Arya's Relationship with Death

[ARYa_Nym]

If Jon's line about frozen with Needle in her hand is literal I think it could relate to the description of Juliet.

CAPULET

Ha? Let me see her. Out, alas! She’s cold.

Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff.

Life and these lips have long been separated.

Death lies on her like an untimely frost

Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.

…

CAPULET

Ready to go, but never to return.

O son! The night before thy wedding day

Hath death lain with thy wife. There she lies,

Flower as she was, deflowered by him.

-Shakespeare

Other quotes I found that can relate are:

"But I know I live half alive in the world,

Half my life belongs to the wild darkness."

Galway Kinnell, from “Middle of the Way”

Arya is half dead. During the day she is keeper of the dead. During the night she belongs to the wild darkness as the Night Wolf.

Another line about death coming from within.

"I want to warn him about all the things that’ll kill him. Not from the neck up, but from the chest in. I want him to inhale and exhale every breath through a harmonica."

“Letter to My Three Year Old Self” Martin Ingle

More on darkness

"What hurts you, blesses you.

Darkness is your candle."

Rumi

"I must also have a dark side if I am to be whole.

Carl Jung

This relates to the KM telling her that darkness must be as sweet to her as light, Syrio saying darkness can be her friend, and BR telling Bran to never fear the darkness because it gives him strength.

[They see me R'hollin]

I hope she won't die. Isn't there a lot of connections to her and death and how it clings to her? I can see her as being Death's ambassador and therefore unlikely to die. She sees (kind of) her father beheaded and she pulls her mother's body from a river. She sees Yoren die for her. I can envision her as Death in the story. Not dying herself, but being the means by which others meet their fate. She's an overlooked girl; everyone believes she's dead when ironically she's the one that will be killing them.

[ARYa_Nym]

Thanks They See Me Rhollin!

She can be the harbinger or personification of death.

[Angmar]

Maybe she takes on the role of Stranger on forward?

Death and the Maiden parallels come to mind. Always together, about to embrace but never fully uniting...But always near to each other.

[ARYa_Nym]

Good point Angmar.

I mentioned it in the marry thread. Arya's husband may be death and this ties into the quote upthread about death having lain with Juliet.

Death and the Maiden is a common motif in Renaissance art, especially in painting, and music. It was developed from the Dance of Death. The new element was an erotic subtext. A prominent representative is Hans Baldung Grien.

Where the maiden's relationship with death is romanticized. The KM told her that she would have to give her privates to the MFG. The only man she kisses besides Jon is the KM who looked like a corpse. She also lets Jaqen kiss her who is an agent of death.

& earlier today I said to switch sleep for death.

Sleep is my lover now, my forgetting, my opiate, my oblivion.

~ Audrey Niffenegger

[servethe_Realm]

You all should know I read this thread late last night before bed and I had nightmares.....for some reason this thread really creeped me out, even giving me chills as I read it! I really love this idea and, though I noticed that Arya is constantly surrounded by death, I never took it any farther than the fact that she's had a very difficult life. Very nice connections, I can see Arya being a harbinger of death, I need to reread now!

[ARYa_Nym]

I found more things.

Get Rich or Die Tywin said:

Almost like she's a ghost seeking vengeance from beyond the grave (as everyone thinks she's dead).

http://asoiaf.wester...m/#entry4061865

This compares to rusalkas:

In Slavic mythology, a rusalka (plural: rusalki or rusalky) is a female ghost, water nymph, succubus, or mermaid-like demon that dwelt in a waterway...

The ghostly version is the soul of a young woman who had died in or near a river or a lake and came back to haunt that waterway. This undead rusalka is not invariably malevolent, and will be allowed to die in peace if her death is avenged.

The rusalka are slim with long, loose hair, blazing eyes and magnificent breasts. Their hair may be light brown, blond or green. They can assume the form of a fish or have legs like a human. In the latter form, they haunt the forests, dance with the moon and swing from the branches of trees.

According to most traditions, the rusalki were fish-women, who lived at the bottom of rivers. In the middle of the night, they would walk out to the bank and dance in meadows. If they saw handsome men, they would fascinate them with songs and dancing, mesmerize them, then lead them away to the river floor to their death.

Speaking of slavic lore I'm reading Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente which is inspired by a folk tale that I have read. I'm only 52% done with the book though but so far I've found some things to relate to Arya.

SPOILER for those who haven't read and still want to read without being spoiled.

Koschei the Deathless is the Tsar of Life. He is at war with his brother the Tsar of Death.

Anyways the main character is named Marya Morevna and she was engaged to him.

Koschei called her Volchitsa, medvezhka, koschechka which means wolfling, she-bear, wild little kitten.

He also called her a savage wolfling and while he fed her:

“She felt like a fierce woodland creature, a volchitsa in truth, a little wolfing, brought inside and brushed and petted and fed until it seemed the most natural thing in the world…”

Arya is a wolfling and compares to wood dancers which could count as woodland creatures.

There are other tsars like that of night, salt, and water. The tsar of night wants the dark places and the places in between them such as the shadows.

At one point Marya comes across skulls. We've discussed that Arya does this with the dragon skulls in AGoT and of course skulls are mentioned in the HoB&W.

"Marya no longer thought it grisly or shuddered as she passed beneath the empty eye sockets. Now, the skulls seemed to smile at her, to say, We who were once living can guard you still, and love you, and keep you living and safe and whole. Nothing ever truly dies. "

She humanizes dead things which is exactly what Arya did. At first the dragon skulls felt like they could harm her but later they felt almost like friends and watched her as she passed.

Details of Koschei and Marya's relationship that can relate to Arya:

"Koschei wrapped his arms around her and drew her close. Marya shut her eyes against him, her lover, her death, her life. "

^Here she attributes him to being her lover, her death, and her life. This can tie into the death and the maiden motif that was discussed.

When he kisses her:

"Koschei smiled. His pale lips sought hers, crushing her into a kiss like dying. She tasted sweetness there…"

As mentioned Arya kissed a corpse.

Koschei says that Marya is a demon like him. Nymeria's pack were called demons.

Now I just got to the intro of Ivan and there are already things to relate to Arya.

"Maybe those boots will fit me, thought Ivan Nikolayevich. He could already feel their softness on his sore feet. Russian dead do not keep their boots long, either. "

He took the boots of the dead. Arya took Dareon's boots. Not long after he sees a man who is dying and gives him something to drink and he dies immediately after. This has happened to Arya.

Ivan was told:

"You will always fall in love, and it will always be like having your throat cut, just that fast. You will always run away with her…You will always be dead, in a city of ice, snow falling into your ear. "

Love is like death (Arya is compared to Lyanna). He is dead in a city of ice (Jon mentions Arya's frozen body). Arya has mentioned running away many times. & one of the times she mentioned flying away it's to see the Titan of Braavos which she does see which leads her to be a servant of the MFG and an instrument of death.

Another interesting thing is that Ivan was told:

"There is a hole in me like a bullet. I want to feed everyone who is not my son, to keep them living. I want no one to have holes in them. I have no one anymore whose mother I can be. Eat, eat. Here are some blintzes, sweet boy; here is cheese pastry. Eat. Be fat. Be alive."

Someone died and it left a hole in a grieving woman's heart. The hole signifies that she's dead inside. She wants Ivan to eat so he can be alive.

Ivan then tells Marya:

"What I am saying is, in this graveyard, I would like to feed you, so that you will not have holes in you like bullets. Sit at my table, Marya Morevna. Let me be mother to you. Be fat. Be alive. "

In a sense one could say that Arya has been starved and thus has a hole in her heart. But again the Ghost of High Heart called her dark heart.

This harks back to the KM asking Arya if she was hungry and her answering yes but not for food. Is death sating her hunger? She's hungry for blood and power.

Another note Ivan's hair was described:

"...dark gold hair, like a coin that has often changed hands."

His golden hair was like a coin. We mentioned Nymeria having eyes like two gold coins relating to Charon and the crossing of the river Styx in the underworld.

However, I'm only about half way done so I may be able to find more things.

Info on the Russian fairytale:

The Death of Koschei the Deathless or Marya Morevna is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki and included by Andrew Lang in The Red Fairy Book.^[1] The character Koschei is an evil, immortal man who menaces young women with his magic.

After his parents die and sisters get married, Ivan Tsarevitch leaves his home. He meets Marya Morevna, the beautiful warrior princess, and gets married to her. After a while she announces she is going to go to war and tells Ivan not to open the door of the dungeon in the castle they live in while she will be away. Overcome by the desire to know what the dungeon holds, he opens the door soon after her departure and finds Koschei, chained and emaciated. Koschei asks Ivan to bring him some water; Ivan does so. After Koschei drinks twelve buckets of water, his magic powers return to him, he tears his chains and disappears. Soon after Ivan finds out that Koschei took Marya Morevna away, and chases him. When he gets him for the first time, Koschei tells Ivan he lets him go, but Ivan doesn't give in, and Koschei kills him, puts his remains into a barrel and throws it into the sea. Ivan is revived by his sisters' husbands, powerful wizards, who can transform into birds of prey. They tell him Koschei has a magic horse and Ivan should go to Baba Yaga to get one too, or else he won't be able to defeat Koschei. After Ivan stands Yaga's tests and gets the horse, he fights with Koschei, kills him and burns his body. Marya Morevna returns to Ivan, and they celebrate his victory with his sisters and their husbands.

You all should know I read this thread late last night before bed and I had nightmares.....for some reason this thread really creeped me out, even giving me chills as I read it! I really love this idea and, though I noticed that Arya is constantly surrounded by death, I never took it any farther than the fact that she's had a very difficult life. Very nice connections, I can see Arya being a harbinger of death, I need to reread now!

Aw, I'm sorry that we scared you. :)

[Little Wing]

You all should know I read this thread late last night before bed and I had nightmares.....for some reason this thread really creeped me out, even giving me chills as I read it! I really love this idea and, though I noticed that Arya is constantly surrounded by death, I never took it any farther than the fact that she's had a very difficult life. Very nice connections, I can see Arya being a harbinger of death, I need to reread now!

Wow! I'm sorry you had nightmares, but it just goes to show we're on to something here...

So, Deathless, you say...and Slavic lore... I shall have to give it a read, now! :drool: Have you guys looked into an Arya/Banshee connection maybe?

[ARYa_Nym]

LW, I loved the book the only problem was that I had no emotional investment in the characters. The style and subject was right up my alley though.

Unfortunately I can't find any really good character analysis at this time.

I haven't looked up any banshee connections no.

Deathless Cont. Again Spoiler.

At one point Ivan sees a dead girl trying to seduce him and Marya describes his going towards her like flowing water.

Koschei says:

But my wife would not bring an Ivan into my house; she would not stab me so, through the neck.

Ivan represents a stab in the neck. This is an area where I wish I had a good character analysis to relate it to Arya. It is too fresh in my mind right now for me to do it myself & I think I would have to read it more than once.

Anyways, when trying to get discover the man (Ivan) who Marya brought into Koschei's home name he says:

Of course you are right, wife. I have forgotten myself. What is a name? Nothing and no one..

Ivan will lead to his death. To relate it to Arya in ADWD she said before she asked for a face:

"Your name will be a lie, and the very face you wear will not be your own.” She almost bit her lip again, but this time she caught herself and stopped…She thought of all the names she had worn: Arry, Weasel, Squab, Cat of the Canals. She thought of that stupid girl from Winterfell called Arya Horseface. Names did not matter. "

One of Koschei's lovers was a rusalka.

Shadow and the moon. Koschei loomed over her like a shadow and filled her up like a moon obliterating the ligth of any other star.

& at one point he pulled her towards him like a little moon.

As for the star when she first gets to Braavos Denyo points her to the star of home and in an Arianne chapter she mentioned Nymeria's star which burned as bright as any man. So to relate it perhaps the moon (FM) is currently getting in the way of her two stars (home and Nymeria).

Here I think Koschei can be related to the KM and Arya:

" I put on blood for you like a cosmetic, just like I put on this face, and this body all full of leanness and litheness. It is to please you, only to please you, my human girl, my volchitsa…You carry your death in every cell of you. Every tiny mote in your body is dying, faster than sleight of hand. You are always dying, every second. How could I take that out of you? My death is not so diffuse. I have only one. You have millions."

So Koschei put on a face for her to appease her but in reality Koschei is old and like death.He looks old and his eyes are sunken in like a skull. Koschei also sounded like a forest love at one point because she said that he smelled of barley and old trees but she knew he did it to please her.

Again there is talk of death coming from within. Everyone has death inside them and is dying by the second.

"What do you look like without your face? Who are you, husband? I will see it. I will."

^This can relate to Arya's FM arc. What is her true face. Even when she wears her own face if she gets mummer's training next she will likely wear a mummer's mask.

Koshcei said that his true nature is the place where people feel most alive and that is when they are closest to death.

"She knew herself, how she had slowly, over years, become a cat, a wolf, a snake, anything but a girl. How she had wrung out her girlhood like a death. "

Arya is a wolf and has become a cat and was told to be quick like a snake. The line about her girlhood being wrung out like a death is interesting. Arya has been forced to become fiercer and grow up faster because of her journey. In many ways the girl inside her died especially the girl of AGoT.

Marya said:

"I am no one; I am nothing…Nothing in me was not made by you…What could I have grown up to be? What kind of human woman, what kind of simple, happy thing? …If I have never seen the world naked. I want to be myself again. I want to be six. I want to stop knowing everything I know. Ivan looks like the life you stole from me. "

She calls herself no one. She wonders what she would have been like if Koschei had not stolen her.

“…a woman I do not know, the woman I could have been, a human woman, whole and hot.”

For the Death and the Maiden motif we can say that death has stolen Arya and now she is a different girl than what she was on track for being in Winterfell.

"When you are this hungry, you cannot even remember who you used to be, she whispered. Who you might have been, if not for this hunger. "

Remember that death/blood could be sating Arya's hunger.

"It’s not so bad, my darling. Being dead. It’s like being alive, only colder. Things taste less. They feel less. You forget, little by little, who you were."

Forgetting who you were is like being dead. Arya is being told to leave her past life behind her.

Those were the days I wish I could eat now, but remembering is like eating, don’t you think? Gobble up the past to keep warm. I hope it was warm, where you were.

Remembering is like eating or being alive.

"Marya Morevna carried her secret like a child. Her heart grew fat with it, for secrets are favorite food for the heart. "

Bran mentioned Arya holding secrets in her heart. Her secrets are mainly about her relationship with death.

Koschei says of Marya:

"I look at you Masha, and it is like drinking cold water. I look at you and it like my throat being cut.”

He also said that she looked like a winter night and that he could sleep inside the cold of her. An appropriate saying for a Stark.

Identity:

"Women she was and the woman she might have been and the woman she would always be, forever intersecting and colliding, a thousand birds falling from a thousand oaks, over and over. "

I think we can relate this to nothing ever truly dies. All of her identities are inside of herself.

They are all Arya just different parts of her.

The new identities can be therapeutic. A quote from Anna Akhmatova:

"The blood from your hands I will wash.

The black shame from your heart I will release.

I will soothe the pain of defeats and insults.

With the balm of a new name."

Arya says the rain will wash the blood from her hands after she kills the guard. She felt shame in ASoS over her kills. Arya being dead now also means the death of things in her past that she would like to forget.

Marya thinks of Ivan:

"Marya put down her brush and crawled onto the bed, reveling in the feeling of stalking him, catlike, hungry. Of knowing more than he did. It was how Koschei felt, she guessed. All the time."

Interesting that cats are given predatory descriptions. In the books it was said that the smell of blood attracts shadowcats. This description also reminds me of Arya when she was killing Dareon.

In the end Marya goes to see Koschei after they both "die."

"She went down underground in the merciless dark where a man with black curls flecked with starry silver and said her name like a confession. "

This is like in AGoT when Arya is in the dark tunnels and it keeps going down like she's going into the underworld.

Now the description of Koschei:

“She knelt and felt his face, tracing the line of his jaw, brushing her fingers across his cheeks and nose, touching his hair. Curly hair, and thick. A handsome face, unlined. He was young. She wondered what had brough him here to seek the gift of death. Dying bravos oft found their way to the House of Black and White, to hasten their ends, but this man had no wounds that she could find.”

When Arya is blind she feels the faces of the dead and this description is almost affectionate and intimate. So that's another line that can relate to death being her love in the death and the maiden motif.

So as said she humanizes the dead.

"The dead men had their own smell too. One of her duties was to find them...and close their eyes after drinking from the pool....

The second body was that of an old woman....A sweet death and a gentle one, the kindly man was fond of saying...Her body was still warm to touch. Her skin is so soft, like old thin leather that's been foldied and wrinkled a thousand times."

ETA: I forgot this from a review. A new goddess can be compared.

"I don’t know as much about the traditional myths of Koschei and Yelena, or Koschei and Marya, but what this made me think of was Inanna, the Sumerian goddess, descending to the depths, shedding layers as she goes – first clothes, then skin, then self. Marya’s initial trip in Deathless echoes this more subtly, but the shedding – and subsequent rediscovering – of self continues throughout the novel. There are rituals, going in and coming out, repetitions and reiterations as there must be in myth, but it still remains the story of a woman giving all for — what? With Inanna, we never get to know....

When Koschei entices Marya away from her home in unglamorous then-Petrograd, he requires her silence and obedience as he both cossets and chastises her. He gives her everything, showers her with gifts, and she starts to become half-demon herself, but she must also learn not to drown in it, to assert herself in turn, to grow from the lessons he and his country teach her.

"

http://incurablebluestocking.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/deathless-by-catherynne-m-valente/

This reminds me of Arya's arc especially the price is all of you.

[Quincunx]

So what can all of this mean for Arya? Is she talking to the dead? If she is what impact will that have on the story? Will she talk to important characters that have died or even use glamors for them like how she might use Dareon’s boots or call them back from death, be able to speak to or control the wights or even the White Walkers, create her own Uns as in necromancy, or help Jon somehow now that he is “dead”? I know this is all crackpot territory but, with all of this symbolism of death, I feel we could be missing an important element with Arya’s story and examining this might give us some idea of her destiny.

I thought the idea of Arya directly speaking to dead people to gain information would feel rather out of place, but then I remembered those two wights that Jon Snow ordered imprisoned in an ice cage specifically for the purpose of trying to communicate with.

[Little Wing]

Thanks, Arya_Nym - now I'll have to check out that book :wideeyed:

The banshee connection - I'm afraid there isn't much to go on, but I'll quote some interesting parts anyway:

The story of the banshee began as a fairy woman keening at the death of important personages. In later stories, the appearance of the banshee could foretell death. Banshees were said to appear for particular Irish families, though which families made it onto this list varied depending on who was telling the story. Stories of banshees were also prevalent in the West Highlands of Scotland.

The banshee can appear in a variety of guises. Most often she appears as an ugly, frightening hag, but she can also appear as a stunningly beautiful woman of any age that suits her. In some tales, the figure who first appears to be a "banshee" is later revealed to be the Irish battle goddess, the Morrígan.

Although not always seen, her mourning call is heard, usually at night when someone is about to die and usually around woods. In 1437, King James I of Scotland was approached by an Irish seer who was later identified as a banshee who foretold his murder at the instigation of the Earl of Atholl. There are records of several prophets believed to be incarnate banshees attending the great houses of Ireland and the courts of local Irish kings.

In some parts of Leinster, she is referred to as the bean chaointe (keening woman) whose wail can be so piercing that it shatters glass. In Kerry in the southwest of Ireland, her keen is experienced as a "low, pleasant singing"; in Tyrone in the north, as "the sound of two boards being struck together"; and on Rathlin Island as "a thin, screeching sound somewhere between the wail of a woman and the moan of an owl".

The banshee may also appear in a variety of other forms, such as that of a hooded crow, stoat, hare and weasel - animals associated in Ireland with witchcraft.

This reminds me of UnCat, but there's also mention of mermaids (which we connected to Arya before, especially through rusalka):

Banshees are frequently described as dressed in white or grey, often having long, pale hair which they brush with a silver comb, a detail scholar Patricia Lysaght attributes to confusion with local mermaid myths. This comb detail is also related to the centuries-old traditional romantic Irish story that, if you ever see a comb lying on the ground in Ireland, you must never pick it up, or the banshees (or mermaids — stories vary), having placed it there to lure unsuspecting humans, will spirit such gullible humans away. Other stories portray banshees as dressed in green, red, or black with a grey cloak.

And then there's this:

In Scottish mythology, a similar creature is known as the bean nighe or ban nigheachain (little washerwoman) or nigheag na h-àth (little washer at the ford).

In Welsh folklore, a similar creature is known as the Hag of the mist.

I really can't recall right now, but have we seen Arya washing clothes in a stream or river? I seem to remember we have, but could be misremembering...

[ARYa_Nym]

It took me a while to find this but this is from the first Arya's Destiny thread which is of course long.

question for gamers out there, I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees lots of similarities between the FM and the Dark Broterhood from the Elders Scrolls series, both speak of the assassinations as "gifts", both worship a deity resembling emptiness and the void (Sithis/Many Faces God/Unknown), both charge for the killing but is not always gold, of course both have temples/shrines, etc.

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/75854-aryas-destiny/page__st__200#entry3743926

The Night Mother is the Unholy Matron, bride of Sithis, and spiritual leader of the Dark Brotherhood. According to Dark Brotherhood beliefs, she is the wife of Sithis and bore five children. Despite being a relatively powerful spirit, her corpse is needed for communion with her. She receives prayers from people seeking to arrange assassinations via the Black Sacrament, and relays those desires to the Listener, the mortal leader of the Brotherhood.

Thanks, Arya_Nym - now I'll have to check out that book :wideeyed:

The banshee connection - I'm afraid there isn't much to go on, but I'll quote some interesting parts anyway:

This reminds me of UnCat, but there's also mention of mermaids (which we connected to Arya before, especially through rusalka):

And then there's this:

I really can't recall right now, but have we seen Arya washing clothes in a stream or river? I seem to remember we have, but could be misremembering...

T4P. It's appreciated.

Yes. After she got out of the tunnels.

She stank so badly that she stripped right there...She swam until she felt clean…Some riders went past along the river road as Arya was washing her clothes, but if they saw the scrawny naked girl scrubbing her rags in the moonlight, they took no notice.

I like the heralding the dead theme and the weasel and witchcraft mention. I believe Dark Heart first brought up the possibility in the Destiny thread that Arya seems to have an awareness that death is near or that it seems to be near after she interacts with someone.

[Little Wing]

The Night Mother is the Unholy Matron, bride of Sithis, and spiritual leader of the Dark Brotherhood. According to Dark Brotherhood beliefs, she is the wife of Sithis and bore five children. Despite being a relatively powerful spirit, her corpse is needed for communion with her. She receives prayers from people seeking to arrange assassinations via the Black Sacrament, and relays those desires to the Listener, the mortal leader of the Brotherhood.

:eek:

Oh, wow... That is just.... unca(t)nny :cool4:

[ARYa_Nym]

LOL^

I found some more info on the Death and the Maiden motif.

In this context, the Latin term memento mori, literally meaning ‘remember you will die’, has long served as a reminder of mortality, and has traditionally been linked with related images and didactic stories. The memento mori motif was extraordinarily popular in Europe in late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance with the images of the Triumph of Death and that of the Dance of Death – known also as the Totentanz and Danse Macabre,

Basically the memento mori concept of people needing to be prepared for death because it's inevitable. It can be said that in a way the KM is trying to prepare her by telling her that death is not the worst thing and that it can bring peace.

Mythologies, folklore, art and literature abound in visually rendered personifications of death, those most familiar and readily recognizable being that of the Grim Reaper, the skeleton wielding an hourglass and the apocalyptic Rider on the pale horse from Revelation 6:8.

Rider on the pale horse reminds me of the pale mare in the story.

This work of Niklaus Manuel Deutsch painted in 1517, could be viewed as a visual transition between the Dance of Death and the theme of’ Death and the maiden’ itself. Death as lover was now to become a fairly common motif , and the new element was an erotic subtext. Here, Death is a rotting corpse which gropes and kisses the young woman aggressively. She doesn't seem to resist the deathly lover.

In all these earlier depictions, Death appears as a malefic force, a terrifying seducer, harking back to analogous representations in the Medieval Dances of Death, whence Death is visualized as a skeletal figure. While it needs to be noted that personifications of Death as female are not uncommon, it is worth observing that Hans Baldung Grien’s Death is most ‘human-like’ - and also most ‘masculine-like’ in form. His figure of Death is not a naked skeleton, but an ‘un-dead’ desiccated corpse-like figure.

As noted Arya doesn't fear dead things and already spends more time with the dead than with the living.

In the later years, the motif of ‘Death and the maiden’ resurfaced in Romantic art, a prominent example being Franz Schubert's musical composition ‘Der Tod und das Mädchen’ (1817). The lyrics are derived from a brief dialogue-like poem of the same title written by Matthias Claudius. Das Mädchen:

Vorüber! Ach, vorüber! Geh, wilder Knochenmann! Ich bin noch jung, geh Lieber! Und rühre mich nicht an.

The Maiden:

Pass by! Oh, pass by! Go away, fierce man of bone! I am still young, go my dear! And do not touch me.

Der Tod:

Gib deine Hand, du schön und zart Gebild!Bin Freund, und komme nicht, zu strafen. Sei gutes Muts! ich bin nicht wild, Sollst sanft in meinen Armen schlafen!

Death:

Give me your hand, you beautiful and delicate form! I am a friend, and am not come to punish. Be of good cheer! I am not savage, You will sleep softly in my arms!

Edvard Munch executed this engraving of ‘Death and the Maiden’ in 1894, a year after his oil painting of the subject. In his work, as in Matthias Claudius’ poem, Death is not an aggressor. The maiden and the skeleton clasp each other in an erotic pose; sensuous and voluptuous, she passionately embraces Death.

http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/ci/erotic/er3/ANASTASSIADES_paper.pdf

In astrology, this is described by the passage of Venus through the sign of Scorpio; and echoed when she encounters the planets Pluto or Saturn. This year, Venus has spent an uncomfortably long time in Scorpio. Right now she is in the final few weeks of this difficult transit, having spent months going back and forth here.

The ancients said Venus was in "detriment" in the sign of the scorpion, by which they meant that she struggles to express her nature well. But I think you could say that she expresses her nature in a way that we find shameful, disconcerting or ugly; in a way that we would prefer to keep secret.

...

Oblivion can be seductive. In Beyond the Pleasure Principal (1920), Freud outlined his theory of a death drive. That is an unconscious urge towards death. Death lures us, whispers to us. We are fascinated and afraid. We take risks with death in order to feel more alive. When Venus is in Scorpio, we flirt with death – and sometimes we come out alive.

Arya reminds me of Brandon Stark when she ignores her own personal safety to try and save a parent. She told the Hound that he was afraid to die. Now, it can be argued that because she's a child she's more likely to have feelings that she's invincible and less likely to fear death because of that.

Sometimes death is female.

There is another powerful motif in many cultures which is death as the maiden.

She comes as an avenging angel sometimes, as in Ariel Dorfman's powerful play about torture and brutality in Chile, Death and the Maiden (1990). Or perhaps she comes as death itself.

http://oxford-astrologer.blogspot.com/2010/12/death-and-maiden.html

There is a memento mori symbolism of Corporeal Beauty (maiden) and its eventual demise (death), and the accompanying thoughts of how Beauty fades with time and eventually slips away, though not merely Beauty, but Youth as well. The Maiden represents Innocence, which may be ‘snatched by Death’ before maturity brings the innocent’s full potential to being. These images illustrate differing phrases with which we speak of Death, such as ‘embracing Death’, ‘called by Death’ or ‘Death follows behind our every step’. Death reminds us of Time, and how little of it we truly possess in comparison with the infinite scope of Time itself, how every second, every breath, every single step is precious, sacred and fleeting. …Tempus Fugit We fear Death. We flee Death.

In many ways death has stolen Arya's innocence but not in a sexual sense but of course we've mentioned how the KM told her that she has to give the MFG her privates.

In 1924 Robert Budinski executed a series of six prints called Totentanz (Dance of Death), in which death plays the violin and asks a woman for a dance. She accepts the invitation, only to destroy him. Death, literally shattered, is defeated by a woman who-in the final image- makes clear that her capacity to give life is more powerful than death.

http://books.google.com/books?id=_iq1Wlj5DusC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=death+and+the+maiden+motif&source=bl&ots=oJ2noE70xB&sig=0VqTekRG3Vwm4bIjVIdlrYURudc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=HU8OUc_cDJOy0AGW-4GYAQ&ved=0CGwQ6AEwDA#v=onepage&q=death%20and%20the%20maiden%20motif&f=false

In one depiction the ability to create life is said to be more powerful than death. The KM tells her she can't be a servant of the MFG and create life. It is at odds with death.

In fact the image of Death as lover, especially the crassly sensual lover (Death’s persona in the sixteenth-century pictorial renderings of the “Death and the Maiden” motif may be seen to combine, in a sort of iconological personal union, the two consequences of the fall: death and sexuality. For not only can Adam and Eve count on death as the wages of their sin…also, immediately after the fall, Adam and Eve discover their nakedness and cover themselves (Gen 3:7). Both sexuality and death came into the world with the fall; they are therefore to be seen in conjunction.

Sin and the fall of Man is said to be the origin of the links between sex and death/ or the romanticization of death.

More on Shakespeare:

The Merchant of Venice, Portia, beleaguered by her suitors, says: “I had rather be married to death’s head with a bone in his mouth than either of these.” Antony and Cleopatra, on the other hand , presents a different world. When the queen of Egypt is ready to follow her lover into death…

“If thou and nature can so gently part, The stroke of death is a lover’s pinch, which hurts and is desired.”

Equally familiar with this notion are Romeo and Juliet. Juliet:

“I’ll to my wedding bed, And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead.”

And Romeo:

“Shall I believe that unsubstantial death is amorous, and that lean abhorred monster keeps thee here in the dark to be his paramour?”

Portia rejects her human suitors and has chosen death. This can relate to Arya. Juliet said that death will take her maidenhead. This can also potentially relate to Arya.

There is more erotic sultriness when Shakespeare returns to the Motif in Measure for Measure…Angelo promises that he will annul her brother’s death sentence if she will give herself to him. Isabella finally understands what Angelo has in mind; she chooses death as her lover instead…

…female Death makes her appearance as the beloved in Antony and Clepatra when Antony says:

“The next time I do fight I’ll make death love me, for I will contend even with his pestilent scythe.”

…he is eager to follow Cleopatra in death, having led to believe she killed herself out of love for him:

“I will be a bridegroom in my death, and run into’t as to a lover’s bed.”

http://books.google.com/books?id=rBjRcDvBMnAC&pg=PA96&lpg=PA96&dq=death+and+the+maiden+motif&source=bl&ots=wSqQbgvpHC&sig=avQ1SEbcm9wSEaTv_FAOfsc8XBU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=GJgOUbCKHaW90QHAsoDoCg&ved=0CEwQ6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q=death%20and%20the%20maiden%20motif&f=false

[evita mgfs]

Hey, all. Great thread! I think we can really go places with this one, especially with the fine scholars who are posting here thus far. I am involved in a reread of AGoT, and I have found lots of early associations of Arya and death - a few ideas have already been mentioned, such as Arya's link with the Greek Fates who spin the thread of life. Arya Nym mentioned this - but I have documented language patterns employed by Martin in several instances to augment Ary Nym's points above.

Let me check out my notes to find the evidence to post here.

In the reread, I have been following several motifs involving doors and windows, and Arya is specifically associated with windows throughout the novels.Arya prefers to have a room with a window, and she complains to Sansa that she does not want to have tea with the queen in the wheelhouse because it has not window:Sansa thinks Arya is silly for needing a window, especially since there is nothing outside but holdfasts and such, boring sightseeing for Sansa whose fantasy is to have tea with the Queen and Myrcella, and with such companions, who needs windows?ARYA DOES!

Ironically, Arya ends up as a recruit in the HoB&W, serving Him of Many Faces, in a residence with “no” windows.Thus, through Martin’s own devices, he parallels “death” with darkness, a domain without windows for those who prepare to pass, and for Arya.But when she is set free on assignment, notice how Martin emphasizes her exhilaration and appreciation for the world outside.

Before I go off hunting for more on Arya and death, I wish to comment on the assertion of Arya speaking with the dead. Now – the dead may not have a voice to communicate with the living.The dead most like informs to humanity in other ways. For example, through dreams – or through “instinct”, or through the powers that are the “old gods” and company.

I will offer up one possible example of a mysterious “communication” with a “power” aligned specifically with the old gods, and hence, the Children of the Forest.Now tolerate my rambling for one moment:above, Arya Nym quoted that the CotF could speak to the dead, and the source of that information is Lord Commander Mormont. When we discuss reliability in the narrations of certain characters, we know that some of Martin’s characters do not speak honestly – some lie deliberately.But may I assert that in my study of the novels thus far, LC Mormont is a RELIABLE source of important information.Mormont’s information proves true rather than false consistently.Therefore, when Mormont reveals that the CotF speak with the dead, we can believe him.As a matter-of-fact, this proves to be the case when Bran is in the warded cave, he sees Ned in a vision through the heart tree, and when Bran questions whether or not he can speak with his father, Leaf WARNS him that he best not contact the dead – not yet.Leaf seemingly implies that Bran as a greenseer DOES have the gift, but the time in his training is not yet ripe:Bran has not overcome deep-rooted emotions regarding his father’s death, so he needs to wait until he is stronger and ready “emotionally” to hold conversation with those who have passed on.

My next example regards Jon Snow and the manner in which he finds his direwolf Ghost after leaving the site of the dead mother direwolf.Ghost is silent – but some mysterious force not clearly identified by Martin compels Jon Snow to go back over the bridge in search of “something”.Bran is mystified for he has not heard a thing.Likewise, Jon does not “hear” anything that would make him go back to discover Ghost.Now, what is it the pulls Jon backward to retrace his route where he finds the white direwolf separate from his littermates?If the powers of the old gods are manipulating Jon specifically, then the “force” they represent may be, in part, the dead, even more so than the living.Regardless, SOMETHING calls to Jon, guiding him to Ghost, and that something makes no sound.

Thus, I am proposing in our study of Arya’s association with death – as well as the parallel journeys the Stark children share with one another – that the dead may not have voices.As I mentioned earlier, depending on the circumstances and the individual, the dead “may” have more than one way to communicate with the chosen, yes?

One other little aside I recall from the last Arya POV I read in AGoT – when Arya is in the tunnel attempting to be Quiet as a Shadow – she spies on two strangers, one of whom appears familiar and moves as if “gliding”.Gliding is a verb oft associated with a ghost’s quiet, seamless movement.It is Varys who glides, and Martin even uses the verb “glide” to describe Arya’s silence as she moves through the tunnel.

Bran envies the name Jon gives his direwolf, “Ghost”, because Bran loves to be invisible when he climbs walls and plays on the roofs. Jon does choose the name “Ghost” for his all white, red-eyed direwolf.Furthermore,Jon speaks to Ghost – he shares all with his best companion.Then, Arya at HarrenHELL feels invisible until Jaqen offers Arya the gift of three lives since Arya saved three lives from the fire.After Jaqen’s first kill on Arya’s behalf, Arya is symbolically the “GHOST” of Harrenhell.She is able to glide around undetected, and Arya masquerading in her mind as a “ghost” is another way Martin intimates that Arya and her siblings have powers that involve some kind of significant relationship with the dead – as we already can observe “playing out” with Arya’s service to Him of Many Faces, and Jon Snow has been Caesar’d so Jon Snow may very well be both literally and symbolically GHOST.

Well, that was fun.As I said, I have found quite a bit of information linking Arya specifically with death long before her allegiance to the FM.So, I will be back.

Good Job OP and other posters.Thanks Arya Nym for inviting me to join the discussion.

[Waylin Stark]

Arya's association with death is gonna make her the darkest of Starks, perhaps even more than Bran.

She's a Grim Reaper in the making.

Well obviously, we've got a killer on the loose. She's climbing up yo windows, snatchin yo life up.

So you better hide yo kids, hide yo wife, and hide yo husband, cuz she be killing everyone she sees.

[WiDMNDBAMMD]

The Stark family represents the seven pretty well. If you count Old Nan as the Crone then the only one that they don't have is the Smith.

[ARYa_Nym]

On the hole concept I found another line.

She could feel the hole inside her every morning when she woke. It wasn’t hunger, though sometimes there was that too. It was a hollow place, an emptiness where her heart had been, where her brothers had lived, and her parents. The hole will never feel any better, she told herself when she went to sleep.

Some mornings, Arya did not want to wake at all. -- A Storm of Swords

She later says that she would rather sleep and dream. The important thing is that during her moment of being depressed she would rather be in a state that isn't really alive.

Evita, good find on the gliding. That is another thing to link her to Varys. & yes, Bran's chapters show that the COTF do have this power. It's also been theorized in other threads that Bran may be more powerful than his teacher. I find the windows motif very interesting. T4P.

[Little Wing]

On the hole concept I found another line.

She later says that she would rather sleep and dream. The important thing is that during her moment of being depressed she would rather be in a state that isn't really alive.

It may also be that she wants to dream a bit longer because of her wolf dreams making her feel better than her waking days do... just like Bran in the crypts, when Jojen warns him that he mustn't stay with Summer so long because he'd lose himself.

ETA: So, it's not like she wants to be dead, more like she wants to be Nymeria. To fill the hole she says she feels. Nymeria is all she has left...

[evita mgfs]

I do not think Arya wishes death for herself. Arya wishes she were a "ghost" with the powers to seek vengeance, just as Jaqen does for her at HarrenHell. I think Martin clues us in on Arya's association with death and the Faceless Men early in AGoT. In a way, Arya as a FM is a self-fulfilling prophecy for Arya.