Black Crow

Probably not. Old Nan speaks of them coming for the first time during the Long Night If we look at this sequence it not only makes sense but completely overturns the popular scenario peddled by Our Mel, ie; 1. Regular seasons and peoples - including [among others] skinchangers/wargs 2. Enter the Dragons and the prospect of the Fiery hell of an endless summer 3. The Old Gods fight back by blocking it with the Long Night 4. This works in the short term but the regular seasons are screwed 5. A final battle is brewing and the Targaryens [and Mel] aint the good guys

Something else to consider here is the nature of the blue-eyed lot. Although I contrasted them with the Dragons, I wouldn't necessarily equate them I still hold by my earlier theory that the Walkers are skinchangers/wargs, who have escaped flesh hosts to create new ones of snow and ice and cold. I won't trouble you by repeating the essay, but the point is that the Walkers may not be new in themselves but are "winterised" Wargs, adapted to suit a Long Night imposed on them by the appearance of the Dragons. night

Its not a bad idea. If we look at this logically [yes, yes, I know] Westeros and Essos both seem very ordinary and we've spent years discussing the historical parallels There are, however, two things which are unique and which can't be explained away by "ordinary" mythology. On the one hand there's the Ice and with it the Long Night and the blue-eyed lot. On the other hand there's the Fire and the Dragons. The two are obviously connected and the Dragons are the more "alien" of the two, ie; it was the creating of the Dragons which screwed things up

Aint that from Harry Potter ?

I believe that its a 2024 calendar image see GRRM's notablog for January 10

I don't necessarily see it as circular - rather that the issue of Winter has always ben important and this is just a reminder

Ah, but that ending is about to be followed by the Winds of Winter - which rather suggests a continuation of that first prologue As to the pretty picture. Seen it before. The immediate reaction is that its Rhaegar and Lyanna - and he looks glum

True and it references another Sherlock Holmes text - the dog that barked in the night. Or rather, of course, it didn't. In this case Aegon Targaryen invaded Westeros and with the aid of his dragons proceeded to conquer everything in sight. Until he got to the North and agreed a treaty with the Lord of Winterfell. Then down south the Targaryens build Summerhall which has a so far undisclosed significance.

Coming from Scotland and currently living in Northumberland I've always read Winterfell as a noun - Vinterfed if you prefer, but the thought occurs to me, reading this post, that the Stark possession of Winterfell may be balanced by the Targaryen possession of Summerhall

Various things... seriously though. Heresy began way back in 2011 as the Wall, the Watch and a Heresy. The Heresy essentially was the suggestion that the then assumption that the Starks were good and that the Wall was mankind's last best hope against the horror from the North. We also had our doubts about some other conventional wisdoms such as R+L=J and so on its gone, offering a forum for a quirky, unconventional look at the story.

I'm not sure that there's confusion. It seems pretty straightforward that Mels warning that she will be going too rather than predicting an unknown "other" red woman - which would be confusing

Fern is relatively small, a Collie cross and quite joyfully mad. George, however, is an English Mastiff and rather big. Happily not mad, which is just as well

Sad news. My two send their condolences as they too lost a dear friend a couple of days ago

Its Mel's usual bit about "the path ahead and the path not taken and it comes over as a warning that if he goes, she'll go too. OK its ambiguous anent Mel but there is no-one else in Red at Castle Black to go along with the rangers

As Takiedevushkikakzvezdy says, its discussed in the Reddit info dump published by Mithras. It was some detailed info on the War of the Ninepenny Kings. It didn't make it into the book but was used for a game so Elio reckoned it was only cut to save space rather than because GRRM had changed his mind. ie; it can [tentatively of course] be regarded as "factual"