Ambivalence

I'm feeling a vague connection between House Bolton and the historical House of Scrope (pronounced "Scroop"), who were a famous and powerful Northern English family for a long time, often holding important positions on the English side of the Border and one of whose possessions was, as it happens, Castle Bolton. They didn't (to the best of my knowledge) indulge in any flayings-alive, but they were no strangers to feuds and general untrustworthiness. Don't think they had anything to do with the Glencoe Massacre though. "All sore astonished stood Lord Scrope, He stood as still as rock of stane, He scarcely dared to trew his eyes, Where through the water they had gane. 'Is he himself a devil frae hell? Or else his mother a witch maun be! I'd ne'er have ridden that wan water, For all the gowd in Christendie.' " -The Ballad of Kinmont Willie, trad. (and as an aside, if anyone ever needed a castle to stand in for the Dreadfort, the notorious Hermitage would be ideal)

Hi, this might fall into the "too bloody obvious" category, but I couldn't see it mentioned above anywhere: "Varys the Spider" - as in the Who song, "Boris the Spider"? Plus the "V" sound is in several languages represented by the letter "B"... :cool: I doubt there's any connection other than the name, but if there is, we can expect to see Varys squashed horribly. :)