Miriel

Rickon is assumed dead by the population of Westeros, not the readers of this board/the books. In other words, we know he is alive and w/ Osha and Shaggydog but since word has not gotten out that Theon killed the miller's children in place of Bran and Rickon, Rickon is assumed to be dead.

Brace yourself for the storm of Dany hate sure to come your way! I am a Dany fan, but I do think other characters do some good things as well. And I am pretty sure GRRM has said that the story came from the first actual chapter--Bran riding out to see the deserter beheaded. Everything grew from that.

IIRC, the woman is Elia. She asks if Rhaegar will make a song for the baby and he replies, that he has a song, the SOIAF, for he is the PWWP. And he does say there must be one more.

The Kingdom of Sarnor that has popped up in the map of the known world in the new map book has got to be a homage to the Kingdom of Arnor correct?

Re: Mel. While she may not be undead in the exact way that Beric and Cat are, she is clearly some variant of "un." She thinks to herself the she has practiced her art of reading the flames for years beyond count. So she can't be a regular mortal, she is far too old. I hope Pod makes it through to the end of the series.

On GRRM's official website there is an update on the "what I'm reading" section. The latest book he is reading is titled "Darkstar" by Alan Furst. It is a spy novel. The text he wrote to accompany the book says he got it a few months ago so I guess he was not inspired to name any characters after the book, but I still thought it was interesting.