Mourning Star

Counterpoint, I would suggest that both Bloodraven and Bittersteel are "villains", but Daemon Blackfyre was not. My father says that it was Fireball as much as Bittersteel who convinced Daemon Blackfyre to claim the crown, and rescued him when Daeron sent the Kingsguard to arrest him. Yet it was a decision he made rashly, for word soon reached King Daeron that Blackfyre meant to declare himself king within the turn of the moon. (We do not know how word came to Daeron, though Merion's unfinished The Red Dragon and the Black suggests that another of the Great Bastards, Brynden Rivers, was involved.) The king sent the Kingsguard to arrest Daemon before he could take his plans for treason any further. Daemon was forewarned, and with the help of the famously hot-tempered knight Ser Quentyn Ball, called Fireball, he was able to escape the Red Keep safely. Daemon Blackfyre's allies used this attempted arrest as a cause for war, claiming that Daeron had acted against Daemon out of no more than baseless fear. And that Daemon Blackfyre was the brother Bloodraven loved. "He heard a whisper on the wind, a rustling amongst the leaves. You cannot speak to him, try as you might. I know. I have my own ghosts, Bran. A brother that I loved, a brother that I hated, a woman I desired. Through the trees, I see them still, but no word of mine has ever reached them. The past remains the past. We can learn from it, but we cannot change it."

I have long believed that Bloodraven is not the Three Eyed Crow from Bran's falling dream, and is responsible for the return of the Others.

This is a theme for Dany right from her very first chapter. Her brother smiled. "Good." He touched her hair, almost with affection. "When they write the history of my reign, sweet sister, they will say that it began tonight." When he was gone, Dany went to her window and looked out wistfully on the waters of the bay. The square brick towers of Pentos were black silhouettes outlined against the setting sun. Dany could hear the singing of the red priests as they lit their night fires and the shouts of ragged children playing games beyond the walls of the estate. For a moment she wished she could be out there with them, barefoot and breathless and dressed in tatters, with no past and no future and no feast to attend at Khal Drogo's manse. Somewhere beyond the sunset, across the narrow sea, lay a land of green hills and flowered plains and great rushing rivers, where towers of dark stone rose amidst magnificent blue-grey mountains, and armored knights rode to battle beneath the banners of their lords. The Dothraki called that land Rhaesh Andahli, the land of the Andals. In the Free Cities, they talked of Westeros and the Sunset Kingdoms. Her brother had a simpler name. "Our land," he called it. The words were like a prayer with him. If he said them enough, the gods were sure to hear. "Ours by blood right, taken from us by treachery, but ours still, ours forever. You do not steal from the dragon, oh, no. The dragon remembers." And perhaps the dragon did remember, but Dany could not. She had never seen this land her brother said was theirs, this realm beyond the narrow sea. These places he talked of, Casterly Rock and the Eyrie, Highgarden and the Vale of Arryn, Dorne and the Isle of Faces, they were just words to her. Viserys had been a boy of eight when they fled King's Landing to escape the advancing armies of the Usurper, but Daenerys had been only a quickening in their mother's womb. In my opinion the section above really sets the tone for Dany's whole story. Although, I think the Red Door is more than just a wish for a lost childhood, and more literally a past she has almost forgotten. Dany sees the sunset in Pentos and recalls the Sunset Kingdoms, home. She wishes to be a child again, rather than being married off to a Khal. This is Dany's first chapter, and the history of her reign (rather than Viserys) does literally begin that night for the reader. But the character Dany's history does not, she has a past which includes the House with the Red Door. By the end of Game of Thrones, Dany has her "wake the dragon" dream. The door loomed before her, the red door, so close, so close, the hall was a blur around her, the cold receding behind. And now the stone was gone and she flew across the Dothraki sea, high and higher, the green rippling beneath, and all that lived and breathed fled in terror from the shadow of her wings. She could smell home, she could see it, there, just beyond that door, green fields and great stone houses and arms to keep her warm, there. She threw open the door. "… the dragon …" And saw her brother Rhaegar, mounted on a stallion as black as his armor. Fire glimmered red through the narrow eye slit of his helm. "The last dragon," Ser Jorah's voice whispered faintly. "The last, the last." Dany lifted his polished black visor. The face within was her own. After that, for a long time, there was only the pain, the fire within her, and the whisperings of stars. Compare the underlined sections of the two quotes above. Green hills and flowered plains/Green fields, Towers of dark stone/great stone houses, banners of their lords/arms to keep her warm. The banners of a lord carry their sigil, or arms. The arms to keep her warm are, in my opinion, the direwolf of House Stark. The cold receding behind her are the white winds. "The hard cruel times," her father said. "We tasted them on the Trident, child, and when Bran fell. You were born in the long summer, sweet one, you've never known anything else, but now the winter is truly coming. Remember the sigil of our House, Arya." "The direwolf," she said, thinking of Nymeria. She hugged her knees against her chest, suddenly afraid. "Let me tell you something about wolves, child. When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. Summer is the time for squabbles. In winter, we must protect one another, keep each other warm, share our strengths. So if you must hate, Arya, hate those who would truly do us harm. Septa Mordane is a good woman, and Sansa … Sansa is your sister. You may be as different as the sun and the moon, but the same blood flows through both your hearts. You need her, as she needs you … and I need both of you, gods help me." Double meanings abound. The Trident. Remember the sigil of our house. Nymeria, the queen who crossed the water, and a constellation of stars. As different as the sun and the moon, like Dany and Jon. "Daenerys. Remember the Undying. Remember who you are." Quaith keeps telling her to remember. "He has a song," the man replied. "He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire." He looked up when he said it and his eyes met Dany's, and it seemed as if he saw her standing there beyond the door. "There must be one more," he said, though whether he was speaking to her or the woman in the bed she could not say. "The dragon has three heads." He went to the window seat, picked up a harp, and ran his fingers lightly over its silvery strings. Sweet sadness filled the room as man and wife and babe faded like the morning mist, only the music lingering behind to speed her on her way. In the House of the Undying, Rhaegar says there must be one more. I can't help but compare this line to Yoda in Starwars when Luke leaves training (in reference to Leia), after Luke sees his own face in Vader's black helm, just like Dany sees her own face in Rhaegar's helm in the "wake the dragon" dream above. Then she saw. Her mask is made of starlight. "Remember who you are, Daenerys," the stars whispered in a woman's voice. "The dragons know. Do you?" The whispering of stars from Dany's "wake the dragon" dream. I think Dany has to remember who she is, she has to remember her own past, and the House with the Red Door, if she is to remember who she really is, making this a plot device and not just a metaphor for a lost childhood.

I find it hard to judge a character we've never seen on the page nor even directly quoted. All we have are second hand accounts largely from those who defeated him. It would suit Lord Bloodraven if their names were all forgotten, so he has forbidden us to sing of them, but I remember. Robb Reyne, Gareth the Grey, Ser Aubrey Ambrose, Lord Gormon Peake, Black Byren Flowers, Redtusk, Fireball . . . Bittersteel! I ask you, has there ever been such a noble company, such a roll of heroes?

Why is the sigil of House Blackmont a vulture clutching a baby? Was it always so? I certainly make no claims to have proof of anything, just speculation. To avenge the destruction visited upon Dorne during the First Dornish War.

I have lots of theories, but very little proof. I know this is going to seem scattered but it's hard to cover so much coherently in a small post. I would suggest that, far enough back, roots of House Dayne and House Stark are if not the same, then intertwined. a blade called Dawn, forged from the heart of a fallen star(k). They called him the Sword of the Morning I think that the white sword Dawn, forged from the heart of a fallen star, the Sword of the Morning, is the same sword as Azhor Ahai's Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes, forged in the heart of Nissa Nissa, making it the Sword of Mourning. "Being a hero, it was not for him to shrug and go in search of excellent grapes such as these, so again he began. The second time it took him fifty days and fifty nights, and this sword seemed even finer than the first. Azor Ahai captured a lion, to temper the blade by plunging it through the beast's red heart, but once more the steel shattered and split. Great was his woe and great was his sorrow then, for he knew what he must do. "A hundred days and a hundred nights he labored on the third blade, and as it glowed white-hot in the sacred fires, he summoned his wife. 'Nissa Nissa,' he said to her, for that was her name, 'bare your breast, and know that I love you best of all that is in this world.' She did this thing, why I cannot say, and Azor Ahai thrust the smoking sword through her living heart. It is said that her cry of anguish and ecstasy left a crack across the face of the moon, but her blood and her soul and her strength and her courage all went into the steel. Such is the tale of the forging of Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes. "Now do you see my meaning? Be glad that it is just a burnt sword that His Grace pulled from that fire. Too much light can hurt the eyes, my friend, and fire burns." I think the sword is red from blood, and burns white hot in battle. The cry that cracked the moon, is, I think, a reference to wolves. The pages that told of Azor Ahai. Lightbringer was his sword. Tempered with his wife's blood if Votar can be believed. Thereafter Lightbringer was never cold to the touch, but warm as Nissa Nissa had been warm. In battle the blade burned fiery hot. Once Azor Ahai fought a monster. When he thrust the sword through the belly of the beast, its blood began to boil. Smoke and steam poured from its mouth, its eyes melted and dribbled down its cheeks, and its body burst into flame. We see some Dayne/Knight imagery from Jaime's POV of Dawn too, and the Red Comet is described as a Bleeding Star: "All knights must bleed, Jaime," Ser Arthur Dayne had said, when he saw. "Blood is the seal of our devotion." With dawn he tapped him on the shoulder; the pale blade was so sharp that even that light touch cut through Jaime's tunic, so he bled anew. He never felt it. A boy knelt; a knight rose. And this is the same story as the Last Hero. I found one account of the Long Night that spoke of the last hero slaying Others with a blade of dragonsteel. Supposedly they could not stand against it." And mayhaps, the same tale as the Night's King. He brought her back to the Nightfort and proclaimed her a queen and himself her king, and with strange sorceries he bound his Sworn Brothers to his will. For thirteen years they had ruled, Night's King and his corpse queen, till finally the Stark of Winterfell and Joramun of the wildlings had joined to free the Watch from bondage. After his fall, when it was found he had been sacrificing to the Others, all records of Night's King had been destroyed, his very name forbidden. "Some say he was a Bolton," Old Nan would always end. "Some say a Magnar out of Skagos, some say Umber, Flint, or Norrey. Some would have you think he was a Woodfoot, from them who ruled Bear Island before the ironmen came. He never was. He was a Stark, the brother of the man who brought him down." She always pinched Bran on the nose then, he would never forget it. "He was a Stark of Winterfell, and who can say? Mayhaps his name was Brandon. Mayhaps he slept in this very bed in this very room." The Last Hero, may have been considered the thirteenth lord of the Night's Watch, crediting his dozen lost/fallen companions. The Battle for the Dawn, may have been a literal struggle over the sword Dawn, mayhaps even between brothers. The Morning Star and the Evening Star, Hesperus and Phosphorus, are the same thing, the planet Venus, Love. "Jon, did you ever wonder why the men of the Night's Watch take no wives and father no children?" Maester Aemon asked. Jon shrugged. "No." He scattered more meat. The fingers of his left hand were slimy with blood, and his right throbbed from the weight of the bucket. "So they will not love," the old man answered, "for love is the bane of honor, the death of duty." That did not sound right to Jon, yet he said nothing. In more practical terms, the World of Ice and Fire gave us a lot more history/stories to work with. I'm of the opinion that all these ancient tales (or at least many of them) weave together. The Bloodstone Emperor and his dark stone which fell from the sky, the Amethyst Empress being cast down, and the legends in Essos of heroes who ended the Long Night, I think all point to a migration of a small group Essos to Westeros who were far more advanced than the First Men of the Sunset Kingdoms at the time. We see evidence of advanced construction attributed to Brandon the Builder at Winterfell, Stormsend, and the Hightower. The oldest tower of Winterfell is round (a detail of construction considered to advanced for First Men by Maesters) and has gargoyles on it, another incongruous detail. The Stark Crypts are protected by iron swords, and the Others were said to hate cold iron, and yet the First Men used bronze and the Andals wouldn't arrive with ironworking until much later. This theory also provides a practical explanation for how the Starks were able to conquer the North and become the Kings of Winter (as well as stories of knights riding around long before there should be knights in Westeros). The Hightower is built on "Battle Isle" on an even more ancient foundation, but the stone tower which now rises is attributed to the reign of Uthor Hightower (and credit for it's design given to Brandon the Builder), and the Citadel of the Maesters was seemingly founded by the same man. I would point out the similarities between the oaths of the Night's Watch and the Maesters, as they seem to have been founded at about the same time, and possibly for a similar purpose. I could go on and on, but this seems long enough for one post... I did warn you I had theories...

Seeming like you are winning at a cliffhanger isn't terribly convincing to me at this point. Barristan might even defeat the army besieging the city to find the Harpies/Graces/Hizdahr have taken control or made a deal. I can't predict the details but I wouldn't be surprised to find Meereen using slaves again by the time Dany returns. Victarion, while he may well marry Dany, or at least supply her with a fleet, doesn't seem inherently anti slavery, far from it. When he arrives and finds Dany gone, I think he'll care more about trying to get himself a dragon than keeping slaves free or who rules Meereen. In fact, getting Dany out of Meereen before he arrived may have been part of the knot.

You don't have to untangle a knot if you just light it on fire. Dany returning with a Dothraki horde to Meereen, only to find that it has fallen to the slavers, sets her up to sack the city and sail west.

I still like the idea that, 3 years after giving birth to Aenys, Rhaenys was pregnant again when she fell at Hellholt. The descriptions of her torture were in fact the sounds of her childbirth, which killed her. This also might help explain why, in the dragon's wroth, Sunspear was not targeted, and the life of the child may have been part of the letter to Aegon and a reason for peace. This child may have become the Vulture King, and House Blackmont's sigil is a vulture carrying a baby.

Persimmons are symbols of transformation, and persimmon seeds are said to have the power to predict winter weather Or something

I would suggest that Rhaenys was pregnant when she fell in Dorne, and it's not that she survived but her child did. The sounds which led to rumors of torture were in fact childbirth. I think that it's low key a huge tell that the year was 13 AC. It could be a sort of twisted rehash of the Night's King. Rhaenys is something of a corpse queen at this point, and the fact the Vulture King called himself a king at all is worth questioning. Savage Sam Tarly, whose sword, Heartsbane, was said to be red from hilt to point Very reminiscent of AA/Last Hero imagery. And Orys Baratheon was a bastard brother of House Targaryen. This is why Aegon and Visenya do their best to lay waste to Dorne but don't attack Sunspear, presumably where the child would be. The symbol of House Blackmont is a vulture with a child in it's claws, and were one of the six kings Nymeria sent to the Wall... "The vulture of Blackmont grasps a baby in its talons," said Pod. "House Blackmont of Blackmont, ser." Bronn laughed. "Reading books again?"

Love me some good mayhaps speculation! And the Ned and Tobho Mott scene is full of imagery I can only pretend to understand, but that won't stop me from trying! First, I feel it's very important to note the first appearance of "ebony and weirwood" together in the series. This combination also appears in the House of the Undying and the House of White and Black, but not elsewhere. These other two examples being in Essos, and it turns out Mott is from Essos as well, having learned his craft in Qohor. Mott also dresses in white and black. It also seems like it was Varys who paid for Gendry's apprenticeship, he is also from Essos, and has been known to change his face. But, I digress. I believe we get a series of "death" references in this scene. The man they wanted was all the way at the top of the hill, in a huge house of timber and plaster whose upper stories loomed over the narrow street. The double doors showed a hunting scene carved in ebony and weirwood. A pair of stone knights stood sentry at the entrance, armored in fanciful suits of polished red steel that transformed them into griffin and unicorn. Ned left his horse with Jacks and shouldered his way inside. Besides the doors of ebony and weirwood stand two stone knights in red armor, a unicorn and a griffin. The sigil of House Brax is a unicorn. Theirs is a purple unicorn, but they are bannermen to House Lannister, whose color is crimson. "Across the Red Fork. They are flying a purple unicorn below the lion of Lannister." He was a fool, Tyrion thought, swirling his cup and staring down into the winy depths. Crossing a river at night on a crude raft, wearing armor, with an enemy waiting on the other side—if that was gallantry, he would take cowardice every time. He wondered if Lord Brax had felt especially gallant as the weight of his steel pulled him under the black water. Lord Andros Brax sank like a stone The sigil of House Connington is a griffin, a red griffin no less. Jon Connington is suffering from greyscale since saving Tyrion from the river of the Stonemen. In the Frey mayhaps game, you win or you get knocked in the water. In the game of thrones you win or you die. Now back to the smithy, above I pointed out that Mott wears black and white, but he also has a silver chain with a saphire in it. Since he supposedly works magic when reforging Valyrian steel, I would propose that this is something akin to the gold choker with a large ruby which Melisandre wears: The slim young serving girl took quick note of Ned's badge and the sigil on his doublet, and the master came hurrying out, all smiles and bows. "Wine for the King's Hand," he told the girl, gesturing Ned to a couch. "I am Tobho Mott, my lord, please, please, put yourself at ease." He wore a black velvet coat with hammers embroidered on the sleeves in silver thread. Around his neck was a heavy silver chain and a sapphire as large as a pigeon's egg. "If you are in need of new arms for the Hand's tourney, you have come to the right shop." Ned did not bother to correct him. "My work is costly, and I make no apologies for that, my lord," he said as he filled two matching silver goblets. "You will not find craftsmanship equal to mine anywhere in the Seven Kingdoms, I promise you. Visit every forge in King's Landing if you like, and compare for yourself. Any village smith can hammer out a shirt of mail; my work is art." Mott is not from the seven kingdoms. Mott says his work is costly, and surely this is true in gold and silver for his fine craftsmanship, but what of blood magic? What of reforging Valyrian Steel? What is that cost? Mott also fills two matching silver goblets. I think there is a whole theme of "cups" throughout the story, the bitter cup of truth, the sweet cup of lies, the cup of ice and the cup of fire, but that's for another post. Ned sipped his wine and let the man go on. The Knight of Flowers bought all his armor here, Tobho boasted, and many high lords, the ones who knew fine steel, and even Lord Renly, the king's own brother. Perhaps the Hand had seen Lord Renly's new armor, the green plate with the golden antlers? No other armorer in the city could get that deep a green; he knew the secret of putting color in the steel itself, paint and enamel were the crutches of a journeyman. Or mayhaps the Hand wanted a blade? Tobho had learned to work Valyrian steel at the forges of Qohor as a boy. Only a man who knew the spells could take old weapons and forge them anew. "The direwolf is the sigil of House Stark, is it not? I could fashion a direwolf helm so real that children will run from you in the street," he vowed. What the Knight of Flowers being mentioned here implies, I do not know, but nothing good I would imagine. Mott asks three questions. 1. Perhaps the Hand has seen Lord Renly's new armor? 2. Or mayhaps the Hand wanted a blade? 3. The direwolf is the sigil of House Stark, is it not? 1. The reader has seen Renly's green plate in the first Sansa chapter. He is one of three knights she sees, along side Barristan and Payne. Interestingly, the other two wear enamel and chain, which are the two other kinds of armor Mott directly compares his work to. One knight wore an intricate suit of white enameled scales, brilliant as a field of new-fallen snow, with silver chasings and clasps that glittered in the sun. When he removed his helm, Sansa saw that he was an old man with hair as pale as his armor, yet he seemed strong and graceful for all that. From his shoulders hung the pure white cloak of the Kingsguard. His companion was a man near twenty whose armor was steel plate of a deep forest-green. He was the handsomest man Sansa had ever set eyes upon; tall and powerfully made, with jet-black hair that fell to his shoulders and framed a clean-shaven face, and laughing green eyes to match his armor. Cradled under one arm was an antlered helm, its magnificent rack shimmering in gold. At first Sansa did not notice the third stranger. He did not kneel with the others. He stood to one side, beside their horses, a gaunt grim man who watched the proceedings in silence. His face was pockmarked and beardless, with deepset eyes and hollow cheeks. Though he was not an old man, only a few wisps of hair remained to him, sprouting above his ears, but those he had grown long as a woman's. His armor was iron-grey chainmail over layers of boiled leather, plain and unadorned, and it spoke of age and hard use. Above his right shoulder the stained leather hilt of the blade strapped to his back was visible; a two-handed greatsword, too long to be worn at his side. "The king is gone hunting, but I know he will be pleased to see you when he returns," the queen was saying to the two knights who knelt before her, but Sansa could not take her eyes off the third man. He seemed to feel the weight of her gaze. Slowly he turned his head. Lady growled. A terror as overwhelming as anything Sansa Stark had ever felt filled her suddenly. She stepped backward and bumped into someone. Lord Renly is killed by a shadow, but this is the armor being described here which will be worn into combat and turn the tide of the Battle of the Blackwater. Barristan is our journeyman Kingsguard, has any other Kingsguard served so many? And of course, it is Ilyn Payne who will take Ned's Head with the greatsword Ice. Since I mentioned the stone men and their watery deaths above, let's talk about Cat here, because she too sees Renly's armor: Beside the entrance, the king's armor stood sentry; a suit of forest-green plate, its fittings chased with gold, the helm crowned by a great rack of golden antlers. The steel was polished to such a high sheen that she could see her reflection in the breastplate, gazing back at her as if from the bottom of a deep green pond. The face of a drowned woman, Catelyn thought. Can you drown in grief? Cat will end up in the river after the Red Wedding at the Twins, and Lady Stoneheart will emerge. Though I did not quote it above, Ned sees Lord Beric enter Kingslanding through the Mud Gate on his way to visiting Tobho Mott. Seems relevant here, given that Beric will be the one to breath "life" into Cat's body. 2. Mayhaps! Or mayhaps the Hand wanted a blade? She could see the rippling deep within the steel, where the metal had been folded back on itself a hundred times in the forging. Catelyn had no love for swords, but she could not deny that Ice had its own beauty. It had been forged in Valyria, before the Doom had come to the old Freehold, when the ironsmiths had worked their metal with spells as well as hammers. Four hundred years old it was, and as sharp as the day it was forged. The name it bore was older still, a legacy from the age of heroes, when the Starks were Kings in the North. Let's talk swords! Ned isn't the only Hand to speak with Mott in the story. "His lordship wants to see you. The Hand. Lord Tywin." "I recall who the Hand is, Pod," Tyrion said. "I lost my nose, not my wits." Bronn laughed. "Don't bite the boy's head off now." "Why not? He never uses it." Tyrion wondered what he'd done now. Or more like, what I have failed to do. A summons from Lord Tywin always had teeth; his father never sent for him just to share a meal or a cup of wine, that was for certain. As he entered his lord father's solar a few moments later, he heard a voice saying, ". . . cherrywood for the scabbards, bound in red leather and ornamented with a row of lion's-head studs in pure gold. Perhaps with garnets for the eyes . . ." "Rubies," Lord Tywin said. "Garnets lack the fire." I can't help but feel the "bit his head off" line delivered to Pod, a Payne, before Tyrion goes to see the newly reforged pieces of Ned's Ice (which was used by Ilyn Payne to bite of his head) is no coincidence. Nor is this the only sword we see reborn. The pommel was a hunk of pale stone weighted with lead to balance the long blade. It had been carved into the likeness of a snarling wolf's head, with chips of garnet set into the eyes. The grip was virgin leather, soft and black, as yet unstained by sweat or blood. The blade itself was a good half foot longer than those Jon was used to, tapered to thrust as well as slash, with three fullers deeply incised in the metal. Where Ice was a true two-handed greatsword, this was a hand-and-a-halfer, sometimes named a "bastard sword." Yet the wolf sword actually seemed lighter than the blades he had wielded before. When Jon turned it sideways, he could see the ripples in the dark steel where the metal had been folded back on itself again and again. "This is Valyrian steel, my lord," he said wonderingly. His father had let him handle Ice often enough; he knew the look, the feel. Longclaw, Jon's bastard sword, has garnets for the eyes. Despite what Tywin says, quoted above, the Targaryens appeared to like garnets well enough. The chamber was richly furnished. Myrish carpets covered the floor instead of rushes, and in one corner a hundred fabulous beasts cavorted in bright paints on a carved screen from the Summer Isles. The walls were hung with tapestries from Norvos and Qohor and Lys, and a pair of Valyrian sphinxes flanked the door, eyes of polished garnet smoldering in black marble faces. Ned sees the Valyrian Sphinxes in the small council chamber on his arrival, which seemingly come in pairs. And finally, speaking of faces, we get to the helm. 3. The direwolf is the sigil of House Stark, is it not? I could fashion a direwolf helm so real that children will run from you in the street Ned Stark is not a man children need fear, nor does he commission such a helm, but Dany will visit the House of the Undying and see a direwolf headed vision presiding over a feast of the dead, and it will make her run: Severed hands clutched bloody cups, wooden spoons, roast fowl, heels of bread. In a throne above them sat a dead man with the head of a wolf. He wore an iron crown and held a leg of lamb in one hand as a king might hold a scepter, and his eyes followed Dany with mute appeal. She fled from him

I think it's very possible that Dawn is the original Ice.

The War of the Roses and William the Conqueror are low hanging fruit for a course like this

It would have to be his grandfather, for Jory's father was buried far to the south. Martyn Cassel had perished with the rest. Ned had pulled the tower down afterward, and used its bloody stones to build eight cairns upon the ridge. It was said that Rhaegar had named that place the tower of joy, but for Ned it was a bitter memory. They had been seven against three, yet only two had lived to ride away; Eddard Stark himself and the little crannogman, Howland Reed. He did not think it omened well that he should dream that dream again after so many years. Everyone's favorite Eeyore impersonator, Eddison "Lightbulb" Tollett, better known as Dolorous Edd. Two men went through each house, to make certain nothing was missed. Jon was paired with dour Eddison Tollett, a squire grey of hair and thin as a pike, whom the other brothers called Dolorous Edd. "Bad enough when the dead come walking," he said to Jon as they crossed the village, "now the Old Bear wants them talking as well? No good will come of that, I'll warrant. And who's to say the bones wouldn't lie? Why should death make a man truthful, or even clever? The dead are likely dull fellows, full of tedious complaints—the ground's too cold, my gravestone should be larger, why does he get more worms than I do . . ." Known members of House Tollett include, Jon Tollett (member of Maegor's Kingsguard) and Uthor Tollett. Uther Pendragon being the name of King Arthur's father. Whom did Edd squire for? "We'll never find that one, and I'll be blamed," announced Edd Tollett, the dour grey-haired squire everyone called Dolorous Edd. "Nothing ever goes missing that they don't look at me, ever since that time I lost my horse. As if that could be helped. He was white and it was snowing, what did they expect?" When did he join the watch? Perhaps interestingly, Edd is one of three characters described as "horsefaced". Arya being the obvious one, who's appearance is also compared to Lyanna (a more flattering comparison, and Lyanna is described as half a horse herself). Jon is also said to share the "Stark" look. The third is: The worst of the lot was Del, a horsefaced youth near Jon's own age, who would talk dreamily of this wildling girl he meant to steal. "She's lucky, like your Ygritte. She's kissed by fire." Del is killed by Summer. One might say that Lyanna was "kissed by fire", not in reference to her hair, but to Rhaegar. I'm a big fan of Electric Edd, and I'm convinced there is an underlying joke/reference going on here, but I'll be damned if I can put it all together!