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Bran's weirwood visions.


RadSam

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First time poster, so sorry if this is something that has been posted before, but I've not long finished ADWD and I was curious about the visions Bran has from the weirwood.

Lord Eddard Stark sat upon a rock beside the deep black pool in the godswood, the pale roots of the heart tree twisting around him like an old man's gnarled arms. The greatsword Ice lay across Lord Eddard's lap, and he was cleaning the blade with an oilcloth.

"Winterfell" Bran whispered.

His father looked up. "Who's there?" he asked, turning...

...and Bran, frightened, pulled away.

..But then somehow he was back at Winterfell again, in the godswood looking down upon his father. Lord Eddard seemed much younger this time. His hair was brown, with no hint of grey in it, his head bowed. "...let them grow up as brothers, with only love between them," he prayed, "and let my lady wife find it in her heart to forgive..."

"Father." Bran's voice was a whisper in the wind, a rustle in the leaved. "Father, it's me. It's Bran. Brandon."

Eddard Stark lifted his head and looked long at the weirwood, frowning, but he did not speak. He cannot see me, Bran realized, despairing. He wanted to reach out and touch him, but all that he could do was watch and listen. I am in the tree. I am inside the heart tree, looking out of its red eyes, but the wierwood cannot talk, so I can't.

Eddard Stark resumed his prayer. Bran felt his eyes fill up with tears. But were they his own tears, or the weirdwood's? If I cry, will the tree begin to weep?

The rest of his words were drowned out by a sudden clatter of wood on wood. Eddard Stark dissolved, like mist in a morning sun. Now two children danced across the godswood, hooting at one another as they dueled with broken branches. The girl was the older and taller of the two. Arya! Bran thought eagerly, as he watched her leap up onto a rock and cut at the boy. But that couldn't be right. If the girl was Arya, the boy was Bran himself, and he had never worn his hair so long. And Arya never beat me playing swords, the way the girl s beating him. She slashed at the boy across his thigh, so hard that his leg went out from under him and he fell into the pool and began to splash and shout. "You be quiet, stupid," the girl said, tossing her branch aside. "It's just water. Do you want Old Nan to hear and run and tell Father?" She knelt and pulled her brother from the pool, but before she got him out again, the two of them were gone.

After that, the glimpses came faster and faster, till Bran was feeling lost and dizzy. He saw no more of his father, nor the girl who looked like Arya, but a woman heavy with child emerged naked and dripping from the black pool, knelt before the tree, and begged the old gods for a son who would avenge her. Then there came a brown-haired girl, slender as a spear who stood on the tips of her toes to kiss the lips of a young knight as tall as Hodor. A dark-eyed youth, pale and fierce, sliced three brances off the weirwood and shaped them into arrows. The Tree itself was shrinking, growing smaller with each vision, whilst the lesser trees dwindled into saplings and vanished, only to be replaced by other trees that would dwindle and vanish in their turn. And now the lords Bran glimpssed were tall and hard, stern men in fur and chain mail. Some wore faces he remembered from statues in the crypts, but they were gone before he could put a name to them.

Then, as he watched, a bearded man forced a captive down onto his knees before the heart tree. A white-haired woman stepped toward them through a drift of dark red leaved, a bronze sickle in her hand.

"No," said Bran, "no, don't," but they could not hear him, no more than his father had. The woman grabbed the captive by the hair, hooked the sickle around his throat, and slashed. And through the mist of centuries the broken boy could only watch as the man's feet drummed against the earth...but as his life flowed out of him in a red tide, Brandon Stark could taste the blood.

I was just wondering, who do you think the people in the scenes are, what is happening and when it is? It was one of my favourite parts of the book, so I'm really curious to see what people think!

[tl;dr - Ned cleaning Ice, Ned praying that for 'them to grow up as brothers' and for his wife to forgive him, a young boy and girl (who looks like Arya) dueling, a pregnant woman coming out of the pool and asking for a son to avenge her, a skinny, brown-haired girl kissing a tall knight, a dark, pale, fierce youth cutting branches from the weirwood to make arrows, a group of stern lords in fur and chain mail (Bran recognized some of their faces from the crypts), a bearded man forcing a captive to his knees and a white-haired woman slashing his throat open.]

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Welcome to the forum!

I do believe that the Arya like girl is the she-wolf (Lyanna Stark), the boy she is fighting and beating could be either the wolf pup (Benjen Stark) or the quiet wolf (Eddard Stark). IIRC Eddard is supposed to be small in comparison to his brothers and Benjen is young so it could be either of them. As a follow-up on the previous vision I would believe it to be Eddard. The others I don't know, but it is likely that they are the ancestors of the Starks.

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The young knight as tall as Hodor is believed to be ser Duncan the Tall from the tales of Dunk and Egg.

A dark-eyed youth, pale and fierce, sliced three brances off the weirwood and shaped them into arrows - probably Lord Bloodraven, one of the Great Bastards. He is also believed to be the three-eyed crow. I suggest you read the three Dunk and Egg novels and/or search the wiki of ice and fire.

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Girl and boy fighting Lyanna and Benjen.

Pregnant women no idea. Ned's grandmother. (Explanation see post 31)

The tall Knight most likely Ser Duncan the Tall, who's the girl will maybe revealed in the next Dunk & Egg novel.

The youth making Weirwood-Arrows could be Brandon Snow, bastard brother of king Thorren "The king who knelt" Stark.

The scene with the blood-sacrifice I would guess something with the pact with the CotF, or the founding of Winterfell.

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I'm convinced that Bran heard Jon's parentage revealed when "Eddard Stark continued his prayer". Maybe we'll see it play out in TWoW.

Good catch!

I was always convinced that is would be Bran via Weirnet to reveal Jon's parentage instead of this maybe never-occuring mysterious frogger...

But I missed it that this knowlege could already have passed to Bran.

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Eddard Stark resumed his prayer. Bran felt his eyes fill up with tears.

Tears from hearing something beautiful, like the tears that hit you during a powerful film or something along those lines? Or tears of sadness from seeing his dead father again?

Like I said, I'm pretty sure he learned the truth (Eddard + whomever or R+L=J) in that moment, and we'll either find out about it soon or find out about it never.

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Eddard Stark resumed his prayer. Bran felt his eyes fill up with tears.

Tears from hearing something beautiful, like the tears that hit you during a powerful film or something along those lines? Or tears of sadness from seeing his dead father again?

Like I said, I'm pretty sure he learned the truth (Eddard + whomever or R+L=J) in that moment, and we'll either find out about it soon or find out about it never.

I really hope this is true. I just don't know how Jon and Howland Reed will meet up at this point. I'd really like to see a conversation between Jon/Ghost and Bran/Weirwood that ends in this revelation.

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Girl and boy fighting Lyanna and Benjen.

Pregnant women no idea.

The tall Knight most likely Ser Duncan the Tall, who's the girl will maybe revealed in the next Dunk & Egg novel.

The youth making Weirwood-Arrows could be Brandon Snow, bastard brother of king Thorren "The king who knelt" Stark.

The scene with the blood-sacrifice I would guess something with the pact with the CotF, or the founding of Winterfell.

I believe these are all correct!

The girl kissing Dunk is... Old Nan.

That last scene is an element of a large, interlinked theory I have concerning the mysteries of the North.

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Eddard Stark resumed his prayer. Bran felt his eyes fill up with tears.

Tears from hearing something beautiful, like the tears that hit you during a powerful film or something along those lines? Or tears of sadness from seeing his dead father again?

Like I said, I'm pretty sure he learned the truth (Eddard + whomever or R+L=J) in that moment, and we'll either find out about it soon or find out about it never.

If he sees the whole winter rose - Ned Lyanna scene, then maybe such feelings can be provoked, but I don't think Ned kneeling and somehow revealing the secret to a weirwood would provoke them in Bran.

I too think that Bran is really likely to be the one who finds out, but more likely the marriage between Rhaegar and Lyanna before a weirwood. I don't think the kneeling Eddard scene reveals Jon's parentage.

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Well, it sets up what he wants Catelyn to forgive. Notice the ellipsis that ends The Ned's "Let them grow up as brothers" quote, and then Bran's POV saying he continued his "prayer". I just figured it was a natural progression as to A )What he needed to be forgiven for and B ) the background behind the "as brothers" statement.

Then again, I'm just spitballing, but I don't think it is that far of a stretch. The open-ended ellipsis could be anything. Hell, it could be "let her forgive me, I forgot to lock the front door". But I think it is a tad more important than that.

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Well, it sets up what he wants Catelyn to forgive. Notice the ellipsis that ends The Ned's "Let them grow up as brothers" quote, and then Bran's POV saying he continued his "prayer". I just figured it was a natural progression as to A )What he needed to be forgiven for and B ) the background behind the "as brothers" statement.

Then again, I'm just spitballing, but I don't think it is that far of a stretch. The open-ended ellipsis could be anything. Hell, it could be "let her forgive me, I forgot to lock the front door". But I think it is a tad more important than that.

Yes, it's not that big of a stretch, I wouldn't have found it interesting and commented on it if I thought it was :)

I just don't get the feeling that this reveal would provoke so strong feelings in Bran, he didn't know Lyanna and all and actually knows they did grow up as brothers. But still, it's not outside of the realm of possibilities.

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A dark-eyed youth, pale and fierce, sliced three brances off the weirwood and shaped them into arrows - probably Lord Bloodraven, one of the Great Bastards. He is also believed to be the three-eyed crow. I suggest you read the three Dunk and Egg novels and/or search the wiki of ice and fire.

sorry for quoting myself, but i just remembered that the dark-eyed youth = bloodraven was a crackpot theory. it's MAYBE bloodraven.

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I believe these are all correct!

The girl kissing Dunk is... Old Nan.

That last scene is an element of a large, interlinked theory I have concerning the mysteries of the North.

Was my first guess as well, but I'm not sure.

A tall, handsome knight may awake desire in more than one girl...

And, even if Old Nan is surely related to Bran, she is not related by blood. All the other people he saw are relatives, so maybe these girl is a Stark as well, and could also be related with these ominous "southern ambitions"...

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But Bloodraven was an albino and with only one eye. "Dark-eyed youth" =/= "Youth with one red eye."

Yes, as others have said - most likely Brandon Snow. He had a plan of killing the three dragons, and the guy here is making three (mind the exact number) weirwood arrows.

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Yes, as others have said - most likely Brandon Snow. He had a plan of killing the three dragons, and the guy here is making three (mind the exact number) weirwood arrows.

Isn't it noted in Dunk and Egg that Bloodraven uses Weirwood arrows? And he didn't always have one eye. But still not quite dark eyed I think red-eyed would be noticed by Bran.

When was the tale of Brandon Snow told? I'd like to re-read that one.

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Isn't it noted in Dunk and Egg that Bloodraven uses Weirwood arrows? And he didn't always have one eye. But still not quite dark eyed I think red-eyed would be noticed by Bran.

When was the tale of Brandon Snow told? I'd like to re-read that one.

He uses a weirwood bow. No idea what he uses for arrows.

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Isn't it noted in Dunk and Egg that Bloodraven uses Weirwood arrows? And he didn't always have one eye. But still not quite dark eyed I think red-eyed would be noticed by Bran.

When was the tale of Brandon Snow told? I'd like to re-read that one.

As said above, he used a weirwood bow. There is no indication he was ever at WF. And his eye or eyes are pretty distinctive, as well as his skin is beyond pale. Also Bran had just seen him. In a pretty different state, true, but maybe he would have recognized him or at least remind him of late BR in some way.

The Brandon Snow tale comes from the Lands or World of Ice and Fire (can't remember which one). I haven't read them, seen the story by posters here. Basically Brandon was the bastard brother of Torrhen Stark, the king who knelt. He had the idea of goind on an undercover mission to assassinate the dragons, but Torrhen forbade him. Brandon was sure his plan could succeed, which can lead us to the thought that weirwood is the key of killing dragons, just like obsidian is to Others.

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