White Night

Almost every word and sentence of that chapter is an exercise in subtle symbolism. The following quote also sounds like the aftermath of the long night. We even have this scene later in the chapter

As far as the information available, Luwin only served house Stark. His only connection to Riverrun that we are given was helping Lady Stark deliver the Stark heir in her father's seat. This is a reasonable explanation on why he first appeared in Riverrun and not in Winterfell.

Luwin did not serve House Tully. Riverrun was served by maester Kym followed by maester Vyman.

Further proofs to the significance a maester's background and its implication for both the strategies of the Citedal and the politics of the Seven Kingdoms.

If you keep to the topic at hand I will gladly discuss it with you. As to the name Hal Mollen, it's is a fair critique, so I will no longer include Mollen in the northern given names.

Fruitless? On the contrary, GRRM tells the reader through Lady Dustin that some maesters' identities are no trivial matters, thereby suggesting that we should look into their pasts. Luwin first appeared on the scene in somewhat mysterious circumstances as a replacement to Maester Walys–a character with an intriguing background of his own. Lady Dustin describes how 'Once [Walys] forged his chain, his secret father and his friends wasted no time dispatching him to Winterfell to fill Lord Rickard’s ears with poisoned word.' This sentence alone indicates two things; first, the importance of Winterfell and house Stark to the Citadel; second, that some maesters have ulterior motives. Walys' successor would be no less significant than him. This is further established by the fact that Luwin is one of the handful of maesters that studied the higher mysteries. This is how we are first introduced to small grey man

a. Manderlys have been northerns and marrying into northerns for almost a thousand years. b. My post was quite clear that characters with blue-grey eye colours were not part of the count in order to eliminate any suspicions. Benjen, therefore, was not included. b. Roose Bolton's eyes are pale grey as the description below puts his eye colour on the grey spectrum, albeit on the very light end. Pale is a colour intensity not a hue; there's pale grey and pale blue, etc, so, I don't know why you're listing characters with pale eyes as this is immaterial to the discussion and quite distracting. I would prefer it if my topic did not branch out into irrelevant discussions.

Which Gardener King? Please refer back to my previous reply. If I have omitted a character with grey eyes, kindly let me know.

As per my database, in the Vale, there's only house Royce and Mandon Moore (3). In the Riverlands, there's only Stevron Frey whose mother is a Royce (1). On the Iron Islands, there's Gylbert Farwynd who, interestingly, has eyes of changing colour; now grey, now blue (1). In the Westerlands there's only Sandor Clegane (1) There's also two Westerosi characters with unknown origins; Qhoren Halfhand (most likely an Ironman–maybe even a Farwynd) and Harry Strickland (2). In the Crownlands, the Stormlands, the Reach and Dorne, there's none. In the North there's House Stark, House Bolton, House Karstark, Some Manderlys, Magnars of Thenn, Val, and Rattleshirt (12). As we can see, grey eyes are concentrated in the North, and the further south we go, the scarcer the grey eyes* appear. *Eye colours that are described as grey-blue, grey-green or blue-grey are not counted

This is a small post for a small man. Its only purpose is to analyse maester Luwin's identity. 1. Grey eyes are mostly found in the North. 2. The name Luwin sounds similar to the following Northern names; Gawen, Owen, Bowen, Torren, Hullen, and Hal Mollen. 3. The maester believes in the Old Gods as evidenced by his choice of his final resting place. Very few Northern houses are short in stature; the Crannogmen, the Flints of the mountains and the Norreys. The Crannogmen are unnaturally small, and their unusual stature is often pointed at repeatedly, whereas Luwin is casually described like all the other characters with small stature in the books. This fact coupled with the deep distrust of maesters in the Neck rules out the Crannogmen for me. Of the two remaining mountain clans, The Flints are described as stout with big hands. This leaves only the Norreys. Here is how the clan chief Brandon Norrey is described The closest sounding name to Luwin is Owen, and although this is a somewhat common Westerosi name, the only Northern character with such a name is Owen Norrey

They are both south of the wall and Jon is at Castle Black warging Ghost at night. The mystery comes from the fact that there are no woods immediately south the wall yet Ghost is supposedly racing through a wood beneath the Wall.

The first Jon chapter in the fifth book starts with a wolf dream that seems to be of significance. Not much is mentioned in the dream save for woods, moon, stars, snow and the Wall. Of all these elements, it is the woods in particular that the dream starts and ends with. This makes the woods a very important detail, which, in turn, makes deciphering the dream all the more perplexing, for I could not solve the first unknown which is the location of the wolf. As far I know, there are no woods immediately south of the Wall. Some solitary trees are mentioned in one of Jon's chapters on his journey south to Mole's Town to feed the wildling refugees there, however, a few scattered trees are not a wood. Any clues?

After the backhanded slap from Robert

The hired knives conspiracy seems to have been fed to Viserys by Illyrio as part of a whole programme of manipulation. However, without any prior knowledge of the Lemongate theory–nor indeed any theories or discussions pertaining to the whole series, doubts about Dany's true lineage jumped at me from the first reading. And, although they are as yet not supported by any concrete evidence, these doubts still linger.

My understanding is that Pretty Pia's role in the story is not symbolic–at least not chiefly–but is a plot device. This is based on the fact that she has attended the tourney at Harrenhal as a young girl. Here we have a new, somewhat random, character placed at a critical historical event that is shrouded in mystery. The fact that Pretty Pia is still alive reinforces my belief that she has most likely been a witness to a significant scene which she will later reveal.