Jump to content

Shadowcats


Seams

Recommended Posts

I got off on a shadowcat tangent during the ACoK direwolf reread, so part of this is recycled material, but I hope it might spark some discussion in this part of the forum.

We have put a lot of thought into direwolves, but I haven't seen much analysis of shadowcats. Shadows come up a lot in the books, including Melisandre's shadow babies that slay Renly and Ser Cortnay Penrose. We hear that Tyrion casts a large shadow. In the House of the Undying, Daenerys sees a blue-eyed king who casts no shadow.

Is there wordplay around "cats" and "cast"? Is Ned doomed when a cast is put on his injured leg and he is thrown in the dungeon of the Red Keep? Is this another word that brings us back to smiths and metallurgy, with the casting of molten metal? Or is casting a reference to the Master of Coin, who oversees he royal mint? Casting dice? Casting spells?

Of course, we also have allusions to Catelyn "Cat" Stark and/or the Lannister lion to consider.

What does it mean that Tyrion's shadowcat cloak came from a slain member of the mountain clans, then went to the singer Marillion and that Tyrion won the cloak by gaming (throwing dice, I believe)? The cloak was taken by Tyrion's jailer at the Eyrie but he repossessed it before his trial. Tyrion has promised the Vale to the mountain clans for their support in the War of the Five Kings, Marillion was Lysa Arryn's pet but was (falsely) accused of her murder, and Cat Stark was Lysa's sister. Is there a special connection between shadowcats and the Arryns or Lysa? Shadowcats live in the mountains, and everything about the Eyrie is defined by its mountain setting. Maybe shadowcats represent all of the threats posed to those who live in the mountains.

When Tyrion wears the cloak in King's Landing, it is no longer referred to as a shadowcat cloak, but is now called a shadowskin cloak. Does the change signal a change in the symbolism? Tyrion wears the cloak to inspect the alchemists' wildfyre storage area inside of a hill. He is accompanied to the entrance of the underground chamber by Timett son of Timett, a member of a mountain clan. It may be significant that Timett declines to go inside of the hill (in ancient Celtic lore, only certain people could enter the Underworld) and that the cloak associated with mountains is transformed into a cloak associated with darkness (shadows) when Tyrion goes below.

Here are my notes from the earlier post in the ACoK, Jon VII analysis in the direwolf re-read:

"He wants to hunt, Jon thought. Perhaps there were goats in these mountains. The shadowcats must live on something. 'Just don't try and bring down a 'cat,' he muttered. Even for a direwolf, that would be dangerous."

Shadowcats carry layers of meaning I have not seen fully deciphered in this forum:

  • My first thought is that Jon's warning to Ghost alludes to Catelyn, who is nicknamed Cat, and who has been Jon's enemy since birth.
  • The word "Mutter" is the German word for mother. When a character in ASOIAF mutters, I suspect there is an allusion to a mother figure, although there are obviously many possible ways to interpret or apply that term in the various arcs of the books.
  • Tyrion is also associated with shadowcats, as he won a shadowcat cloak from the singer Marillion in a dice game on the way to the Eyrie. He wore that cloak when Bronn defeated Lysa Arryn's champion in Tyrion's trial-by-combat. He also wore the cloak when he visited the alchemists to see their wildfire facility under King's Landing, but the cloak there is referred to as a shadowskin cloak, no longer a shadowcat cloak. This association with Tyrion is the most intriguing shadowcat aspect, to my mind.
  • But Tyrion is also associated with goats, which Jon refers to as the food of the shadowcats. It's possible that Tyrion's wearing of the shadowcat cloak is similar to Jon's upcoming attire during his time with the wildlings: he will wear a sheepskin cloak, making him a "wolf in sheep's clothing." Tyrion at the Eyrie may have been a goat disguised in cat's clothing. (But he’s also a lion?)
  • A third layer of meaning for shadowcats came in the previous Jon chapter in ACoK (Jon VI): these animals eat the dead bodies of two wildlings killed by Stonesnake and Jon. When they eat the bodies, the cats crack the bones to get at the marrow. I can't remember who wrote it in this forum, but someone indicated that cracking the bones to extract marrow seems to kill a wight or to prevent a person from being wighted. So burning a body or cracking the dead marrow bones seem to be the two methods of preventing this zombie transformation.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Shadowcats appear in north of the Wall when the Nightswatch explore the region on the journey to Craster's place and Mance location, when Jon met his new friend. I imagine shadow cats to look camouflage and smaller than tigers, but bigger than domestic kitties. I'm not scared of shadowcats. I want one as a pet!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Joffrey and Sansa were tracking a shadowcat to its lair when they came upon Arya practicing swords with the boy at the Trident. She was also Cat of the Canals and Jon looking up at the stars thinks "he was old friends with the Ice Dragon, the Shadowcat, the Moonmaid, and the Sword of the Morning. All those he shared with Ygritte, but not some of the others.''

Maybe Arya is associated with the shadowcat, the way it stalks its prey can be similar to the Faceless Men.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Shadowcat references seem to be concentrated in Jon’s and Tyrion’s chapters. Jon’s shadowcat references are often accompanied by Catelyn and Vale imagery, and Tyrion’s shadowcat references follow his just having left Catelyn and is during his time in the Vale, or while his arc still touches on the Vale in that Wildlings are still around him and protecting him.

 

Below is another passage which seems to link the Vale, Stoneheart and Tyrion and there’s also shadowcats. The ram seems significant as well. Liquid smoke sounds like magic and this whole passage actually sounds rather magical, both seeing into hell and crossing the heavens on floating bridges. The wind cut like a knife… Catelyn’s voice was taken with a knife and like the wind, Stoneheart has no true voice.

 

ACoK Jon VI

The black brothers moved through black shadows amidst black rocks, working their way up a steep, twisting trail as their breath frosted in the black air. Jon felt almost naked without his mail, but he did not miss its weight. This was hard going, and slow. To hurry here was to risk a broken ankle or worse. Stonesnake seemed to know where to put his feet as if by instinct, but Jon needed to be more careful on the broken, uneven ground.

The Skirling Pass was really a series of passes, a long twisting course that went up around a succession of icy wind-carved peaks and down through hidden valleys that seldom saw the sun. Apart from his companions, Jon had glimpsed no living man since they'd left the wood behind and begun to make their way upward. The Frostfangs were as cruel as any place the gods had made, and as inimical to men. The wind cut like a knife up here, and shrilled in the night like a mother mourning her slain children. What few trees they saw were stunted, grotesque things growing sideways out of cracks and fissures. Tumbled shelves of rock often overhung the trail, fringed with hanging icicles that looked like long white teeth from a distance.

Yet even so, Jon Snow was not sorry he had come. There were wonders here as well. He had seen sunlight flashing on icy thin waterfalls as they plunged over the lips of sheer stone cliffs, and a mountain meadow full of autumn wildflowers, blue coldsnaps and bright scarlet frostfires and stands of piper's grass in russet and gold. He had peered down ravines so deep and black they seemed certain to end in some hell, and he had ridden his garron over a wind-eaten bridge of natural stone with nothing but sky to either side. Eagles nested in the heights and came down to hunt the valleys, circling effortlessly on great blue-grey wings that seemed almost part of the sky. Once he had watched a shadowcat stalk a ram, flowing down the mountainside like liquid smoke until it was ready to pounce.

 

·         Tyrion’s connection to goats makes me think of chimeras, often depicted as lions with goat heads protruding from their backs.

·         I think of casting a shadow, dice, spells as expanding upon one’s sphere of influence. One’s shadow can reach things our physical selves can’t. Same applies to Mel’s shadow babies. When we cast dice, we often invoke our god of choice to affect the outcome to our favor, hence using god(s) to extend our reach. When Ned was “cast” into the shadows of the Red Keep, his sphere of influence had a massive impact on the series.

·         The “Cat” part of shadowcat is the physical manifestation of the underworld when above ground. When Tyrion goes underground, the physical manifestation is no longer needed, hence the shadowcat cloak becoming only a shadowcloak? Mountains can be seen as the earth (underworld) reaching into the living world. Perhaps shadowcats are also reaching from the underworld into the living world?

·         Tyrion wearing the shadowcat cloak sounds like marriage or wearing a cloak of the house to whom one is sworn.

·         Marillion came close to raping Sansa. Marillion had Lysa’s protection until LF killed her. It was actually Tyrion’s Lannister cloak which has protected Sansa from further marriages.

·         To LF, Lysa is a shadow of Cat, a poor one. Sansa is an improved shadow of Cat. Arya is Cat of the Canals and strongly linked to cats in general. She tries to be like a shadow.

·         Balerion is supposedly warged by Bloodraven, perhaps making him a shadowcat of sorts.

 

 

ADWD Jon V:

Jon had once heard Mance Rayder say that most kneelers were sheep. "Now, a dog can herd a flock of sheep," the King-Beyond-the-Wall had said, "but free folk, well, some are shadowcats and some are stones. One kind prowls where they please and will tear your dogs to pieces. The other will not move at all unless you kick them." Neither shadowcats nor stones were like to give up the gods they had worshiped all their lives to bow down before one they hardly knew.

 

Stoneheart is a shadowcat who is prowling where she pleases tearing (Freys) to pieces. The Freys are trying to take over the Starks (wolves) with the Boltons, who are only dogs. Alayne Stone is a stone which will not move at all unless kicked.

 

·         I’m not married to this interpretation, but because the goat is the food of the shadowcat, Tyrion wears a shadowcat cloak, and Jon warns Ghost to not take on shadowcats, I’m guessing that Jon and Tyrion will meet up with Stoneheart, and it’ll be Stoneheart calling the shots. The connection seems to be Wildlings and possibly them knowing something others do not. The shadowcat cracking the bones or preventing wighting by consumption maybe means shadowcats (Stoneheart) also know something which other do not in regards to life/death? The shadowcat/Stoneheart being linked to Jon and Tyrion is perplexing. It seems like it would be Jaime and Brienne given where we are in the story, though Jon, Tyrion, Jaime and Brienne are all rejects who aspire to be good and noble.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

27 minutes ago, John Suburbs said:

Before Varamyr Sixskins acquired his bear and shadowcat, was he known as Varamyr Fourskins?

Har! Don't mean no offense, just wanted to pluck with John Suburbs. Foreskin, like like dat thawg Ramsely might have taken from Theon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Regarding the panther comparison, color and size of the shadowcats: the wiki draws on several chapters in several books to confirm that the cats are white with black stripes. They are fairly large - between the size of a tiger and a mountain lion. Jon's description of one cat moving like "liquid smoke" does sound panther-like to me.

On 5/29/2017 at 5:26 PM, Maester Crypt said:

I think Joffrey and Sansa were tracking a shadowcat to its lair when they came upon Arya practicing swords with the boy at the Trident. She was also Cat of the Canals and Jon looking up at the stars thinks "he was old friends with the Ice Dragon, the Shadowcat, the Moonmaid, and the Sword of the Morning. All those he shared with Ygritte, but not some of the others.''

Maybe Arya is associated with the shadowcat, the way it stalks its prey can be similar to the Faceless Men.

Interesting that Joffrey and Sansa were looking for a shadowcat and came upon Arya. I bet you're right about the comparison of shadowcats to the Faceless Men.

Mance says that some of the Free Folk are like shadowcats and kneelers are like sheep. Jon wears sheepskins while he is with the wildlings, and Craster has a ram's skull on a pole at the gate to his keep. The hunting shadowcat observed by Jon is stalking a ram. Perhaps this symbolizes the group of wildlings, led by Rattleshirt, who will track Qhorin and Jon to their shadowcat cave.

In addition to being hunters or killers, though, the shadowcats might also embody something of the raven's role when it can fly through the door between life and death. Ravens are also associated with the Crone of the seven gods, who lights the way with a lantern and imparts wisdom to mortals. The shadowcat showed Qhorin's Night's Watch brother how to go through the waterfall into the cave - passing through walls and curtains and doorways is pretty important symbolism in ASOIAF. Once inside the cave, Qhorin makes and lights and carries the torches that show the way through the narrow tunnel inside the mountain, so Qhorin would be playing the role of the Crone here, to the shadowcat's turn as the raven. The cave would seem to represent death.

In a similar scene in King's Landing, Tyrion wears his shadowcat cloak into the vault of the pyromancers to see the stockpile of deadly wildfire grenades being prepared for the battle against Stannis. (I looked at this scene recently as part of the direwolf re-read.) Does this put Tyrion in the role of the shadowcat, and the alchemists in the role of the crone? The pyromancer carries the lantern in the vault, and Tyrion notes that alchemists refer to each other with the honorific "Wisdom."

Although Mance claims that some wildlings are shadowcats, it's interesting that Stannis is badly undermined (although not quite defeated) by the wildfire at King's Landing, but his army crushes the wildlings when it reaches the Wall. In the game of cyvasse, maybe shadowcats defeat ships but are overpowered by armies.

On 5/31/2017 at 3:32 PM, John Suburbs said:

Before Varamyr Sixskins acquired his bear and shadowcat, was he known as Varamyr Fourskins?

Many members of this forum would be more circumspect but you made a different decision. ;)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 29/05/2017 at 3:28 PM, Seams said:

Tyrion is also associated with shadowcats, as he won a shadowcat cloak from the singer Marillion in a dice game on the way to the Eyrie. He wore that cloak when Bronn defeated Lysa Arryn's champion in Tyrion's trial-by-combat. He also wore the cloak when he visited the alchemists to see their wildfire facility under King's Landing, but the cloak there is referred to as a shadowskin cloak, no longer a shadowcat cloak. This association with Tyrion is the most intriguing shadowcat aspect, to my mind.

Concerning Tyrion and the shadowcat, and most particulary the chapter where he recruits the clans of the Mountains for his service, I noted very interesting things : 

- first, with Bronn, he makes a fire. 

- second, they put a goat in the fire to eat it 

- third, Tyrion sings a myrish song (the song of Tysha)

- forth, Bronn is sharpening his sword (there is a metal sword/knife/dagger)

At the end of the chapter one of the clans says : "Little boyman," Shagga roared, "will you mock my axe after I chop off your manhood and feed it to the goats?"

All this made me think to Varys' story, when he was lost his manhood, given to fire by a warlock who wanted to invoke something - for Varys, the "something" is a shadow whithout identity, because he didn't see it or don't remember, but it has a voice unforgettable. The magician was singing in myrish during the invocation. And with that in mind, I saw what Tyrion was doing in the mountains : he was also invoking some shadows to help him. Obviously, no real shadows, but the fire, the smoke of the meat and the song are here to make the clans come. 

The blood is missing, though : 

Quote

Tyrion held up a hand: stay still, it said. "Come share our fire, the night is cold," he called out to the creeping shadows. "I fear we've no wine to offer you, but you're welcome to some of our goat."

No blood, no wine, what a shame ! 

After the invocation, Tyrion sleeps : 

Quote

He rolled himself up in the shadowskin and shut his eyes. The ground was stony and cold, but after a time Tyrion Lannister did sleep. He dreamt of the sky cell. This time he was the gaoler, not the prisoner, big, with a strap in his hand, and he was hitting his father, driving him back, toward the abyss …(Tyrion VI, AGOT)

Quote

 

And the invocation is a success : the shadows are responding ! 

Quote

 

Tyrion." Bronn's warning was low and urgent.
Tyrion was awake in the blink of an eye. The fire had burned down to embers, and the shadows were creeping in all around them. Bronn had raised himself to one knee, his sword in one hand and his dirk in the other. Tyrion held up a hand: stay still, it said. "Come share our fire, the night is cold," he called out to the creeping shadows. "I fear we've no wine to offer you, but you're welcome to some of our goat."
All movement stopped. Tyrion saw the glint of moonlight on metal. "Our mountain," a voice called out from the trees, deep and hard and unfriendly. "Our goat."

 

Shadows with voices. 

After that, the presentations begin, and Tyrion promises to pay them

Little ritual for casting a shadow explained by Tyrion :P

(parenthesis : i think we find same ritual with Mirri Maz Duur "healing" Drogo, and probably Moqorro healing Victarion)

But why the shadowskin in Tyrion's case ? I have no answer, but for me, the most probably is that he is replaying a ancient story where a shadowcat plaid a part. I wonder if the shadowcat could play the same part than the boar in Robert's last hunting. 

When Tyrion wants wildfire, it is for killing a mass of people. When he recruits clans of the Mountain, he wants also a revenge against Lysa and her suitors : the intention is also to kill people blindly, no matter who they are (= the Vale is full of peasants who just don't even know Tyrion)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...