his arm around her. "So he is, but he is Robert's heir as well. Bringing Harry here was the first step in our plan, but now we need to keep him, and only you can do that. He has a weakness for a pretty face, and whose face is prettier than yours? Charm him. Entrance him. Bewitch him."

"I don't know how," she said miserably.


"Oh, I think you do," said Littlefinger, with one of those smiles that did not reach his eyes. "You will be the most beautiful woman in the hall tonight, as lovely as your lady mother at your age. I cannot seat you on the dais, but you'll have a place of honor above the salt and underneath a wall sconce. The fire will be shining in your hair, so everyone will see how fair of face you are. Keep a good long spoon on hand to beat the squires off, sweetling. You will not want green boys underfoot when the knights come round to beg you for your favor."

 

 

Cersei loses interest in Jaime as he loses his hair. 

ASOS Jaime VII

Our boy. "I came as fast I could." He broke from the embrace, and stepped back a pace. "It's war out there, Sister."

"You look so thin. And your hair, your golden hair . . ."

"The hair will grow back." Jaime lifted his stump. She needs to see. "This won't."

AFFC Jaime III (That Cersei is coming to associate Jaime with Robert says a lot about her fading feelings)

I had hoped that by now you would have grown tired of that wretched beard. All that hair makes you look like Robert." His sister had put aside her mourning for a jade-green gown with sleeves of silver Myrish lace. An emerald the size of a pigeon's egg hung on a golden chain about her neck.

"Robert's beard was black. Mine is gold."

"Gold? Or silver?" Cersei plucked a hair from beneath his chin and held it up. It was grey. "All the color is draining out of you, brother. You've become a ghost of what you were, a pale crippled thing. And so bloodless, always in white." She flicked the hair away. "I prefer you garbed in crimson and gold."

 

AFFC Jaime I

Jaime had seen Kettleblack naked in the bathhouse, had seen the black hair on his chest, and the coarser thatch between his legs. He pictured that chest pressed against his sister's, that hair scratching the soft skin of her breasts. She would not do that. The Imp lied. Spun gold and black wire tangled, sweaty. Kettleblack's narrow cheeks clenching each time he thrust. Jaime could hear his sister moan. No. A lie.

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

For the Seasons of my Love, I see the seasons as stages especially when there is deception involved. If it's dawn, the capture is happening. If it's summer, he's fully caught. If it's autumn then it's fading. Winter - it's gone. 

Lancel and Tyrion both sing of summer in the hair and at this point, they're deep in love. But attached to both of these passages is deception. When Tyrion compares Lancel to Jaime, it's because he's being used and the sting is yet to come. 

ACOK Tyrion VII

Tyrion allowed himself a moment to feel sorry for the boy. Another fool, and a weakling as well, but he does not deserve what Cersei and I are doing to him. It was a kindness that his uncle Kevan had two other sons; this one was unlikely to live out the year. Cersei would have him killed out of hand if she learned he was betraying her, and if by some grace of the gods she did not, Lancel would never survive the day Jaime Lannister returned to King's Landing. The only question would be whether Jaime cut him down in a jealous rage, or Cersei murdered him first to keep Jaime from finding out. Tyrion's silver was on Cersei.

 

 

You noted how Tysha and Shea connect with the song, and I found the following. Tyrion thinks he hears what I assume to be this song but he can't recall the words. Shea has replaced Tysha. Tyrion has stopped warning himself against Shea and has fully fallen. 

ACOK Tyrion VII

As he left the stable on his piebald gelding, Tyrion heard the sound of music drifting over the rooftops. It was pleasant to think that men still sang, even in the midst of butchery and famine. Remembered notes filled his head, and for a moment he could almost hear Tysha as she'd sung to him half a lifetime ago. He reined up to listen. The tune was wrong, the words too faint to hear. A different song then, and why not? His sweet innocent Tysha had been a lie start to finish, only a whore his brother Jaime had hired to make him a man.

I'm free of Tysha now, he thought. She's haunted me half my life, but I don't need her anymore, no more than I need Alayaya or Dancy or Marei, or the hundreds like them I've bedded with over the years. I have Shae now. Shae.

 

 

ACOK Tyrion XV I think we get clues on how to interpret things surrounding the text. Earlier in the chapter where Tyrion remembers Tysha’s summer verse, we get how the winter verse must look. I think we also see this when in the quote I used above, she pulls a silver hair from him and says all of the color is draining from him. Cersei is done with him.

He found himself outside the city, walking through a world without color. Ravens soared through a grey sky on wide black wings, while carrion crows rose from their feasts in furious clouds wherever he set his steps. White maggots burrowed through black corruption. The wolves were grey, and so were the silent sisters; together they stripped the flesh from the fallen. There were corpses strewn all over the tourney fields. The sun was a hot white penny, shining down upon the grey river as it rushed around the charred bones of sunken ships. From the pyres of the dead rose black columns of smoke and white-hot ashes. My work, thought Tyrion Lannister. They died at my command. 

...

They would kiss for hours, and spend whole days doing no more than lolling in bed, listening to the waves, and touching each other. Her body was a wonder to him, and she seemed to find delight in his. Sometimes she would sing to him. I loved a maid as fair as summer, with sunlight in her hair. "I love you, Tyrion," she would whisper before they went to sleep at night. "I love your lips. I love your voice, and the words you say to me, and how you treat me gentle. I love your face."

"My face?"

"Yes. Yes. I love your hands, and how you touch me. Your cock, I love your cock, I love how it feels when it's in me."

"It loves you too, my lady."

"I love to say your name. Tyrion Lannister. It goes with mine. Not the Lannister, t'other part. Tyrion and Tysha. Tysha and Tyrion. Tyrion. My lord Tyrion . . ."

Lies, he thought, all feigned, all for gold, she was a whore, Jaime's whore, Jaime's gift, my lady of the lie. Her face seemed to fade away, dissolving behind a veil of tears, but even after she was gone he could still hear the faint, far-off sound of her voice, calling his name. ". . . my lord, can you hear me? My lord? Tyrion? My lord? My lord?" 

 

 

For Shae being colorless, I think Tyrion's dream of death and walking though a world without color is a big hint as to how to interpret her. It's consistent when broadening the passage itself.

ACOK Tyrion X (Probably significantly, Tyrion finds Shae with Symon Silver Tongue and is not happy about it as it might lead to discovery. Tyrion and Shae have a very bad fight here which I’ve cut short. She wants to be his wife, or at least openly acknowledged, but Tyrion tells her about Tysha which he immediately regrets. Basically, Tyrion will never give her what she has come to want (incidentally, the same happens with Bronn in this chapter). The chapter ends with plans to move Shae into the castle and speculating about Tywin’s possible return and we know how that turns out. I have to think that this was the end—winter—for Shae, and she began to make plans to move on unbeknownst to Tyrion. Note that the rank smell is initially attached to Shae, not Varys, as read by the reader. 

A whiff of something rank made him turn his head. Shae stood in the door behind him, dressed in the silvery robe he'd given her. I loved a maid as white as winter, with moonglow in her hair. Behind her stood one of the begging brothers, a portly man in filthy patched robes, his bare feet crusty with dirt, a bowl hung about his neck on a leather thong where a septon would have worn a crystal. The smell of him would have gagged a rat.

"Lord Varys has come to see you," Shae announced.

The begging brother blinked at her, astonished. Tyrion laughed. "To be sure. How is it you knew him when I did not?"

She shrugged. "It's still him. Only dressed different."

"A different look, a different smell, a different way of walking," said Tyrion. "Most men would be deceived."

"And most women, maybe. But not whores. A whore learns to see the man, not his garb, or she turns up dead in an alley."

Varys looked pained, and not because of the false scabs on his feet. Tyrion chuckled. "Shae, would you bring us some wine?" He might need a drink. Whatever brought the eunuch here in the dead of night was not like to be good.

"I almost fear to tell you why I've come, my lord," Varys said when Shae had left them. "I bring dire tidings."  {Stannis has won Storm’s End and is now free to march on KL}

"You ought to dress in black feathers, Varys, you're as bad an omen as any raven." Awkwardly, Tyrion pushed to his feet, half afraid to ask the next question. "Is it Jaime?" If they have harmed him, nothing will save them.

"By your stupid father." Shae pouted. "You're old enough to keep all the whores you want. Does he take you for a beardless boy? What could he do, spank you?"

He slapped her. Not hard, but hard enough. "Damn you," he said. "Damn you. Never mock me. Not you."

For a moment Shae did not speak. The only sound was the cricket, chirping, chirping. "Beg pardon, m'lord," she said at last, in a heavy wooden voice. "I never meant to be impudent."

 

There is no song for dawn in the hair that I found but I did find this. At the beginning of his capture, we see dawn putting the color back into Jaime's hair. Jaime coming to Catelyn is a striking parallel to Eddard's execution. 

AGOT Catelyn X (Jaime gets the color put into his hair at dawn upon meeting Catelyn;)

A mob of men followed him up the slope, dirty and dented and grinning, with Theon and the Greatjon at their head. Between them they dragged Ser Jaime Lannister. They threw him down in front of her horse. "The Kingslayer," Hal announced, unnecessarily.

Lannister raised his head. "Lady Stark," he said from his knees. Blood ran down one cheek from a gash across his scalp, but the pale light of dawn had put the glint of gold back in his hair. "I would offer you my sword, but I seem to have mislaid it."

"It is not your sword I want, ser," she told him. "Give me my father and my brother Edmure. Give me my daughters. Give me my lord husband."

"I have mislaid them as well, I fear."

...

"He mislaid his sword in Eddard Karstark's neck, after he took Torrhen's hand off and split Daryn Hornwood's skull open," Robb said. "All the time he was shouting for me. If they hadn't tried to stop him—"

AGOT Arya V

Lord Eddard stood on the High Septon's pulpit outside the doors of the sept, supported between two of the gold cloaks. He was dressed in a rich grey velvet doublet with a white wolf sewn on the front in beads, and a grey wool cloak trimmed with fur, but he was thinner than Arya had ever seen him, his long face drawn with pain. He was not standing so much as being held up; the cast over his broken leg was grey and rotten.

...

A stone came sailing out of the crowd. Arya cried out as she saw her father hit. The gold cloaks kept him from falling. Blood ran down his face from a deep gash across his forehead. More stones followed. One struck the guard to Father's left. Another went clanging off the breastplate of the knight in the black-and-gold armor. Two of the Kingsguard stepped in front of Joffrey and the queen, protecting them with their shields.

High atop the pulpit, Ser Ilyn Payne gestured and the knight in black-and-gold gave a command. The gold cloaks flung Lord Eddard to the marble, with his head and chest out over the edge.

 

I have more to say on Catelyn/Jaime/Brienne and the sunset hair but I'd like to dig more into it. 

 

 

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6 hours ago, Lollygag said:

In response to this. Sorry it's a bit rambling. 

I have Lannisters on the brain lately, so maybe keep this mind. I noticed that all of these are connected to Lannisters so I’m seeing it as an extension of some themes which keep coming up with them. 

 Lannister men in general seem to fall in love very hard and they become highly susceptible to influence for good or bad. Tytos was being seduced by Ellyn Reyne because she had aspirations of the Reynes gaining control of Casterly Rock, but he was so devoted to his wife, he resisted. Upon her death, he was despondent, but later fell for and came under the influence a commoner who came to too much power. Tywin only smiled for Joanna and never remarried. He was later found with Shae for all of his preaching against Tyrion’s whoring. Jaime has Cersei who influenced him in the negative and Brienne who influences him in the positive. Tyrion had Tysha and later Shae. They also tend to confuse whores and wives allowing for them to be easily fooled when they fall. Jorah and Lynesse are an extension of this. The only characters described with spun gold hair are Lannisters and Lynesse is consistent with the wife/whore confusion which is so pervasive when it comes to Lannisters. They even met at a tourney in Lannisport. Not sure if she has Lannister blood or if she’s just a symbolic Lannister. Jorah certainly falls like a Lannister man. I think it's possible honey and gold are part of the same theme as gold also compels people to do unwise things in pursuit of it.  

A bear is compelled to honey, often against better judgement. The Bear and the Maiden Fair is what the Bear hopes to happen perhaps why bears tend to forget the potential for the sting later. Things in the hair in general seem to go along with this idea, that of drawing a man in possibly against his better judgement in an attempt at gaining influence over a man. Perhaps hair is a snare? A thing that gets tangled and entangles? 

Don’t laugh too hard, but I really see it like this though it's much darker in ASOIAF:

 

 

When Catelyn is killed, she mourns her hair, as Ned loved her hair. Lysa is swarmed with suitors who clearly only want her status and money and the only beauty left to her is her hair. Sansa had poison in her hair at the purple wedding. Dany's hair is part of the lure for Jorah and lots others. 

Jon is still entangled in Ygritte's kissed by fire hair well into ADWD. I might be in a minority here, but I think Jon was manipulated by Ygritte though I think her feelings were sincere later. When one needs to get to the other side of the Wall to just survive, having the KitN’s brother raised at Winterfell is quite useful and may prove to be essential. Mel has similar fire and copper in her hair and she ensnares, as well.

 

 

ASOS Jaime IX Cersei has her hair in a gemstone net (remember, Sansa’s was poisonous) when she tries to snare Jaime to her side. Her hair was bound when she tells him the truth that she’s lied to him a thousand times.

 

She stood beside the open window, looking over the curtain walls and out to sea. The bay wind swirled around her, flattening her gown against her body in a way that quickened Jaime's pulse. It was white, that gown, like the hangings on the wall and the draperies on his bed. Swirls of tiny emeralds brightened the ends of her wide sleeves and spiraled down her bodice. Larger emeralds were set in the golden spiderweb that bound her golden hair. The gown was cut low, to bare her shoulders and the tops of her breasts. She is so beautiful. He wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms.

 

"Cersei." He closed the door softly. "Why are you here?"

 

"Where else could I go?" When she turned to him there were tears in her eyes. "Father's made it clear that I am no longer wanted on the council. Jaime, won't you talk to him?"

 

 

His sister fought back tears. "Jaime, you're my shining knight. You cannot abandon me when I need you most! He is stealing my son, sending me away . . . and unless you stop him, Father is going to force me to wed again!"

 

 

"You great golden fool. He's lied to you a thousand times, and so have I." She bound up her hair again, and scooped up the hairnet from the bedpost where she'd hung it. "Think what you will. The little monster is in a black cell, and soon Ser Ilyn will have his head off. Perhaps you'd like it for a keepsake." She glanced at the pillow. "He can watch over you as you sleep alone in that cold white bed. Until his eyes rot out, that is."

 

TWOW Alayne Spoilers

  Hide contents

TWOW Alayne I

 

Petyr put his arm around her. "So he is, but he is Robert's heir as well. Bringing Harry here was the first step in our plan, but now we need to keep him, and only you can do that. He has a weakness for a pretty face, and whose face is prettier than yours? Charm him. Entrance him. Bewitch him."

"I don't know how," she said miserably.

 


"Oh, I think you do," said Littlefinger, with one of those smiles that did not reach his eyes. "You will be the most beautiful woman in the hall tonight, as lovely as your lady mother at your age. I cannot seat you on the dais, but you'll have a place of honor above the salt and underneath a wall sconce. The fire will be shining in your hair, so everyone will see how fair of face you are. Keep a good long spoon on hand to beat the squires off, sweetling. You will not want green boys underfoot when the knights come round to beg you for your favor."

 

 

 

 

Cersei loses interest in Jaime as he loses his hair. 

ASOS Jaime VII

 

Our boy. "I came as fast I could." He broke from the embrace, and stepped back a pace. "It's war out there, Sister."

 

"You look so thin. And your hair, your golden hair . . ."

 

"The hair will grow back." Jaime lifted his stump. She needs to see. "This won't."

 

AFFC Jaime III (That Cersei is coming to associate Jaime with Robert says a lot about her fading feelings)

 

I had hoped that by now you would have grown tired of that wretched beard. All that hair makes you look like Robert." His sister had put aside her mourning for a jade-green gown with sleeves of silver Myrish lace. An emerald the size of a pigeon's egg hung on a golden chain about her neck.

 

"Robert's beard was black. Mine is gold."

 

"Gold? Or silver?" Cersei plucked a hair from beneath his chin and held it up. It was grey. "All the color is draining out of you, brother. You've become a ghost of what you were, a pale crippled thing. And so bloodless, always in white." She flicked the hair away. "I prefer you garbed in crimson and gold."

 

 

 

AFFC Jaime I

 

Jaime had seen Kettleblack naked in the bathhouse, had seen the black hair on his chest, and the coarser thatch between his legs. He pictured that chest pressed against his sister's, that hair scratching the soft skin of her breasts. She would not do that. The Imp lied. Spun gold and black wire tangled, sweaty. Kettleblack's narrow cheeks clenching each time he thrust. Jaime could hear his sister moan. No. A lie.

 

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

 

 

For the Seasons of my Love, I see the seasons as stages especially when there is deception involved. If it's dawn, the capture is happening. If it's summer, he's fully caught. If it's autumn then it's fading. Winter - it's gone. 

Lancel and Tyrion both sing of summer in the hair and at this point, they're deep in love. But attached to both of these passages is deception. When Tyrion compares Lancel to Jaime, it's because he's being used and the sting is yet to come. 

ACOK Tyrion VII

 

Tyrion allowed himself a moment to feel sorry for the boy. Another fool, and a weakling as well, but he does not deserve what Cersei and I are doing to him. It was a kindness that his uncle Kevan had two other sons; this one was unlikely to live out the year. Cersei would have him killed out of hand if she learned he was betraying her, and if by some grace of the gods she did not, Lancel would never survive the day Jaime Lannister returned to King's Landing. The only question would be whether Jaime cut him down in a jealous rage, or Cersei murdered him first to keep Jaime from finding out. Tyrion's silver was on Cersei.

 

 

 

 

You noted how Tysha and Shea connect with the song, and I found the following. Tyrion thinks he hears what I assume to be this song but he can't recall the words. Shea has replaced Tysha. Tyrion has stopped warning himself against Shea and has fully fallen. 

ACOK Tyrion VII

 

As he left the stable on his piebald gelding, Tyrion heard the sound of music drifting over the rooftops. It was pleasant to think that men still sang, even in the midst of butchery and famine. Remembered notes filled his head, and for a moment he could almost hear Tysha as she'd sung to him half a lifetime ago. He reined up to listen. The tune was wrong, the words too faint to hear. A different song then, and why not? His sweet innocent Tysha had been a lie start to finish, only a whore his brother Jaime had hired to make him a man.

 

I'm free of Tysha now, he thought. She's haunted me half my life, but I don't need her anymore, no more than I need Alayaya or Dancy or Marei, or the hundreds like them I've bedded with over the years. I have Shae now. Shae.

 

 

 

ACOK Tyrion XV I think we get clues on how to interpret things surrounding the text. Earlier in the chapter where Tyrion remembers Tysha’s summer verse, we get how the winter verse must look. I think we also see this when in the quote I used above, she pulls a silver hair from him and says all of the color is draining from him. Cersei is done with him.

 

He found himself outside the city, walking through a world without color. Ravens soared through a grey sky on wide black wings, while carrion crows rose from their feasts in furious clouds wherever he set his steps. White maggots burrowed through black corruption. The wolves were grey, and so were the silent sisters; together they stripped the flesh from the fallen. There were corpses strewn all over the tourney fields. The sun was a hot white penny, shining down upon the grey river as it rushed around the charred bones of sunken ships. From the pyres of the dead rose black columns of smoke and white-hot ashes. My work, thought Tyrion Lannister. They died at my command. 

...

 

They would kiss for hours, and spend whole days doing no more than lolling in bed, listening to the waves, and touching each other. Her body was a wonder to him, and she seemed to find delight in his. Sometimes she would sing to him. I loved a maid as fair as summer, with sunlight in her hair. "I love you, Tyrion," she would whisper before they went to sleep at night. "I love your lips. I love your voice, and the words you say to me, and how you treat me gentle. I love your face."

 

"My face?"

 

"Yes. Yes. I love your hands, and how you touch me. Your cock, I love your cock, I love how it feels when it's in me."

 

"It loves you too, my lady."

 

"I love to say your name. Tyrion Lannister. It goes with mine. Not the Lannister, t'other part. Tyrion and Tysha. Tysha and Tyrion. Tyrion. My lord Tyrion . . ."

 

Lies, he thought, all feigned, all for gold, she was a whore, Jaime's whore, Jaime's gift, my lady of the lie. Her face seemed to fade away, dissolving behind a veil of tears, but even after she was gone he could still hear the faint, far-off sound of her voice, calling his name. ". . . my lord, can you hear me? My lord? Tyrion? My lord? My lord?" 

 

 

 

 

For Shae being colorless, I think Tyrion's dream of death and walking though a world without color is a big hint as to how to interpret her. It's consistent when broadening the passage itself.

ACOK Tyrion X (Probably significantly, Tyrion finds Shae with Symon Silver Tongue and is not happy about it as it might lead to discovery. Tyrion and Shae have a very bad fight here which I’ve cut short. She wants to be his wife, or at least openly acknowledged, but Tyrion tells her about Tysha which he immediately regrets. Basically, Tyrion will never give her what she has come to want (incidentally, the same happens with Bronn in this chapter). The chapter ends with plans to move Shae into the castle and speculating about Tywin’s possible return and we know how that turns out. I have to think that this was the end—winter—for Shae, and she began to make plans to move on unbeknownst to Tyrion. Note that the rank smell is initially attached to Shae, not Varys, as read by the reader. 

A whiff of something rank made him turn his head. Shae stood in the door behind him, dressed in the silvery robe he'd given her. I loved a maid as white as winter, with moonglow in her hair. Behind her stood one of the begging brothers, a portly man in filthy patched robes, his bare feet crusty with dirt, a bowl hung about his neck on a leather thong where a septon would have worn a crystal. The smell of him would have gagged a rat.

 

"Lord Varys has come to see you," Shae announced.

 

The begging brother blinked at her, astonished. Tyrion laughed. "To be sure. How is it you knew him when I did not?"

 

She shrugged. "It's still him. Only dressed different."

 

"A different look, a different smell, a different way of walking," said Tyrion. "Most men would be deceived."

 

"And most women, maybe. But not whores. A whore learns to see the man, not his garb, or she turns up dead in an alley."

 

Varys looked pained, and not because of the false scabs on his feet. Tyrion chuckled. "Shae, would you bring us some wine?" He might need a drink. Whatever brought the eunuch here in the dead of night was not like to be good.

 

"I almost fear to tell you why I've come, my lord," Varys said when Shae had left them. "I bring dire tidings."  {Stannis has won Storm’s End and is now free to march on KL}

 

"You ought to dress in black feathers, Varys, you're as bad an omen as any raven." Awkwardly, Tyrion pushed to his feet, half afraid to ask the next question. "Is it Jaime?" If they have harmed him, nothing will save them.

 

 

"By your stupid father." Shae pouted. "You're old enough to keep all the whores you want. Does he take you for a beardless boy? What could he do, spank you?"

 

He slapped her. Not hard, but hard enough. "Damn you," he said. "Damn you. Never mock me. Not you."

 

For a moment Shae did not speak. The only sound was the cricket, chirping, chirping. "Beg pardon, m'lord," she said at last, in a heavy wooden voice. "I never meant to be impudent."

 

 

 

There is no song for dawn in the hair that I found but I did find this. At the beginning of his capture, we see dawn putting the color back into Jaime's hair. Jaime coming to Catelyn is a striking parallel to Eddard's execution. 

AGOT Catelyn X (Jaime gets the color put into his hair at dawn upon meeting Catelyn;)

 

A mob of men followed him up the slope, dirty and dented and grinning, with Theon and the Greatjon at their head. Between them they dragged Ser Jaime Lannister. They threw him down in front of her horse. "The Kingslayer," Hal announced, unnecessarily.

 

Lannister raised his head. "Lady Stark," he said from his knees. Blood ran down one cheek from a gash across his scalp, but the pale light of dawn had put the glint of gold back in his hair. "I would offer you my sword, but I seem to have mislaid it."

 

"It is not your sword I want, ser," she told him. "Give me my father and my brother Edmure. Give me my daughters. Give me my lord husband."

 

"I have mislaid them as well, I fear."

 

...

 

"He mislaid his sword in Eddard Karstark's neck, after he took Torrhen's hand off and split Daryn Hornwood's skull open," Robb said. "All the time he was shouting for me. If they hadn't tried to stop him—"

 

AGOT Arya V

 

Lord Eddard stood on the High Septon's pulpit outside the doors of the sept, supported between two of the gold cloaks. He was dressed in a rich grey velvet doublet with a white wolf sewn on the front in beads, and a grey wool cloak trimmed with fur, but he was thinner than Arya had ever seen him, his long face drawn with pain. He was not standing so much as being held up; the cast over his broken leg was grey and rotten.

 

...

 

A stone came sailing out of the crowd. Arya cried out as she saw her father hit. The gold cloaks kept him from falling. Blood ran down his face from a deep gash across his forehead. More stones followed. One struck the guard to Father's left. Another went clanging off the breastplate of the knight in the black-and-gold armor. Two of the Kingsguard stepped in front of Joffrey and the queen, protecting them with their shields.

 

 

High atop the pulpit, Ser Ilyn Payne gestured and the knight in black-and-gold gave a command. The gold cloaks flung Lord Eddard to the marble, with his head and chest out over the edge.

 

 

I have more to say on Catelyn/Jaime/Brienne and the sunset hair but I'd like to dig more into it. 

 

 

 

I didn't laugh. I just read that story to my wee ones a few nights ago. Love the Pooh reference. 

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So on Catelyn/Jaime/Brienne...

On ‎8‎/‎25‎/‎2016 at 5:13 PM, Lost Melnibonean said:

Since winter is opposite to summer, Shae is opposite to Tysha. While that caught my eye, it was the second line that made my head turn...

Quote

After a time the candle guttered and went out. Moonlight slanted between the slats of the shutters, laying pale silvery bars across her father's face. She could hear the soft whisper of his labored breathing, the endless rush of waters, the faint chords of some love song drifting up from the yard, so sad and sweet. "I loved a maid as red as autumn," Rymund sang, "with sunset in her hair."

Catelyn VII, Clash 55

This was right before Catelyn played matchmaker with Jaime and Brienne the Beauty.

So, we have Tyrion and Tysha followed by Tyrion and Shae, and we have Jaime and Cersei followed by Jaime and Brienne. 

 

On ‎2‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 1:46 AM, Lollygag said:

There is no song for dawn in the hair that I found but I did find this. At the beginning of his capture, we see dawn putting the color back into Jaime's hair. Jaime coming to Catelyn is a striking parallel to Eddard's execution. 

AGOT Catelyn X (Jaime gets the color put into his hair at dawn upon meeting Catelyn;)

A mob of men followed him up the slope, dirty and dented and grinning, with Theon and the Greatjon at their head. Between them they dragged Ser Jaime Lannister. They threw him down in front of her horse. "The Kingslayer," Hal announced, unnecessarily. 

Lannister raised his head. "Lady Stark," he said from his knees. Blood ran down one cheek from a gash across his scalp, but the pale light of dawn had put the glint of gold back in his hair. "I would offer you my sword, but I seem to have mislaid it." 

"It is not your sword I want, ser," she told him. "Give me my father and my brother Edmure. Give me my daughters. Give me my lord husband." 

"I have mislaid them as well, I fear." 

...

"He mislaid his sword in Eddard Karstark's neck, after he took Torrhen's hand off and split Daryn Hornwood's skull open," Robb said. "All the time he was shouting for me. If they hadn't tried to stop him—"

AGOT Arya V

Lord Eddard stood on the High Septon's pulpit outside the doors of the sept, supported between two of the gold cloaks. He was dressed in a rich grey velvet doublet with a white wolf sewn on the front in beads, and a grey wool cloak trimmed with fur, but he was thinner than Arya had ever seen him, his long face drawn with pain. He was not standing so much as being held up; the cast over his broken leg was grey and rotten. 

...

A stone came sailing out of the crowd. Arya cried out as she saw her father hit. The gold cloaks kept him from falling. Blood ran down his face from a deep gash across his forehead. More stones followed. One struck the guard to Father's left. Another went clanging off the breastplate of the knight in the black-and-gold armor. Two of the Kingsguard stepped in front of Joffrey and the queen, protecting them with their shields. 

High atop the pulpit, Ser Ilyn Payne gestured and the knight in black-and-gold gave a command. The gold cloaks flung Lord Eddard to the marble, with his head and chest out over the edge.

 

I have more to say on Catelyn/Jaime/Brienne and the sunset hair but I'd like to dig more into it. 

Given that Catelyn sees Jaime with dawn bringing color back into his hair and Jaime is a Ned parallel in this scene (and later as the possessor of 1/2 of Ice, an Oathkeeper, and the one to return Sansa and Arya back from the journey south to which Ned took them), I have to wonder if there's something here just between these two. The song wasn't attached to it so maybe the idea isn't complete and the Jaime/Catelyn story is unfinished, so I'm waiting this one out to see. Jaime is a sort of Ned come back to life (where Catelyn is concerned) as Jaime is to return Sansa and Arya back to life in a way (again where Catelyn is concerned). Hence dawn bringing color back into his hair. It may also imply that Catelyn was a little wooed by Jaime hence she was a bit more willing to put her faith in him. The following sounds a bit romance novel-y:

ACOK Catelyn VI

"The light hurts my eyes. A moment, if you would." Jaime Lannister had been allowed no razor since the night he was taken in the Whispering Wood, and a shaggy beard covered his face, once so like the queen's. Glinting gold in the lamplight, the whiskers made him look like some great yellow beast, magnificent even in chains. His unwashed hair fell to his shoulders in ropes and tangles, the clothes were rotting on his body, his face was pale and wasted . . . and even so, the power and the beauty of the man were still apparent.

...

"No? Then surely it was to have your pleasure of me? It's said that widows grow weary of their empty beds. We of the Kingsguard vow never to wed, but I suppose I could still service you if that's what you need. Pour us some of that wine and slip out of that gown and we'll see if I'm up to it."

Catelyn stared down at him in revulsion. Was there ever a man as beautiful or as vile as this one?

 

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

I think Catelyn and Autumn with Sunset in the hair is about a different sort of lust: blood lust. Like in the above examples from my last post, we have betrayal in Catelyn's against-orders secret release of Jaime which very much compromises their position in the war from their former good position. She ruins their blood lust. In the chapter before the one where we hear the song:

ACOK Catelyn VI

Outside, she found song of a very different sort. Rymund the Rhymer sat by the brewhouse amidst a circle of listeners, his deep voice ringing as he sang of Lord Deremond at the Bloody Meadow.

And there he stood with sword in hand,

the last of Darry's ten . . .

Brienne paused to listen for a moment, broad shoulders hunched and thick arms crossed against her chest. A mob of ragged boys raced by, screeching and flailing at each other with sticks. Why do boys so love to play at war? Catelyn wondered if Rymund was the answer. The singer's voice swelled as he neared the end of his song.

And red the grass beneath his feet,

and red his banners bright,

and red the glow of setting sun

that bathed him in its light.

"Come on, come on," the great lord called,

"my sword is hungry still."

And with a cry of savage rage,

They swarmed across the rill . . .

Throughout Catelyn VI and VII, we see how Catelyn is despondent and disillusioned with war so celebrated by everyone else around her except Brienne. 

ACOK Catelyn VII

The Great Hall of Riverrun was a lonely place for two to sit to supper. Deep shadows draped the walls. One of the torches had guttered out, leaving only three. Catelyn sat staring into her wine goblet. The vintage tasted thin and sour on her tongue. Brienne was across from her. Between them, her father's high seat was as empty as the rest of the hall. Even the servants were gone. She had given them leave to join the celebration.

The walls of the keep were thick, yet even so, they could hear the muffled sounds of revelry from the yard outside. Ser Desmond had brought twenty casks up from the cellars, and the smallfolk were celebrating Edmure's imminent return and Robb's conquest of the Crag by hoisting horns of nut-brown ale.

I cannot blame them, Catelyn thought. They do not know. And if they did, why should they care? They never knew my sons. Never watched Bran climb with their hearts in their throats, pride and terror so mingled they seemed as one, never heard him laugh, never smiled to see Rickon trying so fiercely to be like his older brothers. She stared at the supper set before her: trout wrapped in bacon, salad of turnip greens and red fennel and sweetgrass, pease and onions and hot bread. Brienne was eating methodically, as if supper were another chore to be accomplished. I am become a sour woman, Catelyn thought. I take no joy in mead nor meat, and song and laughter have become suspicious strangers to me. I am a creature of grief and dust and bitter longings. There is an empty place within me where my heart was once.

The sound of the other woman's eating had become intolerable to her. "Brienne, I am no fit company. Go join the revels, if you would. Drink a horn of ale and dance to Rymund's harping."

"I am not made for revels, my lady." Her big hands tore apart a heel of black bread. Brienne stared at the chunks as if she had forgotten what they were. "If you command it, I . . ."

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

Before we get his POV, Jaime was walking blood lust.

ACOK Tyrion XIV

The battle fever. He had never thought to experience it himself, though Jaime had told him of it often enough. How time seemed to blur and slow and even stop, how the past and the future vanished until there was nothing but the instant, how fear fled, and thought fled, and even your body. "You don't feel your wounds then, or the ache in your back from the weight of the armor, or the sweat running down into your eyes. You stop feeling, you stop thinking, you stop being you, there is only the fight, the foe, this man and then the next and the next and the next, and you know they are afraid and tired but you're not, you're alive, and death is all around you but their swords move so slowly, you can dance through them laughing." Battle fever. I am half a man and drunk with slaughter, let them kill me if they can!

AGOT Tyrion V

Tyrion Lannister sighed. His sister was not without a certain low cunning, but her pride blinded her. She would see the insult in this, not the opportunity. And Jaime was even worse, rash and headstrong and quick to anger. His brother never untied a knot when he could slash it in two with his sword.

ACOK Catelyn VI

Ser Cleos stared. "I know nothing of any—"

"You know nothing," she agreed, sweeping from the cell. Brienne fell in beside her, silent. It is simpler for her, Catelyn thought with a pang of envy. She was like a man in that. For men the answer was always the same, and never farther away than the nearest sword. For a woman, a mother, the way was stonier and harder to know.

ASOS Jaime I

"When I quarrel I do it with a sword, coz.

His cousin groaned. "We can't hope to defeat eighteen."

"Did I say we could? The best we can hope for is to die with swords in our hands." He was perfectly sincere. Jaime Lannister had never been afraid of death.

 

 

ACOK Tyrion XII (This passage is interesting as Catelyn herself becomes Stone)

Tyrion stared at the dregs on the bottom of his wine cup. What would Jaime do in my place? Kill the bitch, most likely, and worry about the consequences afterward. But Tyrion did not have a golden sword, nor the skill to wield one. He loved his brother's reckless wrath, but it was their lord father he must try and emulate. Stone, I must be stone, I must be Casterly Rock, hard and unmovable. If I fail this test, I had as lief seek out the nearest grotesquerie. "For all I know, you've killed her already," he said.

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

We get Jaime's bloodlust through his eyes during his last battle. Brienne makes me think of the most hostile and violent baptism ever. A cleansing. Jaime will come to see the lie of blood lust and it'll come at a great cost. 

ASOS Jaime III

"Oh, I will." He sprang to his feet and drove at her, the longsword alive in his hands. Brienne jumped back, parrying, but he followed, pressing the attack. No sooner did she turn one cut than the next was upon her. The swords kissed and sprang apart and kissed again. Jaime's blood was singing. This was what he was meant for; he never felt so alive as when he was fighting, with death balanced on every stroke. And with my wrists chained together, the wench may even give me a contest for a time. His chains forced him to use a two-handed grip, though of course the weight and reach were less than if the blade had been a true two-handed greatsword, but what did it matter? His cousin's sword was long enough to write an end to this Brienne of Tarth.

High, low, overhand, he rained down steel upon her. Left, right, backslash, swinging so hard that sparks flew when the swords came together, upswing, sideslash, overhand, always attacking, moving into her, step and slide, strike and step, step and strike, hacking, slashing, faster, faster, faster . . .

A slick stone turned under Jaime's foot. As he felt himself falling, he twisted the mischance into a diving lunge. His point scraped past her parry and bit into her upper thigh. A red flower blossomed, and Jaime had an instant to savor the sight of her blood before his knee slammed into a rock. The pain was blinding. Brienne splashed into him and kicked away his sword. "YIELD!"

Jaime drove his shoulder into her legs, bringing her down on top of him. They rolled, kicking and punching until finally she was sitting astride him. He managed to jerk her dagger from its sheath, but before he could plunge it into her belly she caught his wrist and slammed his hands back on a rock so hard he thought she'd wrenched an arm from its socket. Her other hand spread across his face. "Yield!" She shoved his head down, held it under, pulled it up. "Yield!" Jaime spit water into her face. A shove, a splash, and he was under again, kicking uselessly, fighting to breathe. Up again. "Yield, or I'll drown you!"

They mean to scare me. The fool hopped on Jaime's back, giggling, as the Dothraki swaggered toward him. The goat wants me to piss my breeches and beg his mercy, but he'll never have that pleasure. He was a Lannister of Casterly Rock, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard; no sellsword would make him scream.

Sunlight ran silver along the edge of the arakh as it came shivering down, almost too fast to see. And Jaime screamed.

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

Upon leaving Riverrun, Jaime begins to take on Catelyn's (and Brienne's) view of war. Jaime's bloodlust looks to be tempered, and later comes to fade taking on Catelyn's melancholy and quiet despair.

ASOS Jaime I

But the war had taken its toll. They sailed past villages, but saw no villagers. An empty net, slashed and torn and hanging from some trees, was the only sign of fisherfolk. A young girl watering her horse rode off as soon as she glimpsed their sail. Later they passed a dozen peasants digging in a field beneath the shell of a burnt towerhouse. The men gazed at them with dull eyes, and went back to their labors once they decided the skiff was no threat.


The crows had scarcely started on their corpses. The thin ropes cut deeply into the soft flesh of their throats, and when the wind blew they twisted and swayed. "This was not chivalrously done," said Brienne when they were close enough to see it clearly. "No true knight would condone such wanton butchery."

"True knights see worse every time they ride to war, wench," said Jaime. "And do worse, yes."

 

ASOS Jaime IV

Brienne was always bound beside him. She lay there in her bonds like a big dead cow, saying not a word. The wench has built a fortress inside herself. They will rape her soon enough, but behind her walls they cannot touch her. But Jaime's walls were gone. They had taken his hand, they had taken his sword hand, and without it he was nothing. The other was no good to him. Since the time he could walk, his left arm had been his shield arm, no more. It was his right hand that made him a knight; his right arm that made him a man.

 

AFFC Jaime I

It was queer, but he felt no grief. Where are my tears? Where is my rage? Jaime Lannister had never lacked for rage. "Father," he told the corpse, "it was you who told me that tears were a mark of weakness in a man, so you cannot expect that I should cry for you."

...

The words echoed in his head in the dimness of Baelor's Sept. Above him, all the windows had gone black, and he could see the faint light of distant stars. The sun had set for good and all. The stench of death was growing stronger, despite the scented candles. The smell reminded Jaime Lannister of the pass below the Golden Tooth, where he had won a glorious victory in the first days of the war. On the morning after the battle, the crows had feasted on victors and vanquished alike, as once they had feasted on Rhaegar Targaryen after the Trident. How much can a crown be worth, when a crow can dine upon a king?

 

AFFC Jaime V

"His bones should be interred beneath the Rock, in the Hall of Heroes," Lady Genna declared. "Where was he laid to rest?"

Nowhere. The Bloody Mummers stripped his corpse and left his flesh to feast the carrion crows. "Beside a stream," he lied. "When this war is done, I will find the place and send him home." Bones were bones; these days, nothing was easier to come by.

 

Enough quotes dammit. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh, wow! I never noticed that the first time we hear about about what I expect is actually a murder ballad, Off to Gulltown, is at the very beginning of The Hedge Knight...

Quote

The spring rains had softened the ground, so Dunk had no trouble digging the grave. He chose a spot on the western slope of a low hill, for the old man had always loved to watch the sunset. “Another day done,” he would sigh, “and who knows what the morrow will bring us, eh, Dunk?” Well, one morrow had brought rains that soaked them to the bones, and the one after had brought wet gusty winds, and the next a chill. By the fourth day the old man was too weak to ride. And now he was gone. Only a few days past, he had been singing as they rode, the old song about going to Gulltownto see a fair maid, but instead of Gulltown he’d sung of Ashford. Off to Ashford to see the fair maid, heigh-ho, heigh-ho, Dunk thought miserably as he dug.

When Ser Duncan the Tall arrived at Ashford, "it seemed as though every lordly house of the west and south had sent a knight or three to Ashford to see the fair maid and brave the lists in her honor." She was "a short girl with yellow hair and a round pink face." She did not seem so fair to Dunk, though. "The puppet girl was prettier." 

Now, here's what I am digging...

The fair maid reigned as Queen of Love and Beauty. 

Hmm... I think I will have update another thread. 

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On 3/13/2018 at 3:13 PM, Lost Melnibonean said:

Oh, wow! I never noticed that the first time we hear about about what I expect is actually a murder ballad, Off to Gulltown, is at the very beginning of The Hedge Knight...

That's interesting. Do you discuss your suspicions about the 'murder ballad' in more detail elsewhere?  It's reminiscent of the Chett-Bessa story:

Quote

The only women Chett had ever known were the whores he'd bought in Mole's Town. When he'd been younger, the village girls took one look at his face, with its boils and its wen, and turned away sickened. The worst was that slattern Bessa. She'd spread her legs for every boy in Hag's Mire so he'd figured why not him too? He even spent a morning picking wildflowers when he heard she liked them, but she'd just laughed in his face and told him she'd crawl in a bed with his father's leeches before she'd crawl in one with him. She stopped laughing when he put his knife in her. That was sweet, the look on her face, so he pulled the knife out and put it in her again. 

...

He could see Bessa's face floating before him. It wasn't the knife I wanted to put in you, he wanted to tell her. I picked you flowers, wild roses and tansy and goldencups...

ASOS Prologue

 

On 3/13/2018 at 3:13 PM, Lost Melnibonean said:
Quote

The spring rains had softened the ground, so Dunk had no trouble digging the grave. He chose a spot on the western slope of a low hill, for the old man had always loved to watch the sunset. “Another day done,” he would sigh, “and who knows what the morrow will bring us, eh, Dunk?” Well, one morrow had brought rains that soaked them to the bones, and the one after had brought wet gusty winds, and the next a chill. By the fourth day the old man was too weak to ride. And now he was gone. Only a few days past, he had been singing as they rode, the old song about going to Gulltownto see a fair maid, but instead of Gulltown he’d sung of Ashford. Off to Ashford to see the fair maid, heigh-ho, heigh-ho, Dunk thought miserably as he dug.

When Ser Duncan the Tall arrived at Ashford, "it seemed as though every lordly house of the west and south had sent a knight or three to Ashford to see the fair maid and brave the lists in her honor." She was "a short girl with yellow hair and a round pink face." She did not seem so fair to Dunk, though. "The puppet girl was prettier." 

Now, here's what I am digging...

The fair maid reigned as Queen of Love and Beauty. 

Hmm... I think I will have update another thread. 

Rhaegar, that 'sorrowful man' ;)

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25 minutes ago, ravenous reader said:

That's interesting. Do you discuss your suspicions about the 'murder ballad' in more detail elsewhere?  

Nope. That's all I got. The lines about stealing the kiss with the point of a blade and then resting in the shade give it away, I think. 

29 minutes ago, ravenous reader said:

It's reminiscent of the Chett-Bessa story:

I agree. My favorite bluegrass song is Pretty Polly performed live by Patty Loveless and Ralph Stanley. It's a prototypical murder ballad, and it makes me think of Chett. 

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