Man who gave blackberry to Bran

[Philokles]

8 minutes ago, Seams said:

So it would not surprise me at all if he deliberately chose the BlackBerry as a symbol of Bran's transition to a new world - this is the brand name of a smart phone.

The chronology doesn't work:

A Game of Thrones published 1996

First Blackberry launched 1999

[Seams]

44 minutes ago, Horse of Kent said:

The chronology doesn't work:

A Game of Thrones published 1996

First Blackberry launched 1999

Ah. Too bad.

Unless GRRM had a glass candle, and could see into the future . . .

[John Suburbs]

11 hours ago, Grazdan zo Azer said:

Probably you aren't reading the text. Text says that Man gave blackberry for every visit of Bran. This event happened many times.

I don't think that's what it says. It appears to be a one-time event.

If it had been happening continuously, it would have been worded something like:

"the man in the glass gardens who gave him blackberries whenever he came to visit" or "who always gave him a blackberry when he came to visit."

With the wording "who gave him a blackberry when he came to visit" tells us that it was a single blackberry on a single visit.

 

11 hours ago, Grazdan zo Azer said:

I liked it. Also he could be assassin who wanted to kill Bran.

You mean the catspaw sent by Joffrey? I doubt it. He was a rather creepy guy: "A small, dirty man in filthy brown clothing... He was gaunt, with limp blonde hair and pale eyes deep-sunk in a bony face."

Since he is apparently a stranger, it doesn't sound like the kind of guy that Bran would approach, let alone accept food from.

Mance is a little friendlier-looking: "middling height, slender, sharp-faced with shrewd brown eyes and long brown hair that had gone mostly to grey." He also has laugh lines at the corners of his mouth.

But since Mance is also posing as a musician, is it likely that Bran would not have recognized him in the gardens?

[Jon's Queen Consort]

On 6/7/2017 at 9:00 PM, Dorian Martell's son said:

Rhaegar, who is mance who is ned who is Tywin who is tansy who is jason mallister who is Irri who is haldon who is cat who is jory who is benjen who is illyrio who is euron who is mance again who is tyrion who is Robb who is dany who is Rhaegar 

You had forgotten Syrio, Daario, Varys, Missandei and Jaqen.

[Prince Yourwetdream Aeryn]

1 hour ago, John Suburbs said:

I don't think that's what it says. It appears to be a one-time event.

If it had been happening continuously, it would have been worded something like:

"the man in the glass gardens who gave him blackberries whenever he came to visit" or "who always gave him a blackberry when he came to visit."

With the wording "who gave him a blackberry when he came to visit" tells us that it was a single blackberry on a single visit.

Sorry. I am reading book in Turkish. It is wrongly translated as "her gittiğinde" which means "every time he visited" and "böğürtlenler" which means "blackberries".

Quote

İşte son gün gelmişti ve Bran kendini kaybolmuş hissediyordu. Kışyarı bildiği tek yuvaydı. Babası bugün herkese veda etmesi gerektiğini söylemişti ve Bran da denemişti. Av kafilesi yola çıktıktan sonra, geride bırakacağı insanları ziyaret etmeyi düşünmüştü. Yaşlı Dadı, Aşçı Gage, Demirci Mikken, sürekli gülümseyerek Bran'ın midillisiyle ilgilenen "Hodor"dan başka kelime bilmeyen Seyis Hodor ve cam korumalı bahçeye her gittiğinde Bran'a böğürtlenler veren o adam... Hepsine veda etmek istemişti.

 

[Prince Yourwetdream Aeryn]

1 minute ago, Jon's Queen Consort said:

You had forgotten Syrio, Daario, Varys, Missadei and Jaqen.

Syrio and Jagen are the same person. It is known.

[StarkofWinterfell]

You guys are asking the wrong question here. Who cares who gave Bran the blackberry. I want to know how someone came in possession of one and what use Bran has for a blackberry

[ravenous reader]

On 7/6/2017 at 9:39 PM, Unchained said:

 

It does seem significant now that it has been brought up.  Let's check witchipedia...

 

Blackberries are part of the rose family and have the characteristic flowers, leaves and thorns similar to those found on wild rose bushes.

 

Blackberries = roses and blue roses come from the glass gardens.  Rhaegar gives Lyanna blue roses probably from the same garden so it turns out this is Rhaegar.  Good call @Grazdan zo Azer.  But wait there's more.  

 

Another tale says that Lucifer landed in brambles when he was cast down from heaven and thus he cursed them so that they would be ugly.

 

Bran, the naughty boy who climbed to high, who challenged the gods, and fell is like Lucifer.  The blackberry foreshadows his fall as we would expect this chapter to be about.  Who does that make the man who gave him the berry? (Other than Rhaegar of course).  He lacks a name, so probably some sort of The Stranger character.  However, he is the guy in charge of plants like Seams points out, so also a Garth of some kind as well.  In some of the stories of Garth he dies in the winter.  Maybe he is a dead Garth of Winterfell person.  

@Pain killer Jane and @Blue Tiger previously ventured into the symbolism of the blackberry bramble on BT's Amber Compendium thread, which might interest you (PK compiled a lot of fascinating references):

There's also Seamus Heaney's poem 'Blackberry Picking' which similarly describes a fall from grace or loss of innocence.

Given that the glass gardens are smashed shortly before Bran's departure from Winterfell, and that blackberries are related to blue winter roses, then perhaps some 'singers' (of the song of the earth...) have once again made off with a precious blue rose or blackberry -- implying that Bran, not Jon, is the latest stolen blue rose of Winterfell, or blackberry he ate himself, like Odin sacrificing himself to himself.

 

[Dorian Martell's son]

5 hours ago, Jon's Queen Consort said:

You had forgotten Syrio, Daario, Varys, Missandei and Jaqen.

Humanity never perfect 

[Prince Yourwetdream Aeryn]

On 07.07.2017 at 6:39 AM, Unchained said:

 

It does seem significant now that it has been brought up.  Let's check witchipedia...

 

Blackberries are part of the rose family and have the characteristic flowers, leaves and thorns similar to those found on wild rose bushes.

 

Blackberries = roses and blue roses come from the glass gardens.  Rhaegar gives Lyanna blue roses probably from the same garden so it turns out this is Rhaegar.  Good call @Grazdan zo Azer.  But wait there's more.  

 

Another tale says that Lucifer landed in brambles when he was cast down from heaven and thus he cursed them so that they would be ugly.

 

Bran, the naughty boy who climbed to high, who challenged the gods, and fell is like Lucifer.  The blackberry foreshadows his fall as we would expect this chapter to be about.  Who does that make the man who gave him the berry? (Other than Rhaegar of course).  He lacks a name, so probably some sort of The Stranger character.  However, he is the guy in charge of plants like Seams points out, so also a Garth of some kind as well.  In some of the stories of Garth he dies in the winter.  Maybe he is a dead Garth of Winterfell person.  

What about new gods? Old Nan, Mikken and this man could be crone, smith and stranger respectively. But I didn't find anything about Hodor.

[Springwatch]

23 hours ago, John Suburbs said:

I don't think that's what it says. It appears to be a one-time event.

If it had been happening continuously, it would have been worded something like:

"the man in the glass gardens who gave him blackberries whenever he came to visit" or "who always gave him a blackberry when he came to visit."

With the wording "who gave him a blackberry when he came to visit" tells us that it was a single blackberry on a single visit.

<snip>

I don't know. To me that reads ambiguously - could be once or more than once. I don't envy the translators of these books.

Another point - why waste space in the glass gardens growing blackberries? They already grow wild in the godswood:  '... [the direwolves] plunged under the heart tree, and around the cold pool, through the blackberry bushes...'

It's got to be a metaphor. I suspect blackberries represent the dead or undead. Blackberries are everywhere, and death is everywhere. Targs are still quite rare (though not as rare as I first thought...).

ETA Here's a thought. One of Jaime's squires (or similar) collected blackberries in a helm - Jaime eats some and shares the rest out. Foreshadowing of the stone giant and his thick black blood, perhaps?

[Lost Melnibonean]

My wife served blackberries with brunch this morning. They were delicious. I could not stop thinking about this thread. Fortunately my ASOIAF buddy was here. He's only read the series once, and he gets confused with the show, but he has read the ancillary stuff, and I can talk ASOIAF out loud with him. 

(I served the mimosas.) 

[Ferocious Veldt Roarer]

On 7.07.2017 at 3:55 PM, Horse of Kent said:

The chronology doesn't work:

A Game of Thrones published 1996

First Blackberry launched 1999

Darn!

That's, like, a thousand theories down the toilet.

Mine was going to be: it symbolized how (at least at the first glance) outdated the North was, compared with the lest of the realm. I bet Cersei got Joffrey a customized iPhone, while Bran was stuck with a fucking BlackBerry.

Meanwhile on the Iron Islands, Balon Greyjoy swore by the Palm Pilot.

[Wizz-The-Smith]

On Invalid Date at 3:52 AM, ravenous reader said:

@Pain killer Jane and @Blue Tiger previously ventured into the symbolism of the blackberry bramble on BT's Amber Compendium thread, which might interest you (PK compiled a lot of fascinating references):

Hey RR.    Thanks for PK's list.

With regards to the blackberry being associated with the Fae, in Irish mythology the Tuatha/Sidhe had a sacred relationship with the blackberry/blackberry bushes, and those found growing around the Sidhe Mounds were thought to act as protection against earthbound spirits and oddly enough, vampires.  The protection of their thorns meant they take hold and don’t let go of those that tangle with them.

With this in mind, plus potentially identifying the hollow hills throughout Westeros as George’s version of the Sidhe mounds in my hollow hills essay, I noticed the various locations the blackberry bushes were growing.  @Grazdan zo Azer and PKJ have quoted these bushes growing at…. Winterfell -- The Whispers -- Oldstones and Standfast. 

All four of which are castles/ruins built on hollow hills, which fits nicely with the blackberry bushes growing near or around Sidhe mounds for protection.  Perhaps it’s just nice background information/world building to pick up on, expanding the Celtic influence throughout the novels, or perhaps it’s more?   

Looking further into any more Celtic links, there is also a Tuatha de goddess called Brigid who is associated with blackberries.  She is the goddess of such things as high-rising flames, highlands, hill-forts and upland areas; and of states conceived as psychologically elevated, such as wisdom, excellence, perfection, high intelligence, poetic eloquence, craftsmanship (especially blacksmithing), healing ability, druidic knowledge and of the home and hearth. 

Finally, some of the other interesting symbols attributed to Brigid other than the blackberry are:

The Snowdrop. The first gift of Spring in the bleakness of Winter.

The Flame. Imbolc is a Fire Festival and fire of all kinds is associated with Brigid - the fire of creativity, the protective hearth fire, and her fire wheel - the Brigid Cross, which heralds her as a Sun Goddess.

The Serpent. In Celtic mythology Brigid was associated with an awakening hibernating serpent which emerged from its lair at Imbolc. Traditionally serpents were associated with creativity and inspiration - the powerful Kundalini energy of the Eastern Mysteries. Paths of earth energy were called serpent paths and at Imbolc they are stirred from their slumber.

Imbolc Colours: White and silver for purity, green for the fresh burst of life. 

The Serpent symbol is interesting considering the winged serpent Summer saw above the flaming Winterfell.     

[John Suburbs]

On Invalid Date at 4:24 PM, Springwatch said:

I don't know. To me that reads ambiguously - could be once or more than once. I don't envy the translators of these books.

Another point - why waste space in the glass gardens growing blackberries? They already grow wild in the godswood:  '... [the direwolves] plunged under the heart tree, and around the cold pool, through the blackberry bushes...'

It's got to be a metaphor. I suspect blackberries represent the dead or undead. Blackberries are everywhere, and death is everywhere. Targs are still quite rare (though not as rare as I first thought...).

ETA Here's a thought. One of Jaime's squires (or similar) collected blackberries in a helm - Jaime eats some and shares the rest out. Foreshadowing of the stone giant and his thick black blood, perhaps?

Agreed, there is lots of wiggle room here. The fact that the rest of the chapter is all about Bran making the rounds of the castle to say goodbye to those who are staying behind also makes me think it was a one-time thing. But then, why would he "visit" someone that he doesn't even know is there in the first place?

But like the Lady of the Leaves and Weasel and countless other characters that come and go on the periphery of the story, I doubt there is any real significance to our blackberry man.

BTW, growing blackberries in the glass gardens means you can have them in winter.

[ravenous reader]

On 7/9/2017 at 4:26 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said:

Hey RR.    Thanks for PK's list.

With regards to the blackberry being associated with the Fae, in Irish mythology the Tuatha/Sidhe had a sacred relationship with the blackberry/blackberry bushes, and those found growing around the Sidhe Mounds were thought to act as protection against earthbound spirits and oddly enough, vampires.  The protection of their thorns meant they take hold and don’t let go of those that tangle with them.

With this in mind, plus potentially identifying the hollow hills throughout Westeros as George’s version of the Sidhe mounds in my hollow hills essay, I noticed the various locations the blackberry bushes were growing.  @Grazdan zo Azer and PKJ have quoted these bushes growing at…. Winterfell -- The Whispers -- Oldstones and Standfast. 

All four of which are castles/ruins built on hollow hills, which fits nicely with the blackberry bushes growing near or around Sidhe mounds for protection.  Perhaps it’s just nice background information/world building to pick up on, expanding the Celtic influence throughout the novels, or perhaps it’s more?   

With me, it's always more -- you should know that by now!  

The thorns taking hold and not letting go are reminiscent of the weirwood root tendrils which insidiously get their hooks into body and mind alike, rather rudely impaling the 'clever fools' (the greenseers) daring to tangle with them, and entombing them for their hubris in a briar cocoon or coffin, as it were, alluding to the fairy tale of 'Briar Rose' or Sleeping Beauty, who after pricking her finger on a poisoned spindle and falling into a coma became enchanted by a spell or ward, represented by an impenetrable briar thicket surrounding her, which could only be broken by the right person at the right time -- a saviour prince who was promised.  The Iron Throne like the weirwood throne is a similarly 'spiky plant', from a certain perspective!  Bran our sleeping beauty, promised prince, fallen angel, and naughty greenseer...

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A Dance with Dragons - Bran III

Old Nan had told him the same story once, Bran remembered, but when he asked Robb if it was true, his brother laughed and asked him if he believed in grumkins too. He wished Robb were with them now. I'd tell him I could fly, but he wouldn't believe, so I'd have to show him. I bet that he could learn to fly too, him and Arya and Sansa, even baby Rickon and Jon Snow. We could all be ravens and live in Maester Luwin's rookery.

That was just another silly dream, though. Some days Bran wondered if all of this wasn't just some dream. Maybe he had fallen asleep out in the snows and dreamed himself a safe, warm place. You have to wake, he would tell himself, you have to wake right now, or you'll go dreaming into death. Once or twice he pinched his arm with his fingers, really hard, but the only thing that did was make his arm hurt. In the beginning he had tried to count the days by making note of when he woke and slept, but down here sleeping and waking had a way of melting into one another. Dreams became lessons, lessons became dreams, things happened all at once or not at all. Had he done that or only dreamed it?

A briar thicket also forms a labyrinth, a metaphor for the weirnet (e.g. Winterfell is described as a 'monstrous stone tree,' a sprawling architectural 'labyrinth' whose secrets only Bran knows how to navigate) as well as alluding to the myth of the Minotaur in the Labyrinth.  Theseus fighting the Minotaur in the labyrinth can be viewed as a model for two greenseers fighting a greenseer war within the weirnet.  'Knights of the mind' duelling it out for ascendancy in the collective hivemind.

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The World of Ice and Fire - The Reach: Highgarden

The hill from which Highgarden rises is neither steep nor stony but broad in extent, with gentle slopes and a pleasing symmetry. From the castle's walls and towers, a man can see for leagues in all directions, across orchards and meadows and fields of flowers, including the golden roses of the Reach that have long been the sigil of House Tyrell.

Highgarden is girded by three concentric rings of crenellated curtain walls, made of finely dressed white stone and protected by towers as slender and graceful as maidens. Each wall is higher and thicker than the one below it. Between the outermost wall that girdles the foot of the hill and the middle wall above it can be found Highgarden's famed briar maze, a vast and complicated labyrinth of thorns and hedges maintained for centuries for the pleasure and delight of the castle's occupants and guests...and for defensive purposes, for intruders unfamiliar with the maze cannot easily find their way through its traps and dead ends to the castle gates.

Within the castle walls, greenery abounds, and the keeps are surrounded by gardens, arbors, pools, fountains, courtyards, and man-made waterfalls. Ivy covers the older buildings, and grapes and climbing roses snake up the sides of statuary, walls, and towers. Flowers bloom everywhere. The keep is a palace like few others, filled with statues, colonnades, and fountains. Highgarden's tallest towers, round and slender, look down upon neighbors far more ancient, square and grim in appearance, the oldest of them dating from the Age of Heroes. The rest of the castle is of more recent construction, much of it built by King Mern VI after the destruction of the original structures by the Dornish during the reign of Garth Greybeard.

You can also find an echo of the same concept in learning to walk the 'patternmaker's maze'.

 

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Looking further into any more Celtic links, there is also a Tuatha de goddess called Brigid who is associated with blackberries.  She is the goddess of such things as high-rising flames, highlands, hill-forts and upland areas; and of states conceived as psychologically elevated, such as wisdom, excellence, perfection, high intelligence, poetic eloquence, craftsmanship (especially blacksmithing), healing ability, druidic knowledge and of the home and hearth. 

Finally, some of the other interesting symbols attributed to Brigid other than the blackberry are:

The Snowdrop. The first gift of Spring in the bleakness of Winter.

The Flame. Imbolc is a Fire Festival and fire of all kinds is associated with Brigid - the fire of creativity, the protective hearth fire, and her fire wheel - the Brigid Cross, which heralds her as a Sun Goddess.

The Serpent. In Celtic mythology Brigid was associated with an awakening hibernating serpent which emerged from its lair at Imbolc. Traditionally serpents were associated with creativity and inspiration - the powerful Kundalini energy of the Eastern Mysteries. Paths of earth energy were called serpent paths and at Imbolc they are stirred from their slumber.

Imbolc Colours: White and silver for purity, green for the fresh burst of life. 

The Serpent symbol is interesting considering the winged serpent Summer saw above the flaming Winterfell.     

I think Bran might be the awoken serpent, the blackberry, the blue rose and the briar rose too -- except no promised prince is coming to his rescue; that's because he is the prince that was promised...'prince of the green...prince of a lost kingdom, etc...' (no, I don't think this is Dany!), and has to extricate himself from the clutches of the weirnet, using his own ingenuity.  

A greenseer is a kind of serpent in the garden, in line with the Lucifer associations of the blackberry.  In the Prologue for example, both Will and Waymar, who are the two main vying greenseer opponents in the allegorical paradigm I've previously outlined, are described in 'snaky' terms (see quote below; additionally, they both also get 'sticky sap' -- like the cloying blackberry wine you mentioned -- on their hands and faces, as if they had wilfully gorged themselves on way more [pardon the puns, couldn't resist ] blackberries in the garden than is spiritually healthy...this of course symbolises the blood of the two brothers, in line with my idea that both brothers brought on their mutual destruction). In a sense, therefore, the blackberry is a forbidden fruit, symbolising the original sin and Fall of man (Lucifer fell into the thorny blackberry patch on his way down from grace, hence the association).  These are the attendant dangers of 'plucking' (with) blackberries, LOL...  (Supporting the idea of the blackberry as forbidden fruit, elsewhere we also have Tyrion and Cersei quipping about Tyrion's fondness for 'blackberry tarts', introducing the sexual temptation dimension!)

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Will heard the breath go out of Ser Waymar Royce in a long hiss...

Will threaded their way through a thicket, then started up the slope to the low ridge where he had found his vantage point under a sentinel tree. Under the thin crust of snow, the ground was damp and muddy, slick footing, with rocks and hidden roots to trip you up. Will made no sound as he climbed. Behind him, he heard the soft metallic slither of the lordling's ringmail, the rustle of leaves, and muttered curses as reaching branches grabbed at his longsword and tugged on his splendid sable cloak.

The great sentinel was right there at the top of the ridge, where Will had known it would be, its lowest branches a bare foot off the ground. Will slid in underneath, flat on his belly in the snow and the mud, and looked down on the empty clearing below.

Although most people by now accept that GRRM is modelling his greenseers on the Norse myth of Odin, with the weirwood as the Sleipnir-Yggdrasil analogue, taking as canon the greenseer's 'world tree' aspect; what is less frequently recognised is the greenseer's dragon or serpentine aspect.  In the famous Tjängvide rune stone for example, Odin is depicted riding his famous eight-legged horse Sleipnir between whose legs the serpent coils (click on the image to visualize it better -- that's the 'Kundalini' energy of which you spoke, or the 'fiery heart in the tree').

[Bluetiger]

On 7.07.2017 at 3:39 AM, Unchained said:

Blackberries = roses and blue roses come from the glass gardens.  Rhaegar gives Lyanna blue roses probably from the same garden so it turns out this is Rhaegar.  Good call @Grazdan zo Azer.  But wait there's more.  

 

Another tale says that Lucifer landed in brambles when he was cast down from heaven and thus he cursed them so that they would be ugly.

 

Bran, the naughty boy who climbed to high, who challenged the gods, and fell is like Lucifer.  The blackberry foreshadows his fall as we would expect this chapter to be about.  Who does that make the man who gave him the berry? (Other than Rhaegar of course).  He lacks a name, so probably some sort of The Stranger character.  However, he is the guy in charge of plants like Seams points out, so also a Garth of some kind as well.  In some of the stories of Garth he dies in the winter.  Maybe he is a dead Garth of Winterfell person.  

There's another version of this folktale, from Cornwall, where it's not the devil who spoils blackberries, but a certain creature called 'Puka', which is also a skinchanger, that among other beasts, frequently chnages into humans, wolves, ravens, horses and cats.

When I was recently talking with @ravenous reader, ravenous reminded me about that post about blackberries I've made in January, and here's my response, hopefully relevant to this thread:

*********************************************************************************************************************************

What I didn't mention back then is that in that Cornish legend, it's not always the devil who makes the blackberries spoiled, but sometimes it's creature called Puka, which is basically a nature spirit that can shapeshift into any animal and even human. Puck aka Robin Goodfellow from Midsummer's Night Dream might be based on them.

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Folklore in the United Kingdom tells that blackberries should not be picked after Old Michaelmas Day (11 October) as the devil (or a Púca) has made them unfit to eat by stepping, spitting or fouling on them. There is some value in this legend as autumn's wetter and cooler weather often allows the fruit to become infected by various molds such as Botryotinia which give the fruit an unpleasant look and may be toxic.According to some traditions, a blackberry's deep purple color represents Christ's blood and the crown of thorns was made of brambles, although other thorny plants, such as Crataegus (hawthorn) and Euphorbia milii (crown of thorns plant), have been proposed as the material for the crown.

(Wikipedia)

 

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(Witchipedia)

History and Folklore

According to some English folklore, passing under the archway formed by a bramble branch will cure (or prevent) all manner of afflictions including hernia, ruptures, pimples and boils. This has also been used as a remedy for "downer" cows. (I have not found a description of this last healing rite, but I suspect it involves passing the archway over the cow rather than dragging a cow under it.)

Celtic lore said that blackberries were fae fruit, and thus bad luck for people to eat, but blackberry wine was somehow still okay. Mythology relating both Christ and the Devil to blackberries also made them taboo eating.

According to some Christian lore, Christ's crown of thorns was made of brambles, and thus the berries were turned from red to black.

Another tale says that Lucifer landed in brambles when he was cast down from heaven and thus he cursed them so that they would be ugly. It is said that he hates them so much, he stomps on them on Michealmas Day and after that, it's unlucky to harvest them. Other folklore says this happens on Halloween.

Even so, blackberries were considered protective against earthbound spirits and vampires. If planted near a home, a vampire couldn't enter because he would obsessively count the berries and forget what he was about.

In Greek mythology, the hero Belleraphon was thrown into brambles when he dared to ride the Pegasus to Mount Olympus and was blinded by the thorns and wandered outcast and alone thereafter.

 

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Blackberries have multiple meanings across religious, ethnic and mythological realms. They have been used in Christian art to symbolize spiritual neglect or ignorance. Mid-Mediterranean folklore claims that Christ's Crown of Thorns was made of blackberry runners. The deep color of the berries represents Christ's blood. A legend also exists where the blackberry was once beautiful, but was cursed by Lucifer when he fell into the bush when forced out of heaven. Every September 30th, with the ripening and darkening of the berries, he is thought to re-enter them.

Some folklore associates the blackberry with bad omens. European stories have claimed they are death fruits with ties to Wicca. They can also symbolize sorrow. In an old proverb they signify haste. A man is so excited to pick the berries that he jumps into the bush and the thorns cause him to lose his eyesight. He regains it, however, upon jumping back out of the bush. Greek mythology contains a legend similar to this. When Bellerophon, a mortal, tries to ride Pegasus to Olympus, he falls and becomes blind and injured upon landing in a thorny bush. This is his punishment for trying to take the power of the gods. Therefore, the fruit also symbolizes arrogance.

(source: 1)

In ASOIAF, it seems, George uses blackberries as symbols of incoming doom (and sometimes other, non-lethal danger for a character that doesn't expect it...) so that's this 'ignorance' aspect of blackberry symbolism.

For example, when Merret Frey rides to meet with the Brotherhood and ransom his cousin, he sees blackberry bushes:

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The road up to Oldstones went twice around the hill before reaching the summit. Overgrown and stony, it would have been slow going even in the best of times, and last night's snow had left it muddy as well. Snow in autumn in the riverlands, it's unnatural, Merrett thought gloomily. It had not been much of a snow, true; just enough to blanket the ground for a night. Most of it had started melting away as soon as the sun came up. Still, Merrett took it for a bad omen. Between rains, floods, fire, and war, they had lost two harvests and a good part of a third. An early winter would mean famine all across the riverlands. A great many people would go hungry, and some of them would starve. Merrett only hoped he wouldn't be one of them. I may, though. With my luck, I just may. I never did have any luck.

Beneath the castle ruins, the lower slopes of the hill were so thickly forested that half a hundred outlaws could well have been lurking there. They could be watching me even now. Merrett glanced about, and saw nothing but gorse, bracken, thistle, sedge, and blackberry bushes between the pines and grey-green sentinels. Elsewhere skeletal elm and ash and scrub oaks choked the ground like weeds. He saw no outlaws, but that meant little. Outlaws were better at hiding than honest men.

Merrett hated the woods, if truth be told, and he hated outlaws even more. "Outlaws stole my life," he had been known to complain when in his cups. He was too often in his cups, his father said, often and loudly. Too true, he thought ruefully. You needed some sort of distinction in the Twins, else they were liable to forget you were alive, but a reputation as the biggest drinker in the castle had done little to enhance his prospects, he'd found. I once hoped to be the greatest knight who ever couched a lance. The gods took that away from me. Why shouldn't I have a cup of wine from time to time? It helps my headaches. Besides, my wife is a shrew, my father despises me, my children are worthless. What do I have to stay sober for?

When Brienne and Nimble Dick Crabb arrive at Whispers Castle in search of Sansa and Ser Dontos, they enter via blackberry-covered postern gate.

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"It's too dangerous. Those stones looked loose to me, and that red ivy's poisonous. There has to be a postern gate."

They found it on the north side of the castle, half-hidden behind a huge blackberry bramble. The berries had all been picked, and half the bush had been hacked down to cut a path to the door. The sight of the broken branches filled Brienne with disquiet. "Someone's been through here, and recently."

"Your fool and those girls," said Crabb. "I told you."

(...)

Podrick scuffed at a rock with his boot. "As you say."

She shouldered through the blackberries and pulled at a rusted iron ring. The postern door resisted for a moment, then jerked open, its hinges screaming protest. The sound made the hairs on the back of Brienne's neck stand up. She drew her sword. Even in mail and boiled leather, she felt naked.

"Go on, m'lady," urged Nimble Dick, behind her. "What are you waiting for? Old Crabb's been dead a thousand years."

Of course, Sansa isn't there, just Brave Companions who attack them, killing Nick.

Here, Bran, in wolf form acts just like Cornish and Welsh Puka shapeshifter would:

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The sound was the faintest of clinks, a scraping of steel over stone. He lifted his head from his paws, listening, sniffing at the night.

The evening's rain had woken a hundred sleeping smells and made them ripe and strong again. Grass and thorns, blackberries broken on the ground, mud, worms, rotting leaves, a rat creeping through the bush. He caught the shaggy black scent of his brother's coat and the sharp coppery tang of blood from the squirrel he'd killed. Other squirrels moved through the branches above, smelling of wet fur and fear, their little claws scratching at the bark. The noise had sounded something like that.

And he heard it again, clink and scrape. It brought him to his feet. His ears pricked and his tail rose. He howled, a long deep shivery cry, a howl to wake the sleepers, but the piles of man-rock were dark and dead. A still wet night, a night to drive men into their holes. The rain had stopped, but the men still hid from the damp, huddled by the fires in their caves of piled stone.

(ACoK)

It's worth to mention that in the myth, the only man to ever ride a Puka was Brian Boru, The High King of Ireland. And here we have a skinchanger named Bran.

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According to legend, the púca is a deft shapeshifter, capable of assuming a variety of terrifying or pleasing forms. It can take a human form, but will often have animal features, such as ears or a tail.^[9] As an animal, the púca will most commonly appear as a horse, cat, rabbit, raven, fox, wolf, goat, goblin, or dog. No matter what shape the púca takes, its fur is almost always dark. It most commonly takes the form of a sleek black horse with a flowing mane and luminescent golden eyes.^[10] (The Manx glashtyn also takes on human form, but he usually betrays his horse's ears and is analogous to the each uisce^[11])

If a human is enticed onto a púca's back, it has been known to give them a wild ride; however, unlike a kelpie, which will take its rider and dive into the nearest stream or lake to drown and devour him/her, the púca will do its rider no real harm. Púca are also known as great chefs, but only operate in their own village. However, according to some folklorists the only man ever to ride the púca was Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, by using a special bridle incorporating three hairs of the púca's tail.^[5] The púca has the power of human speech, and has been known to give advice and lead people away from harm. Though the púca enjoys confusing and often terrifying humans, it is considered to be benevolent.

(...)

The púca may be regarded as being either menacing or beneficent. Fairy mythologist Thomas Keightley said "notions respecting it are very vague", and in a brief description gives an account collected by Croker from a boy living near Killarney that "old people used to say that the Pookas were very numerous...long ago..., were wicked-minded, black-looking, bad things...that would come in the form of wild colts, with chains hanging about them", and that did much to harm unwary travellers.^[6] Also, children were warned not to eat overripe blackberries, because this was a sign that the pooka has befouled them.

(...)
 

Folklore in the United Kingdom tells that blackberries should not be picked after Old Michaelmas Day (11 October) as the devil (or a Púca) has made them unfit to eat by stepping, spitting or fouling on them. There is some value in this legend as autumn's wetter and cooler weather often allows the fruit to become infected by various molds such as Botryotinia which give the fruit an unpleasant look and may be toxic.

(Wikipedia)

 

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Through the gloom of night came a muffled shout, cut short.

Swiftly, swiftly, he whirled and bounded back into the trees, wet leaves rustling beneath his paws, branches whipping at him as he rushed past. He could hear his brother following close. They plunged under the heart tree and around the cold pool, through the blackberry bushes, under a tangle of oaks and ash and hawthorn scrub, to the far side of the wood . . . and there it was, the shadow he'd glimpsed without seeing, the slanting tree pointing at the rooftops. Sentinel, came the thought.

He remembered how it was to climb it then. The needles everywhere, scratching at his bare face and falling down the back of his neck, the sticky sap on his hands, the sharp piney smell of it. It was an easy tree for a boy to climb, leaning as it did, crooked, the branches so close together they almost made a ladder, slanting right up to the roof.

(ACoK, Bran)

 

In ASOS scene, Davos arrives at Dragonstone, and when the new guards fail to recognise him, he asks for Jate Blackberry, who was captain of the gate.

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"Who?"

"Jate Blackberry. He knows me well enough."

"I never heard of him. Most like he's dead."

So, here we have the ignorance symbolism... Davos doesn't know Jate is dead, while the guards don't know who Jate is.

GRRM also uses blackberries to denote characters who'll die soon:

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In his dreams the dead came burning, gowned in swirling green flames. Jaime danced around them with a golden sword, but for every one he struck down two more arose to take his place.

Brienne woke him with a boot in the ribs. The world was still black, and it had begun to rain. They broke their fast on oatcakes, salt fish, and some blackberries that Ser Cleos had found, and were back in the saddle before the sun came up.

Shortly after, Ser Cleos is dead.

 

The mysterious member of Clann Liddle who helps Bran and Reeds gives them blackberries:

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They spent that night together, for the rain did not let up till well past dark, and only Summer seemed to want to leave the cave. When the fire had burned down to embers, Bran let him go. The direwolf did not feel the damp as people did, and the night was calling him. Moonlight painted the wet woods in shades of silver and turned the grey peaks white. Owls hooted through the dark and flew silently between the pines, while pale goats moved along the mountainsides. Bran closed his eyes and gave himself up to the wolf dream, to the smells and sounds of midnight.

When they woke the next morning, the fire had gone out and the Liddle was gone, but he'd left a sausage for them, and a dozen oatcakes folded up neatly in a green and white cloth. Some of the cakes had pinenuts baked in them and some had blackberries. Bran ate one of each, and still did not know which sort he liked the best. One day there would be Starks in Winterfell again, he told himself, and then he'd send for the Liddles and pay them back a hundredfold for every nut and berry.

Well, let's hope they don't end up like poor Ser Cleos.

 

In 'The Sworn Sword' blackberries symbolise Ser Eustace Osgrey's dead sons and his grief:

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Bennis grinned a wet red grin. "Ser Useless never leaves the tower, except to see the boys down in the blackberries."

"A sworn sword owes his lord the truth."

(...)

Standfast was bigger than it appeared. Its deep vaults and cellars occupied a good part of the hill on which it perched. Aboveground, the tower boasted four stories. The upper two had windows and balconies, the lower two only arrow slits. It was cooler inside, but so dim that Dunk had to let his eyes adjust. Sam Stoops' wife was on her knees by the hearth, sweeping out the ashes. "Is Ser Eustace above or below?" Dunk asked her.

"Up, ser." The old woman was so hunched that her head was lower than her shoulders. "He just come back from visiting the boys, down in the blackberries."

The boys were Eustace Osgrey's sons: Edwyn, Harrold, Addam. Edwyn and Harrold had been knights, Addam a young squire. They had died on the Redgrass Field fifteen years ago, at the end of the Blackfyre Rebellion. "They died good deaths, fighting bravely for the king," Ser Eustace told Dunk, "and I brought them home and buried them among the blackberries." His wife was buried there as well.

(...)
 

"We'll take the west way," Ser Eustace announced. "It is little used these past years, but still the shortest way from Standfast to Coldmoat Castle." The path took them around back of the hill, past the graves where the old knight had laid his wife and sons to rest in a thicket of blackberry bushes. "They loved to pick the berries here, my boys. When they were little they would come to me with sticky faces and scratches on their arms, and I'd know just where they'd been." He smiled fondly. "Your Egg reminds me of my Addam. A brave boy, for one so young. Addam was trying to protect his wounded brother Harrold when the battle washed over them. A riverman with six acorns [Smallwood]  on his shield took his arm off with an ax." His sad gray eyes found Dunk's. "This old master of yours, the knight of Pennytree . . . did he fight in the Blackfyre Rebellion?"

"He did, m'lord. Before he took me on." Dunk had been no more than three or four at the time, running half naked through the alleys of Flea Bottom, more animal than boy.

(...)

"You would have to ask Ser Eustace, Egg." Dunk thought he knew the answer, but it was not one the boy would want to hear. He wanted a castle with a lion on the gatehouse, but all he got were graves among the blackberries. When you swore a man your sword, you promised to serve and obey, to fight for him at need, not to pry into his affairs and question his allegiances . . . but Ser Eustace had played him for a fool. He said his sons died fighting for the king, and let me believe the stream was his.

(...)
 

"That was bad of me. A breach of hospitality. The good septon has been scolding me." She gazed across the water at Ser Eustace. "I scarce remember Addam any longer. It was more than half my life ago. I remember that I loved him, though. I have not loved any of the others."

"His father put him in the blackberries, with his brothers," Dunk said. "He was fond of blackberries."

"I remember. He used to pick them for me, and we'd eat them in a bowl of cream."

(...)

She knelt before the blackberries and began to weep, and he was so moved that he went to comfort her. They spent the whole night talking of young Addam and my lady's noble father. Lord Wyman and Ser Eustace were fast friends, until the Blackfyre Rebellion. 

 

And in GOT, blackberries often appear in those melancholic Stark chapters when they prepare to leave Winterfell, heading South, ignorant of the danger:

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Two of the Kingsguard had come north with King Robert. Bran had watched them with fascination, never quite daring to speak to them. Ser Boros was a bald man with a jowly face, and Ser Meryn had droopy eyes and a beard the color of rust. Ser Jaime Lannister looked more like the knights in the stories, and he was of the Kingsguard too, but Robb said he had killed the old mad king and shouldn't count anymore. The greatest living knight was Ser Barristan Selmy, Barristan the Bold, the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. Father had promised that they would meet Ser Barristan when they reached King's Landing, and Bran had been marking the days on his wall, eager to depart, to see a world he had only dreamed of and begin a life he could scarcely imagine.

Yet now that the last day was at hand, suddenly Bran felt lost. Winterfell had been the only home he had ever known. His father had told him that he ought to say his farewells today, and he had tried. After the hunt had ridden out, he wandered through the castle with his wolf at his side, intending to visit the ones who would be left behind, Old Nan and Gage the cook, Mikken in his smithy, Hodor the stableboy who smiled so much and took care of his pony and never said anything but "Hodor," the man in the glass gardens who gave him a blackberry when he came to visit …

That's moments before his climb. And after the fall:

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Catelyn gave her firstborn a challenging look. "If you are to rule in the north, you must think these things through, Robb. Answer your own question. Why would anyone want to kill a sleeping child?"

Before he could answer, the servants returned with a plate of food fresh from the kitchen. There was much more than she'd asked for: hot bread, butter and honey and blackberry preserves, a rasher of bacon and a soft-boiled egg, a wedge of cheese, a pot of mint tea. And with it came Maester Luwin.

"How is my son, Maester?" Catelyn looked at all the food and found she had no appetite.

 

When Cat arrives at The Eyrie, Lysa and Sweetrobin eat blackberries:

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A wooden platform had been built to elevate Robert's chair; there the Lord of the Eyrie sat, giggling and clapping his hands as a humpbacked puppeteer in blue-and-white motley made two wooden knights hack and slash at each other. Pitchers of thick cream and baskets of blackberries had been set out, and the guests were sipping a sweet orange-scented wine from engraved silver cups. A fool's festival, Brynden had called it, and small wonder.

(...)

Across the terrace, Lysa laughed gaily at some jest of Lord Hunter's, and nibbled a blackberry from the point of Ser Lyn Corbray's dagger. They were the suitors who stood highest in Lysa's favor … today, at least. Catelyn would have been hard-pressed to say which man was more unsuitable. Eon Hunter was even older than Jon Arryn had been, half-crippled by gout, and cursed with three quarrelsome sons, each more grasping than the last. Ser Lyn was a different sort of folly; lean and handsome, heir to an ancient but impoverished house, but vain, reckless, hot-tempered … and, it was whispered, notoriously uninterested in the intimate charms of women.

Maybe this is supposed to symbolise how Cat's ignorant of Lysa's true role in Jon Arryn's dead and LF's plots.

In ACOK Arya's companions, for example Hot Pie east blackberries, shortly before they arrive at the ruined holdfast where Ser Amory Lorch kills most of them.

And guests at Renly's last feast eat blackberry tarts:

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Of food there was plenty. The war had not touched the fabled bounty of Highgarden. While singers sang and tumblers tumbled, they began with pears poached in wine, and went on to tiny savory fish rolled in salt and cooked crisp, and capons stuffed with onions and mushrooms. There were great loaves of brown bread, mounds of turnips and sweetcorn and pease, immense hams and roast geese and trenchers dripping full of venison stewed with beer and barley. For the sweet, Lord Caswell's servants brought down trays of pastries from his castle kitchens, cream swans and spun-sugar unicorns, lemon cakes in the shape of roses, spiced honey biscuits and blackberry tarts, apple crisps and wheels of buttery cheese.

 

Later (in ASOS), Sansa and Tyrion attend a feast on the morning of Joff's weddding. Again, they're ignorant of the coming danger.

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In the Queen's Ballroom they broke their fast on honeycakes baked with blackberries and nuts, gammon steaks, bacon, fingerfish crisped in breadcrumbs, autumn pears, and a Dornish dish of onions, cheese, and chopped eggs cooked up with fiery peppers. "Nothing like a hearty breakfast to whet one's appetite for the seventy-seven-course feast to follow," Tyrion commented as their plates were filled. There were flagons of milk and flagons of mead and flagons of a light sweet golden wine to wash it down. Musicians strolled among the tables, piping and fluting and fiddling, while Ser Dontos galloped about on his broomstick horse and Moon Boy made farting sounds with his cheeks and sang rude songs about the guests.

 

In AFfC Jaime easts blackberries at the beginning of his Riverlands tour, and of course in ADwD we find out that this leads him into Lady Stoneheart's hands.

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Jaime had given stern commands that no man was to depart the column without his leave. Elsewise, he knew he would have bored young lordlings racing through the fields, scattering livestock and trampling down the crops. There were still cows and sheep to be seen near the city; apples on the trees and berries in the brush, stands of barleycorn and oats and winter wheat, wayns and oxcarts on the road. Farther afield, things would not be so rosy.

Riding at the front of the host with Ser Ilyn silent by his side, Jaime felt almost content. The sun was warm on his back and the wind riffled through his hair like a woman's fingers. When Little Lew Piper came galloping up with a helm full of blackberries, Jaime ate a handful and told the boy to share the rest with his fellow squires and Ser Ilyn Payne.

And in ADwD Tyrion and Illyrio drink blackberry wine and eat blackberries in cream...

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He had drunk too much last night. His head was pounding, and even the gentle swaying of the litter was enough to make his gorge rise in his throat. Though he said no word of complaint, his distress must have been plain to Illyrio Mopatis. "Come, drink with me," the fat man said. "A scale from the dragon that burned you, as they say." He poured for them from a flagon of blackberry wine so sweet that it drew more flies than honey. Tyrion shooed them off with the back of his hand and drank deep. The taste was so cloying that it was all he could do to keep it down. The second cup went down easier, however. Even so, he had no appetite, and when Illyrio offered him a bowl of blackberries in cream he waved it off. "I dreamed about the queen," he said. "I was on my knees before her, swearing my allegiance, but she mistook me for my brother, Jaime, and fed me to her dragons."

This line about blackberry wine that drew flies is interesting, since flies are often drawn to corpses, strenghtening the death symbolism.

I'm not sure which danger to Tyrion this scene foreshadows, but on his journey to Dany many eventually happen.

Edit: I've missed Omer Blackberry, one of the men who help Davos in smuggling Edric Storm away from Dragonstone, again, we have danger, of which Edric was ignorant. 

Unfortnately for him, Omer still hangs out around him in ADwD, when they arrive at the Free Cities... so something unexpected (and bad) might still happen to Robert's only acknowledged son.

[Seams]

Very interesting. Thank you for taking the time to look up the passages from the books - those help a lot to put this in context.

This piece of your research strikes me as most important in explaining the symbolism behind blackberries:

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Celtic lore said that blackberries were fae fruit, and thus bad luck for people to eat . . .

Since the man in the glass garden gives the blackberry to Bran right before he falls from the window in the old keep, it seems as if we are seeing a "forbidden fruit" scene followed by the "fall" from grace. But then the blackberry becomes Bran's signature fruit - he has become one of the fae and can eat the fruit freely without further consequences. Maybe that's the point of the mysterious Liddle in the cave - letting Bran know that he has been recognized or chosen.

There are many ways that characters pass in and out of the Otherworld (if that's the right term) in the books. I'm pondering the connection between Asshai (where one must pass beneath the shadow) and the Arryn motto, "As high as honor." I am glad to add passing beneath a blackberry arch to the list of magical doorways. That scene with Brienne at the Whispers seems like an excellent example.

If I recall correctly, someone in this forum posted a query a couple of years ago about a translation question: I believe Tyrion drinks something that the book identifies as "blackbelly rum." The writer of the post wondered whether native speakers of English knew what GRRM intended, or whether this was a misprint of "blackberry." I don't know if the word was changed in subsequent editions, but it would be interesting to figure out whether GRRM was avoiding using the blackberry in that situation for a specific reason or whether it was just a typographical error.

 

[Bluetiger]

18 minutes ago, Seams said:

Very interesting. Thank you for taking the time to look up the passages from the books - those help a lot to put this in context.

This piece of your research strikes me as most important in explaining the symbolism behind blackberries:

Since the man in the glass garden gives the blackberry to Bran right before he falls from the window in the old keep, it seems as if we are seeing a "forbidden fruit" scene followed by the "fall" from grace. But then the blackberry becomes Bran's signature fruit - he has become one of the fae and can eat the fruit freely without further consequences. Maybe that's the point of the mysterious Liddle in the cave - letting Bran know that he has been recognized or chosen.

There are many ways that characters pass in and out of the Otherworld (if that's the right term) in the books. I'm pondering the connection between Asshai (where one must pass beneath the shadow) and the Arryn motto, "As high as honor." I am glad to add passing beneath a blackberry arch to the list of magical doorways. That scene with Brienne at the Whispers seems like an excellent example.

If I recall correctly, someone in this forum posted a query a couple of years ago about a translation question: I believe Tyrion drinks something that the book identifies as "blackbelly rum." The writer of the post wondered whether native speakers of English knew what GRRM intended, or whether this was a misprint of "blackberry." I don't know if the word was changed in subsequent editions, but it would be interesting to figure out whether GRRM was avoiding using the blackberry in that situation for a specific reason or whether it was just a typographical error.

 

I can check how that's been translated to Polish, just tell me which chapter it was.

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"Or else she might have burned him. The red woman." Even here, a thousand leagues from the Wall, Gilly was reluctant to say Lady Melisandre's name aloud. "She wanted king's blood for her fires. Val knew she did. Lord Snow too. That was why they made me take Dalla's babe away and leave my own behind in his place. Maester Aemon went to sleep and didn't wake up, but if he had stayed, she would have burned him."

He will still burn, Sam thought miserably, only now I have to do it. The Targaryens always gave their fallen to the flames. Quhuru Mo would not allow a funeral pyre aboard the Cinnamon Wind, so Aemon's corpse had been stuffed inside a cask of blackbelly rum to preserve it until the ship reached Oldtown.

 

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Xhondo had no mercy, though, so all that Sam could do was struggle back into his blacks. He found them on the deck beneath his hammock, all bundled up in one damp heap. He sniffed at them to see how foul they were, and inhaled the smell of salt and sea and tar, wet canvas and mildew, fruit and fish and blackbelly rum, strange spices and exotic woods, and a heady bouquet of his own dried sweat. But Gilly's smell was on them too, the clean smell of her hair and the sweet smell of her milk, and that made him glad to wear them. He would have given much and more for warm dry socks, though. Some sort of fungus had begun to grow between his toes.

A Search of Ice and Fire gives only this.

By the way, in the entire LOTR, blackberry is mentioned only once:

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He led them a short way down a passage, and opened a door. 'Here is a nice little parlour!' he said. 'I hope it will suit. Excuse me now. I'm that busy. No time for talking. I must be trotting. It's hard work for two legs, but I don't get thinner. I'll look in again later. If you want anything, ring the hand-bell, and Nob will come. If he don't come, ring and shout!'

Off he went at last, and left them feeling rather breathless. He seemed capable of an endless stream of talk, however busy he might be. They found themselves in a small and cosy room. There was a bit of bright fire burning on the hearth, and in front of it were some low and comfortable chairs. There was a round table, already spread with a white cloth, and on it was a large hand-bell. But Nob, the hobbit servant, came bustling in long before they thought of ringing. He brought candles and a tray full of plates.

'Will you be wanting anything to drink, masters?' he asked. 'And shall I show you the bedrooms, while your supper is got ready?'

They were washed and in the middle of good deep mugs of beer when Mr. Butterbur and Nob came in again. In a twinkling the table was laid. There was hot soup, cold meats, a blackberry tart, new loaves, slabs of butter, and half a ripe cheese: good plain food, as good as the Shire could show, and homelike enough to dispel the last of Sam's misgivings (already much relieved by the excellence of the beer).

The landlord hovered round for a link, and then prepared to leave them. 'I don't know whether you would care to join the company, when you have supped,' he said, standing at the door. 'Perhaps you would rather go to your beds. Still the company would be very pleased to welcome you, if you had a mind. We don't get Outsiders - travellers from the Shire, I should say, begging your pardon - often; and we like to hear a bit of news, or any story or song you may have in mind. But as you please! Ring the bell, if you lack anything!'

So refreshed and encouraged did they feel at the end of their supper (about three quarters of an hour's steady going, not hindered by unnecessary talk) that Frodo, Pippin, and Sam decided to join the company. Merry said it would be too stuffy. 'I shall sit here quietly by the fire for a bit, and perhaps go out later for a sniff of the air. Mind your Ps and Qs, and don't forget that you are supposed to be escaping in secret, and are still on the high-road and not very far from the Shire!'

(The Fellowship of the Ring, by JRR Tolkien)

Those who have read LOTR will know what kind of an danger is incoming for the hobbits.

 

EDIT: It seems the translator had no idea what this 'blackbelly' is supposed to be, once he ommited it, then he translated it literally - 'black' + 'belly'...

[Wizz-The-Smith]

38 minutes ago, Seams said:

If I recall correctly, someone in this forum posted a query a couple of years ago about a translation question: I believe Tyrion drinks something that the book identifies as "blackbelly rum." The writer of the post wondered whether speakers of English knew what GRRM intended, or whether this was a misprint of "blackberry." I don't know if the word was changed in subsequent editions, but it would be interesting to figure out whether GRRM was avoiding using the blackberry in that situation for a specific reason or whether it was just a typographical error.

Hi Seams. 

I have been pondering that scene, it's actually blackberry wine that Tyrion drinks and not the blackbelly rum mentioned elsewhere.  After some research I found that blackberry wine was actually drank in rituals to try and contact the Sidhe/Fae, or another technique was to pour the wine out onto the ground as an offering to them. 

The one and only instance in the text where blackberry wine is drank, is when Tyrion shares some with Illyrio before his journey east with Griff/Jon Con.  With the ritual in mind, could the wine enable Tyrion the ability to reach for the Otherworld/have contact with the spirits, or vice versa?  He certainly has a magical, time bending experience in his next chapters [The bridge and greyscale incident] Notice the description as Tyrion drinks the wine, as it seems similar to the experiences of Bran, Arya and Dani when they ingest their respective pastes or drinks.

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  ‘’Come, drink with me,’’ the fat man said. ‘’A scale from the dragon that burned you, as they say.’’  He poured for them from a flagon of blackberry wine so sweet that it drew more flies than honey.  Tyrion shooed them off with the back of his hand and drank deep.  The taste was so cloying that it was all he could do to keep it down.  The second cup went down easier, however.  Even so, he had no appetite, and when Illyrio offered him a bowl of blackberries in cream he waved it off.

A couple of chapters later he has the time bending experience travelling under the bridge, which sounds similar to the tales of the Tuatha/Sidhe gods whereby one can lose hundreds of years while spending just a short time in the Otherworld, or conversely spend a lot of time in the Otherworld only to return at the exact time you left.